Posted on 03/29/2011 9:52:18 AM PDT by MplsSteve
My wife is collecting the series. As soon as she acquires book one I am going to start reading them.
I just have a couple of the Dresden files to read before I am finished with that series.
Very enjoyable!
If I were to try and describe it in a nutshell, I'd say it's a sort of early medieval The Fountainhead, but not nearly so ponderous as Rand, despite the number of pages.
Dead or Alive by Tom Clancy
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl
Next up is The Great Gatsby, and I'm still not sure what will be after that.
It’s hard to put down - very engrossing. Luckily, it’s on a Kindle, so it’s not as ponderous as carrying around a nearly 1,000 page book! :-)
I’d forgotten to mention that I had also downloaded “The Hobbit”. I’d forgotten how good a story teller JRR Tolkien was. After I’ve finished “Pillars of the Earth” I want to go back and re-read LOTR.
Funny Kindle story about “The Lord of the Rings”: They’ve transcribed “The Fellowship of the Ring” and “The Return of the King” to Kindle, but not the middle book! I sent a letter to Amazon; hopefully by the time I finish the first volume it will be ready...sigh :-/
The period detail, the architectural references and both the political and church intrigue really are fascinating. It’d make a great movie if it were left intact as much as possible and properly cast, but that’s the big problem anymore with movies.
yitbos
Everything I can get my hands on about the westward migration...especially before the ‘49er’s—and everything I can find about Bodie.
(and The National Enquirer)
However, they took too many artistic liberties, IMHO. Notwithstanding, I think they portrayed three characters exceedingly well: Bishop Waleran, Prior Phillip, and Tom Builder.
Lights Out by David Campbell
Out of all the EMP books I’ve read so far, I like this one the best.
Been a while since I've read it and the name of the almost wild woman Tom Builder takes up with escapes me, but that was a memorable character.
The most haunting and harrowing scene of the entire book was the death of his wife during childbirth, though.
BTW, Dracula is a free download for Kindle and Kindle for PC (Kindle for PC is a free app...Freepmail me if you need a recommendation or advice for downloading).
Fluff reading: The Inspector Rutledge books by Charles Todd (13 of them).
The Devil’s Company by David Liss
A “tough-guy detective” mystery set in the 1700’s.
His earlier “conspiracy of paper” was awkward IMO and I can’t recommend it, but this is a pretty good gumshoe novel.
10 Books That Screwed up the World
Dismantling America
Obama Zombies
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
War’s End
I’m not familiar with this title but will check it out. Stalin and Mao outdid Hitler by a wide margin in mass murder. There was a Russian film from the early 90’s called “The Chekist” where the film makers were making the point that the indiscriminate mass murder started under Lenin. One of the rationalizations by leftists (like the worthless leftist historians discussed in the book that I’m reading) is that Stalin perverted the communist system and all would have been well had Lenin lived. The Russians themselves beg to differ.
On the subject of hatred of the Jews, Stalin was planning a massacre of the Jewish population in Russia, the Doctor’s Plot, which was only halted by his death. There is evidence that Stalin was actually poisoned with rat poison, which would have been a fitting end if he could have been killed that way 30 million times over.
All one needs to do is examine the lives of Stalin, Mao, Hitler and Lenin for proof of the existence of the Devil.
Still reading Atlas Shrugged - same as last quarter. And 2009... about 1/2 way now.
Mary Meeker’s USA inc
by far the best and clearest explanation of the macro US financial hole ever done
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