Re: What Book You Reading?

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Takilma Tales.
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This book chronicles the history and legacy of hippies here in the Illinois valley (in Oregon). It's a fascinating read if you live here. It also fits nicely with this thread of mine. I note that Marijuana continues to be a thing around here.

Heh.
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:)
Hell is where:
The British are the chefs
The Swiss are the lovers
The French are the mechanics
The Italians make everything run on time
And the Germans are the police

Re: What Book You Reading?

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Still working through Wolff's "Fire and Fury". It's compelling, but I gotta keep putting it down, like watching a train wreck in slo-mo.

For all the criticism of some of the details, it really has the ring of truth about how all these moron nitwits keep self-serving and cutting each other's throat around the nit-wit-in-chief.

He got rid of Bannon and Gorka (I credit Kushner with pushing out the 2 anti-Semites, one overt anti-Semite, the other full-on Nazi--Vitezi Rend).
But Miller's still there. Miller, who doesn't realize he's the Judas Goat for the alt-right, whom they will turn on once he's betrayed the rest. I doubt he's any friend of Jarvanka, despite being a "landsman", because he's just such a total fuck-things-up-for-the-grins creep.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: What Book You Reading?

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Trek wrote:Fire and Fury, what else is there right now.
Just finished it. Despite the bullshit around it, it's SO close to what we observe from the outside I suspect it's mostly true.

Bannon might have been the smartest guy in the White House, and he is pretty smart, but he's not nearly half as smart as he thinks he is.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: What Book You Reading?

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Here are some other recent reads on my Kindle Fire:

Deadly Force: Understanding your Right to Self-Defense by Massad Ayoob
Pennsylvania Gun Law: Armed and Educated
A Colony in a Nation by Chris Hayes of MSNBC
Twilight of the Elites by Chris Hayes
A Black Man in the White House by Cornell Belcher
Heretic by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
2015 Edition of Gun Laws by State
Brazil's Dance with the Devil by Dave Zirin
A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warrren
Capital by Thomas Piketty
Dog Whistle Politics by Ian Haney Lopez
Plutocrats by Chrystia Freeland
What's the Matter with White People by Joan Walsh
Dear White America by Tim Wise
Confidence Men by Ron Susskind
What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku
Griftopia by Matt Taibbi
Nigger by Randall Kennedy
The Persistence of The Color Line by Randall Kennedy
Disintegration by Eugene Robinson
The Rise of the Fourth Reich by Jim Marrs
The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and Slavery by Eric Foner
1861: The Civil War Awakening by Adam Goodheart
Democracy in America, Volume I and II by Alexis De Tocqueville
The Price of Inequality by Joseph Stiglitz
Hitlerland: American eyewitnesses to the Nazi rise to power by Andrew Nagorski

As you can see I don't read novels, fiction, but Hitlerland reads like a thrilling novel. One of the most fascinating books I've ever read. I highly recommend it. I started reading and couldn't stop.
"The last thing right-wing nuts, fascists and haters want is liberals owning guns and knowing how to use them." - Wise Liberal

Re: What Book You Reading?

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Trek wrote:Here are some other recent reads on my Kindle Fire:

Deadly Force: Understanding your Right to Self-Defense by Massad Ayoob
Pennsylvania Gun Law: Armed and Educated
A Colony in a Nation by Chris Hayes of MSNBC
Twilight of the Elites by Chris Hayes
A Black Man in the White House by Cornell Belcher
Heretic by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
2015 Edition of Gun Laws by State
Brazil's Dance with the Devil by Dave Zirin
A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warrren
Capital by Thomas Piketty
Dog Whistle Politics by Ian Haney Lopez
Plutocrats by Chrystia Freeland
What's the Matter with White People by Joan Walsh
Dear White America by Tim Wise
Confidence Men by Ron Susskind
What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku
Griftopia by Matt Taibbi
Nigger by Randall Kennedy
The Persistence of The Color Line by Randall Kennedy
Disintegration by Eugene Robinson
The Rise of the Fourth Reich by Jim Marrs
The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and Slavery by Eric Foner
1861: The Civil War Awakening by Adam Goodheart
Democracy in America, Volume I and II by Alexis De Tocqueville
The Price of Inequality by Joseph Stiglitz
Hitlerland: American eyewitnesses to the Nazi rise to power by Andrew Nagorski

As you can see I don't read novels, fiction, but Hitlerland reads like a thrilling novel. One of the most fascinating books I've ever read. I highly recommend it. I started reading and couldn't stop.
Goodness!
Not even a bit of Jane Austin? You are a most serious fellow.
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Re: What Book You Reading?

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HuckleberryFun wrote:
Trek wrote:Here are some other recent reads on my Kindle Fire:

Deadly Force: Understanding your Right to Self-Defense by Massad Ayoob
Pennsylvania Gun Law: Armed and Educated
A Colony in a Nation by Chris Hayes of MSNBC
Twilight of the Elites by Chris Hayes
A Black Man in the White House by Cornell Belcher
Heretic by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
2015 Edition of Gun Laws by State
Brazil's Dance with the Devil by Dave Zirin
A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warrren
Capital by Thomas Piketty
Dog Whistle Politics by Ian Haney Lopez
Plutocrats by Chrystia Freeland
What's the Matter with White People by Joan Walsh
Dear White America by Tim Wise
Confidence Men by Ron Susskind
What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku
Griftopia by Matt Taibbi
Nigger by Randall Kennedy
The Persistence of The Color Line by Randall Kennedy
Disintegration by Eugene Robinson
The Rise of the Fourth Reich by Jim Marrs
The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and Slavery by Eric Foner
1861: The Civil War Awakening by Adam Goodheart
Democracy in America, Volume I and II by Alexis De Tocqueville
The Price of Inequality by Joseph Stiglitz
Hitlerland: American eyewitnesses to the Nazi rise to power by Andrew Nagorski

As you can see I don't read novels, fiction, but Hitlerland reads like a thrilling novel. One of the most fascinating books I've ever read. I highly recommend it. I started reading and couldn't stop.
Goodness!
Not even a bit of Jane Austin? You are a most serious fellow.
I'm stuck in the past when it comes to fiction. After Moby Dick, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, The Naked and the Dead, and Catch-22 nothing today seems to measure up. I can't think of a novel in the last 20 years that was worth reading. :cry:
"The last thing right-wing nuts, fascists and haters want is liberals owning guns and knowing how to use them." - Wise Liberal

Re: What Book You Reading?

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Just finished Harlen Coben's "Never Let Go" that mentions lots of place I know and go to, and is a great mystery to boot.

Now just starting Andy Weir's "Artemis" (the guy who published "The Martian" on Amazon--and it turned into a great movie!)
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: What Book You Reading?

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I just finished The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture. Now I am reading Before You Know it: The Unconscious Reasons We Do What We Do.

My quick review of The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture.
As I described it to my co-workers, it was a very interesting look at how Batman changed through the years. These changes reflected our own society.

In that regard, I would have liked more broad social context to place against these changes in Batman; some form of parallel timelines.

In all it was a very enjoyable book. It was a bit academic to appeal to the stereotypical, young male, batman audience. However, for those of us who grew up with "The Bat" it was a good look at the changes that I have seen and placed them in the context of the comic book industry.

That probably contains my biggest complaint about the book. It seemed to put more emphasis into the business side of Batman than into, as I mentioned before, the social context. However, all taken together, I enjoyed the book
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"Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Matt. 25:40

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I am now on The Forsaken. It is a surprisingly readable look at what happened to the Americans who went to Russia, during the Great Depression, looking for jobs.

. . . Spoiler: It didn't turn out well for them.
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from here
A remarkable piece of forgotten history- the never-before-told story of Americans lured to Soviet Russia by the promise of jobs and better lives, only to meet tragic ends

In 1934, a photograph was taken of a baseball team. These two rows of young men look like any group of American ballplayers, except perhaps for the Russian lettering on their jerseys. The players have left their homeland and the Great Depression in search of a better life in Stalinist Russia, but instead they will meet tragic and, until now, forgotten fates. Within four years, most of them will be arrested alongside untold numbers of other Americans. Some will be executed. Others will be sent to “corrective labor” camps where they will be worked to death. This book is the story of lives-the forsaken who died and those who survived.

Based on groundbreaking research, The Forsaken is the story of Americans whose dreams were shattered and lives lost in Stalinist Russia.
from here
"Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Matt. 25:40

Re: What Book You Reading?

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Hasaf wrote: Wed Mar 14, 2018 1:04 pm I am now on The Forsaken. It is a surprisingly readable look at what happened to the Americans who went to Russia, during the Great Depression, looking for jobs.

. . . Spoiler: It didn't turn out well for them.
Image

from here
A remarkable piece of forgotten history- the never-before-told story of Americans lured to Soviet Russia by the promise of jobs and better lives, only to meet tragic ends

In 1934, a photograph was taken of a baseball team. These two rows of young men look like any group of American ballplayers, except perhaps for the Russian lettering on their jerseys. The players have left their homeland and the Great Depression in search of a better life in Stalinist Russia, but instead they will meet tragic and, until now, forgotten fates. Within four years, most of them will be arrested alongside untold numbers of other Americans. Some will be executed. Others will be sent to “corrective labor” camps where they will be worked to death. This book is the story of lives-the forsaken who died and those who survived.

Based on groundbreaking research, The Forsaken is the story of Americans whose dreams were shattered and lives lost in Stalinist Russia.
from here
That looks like a good read.
I have Aleksander Solzhenitsyn’s three volume history of the camps The Gulag Archipelago on my shelf.
This was never mentioned, so even he might not have known of it. Thanks for the lead.
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Re: What Book You Reading?

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HuckleberryFun wrote: Fri Mar 16, 2018 12:04 am
MaxwellG wrote: Thu Mar 15, 2018 8:55 pm I can't read...


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Well hell, if you really want to know what Cowboy tastes like and you don’t like to read...
I can tell you all you need to know. :gday:
Is that a verb or a proposition? Huck you're a riot!

Also paging through this one for when I start reloading .45LC and .45 ACP:
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Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable.

Re: What Book You Reading?

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I’ve been on a mission to read the few unread books in my bookcase.
I’m into volume 2 of Carl Sandburg’s six volume Sangamon edition of the Life of Lincoln. He was a writer & poet rather than an historian, so the text is more lyrical than strictly accurate, but it’s a good read that seduces you.

I enjoyed Lincoln’s 1854 letter to a friend ripping into the Know-Nothing Party (the Trumpies of their day):
I am not a Know-Nothing; that is certain. How could I be? How can anyone that abhors the oppression of the negroes be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation we began by declaring ‘All men are created equal.’ We now practically read it, ‘All men are created equal, except negroes.’ When the Know-Nothings get control, ‘All men are created equal except negroes, foreigners, and Catholics.’ When it comes to this I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty —to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the alloy of hypocrisy.’
Ugliness runs deep and was always there.
Read enough history and you Know that Nothing really changes (see what I did there?).
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Re: What Book You Reading?

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Simultaneously reading Dan Brown's "Origin" (so-so so far) and the latest Decker/Lazarus novel by Faye Kellerman "Walking Shadows"

When Woodward's book is released I'll get that, too.

Always read in Kindle unless I need a service manual or a cookbook.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

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