JohannaK
Heroically Clueless
No, the flight was in 2008. 
What are you reading?
- Thread starter Mouthwash
- Start date
ReindeerThistle
Zimmerwald Left
JoanK said:No, the flight was in 2008.
Oops, duh. :/
madviking
north american scum
I finished reading "Strangers to Ourselves" by Timothy Wilson. Highly recommended if you enjoy Malcolm Gladwell's kind of shtick, except this has a bit more founding in psychological research (as Wilson is a professor of psychology at UVa).
I just finished Neil Shubin's The Universe Within Us, on how astrophysics and geology (mostly geology) have shaped the human body.
ReindeerThistle
Zimmerwald Left
downtown said:
I read Royco's Boss, about Richard J Daley -- very good. Which Long book have you read. The Huey Long book by T. Harry Williams is very good, too, and very thorough. Williams makes Long's case quite well that many of FDR's New Deal programs were originally Long's -- would love to hear your thoughts, as a Dem.
ComradeDavo
Formerly God
Furtehr to my post on the 1st page of this thread, I am finally reading Comrades: Communism: A World History by Robert Service.
Most of the Soviet stuff pre 1953 I know already, it's just a refresher, but the bits about elsewhere are intresting.
Most of the Soviet stuff pre 1953 I know already, it's just a refresher, but the bits about elsewhere are intresting.
Yeah, it was the T. Harry Williams book. I haven't finished it yet, since it's about 800 pages or so, but I did plow through a good 500 before other obligations forced me to put it down for a while. It's a great read.
I'm not sure I would feel comfortable giving a political assessment of Long necessarily. Given where Louisiana was before, a quasi-feudal state, I don't think it's hard to argue that many of his policies were a net good for residents (I guess if you're really adamant about the govt not spending money on religious education, I can see how you'd be upset about the schoolbooks program...).
I think it's also clear that Huey Long--the Person--would be a complicated character, at best. Certainly not the most democratic, but again, compared to the system at that time, I can't say any institution really upheld that ideal.
Royko's "Boss" book is one of the best Chicago focused texts I've ever read. I think anybody who wants to understand how the city worked, or still kinda works, ought to read it.
As for the OP, I just finished the Autobiography of Malcolm X, and hope to start another book soon.
ReindeerThistle
Zimmerwald Left
Thank you Downtown. Nothing Long did really upset me, but some have categorizef it as fascism. Again, leaders are judged from a class perspective, and, as you say given the hold the Old Boys network had on Louisiana politics, I can see how he would be welcomed. Long really pissed off Standard Oil, so that accounts for something.
I'm nearing the end of my theme of Gilded Age and Progressive Era Republican presidents, if only because I'm going to need a change of pace soon. I posted longer reviews in the OT thread, but long-story short I've read and would recommend The President and the Assassin by Scott Miller (McKinley), Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard (Garfield), and Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris.
ReindeerThistle
Zimmerwald Left
@Antilogic: have you read Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwon? It's what they based the 1012 film Lincoln on.
I would also recommend Obama's Wars by Bob Woodward. Very revealing of Obaa, the most ironic Nobel Peace Peize winner since Teddy Roosevelt.
I would also recommend Obama's Wars by Bob Woodward. Very revealing of Obaa, the most ironic Nobel Peace Peize winner since Teddy Roosevelt.
I read Team of Rivals way back, I remember loving it. Unfortunately, my cover got scratched when I was trying to brace the book up next to a piece of lab equipment to read while I was collecting data, so now it's no longer pristine. 
I don't think I have ever read a book by Bob Woodward, actually. I've seen many of his interviews and read a few articles he's authored. Kind of weird given my near-obsessive reading on politics, now that I think about it.
I don't think I have ever read a book by Bob Woodward, actually. I've seen many of his interviews and read a few articles he's authored. Kind of weird given my near-obsessive reading on politics, now that I think about it.
Social World of Batavia - Jean Gelman Taylor: Awesome, awesome, awesome book. Highly recommended if you're interested in the VOC.
Oxford Book of Short Stories - ed. V. S. Pritchett: Nice selection. Includes at least one Kiwi author which is always nice.
Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman: I enjoyed it, but I still Neil Gaiman sucks at characterization.
To Live as Brothers: Southeast Sumatra in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries - Barbara Watson Andaya: Fantastic.
Oxford Book of Short Stories - ed. V. S. Pritchett: Nice selection. Includes at least one Kiwi author which is always nice.
Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman: I enjoyed it, but I still Neil Gaiman sucks at characterization.
To Live as Brothers: Southeast Sumatra in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries - Barbara Watson Andaya: Fantastic.
Borachio
Way past lunacy
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2012
- Messages
- 26,698
The Serpent's Promise - The Bible Retold as Science Steve Jones
Steve Jones is Emeritus Professor of Genetics at UCL, appears frequently on radio and television and is a regular columnist for the Daily Mail.
I picked this book up in hard-back hoping for some good material to confront the current plague of Jehovah's Witnesses.
I am sorely disappointed. The amount of biblical material is disappearingly small. I think so far he's mentioned Noah's ark once, in passing, and I'm half-way through the thing.
Sure he knows his genetics OK. But he doesn't relate it in any way to the Bible. (Oh he flings out a passing reference to Methuselah occasionally, too.)
He just rambles on and on. And I don't have a clue why he's telling me this stuff and where he's going with it. Badly written. His sentences are often poorly constructed and hard to understand.
I'm a victim of hype and Jones's desire to make more money.
I am v. disappoint.
Steve Jones is Emeritus Professor of Genetics at UCL, appears frequently on radio and television and is a regular columnist for the Daily Mail.
I picked this book up in hard-back hoping for some good material to confront the current plague of Jehovah's Witnesses.
I am sorely disappointed. The amount of biblical material is disappearingly small. I think so far he's mentioned Noah's ark once, in passing, and I'm half-way through the thing.
Sure he knows his genetics OK. But he doesn't relate it in any way to the Bible. (Oh he flings out a passing reference to Methuselah occasionally, too.)
He just rambles on and on. And I don't have a clue why he's telling me this stuff and where he's going with it. Badly written. His sentences are often poorly constructed and hard to understand.
I'm a victim of hype and Jones's desire to make more money.
I am v. disappoint.
The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan...on plant and human coevolution.
Borachio
Way past lunacy
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2012
- Messages
- 26,698
Can you recommend any commentaries on the Tao Te Ching?
Princeps
More bombs than God
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2004
- Messages
- 5,265
Right now I'm reading some fan fiction.
I've just finished this hidden little gem.
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5591841/1/New-Dawn-Fades
I've just finished this hidden little gem.
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5591841/1/New-Dawn-Fades
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
Finished Eric Hobsbawm's Bandits. Interesting stuff, but a bit heavy on the generalisations and light on focus- outside of a few moderately detailed discussions of particular bandits, he tends to jumps back and forth between continents and centuries without much warning- and while I'm sympathetic to what he's trying to do, it could have been better-handled. The whole thing only clocks in at two-hundred page, and fifty of them new chapters and an appendix for the revised addition, so I really think it would have been better served if he'd taken more time to go into detail.
Still, when you consider that when the book was written he was exploring ideas that had barely been touched on before, I suppose I can give him a break.
Still, when you consider that when the book was written he was exploring ideas that had barely been touched on before, I suppose I can give him a break.
Southeast Asian Warfare, 1300-1900 Michael Charney.
Indonesia - Jean Gelman Taylor.
History Without Borders - Geoffrey Gunn.
Secret Trade, Porous Borders - Eric Tagliacozzo.
Colonial 'Reformation' in the Highlands of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, 1892-1996 - Albert Schrauwers.
A History of Christianity in Indonesia - Various.
Next of my list are: Seven Deadly Innocent Frauds of Economy Policy - Warren Mosler. Floracrats - Andrew Moss. The Indonesian Language - James Sneddon.
Indonesia - Jean Gelman Taylor.
History Without Borders - Geoffrey Gunn.
Secret Trade, Porous Borders - Eric Tagliacozzo.
Colonial 'Reformation' in the Highlands of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, 1892-1996 - Albert Schrauwers.
A History of Christianity in Indonesia - Various.
Next of my list are: Seven Deadly Innocent Frauds of Economy Policy - Warren Mosler. Floracrats - Andrew Moss. The Indonesian Language - James Sneddon.
Tell them you're a deist, and berate them for the sin of pride. The phrase 'who are you to get all up in God's business?' may come in handy.
