What I've Been Reading

It has been some time since I shared a list of what I’ve been reading.  So, time to share a few good recommendations. As always, I will not bore you with the finance-related stuff I read. Although the rest of my family considers one of my recommendations to be extremely boring.  Their loss.

I mentioned this title a few articles back – Stillness Is The Key by Ryan Holiday.  I’ve read quite a few of his books and have enjoyed most of them.  I compare him to someone like Malcolm Gladwell.  He compiles insights, stories, writings and more from others and puts them into a readable format with his own conclusions.   The difference between them is Holiday is more philosophical while Gladwell trends more toward evidence-based writings, although his conclusions can be off (don’t get me going on Gladwell). This is a solid book and like most of Holiday’s writings, can be finished in a couple of days.  Definitely worth checking out from the library.

The book my family all groaned about (and I was not allowed to quote from) is Midnight In Chernobyl. I picked up Adam Higginbotham’s terrific book after watching the Chernobyl series from HBO.   As good as that series was, this book is that much better.  I was amazed to read about what happened to those exposed, the resources dedicated to deal with the explosion, how the local environment reacted, and so much more.   If you liked the series you really need to pick this one up and spend a week or so reading it.  You won’t be disappointed. Oh, the designers of the reactor are to blame.  Spoiler alert!

Continuing the Russian theme, the final book is called City of Thieves by David Benioff.  I think I read about this on Twitter. The author is known as the co-creator and writer of Game of Thrones, which I never got into.  Regardless, this book is a fictional story of a couple of Russians on a strange task for a Russian General during WWII when the Germans were trying to capture Russia.   It is well written and an enjoyable read.  Shouldn’t take more than a few days for you to get through this.

I’m working on another Harry Bosch book while I await I Heard You Paint Houses to show up at the library.  This is the book the movie the Irishman is based on.  That movie is about 12 hours long (it took us days to finish it) and is decent.  Hopefully the book is better.