Posted on 07/25/2008 3:01:11 PM PDT by Stephanie32
(My first thread, hope I'm doing this right!)
The one book I think every American should read is the Pulitzer Prize winning book, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll
The Aubrey/Maturin series, by Richard O’Brian.
It will consume your life until you finish it. Seriously.
Gideon’s Spies- The secret history of the Mossad by Gordon Thomas
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Time and Again by Jack Finney
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
The Living Lincoln, Angle & Miers
In keeping with the recent Canteen threads on the Berlin Airlift, I’ll recommend Armageddon, by Leon Uris.
It's a really fast read, but it's incredibly touching and laugh-out-loud funny. The notes in the back indicate it's Twain's love letter to his wife.
If you want to feel better about yourself, read “My Life: In and Out of the Rough”... by golfer John Daly! :-)
Pillars of the Earth is excellent, as is the sequel, “World Without End”.... but, both books are also “without end”... clocking in at 1000 pages EACH!
If you want a thrill... try the series of books written by Vince Flynn that starts with, “Term Limits”. Now, THERE’s some good reading!
Have fun..
My Grandfather’s Son by Clarence Thomas was an excellent read.
You’re doing well. ‘Great’ is in the mind of the reader.
If you like baseball. Just finished an oldie Summer of ‘49 about the Yankee - Red Sox rivalry. If you are a young ‘un the names will not be familiar!
You will probably get a lot of suggestions. We are very good here at giving advice here. {;-) PS It will be good.
Men who have no courage, pride or self-esteem, men who have no moral sense of their right to their money and are not willing to defend it defend their life, men who apologize for being rich -- will not remain rich for long. They are the natural bait for the swarms of looters who stay under the rocks for centuries, but come crawling out at the first smell of a man who begs to be forgiven for the guilt of owning wealth. They will hasten to relieve him of the guilt - and of his life, as he deserves.”“Then you will see the rise of the men of the double standard - the men who live by force, yet count on those who live by trade to create the value of their looted money -- the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you against them. But when a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law --men who use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims -- then money becomes its creators’ avenger. Such looters believe it is safe to rob defenseless men, once they have passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes on, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter.”
“Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors -when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honest becoming self sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed. “
By the character Francisco d’ Anaconia in Ayn Rand’s book Atlas Shrugged
From a conservative perspective the must read book is “America Alone” by Mark Steyn. Does an excellent job of desribing the nature of the Isamic threat and the unique and civilization saving role of the USA.
They were written to sell the Constitution to the public. They argued a strong central government was good for trade and national defense.
They're part of our national history and used in Supreme Court decisions.
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