I just read 1776. I recommend it. It makes me wonder if i lived in America back then what kind of patriot i would be?

I was wondering if anyone else was going to get the new book by Jeff Shaara titled The Rising Tide.

I think he is a great author. Plus he provides actual historic facts as accurate as possible throughout his books he has written.

Books i like of his (all about the civil war)

The Killer Angels
Gods and Generals
Last Full Measure

Steel My Soldiers' Hearts

The Hopeless to Hardcore Transformation of U.S. Army, 4th Battalion, 39th Infantry, Vietnam
by Col. David Hackworth.

My Dad read it and thought it was great, "but that's coming from an old grunt, you might not find it as interesting." Well, I do. Hackworth was a true warrior with a great big pair of brass ones hanging 'tween his legs.

If you are at all interested in infantry actions in the Vietnam Delta, or just like a good war story, this is a great book. It reads fast, and shows that it was possible to beat Charlie, if you stopped trying to fight the war the way WWII was fought.

I'm currently reading When Hell Froze Over, a book about a joint U.S./British/French campaign INSIDE the Soviet Union during and after the closing days of World War I, where we fought alongside Russian dissidents against the Communists.

If you never heard about this, don't feel bad. Neither did I until I picked up the book.

I'm almost halfway through. Very interesting read. It isn't often that I read about an aspect of U.S. history that I knew absolutely nothing about.

When the Cold War truly started.

I've been reading recent back issues ofThe Missouri Review which is a top notch literary journal published by MU. It's one of the few national literary journals that I've found to include decent creative nonfiction.

Aside from that, assigned readings for classes. Read a novella called "The Pastoral Symphony" by Andre Gide. It was pretty nice, if obvious.

I just read the latest book by Jeff Shaara titled The Rising Tide. WW2 book.

Good read. I need a new book to read. I will go through this thread to see i can see some that would interest me.

I really enjoy his stuff. I'll be sure to pick that up.

This should not be of any surprise to you Frazod but this is a part 1 of 3 books.

Thought thought you might want to know.

Case for a Creator

Forever Odd by Dean Koontz

Back to my 9th or 10th reading of Dune.
Never gets old.
This time, I'm gonna try to get through the series in order and in a timely fashion. See how it flows.

Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths go to Work

Paul Babiak, Ph.D. and Robert Hare, Ph.D.

FRIDAY by Robert A. Heinlein.

Read my first book by Heinlein a couple months ago. This will be the 3rd one in a row.

Another book i really liked about WW2 that was Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege.

If you like the history stuff.

I never could get past the 4th book of the original series. I've picked it up several times over the past 20 years and tried to get through it, but I just find the entire notion of Leto transformed into a thousands-of-years-old giant worm to be both lame and boring. Couple that with the loss of all the interesting characters from the first three books, and IMO it just sucks.

Obviously I've never read the 5th and 6th books either, although I'm told their both better than God Emperor.

The Kite Runner. It's excellent so far, and I'm ripping through it. Also rereading Macbeth, since I'm teaching it for the first time in quite some time.

Just finished Swan Song by McCammon. I liked the beginning, didn't care for the end, so much.

Up next, The Mephisto Club by Tess Gerritsen.

The Kite Runner to me had the best writing i have seen in a book.
Best writing ever in my opinion.

I kept reading good things about this book, but i felt the subject did not interest me. I needed a quick summer book so i bought it.

Glad i did.

Par for the course. I'll end up buying all of them, I'm sure.

Has anybody read The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson?

John Grisham The Innocent Man

Under The Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates

- David Cordingly

Neil Gaiman: American Gods

Pretty cool modern fantasy about immigrant Gods and what happens as they lose their followers. I think I'm about to go on a Gaiman kick.

Heh. Read that one a little while back. Strange, good read. Keg also liked that one.

Pick up Gaiman's Neverwhere. It's a pretty good fantasy book.

Years ago. Great spoof of the "Conspiracy" thrillers...

Fantastic ending as well, IMO.

Easily the strangest book I have ever read. Hard to put down, though.

For all the drug induced weirdness that goes on, these guys do an excellent job keeping the story going and the reder interested.

I'm about 2/3rds of the way through it, which means I only have another 300 pages to go. :(

Speaking of The Illuminatus, nice sig, Adept. :)

And I did buy it (Shaara's The Rising Tide), with a gift card I got for Christmas. But I'm currently reading an extremely long and detailed biography of Benjamin Franklin.

I'm reading History of Pirates: Blood and Thunder on the High Seas by Nigel Cawthorne. So far I'm not that impressed, although I'm only a couple of chapters into it. How is yours?

Same here. Both of them are good books.

Over all it is pretty interesting. Cordingly does a fair job of sperating the fact from the fiction. With one exception, I've been pretty happy with it to this point.

On a John Irving kick. I have just over a chapter to go in The World According to Garp. Next up, A Son of the Circus.

I am slugging it through the NON fiction book Being No One by MIT's Thomas Metzinger. The notion of self as being superflurous to existing. Don't ask anything more until I am further in to it. If you know about it feel free to comment.

I read that just before I became a Buc fan. LOL!

It is not having the same impact on me I assure you.

I thought Jon Gruden was the reason you became a Buc fan.

Good read.

Yet another reason not to have faith in the justice system in this country.

Guilty until proven innocent.

I AM READING Those Who Trespass BY Bill O'Reilly!!!!!!

Just finished 'Soldier of Sidon' by Gene Wolfe, a sequel to his 'Latro' novels (Gene Wolfe Rocks). Shopping for Cormac McCarthy's new book "The Road" and waiting for the library to deliver Mark Steyn's "America Alone".

The Evaders - it's about the airborne troops that were cutoff by the Germans when the allies failed to take Arnhem during operation Market Garden, WWII. Hundreds os soldiers helped by the Dutch resistance wer able to avoid capture and return to allied lines.

AND
Cafe on the Nile - fictional mind candy.

AND
Americans Through the Lens - pictorial of America through the 1900s - neat pictures.

I was reading Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man". It was tough, imo. I hate doing this, but I put it aside for "A History of the Arab Peoples" by Hourani. This has been good so far, as expected. If you have an interest in the subject, or have a strong desire to be introduced, you might want to check it out.

I just picked up Friday Night Lights today.

Reading

Guided Flight Discovery, Instrument/Commercial by Jeppesen

Commercial Pilot - Practical Test Standards and Commercial Oral Exam Guide by the FAA

I've just finished reading The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D Wattles, which I've read 3 or 4 times in a row.

Just started Becoming a Millionaire God's Way by Dr. C Thomas Anderson.

Just got back from the library. I'm really looking forward to reading these:

http://www.amazon.com/God-Country-Co.../dp/0465054684

http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/2...0420320zq3.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/High-School-Co.../dp/0743283635

http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/6...3283635wf1.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Jihad-L.../dp/0465023886

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/9661/storygl4.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/Devils-Picnic-.../dp/1582344299

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/7176/tvl83ox9.jpg

Last one has a chapter on absinthe and 186-proof Norwegian moonshine. LMAO

I recently finished Johnny Cash's autobiography, and "The Final Days" about Richard Nixon's last months as president. I was disgusted with Nixon after reading the book.

I'm about halfway through Pynchon's newest Against the Day. It's typical Pynchon, but I've been entertained for the most part. It's taken me quite a while to get this far into it, as the book really bogs down from time to time (also typical Pynchon), but other parts have me staying up late and turning pages like mad. Anyway, if you like Pynchon but were disillusioned with Mason & Dixon, give this one a try.

A Hole in the Mattress-
By Mr. Completely

A Tomcat's Revenge-
By Claude Balls

Just got finished reading History Wars: The Enola Gay and Other Battles for the American Past. Great book, although a bit repetitive due to the fact it's eight separate account of the same event; the Enola Gay show controversy in 1995 at the National Air and Space Museum.

Before that I finished Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream. Quick read, showing an interesting side of the business "transitional" phase. The best chapter is by far "Networking with the Lord" which deals with how some churches have catered to the business lifestyle. Can drag a bit in terms of writing style and many of my fellow students found it a horrible waste of time. I did not.

Now I'm reading Black Hawk: an autobiography and John Stoessinger's Why Nations Go To War.

A new Latro novel? :clap: I missed this one coming out. Thanks for the tip. Wolfe is one of my favorite authors. I've re-read "Short Sun" three times, and am still trying to figure out exactly what happened.

Finished one about a week ago called: On Killing - The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman

3 weeks ago, Total Survival, a compilation of techniques & strategies for surviving dangerous situations. Made by & for law enforcement types.

In 1 sitting at Barnes & Noble a few days ago, Hunt for the Skinwalker by Colm Kelleher Phd & George Knapp. It chronicles a scientific institutes study of paranormal phenomena at a Utah ranch. SCARY.

Here are quotes from the book i just read. See if any of you can guess the name of the book.

"There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure."

and

"when you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true".


No googleing please.

I recently read the Knight and the Wizard by Gene Wolfe. Good off-kilter fantasy.

On a lighter note, I've been reading the Dresden Files books by Jim Butcher. Pretty fun stuff.

just finishing the Kildar series by John Ringo, and reading the March Upcountry series by John Ringo and David Weber for the umpteenth time... that really is a great series

kcmax

If you liked The Wizard Knight, try Wolfe's Opus... Book of the New Sun. The two sequel-series are also incredible.

Haven't read those, but I did enjoy the Posleen War books (Hymm before Battle-Hells Faire). Extreme "carnography" that they are... :)

I'm in the identical situation....about 400 pages in...I like it becuase it is like Gravitys Rainbow, but it doesn't have quite the same mad/dark/paranoid force...this book has more cause and effect than I ever remember from Pynchon, the character's motivations were much more opaque in GR, and there isn't a character that moves/interests me like Slothrop did...and so far Vibe doesn't interest me the way Capt. Blicero did...Vibe seems two-dimensional compared to Blicero, but then, most any character would...

but the sense of confrontation....the anarchists, the class war, the cops...this book has an apocalyptic feel that GR didn't, which I think is a result of his age, and which has me very curious and excited about how this book will resolve...

bittersweet to think that this is probably his last book...you can sense the power fading and surging....still no experience like reading him though...the way he juggles 100 characters across the globe, and shoots it all through with intelligence and melancholy, and corny broadway songs lol...

The New Field and Stream arrived yesterday.

Its fishing lure evaluation month.

Your post sums up exactly what I posted on my teaching blog about the book but you had quite a bit more specificity.


I found this last part of your post to be pretty indicative of a realization I had while reading. My head was absolutely swimming with characters, plots, and events. The book had moved from the world's fair to the West to the East to the polar caps introducing a dizzying array of characters, each absolutely quirky and unique. I felt like I'd been with this book forever, and I looked down to realize I was on page 100 with about 1000 pages to go. The guy is unreal in his ability to generate encyclopedic content.

bingo....sometimes it makes me feel good, sometimes it makes me want to cry....I can not fathom how a human mind can construct such a thing...but it gives me faith in humans, if imagination on that scale is possible it can only be a good thing, and it goes without saying that it is a beautiful thing...

I already know I'm going to read GR again (my 3rd read) after I finish this...lots of parallels and questions...for instance, the fact that pre-WWI has Pynchon actually dealing with the possibility of revolution on an individual scale - man lights dynamite, building explodes - and science is yet to reach a level of complexity beyond the grasping of individuals (working class individuals..again, dynamite)...the corporate systems are only just being put into place....but by GR - WWII - there is no pretense of an individual revolution, no stick of dynamite (literally or metaphorically)...Rockets, aeronautics, plastics,...corporations and governments in full collusion...his infamous full-scale paranoia...Slothrop wandering, no revolution, no NEO, no Jesus (well, I still can't parse the symbolism of Blicero rocketing his gimp/gay/pure/???/lover into space)...

Against The Day (AGTD) is really making me look at GR in a new light. I mean, what I loved about GR - the wandering, the paranoia, the Science as New Religion (and same old fascism) - may be a grand, aesthetic cop-out, a way of not taking responsibility for the world...I guess I wonder if one could read into AGTD and find Pynchon critiquing GR..or if that is stretching it....of course, I don't even know how AGTD ends yet! I could really be full of it.

ok, enough...Pynchon "lights my fire" though...for sure

I just read SLAG's McDonalds thread. It was like a book. And it made me hungry.

I'm curious if you've read any Neal Stephenson? I really think that he's been overlooked as a writer in the vein of a Pynchon or David Foster Wallace for encyclopedic greatness. Snow Crash is great, but it doesn't really do much to make the comparison. If you haven't checked out Crytonomicon do so. After that, wade through the Baroque Cycle.

I've had Crytonomicon on "the list" for awhile...thanks for the suggestion, I had forgotten about it.

I love everything Wallace has written, and he has some great non-fiction.

I didn't really like this book. I couldn't concentrate on it.

I liked the book Jenson.

Re-reading The Da Vinci Code for an English class.

Oh hell...almost forgot. Picked this up two weeks ago at half-price books and it's on the list:

http://www.amazon.com/Shooter-Autobi...3277576&sr=8-1

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/1...0420320xk5.jpg

I'm currently reading a biography of Daniel Boone. Long overdue reading this one, since he's my great-X-whatever grandfather.

Last: America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It - Mark Steyn - Quite entertaining if you like Steyn's sense of humor, but it's definitely a pessimistic view of things to come and probably won't sit well with liberals, multiculturalists or radical islamists.

Current: Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey - David Horowitz - The guy has led a facinating life. I'm not too far into the book yet so I can't give it a thumbs up or thumbs down at this point.

Reading Stephen King's Cell right now. Also reading Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep.

Speaking of Neil Stephenson, I have The Diamond Age on queue.

Oh, and I think I'm just about to start re-reading both The Dark Tower series and A Song of Ice and Fire.

Sons of the Oak by David Farland

no wonder you're a freakin psycho

Just finished Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow. Great, great book.

ROFL I'm thinking of reading Robert Jordan's The Eye Of The World next. Will that help? Has anyone read these "Wheel of Time" books and are they worth getting into? It's such a long series.

I'm still working my way through Against the Day. I'm close to page 800 now. Can, you really have to read the Baroque Cycle by Stephenson. I'm absolutely convinced that Pynchon has been reading Stephenson.

I'm 750 pages through, trying to finish it before I go on vacation in a week.

I felt like it really picked up steam about 500 pages in, as crazy as that sounds, and I'm thrilled and scared to get to the end. More and more of the shadow of the 1st World War seeps in, I find it very moving.

I will jump into Stephenson next..after a brief breather.

Sounds like it takes/borrows some ideas from "The Clash of Civilizations" by Huntington and "The End of History" by Fukuyama. Ever read those?

I've read them all (I think) 3 times. A lot of people have complained about the length of the series and there's the risk that he won't finish the 12th and (supposedly) final book, A Memory of Light, due to serious illness (amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy), but I don't think I'd ever tell anyone not to give them a shot.

It's a very complex story with dozens of characters (a complaint of some folks, so many stories to follow) but it's an easy world to get lost in for weeks at a time, and I've found that the characters really "live" in the story. As in I care about what happens to them, insofar as one can in the reading of a book...

Sometimes his prose does run a little on the "too much" side of the line, and I'll find myself skimming over a page or three, but generally they're the kind of books I can't put down, and, as I said, I've re-read them more than once.

May be my favorite fantasy series of all. At least in the top 5.

But expect to be reading for a loooong time if you do get into it...

I just finished World War Z by Max Brooks, it's a great book that explores the yin-yang of human character.