Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer
I am half way through Donald Rumsfeld’s book “Known and Unknown”.
Here is an interesting paragraph about the 1992 Bush vs Clinton campaign from pages 414-415:
“By 1992, a U.S. presidential election year, Bill Clinton, the politically astute young governor of Arkansas, accused President George H.W. Bush and his predecessor, Ronald Reagan, of being soft on Iraq. I was interested in this debate, as I had played a role in the drama when I met with Saddam Hussein as President Ronald Reagan’s Middle East envoy. Clinton may have been looking to burnish his national security credentials by trying to appear tougher in foreign policy than the Bush administration. Clinton’s running mate, Tennessee Senator Albert Gore, Jr, went even further than Clinton, accusing President George H.W. Bush of deliberately concealing the extent of Saddam’s ties to terrorism, his attacks on U.S. interests, and his efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. Clinton and Gore pledged that their administration would be under no illusions when it came to dealing with Saddam. Supporters of the 1992 Democratic presidential ticket exploited the poor economic news of the day by distributing a bumper sticker that read: SADDAM HUSSEIN STILL HAS HIS JOB. DO YOU?”
Julian Young’s biography of Nietzsche;
Roger Scruton’s little book Beauty;
Darwin, Marx, Wagner, Critique of a Tradition by Jacques Barzun.
Now that I look at that list, I realize I need to lighten up and get some fiction going....
Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer
Down here in Roanoke attending to my daughter
and first grandchild. Books I’m reading this week are:
Hell’s Corner - Baldacci - a Camel Club story-
disappointing - way too many pages and too strange
and unexplained plot twists
Lace Makers of Glenmara - Barbieri - 3 steps up from a
romance novel, but well told and entertaining
Rhett Butler’s People - McCaig - SO much better than
anticipated. Lots of CW facts I never knew, and GWTW
as told through Rhett’s life by another author -
well, it fits perfectly and I will send a fan letter
once I finish.
Mounting Fears - Woods - Not yet started. May be
slightly flat.
A pretty typical for me mix of fiction and non. I’m a simul-reader, always several books going for different moods:
“Spilsburys Coast” - bio of BC Canada entrepreneur and raconteur Jim Spilsbury
The last book of Stephen Kings Dark Tower series (#7 and 20 years after the original book was written)
“Foundation and Empire” - Isaac Asimov (finally getting around to this series)
“The Great Plains During World War II” - prett self-explanatory but quite well done.
Thomas Perry “Nightlife” - pure escapism
I’m reading the good book again. I wish I wasn’t such a plodder when it comes to reading because I have five books I just got from the Christian bookstore waiting in the wings. They all look good but I’m particularly interested in “The Battle for the Last Days’ Temple”. I bet I don’t buy another book until ‘12. :)
I was reading “Stormlord Rising”, until my Kindle died for the second time this year.
“in the Garden of Beasts” story of the newly appointed ambassador to germany in 1933 couple months after Hitler is made chancelor and the guys awakening to the horror of the Nazi’s.
Incredibly he writes it all up and sends it to DC, correctly predicting war and the holocaust, but naturally no one really listens.
great read and well written
I’m writing a book, called “Surviving Civil War II”, and the research for it has driven me to read more articles than books. However, the documents that will really knock your socks off are Representative Louis McFadden’s speeches regarding the Federal Reserve in the Great Depression. McFadden was a banker himself, so when he outlines the way the Fed has destroyed the currency in favor of bankers (and it mirrors what is happening today), you go ‘just wow’.
Just google Louis McFadden speech and it will pop up.
Also read again Sun Tzu’s Art of War, von Clausewitz’s On War, and HG Welles War of the World’s. I’m on a war kick I guess.
Re-Reading my own books is quite a trip, I forget what I wrote. Harry: Money Mob and Influence - the guy is absolute dirt.
Reading most of them on my new Kindle.
“A Helmet for My Pillow” by Robert Leckie
This is one of the books that the HBO miniseries “The Pacific” was based on.
I also have recently read all of Dennis Lehane’s detective series of books:
“A Drink Before the War”
“Darkness Take My Hand”
“Sacred”
“Gone Baby Gone”
“Prayers for Rain”
Just finished “Transfer of Power” and now reading “The Third Option” by Vince Flynn. Mitch Rapp is THE man!!
I’m on page 90 of Stephen Coonts,
LIBERTY
ping for a later answer
I only get the time to read when I’m on business travel...it helps pass the time in airports. The best one I finished is “Unbroken”..a must read. Truman was absolutely right to use the bomb. anyone who comes wawy with any other conclusion after reading Louis Zamperini’s story is brain dead. What a book. I came away from that a changed person. I have no problems, nothing whatsoever to complain about, certainly not after reading Mr. Zamperini’s story.
I cannot wait for another Laura Hillenbrand book, easily my favorite author.
I’m now reading “The Land of the Painted Caves”, the last installment of the “Clan of the Cave Bear” series by Jean Auel,and the first in about six years. She is a very good researcher/writer and I’ve enjoyed these books immensely.
Bristol Palin’s book “Not afraid of life” right now, my daughter bought it and left it laying around so I picked it up and started it. My problem is once I start a book no matter what I always feel bad if I don’t keep plugging through and finish it.
here are the top items of my current list:
1) Halfway through James Calvell’s Asian Saga novels, in time setting sequence (in Gai-Jin right now);
2) Starting “Empire of the Summer Moon” by S.C. Gwynne (a gift from my wife);
3) “Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant” by U.S. Grant;
4) “From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America” by James Longstreet;
5) “The Delight Makers” by Adolph Bandelier;
6) “Dog Sense: How the New Science of Behavior Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet” by John Bradshaw;
7) and getting ready to start my annual trek through Tolkien’s War of the Rings Trilogy...
Love my Kindle!!
“The Big Sky” by A.B. Guthrie, Jr.
Bruce Catton’s Civil War histories, “Stillness at Appomattox” and such. My favorite so far is “This Hallowed Ground”, a single-volume overview of the Northern victory. Catton seems to, as I do, respect Grant both for his straightforward generalship, and for the way he treated the vanquished Lee.