I’ve just started reading this book by Mitchell Zuckoff, a professor at Boston University, who was a reporter for the Boston Globe and covered 9/11.
Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11
“This is a 9/11 book like no other. Masterfully weaving together multiple strands of the events in New York, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Fall and Rise is a mesmerizing, minute-by-minute account of that terrible day.”
I have been doing a lot of road trips and just finished Shogun by Clavell on Audible. It was over 53 hours and I really enjoyed it (I read the book maybe 30 years ago). I use an Amazon Tap in the car which works out well because I had to rewind a lot.
Right now I’m reading Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay. It’s pretty good so far.
And I’m listening to The Fireman by Joe Hill which I’m really sick of but I paid for it so…
When I was on my marathon road trip last weekend I started The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove. It’s an alt history story about civil war era US and what would have happened if the CSA had been victorious. With a touch of time travel in the mix. It’s really, really long. 561 pages, or 25 hours in audiobook form.
It’s a snoozer, kids. It’s really long, not all that well written, and it makes monumental plot leaps. If not for the primary subject matter of antebellum slavery and South African prejudice, I suspect this one would have evaporated from literary memory without a blink.
I’m reading Zucked and finding it fascinating. Roger McNammee does an excellent job of explaining what Facebook has been doing, why he thinks it’s wrong and the role it played in the 2016 election. He also puts Facebook in context in the tech industry.
I know of McNammee through poster artists. McNammee’s band Moonalice commissions posters for its gigs and gives them away free at its shows. It’s great for the poster artists.He’s very supportive of rock posters as an art form.
Just finished A Dog’s Way Home. The movie was close but, as always, the book was better.
Trying to get through A Dog’s Journey before that one’s released next month. The hard-to-sit-through parts are less traumatic for me when I know everything’s going to be okay.
Audible.com subscribing members only: 50% to 70% off all titles through May 12th.
In many cases, it’s still cheaper to use credits, even if you have to purchase additional credits. But several titles are a couple bucks cheaper if you pay for the sale price.
Just read the second in S M Stirling’s Black Chamber Series (new, not on sale) awesome alternative history set in W W I - Go Teddy! you can make it a 5th term!
And we all forget that conservative and liberal switched a lot and was less fixed then than now. These progressive republicans, oh my!
@sammydog01 Thanks for the HU on this. I just have to remember to check the titles for each period. Though I guess I can look through them now and set a calendar reminder for the dates when those I’m interested in become available.
I just finished Paradise Sky by Joe Lansdale. It’s a work of fiction based loosely on the life and exploits of African American cowboy and former slave Nat Love. It was a very amusing adventure story set in the post-Antebellum west. Not a literary masterpiece, but as I said, loaded with humor.
Today I started book 2 in the Slough House UK spook series Dead Lions.
I just started The Martian by Andy Weir. Some of you may have seen the Matt Damon film of the same name. Inspired by the book, not a faithful rendition, as is usually the case.
I’m listening to it in MP3 format, purchased last year when an audiobook publisher’s website was shuttering. I think it was about $2? So far the story is good, but the narrator, RC Bray, wouldn’t have been my choice. His vocal style isn’t ideal for the prose.
@ruouttaurmind It is better in the original Klingon. I read the serialized version as it came out. It’s an interesting concept in a world of re-hashed themes.
A keto book
A cookbook by Trisha Yearwood
A bio of Feynman by Gleick
A book by Richard Kadrey in the Iron Druid series The Searchers by Alan Le May The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conway
A book on Proust and neuroscience
Some other stuff that looks entertaining
And something called
Sherlock Holmes vs Cthulhu
(I find the title irresistible.)
Hot damn, Philip K. Dick’s Ubik is $2.99 on kindle. I mean, my ancient paperback cost far less, but here you won’t have to worry about small print, yellowing pages or accidentally breaking the spine… https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B005LVR6ZA/ref=pe_170810_410850920_KDD
Allow me to recommend anything ever written by either John D McDonald or by Carl Hiassen.
In addition, Walter Farley, who wrote the beloved children’s series The Black Stallion and The Island Stallion, lived for many years in Venice, Florida (on the Gulf coast).
@sammydog01, you were the first person here to mention chirpbooks.com as a source of downloadable audiobooks, weren’t you?
This looks to be a pretty great resource for fans of audiobook.
They currently have more than 70 audiobooks on sale, including some classic titles and some bestsellers.
Sale prices are mostly well under $5. So take a look. (You may need to create an account and sign in to see the deals.)
I have not checked, but am guessing these are unabridged.
Since many or most of the books are recently published, I presume these are the standard professionally narrated versions, but again, have not checked.
Have not tried playing any of the audiobooks, so can’t comment on that.
@f00l I was on a road trip last weekend and I had The Fireman downloaded on my fire tablet on Audible. I desperately need to finish that book because I hate it so much. I pulled it out and my tablet said there were no books on it. What, there were yesterday? I tried to stream it on my phone and Audible told me to fuck off.
Then I remembered I had a few Chirp books on my phone. They are the same versions that Audible sells as far as I can tell. They worked nicely. Stupid Amazon.
Just finished lots of United Kingdom history. Somewhat more than 70 hours of listening?
This Sceptred Isle was a series originator broadcast on BBC radio 4 I think.
First, more or less 30 hours on the history of the UK from the Romans (earliest written accounts we know if I think) through the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. Available from audible, split into two audiobooks.
I liked this much. Sometimes seriously too much overview and not enough detail (the English Civil War, the wars with France, the Protestant Reformation issues, the lost War of Independence in the former American Colonies, the Wars of the Roses, and the time of Elizabeth I, in particular, went by too quickly.)
Winston Churchill is listed as an author due to the series having extensively used his long and detailed History of the English-Speaking Peoples.
Next up for me was 15 combined hours of twentieth century UK history in 5 audiobooks.
Not so good (for me) when on strictly internal-to-UK issues. (This series was done for an internal UK domestic audience of course)
Excellent if far too brief on issues that affect all of us more directly. I found this history somewhat less interesting because I already know a lot about the stuff I care about, it’s common knowledge to many. Still well worth the listening.
Wish they had made it longer. Particularly regarding the World Wars.
Next up was about 22 hours on the Empire, which starts in very early, in Ireland (which turned into the perpetual graveyard of British political ambition and of hopes for peace, until the parties finally came together in the 1990’s).
The series takes the other through the Elizabethan pirating and exploring years, the years of trying to catch up with the French, Dutch, Spanish, and the Portuguese, thru Australia, India, Singapore, China, Africa, and the final empire in its greatest extent; and then the devolution of the empire into independent states.
The series gives much time to the economics of empire, and much well deserved time to genocide, massacre, internal slavery, and UK merchant and pirate participation in the slave trade. And much time to racism and the fairly rigid class structure.
And to the patriotically sentimental attitudes associated with Empire
Last was 1 Audiobook of about 12 hours on “Dynasties”. This covers some of the great families: Churchills, Mortimers, Cecils and so forth.
There are curious omissions. No section on the Nevilles, for instance. And the discussion of the Churchills rushed past the problems with Queen Anne; perhaps it’s because editors of the series knew the had to reserve time for discussing Winston. This was all originally a radio broadcast, so they had to edit for time.
This was also quite good, tho at times perhaps confusing for someone does not already know something about it.
It’s a great, creepy, end of the world read (929 pages). I will admit that I’ve read it twice and I’m thinking a third time just might be possible – maybe.
@Barney No worries, I’ll post the credentials here. I probably should also include my credit card number and CVV. You know, just in case there’s a billing issue…
Since the beginning of the modern science fiction genre, authors have built careers on writing short stories, for magazines and anthologies — and more recently — on websites. While those works don’t quite get the same attention as a novel, collections of an author’s short fiction has long been a good way to catch up on their published repertoire…
I’ve just started reading this book by Mitchell Zuckoff, a professor at Boston University, who was a reporter for the Boston Globe and covered 9/11.
Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11
“This is a 9/11 book like no other. Masterfully weaving together multiple strands of the events in New York, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Fall and Rise is a mesmerizing, minute-by-minute account of that terrible day.”
https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Rise-Story-9-11/dp/006227564X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2RAJ8KTXLIZNE&keywords=rise+and+fall+9%2F11&qid=1556681318&s=gateway&sprefix=rise+and+fall%2Caps%2C365&sr=8-1
I’m not going to get much of anything else done until I’ve finished reading this.
(No, this is not a conspiracy book.)
@Barney is an idiot and screwed up the title. It’s
Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11
Would @narfcake, @RiotDemon, @Ignorant @Thumperchick or someone else with powers take pity on me and correct the title?
Edit: If I could only find a way to get a good night’s sleep.
@Barney @narfcake @RiotDemon @Thumperchick
@Ignorant Thanks!
Do people have to agree that I’m an idiot?
I cried while I read parts of this book. I think everyone should read it so that we never forget.
Never forget.
I have been doing a lot of road trips and just finished Shogun by Clavell on Audible. It was over 53 hours and I really enjoyed it (I read the book maybe 30 years ago). I use an Amazon Tap in the car which works out well because I had to rewind a lot.
Right now I’m reading Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay. It’s pretty good so far.
And I’m listening to The Fireman by Joe Hill which I’m really sick of but I paid for it so…
Free Comic Book Day on May 4:
http://www.freecomicbookday.com
When I was on my marathon road trip last weekend I started The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove. It’s an alt history story about civil war era US and what would have happened if the CSA had been victorious. With a touch of time travel in the mix. It’s really, really long. 561 pages, or 25 hours in audiobook form.
I just wrapped up The Guns of the South.
It’s a snoozer, kids. It’s really long, not all that well written, and it makes monumental plot leaps. If not for the primary subject matter of antebellum slavery and South African prejudice, I suspect this one would have evaporated from literary memory without a blink.
This one is a pass I’m afraid.
I’m reading Zucked and finding it fascinating. Roger McNammee does an excellent job of explaining what Facebook has been doing, why he thinks it’s wrong and the role it played in the 2016 election. He also puts Facebook in context in the tech industry.
I know of McNammee through poster artists. McNammee’s band Moonalice commissions posters for its gigs and gives them away free at its shows. It’s great for the poster artists.He’s very supportive of rock posters as an art form.
Just finished A Dog’s Way Home. The movie was close but, as always, the book was better.
Trying to get through A Dog’s Journey before that one’s released next month. The hard-to-sit-through parts are less traumatic for me when I know everything’s going to be okay.
Audible.com subscribing members only: 50% to 70% off all titles through May 12th.
In many cases, it’s still cheaper to use credits, even if you have to purchase additional credits. But several titles are a couple bucks cheaper if you pay for the sale price.
Lesser-known fantasy alert: Elizabeth A. Lynn’s Chronicles of Tornor trilogy on kindle is $3.99 (it was $9.99 when I started watching the price in March). I haven’t read it in over 20 years, but I remember it being an enjoyable series with really interesting lgbt characters. There was a positively-portrayed incestuous relationship I had some trouble wrapping my head around, which I mention only in case it would be an issue for a potential reader.
https://www.amazon.com/Chronicles-Tornor-Trilogy-Watchtower-Northern-ebook/dp/B076CCWYC9/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=chronicles+of+tornor&qid=1557466615&s=gateway&sr=8-1-spell
Just read the second in S M Stirling’s Black Chamber Series (new, not on sale) awesome alternative history set in W W I - Go Teddy! you can make it a 5th term!
And we all forget that conservative and liberal switched a lot and was less fixed then than now. These progressive republicans, oh my!
EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!
Free audiobooks from a teen summer reading program- new books every week.
https://www.audiobooksync.com/2019-sync-titles/
I can’t believe I missed Othello with Tom Hiddleston. Stupid me.
@sammydog01 Thanks for the HU on this. I just have to remember to check the titles for each period. Though I guess I can look through them now and set a calendar reminder for the dates when those I’m interested in become available.
I just finished Paradise Sky by Joe Lansdale. It’s a work of fiction based loosely on the life and exploits of African American cowboy and former slave Nat Love. It was a very amusing adventure story set in the post-Antebellum west. Not a literary masterpiece, but as I said, loaded with humor.
Today I started book 2 in the Slough House UK spook series Dead Lions.
@ruouttaurmind
When they do this, often go on a purchase binge.
Bad me.
Thanks!
I just started The Martian by Andy Weir. Some of you may have seen the Matt Damon film of the same name. Inspired by the book, not a faithful rendition, as is usually the case.
I’m listening to it in MP3 format, purchased last year when an audiobook publisher’s website was shuttering. I think it was about $2? So far the story is good, but the narrator, RC Bray, wouldn’t have been my choice. His vocal style isn’t ideal for the prose.
@ruouttaurmind It is better in the original Klingon. I read the serialized version as it came out. It’s an interesting concept in a world of re-hashed themes.
May is over, go here instead
https://meh.com/forum/topics/june-summer-reading
@Ignorant But… But… I don’t want May to be over.
@Barney @Ignorant June can’t be any worse.
@Barney @sammydog01
@Ignorant Meanie.
Today’s Kindle Daily Deal list includes:
A keto book
A cookbook by Trisha Yearwood
A bio of Feynman by Gleick
A book by Richard Kadrey in the Iron Druid series
The Searchers by Alan Le May
The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conway
A book on Proust and neuroscience
Some other stuff that looks entertaining
And something called
Sherlock Holmes vs Cthulhu
(I find the title irresistible.)
https://smile.amazon.com/b/ref=mh_6165851011_is_pp_2?rh=n%3A6165851011&ie=UTF8&qid=1557855610&node=6165851011
/giphy cthulhu
@f00l
Oh yeah, also a kid’s book by John Grisham.
@f00l I’m thinking about the Cthulhu one. Thanks.
@sammydog01
Feynman is always illuminating and usually a lot of fun. I hope you look at that one also.
On light
On the Challenger disaster
@f00l I like the ones he wrote.
@sammydog01
He is a fav writer in my life
@f00l I have that and the sequel in paperback.
Hot damn, Philip K. Dick’s Ubik is $2.99 on kindle. I mean, my ancient paperback cost far less, but here you won’t have to worry about small print, yellowing pages or accidentally breaking the spine…
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B005LVR6ZA/ref=pe_170810_410850920_KDD
@mossygreen
Always /buyPDK!
/giphy blade runner
@f00l just put up a thread about Florida and I would like to recommend the Serge Storms series by Tim Dorsey. They are insane and set in Florida.
@sammydog01
Allow me to recommend anything ever written by either John D McDonald or by Carl Hiassen.
In addition, Walter Farley, who wrote the beloved children’s series The Black Stallion and The Island Stallion, lived for many years in Venice, Florida (on the Gulf coast).
/giphy “the black stallion”
@sammydog01, you were the first person here to mention chirpbooks.com as a source of downloadable audiobooks, weren’t you?
This looks to be a pretty great resource for fans of audiobook.
They currently have more than 70 audiobooks on sale, including some classic titles and some bestsellers.
Sale prices are mostly well under $5. So take a look. (You may need to create an account and sign in to see the deals.)
I have not checked, but am guessing these are unabridged.
Since many or most of the books are recently published, I presume these are the standard professionally narrated versions, but again, have not checked.
Have not tried playing any of the audiobooks, so can’t comment on that.
https://www.chirpbooks.com/
@f00l I was on a road trip last weekend and I had The Fireman downloaded on my fire tablet on Audible. I desperately need to finish that book because I hate it so much. I pulled it out and my tablet said there were no books on it. What, there were yesterday? I tried to stream it on my phone and Audible told me to fuck off.
Then I remembered I had a few Chirp books on my phone. They are the same versions that Audible sells as far as I can tell. They worked nicely. Stupid Amazon.
@sammydog01 What are you complaining about? Amazon was just being nice and getting rid of a book that you didn’t like reading (listening to).
@Barney You don’t understand I HAVE TO FINISH IT!
@sammydog01 I used to feel that way, too. No matter how much I hated a book I had to finish it.
You’ll get over it.
@Barney
@sammydog01
/giphy you can do it
@sammydog01 Wasn’t what I had in mind, but damn, the kid is so cute.
@Barney I switched to the kindle version and finished it.
@sammydog01 Winner and still champion!
Just finished lots of United Kingdom history. Somewhat more than 70 hours of listening?
This Sceptred Isle was a series originator broadcast on BBC radio 4 I think.
First, more or less 30 hours on the history of the UK from the Romans (earliest written accounts we know if I think) through the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. Available from audible, split into two audiobooks.
I liked this much. Sometimes seriously too much overview and not enough detail (the English Civil War, the wars with France, the Protestant Reformation issues, the lost War of Independence in the former American Colonies, the Wars of the Roses, and the time of Elizabeth I, in particular, went by too quickly.)
Winston Churchill is listed as an author due to the series having extensively used his long and detailed History of the English-Speaking Peoples.
@f00l
Next up for me was 15 combined hours of twentieth century UK history in 5 audiobooks.
Not so good (for me) when on strictly internal-to-UK issues. (This series was done for an internal UK domestic audience of course)
Excellent if far too brief on issues that affect all of us more directly. I found this history somewhat less interesting because I already know a lot about the stuff I care about, it’s common knowledge to many. Still well worth the listening.
Wish they had made it longer. Particularly regarding the World Wars.
@f00l
Next up was about 22 hours on the Empire, which starts in very early, in Ireland (which turned into the perpetual graveyard of British political ambition and of hopes for peace, until the parties finally came together in the 1990’s).
The series takes the other through the Elizabethan pirating and exploring years, the years of trying to catch up with the French, Dutch, Spanish, and the Portuguese, thru Australia, India, Singapore, China, Africa, and the final empire in its greatest extent; and then the devolution of the empire into independent states.
The series gives much time to the economics of empire, and much well deserved time to genocide, massacre, internal slavery, and UK merchant and pirate participation in the slave trade. And much time to racism and the fairly rigid class structure.
And to the patriotically sentimental attitudes associated with Empire
This was, for me, so far, the series at is best.
In 3 audiobooks of more than 7 hours each.
@f00l
Last was 1 Audiobook of about 12 hours on “Dynasties”. This covers some of the great families: Churchills, Mortimers, Cecils and so forth.
There are curious omissions. No section on the Nevilles, for instance. And the discussion of the Churchills rushed past the problems with Queen Anne; perhaps it’s because editors of the series knew the had to reserve time for discussing Winston. This was all originally a radio broadcast, so they had to edit for time.
This was also quite good, tho at times perhaps confusing for someone does not already know something about it.
@f00l
Overall quite good for history buffs.
To me, it’s clear that Ireland and Scotland need their own series, from pre-history to now.
Amazon has Robert R. McCammon’s Swan Song on sale today for $1.99.
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B005T54IAY/ref=pe_170810_409924760_KDD
It’s a great, creepy, end of the world read (929 pages). I will admit that I’ve read it twice and I’m thinking a third time just might be possible – maybe.
@Barney I got about a third of the way through on audible- maybe I should just switch to reading it.
@sammydog01 I dunno, maybe it’s not the book for you. It is really weird.
@Barney If you enjoyed Swan Song, you may appreciate Nick Harkaway’s books Angelmaker and The Gone-Away World.
@ruouttaurmind But… But… But I no longer have access to your Amazon account that you inadvertently sent me when I bought your Kindle.
(I’ll check these books out. Thanks.)
@Barney No worries, I’ll post the credentials here. I probably should also include my credit card number and CVV. You know, just in case there’s a billing issue…
@ruouttaurmind Wait, let me get my purple ink pen.
From The Verge: These eight short story collections would make excellent sci-fi anthology shows
Since the beginning of the modern science fiction genre, authors have built careers on writing short stories, for magazines and anthologies — and more recently — on websites. While those works don’t quite get the same attention as a novel, collections of an author’s short fiction has long been a good way to catch up on their published repertoire…
One of the various Kindle daily deals for Friday June 7
Good until midnight PT. So this price is up for another 2 hours or so.
Marc J. Seifer
Wizard: The Life And Times Of Nikola Tesla
$2.99
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005VSN8RI/ref=mh_s9_acsd_hps_c_x_3_w?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=mobile-hybrid-2&pf_rd_r=88Q3N3J6E7HX89GPJA12&pf_rd_t=1201&pf_rd_p=0a04e340-2f9f-48f9-b80c-631c868bb34e&pf_rd_i=11552285011