What book(s) you reading? I just finished "Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic"

by Chalmers Johnson.

Anne Perry; a mystery set in Victorian-era London. Actually quite interesting, as it involves a hospital, current medical procedures (having just discovered anesthesia), etc. All right after the Crimean War - has interested me more in that period and I'll probably go dig up a few history books.

I've got Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter in the queue. I find modern politics / economics / etc. so depressing I read fiction to escape. I check the news sites, including LBN here, and then usually go for fiction, or historical nonfiction, rather than feel despair over our current state of venal politics and environmental devastation.

But - the book you finished sounds interesting. Did/do you like it?

Excellent read. These were some of the most heroic pilots in the history of the USAF.

I'm an avid student of military history, and an "amateur intelligence analyst" too, Demo Tex-lol.

The "Wild Weasels" developed tactics to run in fast against SAM and radar-guided AAA (anti-aircraft-artillery) sites, get "illuminated" by the site's radar (which gave the site location away), pull-up in a high-G jink and let the fighter-bombers roll in on the site.

The "Mistys" were a safer alternative to the low-slow forward air controllers .. FACs (Bird-Dogs, O-2s) in Route Pack-1 (southern North Viet Nam) and the Barrel-Roll and Steel Tiger areas of Laos. The Misty two-seat F-100Fs VR'd (visual recon) their AOs (area of operations) every day. They called in and controlled air-strikes by USAF, Navy, and Marine fighter/bomber type aircraft. The targets ranged from trucks and truck parks on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, to SAM and other AAA sites.

One of Misty's biggest missions, and where they dropped EVERYTHING else and where I often worked with them in Laos, was SARCAP (Search-and-Rescue Combat Air Patrol). Misty's reputation was stellar with the AACCC (airborne command centers .. call-signs Hillsbourgh, Moonbeam, King, Cricket, and Alley Cat), the Jolly Green Giant rescue crews, the Sandy's (A-1s that took over the close work during a shoot-down rescue), and my group, the Crazy Cats, who pinpointed the downed airmen electronically.

But, I must say, everyone dropped what he was doing to assist in a rescue. The book, "Misty", tells how a KC-135 tanker crew risked court martials to fuel a "Misty" involved in a rescue that the powers-that-be in Washington had decided to abort. The KC-135 crew had actually been instructed to deny fuel to a Misty F-100F (the Mistys hit the tanker 3-4 times on a 4-5 hour mission .. tankers that orbited just off the coast of lower North Viet Nam, or near Thailand over Laos)!

Obviously, I could post all night on this subject. Better not!

Khalid Hosseini, the same guy who wrote "The Kite Runner." Good book. Fiction.

also the April/May issue of Asimov's Science Fiction

Just finished reading "Walden" and "Civil Disobedience" by H.D. Thoreau

Very interesting and creative book!!:hi:

and as it happens I'm reading the Iliad to my son at night as our nightly reading...he happens to be studying ancient Greece in his Middle School history class right now.

So it makes for an interesting reading combo. ;)

by Thomas Cahill. It is the best one in his "Hinges of History" series.

detail (and with humor) with respect to the Greeks. It is certainly not a dry book, but Cahill's scholarship is without question. His books are lots of fun to read, in addition to being greatly rewarding experiences.

James Tiptree Jr's life as told by Jeff Smith. Through the words of Alice Sheldon (James).

It's fazcinating.
Khash.

by Christopher Moore

I'm trying to finish my Masters in May but I just had to have some fiction and it was a great book. Think Douglas Adams- sorta

by Robert Kanigel. It's the (so far) best biography on the life of the great 20th Century mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. A brilliant story about a truly unique figure.

Currently starting on "Human Smoke; The Beginnings of World War II, The End of Civilization," by Nicholson Baker. Looks like an interesting alternative take on the roots of the war and its ramifications down to today.

A marvelous novel that takes place in America in 1848. Very enjoyable.

It will get you pissed off about Viet Nam all over again.

How Reverend Moon Created The Washington Times, Seducted the Religious Right, and Built an American Kingdom by John Gorenfield.

Just finished Omnivore's Dilemma this weekend. I started it thinking it would end up some screed for everyone to become vegans, but I ended up really liking the book. It's very thoughtful and I found myself identifying with the author. I highly recommend it. Rarely do I read a book that I think I won't enjoy and end up being pleasantly surprised.

Now I am reading 1491, which the theme of is to address the problem that modern history textbooks only devote around 9 pages at max to pre-Columbian American history. Much of what is in the book I am already familiar with, being an archaeologist, but it's presented very well and is a great trek through subject matter that I am sure would be very surprising to the average American.

Industry.