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Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2018 9:52 pm
by OptimisticJock
Tribe by Sebastian Junger.

Not a long book, almost like a journal paper, about why humans band together and the benefits of doing so. Explains about lower mental ill health rates during times of adversity for people all suffering the crisis, the blitz and aftermath of Sep 11 for example.

Some of it was obvious (to me at least) like why soldiers miss the military and combat but if never really thought that there was a kind of victimhood surrounding modern soldiers before.

It's his personal thoughts more than an academic paper so doesn't really provide any counter arguments and I haven't looked into correlation/causation of many of the stats and points but it's thought provoking at the very least.

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2018 9:56 pm
by Nolanator
PourSomeRuggerOnMe wrote:
Nolanator wrote:They be of interest to a sci-fi fan, PSROM?
Yeah definitely, hard sci-fi would usually be my preferred genre, I've only dabbled in proper fantasy. Although I wouldn't say this trilogy is proper fantasy per se either. Probably speculative fiction or something, but yeah, as a big sci-fi fan, I loved them.
:thumbup:
It's gone on the list.

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 4:16 am
by Uthikoloshe
MungoMan wrote:An exceedingly enjoyable SF / fantasy book from the local library. Definitlety recommended.

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Good shout. Half way in and hooked.

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 4:56 am
by SEAsianExpat
Just finished "The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World" by Simon Winchester.

An engaging and educational read about the largely forgotten heroes who introduced increasingly improved levels of manufacturing precision into the world. Some good storytelling and covers the Watt steam engine through to today's integrated circuits with stops along the road including watches, cars, aircraft and so on.

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 8:01 am
by Dobbin
Last night I finished The Singapore Grip, the last of J G Farrell's Empire trilogy. It's set just before and up to the Japanese takeover of Singapore during WW2. All three books are very good, taking a snapshot of an imperial community at a time of upheaval. I read The Siege of Krishnapoor over 20 years ago and had forgotten (or maybe had never realised) what a fine comic writer Farrell was until I read Troubles last year.

Such a shame he died just after publishing Grip.

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 10:13 am
by Gordon Bennett
Dobbin wrote:Last night I finished The Singapore Grip, the last of J G Farrell's Empire trilogy. It's set just before and up to the Japanese takeover of Singapore during WW2. All three books are very good, taking a snapshot of an imperial community at a time of upheaval. I read The Siege of Krishnapoor over 20 years ago and had forgotten (or maybe had never realised) what a fine comic writer Farrell was until I read Troubles last year.

Such a shame he died just after publishing Grip.
Troubles is a fantastic book, wasn't so impressed by Krishnapur. Grip worth reading though?

I quite enjoyed Goshawk Squadron by Derek Robinson as a decent historical satire (first world war fighter pilots)

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 11:55 am
by Nieghorn
This may be incredibly niche for the Bored's readers, but just finished this and liked it a lot. If you're super keen on American football and are interested in the development of all those fancy plays over time, this is a book for you. It's a history of the men behind the plays, why they put them in place, etc. not a collection of diagrams and how tos (which some people criticise in reviews, thinking it'd help them with their teams).

For me, I love how much innovation in football is (as I see it) backwards from rugby. They fully admit that they all copy each other and try their best to give credit to the originator, and it's often been desperate high school and college coaches who've come up with great and ground-breaking plays. Usually, it was because they didn't have a great assortment of athletes or only had good players in certain positions. It definitely got my creative juices flowing for my rugby coaching practice and reminded me how infrequently people in my community talk shop or share what they know.

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Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 1:09 pm
by Dobbin
Gordon Bennett wrote:
Dobbin wrote:Last night I finished The Singapore Grip, the last of J G Farrell's Empire trilogy. It's set just before and up to the Japanese takeover of Singapore during WW2. All three books are very good, taking a snapshot of an imperial community at a time of upheaval. I read The Siege of Krishnapoor over 20 years ago and had forgotten (or maybe had never realised) what a fine comic writer Farrell was until I read Troubles last year.

Such a shame he died just after publishing Grip.
Troubles is a fantastic book, wasn't so impressed by Krishnapur. Grip worth reading though?

I quite enjoyed Goshawk Squadron by Derek Robinson as a decent historical satire (first world war fighter pilots)
It's a much more sprawling book than the other two - comes in at approaching 700 pages. There's more expositional history as a backdrop to the main action as well (and a few chapters concentrating on the military conflict which came across as a sort of anti-heroic version of part of the Naked and the Dead - thought that might be just me). It features Brendan Archer from Troubles, and also, funnily enough, General Gordon Bennett.

I enjoyed it but then I thought Siege was excellent

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 2:33 pm
by Uthikoloshe
On Sens recommend I read Who we are and how we go here, by David Reich. Uncovering the past by analysing the genome. It should be required reading for all.

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 2:43 pm
by ZappaMan
I think I'll give A House for Mr Biswas a re-read given VS Naipaul's demise over the weekend.

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 9:15 pm
by HurricaneWasp
Anyone read "Life and Fate" by Vasily Grossman?

It is fantastic 20th century epic set in the Soviet Union, based around the Battle of Stalingrad. So much of it seems relevant today :thumbup:

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2018 3:10 am
by Gordon Bennett
Dobbin wrote:
Gordon Bennett wrote:
Dobbin wrote:Last night I finished The Singapore Grip, the last of J G Farrell's Empire trilogy. It's set just before and up to the Japanese takeover of Singapore during WW2. All three books are very good, taking a snapshot of an imperial community at a time of upheaval. I read The Siege of Krishnapoor over 20 years ago and had forgotten (or maybe had never realised) what a fine comic writer Farrell was until I read Troubles last year.

Such a shame he died just after publishing Grip.
Troubles is a fantastic book, wasn't so impressed by Krishnapur. Grip worth reading though?

I quite enjoyed Goshawk Squadron by Derek Robinson as a decent historical satire (first world war fighter pilots)
It's a much more sprawling book than the other two - comes in at approaching 700 pages. There's more expositional history as a backdrop to the main action as well (and a few chapters concentrating on the military conflict which came across as a sort of anti-heroic version of part of the Naked and the Dead - thought that might be just me). It features Brendan Archer from Troubles, and also, funnily enough, General Gordon Bennett.

I enjoyed it but then I thought Siege was excellent
Cheers. I'll add it to my reading list. I did enjoy Siege, but thought Troubles was exceptional.

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 2:31 pm
by Boobs not Moobs
PourSomeRuggerOnMe wrote:Image

Recently finished the Broken Earth trilogy, some of the most interesting, thought-provoking books I've read in years. The first in particular is spectacular. The first two have won the last two Hugo awards, and the third is nominated for it this year. It would be a hell of an achievement for her to win three in a row.
Author NK Jemisin has scooped her third Hugo award for best science-fiction novel and, in doing so, has become the standard-bearer for a sea change in the genre’s diversity, as women – especially women of colour – swept the boards at last night’s ceremony.

Taking the stage to accept her third win in three years for her novel The Stone Sky, Jemisin told the audience at the 76th World Science Fiction Convention in San Jose, California, on Sunday that “this has been a hard year … a hard few years, a hard century,” adding: “For some of us, things have always been hard, and I wrote the Broken Earth trilogy to speak to that struggle, and what it takes to live, let alone thrive, in a world that seems determined to break you.”

In 2016, Jemisin became the first African American to win the best novel category for The Fifth Season, repeating the achievement again in 2017 for its sequel, The Obelisk Gate.

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 4:39 pm
by slick
HurricaneWasp wrote:Anyone read "Life and Fate" by Vasily Grossman?

It is fantastic 20th century epic set in the Soviet Union, based around the Battle of Stalingrad. So much of it seems relevant today :thumbup:
Yes I have, really enjoyed it. Stands up to many of the old Russian classics.

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 5:08 pm
by redderneck
slick wrote:
HurricaneWasp wrote:Anyone read "Life and Fate" by Vasily Grossman?

It is fantastic 20th century epic set in the Soviet Union, based around the Battle of Stalingrad. So much of it seems relevant today :thumbup:
Yes I have, really enjoyed it. Stands up to many of the old Russian classics.
Cracking read.

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 5:29 pm
by lorcanoworms
I eh em well that is :blush: reading the destroyer series by Taylor Anderson.
Not all that well written but plenty of action.
https://www.goodreads.com/series/54474-destroyermen

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 5:55 pm
by tabascoboy
About halfway through the first book of the trilogy
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I'm having a hard time grappling with the hard sci-fi physics, not that it's necessary to understand it to get into the story. It's pretty pertinent though for the issues of our times
... Indeed, the trilogy can be read as a parable about the perils of inviting into your country foreigners whose ethics have been forged in more violent circumstances....

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 10:40 pm
by flaggETERNAL
tabascoboy wrote:About halfway through the first book of the trilogy
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I'm having a hard time grappling with the hard sci-fi physics, not that it's necessary to understand it to get into the story. It's pretty pertinent though for the issues of our times
... Indeed, the trilogy can be read as a parable about the perils of inviting into your country foreigners whose ethics have been forged in more violent circumstances....

Amazing series. Think Amazon have bought the rights to it. Be interesting to see if/how they adapt it.

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 9:00 am
by Brazil
Just finished The Corporation that Changed the World:

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An interesting dissection of the rather rapacious East India Company with a meditation on the lessons for modern society, States and Corporations. Robert Clive comes out of it pretty badly.

Now onto this:

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Which is somewhat academic (quotes in the original Greek or Latin without translation), but already very enlightening about how ancient texts have come down to us over the past two and a half milleinia.

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 11:36 am
by Nolanator
Been working my way through "The State of Africa" based on recommendations here. Going through in fits and starts, but it's fascinating.

I had thought that learning the details about the sheer scale of corruption and abuse of power shortly after independence would be eye-opening, and it was, but it's the recent stuff that's really caught my attention. The details of the atrocities in Rwanda and the Congo/Zaire and the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone are harrowing. All parties seem to have been an absolutely horrible people, with some of the worst traits in human nature on show.
The lead-up to these conflicts, the barbarity of the conflicts themselves, and the appalling reaction of the international community really add up to create an absolute shit-show of human suffering.

Should be mandatory reading for all.

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 2:57 pm
by Ewinkum
Just finished ‘The selfish gene’ by Richard Dawkins.
What a book. A must read if you haven’t already.

Onto ‘All the pretty horses’ by Cormac McCarthy next.
I read ‘Blood Meridian’ a couple of years ago and it was excellent. Grim, bleak and beautiful.
Hoping for something similar.

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2018 10:34 pm
by Fangle
What do you guys think about graphic novels? Looks like crap to me. My wife's book club are starting on one called Maus.

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2018 12:58 am
by Denirostaxidriver
Fangle wrote:What do you guys think about graphic novels? Looks like crap to me. My wife's book club are starting on one called Maus.
One of the top 10 books / whatever that I have ever read.

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2018 6:17 pm
by HKCJ
Just finished Beartown... cracking read, most enjoyable book I’ve read for a while. Recommend for fiction fans.

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2018 6:18 pm
by happyhooker
Denirostaxidriver wrote:
Fangle wrote:What do you guys think about graphic novels? Looks like crap to me. My wife's book club are starting on one called Maus.
One of the top 10 books / whatever that I have ever read.
Not quite at that level of enthusiasm, but it's excellent

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2018 6:36 pm
by james garner
Ewinkum wrote:Just finished ‘The selfish gene’ by Richard Dawkins.
What a book. A must read if you haven’t already.

Onto ‘All the pretty horses’ by Cormac McCarthy next.
I read ‘Blood Meridian’ a couple of years ago and it was excellent. Grim, bleak and beautiful.
Hoping for something similar.
I should revisit the selfish gene, some great concepts, a bit sobering to consider oneself a survival machine or robot for our genes, although that theory falls a bit flat when I have had 10 pints, I like to think of myself as the bender of survival machine robots.

Also introduced the concept of memes. Shame Dawkins is such a C*nt

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2018 7:28 pm
by julian
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The author reviews the concept of modern democracy and how some radical movements are shaping it in the wrong way.

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2018 11:49 pm
by Floppykid
Any decent/essential books on astrophysics, the big questions about the universe etc. etc. people would recommend?
Obviously for a layman and not too dry, but still something that will make me look smart/pretentious on public transport when reading it.

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2018 11:57 pm
by flaggETERNAL
Floppykid wrote:Any decent/essential books on astrophysics, the big questions about the universe etc. etc. people would recommend?
Obviously for a layman and not too dry, but still something that will make me look smart/pretentious on public transport when reading it.
Neil DeGrasse's Astrophysics For People In A Hurry is pretty good.

Also, just about to finish the Iron Druid chronicles. Pretty good, lighthearted fantasy for those who like the genre.

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2018 3:33 pm
by Monk Zombie
been reading this:

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ended him up at Dachau and dead
Friedrich Reck might seem an unlikely rebel against Nazism. Not just a conservative but a rock-ribbed reactionary, he played the part of a landed gentleman, deplored democracy, and rejected the modern world outright. To Reck the Nazis were ruthless revolutionaries in Gothic drag, and helpless as he was to counter the spell they had cast on the German people, he felt compelled to record the corruptions of their rule. The result is less a diary than a sequence of stark and astonishing snapshots of life in Germany between 1936 and 1944. We see the Nazis at the peak of power, and the murderous panic with which they respond to approaching defeat; their travesty of traditional folkways in the name of the Volk; and the author’s own missed opportunity to shoot Hitler. This riveting book is not only, as Hannah Arendt proclaimed it, “one of the most important documents of the Hitler period” but a moving testament of a decent man struggling to do the right thing in a depraved world.

PRAISE
Very, very rarely one comes across a book so remarkable and so unexpectedly convincing that it deserves more to be quoted than to be reviewed.... I beg you to read this bitterly courageous book by as good a German as one could well imagine.
—Frederic Raphael, The Sunday Times, London

It is stunning to read, for it is not often that invective achieves the level of art, and rarer still that hatred assumes a tragic grandeur.
—The New York Times

Observations set down with passion, outrage, and almost unbearable sadness.... astonishing, compelling, and unnerving.
—The New Yorker

In his visceral loathing of the Nazis, Reck was not, of course, unique. From our perspective, however, he had one great advantage over most of his like-minded friends: he possessed the makings of a great diarist. True, he was not at the centre of things, but he knew the world and had contacts in it. He was something of a connoisseur of rumours, collecting and savouring stories about the latest Nazi scandal or atrocity and adding to them his own trenchant reflections. And if he was a slightly gullible listener, he was a very acute observer.
—The Financial Times

Unlike many memoirs of the Nazi period, this one is not a totally gloomy account of persecution, brutality and horrors. The dominating quality is its tough exuberance and (often black) satirical humor. From a great height of aristocratic disrelish Fritz Reck-Malleczewen looks down on the Nazis as lower middle class scum, vengefully greedy for power, with Hitler as their avatar, at once sinister and ridiculous.
—The Wall Street Journal

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2018 11:47 pm
by Floppykid
Any good bios of Tecumseh Sherman people would recommend?

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2018 2:53 am
by Lacrobat
Floppykid wrote:Any good bios of Tecumseh Sherman people would recommend?
You could go directly to the source with his memoirs, but I would suggest:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fierce-Patriot ... eh+sherman

https://www.amazon.co.uk/William-Tecums ... eh+sherman

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2018 3:39 pm
by Floppykid
Lacrobat wrote:
Floppykid wrote:Any good bios of Tecumseh Sherman people would recommend?
You could go directly to the source with his memoirs, but I would suggest:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fierce-Patriot ... eh+sherman

https://www.amazon.co.uk/William-Tecums ... eh+sherman
Danke!

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2018 3:52 pm
by Monk Zombie
this arrived today - supposedly like the Flashman stuff. anyone read it?

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Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 1:04 am
by He Man Rugger Pints
Read State of Africa having seen it posted here, what a general shambles and doesn't leave you hopeful for the future.

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This is an excellent biography of Woods. Golf isn't a sport I've much interest in but he really was an unbelievable superstar. Goes into a lot of detail on his father (total prick) and how it developed his mindset. He was extremely cold and ruthless. Seems to have gotten himself together a bit after his life crashed a few years back. One of better sports books I've read.

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This is about a post office manager who robbed more than €1.7 million to fund his compulsive gambling addiction. Reading it would induce anxiety when you hear all of the amounts he wins and loses. Good account of how insidious gambling (especially online) has become in our society and how the mind of an addict works.

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 2:50 am
by Nieghorn
Monk Zombie wrote:this arrived today - supposedly like the Flashman stuff. anyone read it?

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No, but I want to now! Cheers!

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2019 3:40 pm
by Boobs not Moobs
So I've read book 1 in this series and I'm wondering whether to continue. It's got plenty of merits but he also extrapolates everything. Lots of battles which get reptitive, I skim read battle bits, there's also plot threads that get hammered home again and again, 2 characters 1 is a bully, he bullies other character about 8 times, ott. 3 more books each about 1k pages. Being a bit sexist but I think would probably appeal more to men, main characters are all men, lots of fighting and warrior stuff.

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Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2019 4:36 pm
by Short Man Syndrome
Recently read and can recommend:

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Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2019 8:00 am
by Pat the Ex Mat
Uthikoloshe wrote:
MungoMan wrote:An exceedingly enjoyable SF / fantasy book from the local library. Definitlety recommended.

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Good shout. Half way in and hooked.

Do you know who is Dad is?

I've enjoyed all his books. Glad to see a new one.

Just finished the latest Peter.F.Hamilton book.

Enjoyed it a lot - a new universe is good afternoon the Void sequence

Re: The PR Book Thread

Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2019 12:35 pm
by Nieghorn
I'm tempted to see if I can get this on interlibrary loan ...
Spoiler: show
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