What's Everyone Reading

[Ronm1]

Done with Darrow on to

The Big Jump: Lindberg and the Great Atlantic Air Race - Richard Bak

 

[stargate]

reading

there is a lot of great recommendation out there -great Thread steve-in my time I read a lot of music books-my top one of all time is the music lesson, by victor L. wooten, it's a spiritual search for growth through music---and I just re-read the Botany of Desire----by micheal pollan..

 

[jazdoc]

Just finishing "The Forum and the Tower: How Scholars and Politicians Have Imagined The World" by Mary Ann Geldon.

On deck "Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens"

 

[Steve williams]

What did you think of the book jazdoc, a quick synopsis and a thumbs up or not

 

[jazdoc]

Definitely a thumbs up. Not an in depth look at any one philosopher/statesman but the author successfully creates an arc of storytelling that connects her examples. Definitely will spur me to additional reading (notably Burke, Rousseau and Weber). Also useful reminder of the difficulty of implementing a utopian vision onto an imperfect world.

 

[jazdoc]

Reading a couple great ones that are easy recommendations:

"Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens" Really terrific collection of essays from Vanity Fair and his recent book reviews

"Destiny of The Republic" by Candice Millard. The author really brings history to lifeas she weaves the story of the lives President James Garfield and his assasin Charles Guiteau. Interesting to read about the physicians who 'treated' Garfield and probably contributed to his demise. Highly recommended for a history buff.

 

[Steve williams]

In The Garden Of The Beasts......Erik Larson

Highly recommended

 

[JackD201]

Started Robopocalypse because I read Steven Spielberg was going to make a movie based on it. I didn't get past the third chapter. I still prefer Michael Crichton.

 

[RUR]

In The Garden Of The Beasts......Erik Larson

Highly recommended

Fascinating perspective on the events, isn't it?

Do read Devil in the White City and/or Isaac's Storm, if you've not already done so, Steve. Less momentous, perhaps, but better reads.

 

[Steve williams]

Thanks Ken

I am going to follow it up with Sleeping With The Enemy:Coco Chanel's Secret War by Hal Vaughan which is same era

 

[jazdoc]

My dad was a little boy in Berlin at the time of the story and he says it really captures the atmosphere of the time. Best account of the 'Night of the Long Knives' I've ever read. Larson does a great job conveying the building sense of dread and impending cataclysm.

 

[Steve williams]

Mark

are you talking about In The Garden Of Beasts

 

[RUR]

He is. "Night of the Long Knives" was Hitler's purge of the SA and others.

Too bad Dodd was long gone before Kristallnacht. The same perspective on that event would have been fascinating reading.

 

[egidius]

Tartini "arte dell'arco" and Treaty ..sur les agréements..

 

[jazdoc]

Just finished Myles' recommendation Norman Granz: The Man Who Used Jazz For Justice by Tad Hershorn. Outstanding and an easy read. Highly recommended for any jazz fan.

Currently working on Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt. From the Amazon website:

One of the world's most celebrated scholars, Stephen Greenblatt has crafted both an innovative work of history and a thrilling story of discovery, in which one manuscript, plucked from a thousand years of neglect, changed the course of human thought and made possible the world as we know it.

Nearly six hundred years ago, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late thirties took a very old manuscript off a library shelf, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. That book was the last surviving manuscript of an ancient Roman philosophical epic, On the Nature of Things, by Lucretius—a beautiful poem of the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life, and that matter was made up of very small particles in eternal motion, colliding and swerving in new directions.

The copying and translation of this ancient book-the greatest discovery of the greatest book-hunter of his age-fueled the Renaissance, inspiring artists such as Botticelli and thinkers such as Giordano Bruno; shaped the thought of Galileo and Freud, Darwin and Einstein; and had a revolutionary influence

Fascinating book and VERY well written. I don't possess the depth of knowledge to comment as to the accuracy of some of the claims of the book (which has been debated on Amazon and other sites) but a very easy recommendation.

 

[Steve williams]

I'm a big Lee Childs fan and have read all of his Reacher novels. His latest The Enemy was his longest and IMO the best to date and provided great entertainment on my recent 30 hour flight to the Middle East

 

[Orb]

Well lining up several Charles Dickens books for the Christmas period, good time to read his work as it is very thought provoking while also being excellent reading material.
Definitely recommend his books for what is meant to be a spiritual-morally considerate/giving time of year (please no comments how it has turned commercial as we make it what we want).

On the other end of the intellectual reading scale, I just enjoyed reading Jim Butcher's 1st book in the A Dresden Files novel, a good read in the style of some of the old detective books.
Similar to the series but works better and is more adult orientated.

Cheers
Orb

 

[karma]

HI ALL,
As mentioned above, Gibbon. Great stuff but a long, hard read. But, as the sage once said, "Rome wasn't built in a day".

Much to my surprise, no one is reading Stephen King. I'm one of his constant readers.

Sparky

 

[jazdoc]

Steve --

Did you ever read the Coco Channel book???

 

[Steve williams]

Steve --

Did you ever read the Coco Channel book???

It's next after Thanksgiving