What have you read lately?

[Standing Wolf]

Right now reading 'Going the Other Way' by Billy Bean - the autobiography of the first openly gay former Major League ballplayer.

Just finished 'The Girl in the Spider's Web' by David Lagercrantz. If you read and enjoyed the late Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy - 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo', etc. - have no fear...Lagercrantz has done an absolutely masterful job of continuing the story. Not all continuation novels are anywhere near as successful as this one in capturing the intricate plotting, the slow buildup of suspense, and all the other elements that make the original so entertaining. Lagercrantz has done it in a masterful way.

Before that, I tried to read David Labrava's 'Becoming a Son'. I'm a big Sons of Anarchy fan, and particularly liked Labrava's 'Happy' character on the show. I'd read that he had led an interesting life and was looking forward to reading his book, but... If ever a book needed a professional editor or co-writer and very obviously did not get one, this is it. From the simplest thing like not indenting paragraphs, to narrative flaws like changing ages in the middle of a story and jumping around from one time period to another with apparent randomness, this book is a hard, hard read. From reading some reviews, as well as flipping through the unread 3/4 of the book myself, I discovered that Labrava does not even mention his motorcycle club affiliation, which is actually one of the things I mostly wanted to read about. Doing and smuggling drugs, getting laid and surfing are all fine in their place, I suppose, but it's tough to make a big, dense, very badly written book fascinating with only those things to work with.

Before that attempt, I read one of the finest Sherlock Holmes stories I've ever encountered - Molly MacBird's 'Art of the Blood'. I've been reading Holmes since I was about twelve, and have been searching out and reading continuation novels and pastiches by authors other than Conan Doyle for almost as long, and 'Art of the Blood' is up there near the top of my personal favorites list.

[Peter1469]

The last of the Remaining series (http://www.amazon.com/Remaining-D-J-Molles/dp/0316404152).

[Green Arrow]

The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

Operation Paperclip by Annie Jacobsen

[Chris]

Recently finished:


Holcombe's Advanced Introduction to Austrian Economics
Ellickson's Order without Law: How Neighbors Settle Disputes
Stringham's Private Governance: Creating Order in Economic and Social Life--highly recommended!
Smith and Moore's (eds) Individualism: A Reader--not that good except for chapter 24 from Henry Wilson's A Catechism of Individualism, a rebuttal to Belfort Bax's A New Catechism of Socialism
Munger's The Thing Itself: Essays on Academics and the State--the title is taken from Burke's A Vindication of Natural Society: "In vain you tell me that Artificial Government is good, but that I fall out only with the Abuse. The Thing! the Thing itself is the Abuse!Observe, my Lord, I pray you, that grand Error upon which all artificial legislative Power is founded. It was observed, that Men had ungovernable Passions, which made it necessary to guard against the Violence they might offer to each other. They appointed Governors over them for this Reason; but a worse and more perplexing Difficulty arises, how to be defended against the Governors? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"




I used to read fiction and try but just can't any more.

[Standing Wolf]

Wow. Sorry, Chris, but I almost dozed off while reading your post! Economics, just about anything having to do with money, puts me right to sleep - Business Law classes almost killed me in school, just in terms of being able to stay awake. That's why I rarely if ever participate to any serious degree in threads on the topic. On the other hand, I can read case law all day and find it fascinating, which some find odd.

[Ethereal]

"The Son" by Phillip Meyer. It's a fiction about a Texan who is kidnapped by Comanches and is eventually integrated into their tribe.

"Forgotten Founder, Drunken Prophet: The Life of Luther Martin" by Bill Kauffman. It's a compelling historical analysis of the life and career of Luther Martin, a founding father and strident anti-federalist.

"The Rights of Man" by Thomas Paine. It's about these silly things called "rights" that transcend political authority. It was written by a traitorous criminal terrorist who rebelled against the government.

I'll let you know if I think of other stuff.

[Mister D]

I may begin Structures of the Life-World by Alfred Schutz and Thomas Luckmann. They're sociologists. There is a section on transcendence that I'd like to get a better understanding of particularly with regard to religious experience.

[Mister D]

I'm out of my depth with Life Structures. This will take a little more care. I don't have an adequate background in sociology so much of the terminology is unfamiliar. I will digest this a piece at a time. It's important to em though. I want to have a better understanding of some of these concepts.

I picked up Francis Parker Yockey's Imperium. I decided to reread it. He's a truly interesting figure. He has been mentioned by a couple of our conspiracy enthusiasts but they have no idea who he is or what he wrote. He's a bit of a kook at times but some of his insights are fascinating.

[PolWatch]

I've just finished the second in David Baldacci's new series "The Last Mile". The main character in the series is Amos Decker, a detective who remembers everything (due to an accident while playing pro football). This starts out as Decker working on a project to release people who have been convicted unfairly (kinda like the Innocence Project). The plot winds around recent crimes, a crime from 20 years prior & finishes up solving a 50 year old church bombing. Baldacci writes a great conspiracy. His prior series (The Camel Club) was great for wandering through multiple conspiracies in one book.

I also finished up 'Six Wives, The Queens of Henry VIII' by David Starkey. This was the first book I've seen that discusses all the wives of Henry VIII. Each wife is discussed but the sections vary in size....based on how long the wife lasted. It was interesting but provided no new insights or information on Henry or the ladies.

[Common]

I have a routine after dinner I go in the puter and do some news reading, I watch one hour of tv with my wife then go do whatever. After I shut the puter off for the night, I go park in my recliner and read, I have a samsung galaxy full of books.

At the moment im on book 7 of the Nero Wolfe series written by rex stout. It wouldnt be for everyone because the setting starts in the 1930s and goes up into the early 50s I believe. There are constantly words that send me to google for definition. They were well used in the 30s but rarely or never used today.

Tablets are great for reading, I refused to do it for along time with the old fashioned notion I needed to hold the book. With the tablet, I can set the size of the font, put day or night lighting, so I can read in dim light, I can bookmark with one touch and if I run into a word I dont know, I tap hit google write in the word and get the definition. These kids have it made, I used to have to read with a pen light when I was a kid

If anyone cares that has a tablet they use to read books and its not a kindle, theres an app you can download called "COOL READER" thats what gives me all the features I outlined above plus much more.

[Peter1469]

I have a routine after dinner I go in the puter and do some news reading, I watch one hour of tv with my wife then go do whatever. After I shut the puter off for the night, I go park in my recliner and read, I have a samsung galaxy full of books.

At the moment im on book 7 of the Nero Wolfe series written by rex stout. It wouldnt be for everyone because the setting starts in the 1930s and goes up into the early 50s I believe. There are constantly words that send me to google for definition. They were well used in the 30s but rarely or never used today.

Tablets are great for reading, I refused to do it for along time with the old fashioned notion I needed to hold the book. With the tablet, I can set the size of the font, put day or night lighting, so I can read in dim light, I can bookmark with one touch and if I run into a word I dont know, I tap hit google write in the word and get the definition. These kids have it made, I used to have to read with a pen light when I was a kid

If anyone cares that has a tablet they use to read books and its not a kindle, theres an app you can download called "COOL READER" thats what gives me all the features I outlined above plus much more.

I first got some European brand e-reader because it read the most formats and free stuff. I then got a Kindle Paperwhite. I like it a lot. Get e-reader. Now that I have the Kindle Fire (the latest HD version) I use it and like it as well.

[Green Arrow]

I'm actually trying to decide on where to go next...I'm trying to get out of my bad habit of trying to read multiple books at once.

Right now, my plan is to finish up Bully Pulpit, then hit Scorpions by Noah Feldman and then The Essential Bernie Sanders​ by Jonathan Tasini.

[Mister D]

Green Arrow you still work for Amazon? I'm very impressed with Amazon. Even though I almost always select either free or basic shipping I have my books etc. within 2-3 business days. They must have everything I want stored in the general area. :smiley:

Anyway, I just bought Hitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe by Mark Mazower. It's somewhat "controversial" which means he lays a few liberal myths to rest.

[Peter1469]

@Green Arrow (http://thepoliticalforums.com/member.php?u=868) you still work for Amazon? I'm very impressed with Amazon. Even though I almost always select either free or basic shipping I have my books etc. within 2-3 business days. They must have everything I want stored in the general area. :smiley:

Anyway, I just bought Hitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe by Mark Mazower. It's somewhat "controversial" which means he lays a few liberal myths to rest.

He moved on from Amazon. He appears to like his new job much better.

[Mister D]

Keeping him busier it appears!

[Green Arrow]

@Green Arrow (http://thepoliticalforums.com/member.php?u=868) you still work for Amazon? I'm very impressed with Amazon. Even though I almost always select either free or basic shipping I have my books etc. within 2-3 business days. They must have everything I want stored in the general area. :smiley:

Anyway, I just bought Hitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe by Mark Mazower. It's somewhat "controversial" which means he lays a few liberal myths to rest.

Nah, I quit Amazon about a month after starting. They wanted me to basically drop the quality of my work in order to increase my speed, and that's not acceptable to me.

Still love the company, though.

[Common]

Used to spend alot of money on amazon, I was a prime member for a long time. Then they built a warehouse in Florida and I had to pay sales tax and they raised prime to a 100 a year. Now I find most things I can get cheaper elsewhere without paying the 100 bucks.

If you have an american express card you can get free 2day shipping through Shop Runner

[Mister D]

The one thing they did that pissed me off was eliminate your ability to buy small, very inexpensive items on their own. For example. I used to get tea infusers from them but now I have to put together a real order and add them on it.

[Common]

The one thing they did that pissed me off was eliminate your ability to buy small, very inexpensive items on their own. For example. I used to get tea infusers from them but now I have to put together a real order and add them on it.

Thats another thing they started, this item is an addon. You have to wait until you buy something more expensive and add it. Or pay a higher price for it.

If theres an item you want and its an add on at amazon, check ebay and the new jet.com Theres other sites I can give you also.

Since I dropped prime Ive bought alot of stuff from ebay and ive never had a single problem. I always pay via paypal

[Peter1469]

I just started Shadow Wars by Sean McFate.

[Mister D]

Thats another thing they started, this item is an addon. You have to wait until you buy something more expensive and add it. Or pay a higher price for it.

If theres an item you want and its an add on at amazon, check ebay and the new jet.com Theres other sites I can give you also.

Since I dropped prime Ive bought alot of stuff from ebay and ive never had a single problem. I always pay via paypal

I haven't been on ebay in ages. I used to look for antiques on ebay years back. Yeah, paypal is great. I use it to make transfers. Simple.

[Ngc1514]

Lately:

The Inflationary Universe by Alan Guth

The Universe edited by John Brockman - A series of essays lead off by Alan Guth's "A Golden Age of Cosmology", a new cyclical universe theory by Paul Steinhardt, a debate about the anthropic principle between Lee Smolin and Leonard Susskind and some string theory in "Theories of the Brane" by Lisa Randall. It is one of the Edge Question Series and the essays can get a bit intense and personal.

"The Rise of the Wehrmacht" by Samuel Miitcham and Omer Bartov's "Hitler's Army."

And Eugenie Scott's "Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction."

Plus an assortment of fiction by Michael Connelly, John Sandford and Ariana Franklin. Reading my first P.D. James mystery, "An Unsuitable Job for Women" for our local book club.

So many books and so little time!

[nathanbforrest45]

"Blokes Up North" Two Royal Marines set out in a 17 foot open sailboat to sail/row across the Northwest Passage.

They make it.

[Standing Wolf]

Just finished 'I Killed' - a book of "road stories" by just about every standup comic you ever heard of.

Now reading 'The Highwayman' - the new Longmire novella by Craig Johnson.

[PolWatch]

Lately:

The Inflationary Universe by Alan Guth

The Universe edited by John Brockman - A series of essays lead off by Alan Guth's "A Golden Age of Cosmology", a new cyclical universe theory by Paul Steinhardt, a debate about the anthropic principle between Lee Smolin and Leonard Susskind and some string theory in "Theories of the Brane" by Lisa Randall. It is one of the Edge Question Series and the essays can get a bit intense and personal.

"The Rise of the Wehrmacht" by Samuel Miitcham and Omer Bartov's "Hitler's Army."

And Eugenie Scott's "Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction."

Plus an assortment of fiction by Michael Connelly, John Sandford and Ariana Franklin. Reading my first P.D. James mystery, "An Unsuitable Job for Women" for our local book club.

So many books and so little time!

I really enjoy John Sandford's books. 'Extreme Prey' (the most recent) is very good. Sandford has a very dry sense of humor....the Virgil Flowers novels are usually a real hoot!

[Ngc1514]

I really enjoy John Sandford's books. 'Extreme Prey' (the most recent) is very good. Sandford has a very dry sense of humor....the Virgil Flowers novels are usually a real hoot!
I agree! I have been rereading the entire Prey series just for fun before opening "Extreme Prey." It's fun to watch the characters shape up in a short span rather than trying to remember what happened over the years when a new book is published about once a year. Yeah, "that f*ckin' Flowers!" I also really like Connelly with Harry Bosch and "The Lincoln Lawyer," Mickey Haller. And, of course, Lee Child with Jack Reacher.

So many books, so little time.

[PolWatch]

I agree! I have been rereading the entire Prey series just for fun before opening "Extreme Prey." It's fun to watch the characters shape up in a short span rather than trying to remember what happened over the years when a new book is published about once a year. Yeah, "that f*ckin' Flowers!" I also really like Connelly with Harry Bosch and "The Lincoln Lawyer," Mickey Haller. And, of course, Lee Child with Jack Reacher.

So many books, so little time.

I enjoy going back & following the character development of some books. I'm now re-reading the Reacher novels....this is the first time I've read them again. It always amazes me how much I miss the first time around. Of course, Child & Sandford are good about having 2 or 3 story lines going in every book. Conspiracies, conspiracies, conspiracies!

I think the best writer for conspiracies is still Baldacci....I miss the Camel Club series as much as I miss any old friends. His books always have 2 or 3 good conspiracies in every book.

[Mister D]

Hitler's Empire is quite good so far. I particularly like how the author places emphasis on the evolution of Nazi policy with regard to the occupied countries, the Jews etc. I've already been persuaded that Nazi policy evolved and was even ad hoc at times but he makes interesting points and introduces evidence I haven't seen before.

I think this Summer will be a history Summer. I want to read a history of Poland and a biography of Janos Hunyadi next.

[Mark III]

War And Remembrance by Herman Wouk

Puts an extended family into WW2 maelstrom spanning the globe. One of the great works of popular fiction about the most destructively turbulent era in history.

[bdtex]

Right now I am reading Chancellorsville,Lee's Greatest Battle by Edward J. Stackpole:

http://thepoliticalforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=14771&stc=1

[Standing Wolf]

I'm now re-reading the Reacher novels....this is the first time I've read them again. It always amazes me how much I miss the first time around. Of course, Child & Sandford are good about having 2 or 3 story lines going in every book. Conspiracies, conspiracies, conspiracies!

I am hopelessly behind on the Reacher books. I read the first half-dozen, and then got distracted. I still buy the new ones when he comes to town to do a signing - although the crowds for his appearances have outgrown the bookstore and the last few times have been moved to a big auditorium down at the Civic Center - but I end up just putting my signed copy on the shelf 'cause I'm in the middle of reading something else and never getting back to it.

Certain authors I make a point of clearing my schedule ahead of time so that I can begin reading their new book right away. Craig Johnson's Longmire books, Ace Atkins' Spenser novels, Betty Webb's Gunn Zoo Mysteries (I feel indebted, since Betty named her zookeeper-detective after my wife), Ed Kovacs' Cliff St. James series, and a couple of others. I became so enamored of a couple of the great Joe Lansdale's recent standalone novels that I deviated from my usual m.o. and began reading his Hap and Leonard books starting with #12, 'Honkytonk Samurai' - now I'm hooked.

[PolWatch]

I enjoy the Longmire novels too. I'm fortunate that my husband likes a lot of the same authors I do....Lee Child, Craig Johnson.....we have our own book club. Ace Atkins does well in the Spencer novels but I started reading his Quinn Colson series (a lot like the Reacher novels). Dirty South & Wicked City (about Phenix City, AL) are good too!. I like the southern novels. James Lee Burke has a good series (Wil Robichaux) set in south Louisiana.

hmm...ok, I admit it. I'm a book-aholic!

[Common]

I read for fun, I love to be intrigued or fooled. I like mysteries, crime, detective, espionage. All the books Polwatch and Mr D wouldnt read :)

Right now im re reading the entire Rex Stout, Nero Wolfe Archie Goodwin Series, its said by some to be one of the best.

[PolWatch]

I read for fun, I love to be intrigued or fooled. I like mysteries, crime, detective, espionage. All the books Polwatch and Mr D wouldnt read :)

Right now im re reading the entire Rex Stout, Nero Wolfe Archie Goodwin Series, its said by some to be one of the best.

I read lots of fiction. I usually have one fiction & one non-fiction book going at the same time.

[Standing Wolf]

I know that Jeffrey Deaver has written lots of books in at least two lengthy series, and I think my wife has read most of them, but I've only read two of Deaver's - the James Bond novel they commissioned him to do a few years ago and one other. The Bond book, 'Carte Blanche', was unique in that Deaver actually re-booted the literary Bond franchise by making 007 a veteran of Afghanistan, not WWII, and generally updating his timeline. (Other continuation authors, like Sebastian Faulk and Anthony Horowitz, have avoided the problem of a 90-something-year-old Bond by setting their stories fifty years in the past.) The other book, a standalone novel, was 'Garden of Beasts' - the story of a small-time mobster recruited by U.S. intelligence to assassinate a Nazi officer during the 1936 Berlin Olympics - and is one of the best suspense novels I have ever read...with one of the most genuinely shocking twists.

[ThirdTerm]

http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1377871984l/11389875.jpg

Edge of Eternity (The Century Trilogy, #3) by Ken Follett

This is a good historical fiction of the Cold War era. President Kennedy's handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis is vividly recreated in the novel. I once wrote a paper on the subject and I'm quite familiar with how America was dealing with the Soviet Union in the 1950s.

[Peter1469]

I am starting 1177 BC, The Year Civilization Collapsed (http://www.amazon.com/1177-B-C-Civilization-Collapsed-Turning/dp/0691140898).

It is about the collapse of the Bronze Aged empires. Interesting and well written.


In 1177 B.C., marauding groups known only as the "Sea Peoples" invaded Egypt. The pharaoh's army and navy managed to defeat them, but the victory so weakened Egypt that it soon slid into decline, as did most of the surrounding civilizations. After centuries of brilliance, the civilized world of the Bronze Age came to an abrupt and cataclysmic end. Kingdoms fell like dominoes over the course of just a few decades. No more Minoans or Mycenaeans. No more Trojans, Hittites, or Babylonians. The thriving economy and cultures of the late second millennium B.C., which had stretched from Greece to Egypt and Mesopotamia, suddenly ceased to exist, along with writing systems, technology, and monumental architecture. But the Sea Peoples alone could not have caused such widespread breakdown. How did it happen?

[Chris]

OK, so I broke down and set the technical books aside and picked up Donn Pearce's Cool Hand Luke, the book the movie is based on.

It's good, readable, the author has a cadence with words makes it quick to read and he's very visual so you see what he's saying and he seems to capture the dialect of prisoners.

The focus of the book is more on what it was like to work a chain gang, the monotonous repetition of doing time, and the cruelty of treatment (unlike the lazy days of "60 Days In"). Luke comes into focus gradually, his name, a brief memory, lunch break at the church they shot him, a newspaper tossed out a passing car featuring him as an arrested war hero who disliked authority headed to prison.

The narrative is first person but it's handled well. The narrator shuts up another inmate reading the news story but ad libbing facts, then shifts into third person to ad lib himself the story of Luke, drunk as a skunk, taking a pipe cutting tool to a row of parking meters.

And that's as far as I am.

[Mister D]

Standing Wolf as I recall we got off to a rather bad start but you had said something that stayed with me. We were talking about the effects of immigration and you said I sounded like HP Lovecraft. TBH, I was tickled pink by that comparison but that comment stayed in the back of my mind because there was one short story that really encapsulated his thought about race and immigration. For the life of me I just couldn't remember the title and my Lovecraft paperbacks are packed away somewhere. I found it online earlier today. There was a certain mysticism to Lovecraft's nativism and racism that, IMO, is captured in The Street.


With the years worse fortune came to The Street. Its trees were all gone now, and its rose-gardens were displaced by the backs of cheap, ugly new buildings on parallel streets. Yet the houses remained, despite the ravages of the years and the storms and worms, for they had been made to serve many a generation. New kinds of faces appeared in The Street; swarthy, sinister faces with furtive eyes and odd features, whose owners spoke unfamiliar words and placed signs in known and unknown characters upon most of the musty houses. Push-carts crowded the gutters. A sordid, undefinable stench settled over the place, and the ancient spirit slept.

http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/s.aspx

[AeonPax]

`
`
How To Increase Your Potato Yield By 40% - I'm on the the last chapter.

[Mister D]

`
`
How To Increase Your Potato Yield By 40% - I'm on the the last chapter.

You can't ever have enough potatoes.

[Peter1469]

`
`
How To Increase Your Potato Yield By 40% - I'm on the the last chapter.

So how do you increase your potato yield by 40%? The cliff notes version. :smiley:

[Common Sense]

I'm just about to start...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c2/Thesistersbrotherscover.jpg

[Dangermouse]

I've been putting it off, his last book.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51HYs6odAGL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

[AeonPax]

So how do you increase your potato yield by 40%? The cliff notes version. :smiley:
`
I read this stuff for the pure enjoyment of learning new things.

[Standing Wolf]

I just finished a book that sat on the shelf taunting me for many years - the late Poul Anderson's 'The Merman's Children'.

I have no idea what I will read next, but I'm going to attempt to do some organizing of the old library this weekend, so it could be just about anything that I happen to come across in the course of doing that.

'Dangermouse' mentioned putting off reading someone's final book, and that reminded me that I still haven't read the third book of Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy, 'Cities of the Plain'. 'All the Pretty Horses' is still the single greatest novel I've ever read, and 'The Crossing' is pretty unforgettable as well. I think I've been deliberately putting off reading the final book because I didn't want it to be over. Of course now it's been several years since I read the first two, and I should probably read them again before reading 'Cities'.

[Mister D]

Reading a good history of Poland now called Poland: A History by Adam Zamoyski.

[Standing Wolf]

Currently trying to organize the thousands of books in stacks and boxes down in the finished basement, and I'm coming across some great stuff, like my treasured first edition copy of Jonathan Lethem's first novel, 'Gun, With Occasional Music". While I've read many of Hunter S. Thompson's other books, I've never gotten around to 'Hell's Angels', so I started that last night. Excellent read, so far, with flashes of what would become his "gonzo" style.

[AZ Jim]

I finished "Go set a watchman" by Harper Lee and am reading Harold Maines "If a man be mad" which he wrote in 1952.

[Oboe]

Two years before the mast.

[Mister D]

I wanted to buy some more of the Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper's work so I just went to Amazon and ran a search for Joachim Peiper. Freudian?

[Chloe]

Bare Bones by Bobby Bones

[Mister D]

Peter1469 While I was in my basement gathering all of the books I have in storage so I can place them on my new book cases I came across two books I read a while back that are right up your alley: The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century to the Third and The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire. Both are by Edward Luttwak.

https://www.amazon.com/Grand-Strategy-Roman-Empire-D/dp/0801821584/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1470621074&sr=8-2&keywords=the+grand+strategy+of+the+roman+empire

https://www.amazon.com/Grand-Strategy-Byzantine-Empire-ebook/dp/B003UD7QIS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1470621074&sr=8-3&keywords=the+grand+strategy+of+the+roman+empire

I wasn't persuaded by some of his arguments particularly with regard to the Byzantine Empire but I think you;d really enjoy these.

[Hal Jordan]

@Peter1469 (http://thepoliticalforums.com/member.php?u=10) While I was in my basement gathering all of the books I have in storage so I can place them on my new book cases I came across two books I read a while back that are right up your alley: The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century to the Third and The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire. Both are by Edward Luttwak.

https://www.amazon.com/Grand-Strategy-Roman-Empire-D/dp/0801821584/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1470621074&sr=8-2&keywords=the+grand+strategy+of+the+roman+empire

https://www.amazon.com/Grand-Strategy-Byzantine-Empire-ebook/dp/B003UD7QIS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1470621074&sr=8-3&keywords=the+grand+strategy+of+the+roman+empire

I wasn't persuaded by some of his arguments particularly with regard to the Byzantine Empire but I think you;d really enjoy these.

They do seem like interesting reads.

[Common]

I am on book 23 of the Nero Wolfe detective series by rex stout. Considered one of the best detective writers ever.

What makes them better the first of the Series, Fer de lance was written in 1933. The setting is NYC brownstone and the story line is genuine 1933 NYC because thats when he wrote it.

The story lines are fantastic, theres 48 in the series

[sachem]

A girl/woman from the neighborhood was murdered in her mid twenties. Way back in the early eighties. I'm finally reading a book about it. Not the best book ever written, but it does clear up some things.

Evil Intentions.

[Mister D]

They do seem like interesting reads.

They are. I recommend them. One thing that stands out in my mind was his description of a crucial difference between the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire: in the Republican and early imperial periods the Romans made frequent use of client states while in the main imperial period the Roman state swallowed these clients up which, if I remember correctly, made quite different demands on Roman manpower and deployments. Major troop concentrations used to be in the interior but came to be necessary all along the imperial frontier.

[Mark III]

One Summer by Bill Bryson.

Great popular history of the year 1927 in America. Babe Ruth, Charles Lindbergh, Al Capone, Jack Dempsey, Mickey Mouse, Al Jolson, etc. Accessible history writing at it's finest.

[Peter1469]

A Walk in the Woods....

[Mister D]

I reread The Prince by Machiavelli. I had read it a long time ago and (probably in my late teens or early 20s) and I'm glad I brought the perspective and experience of a more mature mind to it. I understood so much more of it this time not least because the historical examples he used in his arguments are much more familiar to me now then they were then. Fascinating read.

[Peter1469]

I reread The Prince by Machiavelli. I had read it a long time ago and (probably in my late teens or early 20s) and I'm glad I brought the perspective and experience of a more mature mind to it. I understood so much more of it this time not least because the historical examples he used in his arguments are much more familiar to me now then they were then. Fascinating read.

That book is the basis of modern political realism. The Neocons would be well served to read it.

[Hal Jordan]

I reread The Prince by Machiavelli. I had read it a long time ago and (probably in my late teens or early 20s) and I'm glad I brought the perspective and experience of a more mature mind to it. I understood so much more of it this time not least because the historical examples he used in his arguments are much more familiar to me now then they were then. Fascinating read.

I recently read that myself. I am in full agreement.

[OGIS]

The last of the Remaining series (http://www.amazon.com/Remaining-D-J-Molles/dp/0316404152).

Curious. Have you ever read a Zombie novel, or do you know of one, that was from the viewpoint of the Zombie? That would make an interesting book!

I've always had a fascination with alien POVs.

Hal Clement was a master at this, and his SF novels are masterpieces.

The SF novel my wife and I are currently on does this in spades.

[OGIS]

That book is the basis of modern political realism. The Neocons would be well served to read it.

I liked Luttwak better.

[OGIS]

Don't remember if the book was recommended here, or wherever, but Ghost Fleet is a page turner. The plot revolves around a non-nuke WWIII between us and China, w/ Russia tagging along with China. We initially lose because all the goddamned chips that run most of our military hardware are made (and bugged) in China. Oh, and their "research" space station lases all of our spy, GPS, and comm satellites into slag.

https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Fleet-Novel-Next-World/dp/054470505X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473978335&sr=8-1&keywords=ghost+fleet

[Mister D]

Chris I'm curious what your overall impression was of Critics of the Enlightenment.

[Mister D]

I'd really like to get The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity but it's out of print right now and pricey. Considering...

[Standing Wolf]

I've always had a fascination with alien POVs.

Two recommendations, which you've probably already read: Grendel by John Gardner, and Man Friday by Adrian Mitchell. The latter was made into a fairly good film with Peter O'Toole and Richard Roundtree at some point, but the book is far more interesting and subversive.

[Chris]

Chris I'm curious what your overall impression was of Critics of the Enlightenment.

I liked de Chateaubriand's essay "On Buonaparte and the Bourbons" the most so far. It gives great insight into how the French Revolution led to Bonaparte's atrocities as a ruler and how the French lost forever the real liberties under the previous monarchy. de Maistre's "Reflections on Protestantism in its Relations to Sovereignty" is revealing too how the French lost much abandoning the Catholic Church for an undermining Protestantism.

[Mister D]

I liked de Chateaubriand's essay "On Buonaparte and the Bourbons" the most so far. It gives great insight into how the French Revolution led to Bonaparte's atrocities as a ruler and how the French lost forever the real liberties under the previous monarchy. de Maistre's "Reflections on Protestantism in its Relations to Sovereignty" is revealing too how the French lost much abandoning the Catholic Church for an undermining Protestantism.

I really enjoyed Protestantism in its Relations to Sovereignty because 1) it's the most forceful Maistre piece I've read so far and 2) it's very insightful in terms of how religion forms society. Putting aside his polemics (which I find persuasive but I'm a conservative Catholic so I'm somewhat predisposed) the general insight he offers with regard to religion and it's formative political and cultural roles is valuable. Maistre was in many ways ahead of his time.

[Adelaide]

I just had 3 books delivered and am looking forward to next week and the week after when I'll have time to read them. "Hacking Secret Ciphers with Python," "Cryptanalysis: a Study of Ciphers and Their Solution," and "Understanding Cryptography." Two of them are textbooks but I have wanted to learn how to use Python for a while. Should be fun.

[Chris]

I just had 3 books delivered and am looking forward to next week and the week after when I'll have time to read them. "Hacking Secret Ciphers with Python," "Cryptanalysis: a Study of Ciphers and Their Solution," and "Understanding Cryptography." Two of them are textbooks but I have wanted to learn how to use Python for a while. Should be fun.

I just recently had to learn about encryption/decryption for an app I work on. Complex but interesting.

[PreteenCommunist]

Word and Object by Quine; actually the first thing by Quine I've ever read (took me a while...). I don't agree with its propositions and never expected to, being the continental philistine that I am, but it's illuminating nonetheless.

[del]

after the reich, a history of the allied occupation

good read

[Cletus]

Applied Ballistics for Long Range Shooting - Bryan Litz

I recommend it.

[nathanbforrest45]

Finding Pax. The story of a woman's search for the history of her Spitzgatter sailboat built in 1936 in Denmark

[jigglepete]

At the moment I am about four chapters deep into The Wrong Side of Goodbye by Michael Connelly. It's the latest in the Harry Bosch series and a real page turner so far.

[jigglepete]

I really enjoy John Sandford's books. 'Extreme Prey' (the most recent) is very good. Sandford has a very dry sense of humor....the Virgil Flowers novels are usually a real hoot!

A couple of years ago I read a mystery (unfortunately I cannot recall author/title) but, the main character was reading a Sandford novel entitled "Lettuce Prey" about a church that processed human remains into food...I looked and looked, until I realized that the author made it up and the book does not actually exist. I was so bummed out LOL.

[Standing Wolf]

A couple of years ago I read a mystery (unfortunately I cannot recall author/title) but, the main character was reading a Sandford novel entitled "Lettuce Prey" about a church that processed human remains into food...I looked and looked, until I realized that the author made it up and the book does not actually exist. I was so bummed out LOL.

I like it when one author will reference another writer, or one of their characters, in his or her book. Generally the two authors are friends or at least mutual admirers. Stephen King is a fan of Lee Child's novels, and in Under the Dome (awful t.v. series, but King's best work since The Stand) the main character, at one point, talks about trying to contact a former military police colleague named Jack Reacher.

I asked Craig Johnson, writer of the Longmire series, if he'd ever consider doing a crossover book with another Wyoming writer, C.J. Box, and have Longmire and Box's Joe Pickett share a story, and he said that he really didn't want to "take on another writer's universe".

I'm currently going back and forth with two hefty books. Cowboy Culture by David Dary is not the book that I thought it was going to be; I wasn't expecting this history of the title subject to go quite so far back - to Columbus' time, actually - in tracing the development of horse and cow breeding in North America; but Dary is such a good writer that I'm hooked.

The other book is The Best of the West: An Anthology of Classic Writing from the American West, edited by Tony Hillerman.

[jigglepete]

I like it when one author will reference another writer, or one of their characters, in his or her book. Generally the two authors are friends or at least mutual admirers. Stephen King is a fan of Lee Child's novels, and in Under the Dome (awful t.v. series, but King's best work since The Stand) the main character, at one point, talks about trying to contact a former military police colleague named Jack Reacher.

I asked Craig Johnson, writer of the Longmire series, if he'd ever consider doing a crossover book with another Wyoming writer, C.J. Box, and have Longmire and Box's Joe Pickett share a story, and he said that he really didn't want to "take on another writer's universe".

I'm currently going back and forth with two hefty books. Cowboy Culture by David Dary is not the book that I thought it was going to be; I wasn't expecting this history of the title subject to go quite so far back - to Columbus' time, actually - in tracing the development of horse and cow breeding in North America; but Dary is such a good writer that I'm hooked.

The other book is The Best of the West: An Anthology of Classic Writing from the American West, edited by Tony Hillerman.

Speaking of Reacher in general, how could they have possibly cast that pipsqueak Tom Cruise as Reacher...I am absolutely dumbfounded. But maybe I will understand better when I see it (not in the theatre). Oh and BTW I was just introduced to the Longmire series, loved it, and am psyched for a new author, because I have read, literally, all of the books by my favorite authors.

[Standing Wolf]

Speaking of Reacher in general, how could they have possibly cast that pipsqueak Tom Cruise as Reacher...I am absolutely dumbfounded. But maybe I will understand better when I see it (not in the theatre). Oh and BTW I was just introduced to the Longmire series, loved it, and am psyched for a new author, because I have read, literally, all of the books by my favorite authors.

The Longmire books are highly addictive. I always clear the decks when one of those books comes out, so I can start it right away. There are other series that I'm hopelessly behind on, like Reacher, Joe Pickett and Mary Russell. If you ever get the chance to meet Craig Johnson, he's a real hoot.

Lee Child's take on Cruise as Reacher is really that there are no A-list actors who could really have taken on the role and done as well and who are tall enough to meet the description of him in the books. Both movies are good, although I really think I enjoyed the first one more. (Child does little non-speaking cameos in both movies, by the way; he's a police desk sergeant in the first one, a TSA agent in the second.)

[Green Arrow]

I'm trying to decide what to pick up next in non-fiction. Having a hard time of it.

[Trumpster]

I'm about 2/3 through reading "Not by Fire but by Ice: discover what killed the dinosaurs and why it could soon kill us." This is the second edition that came out in 2000. It's not new but it's new to me. The author explains how the earth's magnetic reversal can bring about an ice age, of which there have been several throughout earth's history. A magnetic reversal is when the south pole becomes the north pole and vice versa. It causes an imbalance which leads to tectonic plate movement, earthquakes and volcanoes. Thousands of oceanic (underwater) volcanoes heat the ocean causing rapid evaporation. That in turn blocks the sun causing lower than normal temperatures. So when all this moisture condenses it comes down as snow, not rain. (One inch of rain equals 10 inches of snow.) It snows constantly and builds up fast. And the weight of 100 feet of snow turns the snow to ice.


I'm sure I'm not doing it justice but this is just to give you an idea of what it's like. It's very scientific and he mentions many other books that have been written on this subject.


Has anyone read this book? If so, I'd be interested to know your opinion of it.

[jigglepete]

I just started one of the "few and far between" non-fiction books I read;

The Trouble With Islam by Irshad Manji

A good read so far, I am enjoying her writing style very much.

[Trish]

Zealot by Reza Aslan. As an agnostic I find it very interested and enlightening so far. Still trying to finish it - but it's hard to find the time some weeks.

[Common]

I read every night before I go to bed, I just finished the entire Nero Wolfe Series 53 books I believe.
I just started the spy series by Barry Eisler, after this it will James Rollins series.

[Mister D]

I'm trying to decide what to pick up next in non-fiction. Having a hard time of it.
Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes was as fascinating as it was disturbing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda:_The_Formation_of_Men's_Attitudes

[nic34]

Re-reading Mary Stewart's Merlin series.

Currently the "Hollow Hills".

[FindersKeepers]

The Longmire books are highly addictive. I always clear the decks when one of those books comes out, so I can start it right away. There are other series that I'm hopelessly behind on, like Reacher, Joe Pickett and Mary Russell. If you ever get the chance to meet Craig Johnson, he's a real hoot.

Lee Child's take on Cruise as Reacher is really that there are no A-list actors who could really have taken on the role and done as well and who are tall enough to meet the description of him in the books. Both movies are good, although I really think I enjoyed the first one more. (Child does little non-speaking cameos in both movies, by the way; he's a police desk sergeant in the first one, a TSA agent in the second.)

Totally agree with the Reacher series -- one of my favorites. The Jack Reacher character always reminds me of one of our mutual friends. :wink: I just started Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy. It's not new but a friend lent it to me, and, so far, it's pretty decent. It came highly recommended.

I also have a new copy of Let me Be Frank with You, by Richard Ford, on my nightstand that I haven't really gotten into yet.

This week has been so busy, I've been wanting to just grab an hour or two and get into the meat of the thing, but I might have to wait until the weekend is over.

[Standing Wolf]

I read every night before I go to bed, I just finished the entire Nero Wolfe Series 53 books I believe.

I tried reading Rex Stout, beginning with the first Wolfe book, 'Fer-de-lance', but I didn't get very far into it. The plot seemed to move at a snail's pace, with too much "cute" humor going on - I just found it annoying. Maybe I'll try one of the later books sometime...one not written in the '30s.

Speaking of books from that era, I finally got around to starting Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu series a while back, and was struck by two things: first, the blatant, unapologetic anti-"Oriental" racism, and second, Rohmer was one hell of a good action-adventure-mystery writer. The plot moves along at a fast pace, the descriptions are extraordinarily well done - just really great writing. Too bad about all that "Yellow Peril" nonsense, but an awfully good read nonetheless. I picked up several of the books in nice editions from the '40s and in wonderful condition for just a few dollars each at a thrift shop a couple of years ago, and I'm looking forward to reading further in the series.

[Standing Wolf]

I just started Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy. It's not new but a friend lent it to me, and, so far, it's pretty decent. It came highly recommended.

I haven't read 'Blood Meridian' yet, but the book McCarthy published after that, 'All the Pretty Horses', is my favorite novel of all time. That was the first volume of his "Border Trilogy". The second book, 'The Crossing' is fine, too, if disturbing in spots, and the final volume, 'Cities of the Plain' I have been saving. Tried reading his first book, 'The Orchard Keeper', but couldn't get into it. I think the only other of his books that I've read is 'The Road' - undoubtedly one of the most depressing damned books ever written. Do check out 'All the Pretty Horses', though - it's an amazing book. (I used to own the "blood-stained" prison jacket that Matt Damon wore in the film version, but foolishly sold it before Damon became a big star.)

[Chloe]

Bonhoeffer Abridged by Eric Metaxas

[IMPress Polly]

My most recent read has been Advertising Shits In Your Head by a collection of pseudonyms. It's an informative read about the history of a movement that aims to ban advertising and subverts existing corporate ad campaigns in the meanwhile. (Sample tidbit: this is the movement that started Occupy Wall Street!)

[AeonPax]

`
"The Yellow River" by I.P. Moore. --- Actually, I've been trying to catch up on academic papers and research stuff.

[Standing Wolf]

I've been thinking about a book that I read a few years ago, and it's making me crazy that I can't remember the name of it. It was a book about people in large urban areas who have taken dumpster-diving to a whole new level - creating whole communities, some literally underground, whose members survive by scavenging food and other things from the streets. There was also a chapter on one NYC municipal garbage collector's headquarters that has created a veritable museum of art objects, etc., found in the trash. Fascinating book. The title was just one word, as I recall, and it was a slang term for the activity that it describes. Ring any bells?

[Common]

Ive been reading the Barry Eisler espionage series, this guy is good. Its set in the USA and Japan

[jigglepete]

I just cracked John Grisham's latest, The Whistler

[DGUtley]

After the Buckeyes got blown out, I haven't even brought myself to read the paper. I'm still in mourning.

I am, however, reading The Appeal. I don't normally read fiction and I typically read WW2 books but one of my law partners gave this to me to read. We're involved in some litigation against a large chemical manufacturer and he thought that this hit home.

http://www.jgrisham.com/the-appeal/

[spunkloaf]

I wish I had an attention span for books, it's hard for me to read them without my mind wandering and forgetting the entire page I just read. But I did manage to keep attention with Chuck Palahniuk. "Survivor" and "Rant." They're awesome books.

[jigglepete]

Brad Taylor ~ The Widow's Strike

The fourth installment in the Pike Logan series.

[resister]

i've been thinking about a book that i read a few years ago, and it's making me crazy that i can't remember the name of it. It was a book about people in large urban areas who have taken dumpster-diving to a whole new level - creating whole communities, some literally underground, whose members survive by scavenging food and other things from the streets. There was also a chapter on one nyc municipal garbage collector's headquarters that has created a veritable museum of art objects, etc., found in the trash. Fascinating book. The title was just one word, as i recall, and it was a slang term for the activity that it describes. Ring any bells?
freegan ?

[resister]

freegan ?
@ Standing Wolf

[jigglepete]

Twelve Days by Alex Berenson

New author for me, hoping for the best...

[KathyS]

I'm a huge Stephen King fan and am currently reading his latest book of short stories, "Bazaar of Bad Dreams."

[Standing Wolf]

After meeting Joe R. Lansdale a few times and reading and enjoying some of his stand-alone novels - particularly the epic 'Paradise Sky' - I finally began reading the Hap and Leonard series. About halfway through the first book, 'Savage Season'. To call Texas author Lansdale irreverent and original is a vast understatement; his writing defies description.

The Hap and Leonard stories - and I understand that there's a t.v. series now - are narrated by Hap, an "old hippy" grown world-weary and cynical, and his long-time best friend, Leonard, a Black, gay Vietnam vet. Together and separately, they scrape to make a living, get involved in various schemes to score some real money or just to right some bad situation or injustice that has rubbed them the wrong way, and occasionally drink too much.

[jigglepete]

After meeting Joe R. Lansdale a few times and reading and enjoying some of his stand-alone novels - particularly the epic 'Paradise Sky' - I finally began reading the Hap and Leonard series. About halfway through the first book, 'Savage Season'. To call Texas author Lansdale irreverent and original is a vast understatement; his writing defies description.

The Hap and Leonard stories - and I understand that there's a t.v. series now - are narrated by Hap, an "old hippy" grown world-weary and cynical, and his long-time best friend, Leonard, a Black, gay Vietnam vet. Together and separately, they scrape to make a living, get involved in various schemes to score some real money or just to right some bad situation or injustice that has rubbed them the wrong way, and occasionally drink too much.

I adore the Hap/Leonard series!!

Just started David Baldacci's The Escape. A John Puller book...I think I already read it, but I'm gonna read it anyway!

[Standing Wolf]

Lansdale will be here in Scottsdale later in the month, to sign and probably do a reading from his latest. I recall the first time I saw him, he read a chapter from his then-current book, and a couple of older ladies sitting next to me got up and left the store. :grin:

[Mister D]

@Ethereal (http://thepoliticalforums.com/member.php?u=870) I am set to finish Pax Romana by Adrian Goldsworthy tomorrow. We have discussed our perspectives on Roman imperialism several times. His specialty is ancient Rome and I've read some of his opther works so I thought I'd give this a try. I think you'd like it. He leans more toward my side but he provides a very interesting examination of what life was really like living under Roman rule. One thing he made me reconsider was the extent to which your average person was aware of Roman power. i have often stated that Roman rule was remote but he argues Rome made its presence felt everywhere. At the end of the day, everyone knew who really called the shots. OTOH, local communities were allowed to live by their own customs and laws and were also required to pull their own weight in terms of policing etc. Anyway, I think you woudl like it.

[Bo-4]

@Ethereal (http://thepoliticalforums.com/member.php?u=870) I am set to finish Pax Romana by Adrian Goldsworthy tomorrow. We have discussed our perspectives on Roman imperialism several times. His specialty is ancient Rome and I've read some of his opther works so I thought I'd give this a try. I think you'd like it. He leans more toward my side but he provides a very interesting examination of what life was really like living under Roman rule. One thing he made me reconsider was the extent to which your average person was aware of Roman power. i have often stated that Roman rule was remote but he argues Roman made its presence felt everywhere. At the end of the day, everyone knew who really called the shots. OTOH, local communities were allowed to live by their own customs and laws and were also required to pull their own weight in terms of policing etc. Anyway, I think you woudl like it.

WoW .. that sounds like something that i would NOT enjoy but carry on.

I'm finishing "Inside Passage" by Michael Modzelewski (about his adventures in Alaska) -

AWESOME .. he was our naturalist on a recent 7 day Inside Passage Cruise.

AND starting "The Plot to Hack America" by Malcolm Nance.

Guess i prefer semi-current events as oppose to the Roman Empire ;-)

[jigglepete]

I just cracked The Rhinemann Exchange by Robert Ludlum

So far a good WWII espionage tale.

[Ethereal]

@Ethereal (http://thepoliticalforums.com/member.php?u=870) I am set to finish Pax Romana by Adrian Goldsworthy tomorrow. We have discussed our perspectives on Roman imperialism several times. His specialty is ancient Rome and I've read some of his opther works so I thought I'd give this a try. I think you'd like it. He leans more toward my side but he provides a very interesting examination of what life was really like living under Roman rule. One thing he made me reconsider was the extent to which your average person was aware of Roman power. i have often stated that Roman rule was remote but he argues Rome made its presence felt everywhere. At the end of the day, everyone knew who really called the shots. OTOH, local communities were allowed to live by their own customs and laws and were also required to pull their own weight in terms of policing etc. Anyway, I think you woudl like it.

I'm browsing some books on Amazon right now and I'm going to preview Pax Romana. I will probably end up buying it. But right now I'm trying to decide between Ghost on the Throne: The Death of Alexander the Great and the Bloody Fight for His Empire by James Romm and A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara Tuchman. Something tells me I will end up buying them all. I just cannot help myself.

P.S. - Just read Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance. Finished it in one day. Really great book. Would strongly recommend.

[resister]

Fossiling in Florida by Mark Renz. A great read

[Evmetro]

A Patriots History of the United States

Paperback and heavy version. Age is finally catching up with me, since I need reading glasses now, in order to read the old fashioned way.

[Adelaide]

I have to read 5 or 6 books on stem cell research over the next few days for a paper I am writing for bioethics. Should be interesting though since 2 of the books come from religious perspectives and one includes a collection of essays by leading ethicists/bioethicists across the world. I also have to re-read 2 books on epigenetics. Should be fun!

Last few weeks been wasting my time on trashy romance novels. They help me turn my brain off.

[Mister D]

I'm browsing some books on Amazon right now and I'm going to preview Pax Romana. I will probably end up buying it. But right now I'm trying to decide between Ghost on the Throne: The Death of Alexander the Great and the Bloody Fight for His Empire by James Romm and A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara Tuchman. Something tells me I will end up buying them all. I just cannot help myself.

P.S. - Just read Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance. Finished it in one day. Really great book. Would strongly recommend.
The period of the Diadochi or the so called successor states is one I really don't know much about. That does sound interesting. As for Tuchman, I tend to avoid popular histories. I got about 60 pages into The Guns of August before I had to set it down never to touch it again. Same thing happened with Sailing the Wine Dark Sea and A World Lit Only by Fire. I wanted to read both of those books when I first heard about them but I found both of them unreadable. I've learned my lesson. Never again will I spend my money on popular history.

[Mister D]

Also, it's funny you enjoyed that hillbilly title because I once read a history of the banjo and truly enjoyed it.

[Ethereal]

The period of the Diadochi or the so called successor states is one I really don't know much about. That does sound interesting. As for Tuchman, I tend to avoid popular histories. I got about 60 pages into The Guns of August before I had to set it down never to touch it again. Same thing happened with Sailing the Wine Dark Sea and A World Lit Only by Fire. I wanted to read both of those books when I first heard about them but I found both of them unreadable. I've learned my lesson. Never again will I spend my money on popular history.

I'm rather enjoying her style. I like a lively prose at times, so long as everything is historically accurate. I'll probably end up getting the one about Alexander's empire first and then getting the next one after that.

[Green Arrow]

The period of the Diadochi or the so called successor states is one I really don't know much about. That does sound interesting. As for Tuchman, I tend to avoid popular histories. I got about 60 pages into The Guns of August before I had to set it down never to touch it again. Same thing happened with Sailing the Wine Dark Sea and A World Lit Only by Fire. I wanted to read both of those books when I first heard about them but I found both of them unreadable. I've learned my lesson. Never again will I spend my money on popular history.

I generally avoid popular history myself, but Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough are popular history authors that are actually pretty good. I don't know about Tuchman yet.

[AeonPax]

`
`
The Bloody Stump by Rusty Zipper.

[Mister D]

I'm rather enjoying her style. I like a lively prose at times, so long as everything is historically accurate. I'll probably end up getting the one about Alexander's empire first and then getting the next one after that.
I find it irritating. It's like I'm reading an op ed by Maureen Dowd. I certainly don't mean to give the impression that I like dry prose. I love a good narrative but it's precisely because popular histories take too many liberties in terms of the facts and their interpretation that I avoid them. Scholarly caution, an effort at detachment and good style are often seen together but, in my (albeit limited) experience, never in a work of popular history.

[Mister D]

I generally avoid popular history myself, but Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough are popular history authors that are actually pretty good. I don't know about Tuchman yet.
I've only (tried to) read The Guns of August. It just didn't meet my expectations. When I picked up the book I'm expecting a great experience because it's a classic, right? Unreadable.

[Green Arrow]

I've only (tried to) read The Guns of August. It just didn't meet my expectations. When I picked up the book I'm expecting a great experience because it's a classic, right? Unreadable.
I think you'll enjoy Goodwin's Bully Pulpit, about Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the crew at McClure's Magazine.

[Ethereal]

I've only (tried to) read The Guns of August. It just didn't meet my expectations. When I picked up the book I'm expecting a great experience because it's a classic, right? Unreadable.
I plan on reading that one, too. I guess I am just a peasant... :grin:

[Mister D]

I plan on reading that one, too. I guess I am just a peasant... :grin:
Just my preference. I don't like attitude in my book selections. Unless it's overtly and unabashedly political. :wink:

[Green Arrow]

Just my preference. I don't like attitude in my book selections. Unless it's overtly and unabashedly political. :wink:

You may want to stay away from Annette Gordon-Reed's "Most Blessed of the Patriarchs." It's about Thomas Jefferson, but while it purports to be a factual account it's more like a factional one, focusing on Jefferson's negative side (slavery for example) rather than a balanced approach.

[Tahuyaman]

Interesting if military history is your thing.

The Generals: America Military Command from World War II to Today.

[jigglepete]

Palace of Treason by Jason Matthews

This is an interesting book, blood, gore, sex, murder, betrayal, and international intrigue...plus, at the end of every chapter there is a recipe for something eaten in that chapter. Most different.

[KathyS]

I'm reading a recent edition of Stephen King short stories. Next in line is either Jeffrey Deaver or Dean Koontz.

[resister]

I am getting paid 80 a day to move my buddys books from his closed book store to a spot in a downtown antique store. He has about 4 thousand books in the downtown spot.

There is about 40,000 books and bookshelfs to move, I have nightmares about books!

[Abby08]

I usually read John Grisham, I've read all but his newest one.

I've just started, "Atlas Shrugged" I've been wanting to read it for a while and, found it in a used book store.

[OGIS]

I usually read John Grisham, I've read all but his newest one.

I've just started, "Atlas Shrugged" I've been wanting to read it for a while and, found it in a used book store.


Many people make fun of Rand's style of character development, which they characterize as stereotyped. Her "wooden" characters can, indeed, be off-putting, unless one appreciates where Rand is coming from in her style. Rand writes in the old Romantic style. Think Tolstoy or Dostoevsky, or the turn-of-the-century Russian literary perspective. The main characters are generally archetypes, representing philosophical and psychological concepts.

For example, no one like John Galt could ever exist in the real world. He's a walking archetype to present concepts.

Probably the only character that would exist in the real world is Cuffy Meigs; I've actually met and worked with people like that one.

Good luck when you reach the 80 page speech.

[Abby08]

Many people make fun of Rand's style of character development, which they characterize as stereotyped. Her "wooden" characters can, indeed, be off-putting, unless one appreciates where Rand is coming from in her style. Rand writes in the old Romantic style. Think Tolstoy or Dostoevsky, or the turn-of-the-century Russian literary perspective. The main characters are generally archetypes, representing philosophical and psychological concepts.

For example, no one like John Galt could ever exist in the real world. He's a walking archetype to present concepts.

Probably the only character that would exist in the real world is Cuffy Meigs; I've actually met and worked with people like that one.

Good luck when you reach the 80 page speech.

80 page speech?! Yikes! I'm currently working on the first chapter, I have to be in the mood to read, I haven't been, lately.

Thanks for the warning....

[Green Arrow]

I'm working on Mario Puzo's The Godfather, and then it'll be Jay Winik's 1944.

[OGIS]

80 page speech?! Yikes! I'm currently working on the first chapter, I have to be in the mood to read, I haven't been, lately.

Thanks for the warning....

There's also a shorter one by Francisco. About 35-40 pages as I recall. Or I might be thinking of Roark's speech in The Fountainhead.

[NapRover]

Currently reading:
The Dream & the Nightmare-Myron Magnet
The Jungle-Upton Sinclair

[Standing Wolf]

I'm reading a recent edition of Stephen King short stories. Next in line is either Jeffrey Deaver or Dean Koontz.

Have you read Deaver's 'Garden of Beasts'? It's an incredible novel, with a twist that makes any other suspense writer's twists seem lame and contrived in comparison. JD told me that it's the book he's proudest of.

[Standing Wolf]

I've been reading a lot of Joe R. Lansdale lately. He was in town the other night to sign his latest Hap and Leonard novel, 'Rusty Puppy', and between that and Season 2 of the Hap and Leonard t.v. series being shown now on the Sundance Channel, I decided I need to start at the beginning and read the whole series. The television writers are adapting one book per season, so I read 'Savage Season' and then watched Season 1; I'm now reading 'Mucho Mojo' before watching my TiVo'ed episodes of Season 2. Eleven books after that and I'll be caught up. Lansdale is one highly addictive writer.

[Docthehun]

Staying topical, I picked up "Mutiny on the Bounty" at the library............

[patrickt]

I just finished Norwegian by Night by Derek Miller. Actually, I got up to go to the bathroom at 1:30, took my Kindle with me, and as I closed on the end of the story I couldn't go back to sleep. I see a couple of naps ahead for the day.

I taught my children that there is often more truth in fiction than in non-fiction.

[CreepyOldDude]

I just cracked open an 1891 edition of The Count of Monte Cristo. I love antique books.

[DGUtley]

I am currently reading:

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/11/books/review-in-hillbilly-elegy-a-compassionate-analysis-of-the-poor-who-love-trump.html?_r=0

https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547

17841

[Standing Wolf]

I am currently reading:

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/11/books/review-in-hillbilly-elegy-a-compassionate-analysis-of-the-poor-who-love-trump.html?_r=0

https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547

17841

I got that for my sister for Christmas, because she had it on her Amazon wish list.

The synopsis puts me in mind of a really good book by Rick Bragg - 'It's All Over But the Shoutin''. I gave my late mother-in-law a copy - she grew up in the '30s and '40s near Tuscumbia, Alabama - after reading it, myself, and she said it took her back to her poor country childhood with such vividness that she had to stop reading every few pages. Emotional overload.


http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_STxRgAXD73g/SxANQFlWMjI/AAAAAAAAAAs/ryVHPoq-wQU/s1600/all-over-but-the-shoutin.jpg

[Mister D]

I'm reading The Barbarians Speak by Peter Wells. It's a study of ancient Europe and how the native peoples of temperate Europe interacted with Rome to form new societies after the Roman conquests of the 1st and 2nd Centuries B.C.
Chris and Ethereal this may be of interest to you both: according to Wells, , the archaeology suggests that the large tribal groups to which Classical writers (including Caesar) made reference to were in fact a recent political phenomenon that appeared only as a result of interaction with, and at times a perceived threat from, the Roman state. There simply isn't much archaeological evidence to suggest that the political and social hierarchy these larger conglomerations entailed were an isolated, internal development. On the contrary, the evidence suggests that this was a response to the challenges presented by Roman expansion.

[Cletus]

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51FWD%2Bo35GL._SX382_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

A lot of it is written for the novice precision rifleman, but there is a ton of good information for the experienced shooter, as well.

[Mister D]

I'm working on Mario Puzo's The Godfather, and then it'll be Jay Winik's 1944.
What I remember best about the novel was that, contrary to the film, Vito Corleone advised his sons that everything was personal. Nothing was just business. Time and again in the film some formulation of "it's just business" is heard.

[Common]

Im reading a series of espionage books by Barry Eiser

[Common]

What I remember best about the novel was that, contrary to the film, Vito Corleone advised his sons that everything was personal. Nothing was just business. Time and again in the film some formulation of "it's just business" is heard.
When its your business its personal, I read the book long ago so i dont exactly remember the context that personal was used. For example when tessio became a traitor that was personal but he said it was just business not personal in the movie, thats as personal as it gets being a rat.

[Mister D]

When its your business its personal, I read the book long ago so i dont exactly remember the context that personal was used. For example when tessio became a traitor that was personal but he said it was just business not personal in the movie, thats as personal as it gets being a rat.
I remember the quote as something like "every little bit of of shit a man has to eat in his life is personal".

[jigglepete]

King and Maxwell by David Baldacci

[Common]

King and Maxwell by David Baldacci

Whos the main character in that book, ive read some david baldacci books

[Standing Wolf]

I've always loved the character 'Tarzan' - not so much the films, but the original stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Since Burroughs died in 1950, his estate has authorized only a handful of Tarzan books, and a recent one is Will Murray's 'Return to Pal-ul-don', which I'm reading now. Murray has been writing new Doc Savage books for about twenty years now, and doing a great job of echoing the old Gee-Whiz, somewhat overblown pulp style of the original stories, and is now doing an equally good job of approximating Burroughs' prose. He's written another one called 'King Kong versus Tarzan', which should be interesting.

[Green Arrow]

What I remember best about the novel was that, contrary to the film, Vito Corleone advised his sons that everything was personal. Nothing was just business. Time and again in the film some formulation of "it's just business" is heard.

The film wasn't as clear as the book, but I like it because he always said business WAS personal, so every time Michael says, "It's just business," he's really saying it's fucking personal :tongue:

[Mister D]

The film wasn't as clear as the book, but I like it because he always said business WAS personal, so every time Michael says, "It's just business," he's really saying it's $#@!ing personal :tongue:
He's perfectly clear in the novel. :grin: I found the full quote. Thinking i over now it looks like the film took the same idea but played it a little differently.

“Tom, don't let anybody kid you. It's all personal, every bit of business. Every piece of shit every man has to eat every day of his life is personal. They call it business. OK. But it's personal as hell. You know where I learned that from? The Don. My old man. The Godfather. If a bolt of lightning hit a friend of his the old man would take it personal. He took my going into the Marines personal. That's what makes him great. The Great Don. He takes everything personal Like God. He knows every feather that falls from the tail of a sparrow or however the hell it goes? Right? And you know something? Accidents don't happen to people who take accidents as a personal insult.”

[jigglepete]

Whos the main character in that book, ive read some david baldacci books
@Common (http://thepoliticalforums.com/member.php?u=659) Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, ex secret service agent PIs.

I highly recommend it, a great read, just like most of the Baldacci books I've read.

[Casper]

KURSK, by LLoyd Clark. I am a history buff and military history is a big part of that due to my family service. Describes the largest tank battle in history between the Germans and Russians, with lots of good information and personal recounting of experiences, I liked it, probably not something most would enjoy, but I liked it.

[Common]

@Common (http://thepoliticalforums.com/member.php?u=659) Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, ex secret service agent PIs.

I highly recommend it, a great read, just like most of the Baldacci books I've read.

You dont have to recommend it to me, I read the entire Sean and Michelle series, it wasnt too long, just try to read them in sequence. A simple google will tell you the order the books were written. I wish he would write more in that series.. I still have them on my kindle

[jigglepete]

War Hawk by James Rollins and Grant Blackwood.

A story of an ex-army Ranger and his war dog, great dog perspectives.

[Mister D]

KURSK, by LLoyd Clark. I am a history buff and military history is a big part of that due to my family service. Describes the largest tank battle in history between the Germans and Russians, with lots of good information and personal recounting of experiences, I liked it, probably not something most would enjoy, but I liked it.

One of my primary areas of interest as well. For me, there is nothing like a good history book. I study theology, anthropology, archaeology, and some natural science but I like nothing better than a good historical narrative.

[Casper]

The Fireman, by Joe Hill. Riveting, read this near 700 page book in 3 days, read it and you will understand why, impossible to put down. Trust me an excellent and easy to read novel.

[jigglepete]

Make Something Up by Chuck Palahniuk.

A short story book that really reinforces the fact that Mr. Palahniuk is a weird dude...

Really good /weird stories...

[Peter1469]

The Lioness of Morocco. It is a historical fiction about an Englishwoman who accompanies her merchant husband to Morocco.

[Common]

Im reading James Rollins Sandstorm. This guy has grabbed me, he just slides you from place to place person to person setting to setting. He grabs your attention and keeps it. The author was recommended to me and I like him alot. Its fiction btw

[jigglepete]

On Dangerous Ground by Jack Higgins

More Sean Dillon WWII to present (well 90's anyway) intrigue.

[Common]

The Lioness of Morocco. It is a historical fiction about an Englishwoman who accompanies her merchant husband to Morocco.
Sandstorm is ME based in saudi

[Standing Wolf]

Reading the first book in James Lovegrove's proposed 'Cthulhu Casebooks' trilogy, 'Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows'.

Perfectly echoing Conan Doyle's/Dr. Watson's narrative style, it tells the real story of Holmes' decades-long battle, not with Professor Moriarty, but with the forces of the Elder Gods. Great stuff.

[Common]

Just started James Rollins...Map of Bones

[del]

rereading fear and loathing on the campaign trail '72

[Standing Wolf]

rereading fear and loathing on the campaign trail '72

I tried reading that a long time ago and couldn't really get into it. Maybe I'll try again sometime. I've stockpiled a lot of HST that I should either get around to reading or pass on to my youngest son - also a fan of the good doctor.

[Standing Wolf]

Finished Ace Atkins' latest Spenser novel on Sunday, so was looking for something to begin reading last night, and decided to finally start a book I've been meaning to read since I was a teenager (I probably have three or four copies in my highly disorganized personal library) - H. Rider Haggard's 'King Solomon's Mines'. A sensation when it appeared in 1885, it was the first book in (what has become known as) the 'lost world' sub-genre of adventure stories, and featured the debut appearance of Haggard's great hero Allan Quatermain.

[Standing Wolf]

For a mid-Victorian novel, Haggard's 'Mines' is relatively fast-paced and without the tendency of that era's writers toward a lot of florid, unnecessary verbiage. (I love Anthony Trollope's works, but it's often a hard slog to get to the story.) Fortunately for the modern reader, Haggard wrote this book in the first person and presents Quatermain as a plain, unpretentious big game hunter who occasionally apologizes to the reader for his self-confessed lack of descriptive skills. Actually, he does okay in that department - just minus the page- or chapter-long meanderings that some other writers of that age were prone to indulge in.

On the other hand, there are scenes and passages in this book that are no doubt more jarring to a reader of today than they would have been a century ago. I'm thinking about a scene in which Quatermain and his companions slaughter nine elephants for their ivory and a couple of hearts, the latter being a coveted menu item of that time and place, apparently. The casual racism of the era toward Black Africans, and for non-Whites generally, is somewhat evident, but not as blatantly in Haggard as in others - and he does portray some of his native African characters as heroic and even noble, which was a departure from convention.

[Adelaide]

Last night I started reading "Cyber Racism" by Jessie Daniels. It's pretty interesting so far. She discusses individuals who used digital media for racist reasons and also did a fairly in-depth study of Stormfront. Haven't gotten to the Stormfront portion yet, but she makes some interesting points thus far.

[midcan5]

Check out http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28695425-strangers-in-their-own-land

Fascinating read on a number of levels. Also reading fiction, Denis Johnson's fiction. Johnson and Cormac McCarthy are favorites today. Challenge your self read Blood Meridian sometime.

And these too:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33670561-the-destruction-of-hillary-clinton
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27833494-dark-money
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33917107-on-tyranny
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30724304-the-making-of-donald-trump

[DGUtley]

Hillbilly Elegy. For those of you that live in the elite and pretty parts of the country, it might help you understand.

Good but torturous read. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0166ISAS8/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

18753

[midcan5]

Hillbilly Elegy. For those of you that live in the elite and pretty parts of the country, it might help you understand.
Good but torturous read.

I agree it gives a pretty accurate portrayal of his world but most elites, using your word, want life for these people to be better than it is. The book I mentioned above by Arlie Hochschild is much better as it covered the whys of these places and the whys of their ideas.

I missed another tough read for those who want to challenge their thinking, see 'The Charles Bowden Reader'.

[Standing Wolf]

Fascinating read on a number of levels. Also reading fiction, Denis Johnson's fiction. Johnson and Cormac McCarthy are favorites today. Challenge your self read Blood Meridian sometime.
I haven't gotten around to 'Blood Meridian' yet, but McCarthy's 'All the Pretty Horses' is my all-time favorite novel. 'The Crossing' was good, too, though it contained some disturbing scenes that I've never quite been able to shake. The third book in the Border Trilogy, 'Cities of the Plain', wherein he brings together the protagonists of the two earlier volumes, I have been putting off reading till I have the time to re-read the two earlier books and then go immediately into the third.

[jigglepete]

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

All I can say is wow! It is the true story of the 1936, 8 oar, Washington State/Berlin Olympics crew team. The imagery the author created of the depression/dust bowl and what it truly takes to be a winning crew team was astounding. As an added bonus they stuck it to the Nazis :) (Same year as Jesse Owens, adding more salt to the wound).

(Of course the fact that my nephew was just (two weeks ago) competing to join the U.S. Junior National crew team could have made me biased, but I refuse to admit it LOL).

Now onto something more my style (not non-fiction)

Foreign Agent by Brad Thor

[jigglepete]

House of Spies by Daniel Silva.

I couldn't wait till it came out in paperback...so I went and bought it on it's release date :)

[Standing Wolf]

Decided I needed to read something that would be informative, educational, and intellectually stimulating, so I began this last night.

http://static.lulu.com/browse/product_thumbnail.php?productId=22953438&resolution=320

What the Hell. :grin:

[Mini Me]

Hillbilly Elegy. For those of you that live in the elite and pretty parts of the country, it might help you understand.

I'm reading; "White Trash" The 400 year Untold History of Class in America. By Nancy Isenberg
She states that "class" is an important defining thing in America. Its a good read!
Good but torturous read. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0166ISAS8/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

18753

[Ann Fann]

Recently finished:

Holcombe's Advanced Introduction to Austrian Economics
Ellickson's Order without Law: How Neighbors Settle Disputes
Stringham's Private Governance: Creating Order in Economic and Social Life--highly recommended!
Smith and Moore's (eds) Individualism: A Reader--not that good except for chapter 24 from Henry Wilson's A Catechism of Individualism, a rebuttal to Belfort Bax's A New Catechism of Socialism
Munger's The Thing Itself: Essays on Academics and the State--the title is taken from Burke's A Vindication of Natural Society: "In vain you tell me that Artificial Government is good, but that I fall out only with the Abuse. The Thing! the Thing itself is the Abuse!Observe, my Lord, I pray you, that grand Error upon which all artificial legislative Power is founded. It was observed, that Men had ungovernable Passions, which made it necessary to guard against the Violence they might offer to each other. They appointed Governors over them for this Reason; but a worse and more perplexing Difficulty arises, how to be defended against the Governors? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"


I used to read fiction and try but just can't any more.

A little light reading?

[Mister D]

I'm rereading Julius Evola's Revolt Against the Modern World. It occurred to me two evenings ago that it is only within radical right or traditionalist circles that one encounters intellectually coherent critiques of Christianity.

[jigglepete]

The Fallen by Ace Atkins

[jigglepete]

Hour Game by David Baldacci...

[DGUtley]

Soldiers and Slaves -- http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/05/09/soldiers-and-slaves

Less than a hundred days before Hitler killed himself, three hundred and fifty American P.O.W.s—most of whom the Germans had identified as, or suspected of being, Jews—were moved from Stalag IX-B to Berga, where, alongside Jews from Auschwitz, they were starved, beaten, and forced to work in appalling conditions before being sent on a death march.

19715

[Standing Wolf]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KAx0VwxbL._SY445_QL70_.jpg

[Adelaide]

Have a class this upcoming term on psychopaths and sociopaths, so, I am reading the texts/books early. Nearly finished with "Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us," by Robert Hare. It's actually interesting because it has case studies done by the author spread throughout and doesn't just rehash the old Bundy and Gacy tales. While some of the subjects are in prison studies, many are people who have never been convicted of a crime (even though almost all of them commit crimes).

It has not addressed it yet, but if I finish the book and find no mention of politicians, I may email my professor and ask about it.

[Mini Me]

I read about those death marches! It was so barbaric and inhumane, I could not finish it!

[Tahuyaman]

Just because I hadn't read it sinc I was in High School, I'm re-reading 1984.

[Perianne]

A book that details how Europe lost itself in immigration.

19836

[jigglepete]

One of my oldest and dearest friends Jason M. Rubin wrote his first book The Grave and the Gay a tale from the 17th century that is based on English folk ballads, plus a version from the 21 century by Doc Watson (1966) and (1969) by the Fairpoint Convention... really good read so far...

[Standing Wolf]

Currently reading 'Where Nobody Knows Your Name', a book about minor league baseball...but I may have to postpone finishing it, because I really want to start David Lagercrantz's 'The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye'.

[jigglepete]

I just started I Can't Make This Up-Life Lessons by Kevin Hart... really funny!

[nathanbforrest45]

Tranquility

A book about sailing

https://www.inlandwaterspress.com/shop/tranquility/

[jigglepete]

The Fix by David Baldacci.
The latest with Amos Decker, very good story so far...

[Hal Jordan]

The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett

Post-apocalyptic demons.

Coming to you from the depths of inner space

[Common]

I finished all of James Rollins books, he has one last sigma series coming out in Dec.

I started Brett Battles series of espionage novels, a friend tells me hes second to Rollins in his opinion. Ive gotten 2 chapters read and so far a thumbs up

[jigglepete]

I'm trying a new author, for me.

Trap the Devil by Ben Coes.

I must admit, the quote right before the first chapter influenced my decision to read it...

"We'll know our disinformation plan is complete when everything the American public believes is false." - William J. Casey, director Central Intelligence Agency, 1981

[jigglepete]

On to Camino Island by John Grisham

[resister]

The Peace river shopper! Some great deals in there! :)

[jigglepete]

The Cuban Affair by Nelson DeMille.

[Standing Wolf]

Finished The Girl Who Takes An Eye For An Eye' over the weekend, and started Bonnie MacBird's second Sherlock Holmes novel, 'Unquiet Spirits'.

Interesting lady. She spent many years as a Hollywood producer and screenwriter, and now has begun a second career as a novelist...and a damned good one. I've been reading Holmes stories for fifty years and her first effort, 'Art in the Blood' was one of the best I've ever encountered.

[stjames1_53]

The Aenid by Virgil

[silvereyes]

Once a year I read my all time favorite.... To Kill a Mockingbird.

[Green Arrow]

Thrawn by legendary Timothy Zahn. It’s the first canon appearance of Grand Admiral Thrawn in the Star Wars universe. Zahn had originaly created Thrawn for the Star Wars Expanded Universe in 1991, but when Disney bought Lucasfilm they cast out the Expanded Universe from the official canon. Luckily, they had the sense to let Thrawn back in.

[Crepitus]

Just finished a David drake series. Classic space opera stuff.

[jigglepete]

So my sister sent me Spoiled Brats by Simon Rich.
Started it at 10 this morning, by noon I was past the halfway mark... literally couldn't put it down...had to go to work, I figure I'll finish it tonight. Great short stories laugh out loud humor!

[resister]

Hillary Clinton, what happened...............OK, so you know I was joking, right!21368

[resister]

Out of nowhere, A history of the military sniper.

Very interesting.

[jigglepete]

As anticipated, I finished Spoiled Brats last night, I started Man Seeking Woman, also by Simon Rich. Another short story book, so far the highlights have been an autobiographical story from the perspective of an unused condom and it's life in a wallet...that and personal adds from dogs (one of which is a personal from a dog to a humped leg! LOL!), absolutely adorable.

[jigglepete]

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson...who thought it would be that easy! :)

[Savoir-Faire]

I read

The Rules of Civility
Man's Search for Meaning

I think I will reread The Inferno over the holiday.

[Ann Fann]

Lots of Jack Reacher books. Some Tom Clancy and Brad Thor books.

[Green Arrow]

Tarkin by another legendary Star Wars author, James Luceno. Tarkin tells the post-Clone Wars, pre-A New Hope story of how legendary SW character Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin (played by the incomparable Peter Cushing in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope) went from being Governor of his home planet of Eriadu to running the Death Star construction project, including his expedition to Murkhana with the one and only Darth Vader.

[Orion Rules]

King James Version: "The Bible Promise Book"

"The Twelve Days of Christmas"

"Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs"

[jigglepete]

The People vs Alex Cross by James Patterson.

[jigglepete]

No Middle Name the complete collected Jack Reacher short stories By Lee Child.

Great Reacher stories, there are a couple of stories (one that I am reading currently) about his teen years. Nice to see something different...still Reacher, just less refined?

[Tahuyaman]

I'm reading a book called "Out Bad" by Donald Charjes Davis. It's an account of how the ATF infiltrated various outlaw motorcycle gangs, specifically the Hells Angels and Mongols.

[countryboy]

Currently re-listening to The Wheel of Time audio-book series by Robert Jordan. On book 4, The Shadow Rising.

[jigglepete]

Two Kinds of Truth by Michael Connelly

His latest Bosch novel

[Mister D]

The Concept of Sin by Josef Pieper. I'm reading this for the second time, actually. I find it's crucial to read some books twice.

[Orion Rules]

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD, the Hieroglyphic Transcript and English Translation of the Papyrus of Ani, introduction by E.A. Wallis Budge.

This book is interesting in that it tries the concepts discussed in the book on others, that it has some sort of magical property in the pages.

Meaning it will follow through with giving me that exact assignment I'm working on, so the correlation is there that an interpretation shows.

The times the type sped ahead of itself as those sayings weren't known for that type sped ahead of itself before it created the translations.

[Orion Rules]

"EGYPTIAN MAGIC" and "EGYPTIAN RELIGION", both by SIR WALLIS BUDGE, Late Keeper of the Egyptian & Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum

[nathanbforrest45]

What have I read recentlyThe latest issue of Guns And Ammo

[Orion Rules]

"Angels&Demons" by Dan Brown

"Worlds in Collision" by Immanuel Velikovsky

[Tahuyaman]

I just read the Alex Karras biography Even Big a Guys Cry. If you are a sports fan, it's an interesting read.


Now I'm reading Heaven and Hell, my life in the Eagles by Don Felder. It's changing my view of the Eagles music.

[jigglepete]

Two Kinds of Truth by Michael Connelly

His latest Bosch novel

Hate to quote myself...but wow, this book was great but felt like it took forever to get through...

Next up, Vermont's Irish Rebel Capt. John Lonergan by (my new drinkin' buddy) William L. Mckone...

[Crepitus]

Collusion by Luke harding.

[Common]

Ive been reading a short series of books by an author whos excellent and died at 28 yrs old of a heart defect.

http://andrewbrittonbooks.com/content/index.asp

[jigglepete]

Just finished The Pope of Palm Beach by Tim Dorsey. Another romp through Florida with Serge and Coleman!

Just started Hell Bent by Gregg Hurwitz. New author great story so far. I will read the first two in the Orphan X series because of this the third book in the series...

[nathanbforrest45]

In Shoal Waters. A book about a sailboat sailing in the Thames Estuary for sixty years. It was more or less an autobiograph of Charles Stock's 60 year love affair with this 16 foot boat.

[Cletus]

The Ultimate Optics Guide to Rifle Shooting... a comprehensive guide to using your riflescope on the range and in the field.

It is actually a pretty good read. Most people don't really know how to get the most out of their optics.

[Standing Wolf]

Reading two books. 'Hail to the Chin: Further Confessions of a B Movie Actor' by Bruce Campbell. (After reading his description of shooting Alien Apocalypse and Man With the Screaming Brain in Bulgaria, followed by making My Name is Bruce on his own property up in Oregon, in a "town" constructed of scrap lumber, I felt compelled to order a DVD from Amazon containing all three films. The best $8.68 I've ever spent, I'm sure.) Includes the 'Burn Notice' years, wherein we find that he hated almost everything about Miami except for one very groovy bar.

Also reading 'Ice' by Tracy Marrow a/k/a Ice-T. Hard to know how much of the writing is his own and how much is "polish" by his co-author, but it very much sounds like the man, himself, and the writing is very, very good. I know a lot of people form their opinion of Ice-T from the anti-police lyrics of his rapping years, and I look forward to seeing how he deals with that in his book. Judging by what I have read so far, I strongly suspect that he will deal with it honestly. He was a middle-class kid from New Jersey whose parents died when he was very young, and who got sent to live with relatives in Los Angeles. Never a gangbanger himself, he nevertheless went to school with some of the worst of the worst and watched the Black street gangs morph from relatively benign groups rooted in mutual protection into murderous criminals obsessed with money and revenge.

[Orion Rules]

"Chinese Astrology", Pelanduk Productions: The Five Elements:

"By wood can be produced fire, by fire can be produced earth...; from earth can be produced metal...; from metal can be produced water...; from water can be produced wood...." page 47.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

Deciphered it means that water is the most powerful, as it can set the whole course of nature on top of its head, for as fire is met by water, the government upon Christ's shoulder is of Heaven.

Meaning Earth will meet the LORD in the air because He is everywhere first and foremost, and if one is sent to hell, or the fire, there will be no water there, Yeshua said, the fire is not quenching.

~~~~~~~THE SEVEN SEAS OF SEVEN OCEANS~~~~~~~boats...motors...oil...platforms caught fire, God said to not hurt the oil and the wine of the vine of the Earth to create for pollution.

From earth can be produced wood, the tree of life stands for a most sacred place, that mankind cannot touch it or be near it, just because the tree of knowledge of good and evil was by God forbidden.

Meaning Earth will meet the LORD in the air because He is everywhere first and foremost, and if one is sent to hell, or the fire, there will be no water there, as Yeshua said the fire is not for quenching.

[silvereyes]

Reading To Kill a Mockingbird again. My favorite book.

[Orion Rules]

"Prehistoric London: It's Mounds and Circles" by E. O. Gordon

[Orion Rules]

The Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha || Revised Standard Version + College Edition, 1962

This version was purchased at a used book store, and it has never failed to provide exactly what is needed at a particular time. As in fact, there is not a single version of the Bible, whether a particular version is considered to be redacted or not, or to have different words placed in several places as substitutes, study further, because you are required by what Christians know to be the truth to study to show oneself approved, a workman not ashamed of what they have been shown by scripture reading, that the truth will unfold before them.

America has a duty, as a birthright, to study the truth regarding the lost tribes of Israel. This is not a matter that has never been political. Heaven is a real place, not a figment of someone's imagination. Hell is real also, although there may be purgatory in between. Even the Apostle Paul prayed for ‘the household of Onesiphorus’, (2 Timothy 1:18). He had helped Paul at Ephesus. There is also the example of 2 Maccabees the 12th chapter, verses 44-46.

A priesthood of believers is what the correct Biblical teaching is. A heretic lived inside of the Vatican: The red emperor called Diocletian. The pink dragons. Amos 5:8, the destruction of the temples of the original saints called Christians.

They threw Daniel the prophet in the lions' den. How long has gone the entrapments for the souls of men? The day they thought Noah was still a fool when the evidence was in abundance. The Bible states that no man, not even the flesh that was called Jesus, knew the day or the hour, only his Father who is in Heaven.

A'mer'i'-ka, what a selfish finding. A thousand bolts of lightning strikes, Vladimir Putin. What the world is saying: 'America has wasted lives, it is time for its ruination. The jew$ are a problem. They would light the whole world on fire for a lie'.

America has been blessed above all of the nations of Israel. That a river divides Manasseh in half, and that a map depicts how things are in terms of nations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribe_of_Manasseh

[jet57]

Right now reading 'Going the Other Way' by Billy Bean - the autobiography of the first openly gay former Major League ballplayer.

Just finished 'The Girl in the Spider's Web' by David Lagercrantz. If you read and enjoyed the late Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy - 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo', etc. - have no fear...Lagercrantz has done an absolutely masterful job of continuing the story. Not all continuation novels are anywhere near as successful as this one in capturing the intricate plotting, the slow buildup of suspense, and all the other elements that make the original so entertaining. Lagercrantz has done it in a masterful way.

Before that, I tried to read David Labrava's 'Becoming a Son'. I'm a big Sons of Anarchy fan, and particularly liked Labrava's 'Happy' character on the show. I'd read that he had led an interesting life and was looking forward to reading his book, but... If ever a book needed a professional editor or co-writer and very obviously did not get one, this is it. From the simplest thing like not indenting paragraphs, to narrative flaws like changing ages in the middle of a story and jumping around from one time period to another with apparent randomness, this book is a hard, hard read. From reading some reviews, as well as flipping through the unread 3/4 of the book myself, I discovered that Labrava does not even mention his motorcycle club affiliation, which is actually one of the things I mostly wanted to read about. Doing and smuggling drugs, getting laid and surfing are all fine in their place, I suppose, but it's tough to make a big, dense, very badly written book fascinating with only those things to work with.

Before that attempt, I read one of the finest Sherlock Holmes stories I've ever encountered - Molly MacBird's 'Art of the Blood'. I've been reading Holmes since I was about twelve, and have been searching out and reading continuation novels and pastiches by authors other than Conan Doyle for almost as long, and 'Art of the Blood' is up there near the top of my personal favorites list.

I just recently finished Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. I don't usually read novels, but this one is a classic, and it is so different from the original movie. Her style makes it almost believable.

You gotta read Grapes of Wrath; it runs rings around the movie: classic actors but just a small portion if the book.

[Mister D]

Green Arrow I just started The Romanovs by Montefiore this week. Great narrative.

[Ethereal]

@Green Arrow (http://thepoliticalforums.com/member.php?u=868) I just started The Romanovs by Montefiore this week. Great narrative.
I think GA has made the very wise decision to spend less time here. I barely see him around anymore.

[Mister D]

I think GA has made the very wise decision to spend less time here. I barely see him around anymore.
True. I don't either. Still, he may enjoy discussing the book if he pops in.

[MisterVeritis]

I am nearly finished with the complete set of Sherlock Holmes stories. Some were as good as I remember. A few are real stinkers.

I am also reading the complete novels of Jane Austen. She had a genius for showing the drama found in ordinary lives of ordinary people.

I am somewhere between two and four weeks out from publishing my next book.

I am seriously toying with the idea of writing commercial erotica. I will select a different name, of course.

[jet57]

Great book: The Geraldines and Medieval Ireland, the making of myth, Peter Crooks & Sean Duffy, editors, Four Courts Press.

If you've ever wondered why the Normans invaded Ireland and why, and who set up the most powerful dynasty in the country, then this book will answer the questions. It's fabulous history that gives the other side of the story of the Desmond rebellions and the English Crown.

[Abby08]

I can't stay focused enough to read, anymore, plus, if the first paragraph doesn't grab me, I lose interest.

I currently have two books that I started months ago, 'Atlas Shrugged,' and the other is a John Grisham book, I can't even remember the title.

The most reading I do these days, is here.

[nathanbforrest45]

Guns and Ammo

[MisterVeritis]

I started rereading the John Jakes historical novel series. I just started The Bastards. It is remarkable how much more I know this time around than I did the last time.

[Orion Rules]

~The Book of Isaiah~

[jigglepete]

I've read probably 20 or so books since my last post.
I just started Caribbean Rim- by Randy Wayne White.
The newest Doc Ford novel...

[DLLS]

This may cause some to accuse me of being a "conspiracy theorist" but:

Killing the Deep State by Jerome Corsi

Understanding Trump by Newt Gingrich

Slackware Linux Essentials by Chris Lumens, David Cantrell, Logan Johnson and Alan Hicks

I would delve further into my library but the topic did specify "lately."

[DLLS]

I can't stay focused enough to read, anymore, plus, if the first paragraph doesn't grab me, I lose interest.

I currently have two books that I started months ago, 'Atlas Shrugged,' and the other is a John Grisham book, I can't even remember the title.

The most reading I do these days, is here.

You should finish Atlas Shrugged I found it a little tedious at times but overall it is a fairly decent book.

The movies that released, allegedly based on the book, prior to the election were a supreme disappointment.

[DLLS]

I started rereading the John Jakes historical novel series. I just started The $#@!s. It is remarkable how much more I know this time around than I did the last time.

I have them all and have read them all.