Book Recommendations

[Shooter]

I am now reading a book called Shooter an autobiography about a marine sniper.

It's a good book. Believe that's the one about Coughlin.

If you like it I highly recommend a book about the greatest marine sniper of all-time. "93 Confirmed Kills". It's about Carlos Hathcock and his ass-kicking exploits during Vietnam. He actually had well over 300 kills but for it to be a confirmed kill there are requirements.

 

[CMike]

I am now reading a book called Shooter an autobiography about a marine sniper.

It's a good book. Believe that's the one about Coughlin.

If you like it I highly recommend a book about the greatest marine sniper of all-time. "93 Confirmed Kills". It's about Carlos Hathcock and his ass-kicking exploits during Vietnam. He actually had well over 300 kills but for it to be a confirmed kill there are requirements.

It is and I will.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jubal, Andersonville, Once an Eagle

 

[Sherry]

They make no sense out of their context of Mormon eschatology.

Every time you try to bring this up on any board anywhere, you will have to deal with the context.

Then your capacity to analyze is more limited than I suspected.

 

[Shooter]

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.

Another excellent read. Be warned it is a deep book with many characters (over 400) and is quite intense. It is set at the end of WW2 in Europe. It centers around V2 rockets and has heavy themes in free will vs predestination, psychology, sexuality, and philosophical issues.

 

[American Horse]

More than halfway done.. Wonderfully explained. I recommend it.

Amazon.com: Empires of Trust: How Rome Built--and America Is Building--a New World (9780525950745): Thomas F. Madden: Books

Does America face the same destiny endured by ancient Rome? Is the U.S. military overextended? Does the separation of church and state strengthen or weaken a geopolitical powerhouse? Is the United States just another Empire of Conquest being corrupted by its own power? Of late, it is not only historians who have been asking these questions. Thomas Madden, an award-winning professor of history, now shows almost everything we thought we knew about Rome to be wrong, and revolutionizes our understanding of what a good world empire can be.

Taking readers on a dramatic tour of the Roman Republic, a golden era before the depravities of the Caesars and late Empire, Madden uncovers a peaceful, retiring people who above all wanted to be left alone to enjoy their own families and communities, maintaining the rural traditions of their forebears. But external threats required them to establish security, which they did by creating superlative military forces and transforming defeated enemies into friends. Trust, not brutality, was the key ingredient. All other empires since have been Empires of Conquest—until now.

Beginning with a Roman story strikingly parallel to the American Abu Ghraib scandal, Madden provides a much needed historical context to our burning contemporary debates. The United States can be an empire of trust, and Madden is on a mission to get pundits, candidates, and other election-year spectators—which means all of us—to recognize this profound duty.

Thank you for that recommendation. I recommend Robert Harris' "Imperium" (first of three in a trilogy, the second being "Conspirata," with the third still unwritten) for a detailed look at a famous orator and stateman in the political struggle of Ancient Rome a the time of the republic's failure to cope with events and ambitions for power in a republican system.

IMPERIUM

I always have seen Roman history, not as a predictor of American history, but as a long detached and removed view of republican history and politics. Today, even after two millennia, debate is still hot about the personalities of many of the important figures, and what they stood for.

Their history doesn't predict ours but does offer some caveats for pitfalls. Roman history has been seen as that of a "conservative" and sterile state, and didn't offer very much to inspire or interest our intellectuals to write about; especially compared to the Greek city states, particularly Athens.

But recently there have been some friendly, almost giddy comparisons of our own president Obama and Julius Caesar: The chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts has declared that "Barack Obama is the most powerful writer since Julius Caesar." And liberal author and commentor Michael Parenti authored a book titled "The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome", in which he critiqued previous theories of Caesar's murder, saying that it is a story of popular resistance against entrenched power and wealth.

Remember that Caesar is generally credited with being the lead actor who destroyed the Roman republic.

 

[CMike]

I am now reading a book called Shooter an autobiography about a marine sniper.

It's a good book. Believe that's the one about Coughlin.

If you like it I highly recommend a book about the greatest marine sniper of all-time. "93 Confirmed Kills". It's about Carlos Hathcock and his ass-kicking exploits during Vietnam. He actually had well over 300 kills but for it to be a confirmed kill there are requirements.

If you like historical military fiction, you may like the Richard Sharpe series, and the Richard Bolitho series by Alexander Kent.

 

[JakeStarkey]

I am now reading a book called Shooter an autobiography about a marine sniper.

It's a good book. Believe that's the one about Coughlin.

If you like it I highly recommend a book about the greatest marine sniper of all-time. "93 Confirmed Kills". It's about Carlos Hathcock and his ass-kicking exploits during Vietnam. He actually had well over 300 kills but for it to be a confirmed kill there are requirements.

If you like historical military fiction, you may like the Richard Sharpe series, and the Richard Bolitho series by Alexander Kent.

The Richard Sharpe novel when cut off behind enemy lines was required for junior officers, I remember, back in the late 70s or early 80s. I have read every Sharpe novel. The Waterloo novel remains my favorite.

 

[Dr.Traveler]

Enders Game the best ever written?

I read it and do not agree.
Good but the greatest?

I think that if you've ever been treated as "Gifted and Talented" (code word for kids too smart and too precocious for a teacher to deal with) child in school, or if you've ever dealt with "Gifted and Talented" kids, then Ender's Game will probably resonate with you very strongly.

I'd say its one of the best books I ever read, but the rest of the Ender Quadrilogy spirals downward very quickly. I've read only limited Orson Scott Card, but after reading the Ender's Shadow series, I've found he should stick to one off books.

If you've never read this book you should:

That's a crazy book that will get in your head.

I think the book that changed my life the most though will have to be Anna Karenin.

 

[Shooter]

Here's a favorite of mine I read once a year.

Shogun by James Clavell.

Another literary classic. It's about an English sailor marooned in feudal Japan in the 1600s and getting thrust into the political power struggle.

Top 100 novel.

 

[JakeStarkey]

They make no sense out of their context of Mormon eschatology.

Every time you try to bring this up on any board anywhere, you will have to deal with the context.

Then your capacity to analyze is more limited than I suspected.

You suspect very little and your knowledge encompasses less.

 

[Woyzeck]

 

[Sherry]

They make no sense out of their context of Mormon eschatology.

Every time you try to bring this up on any board anywhere, you will have to deal with the context.

Then your capacity to analyze is more limited than I suspected.

You suspect very little and your knowledge encompasses less.

Wow, two months later and this is your comeback...you're officially a sacless fucking wonder.

 

[JakeStarkey]

You are an official witless member of the board, sherry, with that snappy comeback.

 

[Sherry]

You are an official witless member of the board, sherry, with that snappy comeback.

Awww gee, just when I thought I'd garnered your approval...simply crushing.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Aw, sweetie, I imagine we will both survive. Not take it too hard.

 

[Sherry]

Aw, sweetie, I imagine we will both survive. Not take it too hard.

No worries, little man.

 

[CMike]

Atlas Shrugged is a great book.

I enjoyed "Shooter" by Jack Caughlin, an autobiography, and I am reading his novel "Kill Zone"

 

[JakeStarkey]

Aw, sweetie, I imagine we will both survive. Not take it too hard.

No worries, little man.

Thanks!