Posted on 01/08/2017 9:15:35 AM PST by Mercat
After the raucous ride of 2016, there’s a lot to be said for hitting the books for some good reading.
Whether it’s history, policy, or religion that you find most interesting, here is an assortment of books that our friends from The Heritage Foundation recommend.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailysignal.com ...
The very first book I looked up in the library system was labeled “missing, no copies available”. The date of publication was 2014-how could they lose a book that quickly?
Probably someone swiped it.
I’ve seen the library employees; I thought perhaps one of them got rid of it.
I guess that’s a possibility, too. What book were you looking for?
To read a book about the period of history I was born during, lived through, i.e., ‘The Cold War’, and survived, I would better read all my journals, than some other writer, who most undoubtably placed ‘their own slant on it’, thereby ruining the soup.
And why would anyone, I mean ANYONE, want to read a book about QUEERS? Since the outright threat of mass murder through the infection of the Los Angeles Basin Red Cross blood supply by queers in 1984, through to today, suffering the soiling of The White House with a pair of them existing in it for 8 long insufferable years, hoodatruck gives a rodent’s posterior, about a book concerning them?
I have so many real books, i.e., non-electronic documents, to read because I like certain authors, even if one or two are rushed works, to keep the reading public captive.
Bump and save for some fantastic 2017 reading
I think the most helpful view of a historical period comes from reading both original sources, such as diaries, contemporaneous journalism, or memoirs of participants, and a selection of recent scholarship.
The immediate sources give an impression of what it was like to live through the events. The recent publications include information that was unavailable to individual participants and can provide an overview of the events as a whole.
“The Boys in the Boat” was a fantastic read. Would highly recommend it. My sister’s father-in-law grew up in Sequim (pronounced “Squim”), WA, with Joe Rantz, the main character in the book.
I wrote: “I would better read all my journals, than some other writer, who most undoubtably placed ‘their own slant on it’, thereby ruining the soup.”
Taxchick wrote in response:
“I think the most helpful view of a historical period comes from reading both original sources, such as diaries, contemporaneous journalism, or memoirs of participants, and a selection of recent scholarship.
The immediate sources give an impression of what it was like to live through the events. The recent publications include information that was unavailable to individual participants and can provide an overview of the events as a whole.”
My summation:
1. In the writer’s voice that Taxchick employed, it is evident that her either period of birth, was well after The Fall of The Berlin Wall, or she has been indoctrinated so, to believe that the writings of one Miss Anne Frank are an editor’s correction of the period of events, as seen through post-war eyes.
2. To state that individual first-hand journaled experiences are, weak at best, without impartial post-event histories included, is assenine.
3. Methinks she has been to the ivory tower of academia once too often, and not stopped by her parents.
I beg your pardon? I can’t say I entirely understood that, but the tone is sufficiently hostile to make me wonder how it could be responsive to my quite banal proposal of an approach to historical study.
Anyway, have a nice day.
I read and listened on audio book to the Bible at least three times straight through. I read the daily readings from the USCCB. I have been through several books/themes of the Bible in Bible study. Right now we’re going through Isaiah. For a while I read the liturgy of the hours which is almost all Psalms. But it was too demanding and I prefer less structured prayer. As I get older I read more.
I love Isaiah. My family reads through it at least every other year. We do all four Gospels each year, and then various other books. “Okay, we’re done the Minor Prophets, what do you want next?”
If books of the Bible were Shakespeare plays, Isaiah would be “Hamlet,” because almost every Bible verse people remember is from Isaiah. Jeremiah would be “Richard III,” with all the political backbiting culminating in disaster. Ezekiel would be “Macbeth,” with the visions, and Revelation is “The Tempest,” because who gets any of it, really, but it’s cool!
I’m a big Shakespeare fan too. I love the little trivia quizzes on a Christian Radio channel I listen to.... they say a quote and ask whether it came from the Bible or Shakespeare or neither one. Pretty easy for me but amazing how many people miss.
I’m going to be running a Shakespeare course for my kids and some others from the homeschool association this year. We’ll start with “Richard II” and plow through the Wars of the Roses until we crash and burn with “Richard III.” Fun times!
Nothing builds your verbal SAT score like Shakespeare study.
Does the constitution count as a book?
We found a booklet of the Constitution in our cat’s bed this afternoon. When our feline overlords are in control, you can say you read it here first.
Hmmmm. I don’t know.
The books are conservative and I'm looking forward to reading “Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror” by Gen. Michael Hayden and several others.. And yes, the author of “Hillbilly Elegy” was referring to his own family and to himself but I still find the term offensive. Not an excuse... apologies to all ...
Like other terms that originated as slurs, some people have embraced “hillbilly” and “redneck.”
I liked Mr. Vance’s book, and so have many other people. On the other hand, some on this thread have said they didn’t like it, and I’m sure there are other negative reactions.
I requested “Dancing in the Glory of Monsters” and “Midnight in the Pera Palace.” I looked for the one with the dove, but the library doesn’t have it yet; they have a listing for the author, suggesting that the book will be along eventually.
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