Masters Running

The Book Club - Name Your Favorites or Latest Recommendations (Read 1548 times)

    Expecting Adam - Martha Beck  ....true story written by Harvard grad of her experiences when she learned she was expecting a baby with Down's Syndrome.

    denise

      A really good book that I just finished is "Nutshell" by Iain McEwen. I've never read something so clever and original. It's a crime story of two lovers plotting to kill the woman's husband as told in the words of the near-term unborn child that the woman is carrying! He only knows what is going on from what he hears from inside the womb -- although he has learned a lot about the world from hearing the podcasts that his mother listens to -- and he even gets buzzed when she drinks a few glasses of wine.

       

      It's obviously not to be taken too seriously, but is so imaginative that I got caught up in it right away. It's a short book, too, and only took me a few hours of reading over a couple of days to finish (a book better borrowed from the library than purchased!).

      Doug, runnin' cycling in Rochester, MI

      "Think blue, count two, and look for a red shoe"

        ...I re-read ''Flanaghan's Run'' by tom mcnabb while on our vacation

         

        ............GREAT re-telling of the TransAmerica Race during the Great Depression

         

        (the REAL race was in 1928 I believe)

         

        I had read

        this book 20-years ago,

        and was AMAZED it was Just as Compelling the 2nd time I read it

         

         

        if you've never read it, you're in for A Treat

        ..nothing takes the place of persistence.....

          I'm currently reading "Three Days in January: Dwight Eisenhower's Final Mission" by Brett Bauer.  Without taking political sides, Bauer "illuminates the extraordinary yet underappreciated presidency of Dwight Eisenhower by taking readers into Ike’s last days in power."  It's a fantastic read.

          Leslie
          Living and Running Behind the Redwood Curtain
          -------------

          Trail Runner Nation

          Sally McCrae-Choose Strong

          Bare Performance

           

            I really enjoyed Shoe Dog; partly because I know some of the people in it, and obviously the locations, but it's a really good non-fiction read for runners. The guys starting Nike are basically us, but at the right place at the right time making the right decisions completely by chance. And Phil Knight is a benign slacker, I can relate. Oregonian through and through.

             

            Also recently read "Everybody Lies; Big Data..." a good book for statistics junkies on new methods of obtaining more accurate statistics and data, and revealing surprising data via what people type into search engines, often in contradiction to what they say on questionnaires.

             

            Junk food of books: anything by James Rollins or Clive Cussler. Always page-turners that you'll finish in a day or two because you can't help yourself. If you're new to these authors, start with their first books and work forward. I envy you, because you have about 50 books ahead of you, and I have to wait 6 months or more for new ones to come out.

             

            I was not impressed with the new book by Dan Brown, Origin, but it's better than most of the other best-seller options.

             

            Currently reading The Dyatlov Pass Incident, about the...you guessed it.

             

            On deck is Guns, Germs and Steel and Under The Banner Of Heaven.

             

            Everyone should read Desert Solitaire and The Mote In God's Eye.

            60-64 age group  -  University of Oregon alumni  -  Irreverent and Annoying

              "Boys in the Boat" by Daniel James Brown - 9 young American men and their quest for gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics in crewing.  The book is centered around Joe Rantz, one of the young men.  It's a fantastic read, hard to put down.

              Leslie
              Living and Running Behind the Redwood Curtain
              -------------

              Trail Runner Nation

              Sally McCrae-Choose Strong

              Bare Performance

               

              catwhoorg


              Labrat

                Two Books down on this trip so far:

                 

                After that Afternoon: by Penelope Albert

                A book I'll be 100% honest, I would never have bought but for the fact I am distantly connected to the author through a gaming group, and she reached out to that group during the writing an editing process. I was curious about the finished article.

                 

                Quick Summary, a stream of consciousness style about an (older) womans feelings after an encounter with a male escort. She deals with a lot of overly dramatic, almost teenage crushing, and how she came out the otherside a much changed and better person.

                 

                I found it quite difficult to follow along with at first, but eventually got in tune with the stream and it was quite easy to read after that. Certainly it touches upon an very wide range of human emotions.Creates a window into the raw mind of a woman, and gave me a perspective on love a relationships (of various kinds) that was different to my own. Certainly not a book for everyone, there is no graphic sex, but the themes are highly adult in nature. The author suggests reading it through without referring to the footnotes, at least initially and I agree with that thought. Trying to hop between the main text and footnotes is distracting, and may be why it took me a while to get in tune with the stream.

                 

                You're Never Weird on the Internet: by Felecia Day

                I imagine most people here are at least familiar with the Author. A biography of a very unconventional upbringing, and a actor, director and businesswoman, who has never quite done things the typical way. She really came into my sphere of understanding via "the Guild" which was an offshoot of her time struggling with a (near) addiction to World of Warcraft. (Whilst I dabbled in MMOs, I wouldn't touch that one with a bargepole, due to knowing how rading becomes a second (or third) job). Getting that show onto the screen was quite an achievement, but she really hit the mainline in geek culture through Joss Wedon's Doc Horrible Sing a long.

                 

                Like many sucessful people, she has faced her ups and downs, confronts some of the downs with an honest restrospective and gives rise to some fascinating thoughts. I have the paperback, and that includes a chapter on #Gamergate (I have no idea if the hardbcak does or not). Simply by being female with an opinion, she has been harassed, Doxxed on multiple occasions and I have little doubt had serious threats made that didn't make it into this book. That was probably the most important chapter to actually get out there. Only by really seeing just how dark the underside of the internet can be, can we try to take it back and make it a valuable space for everyone (again ? Maybe it never was, and I only think it was through rose tinted white straight male glasses).

                 

                Great book. Well worth a read for anyone.

                5K  20:23  (Vdot 48.7)   9/9/17

                10K  44:06  (Vdot 46.3)  3/11/17

                HM 1:33:48 (Vdot 48.6) 11/11/17

                FM 4:13:43 (Vdot 35.4) 3/4/18

                 

                  "The Ghost Mountain Boys" by James Campbell.  I have been enraptured by this book, at times, on the verge of tears, at times so angry for the soldiers.  Yet another reason why these men are called "The Greatest Generation."

                   

                  "A harrowing portrait of a largely forgotten campaign that pushed one battalion to the limits of human suffering.

                  Despite their lack of jungle training, the 32nd Division’s “Ghost Mountain Boys” were assigned the most grueling mission of the entire Pacific campaign in World War II: to march over the 10,000-foot Owen Stanley Mountains to protect the right flank of the Australian army during the battle for New Guinea. Reminiscent of the classics like Band of Brothers and The Things They Carried, The Ghost Mountain Boys is part war diary, part extreme-adventure tale, and—through letters, journals, and interviews—part biography of a group of men who fought to survive in an environment every bit as fierce as the enemy they faced. Theirs is one of the great untold stories of the war."

                  Leslie
                  Living and Running Behind the Redwood Curtain
                  -------------

                  Trail Runner Nation

                  Sally McCrae-Choose Strong

                  Bare Performance

                   

                  Notne


                    Running book: 80/20 Running, by Matt Fitzgerald

                    I tried it for a while (a month or two), then couldn't fight years of inertia for training the way I always have. I just couldn't summon the patience! I'm willing to live with the possibility that decision may make my training and times worse off … 

                     

                    Non-running books - both by Eckhart Tolle:

                    1) A New Earth

                    2) The Power of Now

                     

                    Both written with the goal of having the reader be more aware of what "pushes their buttons", and why, and (especially) how learning more about that can help live a more peaceful/less stressful life. That's my summary, and I already see problems with it in terms of incompleteness and otherwise, so if anyone else wants to make it better, please do! 

                    Henrun


                      Just started reading “The World’Fastest Man”, The Extraordinary Life of Cyclist Major Taylor, America’s First Black Sports Hero..

                      It describes the cycling fad of the end of the 19th century and Taylor’s rise to prominence. A real page turner.

                      sluggo


                      John

                        I don't read many running books - so non-running books.

                         

                        We don't eat our classmates! by Ryan Higgins

                        This will be a birthday present for my grandson's 2nd birthday. BUT I like it too!

                         

                        The Unteachables by Gordon Korman

                        This is good for middle schoolers AND it's better than many of the adult books I get from the library.

                         

                        I love the opening where the teacher walks into the first class of the year and finds the kids roasting marshmallows over a fire they started in the class room waste basket!

                        John
                        www.wickedrunningclub.com

                        In the beginning, the universe was created.This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

                        --- Douglas Adams, in "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe"

                          "Boys in the Bunkhouse" by Dan Barry.  True Story.  Read It.  Fantastic writing.  Mind-blowing circumstances.

                          Leslie
                          Living and Running Behind the Redwood Curtain
                          -------------

                          Trail Runner Nation

                          Sally McCrae-Choose Strong

                          Bare Performance

                           

                            "Five Presidents" by Clinton J. Hill with Lisa McCubbin.  He's a former Secret Service Agent (who rose to Assistant Director) who served under Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford.  He was the agent who climbed onto the back of the car when Kennedy was assassinated.  I'm currently in the section about President Johnson.  This has been a fascinating read as it provides quite a bit of insight into the personalities of each president.

                             

                            He also wrote "Mrs. Kennedy and Me" and "5 Days in November" which I haven't read yet.

                            Leslie
                            Living and Running Behind the Redwood Curtain
                            -------------

                            Trail Runner Nation

                            Sally McCrae-Choose Strong

                            Bare Performance

                             

                              ...if anyone likes True Spy Stories,,,,,,,,in 1945 we captured the Russian Secret Archives

                               

                              which

                              had been taken to Berlin after the Wehrrmacht

                              captured them at Smolensk

                               

                              .........1930-1940s NKVD/KGB  Classified Spy network messages,

                              pretty fascinating read-

                               

                              ,,,,,,,ps,,,,,,,if you see an ''L'' it means ''Liquidated''

                               

                              here's an exceprt-

                               

                              ''“Raymond has been liquidated. His wife, so far, has not. She knows about 19 to some extent, and at the moment we are not aware what steps she will take in the future. For now the danger of 19 being exposed through Raymond’s line is significantly diminished. However, this does not mean by any means that you should observe him and work him over any less strenuously. The political work with 19 needs to become systematic. You should answer all of 19’s perplexing questions exhaustively. Do not leave anything unclear or unaddressed. ''

                               

                              in a cross exceprt-

                              ''“Prince” [“Kniaz'”] – Laurence Duggan  (''19''), former employee of the State Department. Suicide.[30]

                               

                              https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/search-results/1/%7B%22contributor%22%3A%221424%22%7D

                              ..nothing takes the place of persistence.....

                              TammyinGP


                                I've been reading some good books lately.

                                 

                                Currently reading Educated, by Tara Westover.   Very Good and I'm not quite half way through yet.

                                 

                                Also recently finished Where the Crawdads Sing, another great read.

                                 

                                American Dirt was SOOO good! I could probably read that one a couple times.

                                Tammy