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What's the last/best book you read?

Rubashov said:
bump.

Just re-read Richard Winters autobiography and chunks of Koestler's Scum of the Earth and Spanish Testament. Bout to start on Garcia Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude.
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Never read Scum of the Earth. I did read Darkness at Noon and The Yogi and the Commissar for a class in high school and they had a definitive impact on my thinking at the time. Koestler's reputation seems to be much diminished now and I haven’t thought about him or gone back to read anything else of his the way I still do with some of his contemporaries like Camus and Sartre.

One Hundred Years of Solitude of course is immortal and epic, one of the all-time great novels.
 
I read Love in the Time of Cholera years ago and I think I bought One Hundred Years of Solitude around the same time, seems to have disappeared into a share house somewhere. The Spanish Testament is on the war in Spain where he is kept on death row, he draws directly on that experience for Darkness at Noon. Scum of the Earth is on the fall of France and his early experience of the war. Both are cracking reads, what happened after in Koestler's career is odd, ESP and all sorts of weird nonsense. He wrote a bunch of longer biographies later in his life which I intend on reading I might end up reading the other rubbish too for a laugh.
 
"Nixon The Life"

This and "Being Nixon"

Are the 2 best books I've read on this subject
 
The current political landscape caused me to need light escape reading this year, nothing that taxes my brain too much. So I've read all of Liane Moriarty's books (author of "Big Little Lies" which was recently on HBO as a miniseries) and all but the latest Fredrik Backman (author of "A Man Called Ove"). I love them all as they are both brilliant writers. And I have been listening on audiobook for more than a year now to Rick Riordan's series (Percy Jackson, Heroes of Olympus, and now Kane Chronicles). My commute to work is only 10 minutes so it takes me awhile to get through each book. I'm getting tired of mythology, though, so will likely take a break from it.

I also read Steve Young's autobiography "QB: My Life Behind the Spiral" (I didn't know he suffered such crippling anxiety) and Jeff Gordon's authorized biography "Jeff Gordon: His Dreams, Drive and Destiny." Both were very good.
 
JazzGal said:
The current political landscape caused me to need light escape reading this year, nothing that taxes my brain too much. So I've read all of Liane Moriarty's books (author of "Big Little Lies" which was recently on HBO as a miniseries) and all but the latest Fredrik Backman (author of "A Man Called Ove"). I love them all as they are both brilliant writers. And I have been listening on audiobook for more than a year now to Rick Riordan's series (Percy Jackson, Heroes of Olympus, and now Kane Chronicles). My commute to work is only 10 minutes so it takes me awhile to get through each book. I'm getting tired of mythology, though, so will likely take a break from it.

I also read Steve Young's autobiography "QB: My Life Behind the Spiral" (I didn't know he suffered such crippling anxiety) and Jeff Gordon's authorized biography "Jeff Gordon: His Dreams, Drive and Destiny." Both were very good.
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Let me know how the new genre goes. I've just about ran dry in the fantasy section. Funny thing is I've been really lucky with picking what seemed to be obscure books that turn out to be on everyone's top 25 list. But I'm ready to listen to another section of fiction.
 
I was just notified I have 5 books on hold at the library right now. Why do they always come in at once? This will be a variety:

Beartown by Fredrik Backman (yay, I'll be caught up on his books)
Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant
The Novel of the Century: The Extraordinary Adventure of Les Miserables by David Bellos
Heat Storm by Richard Castle
Into the Land of the Unicorns by Bruce Coville (apparently I'm not done with teenage fantasy fiction)

And they will all be due in 3 weeks. :rolleyes:
 
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