books: what are you currently reading?

[StringPicker6]

I think Amazon Prime has a documentary on the We Are The World recording.  Talk about a time travel back!  I remember being a kid in the mall and you couldn't escape that song being played constantly!

[teh]

I watched it and it was interesting how they managed to bring all of those artists together for one night. Prince never showed up and Waylon Jennings walked out of the session but Willie Nelson hung around and actually seemed the most adaptable to the recording. You can tell that Bob Dylan is visibly uncomfortable throughout the film. 

There is also another song from our friends up north "Tears Are Not Enough" featuring Canadian Artists including lots of my favorites, Gordon Lightfoot, Bruce Cockburn, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Bryan Adams and Anne Murray to name a few. CBC taped a 90 minute special that I have to dig around for online.

[Queequeg]

(things I should have learned in school had I been paying attention)
Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu

(from amazon)
"As the most celebrated European to explore Asia, Marco Polo was the original global traveler and the earliest bridge between East and West. A universal icon of adventure and discovery, he has inspired six centuries of popular fascination and spurious mythology. Now, from acclaimed author Laurence Bergreen, comes the first fully authoritative biography of one of the most enchanting figures in world history. In this masterly work, Marco Polo's incredible odyssey - along the Silk Road and through all the fantastic circumstances of his life - is chronicled in sumptuous and illuminating detail.

Drawing on original sources in more than half a dozen languages, and his own travels along Polo's route in China and Mongolia, Bergreen explores the lingering controversies surrounding Polo's legend, settling age-old questions and testing others for significance.

Synthesizing history, biography, and travelogue, this is a timely chronicle of a man who extended the boundaries of human knowledge and imagination. Destined to be the definitive account of its subject for decades to come, Marco Polo takes us on a journey to the limits of history - and beyond."

[Myopic Squirrel]

Morgan Housel's The Psychology of Money. Considering the financial illiteracy in this country, should be required secondary school reading. No eye-glazing technical treatise, more basic fundamental money & life lessons contained in 20 brief chapters. IMO a good book to give to young people starting out. Wish it had been written 60 years ago!

[Silence Dogood]

I just finished CONFESSIONS OF A VINTAGE GUITAR DEALER by Norman Harris of Norman's Rare Guitars fame. 

This was a really fun book that I wish had been longer and filled with more stories.  Anyone interested in guitars would enjoy.  Lots about artists, old guitars, renting and selling guitars to movie sets, the LA music scene back in the 70s/80s, etc.   If you think you know a lot about guitars, Norm knows more! 

A really fun book.  I recommend!

[Queequeg]

CODE BREAKER by Walter Isaacson
Best Book of 2021 by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Time, and The Washington Post

The bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returns with a "compelling" (The Washington Post) account of how Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues launched a revolution that will allow us to cure diseases, fend off viruses, and have healthier babies.
They have had success curing some patients with painful and debilitating sickle cell anemia.

[Myopic Squirrel]

1L by Scott Turow (Presumed Innocent author). His diary as a 1st year law student at Harvard. Pretty interesting insight into learning the "lawyering" process in the 70's. Makes it a little easier to understand the lawyer personality - especially one from an extremely high pressure institution.

[Silence Dogood]

I've been reading MAN AND HIS SYMBOLS by Carl Jung.  This work was "written down" for the common man to follow along with and be able to understand, and still it's nowhere near light reading.  I'll have to read this one several times to truly grasp what's being communicated. 

For many years I've been interested in dreams and Jung is helping me understand it all better.  There are also some podcasts out there with Jung scholars that make his ideas a lot more accessible than just trying to read his books.  I've been enjoying one called This Jungian Life quite a bit. 

[Queequeg]

A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson

review by James S Marsh on Amazon:

This book takes everything that you think you know about the universe, broadens the scope of this thought, and increases the breadth and depth of detail by such a factor as to be nearly overwhelming. I particularly enjoy the human aspect that Bill is able to infuse into his narrative. He absolutely enraptures the reader and makes one wonder how we even figured anything out at all.

Time and time again, as discoveries were made, we see through Bill's detailed research that we are lucky indeed that history played out the way it did. He also raises the thought of what we may have lost along the way. In addition to Bill's historical narrative that he excels at, we are also fortunate that his unique prose serves as a perfect tool for breaking down complex ideas and explaining discoveries and natural science from everything we know (and think we know) into a nearly easily digestible narrative that keeps you hooked, page after page.

[mike in lytle]

The River War
(1902 edition)
By Winston S. Churchill

[Silence Dogood]

This week I felt the urge to get back to Narnia and took a trip through the wardrobe and reread THE MAGICIAN'S NEPHEW, probably my favorite store of all time. 

[Queequeg]

The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A "thrilling and superbly crafted" (The Wall Street Journal) account of the most momentous voyage of the Age of Exploration, which culminated in Captain James Cook's death in Hawaii, and left a complex and controversial legacy still debated to this day.

"Hampton Sides, an acclaimed master of the nonfiction narrative, has taken on Cook's story and retells it for the 21st century."—Los Angeles Times

[Silence Dogood]

I am rereading LILITH by George MacDonald, the Victorian era Scottish novelist/poet/pastor.  Truly a haunting and strange book.  I'm just trying to keep up. 

BTW, I really like the trend that Queeqeg started of putting an image with the book referenced.  I think this should be required in this thread now.  It makes the post much more interesting for some reason. 

[Whossible]

I'm currently reading "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern. It's a captivating fantasy novel that centers around a magical competition between two young illusionists.

[teh]

I'm reading "The Complete Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant." He's a detailed and accomplished writer and he finished this book shortly before his death. He was also an accomplished horseman and rider and skilled military tactician.

During his tenure as the 18th President of the United States 1869 to 1877, his administration oversaw the expansion of the U.S. into western territories and the completion of the first transcontinental railroad connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

[Queequeg]

From the author of Killers of the Flower Moon...
I just started THE WAGER.


review from the NYT:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. The powerful narrative reveals the deeper meaning of the events on The Wager, showing that it was not only the captain and crew who ended up on trial, but the very idea of empire.

A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, TIME, Smithsonian, NPR, Vulture, Kirkus Reviews

"Riveting...Reads like a thriller, tackling a multilayered history—and imperialism—with gusto." —Time

"A tour de force of narrative nonfiction." —The Wall Street Journal

On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty's Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as "the prize of all the oceans," it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.

But then ... six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes – they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang.

[Silence Dogood]

From the author of Killers of the Flower Moon...
I just started THE WAGER.


review from the NYT:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. The powerful narrative reveals the deeper meaning of the events on The Wager, showing that it was not only the captain and crew who ended up on trial, but the very idea of empire.

A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, TIME, Smithsonian, NPR, Vulture, Kirkus Reviews

"Riveting...Reads like a thriller, tackling a multilayered history—and imperialism—with gusto." —Time

"A tour de force of narrative nonfiction." —The Wall Street Journal

On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty's Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as "the prize of all the oceans," it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.

But then ... six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes – they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang.

This looks interesting!  But all the heaped praise from NPR, et al, makes me wonder if it'll be an uber-woke interpretation of "imperialism"?  One of my old teachers used to say: History should be a treasure hunt, not a witch hunt.  The latter seems to be owning the day in our time. 

[Queequeg]

This looks interesting!  But all the heaped praise from NPR, et al, makes me wonder if it'll be an uber-woke interpretation of "imperialism"?  One of my old teachers used to say: History should be a treasure hunt, not a witch hunt.  The latter seems to be owning the day in our time. 

Huh? 
woke? no. Best Book of the Year: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, TIME, Smithsonian, NPR, Vulture, Kirkus Reviews
I'm enjoying it about a quarter of the way through, but perhaps this one's not for you...

[Silence Dogood]

Huh? 
woke? no. Best Book of the Year: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, TIME, Smithsonian, NPR, Vulture, Kirkus Reviews
I'm enjoying it about a quarter of the way through, but perhaps this one's not for you...

Ok, let me try again. 😀

  What I mean is, in order for these hipster outlets to be calling it the best book of the year, the "imperialists" are surely painted in the worst possible light in the story?

[Queequeg]

Ok, let me try again. 😀

  What I mean is, in order for these hipster outlets to be calling it the best book of the year, the "imperialists" are surely painted in the worst possible light in the story?

And allow me to try again.
This is a seafaring story by an English author about an English ship when they were at war with Spain and they were in search of a Spanish galleon until they suffered a mutiny and were shipwrecked on an uninhabited island off the coast of Chile.
This is the 3rd of three books I have posted here; all three 16th and18th century non-fiction. None of them "woke".
All the other books I have posted in this thread were physics books or at least science-oriented non-fiction. None were political.
In my 18+ years on this forum I don't think I have ever posted a "woke" comment here but please correct me if I'm wrong.
Is Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal now considered "woke" and/or a hipster outlet? I don't know. I'm kind of an old guy and out of touch with popular culture and not too sure about exactly what music hipsters listen to or what they do or what they read.
And please don't construe this post as an attempt to convince you to read the book.
I do at least try to be open-minded.