What are you currently reading, and how is it?

Me, MAO, by June Chang.

VERY interesting and politically relevant look at the steps of a soulless power grab.

It is ok so far

and Michael Gear,published by the Tom Duherty associates. they are Archaeologists that write about the peoples from the time of the ice age as they spread across the north american continent. each book is different hoe te describes the times and cultures.. one is a murder mystery, one is political intrigue, another is about mystical masks.. very fascinating visual masters of story telling

...Howard Fineman and Notes From the Trail, By Vanessa Kerry. Both were interesting. Fineman's book frames our current struggles in a very interesting way. I really liked his book.

I am now reading Ron Susskind's book, The Way of the World...it is EXCELLENT.

The first one felt like such a Tolkien ripoff I couldn't move on to the next. Maybe one day I'll give 'em a try.

Then you should never read Shakespeare, because they're ripoffs of Greek Tragedies.

My main problem, to be more specific, was how it was a direct, blatant ripoff that wasn't even entertaining. I'd give a more in-depth analysis of how many direct similarities there were, but I read the book about 8 years ago and can't honestly remember what they all were.

Everything is inspired by something else. All I ask is that they don't take so damn much from one source...

It's been slow going, because I'm sooooooo busy, but it's a huge eye-opener about Economic Imperialism that I've heard about for decades but never heard anyone go into the details of how, exactly, it works and what, exactly, happened in the countries that we are trying to control.


Naomi Wolf's Give Me Liberty is up next.

Dense read, yes, but a real jaw-dropper.

also, "the prosecution of george w. bush for murder" by vincent bugliosi

It's a great book, I just wish I had more time to read.

Some modern-day parallels as well, as much of it has to do with the old guard looking to preserve their traditional ways and rule by any means possible, and the new system of those who look forward, to progress and invention.

"Historical fiction" may be one way to categorize it. Fictional characters are interwoven around major events from about the 1660's through 1714...Newton, Hooke, Leibniz, William of Orange, Louis XIV, Blackbeard, etc...as some of Europe, particularly England, tries to progress from the Divine Right of Kings and into a system where power is vested in Parliament, currency, and trade.

Aka, "The Baroque Cycle." Best to start with "Quicksilver." Then comes "The Confusion," then "System of the World."

Good scholarship, great yarns, sly humor.

He's very imaginative.

One of my faves...I REALLY enjoy his writing style and dry humor. He just released a new book called Anathema that looks great about an enclave of mathmaticians and scientists who are trying to survive in a world taken over by fundamentalism and "anti-science." I bought it, but haven't started it yet.

This book will make you very thankful for the small things you have in life.

Star Wars book - never read it, it's ok.

Non political, I guess.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

The HBO series was good, the book is better.

Sid

This is the guy who wrote Paris Trout (won the National Book Award way back when).

It's a collection of stories/newspaper columns from earlier in his career.

You don't see many newspeople like him these days...

I should add another of his to my stack.

Heck, I think they're all good.

I'm not much on Western novels, but his Deadwood is awesome (and got me to reading Elmore Leonard's early Western stuff).

:thumbsup:

P.S. For those not familiar with Dexter's work, they can be somewhat brutal...just a heads up.

Just because I need to keep my outrage up.

General Stand Watie the last to surrender. (2 months after Lee)
He was 1/4 Cherokee and was moved here to Oklahoma at the time of the "Trail of Tears" but not with them.
He fought one battle at "The Battle of Pea Ridge" in Arkansas then finished the War running skirmishs in Oklahoma.

by Paul Farmer.

"...is an eloquent plea for a working definition of human rights that would not neglect the most basic rights of all: food, shelter, and health." Tracy Kidder, author of The Soul of a New Machine.

Not too far into it yet, but I was happy that it finally reached "next" in my cue.

again.

It's been quite a while since I read "Cloud Hidden Whereabouts Unknown" . . . (? I think I've got that title right, will have to google it.)

but he came to me well-recommended, and I'm glad I found him. He offers a world view that is much needed, nowadays.

should be to make themselves obsolete", i.e. they'd teach the message of Jesus so well that it would take root and LIVE amongst the Laity, in our daily lives, without dependence upon organized religion.

That was the first Alan Watts book I ever read. I saw that title and was intrigued. I subsequently read everything he wrote and was immensely influenced by him. A great and wonderful man.

by Suzanne Collins, the former a novelization of what he's been predicting in his columns, the latter -- well, a YA novelization of the worst of what Kunstler's been predicting in his columns...

Very good after the disappointment of Crossroads of Twilight but... As I had suspected for many years stupid Jordan got too ambitious and died before finishing the series. They got some guy I never heard of to finish but I'm pissed just the same.

Feel bad about what happened to RJ, but after a few books it was obvious he had no idea where he was going with that series. Someday I might go buy them all in paperback if it ever comes to a conclusion, but not before.

Great writer, not quite up to Jordan's standards but quickly getting there. Check out Mistborn: The Final Empire and Well of Ascension. I thought both were fantastic, and I'm eagerly looking forward to Hero of Ages, the last book of the trilogy, and the last WoT book.

I think the Unleashed! part is to make a really boring tech manual seem fun. It's not working.

For entertainment, I just got done with Waiter Rant. Very good read, especially if you've ever worked in the food service industry.

The Life And Death Struggle For Our Constitution And Democracy by Bruce Fein.

so so

just can't handle my "usual fare" right now. :hi:

I am reading "New Moon" by Stephanie Meyer. My family thought I was too serious and I was just depressing myself with what I have been reading, so I picked up the Stephanie Meyer books for some "mindless" and entertaining reading. I will go back to reading the serious books soon, besides I still have DU :).

I was reading "The Family" by Jeff Sharlet and decided my brain needed less real-life horror. So now I'm lost in Forks with the vampires and the werewolves.

Kelley Armstrong - excellent! The author definitely gives her own spin on werewolves,
vampires, demons, witches. "The Outlaw Demon Wails" by Kim Harrison is next. Another
excellent series.

How is it? Thoroughly confusing, thousands of names of people and places. I decided just to plow ahead and not try for a narrative, just glean nuggets.


How's this for honesty, shooting down the pandering to military veterans:

QUOTE FROM T.E. LAWRENCE, "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom," Anchor Books Edition, paper, p. 188: "...until a comparison of Kuhne and Foch disgusted me with soldiers, wearied me of their officious glory, making me critical of all their light."

With a 1984 chaser re-read.

I'll be moving on to The Shock Doctrine soon.

It's about the Animal Disease Research Lab on Plum Island.

scary stuff. Very good, but still scary.

So far, I'm really enjoying it.

His other books, including 'Unweaving the Rainbow' and 'The Blind Watchmaker' are just elegant.

The Blind Watchmaker was close though.

Terrific read. He was a great writer and he will be missed... :(

a biography of Julia Child when she and her husband Paul lived in France. It was in France where she became inspired to study French cuisine and attend Le Cordon Bleu. She was pretty obsessed with it, acutally!

It's a good escapist book :-)

This is the second of his mysteries that I've read. (The first was Jar City, which was also made into a movie that played at the Mpls-St. Paul Int'l Film Festival). Not only is the mystery well plotted and well written, but the setting in an unfamiliar country adds extra interest. Highly recommended for mystery fans looking for something a bit different.

I also just finished The Insight Guide to Cuba. My church is planning a trip to Cuba in line with its long-standing relationship (predating the revolution) with the Episcopal diocese of Cuba, and I'm tentatively signed up to go. I always read the Insight Guide to any unfamiliar destination.

Having recently discovered Gene, I'm liking it.

-Hoot

Gene Wolfe is the shit! The 'Mist' books are awesome, As well as the Urth of the New Sun books. The Long Sun books rock as well. I also have a book of short stories... ummm, can't remember the name but really really good stuff as well.

The ideas are just out there.

-Hoot

I find that Wolfe books are not often kept in stock and can be hard to find, I'll have to go look these up and order them. Thanks!

The first book is The Knight, here's the amazon page, complete with a nice review from the WaPo.

It totally hooked me on Mr. Wolfe.

-Hoot

Was written by his personal doctor, Li Zhisui.

My favorite part of this book is when Dr. Li is trying to tell him that he needs to pay more attention to his hygiene, lest he make his venereal disease any worse. Mao was a known skirt-chaser and had a penchant for virgins, who in Chinese culture were thought not only to bestow long life on the "user" but also were thought of as clean.

Dr. Li urged Mao to at least bathe.

"I don't need to bathe," Mao insisted. "I wash in the bodies of my women."

Whatta guy.

Anyhow! Enjoy your Thursday, all!

it would be nice to get some parallel biographies to help weed out the bs!

:evilgrin:

:rofl:

a Discworld book - funny; not as gutbustingly funny as some of the other Discworld books, but good nevertheless.

Also, just started Monstrosities by Edward Lee.

I love terrys books,some times it the only laugh I have all day.

:D I'll bust out into laughter, and fear I look like a maniac! LOL

he says anything that makes me laugh like that, has to be good.
I was reading in the Dr. waiting room and laughing, most people looked at me like I was crazy,but one man just said Pratchett Huh!

:D

I like to remind myself that a lot of what's going on is repetitious, and it helps my ability to pick out those features of the current situation that are in fact unique.

This book can be a bit depressing, but it puts everything in perspective for me.

Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling, which, to be brief, is about what happens after a strange event changes a few laws of physics, rendering all electrical devices and firearms - basically, every technological breakthrough from the last 200 years - useless. Only about forty pages in so far, but greatly enjoying it.

Jingo by Terry Pratchett, one of the Discworld books. 'Nuff said.

Acacia by David Anthony Durham. Only a few pages in, so can't really tell how much I'm enjoying it yet. Well-written, that's for sure, and enjoying it enough to keep reading.

Yeah, I read a lot...

The first 100 pages were great. The last 50 are agonizingly dull! But the end is nigh.

... pretty entertaining as always. The last few times through I've learned more about Hubbard so it is more entertaining.

The fact that they don't stop at the end. When they blow up Psychlo (or whatever the aliens' home planet was called), Hubbard then spends a hundred pages or more going into the aftereffects and the reconstruction, even the political systems and economics.

That's what most writers of post-apocalyptic literature miss: the rebuilding. They're usually good at blowing up the world, but I want to see them put it back together.

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: I want to know, but it makes me so ANGRY :nuke:.

good luck and keep your saneness with reading about that jerk.

going there. The DK travel guides are fantastic. At the same time, I am reading From Here to Eternity, great so far. But I can't stop picturing Frank Sinatra and Burt Lancaster!

And it is excellent. I love the title, and I display it prominently in public places as often as possible. Bugliosi methodically exposes the lies, deceptions and incompetence of BushCo with surgical precision. I would love to see Bugliosi questioning W. on the witness stand.

hard going tho, as it brings up a lot of bad memories of the past 8 years!

I would love to see someone take Bugliosi's groundwork and actually prosecute B*. Better yet, him.

Conservatives without Conscience, as with all John Dean's books he is right on target.

:spank:

It's quite good.

...to read...soon! :7

Very insightful, inspiring.

...for about the 3rd time.

Nerds Rule!

M. Glenn Taylor (a friend of mine. check it out here: http://trenchmouthtaggart.com/thebook.php) and The Chamber (Grisham. Never read any of his stuff before. It's ok.)
Went to the library yesterday and got my first Inspector Rebus book. Can't wait to start it.

a year or so ago. It was really interesting. (I have read a lot about him and Lady Mao. When I lived in Asia, I became fascinated with the Cultural Revolution and Mao.) It's definitely an anti-Mao tome, so if you respect him, this isn't the book for you.

Currently I am reading Dune. It's complex, but really good. It took me about 100 pages to get into it, but now I'm on page 200 and I'm loving it.

starting with "Broom of the System"

Challenging, funny, depressing, very human.

A friend turned me onto John D. MacDonald's series of Travis McGee books and I'm hooked.

I usually read non-fiction but sometimes you just need the escape.

I'd suggest his "Ethics" first.

Anything by Robert McChesney.

And HA! I'm reading Mao's "Guerrilla Warfare." I'd take that book you're reading with a huge grain of salt. Mao Tse Tung was a failed ideologue with new ideas misapplied by both himself and a batshit crazy fan base but accusing him of a "power grab" is pure unadulterated right wing bullshit. Chang Kai Shek was a fascist mass murder supported by the US government-- Shek ordered the opposition's heads blown off in the middle of the street killing 200,000 anti-imperialists (lots of film footage.) Mao created a bad economic policy that, combined with the hysteria and overzealous participation of the peasants, lead to a public relations nightmare which ended up causing the destruction of so much metal that farm production slowed and then was halted by a drought killing 3 million peasants. The GLF was a great tragedy and a great failure but not an intentional annhiliation of a people. And the nonsense about Mao Tse Tung robbing the peasants of the best food to give to the urban folk is also untrue: the guy was a peasant himself. He was a shitty economist. And the Cultural Revolution was fucking more batshit crazy insanity from batshit crazy kids. If anything the guy was a bizarre form of contradictory autocratic left anarchism: seize power from the fascists to maintain it for "the people". Tell the people to rise up against corruption in the Party incessantly. Stop the vanguard of the old Revolution from becoming the new oppressor. Trust what the mob decides. If people in a neighborhood decide that the pawn broker down the block is imperialist scum taking advantage of others, whatever they decided to do was cool by Mao. Some good people died, he admitted, but mostly bad people.

Frankly, I'm not sure if all that is worse than Shek blowing off communists' heads in the streets and enslaving them or modern China's oppressive market economy and massive prison-murder system. For example, a grand portion of skinned corpses at the BodyWorlds exhibition are murdered Chinese prisoners. One of the two exhibitions (the one run by Von Hagen's former cadaver manager) openly states that 'some' of the bodies are Chinese prisoners. The second exhibition claims that Von Hagen is also using Chinese prisoners and lying about it. Having seen the exhibition myself and considering that Von Hagen's factory is based in China and parked by a prison and this guy is his former manager...my guess is that the accusation is completely valid.

I take EVERYTHING I hear about Chinese politics with a grain of salt. It's another world all together.

It's awful & I probably won't even make it through. Thought I should at least try a sci-fi novel, but it's really not my thing at all.

Marie26, you've got to finish it! A masterpiece, it is!

I'm trying! But all the Bene Gesserits & Harkokkens & Kwisatzs (?) make my eyes cross. I probably will finish it eventually, since as you say it's a masterpiece. And at least the sand monsters are interesting. Now I can see where Star War got its inspiration.

The Dune series becomes less rewarding by an order of magnitude with each successive book.

I can only assume from his recommendation that that DuStrange is plotting against you in some way.

Feints within feints within feints indeed.

but I have NO INTENTION of finishing this series, LOL.

:rofl:

Er, I mean the Spice!

Either really good, or really bad. Can't really tell.

"Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and it's awesome! Makes me want to go back to the land and live of it, too!

:bounce:

:evilgrin:

How law-abiding and happy the vast majority of the people were under his regime?

but it is still only 1938 or so...

:shrug:

frozen in time.

Mao's actual achievements for the vast mass of his people.

"and top official Zhao Yushu issued this ruling:
Children abandoned in roads and fields by their starving parents must be
left to die People were so desperate in one Fengyang County commune
during the monstrous famine, which was caused by Mao Zedong's 1958-60
industrialization drive called the Great Leap Forward, that on 63
occasions they ate others who had died -- or resorted to killing,
carving up and eating their own children."

"the number of people who died in
more than a dozen repressive, often violent political campaigns between
1950 and 1976 -- especially the Great Leap Forward and the chaotic
1966-76 Cultural Revolution to create a new society -- is millions
higher than previously thought. According to some high estimates, Mao's
repression, radicalism and neglect may have been responsible for up to
80 million deaths."

* An article appearing last year in the Shanghai University journal
Society stated that at least 40 million died from 1959 to 1961. Previous
estimates have ranged from 10 million to 30 million. The article noted a
mistake in government population statistics for 1960 that led to an
underestimation of "unnatural deaths." Authorities later banned this
issue of the journal and withdrew it from circulation.

* In another study, National Defense University professor Cong Jin
estimated that 40 million died between 1959 and 1961.

* Chen Yizi of Princeton University's Center for Modern China did
research for years in China, first as a student and then as a government
official, and determined that 43 million had died in the famine, a
figure recently matched by a report from a think tank in Shanghai.
According to Chen, this made the total number of Chinese who died as a
result of Mao's policies 80 million.

* Yan Yunxiang, an anthropologist and professor at the Chinese
University of Hong Kong who has interviewed numerous famine survivors in
north China villages, dismisses bad weather as a major factor in the
famine, as the government has claimed in the past. Yan reports that
"1958 was an excellent year for agricultural production and 1959 was
only sightly below average." Drought was severe in some provinces in
1960 but not in every province.

* Ding Shu, a Chinese physicist and author of a book on the famine
called "Renhuo," or "Man-Made Disaster," has gathered new statistics and
reports on the famine from most of the provinces and concludes "this
famine was at least 90 percent the fault of Mao Zedong."


http://ncafe.com/northkorea/uncountedmillions.html

general happiness, indeed joyfulnes, of the vast mass of the Chinese people was related by some English teachers, speaking on the TV about their experiences there.

Of course, Communist China was never as degenerate as the West. The West has a record of being dragged by its leaders into fascism, war and economic collapse, as we are witnessing yet again. Now we have infected them, too.

Unfortunately, famines were a regular occurrence in China before, but you don't read about that. What's more the US-led Western world has been responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of men, women and children, from starvation, around the globe, every single day for fifty years and more. Ever thought what it would be like to watch your children starving to death before your eyes - and be powerless to soothe their hunger pains?


Its ruler, Chiang Kai Shek, was so corrupt (had worked for organised crime, a curiously familiar association among US Republican symapathizers), he even disgusted your own leaders who were funding (or thought they were funding his war against Mao). At night-time, he had to shackle his troops, who were starving, to prevent them escaping and joining the Communists.

Still no word from you about the vast, mostly healthy and happy society he left behind. In the US, it's the other way round, isn't it? The small minority are healthy and happy, while the mass of the people, even couples, each have to work at two jobs just to try to survive, while mass homelessness and vestigial health care are the order of the day. And that was in the good times. What do you think is in propsect? You may not have noticed this strange discrepancy between a putatively atheist society and our ersthwile, putatively Christian West, but the Christian God certainly has.

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their misgivings about Christian evangelisation, given the institutional Church's history.

1 55,000,000 Second World War (Some overlap w/Stalin. Includes Sino-Japanese War and Holocaust. Doesn't incl. post-war German expulsions) 1937/39-1945
2 40,000,000 China: Mao Zedong's regime. (incl. famine) 1949-76
3 20,000,000 USSR: Stalin's regime (incl. WW2-era atrocities) 1924-53
4 15,000,000 First World War (incl. Armenian massacres) 1914-18
5 8,800,000 Russian Civil War 1918-21
6 4,000,000 China: Warlord & Nationalist Era 1917-37
7 3,000,000 Congo Free State (1900)-08
8 2,800,000 Korean War 1950-53
8 2,800,000 2nd Indochina War (incl. Laos & Cambodia) 1960-75
10 2,500,000 Chinese Civil War 1945-49
11 2,100,000 German Expulsions after WW2 1945-47
12 1,900,000 Second Sudanese Civil War 1983-(99)
13 1,700,000 Congolese Civil War 1998-(99)
14 1,650,000 Cambodia: Khmer Rouge Regime 1975-79
15 1,500,000 Afghanistan: Soviet War 1980-89
16 1,400,000 Ethiopian Civil Wars 1962-92
17 1,250,000 East Pakistan: Massacres 1971
18 1,000,000 Mexican Revolution 1910-20
18 1,000,000 Iran-Iraq War 1980-88
18 1,000,000 Nigeria: Biafran revolt 1967-70
21 917,000 Rwandan Massacres 1994
21 800,000 Mozambique: Civil War 1976-92
23 675,000 French-Algerian War 1954-62
24 600,000 First Indochina War 1945-54
24 600,000 Angolan Civil War 1975-94
26 500,000 Decline of the Amazonian Indians (1900-99)
26 500,000 India-Pakistan Partition 1947
26 500,000 First Sudanese Civil War 1955-72
29 450,000 Indonesia: Massacre of Communists 1965-66
30 365,000 Spanish Civil War 1936-39
? >350,000 Somalia: Chaos 1991-(99)
? >400,000 North Korea: Communist Regime 1948-(99)

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there is a very special place in heaven for defenders of Mao and Pol Pot, no doubt!


:rofl:

Christian scripture, enunciated by the Son of God, himself, in Matthew 25: 31-46. (But of course he wouldn't have had the benefit of the American Republicans' wisdom. Still less, Joe McCarthy's).

There would be more homeless in a single suburb of California today than there would have been in China under the Communist regime - a quarter of the world's population.

:rofl:

...by which they get well-intentioned leftists to support vile rightist thugs like Stalin and Mao!

:hi:

seemed pretty obvious IMO

politicians, in particular, are congenital right-wingers; which is not, of course, to say that it cannot be sublimated by a genuine Christian commitment. As St John says, Christ gave his life for us an example. Sharing our ill-gotten gains from our despicable hoard would be a nice start. Particularly starting among our own people.

They were thugs who protected the poorest, instead of the monied people. That's all. Stalin was a particularly nasty psychopath, but no more so than the host of others your country in particular has courted, groomed and either supported or actually put in place as its vice-roys all over the world.

The closer this world comes to an economic apocalypse, the more I expect to see anti-Mao and anti-Communist posts on here. I sense you people are already experiencing a messy loosening of the bowels.

Really?

I mean, if the collapse of the Soviet Union, the stagnation of every society that has lived under Communist rule, the effective abandonment of Communism by the Chinese, and the utter craptastic record of Communist regimes in their treatment of their own citizens doesn't convince you that Communism might not be the bee's knees, what the hell would?

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Do you think Communism is a viable and/or desirable political/economic system?

Since the demise of Communism, there's been immense and growing suffering among the masses of the Chinese people

You can't possibly believe that life for the vast majority of Chinese people is worse than it was during Mao's rule, can you?

Why aren't you worried about the crooked elections in your own country by the way?

Who said I wasn't? I don't know about you, but I'm perfectly capable of worrying about more than one thing.

But, if you'd like to play by those rules...Why aren't you worried about global warming?

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You didn't answer my direct question, so I will ask it again: do you think Communism is a desirable and/or viable political/economic system?

I fully believe our own system is in dire need of overhaul, but could you please point me to one Communist state that we would be well-served to emulate?

And you can hold off on the name-calling, thanks. I haven't engaged in it, and there isn't any need for it. I think your ideas are silly at best, but I don't think it's necessary for us to call each other names. Thank you in advance.

Of course, the mass of the Chinese people, a very predominantly rural people, were better off under Communism, you fool.

Well, except for the tens of millions that were systematically starved or otherwise murdered by the regime, but what do they count, right? Seriously, to argue that the Communist regime, particularly Mao, was a net *benefit* to the Chinese people is just absurd.

Do you think the mass of the Russian people are better off under the kleptocrats too?

In some ways they are, in some ways they aren't. I think the Russians have an innate and infallible ability to be completely fucked under any political system devised by man, so there may be some other issues at play there.

Well you still haven't actually said you are? Why not say it aloud and unequivocally

Are you serious? Why should I say that I am concerned about a topic which is not the issue being discussed? But if it helps you out, I'm more than happy to oblige: I am concerned about the fairness of American elections.

Now, on to your disturbing lack of concern for a host of other issues. Why won't you state your concern aloud an unequivocally about global warming? Why won't state your concern aloud an unequivocally about racism? Why won't you state your concern aloud an unequivocally about gender equity in the pay scale? Why won't you state your concern aloud an unequivocally about crumbling school infrastructure? Why won't you state your concern aloud an unequivocally about excessive noise in public theaters during motion pictures? Why!?

and yet, questions OTHERS about being suitable for this board, and for heaven!


Did I log into maoistxianunderground.com?

If the "West" opposed Mao, he must have been good for China, after all.

I guess that makes Stalin his BFF as well. We have already covered Mao and Pol Pot-



I think we have all the primary murderers of the last century covered!

RIGHT?!

WOW.

it's pretty good...

Not really heavy reading or anything but something I've wanted to read for several years now that I FINALLY got a chance to start because of Hurricane Ike. I'm less than 100 pages in and I'm enjoying the hell out of it so far. :D

About the Stanford Prison Experiment.

Frightening and fascinating at the same time.

by Michel Onfray and found it excellent and very thought provoking.

Am now reading the letters of Vincent van Gogh.

He wrote beautifully! His letters are poignant and full of poetry.

dog book I have read in a long, long time.

:shrug:

but feel the need to comment anyway...

:shrug:

That book gave me the heebie-jeebies. Creepy, disturbing, but good. Just finished it yesterday and glad it's over.

Excellent, highly recommended and very uplifting. I'm going to buy a few copies of it to give as Christmas presents this year.

It's worth all the hype.

Along with all your regular school books, there's one book each term that you're required to buy and read. This is an all business school, so they're mostly along those lines. But The Last Lecture was it is this term.

;)

:rofl:

explains a lot about why 40,000,000 chinese died horribly due to his insanity.. wonder what W's excuse will be

Still so relevant and I thought a reread would be good. It has been a long time since I read it.

"At Canaan's Edge" by Taylor Branch is my bedtime reading. Learning more about MLK and the civil rights movement. I'm enjoying this one as much as the first two volumes.

"In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens" by Alice Walker is my easy chair reading in the evening. Her essays are very moving, thought provoking, and beautifully written.

Just started "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins, in my car. I have a wait for a ferry and a ferry ride when I commute. Still in the foreword section, but I'm looking forward to the meat.

and it is awesome.

Read it several years ago, but I like his stuff.
He knows a lot about politicians (He is a political reporter in Florida) and his opinion of them is even lower than mine.
He seems to think most of them are greedy, insensitive, self centered, manipulating, alcoholic quasi-sociopaths but he manages to make that funny.

I have known a few pols personally years ago, and that is as close as I ever want to get again. His books remind my why I feel that way.

mark

:rofl: :rofl:

I wouldn't say it's particularly well written, though it's not terrible or anything either. It's got a definite pulpy, "watching a soap opera of a trainwreck" quality. And it's pretty filthy in parts too, which is unsettling. I don't know--I started reading it as a joke (I work for a bookstore and got it for free) but I can't stop reading it either. It's interesting to see what the author does with the characters involved and how she makes them sympathetic. The Laura figure is pretty easy to sympathize with in the book, and the George character even is to a degree--but then you remember who they are based on and it's all icky again.

I don't know--I think it's worth reading as it's an interesting character study and it's interesting to see how the author treats those characters, and as I said, the whole soap opera quality of it--especially when the Bush family characters and their whole dynasty-ness are introduced--makes it a good guilty pleasure kind of book. It's set in Wisconsin, (before they go to DC anyway which I haven't gotten to yet) and since I live here that adds another dimension to it too--it's just neat to see how someone describes the places you know, regardless of the subject matter.

Madness" by Amy and David Goodman.

The similarities between 1929 and now are just DAMNING!!

I'm also reading a book called "Empires of Trust: How Rome created, and America is creating, a new world" a fascinating comparative history of the US and the early Roman Republic. The author explains that we and the Romans share a fundamentally isolationist mindset that resulted in us creating a unique type of empire he calls "empires of trust" (as opposed to empires of conquest and empires of commerce). Rome's desire for allies that would insulate it from outside invasion ironically caused them to get an empire they really did not want. The author compares that to the US and our isolationism. According to the author the US today is very much like Rome in the mid 100s BC, and compares Romes intervention in Greece to our role in the world wars. He compares the American people's outrage at the atrocities at Abu-Ghraib and Guantanamo to the Romans' outrage at atrocities done by legionaries in Sicily, and explains that such outrage is not seen in empires of conquest or empires of commerce.

The first in a 7-book series that I'm reading for the second time.

1. The First Man in Rome (1990); spanning the years 110-100 BCE
2. The Grass Crown (1991); spanning the years 97-86 BCE
3. Fortune's Favourites (1993); spanning the years 83-69 BCE
4. Caesar's Women (1997); spanning the years 67-59 BCE
5. Caesar (1998); spanning the years 54-48 BCE
6. The October Horse (2002); spanning the years 48-41 BCE and
7. Antony and Cleopatra (2007); spanning the years 41-27 BCE



From Publishers Weekly
If nothing else, this hefty tome, the first of a projected series, proves that McCullough ( The Thornbirds ) can write a serious historical novel that edifies while it entertains. Evoking with impeccably researched, meticulous detail the political and social fabric of Rome in the last days of the Republic, McCullough demonstrates a thoroughgoing understanding of an age in which birth and blood lines determine one's fate, and the auctoritas and dignitas of the Roman family mean more than any personal relationship. When the narrative opens in 110 B.C., this rigidly stratified social order has begun to erode. The protagonist, Gaius Marius, is the symbol of that gradual change. He is the embodiment of the novel's title, a genuine New Man who transcends his Italian origins and earns the ultimate political accolade--the consulship--for an unprecedented six terms. A brilliant military leader, Marius defeats the invading barbarian German tribes. Wily, shrewd and pragmatic, Marius is not above using bribery and chicanery to achieve political ends. Nor, indeed, are his fellow officials, whose sophisticated machinations are in odd juxtaposition with their penchant for jeering at one another, which leads to fisticuffs, brawls and even assassinations. As usual, McCullough tells a good story, describing political intrigue, social infighting and bloody battles with authoritative skill, interpolating domestic drama and even a soupcon of romance. The glossary alone makes fascinating reading; in it, for example, McCullough reasons that Roman men did not wear "under-drawers." The narrative's measured pace, however, is further slowed by the characters' cumbersome names, which require concentrated attention. Those willing to hunker down for a stretch of close reading will be rewarded with a memorable picture of an age with many aspects that share characteristics ontemporaneous with our own. Maps and illustrations by the author.

Cost me 7 bucks -- two new paperbacks would have been $15-16.

"Blood Rites" and "Dead Beat," if you're curious.

Great book so far, I'll definitely write a post about it in the Books: Fiction forum when I'm done with the two books (Dies the Fire and The Protectors War).

I have never liked Stirling's writing style. Ever. EVER. And I tried SEVERAL of his books and short stories before giving up on him. Some of the Draka stuff, the Peshawar Lancers, Island in the Sea of Time, Dies the Fire. Eventually I said "no more."

And Dies the Fire was jam-packed with ludicrously improbable coincidences and unbelievable characters to the point that it broke my suspension of disbelief. Hell, the whole concept sucks -- "Sufficiently Advanced Aliens decided to frag Earth's technology for no real reason and even make some low-tech processes like gunpowder and steam engines stop working!" Yeah -- if they can do that, they can wipe us out from orbit or drop tailored superviruses and hunt down the few who survive the epidemics. Be a hell of a lot easier than turning natural law inside-out and upside down.

In fact, I've got a rant about it somewhere on another forum...

It isn't what I'm reading now, but what I will be reading very soon, that has me excited to think about, and that is, Myrna Loy's autobiography, "Myrna Loy: Being and Becoming." I did not appreciate her enough while she was alive, and even remembered her book when it came out, but happened unfortunately to read a criticism of Greta Garbo's lifelong shyness, which I didn't like, so I never really read it. Now, years later, with more of an understanding of what a great, liberal, fighting true-Democrat she was, (and helped by a thread on DU by book_worm from last Nov. called "The Great Myrna Loy on Ronald Reagan," blasting Reagan for destroying everything she spent her whole life working for, and incredibly moved by TCM showing that wonderful movie "The Best Years of Our Lives" recently, and wondering what her thoughts were on that, etc.), I tried to get her autobiography and read it at last. I found, depressingly, that it is out of print; but then put it on order and am waiting for a used copy, when I will finally give her the credit she is due. That is what I'm thinking about.

Pretty good so far.

It's not a "blame" someone book. She interviews survivors of disasters such as 9/11, plane crashes, and writes why some people make it and others don't.
She doesn't go into blood and gore. She points out what is wrong with the directions for emergencies and how they can be improved. She takes you through the 3 stages of calamity: disbelief, deliberation and action. I think everybody should read this book.