What are you reading?

[the other mike]

Well who can't wait to read this book ?
LMAO !

 

[lg325]

The title says it all. I recommend it.

 

[g5000]

Well who can't wait to read this book ?
LMAO !
View attachment 858181

I'm actually listening to the audiobook version right now.

 

[the other mike]

I'm actually listening to the audiobook version right now.

A little self induced
gaslighting ? To reassure your wrong perceptions.

 

[JBG]

I just finished reading The Return of Wolves: An Iconic Predator’s Struggle to Survive in the American West by Eli Francovich. This subject has always been a favorite of mine. I will give it four stars, with, as usual, my quibbles. The foremost quibble would be the end, where the author seems to hint at almost a mystical relationship among wolves, their prey and humans. The best part is his rare recognition that wolves are not an unmixed blessing to the wild.

The author focuses on eastern Washington State, an interesting amalgam of a conservative, anti-wolf minority ensconced in a deeply liberal, urban-dominated state. One of the original points he makes is that wolves may never have been as abundant as mythologized. After American Indian populations were severely reduced by epidemics of smallpox and other diseases, buffalo and wolf populations apparently had a temporary explosion, terminated by the spread of white man through the Plains and mountains to the West. While the goal of the National Park system is to "restore" nature to pre-settlement conditions, an important qualifier is that American Indians kept prey and thus wolf populations in check. The author discusses and almost advocates a system of "range-riding" on horseback to keep livestock depredations to a minimum, but at some point hints that it may be susceptible to fraud, or not scalable to widespread use.

The book, ultimately, taught me a lot but left me confused.

 

[Hector12]

I am reading a hard copy of the abridged edition Race, Evolution, & Behavior, by Professor J. Philippe Rushton.

It can be found online here:

http://www.harbornet.com/folks/theedrich/JP_Rushton/Race.htm

The earlier 358 edition is difficult to find, and may cost several hundred dollars. Fortunately, it can be found online here:

https://philipperushton.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Race-Evolution-and-Behavior-ocr.pdf

When I have read both editions, I will write a book review and post it here.

 

[JBG]

I used this reading Blindsight is 2020: Reflections on Covid Policies by Gabrielle Bauer. If ever there was a book that needed writing it was this one. If there was ever an author that needed to write this book, it was Gabrielle Bauer. The author reflects thoughts that I have had since a few days after I was personally affected by the lockdown. the week began normally. The parking lot to the train station were almost full and most people were happily at work. A few people have their children in because their schools had already closed on a day to day basis. By the end of that week, on Friday, March 13th, 2020 we were in a different world. The train parking lots were almost empty, the trains were empty, the sidewalks of New York were empty, and Broadway theater had been closed the night before. Our office ordered pizza in “ for people brave enough to come to work. Quote that was the word of the email that announced the pizza offering. The next day I decided to go to a movie, being fairly certain that would be the last such occasion. I saw “Once We Were Brothers” about The Band. During the movie, I received the officer's email that we were closed effective that Monday. The following Saturday , March 21st, 2020 was rather warm spring day and the tennis courts were full , presumably with people bored out of their minds by the lockdown. The next day cover our village's mayor locked the tennis courts. When I wrote to ask why the residents were being “punished” his answer was that the tennis balls might carry COVID.

I describe the conditions not to digress come up to set the scene. This book was all about social media and government engendered panic that led to the destruction of a lot of social values. The author describes, through descriptions of interviews and writings by the courageous dissidents of the panic come over reaction and affect of that maelstrom. I personally was regarded as mentally unstable by questioning, even to close friends, the insanity of the Times. I do not want to spoil the book but I will let you in on the ending; The author ends to a citation of The Rolling Stones great song “You Can't Always Get What You Want,” To make free point that life is governed by choices, and should not be governed by diktat coming from not particularly gifted, compassionate were caring government officials. Governments throughout the world, with certain courageous exceptions as Sweden and South Dakota, we're not willing to let people make adult choices; and either did those officials.

I will have a lot more to say on other threads and in other places.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

The original Christmas Carol

 

[odanny]

Just finished The Fifth Field by French Maclean.

The background and the crimes committed by the 96 U.S. soldiers executed in WWII, Maclean went into great detail on every officer and legal counsel involved in the entire decision making process and the actual hanging or shooting of each of the condemned. There are some pictures of the some of the 96 men, and a few of their victims, as well.

I think the majority of those executed were from the 92nd Inf. Div.

92nd Infantry Division (United States) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I tend not to read a lot of political books, in fact I can't remember the last one I did.
Most are choir singing or one sided nonsense.

However I am thinking about this one......

The Radical Mind: The Destructive Plans of the Woke Left​

Amazon product.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Meh... moving on from that. The beauty of a Kindle is the ability to download a sample from a book.
And the above book is 100% choir singing. Just someone banging drums.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Well who can't wait to read this book ?
LMAO !
View attachment 858181

The look on his face is the same as anyone who bought it

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Currently reading "Killing Reagan"
Not very far into it (6%)
Couple interesting notes...
Marylyn Monroe owed her success to Ronald Reagan.
At the beginning of WW II Reagan made patriotic shorts for the military and "buy bonds" ads.
He sent a film crew to an airplane plant to film women building airplanes.
When viewing the footage, he saw then Norma Jean, noted her beauty and sent the footage to the studio for his bosses to see her. And the rest is history.

The famous debate with Carter - Jimmy Carter believed during the whole debate that he was the one who soundly won the debate. He thought it wasn't even close. History recorded this debate to be one of the biggest debate wins in history, after the JFK-Nixon debate.
Both of those debates is the reason most believe each won the White House.

During his 30s after his first divorce, Reagan was a serious womanizer including fairly substantive evidence that he bedded two underage teens, one was Liz Taylor when she was only 16. Taylor most definitely slept her way to stardom, having sex with almost every top male actor of the time.

 

[JBG]

I read Argo: How the CIA & Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History by Antonio J. Méndez back in 2016. Exciting and well-written, this book really brings you back to the dark days of 1979-80. The Canadians really provided a ray of light. The Canadians really provided a ray of light. I read that book in 2016 when I was not regularly posting my reading.

 

[JBG]

I just finished reading Golda Meir: Israel’s Matriarch by Deborah E. Lipstadt. I am the big fan of Deborah Libstadt's writing, and when faced with a choice of reading this book, of 250 or so pages compared to Gol'da Meirs own memoir, either approaching or over 1000 pages, the choice was obvious. It is refreshing to read a book about a much admired historical figure that is decidedly neutral and is hagiography. The subject was a flawed human being and the book is not perfect either.

First my quibbles. The book contained few of Golda Meir's noteworthy quotes. Her quotes and sayings were a large part of her legacy to the world. That is one of the reasons I give the book a 4 rather than a 5. That being said, this book contains much in the way of new information about the founding of Israel and the lead up to Israel's creation that I did not know. I read voraciously about Israel because I'm proud of my Jewish Heritage. I had previously read biographies of David Ben-Gurion and Menachem Begin, and the autobiography of Moshe Dayan. I was afraid there would not be very much new and I was surprised.

A word about this author. Professor Lipstad specializes in the study of Holocaust denial. She wrote a creditable and recommended work outside of her field of particular expertise.

 

[Blues Man]

 

[JBG]

I just finished reading (yes I know I start all my "reviews" this way) How Good Do We Have to Be? A New Understanding of Guilt and Foregiveness by Harold S. Kushner. Just as I did with When Bad Things Happen to Good People, I am giving this a "five." Judaism admits of many points of view on many subjects and Rabbi Kushner's views on many topics align comfortably with mine. He puts it into words better than I can.

I am familiar with his view, for example, that the exit from the Garden of Eden reflects mankind's evolution from being just a higher level of mammal into something unique and important. This is but an example. An excellent book both for Jewish people and those that want to understand Jewish and human perspectives on vital matters.

 

[JBG]

I just finished reading The Bodies of Others: The New Authoritarians, Covid-19 and the War Against the Human. I strongly recommend reading this book. Nevertheless, i'm only giving you the three. There are nuggets of gold buried in the book, as well as stretches of hysteric writing and excessive polemics against the COVID vaccine. I agree with the book to the extent that the lockdowns were caught I fe unnecessary, dehumanizing and very destructive of people with little power to resist. I also agree that people should have questions and resisted, especially as it became clear that there was not going to be any reopening after the initial two weeks to “flatten the curve."

Essentially, the author has the zeal of the converted. Formerly on the far left of the political fringe, she shifted almost to the far right. As good and as useful as much of the material is, her political zealotry And fostering of some conspiracy theories takes some of the worthwhile enjoyment out of the book. To get education in anti lockdown hues I recommend the book that I read about two weeks ago, Blindsight is 2020 by Jessica McCullough.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

 

[Libby von H]

Currently, The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann

[ame=[MEDIA=amazon]0385513534[/MEDIA] Lost City of Z[/ame]


From Publishers Weekly:



John Grisham's review for Amazon.com:



I'm about halfway through it and I must say it is quite interesting and very well written.

Slavery, Abortion, and the Politics of Constitutional Meaning​

by Justin Buckley Dyer

Justin Buckley Dyer provides the first book-length scholarly treatment of the parallels between slavery and abortion in American constitutional development.

This is a life-changer.Ever since I saw the MLK quote I"ve been crushed by not seeing it sooner

How can the “Dream” survive if we murder the children?
Every aborted baby is like a slave in the womb of his or her mother. The mother decides his or her fate.​