Good books

[aigheadish]

Nice books @beenthere I've read most everything he's done in a much lighter form factor (my phone) but I'd love to have that on my non-existent (yet to be built) book shelf! 

I'll have to check that channel out. I'm not hugely into travel on the mighty Mississip but the book is giving me some interest in it. Thanks!

[beenthere]

Corrected the name of the boaters who travel the loop and are called "loopers". Link here of the routes taken between the great lakes and the south for the winter. 

loopers

The youtuber "marktwained" that I watched hasn't posted for a couple months. He was VERY upset during the campaign for Nov. election and  just hope he survived the results as he lost. Poor guy. 

[aigheadish]

I think someome else on FF mentioned loopers a while ago. What an incredible adventure that would be! 

[red]

I noticed Roxies name on the Birthday list this morning . . then today in the mail I received a Free book from www.thriftbooks.com and I thought of Roxie again . . because Roxie told me about Thriftbooks used books and the free books you get after buying 5 books 
The free book I received today was about Barns a very nice large size book to keep on the coffee table .  . it originally sold for $60 

[Wlmedley]

My son got me a couple books for Christmas. I'm half through with the first one. Homo Deus A Brief History of Tomorrow. A very interesting and well written book. I can't help but to pick it up every time I set down. Leaves a lot of questions unanswered but gives a person a lot to think about. I highly recommend it.

[Old Greenhorn]

OK I just finished "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse. I didn't realize what the book was really about until nearly halfway through. So Bill, if you are going to read this you should know this is a book about Leonard Pelitier who has been serving two consecutive life sentences in federal prisons for the murder of two FBI agents on an Indian Reservation. Sounds cut and dried, it certainly is not. After reading the book as well as doing some other research, I personably believe he was railroaded. But I'll say no more. This book was actually held from publication for about 7 years because of libel suits filed by one of South Dakota's more sleazy governors (accused of rape and disbarred in one case, and convicted of manslaughter in another) and an FBI agent involved in the incident in question. Both lawsuits were dismissed after very expensive and lengthy processes. The author has gone to great lengths to get the point of view of each and every angle, interviewing Agents, Indians, and doing tons of research. Well written is an understatement, he is clear to make his opinions known as just that, his opinions, but he is also clear to cite documented evidence. This is part of the reason the book was a bit of a slog. The same event is retold several times, but through the eyes of different groups of people showing their perspective.
 Because of the long pause between the first publication date and the actual release after the libel suits were done, there was more and pertinent information to add., so the 'afterward' of the book becomes a bit of a plot twist that changed some things in my head. The epilogue about the libel suits was also interesting.
 It appears at this point that Leonard will die in prison based on what I am thinking is a trumped up sham of a trail spearheaded by our own FBI and perpetuated by our Justice system. I have always been ashamed by the way our government has treated our indigenous people, but thought that was largely in the past. Now I see that it is even worse now than it ever was. 
 But anybody who reads this an make up their own minds. Bill, if you read it and get all the way through, I'd really like to hear what you think. I did fid that the information was so intense and in some places offensive, that I had to take breaks and go for a walk before continuing.

[Old Greenhorn]

I have finished off two more books since the last post and due to the pretty cold weather.
 The first was a follow-up book to my previous selection. I had known about "Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee" since in came out in the early 70's but owing to it's heavy nature I managed to avoid reading it. After "The Spirit of Crazy Horse" I really had to read this one to get a better understanding of the history. I was right. This is basically a history of the west from the Native American perspective and tells of the treatment the indigenous by the invading whites. It's not a pretty story, but one that I think every American of every stripe should read.  Truly, it changed my thinking 180° on a couple of issues that until know I had never really understood. I also saw (and this is my own bizarre takeaway that I wouldn't expect anyone else to share) disarming patterns in the US government's handling of 'The Indian Problem' and how it does things today in other 'problem areas'. I found this very sobering to realize, but maybe it's just me.
----------------------------

 After that heavy reading I needed a change of pace, so I read a book my daughter gave me for Christmas by Bill Bryson called "In a Sunburned Country". I have read a few of his books and find his writing style enjoyable, humorous in mild ways, and easy reading. This one is about his experiences about touring all around Australia. I expected it to be a tour guide type thing, but I truly learned a lot about Australia that I had never known, and I mean a lot. The book was quite enjoyable and opened a new area of interest for me. He points out clearly and by many examples of how the country in pretty much unknown to the outside world even today. For me, it's a good read and I recommend it, as well as Bill's other books. He's a good writer. I especially enjoyed his "A walk in the Woods" about hiking the Appellation trail.

[doc henderson]

Tools of the trade is about a journeyman's trail to master carpenter.  each chapter is titled after a hand tool.  my favorite is framing square.  The young man asked to borrow the old German mentor's square.  He was told with heavy accent, "it is the most dangerous tool you will ever use".  hmm?  "For if you drop it, and knock it out of square, it will be my sad duty to kill you".  he later went on to instruct him is its use including calculations, and how to test and make it square.

I also like a book I bought, called "No matter where you go, there you are".  Never read it but love the tittle.  It speaks volumes.  Doc.

[Old Greenhorn]

I apprenticed under an old German Journeyman. I know the accent and the attitude (mine would occasionally cause me pain to drive a point home). Sound like a good read.
 I am currently buried in a nearly 900 page tome of Alexander Hamilton's life. He was a pretty interesting guy but I am only 100 pages into it. I am a student of the era and many of my cousin's have a passing connection with Hamilton through Oliver Wolcott who is their ancestor. I never realized Hamilton was in college at the age or 19 when the revolution was fomenting.
 I had actually bought this book by accident thinking I was getting a book of similar depth about John Hancock who is my 1st cousin (7 times removed). I have yet to procure that book, but when/if I get near the end on this one, I will order that one.

[Otis1]

I haven't read through this entire thread, so apologies if my suggestions have already been mentioned. I am not an avid reader, but I do like historical non-fiction mostly about the outdoors. 

My first suggestion is "Grandma Gatewood's Walk" by Ben Montgomery. First woman to walk the Appalachian trail I believe and multiple times. 

"American Canopy" by Eric Rutkow. Chronicles a lot of our countries history with trees/ forests in a way that correlates with growth, major events and politics.

"When the White Pine was King" and another one about the CCC by Jerry Apps. He is a local WI writer. 

[arojay]

For Christmas, I received The Wilderness of the Upper Yukon, by Charles Sheldon.  It is about Sheldon's travels and collection hunts during 1904 and '05.  Mostly hunting wild sheep, but quite a bit of other game as well, for food.  It's a fun read.  

A friend turned me on to Linwood Barclay's mysteries last summer while i was recoving from a hip replacement.  His books are very engaging.  As much as I enjoy a Grisham novel, he is a great writer, but many are predictable and I burn through them in a matter of hours.  Barclay's have a twist or two that are unexpected.

[aigheadish]

I just got done with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein last night. The TV/movie portrayal (which I'm not sure I've seen anything more than clips of, like I don't think I've watched the movie/s, other than young Frankenstein) isn't anything like the book.

The book portrays both Frankenstein and the monster as quite broken with the life they are lead to lead. Frankenstein is upset at himself for releasing the monster into the world and the monster just wants love, kind of... Interesting.

[Magicman]

I finished reading this one last evening.  It is an autobiography by a very interesting man and details his struggles and successes during his lifetime.  

[Old Greenhorn]

Non-fiction has always been my main interest, particularly historical biographies. I started doing that in my late teen years when my Pop was teaching me a bit of gunsmithing and designs. He encouraged me to read the histories of the various major gunmakers like Colt, Remington, Winchester, and especially Browning. Also I read every biography I could find on those individuals, Jonathon Browning and John Browning I found most notable and interesting. Sam colt was also not what I expected, more of a showman than a gunmaker, he started out as patent medicine peddler/charlatan and in some ways, never changed.  There are a LOT of the4se books, and because it's history, it really doesn't change, so it matters not how how the book is. It took me a dozen years to work through all the gunmaker books I could find. Soon after I switched to other histories and then to historical biographies.
 Right now I am working on I am working on a biography of Alexander Hamilton whom I had previously read a bunch about in other books. This one is just Hamilton from before birth to after death. Written by Ron Chernow in 2004, at 800 pages it is taking me a while, I am just now only 1/4 of the way through it, but it's a good read with a LOT of detail and very well researched and footnoted. Hamilton shows up in my family genealogy as a family friend of my cousin's ancestor. So this book will go onto my shelf with the family research library books.
 I am anxious to finish it so I can look for a similar book on John Hancock, who is in my own family line as a first cousin.

[aigheadish]

I don't remember which auto/biographies I've read but some are interesting. I know I've read at least one of Ben Franklin's. I don't know much about Hamilton but I do know some of those books are fascinating. I've read The Wright Brothers by Something McCullough (I think) and it was really good, had me searching out all kinds of info about my town (Dayton) and some of the other big names from here, the amount of stuff that came out of this place in the late 1800's and early 1900's is incredible. 

[Raider Bill]

 
In light of recent events concerning Leonard Pelitier, I bumped "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse up 14 spots and started reading it last night. Going to take a couple days as my Kindle says 16.3 hours of reading.

[Old Greenhorn]

OH my that's good news! I was not aware, so thank you for that. I think when you finish the book you'll have an idea of why I think this is long overdue. Happy reading.

[Bradm]

I'm halfway through Dietrich Bonhoeffer's "Letters and Papers from Prison".  It's almost all of his writings after his arrest in April 1943 and details his thoughts on the war. life, religion, and the importance of faith.  I really enjoyed his essay "After 10 Years" , which details his observations after 10 years of Nazi oppression, and I think that 80+ years later it is just as applicable today as it was then.

It's also taken me 2 years to read about 2/3 of "Kapital" book 1 by Marx.  Marx's logic  (lack thereof?) and interchanging and equating of the words value, cost, and price where it fits what he wants to focus on drives me nuts and I need to put the book down to regain my sanity.  At this rate it'll probably take me 10 years to finish all 3 books.

[Old Greenhorn]

That's some nice light reading you've selected Brad.
 Yes, I can imagine working through Marx's stuff has to be tough. I have never tried any of those type historical books, I just don't have the drive to work through them. I guess I have a small mind and it can be very hard to work through something like that when I don't have a driving interest, just curious to want to understand it.
 I recall 30 years ago when the question of whaling and the ethics involved were more in the news and on peoples minds I found a book called The History of Modern Whaling. I was trying to develop an understanding of Norway's history and culture and this was a part of that. It is 800 pages and according to the bookmark I just checked on, I am only 300 pages into it. Lots of statistics and numbers, holy cow, that's a tough read and I should get back to it.
 BUT, I am still slogging through Alexander Hamilton and learning new things every hour, almost a third through it now. I will say this is interesting, I wish I could read faster. (And stay awake longer)

[SwampDonkey]

Prof. Dr. Richard Wolff has written about and talked at length about Marxism. He has a book called 'Understanding-Marxism'. He has all kinds of books about capitalism and his youtube channel(s) is (are) full of long chats about it. Believe it or not, there is an alternate reality concerning our economic system. :D

[Greenie]

Stalin's War: A New History of World War II by Sean McKeekin. After the fall of the USSR in December 1991 records, letters, and other archived information was available for review. FDR rearmed and monetized Stalin at the point where Stalin was all but destroyed by German troops. FDR provided billions of dollars worth of aircraft, vehicles, tanks, ammo, raw material which never required being repaid. The UK, however was forced to repay WWII debts.
USSR spies were high up in both FDR and Churchill's governments which paved the way for almost 50 years of cold war. It's an astounding read, supported with over 90 pages of footnoted references.

[SwampDonkey]

My guess, after loosing about 25M or so people in the war they overwhelmingly help win, Stalin and the US President figured they didn't owe anything. They never had a bustling economy so repayment would have been difficult. The wealth was in Europe, not Russia.

[Bradm]

Prof. Dr. Richard Wolff has written about and talked at length about Marxism. He has a book called 'Understanding-Marxism'. He has all kinds of books about capitalism and his youtube channel(s) is (are) full of long chats about it. Believe it or not, there is an alternate reality concerning our economic system. :D

I listened to a 3ish hour podcast between Wolff and Lex Fridman.  Wasn't impressed.  I'll have to give it another listen to give more detail as to why I wasn't impressed.

As I said above, Marx's loose definitions of cost, value, and price, as well as his using them synonymously and interchangeably led him to very poor, if not outright false, conclusions.  Words have meaning and playing fast and loose the Marx did was, and is, intellectually dishonest.  His ideology, which he spells out quite clearly in "The Communist Manifesto", with a heavy reliance on Hegelian logics, gave us Kapital and the results of that manifested throughout the 20th century.

@Old Greenhorn, I started reading it because much of what I saw in the Western governments at the time appeared to be based on communism.  I wanted to get a better understanding of what I saw.

I won't go any deeper into the politics as I don't want to see this thread moved into the restricted section.

[Old Greenhorn]

My knowledge of these things is limited, I can only read so much. But my understanding is that the various governments in the nondemocratic Russian group of countries were never designed for the benefit of the people or commerce. Any generated wealth that was not spent on building up the state somehow just 'disappeared'. Still very much a state of various classes of people.
 We needed Russia in that war and what we gave them probably saved out bacon, as well as the free world. The only downside was that they ended up prevailing over a lot of other countries after the war and splitting Germany.

This book on Hamilton I am reading goes into excruciating detail on how our government was formed and organized as well as all the debates that took place forming the final constitution. It is fascinating to read what the original intent was as far as the various powers of each branch of the federal government. I can't help but think that if these men could see what it has devolved into these days, they would throw up.

[SwampDonkey]

Here Dr. Wolff is with his book and at one of many invitations to speak on Marxism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU-AkeOyiOQ