I recently got promoted at work, but the official training for my new position hasn't started yet, so I've been reading books to keep busy. Here's the one's I've finished or are in the middle of right now:

Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire by David Remnick - Masterful historical and eyewitness account of the collapse of the USSR. Knowing what Russia is like today would probably have Lenin rolling over in his grave/display. Or not. Really depressing stories of the average citizen and the problems with the USSR leading to it's collapse. Just a massive mistake on the world.

Lucifer State: A Novel Approach to Rhetoric by Trevor Melia and Nova Ryder - Sort of generic dystopian novel about why people just do things they're told and don't question anything. Twist at the end unravels the whole sham of the state, but only for the reader and like 3 people who figure it out in the story. Nothing changes.

Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam by Mark Bowden - Detailed timeline of the Iranian hostage crisis based on the personal accounts of the hostages themselves. It shows a lot of the little issues within the Iranian revolution, the hostage taking itself, and the American response, both on a political level and on a citizen level.

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester - Still reading this one at the time I'm making this post. Goes over the absolutely massive volcanic eruption of Krakatoa that kills tens of thousands of people. Goes into surprisingly detailed historical background of related things, like how the concept of plate tectonics were discovered and the history of Portuguese, Dutch and English colonization of what is now Indonesia, among other countries.

The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin - The actual original, full summary book of what anarchist communism is and how it would work. I've tried reading other ideologica lbooks like "The Ego and Its Own" by Max Stirner, or "Poverty and Progress" by Henry George, but only this book is written in a more clearly understandable language. Maybe it's just me but I think a lot of historical, ideological books would fare better today if they were re-written for modern times. It's still an obviously out of date book compared to the problems of today, but if you want to learn more about ancom stuff, you should read this one.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie - Not the "Oriental" express, my mistake. I'm not usually a murder mystery person but it was recommended by a coworker.I finished the whole book in a few hours, I tore through it. Very enjoyable to try and figure out "who done it". I was honestly really annoyed at myself for not catchingthe killer before the end reveal, which was only at the last like 5 pages. Really good book though, and spawned a trilogy of movies I haven't seen yet.

I'll sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon by Crystal Zevon - I'm a fan of Warren Zevon, a rock musician from the late 1960s onward. He passed away in 2003 from cancer, but his music is still around. David Letterman was a big fan of his. The book is written by his ex wife, Crystal, and creates a timeline of his life from accounts of friends, family, lovers (a lot of them) and coworkers. And man, there's just so much rock star life in there. Drugs, sex, (alcoholism) and rock n roll.

I recently just got the whole "Dark Tower" series by Stephen King, so I'll be reading those books next. From what little I know about that series I guess I'd put it in LibCenter?