Summer reading recommendations -- What are you reading?

July 13, 2009 | ChocChipCookie

[ChocChipCookie]

I haven't seen a good summer reading thread, so I thought I'd start one. What books have you read so far this summer, what are you currently reading, and what is in your book stack?

I just started reading The Doomsday Key by James Rollins. So far it has an interesting premise, genetically altered foods, but I am only about 1/8 of the way through.

I will probably read Glenn Beck's Common Sense and maybe Dred Scott's Revenge by Judge Napolitano.

I love hearing what everyone else is reading!

[TomServo]

Public Enemies
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House
John Adams

[EDINVA]

Gilead by Marilynn Robinson

Then I will buy a couple of novels to read at the beach next week.

[Pelham]

The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944

Rick Atkinson

[CARDINALRULES]

Anything by Christine Feehan, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Lynn Kurland and Julia Quinn. Paranormal and historic romances. All very well written.

My 18 year old nephew has read some of Feehan's Ghost Walker series and Kenyon's Dark Hunter/Dream Hunter series and liked them. Started by grabbing my brand new copy of Acheron even before I could read it and wanted to know if I had anymore of them.

Been collecting them as they come out or I find them.

[adopt4Christ]

The Preacher and the Presidents
(Billy Graham in the White House)....

It’s very good, actuality — even though it’s written by Time reporters. It’s brushing me up on my current history, the way it chronicles Billy’s relationships with each of the Presidents starting with Truman. I’m a homeschooling mom, so it’s helping me with teaching. I’d recommend it.

[warsaw44]

Recent books read:

’ “ They have Killed Papa Dead! “ the road to Ford's Theatre. Abraham Lincoln's Murder, and the rage for Vengeance ‘ by Anthony S. Pitch

’ Infidel ‘by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

’ The Wisdom of His Compassion. Meditations on the words and actions of Jesus ‘ by Joseph F. Girzone.

All quite good. Not sure what is next. Had thought about buying the recent publication about the USS Bunker Hill but am keeping a tight lid on spending much these days. Fortunately, I do have a fairly large number of books around here that have not been read yet.

[warsaw44]

The Great Bridge - About the Brooklyn Bridge.

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excellent reading!

[warsaw44]

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.

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Fantastic book. So well researched and written. My jaw dropped any number of times reading it.

Loaned it to a pal...now among the missing. ( book that is )

[Cinnamon Girl]

Bill Kristol’s mother, Gertrude Himmelfarb’s book “The Jewish Odyssey of George Eliot”— unraveling the mystery of why in the world Eliot wrote this profoundly Zionist book.

[eclecticEel]

First, I just finished a great book, The Character of Nations by Angelo Codevilla. It was a recommendation of T. Sowell's, so you know it had to be good. Initially it was in truth a bit dry, but after a lengthy first section on the Soviet failure that was more pedantic than illuminating the author began picking up steam in the remaining 2/3rds of the book. His main contention is that the particulars of a nation's regime (all it's social institutions, not just government) shape what type of people inhabit that nation, either for good or for ill. Although seemingly obvious, such assertions are discomforting to the left - mostly as they don't want anyone to think too deeply about what they're doing to us. In any event, Codevilla compares a host of different nations around the globe and documents the effects of their various regimes. His quest for understanding political economy leads him over a wide range of different cultures from Chile to Sicily to the three Confusion nations (China, Taiwan, and Singapore). Only at the end does he get around to talking about us, and the tectonic changes that we are perpetuation on ourselves, often unawares.

Second, I'm reading Venice, a Maritime Republic, a fairly straightforward account of the rise and eventual fall of that most acclaimed Republic. It's interesting enough - if you're into that sort of thing - and unlike the previous selection is nonpolitical, in that there is no attempt made to tie anything in the history of Venice to anything happening today. I'm about a third of the way through, the author has gone into great detail describing the particulars of Venician commerce, seamanship, and communal regulation (the 'commune' being in this case the group of men who made up the various bodies of government, which were legion). Interestingly enough, Venice had no division between legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government - instead checks and balances were provided by having a multitude of interlocking councils, and heavy use of chance (in the form of casting lots) in their selection of rulers. Their version of the electoral college actually functioned as it was intended, though only through a complex procedure involving a series of votes and lot-castings to arrive at a final set of electors.

Third, I'm reading How to Live on Mars: A Guidebook to Surviving and Thriving on the Red Planet. Fair warning, it's an attempt at humor written by an engineer - I need say no more about that. Zubrin is a space enthusiast and has already written several books about colonizing Mars, in this installment he presents his ideas as a guidebook from the future at a time when Mars is actively being colonized. I think the date is supposed to be sometime near the end of the century. He presents a vision of what a colonization effort might look like. The technology he describes is all present day, he doesn't invent any new wonder technologies to get his settlers to their new planet - of course, that's much the same as the message he's been preaching for years, that Mars is achievable in the here and now rather than the far off and someday. Unfortunately for his settlers the whole planet is controlled by an overarching and meddlesome bureaucracy (making me wonder why you'd leave Earth in the first place just to bring it all with you), but nevertheless the nascent Martians show a strong streak of independence and just might get free of their Earthly Big Brothers in the long run - I suppose that's the dramatic arc of the book. As an aside, I especially enjoyed his astute (perhaps even humorous) critique of the warming-monger rhetoric.

Third, I'm reading Yeager which as you might imagine is the autobiography of the iconic pilot (and fellow Duncan Hunter devotee), having only read a couple pages so far I have not much to say about it.

All in all a profitable summer collection.

[spyone]

“Declare” by Tim Powers. Excellent fiction recommended by freeper Cicero. Thanks Ciss.

“To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World” by Arthur Herman. Two chapters through...fascinating!

[spyone]

Have had that on my bookshelf for a decade, but haven’t read it. Thanks for the recommendation.

[Blind Eye Jones]

I’m reading a book of Canadian Short Stories.

[Cinnamon Girl]

The book in question being “Daniel Deronda”. Woopsies. But maybe you already knew that. ;)

[SunkenCiv]

Whoops, sorry, I should have thanked ChocChipCookie for posting this topic in the first place. [blush]

And wowzo, lot of variety here:

djf — Don Quixote

[great, now I’ve I got the title number from the movie running through my head]

NCDragon — Bushwackers: The Civil War in North Carolina; The Mountains by William R Trotter. Part of a trilogy of the Civil War in NC. Silk Flags and Cold Steel: The Piedmont, and Ironclads and Columbiads: The Coast.

2ndDivisionVet — The Walking Drum by Louis L’Amour

Betis70 — Just finished the Troy series by Gemmell. Excellent... Currently, “Shop Class as Soulcraft” by Matthew Crawford... Next up, “Men of Bronze” by Scott Oden

Perdogg— Conquest of Gaul - Julius Caesar, All tomorrow’s parties - William Gibson, Pattern Recognition - William Gibson, DVD - Mission Impossible Season 1

Pelham — The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 by Rick Atkinson

[SunkenCiv]

I remember “Yeager” as having been a lot of fun to read. That was the first memoir I read which used the “other voices” idea, in which some of the chapters were contributed by people in the author’s life (his wife, for one).

[Condor51]

'The Art of War' by Sun Tzu
I actually finished 'reading it' a while back and am now in the 'study / comment section'

Written approx 2,500 years ago and is still studied today at the Army War College.
A very appropriate book IMO due to 'our times'.

[bert]

Mysteries and Discoveries of Archeoastronomy by Guilio Magli

An in parallel, The Chaco Meridian by Stephen Lekson

The former refutes many old time theories and provides rational theories for old buildings based on lunar, solar, and stellar alignments.

The latter describes a meridian along which are constructed the Anasazi centers of Chaco Canyon, Aztec and Paquim while chiding conventional archeology for missing the point.

[wordsofearnest]

I passed 3 parts after taking Becker. It took me two more attempts to pass Business Law.

[bert]

I get calvin and hobbes strip delivered to my desk top every morning from http://www.mycomics.com/

All you have to do is ask them