What book's on your nightstand now?

House Of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

 

Finished Volume 1 and started
Volume 2 of Airwar by Edward Jablonski

 

"American Ulysses" biography of US Grant.

 

I thought the Munich assassinations were pretty much the extent of Israel's revenge operations. They are certainly the most well known but are just a fraction of what is/was going on. It turns out that targeted killings have been used in Israel since the beginning of the state and was/is standard operating procedure. Rise and Kill goes into excruciating and surprising detail about the earliest to the latest killings. I am surprised it was even allowed to be published.

 

Contes Français
Ten short stories by Voltair, Balzac, Gide, Camus and other in the original French.

 

My sister gets paperbacks about 20th century military and then gives them to me.
1. Bugles and a Tiger - My life with the Ghurkas by John Masters. 1930s. Good description of the class system in GB between the wars and fighting in British India. A very tough existence detailed by a man who eventually became a Lt. Colonel

2. The Deadly Brotherhood by John C. McManus. The author took a series of oral histories and broke them down into discussions ranging about food rations to dealing with the cold.

3. I am partially through a book by Admiral Richardson. He was the Admiral who told FDR not to move the Pacific fleet from San Diego to Honolulu - and was fired. Kept a diary for 40 years and burned it and his notes after the book was written.

4. Reading Conversational French Dialogues by Lingo Mastery. Over 100 French conversations. The one read on Thursday was about Wifi and VPS. The one read before that was about buying an I7 release of a computer chip and a 500 GIG SSD hard drive!

 

The Bat (A Harry Hole Mystery) by Jo Nesbo

 

Oooh... good book and series.

For folks who aren't familiar with it, here's what makes this book unique:

The central character is a police detective in Oslo, Norway. You'd expect pretty much the same setup in the first book of any such series - meeting the central character, learning a bit about where he lives, meeting his boss and co-workers, his partner and his favorite bar. And all the while solving the murder case.

This book is distinctive as the first in a detective series because the murder case takes the character halfway around the world to Australia. So you meet the central character, but that's it. The only introduction to his boss is a few phone calls home. You don't learn anything about where he lives, favorite restaurant, where he works, co-workers, etc..

I thought it was a pretty unique and daring beginning to a detective series. Just imagine the first book of the Harry Bosch series having him travelling to Madrid to assist the detectives there in solving a murder case and you get the idea.

 

Based solely on the title and first post, the book that should be on the OP's nightstand should be a book on grammar.

 

I am not a great reader. The last book that I read with a great pleasure was the W.R. Trask translation of History of My Life by Casanova. Very intelligent and vivid depiction of life in Europe and Russia at the time.

 

Newest in the Lisabeth Salander series of Stieg Larsen
https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Who-Liv...ords=salander&qid=1569672098&s=gateway&sr=8-1

 

"The Prince", by Nicolo Machiavelli.

 

Destiny of Souls by Michael Newton; QED by Feynman

 

This. Perhaps more relevant than ever.

 

American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon

 

I couldn’t resist guys...

 

double post.

 

The Trail of the Hawk by Sinclair Lewis. An early work by an underrated writer who could really spin a phrase. Great adventure tale and downloadable on-line FREE.
Rotating with Moby Dick (finally got around to reading). It's overwritten but beautifully crafted.
Also The Count of Monte Cristo. Best revenge story ever written. None of the many screen renditions do justice to the book.