I think Moby-Dick is my favorite novel. There's a lot of comedy in that tragedy.
What are You Reading Now?
- Thread starter jpmcwjr
- Start date
I am currently reading the Lord of the Rings - surprisingly for the first time. Just finished Project Hail Mary (Andy Weir) and Ocean Prey (John Sandford). Loved PHM and enjoyed the usual fun of a good Davenport book, with scuba as a bonus!
Not reading, but currently listening to audiobook version of Lincoln Lawyer - The Fifth Witness that I borrowed from Libby app.
Currently audiobooking The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough.
It’s regarding the building of the Panama Canal. Im about halfway through. I find it interesting, but has been fairly dry so far with documentation on the French engagement and the politics / finances that got the USA involved. Hoping to hear more about the actual building and heavy machinery that got it done.
It’s regarding the building of the Panama Canal. Im about halfway through. I find it interesting, but has been fairly dry so far with documentation on the French engagement and the politics / finances that got the USA involved. Hoping to hear more about the actual building and heavy machinery that got it done.
For The Love of a Dog - A Selection of Classic Bird Dog Stories edited by Darren Brown. A good read for this bird-hunter now that the season is over.
Tom Clancy Defense Protocol. Fabulous, one of the best Jack Ryan reads in a long time.
The Children of Hurin by JRRT. The first of many Tolkien books for the year (God willing and the creek don't rise).
Phantom Shot, by Mike Majerus and Jack Nessan
Every other book of the dozen or more I own about the JFK assassination presumes Oswald fired three shots from his Carcano.
If there’s more than three shots, Oswald could not have acted alone.
But the police found three empty cases on the sixth floor. Two had recently been fired, one was dented on the rim. The dented cartridge had deeper firing pin strikes than the other two.
Oswald must have used an empty case for a snap cap. He left it in the rifle in Mrs Paine’s garage. When he built the sniper’s nest of boxes, he ejected the snap cap case and loaded three.
He only shot twice. The witnesses who reported three shots were mistaken. Oswald had five to six seconds time to shoot the second and fatal head shot, which is leisurely, for a Marine marksman who’d practiced by dry firing, according to Marina.
If you are familiar enough with the event to know about Mrs Paine’s garage, you owe it to yourself to buy and read this book.
I should have figured this out fifty years ago myself,,,,,except I assumed there were three shots in Dallas, as reported by the media and adopted as most likely by the Warren Commision.
If the Warren Commision had correctly found only two shots in six seconds, then who knows how this would have beaten down conspiracy theories?
Every other book of the dozen or more I own about the JFK assassination presumes Oswald fired three shots from his Carcano.
If there’s more than three shots, Oswald could not have acted alone.
But the police found three empty cases on the sixth floor. Two had recently been fired, one was dented on the rim. The dented cartridge had deeper firing pin strikes than the other two.
Oswald must have used an empty case for a snap cap. He left it in the rifle in Mrs Paine’s garage. When he built the sniper’s nest of boxes, he ejected the snap cap case and loaded three.
He only shot twice. The witnesses who reported three shots were mistaken. Oswald had five to six seconds time to shoot the second and fatal head shot, which is leisurely, for a Marine marksman who’d practiced by dry firing, according to Marina.
If you are familiar enough with the event to know about Mrs Paine’s garage, you owe it to yourself to buy and read this book.
I should have figured this out fifty years ago myself,,,,,except I assumed there were three shots in Dallas, as reported by the media and adopted as most likely by the Warren Commision.
If the Warren Commision had correctly found only two shots in six seconds, then who knows how this would have beaten down conspiracy theories?
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Re-reading Classics of the Spanish Golden Age. I never get tired of reading and re-reading it. I remember in high school, in the 80's. Lope de Vega.
The Demon of Unrest, by Erik Larsen
Every schoolchild learns the South fired on Fort Sumter and began the American Civil War. We all know that war ended in total defeat for the South and victory for the North.
Larson’s book about Fort Sumter is as talented as Barbra Tuchman’s page turner, The Guns of August, was about the beginning of World War One, and devotes 491 pages to the absolute folly of the South firing on Sumter first.
The South wanted Independence and the North wished the current Union be continued but nobody except extremists wanted a civil war.
Major Anderson’s garrison on Fort Sumter was out of provisions. Three more days and they would have surrendered. The north could not have provisioned the fort.
It’s a case study in stubborn devotion to folly.
The South knew, they were starting a war.
The South also knew they were giving Lincoln a priceless propaganda victory, by firing first.
Maybe if they knew they’d lose and 750,000 Americans would die and their entire way of life would be forever shattered, they’d have let Anderson surrender in three days.
The war might have been started someplace else, at a later time.
Or the North might have decided to let them go in peace.
If you love history you’ll love anything by Larson.
Every schoolchild learns the South fired on Fort Sumter and began the American Civil War. We all know that war ended in total defeat for the South and victory for the North.
Larson’s book about Fort Sumter is as talented as Barbra Tuchman’s page turner, The Guns of August, was about the beginning of World War One, and devotes 491 pages to the absolute folly of the South firing on Sumter first.
The South wanted Independence and the North wished the current Union be continued but nobody except extremists wanted a civil war.
Major Anderson’s garrison on Fort Sumter was out of provisions. Three more days and they would have surrendered. The north could not have provisioned the fort.
It’s a case study in stubborn devotion to folly.
The South knew, they were starting a war.
The South also knew they were giving Lincoln a priceless propaganda victory, by firing first.
Maybe if they knew they’d lose and 750,000 Americans would die and their entire way of life would be forever shattered, they’d have let Anderson surrender in three days.
The war might have been started someplace else, at a later time.
Or the North might have decided to let them go in peace.
If you love history you’ll love anything by Larson.
My copy of Ben Rapaport's new limited edition of The Wide World Of Wood Tobacco Pipes arrived Monday, and I've been blown away by the incredible photographs and erudite commentary. I hope Ben prints another run of this fabulous book and brings them to the Chicago Show.
@Briar Lee Am I correct in believing that, even after that four-year tragedy, the question of the right of a state to secede from the Union has never been resolved by a constitutional amendment?
I loved the Longmire TV series so much that I watched it twice. It wasn't until this year, though, that I decided to give the books a try. Rented the audio version of the first book in the series from my library, and my god is it good. I really enjoy Craig's writing style, and the narrator (George Guidall) does an incredible job. He even sounds like Longmire on the series. I also think I enjoy the characters in the book more than the show; they were changed a bit for television, but the book versions seem more "real".
