Slashdot Asks: What Book(s) Are You Reading This Month?

We have not run book recommendations and book discussion posts for some time. So here it goes: What's a book -- or books -- are you reading this month? Additionally, what's a book you finished recently that you found insightful, or funny, or both. (The latter request comes from a reader.) Leave your recommendation and any additional notes in the comments section below.

Comments

ww1 centennial coming up

[bugs2squash]

Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger. With respect to my heritage this is an account by someone on "the other side" in WW1. Always worth getting a different perspective.

My Fantasy Reading List for September 2018

[Seven Spirals]

* The Prince of Fools by Mark Lawrence

* Lyonesse by Jack Vance

* The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

* The Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher

* The Fall of Gondolin by JRR Tolkien

I can recommend all of these, except for The Fall of Gondolin. It's not really up to Tolkien's best standard, but still worth reading for fans like me.

Using FreeDOS

[Anonymous Coward]

Really liked Using FreeDOS from the FreeDOS folks. Kind of a blast from the past in there about old DOS programs, and its cool to see this favorite old OS also-ran still hanging around. It's for free as an EPUB or PDF, but there's a bound print copy too.

Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule

[mykepredko]

I have always found this essay: http://www.paulgraham.com/make...

To be the best way to explain to managers/executives how to work with engineers.

A Short History of Nearly Everything

[Lucas123]

Author Bill Bryson explains some areas of science, using easily accessible language that appeals more so to the general public than many other books dedicated to the subject. I'm just beginning the book, but I've already found it absolutely fascinating as it's filled with little factoids, such as why Pluto lost its planetary status (it's less than half the size of the United States and may even be a comet in the Kuiper belt), or of the billions and billions of species that existed throughout Earth's history, 99.99% of them no longer exist; the average existence of a species is 4 million years.

It's a really compelling read.

Graham Greene

[cascadingstylesheet]

The Heart of the Matter

White Trash

[DaMattster]

I am reading White Trash: The 400 Year Old History of Class in America. It's really eye opening and challenges everything I ever learned in grade school about American history.

Re:The Mythical Man Month

[bobbied]

Actually, I don't think Agile runs contrary to Brooks. In fact, I think Agile flows pretty naturally from Brooks.

Of course, the term "agile" can be abused in astonishingly foolish ways (and yes, I've lived though some of these), but I actually think true Agile addresses many of the issues raised by Brooks as being keys to successful projects when properly done.

So let's call Agile and Brooks complementary.

Patrick O'Brian

[kalpol]

I'm rereading Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels after having first read them 10 or 15 years ago. They are every bit as excellent as I remember, and even more of their glory is revealed now through the lens of age. You may have seen the "Master and Commander" movie, but it's a pretty pale ghost of the characters and plots of the novels.

SF and Fantasy

[Daetrin]

Within the last month i've been reading:

- Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik: A re-telling/twist on the Rumpelstiltskin story. A lot darker and more intense than "Uprooted", but still good.
- All Systems Red - Martha Wells: A story about "Murderbot", a security robot that's broken its conditioning but somehow never gets around to doing much murdering. Re-listening to with my SO because of the Hugos. Still good the second time around.
- The Fated Sky - Mary Robinette Kowal: Sequel to the very excellent "Calculating Stars" about an alternate history space program after a meteor impact in the 50s.
- Girl in the Green Silk Down - Seanan McGuire: Sequel to "Sparrow Hill Road", about a hitch-hiking ghost on the run from a phantom rider. Still in the middle of this one, but enjoying it so far, and i'm curious if it's going to turn into a long running series or not.

"Additionally, what's a book you finished recently that you found insightful, or funny, or both."

I'll pick "funny"

Either

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) - Dennis E. Taylor: A guy gets dragooned into being a space probe. It's got geeky cultural references like Ready Player One (but much more toned down and well integrated with the story) in a near future (relatively speaking) space opera plot.

or

All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault - James Alan Gardner: About an alternate earth where "creatures of the night" are at war with superheroes. The author does humor well, but a lot of it is situational humor about the ridiculousness of the situation and some of it is dark.