Feel free to ask about any of them
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Posted on 01/23/2024 5:03:13 AM PST by Tanniker Smith
A long time ago, there was a Free Republic Book Club ... mostly because I opened my mouth and a bunch of people told me to organize one. I haven't pinged it in a long time. (Actually, another book club started, so I stopped.)
Any way, has anyone read any good books lately. Fiction, non-fiction, genre, mainstream. Anything you want to share?
Has anyone WRITTEN any good books that the rest of us should check out?
If you like audiobooks, I will be finished with this one in a few weeks. The Leftists buried all of this, and salted the ground they buried McCarthy under.
I think there were inaccuracies here and there, and nobody in 1950-1953 wanted to view Marshall as anything other than a Great American Hero.
I sure didn’t.
McCarthy researched it pretty well, which means they had no choice but to destroy him and bury it.
I began writing down the books I read, with author’s names when I was in college in the summer of 1968 and have kept it up. Some years I only read 20 or 30 books, primarily when I was over seas in the Army.
I agree. I’ve read it many times and it’s time to read it again.
I also agree that the movies aren’t what Tolkien wanted to say which was about Christianity. Jackson altered major characters to the point of making them incoherent .
I still like the movies though (have them in 4k) but fast forward through the worst scenes.
Add in The Silmarillion.
I love to read all kinds of fiction. Thrillers and detective novels are particular favorites. I enjoy Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series, Peter Robinson’s Alan Banks series, and John Sandford’s Lucas Davenport novels. I’m also a big fan of the Travis McGee books. I really liked The Deep Blue Good-by and The Green Ripper.
Lately I’ve been reading classic books that I somehow missed when I was growing up. I read The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, Winnie The Pooh, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Mary Poppins, Anne Of Green Gables, and The Wind In The Willows. I enjoyed all of them, and I look forward to reading more books like them. Sometimes I need a dose of whimsy, you know?
Actually, on your recommendation, my husband, who is a WWII buff, based on his father’s military service, and I started reading McCarthy’s account. Quite an eye opener. I am reading it aloud for both of us to “enjoy”, if that could be a description of hearing of the record of a subversive turncoat (Marshall). Many thanks!
(A few years ago, I read “Witness”, about Whitaker Chambers and the communist infiltration of FDR’s government, but I don’t recall any emphasis of Marshall’s influence, though I may have forgotten it. I also have M. Stanton Evan’s, Stalin’s Secret Agents, in my kindle library, but have only read a small portion of it.)
My kids have a friend who published a teen lit book recently. It’s pushing 500 pages. She self published as print-on-demand.
Simon and Schuster is publishing the follow up.
Not bad for a 20 year old kid.
Yes...you and I have a similar reading list! “Witness” was the book that turned the worm for me (seeing the tactics of the Left back then, and today are exactly the same, just different technology) and M. Stanton Evans brought the receipts in the best book on that period, “Blacklisted by History”...heading home, but will revisit this later.
Back in the 90s, on a computer BBS (dial-up), someone suggested opening a text file, called it BOOKSnn (with nn being the year) and just add to it after you read a book.
I did that for a while, then I started keeping a tiny notebook, because I found I didn’t remember a lot about some of the books I was reading. Didn’t help that many weren’t great books. I was getting them from thrift stores and closeouts and such for 49 cents. Of course they weren’t bestsellers or classics.
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I really like Nathaniel Philbrick and in particular “In the Heart of the Sea.” I waded through “Mayflower” but it didn’t hold my interest like the story of the Essex. I particularly enjoyed learning about the culture created on Nantucket because of whaling.
Beethoven: The greatest Republican:
For Airplane porn: 
I’ve read a lot of history books, biographies\auto-biographies, historical fiction, alternate/counterfactual history, science fiction, military related fiction, fantasy, and religion/theology.
For airplane porn from the early days of flying, check out Guy Gilpatric’s Flying Stories, if you can find a copy. Gilpatric held pilot’s license Number 171, issued in 1912 when he was 16, and was a damned good writer to boot. His Glencannon stories are also worth reading, very funny.
Great thread. Thanks!
Thanks for that note on Eckert - some years ago I saw a couple of other books by him and wondered if they were worth getting. Will have to go mining for them.
For those that like fantasy fiction, I’m plowing through Michelle Sagara’s “Elantra” series. There are like 14 books in the main series plus a few additional ones set in the same universe. The main series follows a 20 year old girl with rogue magical abilities who is working as basically a police detective in a city populated by diverse races, mortal and immortal. Lots of magic, lots of snark, some violence, relatively clean dialogue (except for 1 character) and no explicit sex.
Sagara, who also writes as Michelle West (her married name), has become one of my top fantasy authors. Highly recommend these books and her “Sun Sword / House War / Hunter’s Oath” connected series.
Been watching “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” by Edward Gibbon on Amazon Prime.
Actually it’s a lecture giving a pretty thorough survey of the book. Erudite, balanced, well-done analysis.
I recommend it - about 20 episodes of 1/2 hour each.
I’m on my third run-through of the Aubrey/Maturin series at present. It’s amazing — those books do not get old no matter how many times you read them.
Thanks, will check it out.
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