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It has been a while since we talked about what we've all been reading. And, since it is Friday, at the end of a long week of depressing news, I thought we could all use a little break this morning. So, if you are reading something you think is worth mentioning -- or listening to some music you just found -- or have seen a great movie in your Netflix queue -- or whatever you have to share, please do so.
In the spirit of sharing, I recently finished Elizabeth Edwards' memoir "Saving Graces," and loved it. I was asked to write a review of the book for a newspaper in Edwards' hometown, and I have to say, I was a bit worried about it at the start -- that I'd hate the book and have to write a scathing review -- but, thankfully, I ended up really enjoying the book -- despite some really tough emotional rough patches when she talks, in detail, about the loss of their son, Wade, and the painful grieving process that she is still going through after that loss. As a parent, I found that to be a very difficult read, but one that was tough to put down because she was so honest about the raw emotion of it, something I had not expected, frankly, from a politician's wife.
There are some very funny parts in the book -- laugh out loud moments that I had to read aloud to Mr. ReddHedd on occasion because they were just too funny not to share with someone. ("And then the plane caught fire." If you've read the book, you know what I mean.) And several places where I was reaching for yet another tissue. One of my favorite bits is where she and her assistant on the campaign trail throw a good-bye party for her Secret Service detail, one of whom has been on the job for twenty plus years -- and it ends up being the first time that anyone has ever thought to do that for him. You have to love Southern manners, don't you?
Anyway, if you are interested in my review, you can find it here at the Independent Weekly website. This is the first time I've done a review for publication like this, and I have to say that it was an enjoyable process from start to finish.
But, now that I'm done, it is on to the next book...I just need to figure out what that will be. Although I've got several in my "to read" pile at the moment, nothing is reaching out to grab me. Any suggestions of something great that you've been reading? Can't wait to see what The General suggests on Sunday.
Am also looking for some new tunes for the birthday iPod, so any album or single suggestions are welcome.
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Spotlight
Balrog!
Redd!
(coffee’s ready)
Redd Riding Hood! Teh Wolf!
Reading?
FDL, C&L, TNH, Glenn, Kos, MyDD, Digby, Gilliard, Ian Welsh, Liberal Oasis, TPM, BooMan, Jerelyn, . . . .
Oh you mean books? Who has time?
Morning all — just got back from dropping The Peanut off at preschool. Brrrrr….cold and snowing here this morning. Warm coffee, anyone?
while I’m working too hard these days to read, Bruce Springsteen’s Seeger Sessions is surprisingly touching and wonderful…
I’m reading John LeCarre’s ‘The Constant Gardener’ . Very involving so far.
I’m reading ‘Intrusion Prevention and Active Response - Deploying Network and Host IPS’.
Strongly recommended! Zzzzzzzzzzz.
BTW for anyone old enough and geek enough, check out the first Spotlight review of this book.
The Story About Ping
Oooooh, The Today Show is doing a bit on The Wire. LOVE that show.
just finished Helen Thomas’s book and now i am reading/playing with javascript&DHTML cookbook…
Hubris at 10 — how was Helen’s book? I would imagine it’s pretty blunt and wry, just like she seems. At least, I hope so. ;-)
Mike at 7 — you know, I’ve seen previews for the movie but haven’t gotten around to that in our netflix queue as yet. I love thriller-type books, so it’s good to know that this one is holding your interest. Might have to pick that one up. Am trying to help out Mr. ReddHedd by putting a few books on my Amazon wishlist, so I may have to add that one today.
Captain Alatriste, a novel by Arturo Perez-Reverte (who wrote The Flanders Panel), is about a “sword for hire” in the late 16th Century that finds himself on the wrong side of the Spanish Inquisition. A real swashbuckling read. This writer’s novels are a must for those longing for Umberto Eco light.
btw, all — if you are not watching The Wire (it broadcasts on HBO), then you are missing out. It is gritty, painful, and as realistic a crime/city/politics/corruption show as I have seen. They get the cop stuff and the criminal stuff right. It’s tough to watch most weeks, but it is very real — and one of the best written shows I can remember in terms of script and character development. Very well done, and worth watching. Just FYI.
Grousefinder at 13 — hmmmm, will have to take a peek at that one. I miss the older version of Eco — “Name of the Rose” and “Foucolt’s Pendulum” — his newer stuff just is not working for me.
I’ve heard mentioned somewhere before that reading blogs leads to short attention spans. I think it was Kevin Drum from Political Animal.
I’m going to agree with him. I have seven or eight highly touted books waiting, but am struggling to get to them.
Right now I’m in the midst of the 1 per cent Solution, but I find that I can only do a few pages before I turn to something else. It may just be the subject matter, or the many reviews I’ve read, or the fact that all the high points are out there already.
Hell, if I devoted half the time I spend here at the Lake, I’d have them all finished.
OldCoastie at 6 — I’ve heard that from several people. Will definitely give that a listen. Love Springsteen pretty much any time.
jeffreyw at 16 — I have actually found that it is the opposite for me. But I think it is because I spend so much time doing highly concentrated blog and news reading and synthesis to write something up for the blog, that the time I set aside for reading for fun is dear to me. Being able to sink myself into a book completely is SUCH a treat — it’s what I do for an hour or so every night before I go to sleep to clear out my mind from the day’s news.
Between reading “The Greatest Story Ever Sold” and “Wait! Don’t Move to Canada,” I needed a break, so I picked up a volume of Heinlein’s “Future History” Series…the one that starts with “Revolt in 2100″ and ends with “Methuselah’s Children.” Between those two stories is an essay by Heinlein that I found fascinating, given the climate of the past few decades. Forgive me, but I have to quote this.
It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics. This is equally true whether the faith is Communism or Holy-Rollerism; indeed it is the bounden duty of the faithful to do so. The custodians of the True Faith cannot logically admit tolerance of heresy to be a virtue.
There’s more, and it’s insightful. The stories in this collection were written in the early fifties. I’m not sure when the essay was written.
Christy Hardin Smith @
17
Also check out the new Doors box set. It’ll take you on quite a flashback.
Back to Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations. Along with Proust, this is kind of a life-long project that I pick up and put down. I find that reading Mr. W. cleans the mind. Have picked it back up again, now that classes are over, research publications submitted, and the onset of arctic air encouraging a curl-up before the fireplace.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 17
I think you’d probably like it - wonderful and life affirming…
Golden Compass
Those of you with children…get them The Golden Compass if you are buying gift’s. It’s for 5-6th grade reading level and up. There are two sequels, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. I keep many copies of these on the shelves in my classroom. The strong readers devour them. They are novels about multiple dimensions, good vs. evil, and they dance with moral dilemmas that make the kid’s heads spin.
Christy…I agree about Eco…he is tired, but had a good run.
I’m on a Terry Pratchett kick again. I’ve been rereading all the City Watch stories, starting with “Guards! Guards!” and “Men at Arms” and have just started “Feet of Clay.”
I’m the sort of person who would like to -think- of myself as someone who reads a lot of books that inform and educate me, and I do this from time to time, but most of what I read, honestly, is quirky fiction– Pratchett, Tepper, Alice Hoffman. (shh! Don’t tell anyone!)
For music, I suggest… me! From my website there’s an “iTunes” link which links to my latest album, “Paths of Flight.”
I also suggest Laura Love. http://lauralove.net/
Grousefinder at 23 — I adore Phillip Pullman, and second the His Dark Materials series. It is a fantastic Young Adult fantasy series — great for kids who cut their reading teeth on Harry Potter and want something more, truly fantastic writing and characters that leave you wanting more and more books. And if you missed them as a kid, they are a fantastic read as an adult as well. Amazing writing, truly.
Lindy at 19 — Mr. ReddHedd is a big Heinlein fan. I’ll have to dig that one up and read the whole essay — it’s been far too long since I’ve read back through that.
Just getting going, but this is so far engaging. I’m reading it after arguing with family over T-giving about the possibility that people can be moral without Divine intervention. I’m tired of being called amoral because I don’t believe in an invisible cloud being.
Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong
http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Mi.....0060780703
Julie at 24 — I met Terry at a SFF Worldcon several years ago (I think he was a guest of honor in Chicago? I can’t remember which off the top of my head at the moment…) Anyway, I was on some panels and got to hang out with him one morning in the green room before our respective sessions started. He is just as hilarious in person as you might expect from his books, wonderfully clever, and one of the nicest people I have ever met. Every time I see discussion about him, I think of our great coversation — so thanks for the smile this morning. :)
Last Stand of The Tin Can Sailors, a well done and rather stirring account of the Battle off Samar, a desperate battle fought off the Phillipine island of Leyte in 1944 by an overmatched force of USN Escort Carriers, Destroyers, and Destroyer Escorts which got caught by surprise by a Japanese force of Batlleships, Cruisers, and Destroyers. the US force should have been utterly destroyed, but wasn’t.
I love it when we have this kind of discussion. We have such a diverse group of folks who comment, and I always get such fantastic reading list ideas. :)
I have just finished “Collapse” by Jared Diamond and it is a worthwhile read. As for music I just picked up the latest Il Divo release Siempre on which they do covers of some great old rock like Nights in White Satin and Without You.
Cold but clear here in Atlanta.
Grousefinder @ 13: LOVED Captain Alatriste. The sequel novel was pretty much Second Verse Same as the First, but still fun.
Christy @ 14: I agree! The Wire is one of the most compelling series ever written. It’s been renewed for one more (final) season. Next year’s story will focus on how the mass media impacts policy/crime. Should be riveting.
Knut Wicksell @
21
I pick up the Blue and Brown Books every once in awhile. My favorite quote is: “There is the World, that is all that is the case” (or something like that.)
The Skull Mantra
One more suggestion for FDL’s…Elliot Pattison. Start with The Skull Mantra, a novel about the interface between China’s harsh gulag system and the Tibetan monks who end up in them. The book is seen through the eyes of a former Bejing official (Inspector) who ends up in the gulag system in Tibet as a prisoner. He is called upon to solve a murder by his jailers. This book, and it’s three sequels, are an excellent fictional study of Tibet’s plight with China. You will be hooked.
oh my. the Coast Guard is getting crap boats from contractors…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16105291/from/RS.2/
I think the problem is the CG hardly ever has the bucks to buy new ships - when I was in, anything larger than a small patrol boat was usually a 30 year old hand-me-down from the Navy… now they are getting all kinds of money tossed at ‘em and don’t know how to spend it…
Exams.
Have you read “The Pickup” by Gordimer?
Im re-reading it while waiting for my book order to arrive.
It is an amazing work of fiction with insites into Muslim life.
I’m reading JR by William Gaddis.
It’s about capitalism.
Prof at 36 — well, you’ll pardon me if I pass on that one. *g* Although I hope they are good ones, for your sake.
I’m reading The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt, who wrote Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. He was in Venice just after the Fenice (the opera house) burned down, and he writes about that.
I went to the Fenice in the late 80’s, on my first trip to Venice, and we talked our way into a dress rehearsal explaining that I was an opera singer myself, and showing pictures of me in costume for an opera. The house was just beautiful, natural woods, blue fabrics, and enough putti to help the entire audience to heaven. I wish I had been able to see it as well as Berendt describes it.
The guy speaks Italian, so he was able to talk to a lot of people about the current state of Venice, and about the opera house. Good book.
I just picked up The Bar on the Seine and The Hotel Majestic by Georges Simenon. I started The Bar on the Seine last night; it’s an Inspector Maigret mystery, set in France during the 30’s. The prose is spare, but evocative, and so far the plot is clever. I think I’m going to like them.
“the world is everything that is the case” comes from the Tractatus. That is the “old” Wittgenstein.
For virtually non-stop laughs, I go back and read Richard Russo’s “Straight Man” every so often.
I’m just joining this thread, but I took time to go read Balrog’s spotlight review of Ping. I’m still laughing over that one!
My first two children were born in Taiwan, where I spent 5 years “back in the days” and Ping was their favorite book. They loved the ending, when he finally managed to get back home (his “host machine”).
rwcole @ 42
Yep, you are right. I like the old stuff better than when he “changed.”
sofistic @ 43
If you’re a Russo fan, you’ve probably read “The Risk Pool,” too. For my money, that book has one of the best opening paragraphs ever. I’ve bought the book at least four times. Always end up loaning it out!
I just finished Sea of Thunder: Four Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign 1941-1945
by Evan Thomas about the Battle of the Leyte Gulf. Great look at the incredible blunders, heroism, racism and humanity of both sides in, as the title says, the Last Great Naval Campaign of WWII or most likley ever.
I have been listening to Anonymous 4’s new CD, “American Angels”, a presentation of a cappella gospel singing, arrangements based in the American tradition of shape note, or sacred harp. Songs of Hope, Redemption and Glory. Go listen to a sample on Amazon, you won’t be disappointed. I just finished reading Ann Rice’s book “Christ the Lord”. I once tried to read a book by Ann Rice, on a much different subject and right from the first page I was mesmerized. After a few chapters, I realized how seductive her writhing voice is and because I am an old lady and and Catholic I got uneasy and threw the book out. But I always admired her gift, so when I saw “Christ the Lord” in paperback I was happy to buy it to see if she had the same quality of voice with a different topic. She does and I was not disappointed. Next is something I put on my Christmas list: Tom Waits CD “Real Gone” . I heard him sing “Day after Tomorrow” one night on the Daily Show and I was just knocked over. You can go to Comedy Central: Shows - the daily show with Jon Stewart and play it.
I just finished Grisham’s ‘The Innocent Man’. Stunning.
I am reading “German Cooking Today”
I’d recommend “In Sunlight, In a Beautiful Garden” by Kathleen Cambor. It’s a novel about the Johnstown flood fromt he perspective of both the “haves” and “have nots.” Even though you know what’s going to happen, it’s very engaging. And moving.
I just finished reading Monique and the Mango Rains, a beautifully written book by a late-80s Peace Corps volunteer about her time living in a rural village in Mali and working with a young midwife. You won’t forget the amazing Monique.
Deacon at 41 — I had a French professor in college who had us reading Simenon as an extra assignment each month for context and composition, and I loved them. Maigret is wonderful.
Fond of deranged, slightly warped humor? I’ve just finished Between the River and the Bridge by the host of the CBS Late Late Show, Craig Ferguson.
The book is funny as hell and Ferguson can really write. Elements of John Kennedy Toole and Douglas Adams abound.
I never laugh out loud at books. I did this time.
Richard Dawkins–God Delusion. Page turner for any sentient human. This description of the God of the Old Testament on p. 31 is worth the price of the book: The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction; jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynist, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, capriciously malevolent bully.
Ooops–now you don’t have to buy it! But there’s plenty of other good stuff. Go read.
And if you want to see him put down Liberty “U.” bullshit, see the videos at http://richarddawkins.net/arti.....11;C-SPAN2
Betty at 48 — LOVE Anonymous4. I have a couple of their older CDs, and they are perfect background music for writing — and for relaxing. Wonderful stuff. Will have to check that one out. Thanks.
I am listening, off and on, to two CD’s my brother sent me. The firest is Bob Dylan’s “Modern Times” and the second is Mark Knopfler’s “Shangri-La.” Not too excited about either, but I think I prefer Knopfler.
The Washington Post!
Eagleburger said Bush was drinking the morning that the Report was given to
him!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....01903.html
reading: Prince Rupert by Frank Kitsen
netflix: The Forsyth Saga (BBC: three parts)
music: Livin on the Fault Line (Doobie Brothers) — (found in garage following car radio malfunction).
Lindy, Redd - I reread that Heinlein series a couple of months ago. It’s amazing how well his stuff generally holds up over time.
Right now, I’m a little more than halfway through Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism by Geoffrey R. Stone. I just finished with McCarthy, and am ready to dig into Vietnam. Really well written, and absolutely filled with footnotes to document all his sources. Stunningly appropriate, too.
Oh, and I’m also reading The Not-So-Grizzly Bear Stories. Actually, The Kid is reading it to me, and I’m just there to help sound out the tough words and look at the pictures. Come to think of it, they are stunningly appropriate stories these days, too. (Like the one about the bear that was convinced to leave his tail in the lake to catch fish, until the water froze, the dogs came chasing, and then he broke off the tail as he ran to escape. Bush dangling the military in Iraq to catch some democracy, anyone?)
I’m reading “This Wheel’s On Fire - The Story of the Band” by Levon Helm. A fascinating look into one of the greatest American bands (even though 4/5 of them were Canadian) which includes a sharp aqnd unflattering portrait of Robbie Robertson.
Levon was THE man in that group, revisionist history notwithstanding.
Hey Christy, did you ever check out the new Vince Gill? If you haven’t you can get a few previews at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI5Wtx8kK64 (with the great, Big Al Anderson singing the duet). Bad mix (no Vinnie guitar) but the spirit of the song is there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UED0fvNvbjY from the CMA Awards. Wonderful song about giving rather than receiving.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHXxEkywSIg (with the amazingly gifted Bekka Bramlett, daughter of Delaney and Bonnie)
It’s a masterpiece. I haven’t said that about *anything* since 1968. And cheap. However, if you want physical CDs you may have a hard time. I got mine form the iTunes store and it went straight onto my ipod.
Amazing, powerful music. Go for it, Christy.
I’m still plowing my way through Thomas Ricks “Fiasco” — it’s depressing. I knew in my heart that Iraq would go terribly wrong, but reading about Bremer and Sanchez and Rummy flailing in the wilderness is just awful.
In my car I’ve been listening to Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book on Lincoln, “Team of Rivals”. (I’ll be listening for another month or so as it’s a 30 CD set! My local library is lenient on due dates for audiobooks, thankfully.) Whenever she talks about Lincoln’s empathy, it gives me chills as I compare his great empathy to Bush’s lack thereof.
christy- great book review that you wrote.
i just started jimmy carter’s “Palestine:peace not aparteid”. not far enough into it to have much an opinion yet.
via thinkprogress:
Where’s Dennis Hastert?
The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
I used to read voraciously, several books a month. Now I spend all my time online (frequently at FDL)
I used to build musical instruments, now I spend all my time online (frequently at FDL)
I used to build electronics projects and ham radio projects, now I spend all my time online (frequently at FDL)
Do I have a problem doc?
cnn - Jeane Kirkpatrick has died at 80
In the spirit of the season: John Galbraith’s The Good Society. A little guidance for a fresh start for the new year.
Oh, and as for music, get The Crane Wife by the Decemberists. Really terrific young band from Portland, OR.
Recent readings:
The two most recent books by Michael Lind:
The American Way Of Strategy and Made In Texas: Geoge W. Bush and the Southern Takeover of American Politics
I think Made In Texas is the most insightful piece of writing on American politics to come out in decades. Contrary to what you’d expect from the title, Dubya is mentioned only in passing until at least halfway through the book. Lind delves deeply into the history and culture of the various regions of the USA (especially Texas) to build the background to finally argue that GWB, in spite of his ancestral Northeastern roots, is culturally a Southerner, and is a fundamentally Southern politician of the most reactionary sort.
Like Made In Texas, The American Way of Strategy builds on Lind’s deep understanding of American history and culture, but for a different purpose. He asserts that the most fundamental goal of American strategy on the international scene usually has been the preservation of The American Way of Life. A central argument of the book is that American strategy has gone off the rails since the end of the Cold War. Modestly at first, under GHW Bush and Clinton, and rolled over down into the ditch under Dubya.
Another book I’d recommend is Thin Ice: Unlocking the Secrets of Climate in the World’s Highest Mountains, by Mark Bowen. This is one of the best science books I’ve ever read. It’s not the best resource for a concise presentation of the current status of climate research, but it is unrivaled in telling a big piece of the story of how the science got there. Bowen is himself a trained scientist (Physics PhD from MIT) but his career has been mostly as a science writer. The book is organized mainly around the career of Lonnie Thompson, the high-altitude glaciologist based at Ohio State who led the team that pioneered the technology of high altitude glaciology (not a trivial effort - think of lugging drilling equipment up to 20,000 feet and above). Thompson’s teams work in the Andes, the Himalayas and on Kilimanjaro was fundamental in establishing an understanding of the Earth’s past climate history as background for today’s concern about global warming.
sofistic @
66
Ya think?
The Sea, The Sea, by Iris Murdoch. A long, compelling novel about runaway egocentrism, with mystical overtones. Unique, and, of course, timely.
Free (holiday?) music: Santastic 2
I haven’t listened to it so I can’t tell you what it’s like… just that it’s free.
I started reading Ivanhoe during Thanksgiving at the same time I was picking through Phillips’ American Theocracy and also Former Slave Narratives by Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass. There are all sorts of eery parallels to be found in crusade fiction, the 19th c. and today’s situation. *shudder*
Thanks for this topic, Christy! I picked up Elizabeth Edwards’ book when it first came out–and IIRC I think I recommended it for Sunday Book time after the furor of the campaign season. Still holding back from reading it, mostly because right now we’re in leukemia treatment mode around here, so it’s a little too close to home.
This weekend I’m treating myself to Kathleen Eagle’s just released Ride a Painted Pony. I love Kathy’s writing…this one’s more suspense-y than her previous women’s fiction. She writes with authenticity about the people and lives and issues of Indian Country. And she’s a longtime dear friend, so this is unabashed logrolling. I’ve always thought of SFF as space cowboys, so my reading’s pretty eclectic from Heinlein to Zane Grey to Follett.
One of the beauties of being a monthly columnist for BookPage for several years was the wealth of great stories that came my way. One of the overwhelming “where IS my living room floor??????” penalties of being a regular reviewer is the wealth of great stories that came my way.
Genre fiction, whether SFF, Wsterns, suspense, mysteries, women’s and romance fiction, is just the thing for cold weather escapes from hard, cold realities.
A must read, but with caffeine: Healthy, Wealthy and Fair: Health Care and the Good Society , a look at American Health Policy and why the US never gets off square one toward readical universal healthcare coverage. This is a volume of chapters written by various health policy experts and ably edited by James A. Morone and Lawrence R. Jacobs
It’s a good primer to understanding the history and mechanics of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and almost, but not quite, successful policy initiatives of yore.
I also pulled out my pop-up Christmas in New York book since it is the season. :)
Just Asking @
58
Greeeat……Andrew Sullivan did say the election was an intervention.
-GSD
raven @
47
I read that just before starting Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors; it’s a decent book, but less successful, I thought, at conveying the Battle off Samar. it does try to get into the heads of some of the Japanese Admirals, which Last Stand doesn’t attempt to do, and is worth it for that perspective.
Recent and also worthwhile is Ship of Ghosts (by James Hornfischer, who wrote Last Stand), an excellent account of the USS Houston in the early months of the Pacific War, up to her loss off Java near Sunda Strait (along with the HMAS Perth), and the subsequent imprisonment of the survivors by the Japanese, which ends up tying into the story of the Burma Railway (heavily fictionalized in the film Bridge over the River Kwai).
Am reading Ireland by Frank Delaney.
Takes one to a land far away…pretty useful for a high stress autumn.
Listening to the Messiah, and getting out my childhood hymnal with Christmas carols. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear has an extra verse that is very anti-war. The lyrics were written in my town in Massachusetts, and so was the song Over the River and Thru the Woods [to grandFATHER’s house, btw].
Confessions of an Economic Hitman-John Perkins.
-GSD
I’m reading Pynchon’s Vineland. Excellent so far. A novel for our times.
Listening: Neko Case. Wow, what a voice.
The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy: and Other Stories by Tim Burton is currently my “commuting” book.
Sofistic at #33:
I had a course almost half a century ago from a visiting prof who was a well-known Wittgenstein scholar of the era; Maslow by name, IIRC. Anyway, my recollection of the first lines of his Tractatus is “The world is everything that is the case.” That’s about all I remember; that and the fact that he allegedly wrote it in the trenches during the Great War. I’ve long since lost the book and haven’t read him since. Maybe I ought to give him another try.
I’ve usually got a couple books going at the same time, which causes me some confusion if those books are dealing with subjects within a couple degrees of separation. Right now it’s Niall Ferguson’s The War of the World and Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Both are interesting. Ferguson’s is actually somewhat surprising. As an apologist for American Empire his take on the 20th Century isn’t that it was the “American Century” but, rather, the “Descent of the West.” The guy’s actually a very engaging writer of history so you’ve got to keep your wits about you when reading him.
Try: Charles Frazer’s “Thrirteen Moons”
A novel about thhe early north west.
Thomas Keneally’s “The commonwealth
of thieves” A novel of the
establishment of Australia as a
penal conolly of prisoners from
Old Baley prison in London.
I just started a new book. It’s riveting and i recommend it to everyone. It will hold your attention and render you unable to do ANYTHING else for at least 7 minutes. It’s called ‘My Pet Goat,’ maybe you’ve heard of it?
OhioTex @ 44
It’s brilliant. I wish I had written it.
universalhealth @ 76
Hah. I’ll add to this and say David Sirota’s Hostile Takeover plus Marcia Angell’s The Truth about Drug Companies make good companions too.
If you want an engaging, thoughtful, intriguing, well-written page turner give Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon a try. Set in Barcelona in the 1940s, has a historical flavor, but is mostly a wonderful tale. I have recommended it to 20 people and all have loved it.
Richard Welty @
29
IIRC, Sea of Thunder: Four Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign 1941-1945
By Evan Thomas
covers the same battle. Haven’t read either.
For fans of THE HUNT for RED OCTOBER, (at least the movie) there is dialogue about this battle between Connery’s character and Baldwin’s character wrt Halsey’s error.
Cider with Rosie
by Laurie Lee
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
This is the verse that isn’t usually sung, but I like what it says about war:
Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song that they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing.
And this is the verse I especially love to sing to people in nursing homes, and always makes me cry:
And ye, beneath life’s crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow,
Look now! for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing;
O rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 39
Well, some are inspiring, and some are heartbreaking.
I give two kinds of exams. One is an 8-hour take-home exam that consists of writing a precise, 6-page, legal memo on a convoluted hypothetical that I create on environmental law. The other kind is a 4-hour, open-book exam that requires short answers (from 10 words to 50 words, typically) to about 25 quite specific questions in administrative law or constitutional law.
The exams are exciting to read when a student ascends into A or A territory, but disheartening when I discover that a student thinks that she or he can get by with B.S. and comes up with a D or even F. (The grading is always anonymous, so I never know whose exam it is until after I turn in the grades.)
I worry about the second type of student, because they may do their clients real damage some day. I obsess over the fact that my teaching did not “take” on such a student. All my nit-picky teaching, asking students to examine and critique the logic of court decisions and lawyers’ arguments in fine detail, and passion of the semester, arguing that some day it will fall to them to “challenge authority” and not just take the word of the government, appears to have been for naught for some students.
But for some, it seems to make all the difference. One of my students from 25 years ago wrote me last month:
He is now the Director of Environment for one of our State governments.
And my best current excitement is that one of my former students has just completed 15 years of litigation that one might say has “rewritten the script” of the Jack Nicholson movie, Chinatown.
He helped force Los Angeles to put water back into the Owens River that was turned off by L.A. 93 years ago, an event that was chronicled in Chinatown in 1974. The water started flowing two days ago in what is being called the largest river restoration project in American history.
The accomplishment is chronicled in a Christian Science Monitor story, After 93 years, L.A. gives its water back, although that story leaves out the role that environmental lawsuits played in forcing L.A. to act.
I have no idea what grades either of those students got, two decades ago — maybe not the A’s, but certainly not D’s or F’s. Most importantly, they are both helping change the world.
I’m reading David Kuo’s book “Tempting Faith”. Not quite half way through, but you don’t have to read much before gettin’ a heapin’ helpin’ of his dismay about the lack of concern “Christian” conservatives have for the less privileged.
For fun I’ve been reading books about the history of the National Lampoon:
Buy This Book or We’ll Shoot this Dog
(by publisher/founder Matty Simmons)
A Futile and Stupid Gesture
(a Doug Kenney bio/Lampoon history)
I’m currently reading Jared Diamond’s Collapse,and have a stack of books in waiting.
More books are coming per holiday giving. I have a serious problem when it comes to books,I don’t really splurge on much else(except Burt’s Bees skin/hair products,yummy). If I had a million dollars,alot of it would be spent on books. One of the only good things my Mom did for me was to let me have any book I wanted and she read to me often. I could read books for first graders at age 3,and I don’t think there has been a long period of time in my life,some 4 decades later,that I wasn’t starting,in the middle of,or ending reading a book. Yay Books!
After Collapse,my next read is Banker to the Poor by Muhammed Yanus,then it’s on to a book about growing food for your family in the face of global warming/slash times of famine or other hardships. There’s also Joseph Marshall’s biography of Crazy Horse,and Allen Eckert’s fictional(but based on historical records)biography of Tecumseh,who I greatly admire,the title of that one is A Sorrow in our Heart.
We just got around to seeing An Inconvienient Truth earlier this week. Wow. I think I have a nerd girl crush on Al Gore now,lol.
My son loved all the Magic Treehouse books(directed at elementary school aged kids),they’re below his reading level now,but he still keeps up with the series(I think it’s up to 36 books now,but the books are all mostly under 10 dollars). They come in box sets and there are also study/teacher guides for many of the books. They make a good gift for the young reader. A little science,a little history,lots of magic,some adventure,mystery,and it’s all educational to boot. We like the books alot at my house. We also had quite a fling with Maurice Sendak’s Little Bear series when my son was preschool age til about kindergarten.
For early readers,Stellaluna and Verdi,two books by Janell Cannon, have some of the most beautiful and absolutely adorable illustrations EVAH. The stories are engaging and fun.
Where the Wild Things Are is one of my favorite kid’s books,I have all the Todd McFarlane Wild Things and Max figures on a shelf over my desk.Let the wild rumpus begin!
I could talk about books all day. Hard to tell,huh? lol. I just think passing on books you love to children is one of the best things you can do for them.
George @ 81
OOh, Vineland is fun. Especially the scene where the guy jumps through the window to prove he is crazy so he can stay on disability. Except this time they replaced the fake glass with real glass. Strange and wonderful characters and the setting is in my neck of the woods.
Haven’t read it yet, but I’m going to pick it up for my holiday airplane reading back to Kansas City: I Was Right On Time by KC baseball legend Buck O’Neil.
Buck’s back in the news, you see. A new batch of Presidential Medals of Freedom are being handed out . . . and no, Rummy’s not on the list. (At least not this one - he’ll have to wait a bit.) But the late great Buck is on the list, alongside blues icon BB King.
Damn, that’s a sweet pair. Gonna be a big party at 18th and Vine to celebrate, I’m sure.
O/T and apologies everyone, but this must be brought to light of day. The Bush administration wants to put lead back in gasoline:
http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/bl.....-with.html
madmax @ 85
About us eastern band Cherokees!!
It’s on my Santa list. Just cannot wait.
Team of Rivals was an excellent read. It was startling to discover the thought processes and style of men and women fron the 1800’s in America. Of course, it was truly enlightening to see the great republican Abraham Lincoln save the Union and free the slaves.