[Tanniker Smith]

Without any other ideas of what to discuss, how about we get a sense of what the folks have been reading and what you think about them. My suggestion is this:

List, in order, your favorite three conservative books that you recently read. Use your judgment on what "recent" is. If you read "See I Told You So" seven or eights years ago, no, that doesn't count. If you only got around to reading it in the last year or so, okay, include it. But really, I'm interested in finding the books many of us have enjoyed, so that the rest of us can go seek these out. (We can do "books to pass by" another time.)

Please, list only (or at most) three, and please, list only books that you've read and enjoyed, not the ones that you're hoping to read and hope you'll enjoy, or ones that you were told by someone whose opinion you really trust that it is good and you're going to get around to reading it as soon as the library has it available. (You'd be surprised at the conversations I've had concerning books.)

With luck, we'll get a nice response, and I can tally them up when the posting stops.

I start, which will be easy because I've only read three in the past year or so:

1. At Any Cost: How Al Gore Tried to Steal the Election, Bill Sammon
2. Who's Looking Out for You, Bill O'Reilly
3. Let Freedom Ring, Sean Hannity

Again, forget about what you think about them personally, they're both good reads.

By the way, I would have liked to have added Reagan's book of letters, but, sadly, I've been quite busy and I only managed to get a small fraction of the way through the book before I had to return it to the library. (Couldn't renew it -- someone had it on hold.)

TS

[SweetCaroline]

GOOD, I LIKE THIS IDEA!

[jocon307]

bumping you for later!

It's mysteries all the way for me, but I'll try and post something a little more coherent in the AM. Have recently resumed commuting via mass transit, so I'll have time to READ! again.

bbl! Ping list me too please.

[nutmeg]

fyi

[LittleSpotBlog]

I'd love to join in... please add me to the ping list.

I'm almost finished with "Nine Parts of Desire" by Geraldine Brooks about women under Islam; an older book, but fascinating and timely nonetheless. The religion, among other things, is inherently misogynistic, and it's amazing that women under it survive at all. The very few positive female role models to come out of the Middle East are really interesting to me, if not a little depressing.

Another favorite was "Bush Country : How Dubya Became a Great President While Driving Liberals Insane" by John Podhoretz. That book really summed up what I love about W. Despite the bad rap, he has big ideas and the fortitude to see them through. Also, even though he's crucified for his verbal gaffes, his speeches are actually among the best ever delivered by a president. It's always amusing to me when the lib lesbos at my office go off on how stupid Bush is, etc. I just love that his critics are so consistently wrong!

[elli1]

Great idea. Add me to the ping list.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"So what should we discuss first?"

Will there be adult beverages served at said "Book Club?" Will I have to write Book Reports? Will there be comfy couches to lounge upon?

If not, count me out. ;) (But thanks for all the book suggestions. I always find great reads through word-of-web.)

[k2blader]

I'm interested in any FReeper fiction writers. :-)

[EdReform]

Books I've 'recently' read:

"Treason" by Ann Coulter

"Unfit For Command" by John E. O`Neill and Jerome R.Corsi

[Intolerant in NJ]

Finished Shakespear, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education (David Kirp) not long ago - detailed analysis of how colleges are watering down strict academic standards to attract more students - e.g. Brown University which was enrolling lots of second tier students until it "junked its standard-fare curriculum in 1969. What it called the 'New Curriculum' was crafted mainly by campus activists, and reads like an undergraduate's wish list" - thereby becoming one of the most popular campuses in the country.

After finishing I am Charlotte Simmons will be starting on Goodman, Musgrave and Herrick's Lives at Risk: Single Payer National Health Care Insurance Around the World, of which Newt says "This book will be an eye-opener for anyone who thinks a government-run system is the solution for our health care problems".....

[Right Winged American]

Stuff I just read this month — between Freeps, of course:

• State of Fear - Michael Chichton
• How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must) - Ann Coulter
• Crossroads of Twilight (WoT 10) - Robert Jordan
• Witch Doctor (Wizard in Rhyme 3) - Christopher Stasheff
• Grantville Gazette III (Ring of Fire fanfic) - Eric Flint
• Against the Tide - John Ringo

Starting Next:

• The War with Earth - Leo Frankowski and Dave Grossman
• Honor Bound (Book 1) - W.E.B. Griffin
• The Dragon Never Sleeps - Glen Cook
• Paying the Piper (Hammer's Slammers) - David Drake
• Diplomatic Immunity - (Miles Vorkosigan 10) - Lois McMaster Bujold
• The Service of the Sword (Honor Harrington Anth. 4) - David Weber

I've got a lot of time on my hands with Leukemia and Rheumatoid Arthritis, so I'll wind up doing 20 - 25 books this month.

[WVNan]

Currently reading "How to Talk to liberals (If You Must)" by Ann Coulter. I am enjoying it very much. Ann's ability to literally cut out the heart of a liberal idea and offer it up on a silver platter is great fun. One does not often laugh out loud when reading a book. With this book it's impossible not to laugh.

[Ladysmith]

Please add me to your list! I'm currently reading textbooks but am fighting for some spare time for some leisurely reading. Currently reading "High Crimes and Misdeameanors" because Business Law has help make sense of a lot of it. Then I want to start "Men in Black."

[MHT]

Uncivil War, about the meritocracy created by aptitude testing, is absolutely fabulous. It's the New Elites versus Left Behinds, precursors of Red-versus-Blue. It's a joy to read and see how we got into this situation.

[Teacher317]

I heartily suggest America's 30 Years War, by Balint Vaszonyi

He was a concert pianist (recently deceased) who came to America and noticed the similarities between the Progressive movement and the early days of Soviet Communism. He also is very diplomatic and fair about how the subtlest of differences in the original philosophies of the Left and Right make such huge differences when they are carried out to their logical conclusions.

[Freedom with Responsibility]

Add me to the PING list, please.

[Physicist]

Bibliopath ping.

[Physicist]

Recently read:

• Before the Fact by Francis Iles
• Trent's Last Case by E.C. Bentley
• The House of the Arrow by A.E.W. Mason

All three of the above are collected in an omnibus edition Three Famous Murder Novels, published by Modern Library. All three novels were good, but the first one made the biggest impression on me.

Currently reading: Standing Next to History by Joseph Petro.

[Xenalyte]

Right now in my bag:

Fowler's Modern English Usage, the 1957 edition (an amazing read for the grammar wonk)

How to Talk to a Liberal (already read, but it's good for five-minute fixes when I need a break from work)

The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Highly recommended - romance, mystery, thrills, plot twists. I do not recommend fiction lightly, and I say check it out.

[Tax-chick]

"Knowledge and Decisions" by Thomas Sowell, America's greatest living intellectual

"Home-Alone America" by Mary Eberstadt

"Hating Whitey" by David Horowitz
and a thank you to *Do not dub me shapka broham* for talking up Horowitz, and I also have "Destructive Generation" out of the library.

I was halfway through "Mr. Midshipman Hornblower" by C.S. Forester, when my husband snarfed it,

and I've got "The Dragons of Expectation," by Robert Conquest (author of "Harvest of Sorrow") in the pile.

[King Prout]

I don't read "conservative" literature - seems kind of self-limiting. I read to understand.

so...

To understand Islam:
the Koran - Mohammed
Understanding the Hadith (the sacred traditions of Islam) - Ram Swarup
The Sword of the Prophet - Sergei Trifkovic

To understand modern (and upcoming) warfare and international conflicts:
Carnage and Culture - Victor Davis Hanson
The Art of War - Sun Tsu
The Book of Five Rings - Miyamoto Musashi
(yes, I tend to believe we shall be at war, in one form or another, with China in the next few decades... and that we already ARE to some extent)

To understand America:
The US Constitution
The Federalist Papers