re: What are you reading?

Page turner/thriller

About halfway through. Very well paced. A little corny at times and several italicized paragraphs but really enjoyable overall. Can’t wait to see how it finishes.

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Everyone posting in this thread about what they're reading should go back, quote their old post, and post a review when finished with their book.

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OK, I'll do that. I'm reading Paris in the Present Tense by Mark Helprin. He wrote two of my all time favorites - Winter's Tale and A Soldier of the Great War. He fell off a bit after that and I lost track of him. But late last year he came out with a book that almost reached the heights of those two - The Oceans and the Stars. So I've gone back a bit to Paris in the Present Tense. He's toned down the magical realism a great deal since his early years but is still a stellar writer. I'm just over half the way through it and it will probably end up being #4 of my favorite Helprin books, which is still really strong. It's about an older Parisian widower and his travails, with a reasonable amount of the fantastical. For the political types Helprin is an unapologetic conservative who frequently takes swipes at academia and modern society but is never strident about it.

I like Serhii Plokhy. After he was on Lex Fridman's Podcast (and Lex had recommended him before that) - I picked up his "The Russo-Ukrainian War". It's good but now somewhat outdated by events. Recently I read Plokhy's "The Last Empire" which I thought was outstanding. It's about the dissolution of the USSR and is extremely well researched. It's largely about Gorbachev and Yeltsin and their struggle; and their relationship with Bush who did not want to see the Soviet Union unravel. The relationship between Russia and the other republics (especially Ukraine and Kazakhstan) is covered as well. The forward is very good for the big picture, and there is a new afterward that covers the Ukraine war. This is one I highly recommend. Years ago I'd read "A Failed Empire" by Vladislav Zubok which I thought was very good but Plokhy's book covers it much better (though Zubok has much more detail pre-Gorbachev).

A couple of weeks ago I finished Anne Applebaum's "Red Famine". It's another one Lex Fridman recommended on his Podcast. It's researched as well as it can be but that's tricky since Stalin ordered all relevant records be destroyed. It's another one that I recommend if you want to know how mass starvation can occur in a grain growing area but it's not a fun read.

Just on order from Audible - Stephen Kotkin's biography of Stalin which is supposed to be definitive. There are two books but a third will be out reasonably soon. But I'm going to read for fun for a while before tackling that one.

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Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will by Robert M. Sapolsky and East of Eden by John Steinbeck

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Both novels grapple with the concept of free will, but from vastly different angles. 'East of Eden' emphasizes the human capacity for moral agency and the power to make conscious choices, encapsulated in the concept of 'timshel,' which suggests that individuals can overcome their inherent nature. 'Determined' presents a scientific perspective that challenges the traditional notion of free will, arguing that human behavior is predominantly influenced by biological and environmental factors, thus questioning the extent of voluntary decision-making. Both provoke reflection on the extent to which individuals control their destinies amidst internal conflicts and external pressures.

Up next:

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Very good book

OK, thank you

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I suggest an amazing book called Shine Little Light by Prophet Jonathan Nettles on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, Google Books, etc. It's a true story and very deep. You will laugh and cry!

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I decided to read this book again. It was so good! After I finished, it'd shocked me so much I realized reading it again was definitely necessary. Powerful book.

Just finished Demon of Unrest, on to another Larson history lesson.

I’ve seen the movie multiple times but has never read the book. Beautifully written about the Asian-American experience.