FR Book Club: What's on your Summer Reading List?

June 17, 2005

[Tanniker Smith]

The Free Republic Book Club is an informal gathering of readers and lovers of all genre of books, which meets on an irregular basis (whenever I remember to post and have a copy of the ping list available.)

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Today's topic: what's on your summer reading list? Whether you are going on vacation, sitting on the beach or just hanging out on your front porch, there's usually a good novel nearby. Any particular plans or will it be a more serendipitous approach?

[lastchance]

Left out a few.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel
anything by PJ O'Rourke
and for those whose leisure time in summer consists of 1.5 minutes a day don't forget these wonderful little golden books. The Poky Little Puppy. Scuffy The Tug Boat, Goliath The Elephant, Scrawny Tawny Tiger and Littlest Caboose. Happy reading.

[Lemondropkid31]

PD James? What do the PD stand for?

[InvisibleChurch]

Why Men Hate Going To Church -Murrow - Men are in charge but women run the show,. What does your church do that is run exclusively by men FOR men? ............................... (waiting for answer)............................. it's no wonder that dad stays home on Sunday morning

Shadow War -Miniter- just finished it. Most problems were borne years ago and noticeably ignored by Clinton. Then 9-11 and since then, W has wiped out a great deal of AlQaida in ways we don't usually think about... when did special forces go into afghanistan and what happened when someone ratted them out to terrorists in Iran? (the story has a happy ending)... Why did Spain's conservative party lose after the 3-11 elections? These questions and more asked and answered.

Blink - gladwell - explains how decisions made in the blink of an eye can be the correct ones or decisions made under great stress can't be helped ... if you know anything about springsteen's song 41 Shots and have read this book, then you know that Brucie doesn't know as much about human nature as critics and sociologists think he does ... and if he's wrong about what happened to Amadou Diallo, then what else is he wrong about? --- in short, under the same circumstances, a bunch of grandmothers would have beaten rodney king with nightsticks

Freakonomics - leavitt - what do sumo wrestlers and chicago public schol teachers have in common ... why do drug dealers live with their moms? ---except for his reasoning for the lowering of the crime rate in the 90's , it's a very interesting book

[lastchance]

All of Grime's early books are based on the names of English Pubs. I love old style English mysteries. Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh and Dorothy Sayers come to mind.

[JustaCowgirl]

I don't know what the PD stands for. She was English and wrote (writes?) British police procedurals. Her books are very well done, and she's highly thought of, but they're pretty dark.

[Lemondropkid31]

Oh really? LOL I didn't know that. Interesting. Hey does anyone like Dick Francis? I have read almost all of those.

[Centurion2000]

Items read in the last few weeks

CCSE study guide
CCISSP gold edition prep
Hymn Before Battle - John Ringo
Gust Front - John Ringo
Hell's Faire - John Ringo
Cally's War - John Ringo
Hero - John Ringo
Diaspora - Greg Egan
Shadow of Saganami - David Weber
Days of Infamy - Turtledove
Gate of Worlds - Robert Silverburg
Killing Star - Pelligrino
The Ophiuchi Hotline by Varley, John
Dragon's Fury : Long March

Not too bad a list for a month

[lastchance]

Yep I am a Dick Francis fan.

[Lemondropkid31]

It took me three months to read Peter the Great. I am going to stay away from long novels for awhile and enjoy some short ones.

[Pyro7480]

I'm about half way through 1776 myself. I put my second reread of Lord of the Rings on hold to read it. I'm up to the point where the Battle of Long Island begins. It was captivating to read about the British fleet showing up in New York Bay. I have never read such a detailed account of it. It must have been painful to see all those ships, and know the men on those ships are there to destroy you.

Other than those two books, I have purchased the following books this year, and I'll probably get around to reading them at some point (hopefully).

The Life and Religion of Mohammed, by Fr. J.L. Menezes (so "controversial," that National Review Book Service caved to CAIR's demands that they stop selling it)
Men in Black, by Mark Levin
Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism is Corrupting our Future, by Ben Shapiro
How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, by Thomas E. Woods, Jr

[bonfire]

"What does your church do that is run exclusively by men FOR men? ............................... (waiting for answer)............................. it's no wonder that dad stays home on Sunday morning"


The Mother's Day breakfast :)

[SpookBrat]

Stop what you are doing and run to your library and check this book out. I accidentally stumbled across it at the library and thought it looked interesting. It turned out to be one of my favorite books ever, of my whole entire life!!!! LOL I had to read it slowly because to me it was very deep without being "preachy". (I hate being preached at in a novel; let me draw my own conclusions). I would have to stop every few pages to absorb and consider the story and the analogies I saw and how it applied to my own life. It's about a leper colony during the time of Christ. Jesus is not a main character in the novel, and yet He is.

I'm extremely picky about my Biblical fiction and have little tolerance for blasphemy and this book never offended me. In fact, I usually stay away from Biblical Fiction because I can’t handle the usual assumptions made. I didn't even realize it was Biblical fiction when I checked it out; I just like history and thought it looked good. Yes, guilty as charged. I judged a book by the cover. You have to read this book! You will love it! It’s got a dedication to xzins in the front cover…..they knew you would love this book. LOL

[iceskater]

I always enjoyed his books. My mother is the one who let me know about his books. Definitely good for summertime reading.

Didn't he pass away fairly recently?

[Lemondropkid31]

What does your church do that is run exclusively by men FOR men? ............................... (waiting for answer)............................. it's no wonder that dad stays home on Sunday morning"

Sounds like an interesting book. I am glad my church is not like that! LOL. the church I grew up in was basically run by women because the men (husbands) had better things to do....

[Lemondropkid31]

Yay! I love his books. I wish he would write more.

[Lemondropkid31]

The Theones are relaly good writers. I had a blast with their Zion Covenant and Zion Chronicle series.

[Lemondropkid31]

"Didn't he pass away fairly recently?"

I haven't heard that he did. I would imagine my horse racing clubs and web sites would have said something if he had.

[iceskater]

I just did a quick search and his wife had a heart attack and passed away in 2000. She helped him with a lot of his research.

So, who knows if he'll want to write another book. It might be too hard - from an emotional point of view, I mean.

[cjshapi]

Have you read Janet's Stephanie Plum series?

[SpookBrat]

Greetings fellow Texan. I had never heard of the Theones and found them by fluke. All my friends love their books, but they are new to me. I can't wait to read more. I had to buy my own copy of Second Touch so I could reread it and mark it up with a pencil. It was a powerful story for me and really moved me, which is rare for a book to do. I love to read, but hardly ever am I "affected" by the story.

Blessings and kindness to you for the day...