What Book Are You Reading? Issue.8

[GoodGame]

I finished reading "A People's History of the United States" very recently. Utterly ridiculous. Every fact in it is probably true, but the bias is just laughable. Any teacher using this as his history text should supplement his course with other history texts too.

That's one of the free e-texts from the Gutenberg project, from like early 20th C., no?

 

[Cutlass]

"The Birth of the Nazis" Nigel Jones

 

[downtown]

Nice

Here it is online, although I'm not sure you want to spend that much: http://seagullbook.com/store/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=500494&Category_Code=

I liked the way it put everything into perspective.

Yikes, that is a little bit pricey. Maybe I can ask for it for christmas...

I think I've already read a few of the stories in there before. Is Seagull Books a church company?

 

[carmen510]

Armageddon: The Battle For Germany, 1944-1945 by Max Hastings

 

[kuukkeli]

Eräänä päivänä tyhjä taivas by Tiina Raevaara: This is the writer's debut novel. She has done quite well in short story competitions before but I haven't read any of her earlier works so I can't make comparisons to them.

The book is a mix of sci-fi, fantasy, fairy tale and drama. It's written quite well but like many new (and not so new) novelists Tiina feels compelled to educate her readers - sadly the lesson is one we've heard already ad nauseam (war is bad, greed is bad, the enemy isn't really different from you and add to that a decent dose of feminism and you get this book).

The book would work better without any references to things beyond its primary settings, a house in where the heroine's family lives and to where she returns after long absence. The house is used as a blatantly obvious metaphor and the depictions of the world outside offer nothing so I'd rather had seen those pages used to deepen the metaphors.

Still it's not a bad book by any means. 2.5/5 might be a fair rating.

P.S. To my knowledge the book hasn't been translated and it's Finnish name means "On One Day an Empty Sky" (not sure if that is good English but that's pretty much a direct translation).

 

[Julian Delphiki]

What If?: The World's Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been by Robert Cowley (Editor). Some chapters are really interesting, some really boring (skipped the What If's of US Civil War for example).

 

[Phlegmak]

That's one of the free e-texts from the Gutenberg project, from like early 20th C., no?

It's written recently and includes some text about the 2000 election and the War on Terror (tm)

 

[Smellincoffee]

I'm reading Women in the Middle Ages by Frances and Joseph Gies. Good series.

 

[LightFang]

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan.

 

[Dachs]

What If?: The World's Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been by Robert Cowley (Editor). Some chapters are really interesting, some really boring (skipped the What If's of US Civil War for example).

It and its sequel aren't bad but they really don't practice good alternate history.

 

[Nylan]

Yikes, that is a little bit pricey. Maybe I can ask for it for christmas...

I think I've already read a few of the stories in there before. Is Seagull Books a church company?

Supposedly Deseret Book is in the process of acquiring Seagull, so it will be soon.

 

[Ansar]

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan.

Tell me if it's good when you're done.

 

[SG-17]

I am reading From the Earth to the Moon and Around Again by Jules Verne.
I am amazed at how far ahead of his time Verne was.

 

[7ronin]

The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell. Anyone out there live in Ystad or Malmo?

 

[Julian Delphiki]

Finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz, next readingThe World Without Us by Alan Weisman.

 

[RedRalph]

Finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz, next readingThe World Without Us by Alan Weisman.

It's good. did you see the doc?

 

[Julian Delphiki]

Nope, but I've heard good things about the book. I will probably see document after reading.

 

[Japanrocks12]

I've been reading quite a few things:

Edgar Huntly by Charles Brockden Brown
Kokoro by Soseki Natsume

and starting tonight, I'm reading The Floating Opera by John Barth for a book club.

 

[Dachs]

Going back to basics, and rereading Sun Tzu and von Clausewitz.

Edgar Huntly by Charles Brockden Brown

Shantanu loves you.

 

[Fifty]

I must say I never understood the obsession with reading Sun Tzu and von Clauswitz among people our age and gender. Although I suppose its different when one has a more serious interest in military history.