Beermo wrote:
sounds good. i love steven ambrose's books. i should be able to get to it in a week or so.
anything else of his you'd recommend?
i also read "candy bombers" a couple of weeks ago. it's about berlin leading up to, during and after the airlift. it has a lot of local politics in it and talks about the damn communists. a very good book.
With the exception of Pegasus Bridge, I have immensely enjoyed every Ambrose book I've read with "Citizen Soldiers" being my favorite. Along the same genre of "Undaunted Courage", "Custer and Crazy Horse" is a very good Ambrose book that explores the relations and differences between American Indians and European Americans. Of course, "Band of Brothers" is fantastic. I took my 13 year old daughter to Normandy last year and the various museums and historical sites really captured her imagination. When she returned home, she watched Spielberg's extremely well done rendition of the "Band of Brothers" series repeatedly.
If you are interested in American History, Shelby Foote's 3-part marathon "The Civil War" is a great read. It's long but well written and even entertaining at times.
Thanks for the suggestion, "Candy Bombers" sounds right up my alley.
Last edited by Highlander on Thu Dec 25, 2008 5:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
just finished reading "the devil's right hand man" by stephen michaud and debbie price.
it's about the efforts of the el paso county (colorado springs) colorado sheriff's department to match actual murders in 9 states to what they had been told by robert charles browne who was in the colorado state prison for killing a 13 year old girl in colorado springs.
it's kind of interesting, but not a great read. just o.k. the most interesting parts for me was how the el paso county sheriff's department had gotten retired police and military detectives and investigator's to work for free in their cold case unit and how hard those guys worked to try to get closure for the families of murder victim's.
Why is corporate welfare better than public socialism?
finished "heaven and hell, my life in the eagles" by don felder.
it's about ...don felder, who was a guitarist in the eagles from '74 to '01 and the enormous amounts of cocaine they all did. hehe. he talks about his boyhood in gainesville, florida. teaching tom petty how to play guitar when they were both teenagers. playing in a band in high school that also included steven stills. going on tour with all sorts of great musicians like david crosby and graham nash. getting invited to join the eagles in '74. how don henley and glenn frey got to the point were they took over the band, gave themselves bigger shares of the pie and pretty much controlled everything about the band down to what songs they would play and where they will stand during a show. he also talks a lot about joe walsh and his struggles with addiction and finally about how don and glenn kicked him out of the band when he tried to force an accounting of how much money they were getting and who was getting what. i thought it was a very good book and easy to get though. i would recommend it. very interesting. one of the better "rock" bio's out there.
i'm about halfway thru a bio on henry knox. it's slow going with this one. will post on it when i'm done.
Why is corporate welfare better than public socialism?
Wow...winter sure has given the forum tons of time to read..not that thats bad at all.. I wish I had the time..I find myself plowing through the news and mostly mags..However I did finally read and just finished as of last night..a classic..To Kill a Mocking bird..
Ahha..Maybe the secret is Books on Tape (cd digital age) while they pound the keys to the forum..Bringing that thought up..does anyone use these? traveling? while sick?
elextendo wrote:
Ahha..Maybe the secret is Books on Tape (cd digital age) while they pound the keys to the forum..Bringing that thought up..does anyone use these? traveling? while sick?
I have a buddy who you wouldn't think is a reader, but he's probably "read" more books than anyone I know because anytime he's in the car he's listening to a book on tape.
I just got "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell for Christmas and finished about half of it so far (its a really easy read). Interesting read, but I'm not sure it has the deep meaning he seems to think it does (as I would say about all of his books)
elextendo wrote:
Ahha..Maybe the secret is Books on Tape (cd digital age) while they pound the keys to the forum..Bringing that thought up..does anyone use these? traveling? while sick?
I sometimes use these in conjunction with the physical book. I'll listen to sections while cleaning or doing other mindless work -- or on the rare occasion I'm on the road for some reason. I rather enjoy it for certain authors that add to the experience of the book with their reading. David Sedaris is particularly excellent at this, as is Kurt Vonnegut.
just finished a bio of henry knox by mark puls. knox was a big part of the continental army in the revolutionary war. he was a general, washington's aide, head of artillery for the confederation of states during the war, head engineer for the army and a whole lot of other stuff. he was also a fat guy who had about 12 kids which only 4 reached adulthood. knoxville, tennessee was named for him as well as many counties in the new states to the west and of course ft. knox. he also came up with the idea of a national military academy at west point, n.y. one of the cool things he did was to be in charge of moving the captured artillery cannon and mortars from ft. ticonderoga to boston in the middle of winter. a distance of over 300 miles using carts, sleds, horses and oxen. the americans were able to shell boston and drive the british from the city in short order. he also came up with the idea and solution for helping our merchant shipping fight off the french during their revolution. super frigates for our new navy. which btw, almost everyone thought they would sink as soon as they left the drydock. these same ships were used to rout the british in the war of 1812. the number one ship in our current navy that resides in boston, the uss constitution or "old ironsides", was one of those first ships and still exists today.
he died after a terrible infection caused by a chicken bone getting stuck in his throat and ripping a hole in his esophagus. ouch.
the book was great on the facts, but read like a textbook. dry and boring. another important, but dull book. wait til you get to jail and have nothing else to read before you pick it up.
i'm about a quarter of the way thru the forgotten 500: the untold story of the men who risked all for the greatest rescue mission of WWII. what was that mission? i will tell you when i finish the book. i'm on page 59 right now and have about 250 more pages to go.
Why is corporate welfare better than public socialism?
Beermo wrote:
just finished a bio of henry knox by mark puls. knox was a big part of the continental army in the revolutionary war. he was a general, washington's aide, head of artillery for the confederation of states during the war, head engineer for the army and a whole lot of other stuff. he was also a fat guy who had about 12 kids which only 4 reached adulthood. knoxville, tennessee was named for him as well as many counties in the new states to the west and of course ft. knox. he also came up with the idea of a national military academy at west point, n.y. one of the cool things he did was to be in charge of moving the captured artillery cannon and mortars from ft. ticonderoga to boston in the middle of winter. a distance of over 300 miles using carts, sleds, horses and oxen. the americans were able to shell boston and drive the british from the city in short order. he also came up with the idea and solution for helping our merchant shipping fight off the french during their revolution. super frigates for our new navy. which btw, almost everyone thought they would sink as soon as they left the drydock. these same ships were used to rout the british in the war of 1812. the number one ship in our current navy that resides in boston, the uss constitution or "old ironsides", was one of those first ships and still exists today.
he died after a terrible infection caused by a chicken bone getting stuck in his throat and ripping a hole in his esophagus. ouch.
the book was great on the facts, but read like a textbook. dry and boring. another important, but dull book. wait til you get to jail and have nothing else to read before you pick it up.
i'm about a quarter of the way thru the forgotten 500: the untold story of the men who risked all for the greatest rescue mission of WWII. what was that mission? i will tell you when i finish the book. i'm on page 59 right now and have about 250 more pages to go.
Knox was my favorite figure from 1776 by david mccullough, The way he describes him in the book you would think he should be played by Jack Black if they made a movie. Interesting, fun loving, book store owner, hero of the Revolution that doesn't get much attention in the history textbooks. One of those guys that would have been very average if the opportunity to stand out, and some early luck/perseverance hadn't come along.
staubio wrote:
I'm a little late to the game but I'm reading Middlesex. It has been a great read so far. I've been away from fiction for quite awhile so getting caught up in a story is good times.
Finished this. I was expecting it to change my life based upon all of the personal recommendations I'd been given and how much universal acclaim it got.
It was quite good but not amazing. It really read like two books. The first was a compelling immigrant tale that could have stood on its own but it left thin by its treatment as backstory. The second is the actual coming-of-age story of Callie. Its real merits are more about the American Experience, Detroit's rise and fall and the making of an American family than they are about the character herself. The story is told from the omniscient perspective of the adult Callie (now Cal) and he seems rather obtuse and shallow for someone with such an incredible background.
It is tough for me to tell, though, whether this is a failing of the author or an intentionally portrayed failing of the character to somehow add weight to the story.
Worth the read and downright compelling at times, but it isn't destined for the history books.
The Zahir - Paulo Coelho (loved the Alchemist and The Witch of Portobello)
In Defense of Food - Michael Pollan
Several cookbooks - Marcella Hazan, Zuni Cafe Cookbook, Giuliano Hazan
finished the forgotten 500 by gregory a. freeman this morning.
it's about operation halyard, which was the name of the plan by the oss to rescue hundreds of downed airmen who got shot out of their bombers while on bombings runs to the oil fields of ploesti. it's also about how the communists were able to get people in high positions mostly working for the british and their schemes to get the british to stop supporting the chetniks, who were led by draza mihailovich, but continue to support the communist partisan's led by tito. although the book is mainly about this mission, there is a lot of back story on the people who were ardent communists working for the allies and how they were able to influence actions by the british government that led to embracing tito and who in the end was able to deliver yugoslavia to moscow after the war.
very good book. a real easy read and very interesting and in depth.
i would recommend it.
Why is corporate welfare better than public socialism?
two chapters into Silas Marner: The Weaver of Ravenloe (It's on the list of book I was supposed to read before college that I have changed to "List of Books to read before Dead")
Pretty good so far, female writers of the 19th century have a certain insight you don't find anymore, especial if they are writing under male pseudonyms.
shinatoo wrote:
two chapters into Silas Marner: The Weaver of Ravenloe (It's on the list of book I was supposed to read before college that I have changed to "List of Books to read before Dead")
Pretty good so far, female writers of the 19th century have a certain insight you don't find anymore, especial if they are writing under male pseudonyms.
george sand.
evelyn waugh.
Why is corporate welfare better than public socialism?
