Recommendations? In response to the What are you reading thread.

[Circe]

I just finished "July 1914: Countdown to War" by Sean McMeekin. I listened to it as an audiobook, which counts as reading it, for the unabridged versions, which is most of them now. I am desperate to get World War I "read up" because 2014 is the Centennial. However, this July 1914 book is a pro-German revisionist history, and I don't agree with it. Supposed to be everybody's fault but the Germans: Russia, England, Austria. But somehow the poor Germans ended up goosestepping into Belgium August 4......

Just a big accident, I guess.

 

[oldfart]

I guess my thread was stupid.

Other than Noomi, no one responded. Thanks Noomi.

I am new here and maybe I don't know how to make a good thread?

Hang in there. I was hoping a thread could evolve for quick book reviews and recommendations. Most of my reading is pretty arcane, but I have a few books just about anybody should enjoy:

"The Scarlet Woman of Wall Street", John Steele Gordon

The Scarlet Woman is the Erie Railroad, whose stock played a major role in the biggest swindles of the early days of the stock market. All the big players are here, Uncle Dan, the Commodore, Jay Gould, and dozens more, trying to corner the gold market, cheating each other, and playing monopoly with real trains!

"Polk: The Man who Transformed the Presidency and America", Walter R Borneman

A tad more boring read, made up for by the fact that the issues of the Civil War all have origins here. Polk may not have been the best president, but he clearly was the most successful in achieving his program and might well have been the most pivotal for the subsequent history of America.


"The Great Abraham Lincoln Hijack", Bonnie Stahlman Speer

Take the body of a famous American, a crackpot ransom plot, a government undercover agent, and bury it all under the most contested election in American history. The best real detective story in American history no one knows about.

 

[oldfart]

On my to read list is "The Gulag Archipelago" by Alexander Solzhenitsyn (no Kindle version yet and I haven't found it in a used book store)

This is a really long read. If you have not read it already, I would start with "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch", which is very short and excellent enough to win a Nobel in Literature. Then I would recommend "Cancer Ward" and "First Circle".

 

[oldfart]

I'm reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

I read this book many years ago and I'm enjoying it more the second time around!

I first read this when I was fourteen and have re-read it several times since. It still is the starting point (along with Hannah Arendt) for any serious understanding of the rise of the Nazi state. A great tragedy is that so few today have actually read and dissected it. It should have its own book club!

 

[National Socialist]

I guess my thread was stupid.

Other than Noomi, no one responded. Thanks Noomi.

I am new here and maybe I don't know how to make a good thread?

Hang in there. I was hoping a thread could evolve for quick book reviews and recommendations. Most of my reading is pretty arcane, but I have a few books just about anybody should enjoy:

"The Scarlet Woman of Wall Street", John Steele Gordon

The Scarlet Woman is the Erie Railroad, whose stock played a major role in the biggest swindles of the early days of the stock market. All the big players are here, Uncle Dan, the Commodore, Jay Gould, and dozens more, trying to corner the gold market, cheating each other, and playing monopoly with real trains!

"Polk: The Man who Transformed the Presidency and America", Walter R Borneman

A tad more boring read, made up for by the fact that the issues of the Civil War all have origins here. Polk may not have been the best president, but he clearly was the most successful in achieving his program and might well have been the most pivotal for the subsequent history of America.


"The Great Abraham Lincoln Hijack", Bonnie Stahlman Speer

Take the body of a famous American, a crackpot ransom plot, a government undercover agent, and bury it all under the most contested election in American history. The best real detective story in American history no one knows about.

The Polk book is really good...I loved that book.

 

[Smilebong]

I guess my thread was stupid.

Other than Noomi, no one responded. Thanks Noomi.

I am new here and maybe I don't know how to make a good thread?

On the contrary, this is a very good thread. You started it in the CDZ though and threads here move FAR slower due to the fact that there are only a few of us that bother to read this forum. Many here are too interested in flaming and name calling to bother with this area.

A thread like this would gain far more traction in the general areas of this board though I think you will find the quality of interaction here more than worth the limited traffic.

Thanks.

I read this a few months ago, 2 volumes, and if anyone is interested, it is one of the best historical books ever.

 

[Circe]

I'm reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

I read this book many years ago and I'm enjoying it more the second time around!

I first read this when I was fourteen and have re-read it several times since. It still is the starting point (along with Hannah Arendt) for any serious understanding of the rise of the Nazi state. A great tragedy is that so few today have actually read and dissected it. It should have its own book club!

Okay, I'm glad you said that, about it being a starting point. You sent me on a search through my unread books cases, which unfortunately are extensive. I have some others (The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard Evans and The Origins of the Second World War by Ruth Henig) but I knew I had the William Shirer if I could find in what form --- turns out you can get it on ebook for $1.99 on Amazon, but I have a hardback copy so I'll read that when I get to it. I have a LOT of WWII books unread because I really only started WWI (eight years ago) to lead into WWII ---- this occurred before I realized that all history leads inexorably backward. I've got that now, but I still can't get out of WWI, especially with the Centennial next year.

Well, if I survive WWI I'll start with the Shirer, then, on your recommendation. I'm pretty interested in the 30s, it was just as spectacular as the French Revolution that I'm doing a study project on now. So far I hope I won't get into the battles of WWII, but since I have the West Point maps for WWI and have studied all the battles, I suppose I'll eventually get interested in the battles, too.

Nowadays the historical fashion is to view WWI and II as all one 30-years war. I think that is entirely correct: it certainly looked like that to the Germans at the time, they were very open and clear that they should have won in 1918, and this time they would.

To me the biggest lesson of the World Wars is that it is a truly bad idea to be viewed by the world as a rabid dog, because then they gang up and gun you down. I believe the USA has taken that point.

 

[Smilebong]

I want to thank all of you for your recommendations. I have a large collection of books and have read about half. The other half are mostly reference. Please keep adding your recommendations.

I am taking every recommendation and adding it to my "to buy" list.

I like biographies, historical fiction, thriller fiction, westerns, and good non fiction christian books.

 

[Mertex]

I don't read that much anymore, used to not be able to put a book down. "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" one in the trilogy by Stieg Larson, was pretty good. I hope to read the other two as I hear they're pretty good, too.

 

[editec]

I love to read, and I like to get people's recommendations.

I have hundreds of non-fiction books to read on my list.

I have read all of Grisham. All of Steinbeck in the past year. I read Wuthering Heights, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park.

I collect Louis L'amour.

So you kind of see what I like.

What do you recommend?

John le Carré, Everything he wrote;

Robert Graves, I, Claudius and Claudius the God.

That'll keep you busy for the rest of the summer.

 

[Mertex]

I love to read, and I like to get people's recommendations.

I have hundreds of non-fiction books to read on my list.

I have read all of Grisham. All of Steinbeck in the past year. I read Wuthering Heights, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park.

I collect Louis L'amour.

So you kind of see what I like.

What do you recommend?

John le Carré, Everything he wrote;

I tried reading "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" by LeCarre some years back and was so bored and confused after the first chapter, I gave up. I tried several years later thinking it might have been my own mood that caused such disdain, but, I got the same feeling, again. He introduces to many characters too soon, too fast, that you need to keep going back to see who he's talking about.

 

[Cookie]

Thanks.

My kids are older and are all avid readers. When they were young, we read together regularly. We read the Lord of the Rings books and many others.

I started reading The Gulag Archipelago" many years ago. It is a huge undertaking.

I am going to get the Brothers Karamzov to read on vacation.

Just to let you know, my child is 12-yrs old. I don't envision a day when we'll ever stop reading aloud together as a family. Well, maybe when she moves out but when hubby and I are old and grey(er) she wants us to move into her mansion and then we'll probably start reading together as a family again.

 

[National Socialist]

I am reading the International Jew by Henry Ford good but dry book so far..its 4 volumes I am half way through #1

 

[Toro]

I am reading the International Jew by Henry Ford good but dry book so far..its 4 volumes I am half way through #1

Why?

 

[National Socialist]

Good book. I owned it figured I would read it and if don't like it I will sell it/give it away. I am enjoying it. The truth intrigues me.

 

[Toro]

Doesn't it regurgitate a whole bunch of anti-Semitic stuff that's been discredited?

 

[National Socialist]

Depends on what you mean anti semitic and no I think its all relevant to this day and age.

 

[Missourian]

Just finished book two of the 'Zombie Fallout' series...book one was awesome, book two was not as good, we'll see about book three...

Also just finished "The Maze Runner" book one...thoroughly enjoyed it.

I still have no idea what is going on, but I can't wait to find out!