Book review thread

[V8Granite]

Currently reading the Gulag Archipelago.

It makes the Nazis look like a group of angry girl guides in comparison to the Communist elite. Quite an upsetting book.

Dave!

Genuinely a very upsetting book due to the casual references to some horrific and upsetting stuff. Will take a break from this one as it’s a bit heavy.

Dave!

[Explosive Newt]

Resurrecting this thread to say how much I enjoyed my Christmas buy of Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe. One of Obama’s top ten books of 2019 and rightly so. I wasn’t very up on NI recent history and it’s just such a gripping account.

Patrick Radden Keefe has a new book coming out on the opioid epidemic and the Sackler family’s role in it called Empire of Pain. I am very excited.

[RobYob]

Resurrecting this thread to say how much I enjoyed my Christmas buy of Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe. One of Obama’s top ten books of 2019 and rightly so. I wasn’t very up on NI recent history and it’s just such a gripping account.

Patrick Radden Keefe has a new book coming out on the opioid epidemic and the Sackler family’s role in it called Empire of Pain. I am very excited.

Funnily enough I heard of this this week through Jon Oliver enthusing over his previous books.

[V8Granite]

Currently reading the Gulag Archipelago.

It makes the Nazis look like a group of angry girl guides in comparison to the Communist elite. Quite an upsetting book.

Dave!

Genuinely a very upsetting book due to the casual references to some horrific and upsetting stuff. Will take a break from this one as it’s a bit heavy.

Dave!

I’m halfway through now and it’s still the same. There seems to be a huge part of history I never knew about.

Essentially the rest of the world let Russia carry on with a bit of genocide, mass killings, people disappearing, your neighbour telling on you so the authorities don’t think you are against the regime etc. There was a part which actually had me shed a few tears with how matter of fact a part was told, never had that from a book before.

It seems to say that we shouldn’t think we are all good honest people, don’t think you wouldn’t help yourself by having someone sent to the Gulag, don’t think you wouldn’t be a Nazi, it’s human nature to do terrible things in times of great stress and hardship. The people who truly kept their moral standing were few and far between, not because Russians are more wicked than others but because they were all in a position we couldn’t even imagine dealing with nowadays.

Communism and Marxism are horrific and wicked things.

Dave!

[Swervin_Mervin]

Child 44 covers the same period. Horrific. Both book and film of that are worth reading/watching.

[Explosive Newt]

Resurrecting this thread to say how much I enjoyed my Christmas buy of Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe. One of Obama’s top ten books of 2019 and rightly so. I wasn’t very up on NI recent history and it’s just such a gripping account.

Patrick Radden Keefe has a new book coming out on the opioid epidemic and the Sackler family’s role in it called Empire of Pain. I am very excited.

Funnily enough I heard of this this week through Jon Oliver enthusing over his previous books.

My pre-order arrived Saturday, absolutely spell-binding. I had no idea the Sacklers has basically designed the whole way drugs are marketed in the modern era (drug reps going out and schmoozing doctors etc). 1/3 in but it's beastly big.

[ZedLeg]

I've been rereading Berserk recently and just found out that the creator died a couple of weeks ago. Very sad as he was only 54 and never finished the series.

Can't even imagine working on something for 30 years and dying before it's finished.

Anyway, it's worth reading if you're a fan of basically any grimdark fantasy, sci-fi or horror from the last couple of decades. Kentaro Miura influenced pretty much everybody.

[RobYob]

Finished Andy Weir's new novel, Project Hail Mary over the weekend. Really enjoyable and a bit of an evolution in style from The Martian (and the fairly forgettable Artemis)

[DeskJockey]

In a rare departure from sci-fi I read Eddie Jaku's "The happiest man on earth" and it is at once as grim, evil and gruesome as you'd expect a book about Holocaust to be, but also full of hope and positivity.

It isn't great literature, but conveys the message well and clearly. It is definitely worth a read.

[DaveE]

I've just finished Bad Blood, a book about Silicon Valley startup Theranos

Literally unbelievable

I'm not sure where to begin

A proper page turner

Recommended to anyone with an interest in tech, startups, med-tech etc

[dinny_g]

I read a Guardian Long Read on Theranos - it's an amazing story.

[duncs500]

I'm currently reading: Exoplanets: Diamond Worlds, Super Earths, Pulsar Planets, and the New Search for Life Beyond Our Solar System by Michael Summers and James Trefil.

I'm enjoying it, but I'm a nerd, I don't really expect anyone else to want to read it.

[ZedLeg]

That, sounds good Duncs. Is it more physics or chemistry?

[zx6rkiller]

Finished Andy Weir's new novel, Project Hail Mary over the weekend. Really enjoyable and a bit of an evolution in style from The Martian (and the fairly forgettable Artemis)

Reading Project Hail Mary now, about halfway. Indeed enjoyable, but with strong Martian vibes (lone guy working using sciences to fix problems).However, I really liked Artemis and would highly recommend it.

[duncs500]

That, sounds good Duncs. Is it more physics or chemistry?

I guess a bit of both, it's not got loads of technical stuff in it, more of a high level interpretation (mainly) of the exoplanet data from Kepler to hypothesise what interesting planets there could be out there and what it would mean for potential life out there.

Pretty easy read really.

[ZedLeg]

Cool, I love some theoretical space science.

[duncs500]

@ZedLeg If that interests you, I strongly recommend the below that I mentioned a while ago. Great read.

Five Billion Years of Solitude - Lee Billings

Fairly short book about the search for habitable exoplanets intertwined with the looking back at the development of earth and how this knowledge can aid the search.

Amazing book, admittedly it's a subject I'm quite interested in, but I found it totally captivating. I could easily see myself reading it again.

[Explosive Newt]

I've just finished Bad Blood, a book about Silicon Valley startup Theranos

Literally unbelievable

I'm not sure where to begin

A proper page turner

Recommended to anyone with an interest in tech, startups, med-tech etc

It’s an incredible story. I read it cover to cover on a transatlantic flight.

[RobYob]

It has been 76 days since I last gamed and along with home renovation DIY I've actually sat down and read some stuff.

Leviathan Wakes as recommended in the TV thread, I can appreciate the adaptation even more now. Excellent and I've jumped straight into book 2.

I sexually identify as an attack helicopter far more interesting than most of the (by and large disingenuous) memes would indicate.

[Shlergen]

I've just finished Bad Blood, a book about Silicon Valley startup Theranos

Literally unbelievable

I'm not sure where to begin

A proper page turner

Recommended to anyone with an interest in tech, startups, med-tech etc

It’s an incredible story. I read it cover to cover on a transatlantic flight.

Right up my street, will switch from how to win friends and influence people which is a re-write of another book essentially.