Whatcha reading redux.

Everything cultural, pop or otherwise. Books, movies, music, comics, poetry, random cultural geekery.
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Weetabix
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by Weetabix »

Netpackrat wrote:I guess I would have to know what Footfall and Worldwar are to fully get the gist of that.
You must read Footfall.

My daughter bought me a copy at a used book store after I wore my old one out. Turns out it's signed by the authors. To someone else... but still.
Note to self: start reading sig lines. They're actually quite amusing. :D
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Netpackrat
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by Netpackrat »

Thanks for the info. Lucifer's Hammer was okay, but I am not sure that I liked it enough to read another of their collaborations.
Cognosce teipsum et disce pati

"People come and go in our lives, especially the online ones. Some leave a fond memory, and some a bad taste." -Aesop
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Weetabix
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by Weetabix »

Your call obviously. I thought Footfall was much better. Good aliens, if you like that sort of thing.
Note to self: start reading sig lines. They're actually quite amusing. :D
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Windy Wilson
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by Windy Wilson »

Thanks, Langenator!
The use of the word "but" usually indicates that everything preceding it in a sentence is a lie.
E.g.:
"I believe in Freedom of Speech, but". . .
"I support the Second Amendment, but". . .
--Randy
Langenator
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by Langenator »

OK, now I'm a little bit frustrated. I've finished the first 7 books of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series, but neither the county libraries nor the university library has #8 (A Darkness More Then Night, FWIW). An $9.99 is more than i generally prefer to pay for a kindle book.

Guess I'll have to ask about an inter-library loan.

Next on the non-Fiction list is probably Guadalcanal by Richard Frank.
Fortuna Fortis Paratus
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Netpackrat
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by Netpackrat »

Netpackrat wrote:In the middle of a book on how to survive storms on a small boat in big oceans.
I just finished this and it is a really fucking outstanding book, filled with lots of practical knowledge that I wouldn't want to learn the hard way. I probably won't ever have much need for most of it, but the same can be said of a lot of useful and worthwhile knowledge and skills.
Cognosce teipsum et disce pati

"People come and go in our lives, especially the online ones. Some leave a fond memory, and some a bad taste." -Aesop
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randy
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by randy »

Just finished Prime Target by Kim du Toit.

I know it's been out for a while but I missed it when it was published, and just found it from a link on Kim's reawakened blog.

Good read. Kept me interested and tapping for the next page.


Recommended.
...even before I read MHI, my response to seeing a poster for the stars of the latest Twilight movies was "I see 2 targets and a collaborator".
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MiddleAgedKen
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by MiddleAgedKen »

Finished Doctor Zhivago, and am about 300 pages into With Fire and Sword, the first volume of the epic trilogy of Poland by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Man, is it good. Do yourselves the great favor, if you haven't already.
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toad
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by toad »

Langenator wrote:
Windy Wilson wrote:
Langenator wrote:Empire of Liberty by Gordon S. Wood. Book II of the Oxford history of the United States. Covers the period from the Constitution to the end of the War of 1812. Wood is the author of The Radicalism of the American Revolution, so it's not a bunch of SJW whining.
I read The Radicalism of the American Revolution. He's good, I'll look up Empire of Liberty.
It's the third book of the Oxford American history that I've read. The other two I've read so far are The Glorious Cause (about the Revolution) by Middlekauf and Battle Cry of Freedom (Civil War) by James MacPherson (the dean of American Civil War historians).

Battle Cry is particularly good. I credit MacPherson with planting the idea in my skull that the annexation of Texas did more than any other single event to massively accelerate the coming of the Civil War.

-the annexation itself was shady, and somewhat dubious from a Constitutional legal point of view. (It was not done by treaty, which would have required a 2/3 vote in the Senate, which they weren't going to get, because there were enough free state votes to block it. It was done instead by simple majority in a joint resolution of Congress.)
-Northern (free) states opposed annexation and admission of Texas to the Union.
-Annexation of Texas led quickly and directly to the Mexican War, which was also greatly opposed in the free states
-the Mexican War resulted in the acquisition of even more land
-it was the question of how to handle all of this land, plus the still unorganized parts of the Louisiana Purchase specifically, whether slavery could/should be banned or allowed in the Territories (and thus, the character of the eventual states from the territories thus organized, and thus, the future balance of power in the Federal government between slave states and non-slave states.) that ultimately led to the explosion.

(The central plank of the Republican party platform in 1856 and 1860 was barring any further expansion of slavery into the territories, not removing it where it already existed. The South, especially the Deep South states, viewed this as the next thing to a death threat.)
When a Texan was trying to sell the annexation of Texas to Congress he reportedly said: " All Texas needs is people and water." , "The Congressman said the same could be said of Hell Sir! "
Langenator
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by Langenator »

I had a history prof, at Texas A&M no less, who delighted in tweaking the 'Republic of Texas' folks by pointing out that pretty much the first thing Texas did after gaining independence was try to join the United States. The only thing that stopped it was U.S. domestic politics.

Now, back OT:

Fiction: City of Bones by Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch #9)

Non-Fiction: A War to Be Won: Fighting the Second World War by Murray and Millet
Fortuna Fortis Paratus
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