For those who are new ... we discuss books. I list what I'm reading, and people comment with what they're reading. Sometimes I post a special edition on a particular genre or topic.
cfk has Bookflurries on Wednesday nights, with links to lots of other diaries about books and reading on daily Kos .
Just finished
Hidden Harmonies: The Lives and Times of they Pythagorean Theorem by Robert and Ellen Kaplan. The publisher sent me a review copy because I've admired other work of the Kaplans, and this is very good too. This is one for math amateurs - and, if a good song makes you want to sing along, a good math book makes you want to prove along. Reading this, I found myself thinking thoughts about the theorem. It takes you on a tour from the basic PT, to tons of different proofs, and then on to all sorts of extensions.
Now reading
The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Physics by Julian Barbour. Barbour's idea is that time does not really exist. Just started it, but it looks very interesting.
The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the dark ages by Chris Wickham. A really good history of Europe and western Asia, from 400 to 1000 AD.
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. Historical fiction about Henry VIII and that period, told from the point of view of Thomas Cromwell, with the villain being Thomas More. Wonderfully written, and, from what I read in other reviews, historically defensible.
The Great SF stories volume 1: 1939 ed. by Isaac Asimov and Martin Greenberg. I have this whole series on my shelf and I think I will re-read them
Just started
Rough Country by John Sandford. This is the third in the Virgil Flowers series of mysteries. Set in northern Minnesota, Flowers is called when a woman at an inn is murdered. Typical of Sandford, with tight plotting, spare dialogue and interesting characters.
And some technical books for work.