Posted on 07/12/2010 10:39:11 AM PDT by MplsSteve
Hi, everyone!
It's time again for my quarterly "What Are You Reading Now?" survey.
As you know, I consider Freepers to be among the more well-read groups currently on the Internet. Each quart, I like to find out what everyone is reading.
It can be anything...a technical journal, a NY Times best-seller, a trashy pulp novel...in short, anything!
Please do not ruin this thread by posting something inane like "I'm reading this post". It became very unfunny a long time ago.
I'll start. I'm reading a historical biography called "John L Lewis: Labor Leader" by Robert Zieger. I have found it to be a real even-handed look at one of the major figures of the American labor movement during the early to mid 20th Century. The author goes as far to state that some of the problems with today's current labor unions can be traced to John L Lewis's leadership of the UMW.
Well, what are YOU reading?
“Out of Range,” mystery novel by CJ Box...I’ve gotten hooked on him (I rarely read fiction). The novels are about Joe Pickett, game warden in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, who keeps stumbling across mysterious murders.
I got hooked because as a kid, I spent a lot of time in the Bighorns, then once I got started, I realized that CJ can really spin a yarn.
This thread.
I Grok what is going on in Zero’s administration plenty well.
American Bloomsbury : Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau : their lives, their loves, their work / Susan Cheever.
Pretty good read. I was amazed to find all these great authors were basically sponging off Emerson who inherited money.
Also: The sandbox : a novel / David Zimmerman. Fictional work about the War in Iraq. Very good read.
I read One Second After in one sitting, but couldn’t read the last 20 or so pages. I just didn’t want to see how badly it would turn out.
Sherrif Roscoe P Coltrane?
OOh I love this thread.
I started “The Red Convertible And Other Stories,” but won’t finish it. The first short story is compelling and worthwhile; the following several were meh.
I have been skimming “An Incomplete Education,” which is full of very interesting factoids and investigations into basic humanities information. A good casual read, and a nice supplement for the high schooler or even college student. It starts out with Jonathan Edwards! Nice touch.
I am starting “Lark and Termite” and “A Quiet Adjustment,” but can’t feedback on either one of them now.
Does anyone on this thread use shelfari? If so, pm me if you want to be friends. That way we can peruse one another’s bookshelves.
autobiography by Ben Franklin
I have read “happiness is a serious problem” many times...love it...have given it to all my 4 children, from my 15 year teenage son to my 31 year old daughter that lives in L.A...they all love it!
Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris
I found it a fun read. The characters were a bit shallow but I enjoyed the story. I do think his assistants wrote it more than he did but there's nothing wrong with that.
Atlas Shrugged made me almost cry with boredom. I wanted to like it. I really did.
“Trunk Music” by Michael Connelly
Both are novels, based in history & Ruark's knowledge of & love for Kenya. They portray Kenya during the period leading up to 'independence;(Uhuru), with the focal point being the 'insurgency'(Mau Mau).
Our current president's grandfather was imprisoned as Mau Mau, and his father was probably involved, but not documented.
Mau Mau was brutality designed to appeal to the stone-age tribalism of the majority Kikuyu tribe, including Obaumau's family, resulting in horrific terrorism inflicted upon white settlers in post-colonial Kenya.
Obaumau is two, possibly one, generations removed from this savagery. "Something of Value" and "Uhuru" help us understand what drives our leader....and it ain't pretty.
Ooh...I really like it..but, I had a hard time with Dagny..why must soooo many novelists portray strong women as tramps?
Read Anthem since your last survey.
Still working on Atlas Shrugged. Up to about page 510.
Got fed up with continual trips to the library to renew so I bought a paperback copy.
Temporarily have put Ayn aside to read Tad Williams’ Shadowrise
the 3rd volume in his Shadowmarch series.
Just finished reading Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith. Tim Burton is going to do the movie.
Now reading Seth Grahame-Smith’s previous book, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
Just finished “Medium Raw”, by Anthony Bourdain, “The Lion”, by Nelson De Mille, and “The Long Road to Annapolis: the Founding of the Naval Academy and The Emerging American Republic”, by William P. Leeman. I saw that someone was reading “Six Frigates”. Great book, by a first time writer, too. A few years ago, I picked up a copy of “The Yard”, the story of the building of a destroyer at Bath Iron Works. Cost overruns, dlast minute design changes, labor issues- Not too much has changed in the intervening 200+ years!
It’s amazing to read the sheer variety of books/subject matter on this thread, and then be called a Conservative Knuckle Dragger by supposedly more well-read members of the Lamestream media!
Usually, I buy the books in the event that I want to re-read them or refer to them. Every once in a while though, our libraries around here will have book sales and there will be something that they’re getting rid of that I might want.
I have been wanting to read it forever, but have put it off since my shelves are full (library is hard right now with 3 young kids). My husband gave me a Kindle a couple of weeks ago, so I can fill up virtual shelves! Prager’s book was one of my first adds. I’m looking forward to starting it!
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