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Are you already aware that they are going to make a Heat 2? The book was released this year: amazon.com/Heat-2-Novel-Michael-Mann/dp/0062653318.
Michael Mann has spoken about filming it in a couple of interviews already!!
“It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured.”
An escaped convict with a false passport, Lin flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of Bombay, where he can disappear. Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter the city’s hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere.
As a hunted man without a home, family, or identity, Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city’s poorest slums, and serving his apprenticeship in the dark arts of the Bombay mafia. The search leads him to war, prison torture, murder, and a series of enigmatic and bloody betrayals. The keys to unlock the mysteries and intrigues that bind Lin are held by two people. The first is Khader Khan: mafia godfather, criminal-philosopher-saint, and mentor to Lin in the underworld of the Golden City. The second is Karla: elusive, dangerous, and beautiful, whose passions are driven by secrets that torment her and yet give her a terrible power.
Burning slums and five-star hotels, romantic love and prison agonies, criminal wars and Bollywood films, spiritual gurus and mujaheddin guerrillas—this huge novel has the world of human experience in its reach, and a passionate love for India at its heart.
Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts. A wonderful tale of an Australian criminal who ends up in Mumbai, India. Well written and an unpredictable adventure with some amazing characters.
Whatever you do, don't read The Name of the Wind, and The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. These are the first two books of a series called the Kingkiller Chronicles. They are great books. The first one was published in 2007, and the second one in 2011...and the third one, The Doors of Stone, has been promised, then delayed, then delayed again and again. It's a decade-long cliffhanger with no resolution in sight.
Shantaram by y Gregory David Roberts. This not a Peace Corps book but it is a book about a western person living at the same level of a poor Indian community, while serving to help. David Gregory Roberts calls “Shantaram” a novel, but it is strongly autobiographical, concentrating on his life in Bombay from 1981 to 1987. One of the best books I've every read.
Sweden does have a murky past, one that some Swedish non-fiction authors have probably shone the brightest light on, and there are definitely a few communitarian aspects to that culture that can come as a surprise to Anglo-Americans, but blithely labeling it as fascist is something only particularly tendentious and pedantic ideologues would do.
Fuck that.
https://www.amazon.com/Power-Dog-Don-Winslow/dp/1400096936/ref=nodl_
There’s a good place to start. This book series will kick your teeth in. And it’s almost all completely true. I’ve listened to it three times on audible and I’m about to start it again.
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Late to this thread but I don't see it yet: Low Town, by Daniel Polansky (206 reviews). Gritty, noir-ish, no devolutions into roll-eyeing smut or sex scenes, lots of dark heart adventuring in a low-ish fantasy world with touches of magic that always appear as something sinister. Maybe my top read of the year.
There should be more than a few books about John Gotti.
And there is always Mario Puzo's fictionalized version of events: The Godfather
I think a lot of TS listeners might enjoy Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. If you dig Chris’s anecdotes about traveling in India, this book will get under your skin.
The link below goes through Chris’s Amazon portal:
Don Winslow has a couple novels dealing with the cartels, and the efforts to fight them. While they are fictional, they do track pretty closely with reality, and go into a lot of the politics, corruption, and economics involved. It's a lot easier to understand when you have a full picture of what exactly is involved.
They are definitely worth checking out. They are fairly graphic, but nothing that will shock someone who just looked at that album.
The two books are a series, but they don't strictly need to be read in order. I read The Cartel first, and didn't feel like I missed out on anything.
I'm 63 years old, and I was involved in the Internet before Tim Berners-Lee invented the WWW. My son is currently a PhD candidate in Comp Sci, and will go to work for Google next spring. I have some familiarity with the Internet. Let me tell you a couple of things about it. First, it can't be "cleaned up". Second, it shouldn't be "cleaned up".
By all means learn security. Learn how to keep people's data safe. That is a skill that will be in great demand from here on out. Forget about this whole "justice" thing though. There is no justice. There are just people who don't want to get fucked over, and people who want to fuck them over.
Addendum: If you haven't already, you should read Reamde.
I work in the judiciary, and based on what I can tell, so many of us are broken, and we turn to so many different forms of abuse--self and otherwise--in reaction.
I'll check out that book. Thank you. 2 books which informed me tremendously about the effect of drugs on society were novels, of all things, written by a fella named Don Winslow. First was Power of the Dog, and the other was its sequel, The Cartel. If you're familiar with the movie Sicario, its tone, substance, characters could have been drawn directly from these books.
But in addition to the issues you describe, there's so much profit in drug-dealing, and so much corruption and other business opportunities arise from it, that a surprising amount of society seems to have an interest in keeping them illegal.
All of this because we're so fragile.
While it wasn't Seattle-centric, Neal Stephenson's Reamde had a scene or two in Seattle. Some of the other locations in the book are in British Columbia and the wilderness between BC and Seattle.
Think this is Leo preparing to play the role of Art Keller in the upcoming Ridley Scott film, The Cartel.
Based on the books, The Power of the Dog and The Cartel, released recently. I've just been lucky enough to read the latter, absolutely briliant. Would seriously recommend it to anyone!
This is the one he'll win an Oscar for
Book 2
http://www.amazon.com/The-Cartel-novel-Don-Winslow/dp/1101874996
Since you seem to be more into the Hacker thing - like history of it all - maybe Ready Player One might be exactly your speed. I personally didn't like the book, but so many other people did, I'm likely the aberration.
If you want just running from one thing to the next, you might like Beat the Reaper - it will definitely entertain you!
For hacking/running together, I always, always recommend Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson (but I'm kinda getting sick of my constant pro-Stephenson pushes on here, :P so... yeah, read it if you want to read awesome.)
It is fantastic. It's the first part of a trilogy. It's written by a swede, Steig Larsson, who initially planned more books than just those three but died prematurely. It's actually a really sad story because the books became a gigantic success. He was not married to his long-time girlfriend, and his rights and profits fell into his estranged father and brother, whom he had extreme dislike for. I remember reading something about them even being mixed up in some Nazi-like stuff that he represented in his novels.
The book was also made into a great movie directed by David Fincher, director of Fight Club. I'd also recommend the movie. But the swedish adaptations were also made and I haven't seen those movies. The female lead from that movie hit it big in America and she was in Prometheus.
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts one of my favorites. Great adventure read. It is pretty thick and you might spend more time reading then enjoying your holiday!
Have you ever read [[LowTown][http://www.amazon.com/Low-Town-Book/dp/0307743349]]? It's high fantasy but from a sort of underworld point of view.
The writer put a large number of magical drugs in there. Crushed up crystals, and "pixie dust" (not my pun).
If you want to stay away from magical stuff than psychotropics are a good bet.
OTOH the canonical mage / wizard figure seems like he'd have the necessary ingredients to cook up meth or LSD.
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. A great story too, but I'm amazed at his style and how effortless it is. He's one of the few authors that, as another writer, I'm envious of.
I've purchased about 20 Kindle books and only one has it disabled (Foundation).
Also fwiw, Girl With The Dragon Tattoo doesn't have it anymore
I'm going to go with Shantaram. Probably one of my all time favorite books, has some of the most beautiful prose ever committed to paper. I'm not really sure why it isn't more well known. Those who have read it seem to gush about it.
You don't come across a book like this very often. One of the most beautiful amazing works I've ever read. Put it on your list.
I know it got a little press when it came out, but I've yet to talk with anyone else that's actually read it.
It's pretty damn long, but Shantaram is pretty fucking excellent. It's an autobiographical account of a an Australian escaped convict living in India. He makes counterfeit passports, goes on Jihad in Afghanistan, provides free medical care in the shanty town, and becomes addicted to heroin.
I know it sounds heavy and un-zen, but his reaction to all of the difficulties are very much in line with our teachings. At one point, he is being tortured, but he realizes that he is innately free in his decision to love or hate his captors. Most of the book is very light and colorful, and it is ultimately a story about love in its many forms. Trust me, you'll enjoy it.
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts (http://www.amazon.com/Shantaram-Novel-Gregory-David-Roberts/dp/0312330537/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265074018&sr=8-1) - the best book i've ever read and more than likely will ever read.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was pretty good and worth a read.
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts-An Epic Novel
It begins: "It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured. I realised, somehow, through the screaming in my mind, that even in that shackled bloody helplessness, I was still free: free to hate the men who were torturing me, or to forgive them. It doesn't sound like much, I know. But in the flinch and bite of the chain, when it's all you've got,.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shantaram_(novel) http://www.amazon.com/Shantaram-Novel-Gregory-David-Roberts/dp/0312330529
Shantaram, just started but its great. About an australian guy that escapes prison and becomes a criminal in India (I think so far). I think about 50% or more is true: http://www.amazon.com/Shantaram-Novel-Gregory-David-Roberts/dp/0312330529