books: what are you currently reading?

Started by Caleb, June 21, 2006, 11:58:08 PM

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Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 is on the backburner while I finish The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression. I still have a stack of books my wife got me last Christmas that I haven't finished yet.
Gregg
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Currently reading Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck.  I'm having a great time with this one.

I just finished Battle Cry of Freedom, by James McPhearson. It's an excellent history of the Civil War, including the social, economic and social backgrounds and impacts. I highly recomend it. Its amazing how much you don't learn at school.....

I am now looking for a similar history of the American Revolutionary War. After seeing the HBO series on John Adams, I read his bio and one on John Quincy Adams. It has peaked my interest to learn more about the war.

Any recomendations??

Joe
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Quote from: jcbuggs on July 14, 2008, 01:55:34 PM
I just finished Battle Cry of Freedom, by James McPhearson. It's an excellent history of the Civil War, including the social, economic and social backgrounds and impacts. I highly recomend it. Its amazing how much you don't learn at school.....

I am now looking for a similar history of the American Revolutionary War. After seeing the HBO series on John Adams, I read his bio and one on John Quincy Adams. It has peaked my interest to learn more about the war.

Any recomendations??

Joe

I haven't read any one general history of the American Revolutionary War but can recommend anything by Richard M. Ketchum. I have two of his books on the Revolutionary War including:

Victory at Yorktown: The Campaign That Won the Revolution

Decisive Day: The Battle for Bunker Hill

I plan on reading his other books on the topic. Click on the links above and you can follow other links on Amazon.com to the rest of his titles.

Another book, A Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens by Lawrence E. Babits , is another good read.

I have a few titles by David McCullough and plan on buying his bio of John Adams along with the DVD set, having missed the show on TV. McCullogh may be my favorite biographer.

Gregg
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'07 Fender Lite Ash Tele
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'04 Larrivee D-03 Mahogany
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Quote from: the creature on July 12, 2008, 12:28:06 PM
Currently reading Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck.  I'm having a great time with this one.

I love Steinbeck, and that is one of my favorites! Quite unlike most of his others. Have you read Log from the Sea of Cortez? That's another one of his travel books. I liked it quite a bit.

Deb
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Quote from: wyodeb on July 15, 2008, 06:32:10 PM
I love Steinbeck, and that is one of my favorites! Quite unlike most of his others. Have you read Log from the Sea of Cortez? That's another one of his travel books. I liked it quite a bit.

Deb
No, I've not read that one, but plan to.  I, like you, am finding Travels much different than his other work.  Obviously because the other is all fiction, I suppose.  But this one is a really nice peek into Steinbeck's opinions and convictions.  I really love the part where he goes into how he stayed off the interstates, because they tend to make one think of ones self, since there is little scenery and all there is to do in focus inward.  But he preferred to stay off the "super highways" (nobody uses that term anymore) and keep to the smaller, slower roads where he could see things and experience the country.  That section of the book really knocked me out.  I also find it extremely odd that nobody recognized him, especially since the Grapes of Wrath was required reading in many schools.  But I suppose the world was a bit larger in those days, what without the internet and the all-access TV shows.  I bet he had a blast on that trip. 

Travels with Charley is on my list of books to reread. It's been almost 18 years since I've read a lot of Steinbeck. I've been reading a lot of fiction lately. Just about time to switch gears again.

Deb
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Quote from: wyodeb on July 15, 2008, 11:42:04 PM
Travels with Charley is on my list of books to reread. It's been almost 18 years since I've read a lot of Steinbeck. I've been reading a lot of fiction lately. Just about time to switch gears again.

Deb
I read East of Eden last year and it was the best book I've ever read. Period.  That one is likely to go into my annual rotation, along with the Lord of the Rings trilogy. 

Quote from: jeremy3220 on July 04, 2008, 12:01:22 AM
I just started Science and Sanity, it seems pretty complex. It's always strange to read scientific books from other eras.

It might seem a bit intimidating at first (it's practically a doorstop), but once you get going it's hard to put down. Probably the most important book I've ever read.
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Right now I'm reading the bestseller, "This Is Your Brain On Music" by Daniel Levitin.

Maybe it will give me some insight as to what happens to everybody's faces when I begin to play.    :arrow
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I don't read much sci-fi anymore but am just finishing Dan Simmons' Olympos, sequel to Ilium, and it is fabulous. I'll be sorry to have it end and there's no bigger compliment to give a book.   

Just finished Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream" and Stephen Brunt's "Facing Ali". I'm just starting Angelo Dundee's "My View From the Corner".
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Just finished in the past couple of months:

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly...............Jean-Dominique Bauby
When You Are Engulfed In Flames............David Sedaris
A Wolf at the Table................................Agusten Burroughs
How To Be Good................................... Nick Hornby

Up next..........re-read Sometimes a Great Notion..................Ken Kesey

just finished Huckleberry Finn. It was surprisingly good. I thought it was going to be a casual read but it was a powerful book.

Quote from: the creature on June 21, 2006, 11:58:08 PM

bible - various authors

Very coll way to put that.

  Just finished "Three Cups of Tea".   Very good book a must read on many levels.
reading now  "Under the Banner of Heaven". Shocking for me to read for sure. Good job handling the material. I like Jon Krankauer's style.
  Next on the list "Into The Wild" another Krankauer book.  Already read his " Into Thin Air" Read it on the plane on the way to Africa to climb Kilimanjaro!
Jim Holler
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Quote from: wyodeb on July 15, 2008, 06:32:10 PM
I love Steinbeck, and that is one of my favorites! Quite unlike most of his others. Have you read Log from the Sea of Cortez? That's another one of his travel books. I liked it quite a bit.

Deb

  i to enjoy Stienbeck alot. I have not read "Log from the Sea of Cortez"  I need to look that one up.
Jim Holler
Jim Holler, Luthier
" What we do in this life will resound throughout eternity"

www.TrinityGuitars.com

Just starting the current issue of "The Fretboard Journal"  As it says on the cover  NOT JUST ANOTHER GUITAR MAGAZINE.
                                 A nice article called "Chief,cook, bottle washer" is on JCL and Larrivee, very nice pictures and subject matter.

Just read Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris. It was very good. Difficult to put down. I'm currently in the middle of Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. I'm enjoying it so far.

Deb
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I'm about half way thru "The Devil in the White City" by Eric Larson. Very good read about the 1893 World's Fair and America's First Serial killer.
jeff

Larrivee 00-03MT Forum IV  #30 of 29

I took it really slow with Steinbeck's Travels with Charley and really loved it.  I got a recent edition, which included an alternate ended, which was a first for me in the world of books, but it was a nice surprise.  I like the ending he went with in the main edition, but it was fun to read the alternate.

I'm about to start Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage.


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