I just finished Angela's Ashes and now ...
Posted on 03/28/2008 6:52:40 AM PDT by MplsSteve
Through these portals : a Pacific war saga / Wayne C. MacGregor, Jr....Very good book about war in the Pacific. Very personal
Mine too- obviously:) I’ve all his books and have re-read them more than once. There are several authors who I go back to over and over- C.S. Lewis, E.B. White among them.
I just completed, “The Shadow of The Wind.” It was terrible and I would not recommend it to anyone.
I am eagerly anticipating, “Financial Peace - Revisited” by Dave Ramsey. It should arrive today or tomorrow!
Time of the Twins by Weis & Hickman
Recently finished
Dragons of Dwarven Depths by the same Authors
After I’m done with this one, will read the other 2 books in this series, and then decide what to read next.
LOL....luckily I got the same review in advance from a trusted source and was able to avoid the sequel altogether.
Wow, some really heavy, heady books for thought listed by various posters. I’d like to lists some of my impressive reading but the porn sites I visit don’t have too much text...hahahahaha........just joking
Next in line is After the Reich (Giles & Mcdonough), which will return me to a time frame I understand.
And, once I week (if my postal worker hasn't rerouted it to one of the liberals on the block) the Weekly Standard.
I just finished reading Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye" and Samuel Shellabarger's Prince of Foxes. I loved Prince! Now I'm reading Shellabarger's The King's Cavalier.
In the past month:
Sir Gibbie, by George MacDonald
Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck
Best Practices in Lean Six Sigma Process Improvement, by Richard Schonberger
The Pagan Chronicles:by Catherine Jinks
Pagan’s Crusade: Book One of the Pagan Chronicles
Pagan in Exile: Book Two of the Pagan Chronicles
Pagan’s Vows: Book Three of the Pagan Chronicles
Pagan’s Scribe: Book Four of the Pagan Chronicles
Shadow Warriors: The Untold Story of Traitors, Sabotuers and the Party of Surrender, by Ken Timmerman. Infuriating book...I don’t know who to be the more furious with; the traitors in our own administration and media or the gutless people who let them get away with it. GRRRRR!!!
The book both confused and enlightened me.
Hanssen was essentially insane. One part of his personality was that of a conservative, Christian, patriotic family man. Another part of his personality was that of a treasonous, grasping porn addict.
It's a disturbingly common phenomenon: Ted Haggard, Eliot Spitzer, etc. - people who secretly do the exact opposite of what they apparently believe and are committed to.
It's upsetting to me - since I consider myself to be a conservative, Christian, patriotic family man just like Hanssen's public face. That's the confusing part: it seems like Hanssen was actually sincere about his beliefs, that it wasn't just a front - he really was that guy, and yet he was also another guy.
And it clearly wasn't just the money - he got paid only $500,000 over 25 years. $20,000 per year to risk his family, his life and his freedom? $20,000 per year to live for a quarter century in constant fear of detection?
Normally the kind of personality that does this - the kind of person who betrays his nearest and dearest in exchange for money - negotiates a better deal. He gave the Soviets material they probably would have happily paid $100 million dollars for - he basically gave them information for free.
He clearly wasn't in it for the money alone, yet he clearly had no real attachment to Soviet ideology either - and that's the most frightening part.
He did evil for evil's sake.
The book was also enlightening - it shows that the CIA and FBI (and the KGB and GRU) have the exact same stupid office politics and managerial squabbles as any other office - the mistakes that were made in catching Ames and Hanssen were due to the exact same moronic territorialism and siloing that happens at every job.
Durant's popular History of Civilization gets a lot of criticism, but I find it unsurpassed for giving one a framework for reading history-it really makes it easy for visualization. More technical or more scholarly books can then be read to 'fill in the details'.
I am also rereading Robert Holdstock's Mythago Woods-the first and IMO the best in that series. (The Hollowing wasn't too bad, but I disliked Lavondyss.
“I am still reading the Annals of the world.”
How do you like it?
So many books, so little time. I too am studying for IT certifications and every time I hear or see a book review about something that is interesting I reluctantly have to put it on the back burner :o(
The entire series can give you some nice tidbits about the medicinal properties of plants.
She researches her stuff fairly well and she can write.
The drawback is that it puts a good face on socialism.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.