What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

[macdoc]

What a great combination ....watched The Martian last night then read the book by the same name last night and today. Finished at noon....there was simply nothing jarring between book and movie.....and to think that was Andy Weir's debut novel.

The only other time I had a close encounter between book and movie was with Seabiscuit -I watched the movie then read the book the same day ( shortish book )
and in this case the bonus of being a true story.

Seabiscuit was one of the most electrifying and popular attractions in sports history and the single biggest newsmaker in the world in 1938, receiving more coverage than FDR, Hitler, or Mussolini. But his success was a surprise to the racing establishment, which had written off the crooked-legged racehorse with the sad tail.

Both book and movie are highly recommended.

[macdoc]

[macdoc]

The sequel
Holy Road - just okay

and the basis of it all...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/764 ... ummer-moon

[macdoc]

Been too long since I read these by Larry McMurtry
Dead Man's Walk – set in the early 1840s
Comanche Moon – set in the 1850–60s
Lonesome Dove – set in mid-to-late 1870s
Streets of Laredo[ – set in the early 1890s

[Brian Peacock]

Service Model, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. 2024.

Pretty gripping exploration of humanity's relationship with AI from the perspective of the robots that are left behind after the total collapse of civilization.

[pErvinalia]

Crumple approves.

[Brian Peacock]

[JimC]

Another book in the Spellmonger series by Terry Mancour, a good writer...

[Brian Peacock]

Some Desperate Glory, Emily Tesh, 2023.

Refeshing take on the military space opera trope - which all too often falls into stolid and repetitive cliche - with a sublime and expertly revealed premise.

[tattuchu]

Only fifty fucking years late, but here it finally is.

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[macdoc]

Keep me busy for a while

[Tero]

I'm re-reading an Icelandic mystery I can't remember the ending to.

On order, abook about bad colonialist masters in the past and shithole countries now:
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty Paperback – September 17, 2013
by Daron Acemoglu (Author), James A. Robinson (Author)

[Tero]

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty Paperback – September 17, 2013
by Daron Acemoglu (Author), James A. Robinson (Author)
review

Small admission. I did not read all of it. Likely most readers will not. The examples in the book are clearly divided into chapters. You are likely to read those that interest you.

For the non-economist, the text is very understandable. The claim is that societies need to be flexible. A degree of democracy and economics that leads to some stability and comfort for the masses is best. Societies that gave power to a small number and wealth that collected in the same hands did not do well. The Rome of the later day offered the masses "bread and circuses."

The examination of ancient civilizations is fascinating. Archeology, ship wrecks and all. Not entirely sure how factual it is, but at least we do have data.

I read the chapters with details on the Koreas and China as examples of societies quite different from my own. Other parts of the world, such as oil rich states just pop up here and there. Not sure I found much on those.

If I have to compare this to other books, it is more like Charles Mann in "1493" than a Jared Diamond book. The latter tend to be rather dry and academic.

[macdoc]

Absolutely fascinating

[Tero]

A Brief History of Equality Hardcover – April 19, 2022
by Thomas Piketty

Piketty guides us with elegance and concision through the great movements that have made the modern world for better and worse: the growth of capitalism, revolutions, imperialism, slavery, wars, and the building of the welfare state. It’s a history of violence and social struggle, punctuated by regression and disaster. But through it all, Piketty shows, human societies have moved fitfully toward a more just distribution of income and assets, a reduction of racial and gender inequalities, and greater access to health care, education, and the rights of citizenship. Our rough march forward is political and ideological, an endless fight against injustice. To keep moving, Piketty argues, we need to learn and commit to what works, to institutional, legal, social, fiscal, and educational systems that can make equality a lasting reality. At the same time, we need to resist historical amnesia and the temptations of cultural separatism and intellectual compartmentalization. At stake is the quality of life for billions of people. We know we can do better, Piketty concludes. The past shows us how. The future is up to us.