ML/NJ
The Pity Of War, by Niall Ferguson
Private Cathedral, by James Lee Burke
Hillbilly Elegy
Bookmark
From its Corporate website, The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, This is an IRS 501(c)(3) charity and it currently has 65k books for the USofA consumption. They do caution that other countries have different copyright restrictions and use of this domestic resource might violate their laws.
While I generally read history and biographies, I made an exception for Andy Weir’s new book, “The Hail Mary Project”, it is sci-fi which I never read but it is funny.
I’ve been rereading THE GREAT MUTINY: India 1857 by Christopher Hibbert. A ripping yarn and all true.
ML/NJ
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Nice essay here summarizing the book by Gary Saul Morson in First Things magazine from May 2021:
https://www.firstthings.com/article/2021/05/the-greatest-christian-novel
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland Hardcover – February 26, 2019
Right now I'm reading "Thirteen" by Steve Cavanagh. About 2/3 through with a lot of twists and turns. Highly recommended.
The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, Gerald L. Schroeder Ph.D.
Ngo is a gutsy investigative reporter who has tangled with Antifa on several occasions
Earlier this year, I read the classic The Dream We Lost: Soviet Russia Then and Now by Freda Utley (New York: Day, 1940)
The author, a prominent conservative writer of the 1940's and 1950's describes how she, a starry-eyed Communist, married a Russian and moved to the Soviet Union only to be quickly disillusioned. Her disillusionment reached a climax when she came face-to-face with Stalinist terror, which swept away her husband. To save her life and that of her newborn son, she resolved to escape the Soviet Union.
That's a great story, but the title is "A Higher Call" (not Calling) and the author is Adam Makos, not Markl. But I agree, it's a great story. If you search YouTube for the title you will find video of a post-war reunion the two men had.
Another good book:
Sure did. Shattered Sword, about the battle of Midway. Its the best book I’ve ever read and it proves many of the “truths” about Midway were factually wrong. For instance, the claim by Fuchida that the flight decks of the 4 Japanese carriers were spotted with strike packages just beginning to take off and that’s proven to be a total lie by Fuchida. It also shows Nagumo’s Dilema and why his decision doomed the fleet. It also lays rest to one of the biggest myths That the sacrifice of VT-8 pulled the CAP down to the deck and they couldn’t get back up to altitude in time to attack the incoming dive bombers, in fact VT-8 attacked and got destroyed 30 to 40 minutes before the Dive Bombers showed up during the decisive attack at 10:20 AM. Its just a great historical narrative and its told from the Japanese perspective which give us a much deeper understanding about how and why the US won the Battle of Midway.
Another great book to read is Ty Cobb: What We Know is Wrong. This book proves beyond doubt that Ty Cobb was not a racist, in fact it shows through contemperaneous reports that Ty Cobb was not a racist. Ty Cobbs family was an abolitionist family, his grandfather once stopped the lynching of a black man and the Cobb family was run out of town by a mob that wanted to lynch his grandfather. Ty Cobb was one of the earliest and loudest voices for allowing black players to play in the major leagues, it also shows how after his playing career was over Ty Cobb was a fixture at Negro League games because he said the Negro Leagues played a better brand of baseball. It is also shown that when Ty Cobb was in the audience at Negro League games, he was so popular with the players the teams almost always asked him to sit half the game in each dugout. The book also shows that Ty Cobb was not considered a dirty player by his peers. All of the bad stories about Ty started after he died and some alcoholic sports writer (cannot remember his name) wanted revenge on Ty because Ty would not allow him to write a biography about Ty. A great book which shatters many terrible lies and myths about Ty Cobb, the first player inducted into the HoF and still the greatest, most exciting baseball player of all time.
"Nostromo" by Joseph Conrad
"Sagebrush Rebel" (Reagan and the environmental lobby) by William Perry Pendley
"We Will Not Be Silenced" by Erwin Lutzer
"A Passage to India" by E.M. Forster
"Crisis" by Kurt Schlichter
Just started Blind Bombing by Norman Fine (”How Microwave Radar Brought the Allies to D-Day and Victory in WW2”).
