While I try not to clutter up IP.com with personal stuff, I'm going to make an exception this afternoon. I'm leaving on a trip soon, and I need to hit the library before I go. I need some recommendations for some vacation reading materials. I love histories and biographies, but I enjoy just about anything that is well written.
What do you recommend?
The Newt Gingrich Civil War altnerative history sucked me in like nothing I have ever read. Book 1 is Gettysburg - good stuff.
I also found Conquest and Culture by T. Sowell to be very interesting.
Gulag by Anne Applebaum, exhaustive history of the prison systme and how it changed Soviet society
Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson, sci-fi-ish historical novel with Liebniz and Newton as major characters
u should read teh new harry potter, lol
u should read teh new harry potter, lol
Not coming out until next month (believe me, I've been following this). Will you by any chance be at social hour tomorrow? I have a bunch of books that you could borrow.
"Will you by any chance be at social hour tomorrow? I have a bunch of books that you could borrow."
I cannot, wayward, but I appreciate the offer.
Everyone keep the suggestions coming, please.
Well, I may have some books about Aldrich Ames, Robert Hanssen, and Kevin Mitnick, which are strangely interesting, and you're welcome to borrow any of them.
Not Even My Name (Paperback) by Thea Halo
Extremely well written. A historical read, told by the daughter of the person who lived it.
I have a topic suggestion. I just heard a wonderful speech sponsored by a gun group about April 19, 1775. It is arguably the most important day in American history, and even if not, is substantially more important than Dec 7, 1941. We know about Paul Revere, and we know about Concord and Lexington, in the sense that we have heard of them, but the actual story is fascinating. There are about eight books on the topic, I am led to understand. I am going to pick one out and read it. If you do it first, you can recommend one for me. John I also learned how to shoot correctly. I'm thinking about moving up from my .22 to some kind of machine gun. No use taking half measures.
How about any of the books with the word "Father" in the titles...
Dreams from My Father - Barack Obama
Faith of My Fathers - John McCain
Wisdom of Our Fathers - Tim Russert
Big Russ and Me: Father and Son - Tim Russert
Flags of Our Fathers - James Bradley
My Father, My President - Doro Bush
Hey... Father's Day is coming soon.
Another well written book about life outside the USA.
The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini
Summary
By Khaled Hosseini
Published 2005
RIVERHEAD
Fiction / General
371 pages
ISBN 1594481776
Traces the unlikely friendship of a wealthy Afghan youth and a servant's son, in a tale that spans the final days of Afghanistan's monarchy through the atrocities of the present day.
I just got the Bill Geist (CBS Sunday Morning) book "Way off the road" discovering the peculiar charms of small-town America. Great book with some local history, Geist's family once owned the Fisher Illinois Reporter newspaper before moving to Champaign. A Good quick read.
Personal tastes in fiction can be somewhat fickle, so i'm not going to suggest much in the way of the latest crime-drama or thriller, but here are my suggestions, for what it's worth:
John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War (a good, quick read presenting a thematic overview of the Cold War)
Malcolm Gladwell, Blink and The Tipping Point (surprisingly quick read for the topics he covers)
David Halberstam, War in a Time of Peace (for me, the defining book on the Presidency and foreign affairs post-Cold War)
Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife (fiction, i know, but quite good)
Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (one of my all-time favorites)
Hope you enjoy your vacation; we'll make sure to clean up the house before you come back
HG
"Patrolling Baghdad," Mark DePue.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0700614982/104-3713127-1308758
It's about the first MP Company into Baghdad after the fall in 2003...which was the 233rd MP Co (IL Army National Guard) from Springfield, Illinois.
It's a no-BS, boots-on-the-ground chronology with collective and individual recounts of the company's mission in Iraq.
SGT Ryan Getz is mentioned in the foreward and throughout the book - he's off at OCS right now - but usually he happens to work full-time at the desk next to mine, and he's a good friend of mine, so I feel the need to plug the book. :)
Excellent book for those who want to understand the beginnings of the stabalization phase from the "front-line" soldier's point of view.
"Living to Tell the Tale" Gabriel Garcia MarQuez I recommend this only if your historical preverances extend to South America
"Miracles on The Water" Tom Nagorske: An eye opening account of the courage of the Heroic Surviros of a World War II U-Boat Attack
"Washington's Secret War, The Hidden History of Valley Forge" Thomas Fleming
Soft Cover, Captain America, Superman.
By Bradley K. Martin
A fascinating book by a journalist who has had amazing access to the country and defectors since 1979. I picked it up from the Champaign Public Library last year and had a hard time putting it down. Just mind boggling. Definitely worth the read.
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Glock21 Op/Ed
It depends on what you are looking for. A very engaging fictional account (that will make you think) is Ian McEwan's Saturday, which I believe in now in paperback. It has one of the most engrossing passages involving brain surgery (through the eyes of the surgeon) that I have ever read. A good history book is Michael Bess's Choices Under Fire, which deals with the moral aspects of WWII in a really engrossing way. You'll be highlighting passages to use later on this blog. And if you haven't already read it you should try Erik Larson's Devil in the White City, which is a really cool look at Chicago's World's Fair of 1893. I read it several years ago and I've never looked at the City quite the same way since.
Enjoy! I hope you have time to just turn off the brain and sink into the books. You deserve it.
How about "Living History" by Ms. Clinton if that isn't fiction I don't know what is!!! I have not read it but I'm thinking about getting a copy at Big Lots for a buck and keeping it in the john in case I run short on toilet paper!!
Given the pro-HSQD mentality here, I suggest "Who Moved My Cheese?"
Wenalway,
That's actually one of my favorite books of all time - I keep a copy in both of my offices.
Thanks for the recommendations, everyone. Please keep them coming.
Last summer I listened to David McCullough's biography of John Adams narrated by Edward Herman (unabridged) It was fascinating. I am not usually a big fan of biographies, but this was excellent. I listened to a chapter or two a day while driving or eating.
It served as the basis for the musical 1776, so if you've seen that you will recognize the story progression, but with much more detail.
It really brings the Revolution, and the signing of the Declaration, and the events that lead to the Bill of Rights, to life..
Absolutely fascinating. I was really disappointed when I was done with it, I really didn't want it to end...but hey (not to spoil it) but he died.
Bon Voyage.
I've read McCullough's John Adams.
More, please!
A serious suggestion: The Westmark trilogy by Lloyd Alexander. It consists of Westmark, The Kestrel and The Beggar Queen.
Additional book info is at http://www.wenalway.com/introduction/books.htm.
The reviews are one or two sentences; arguing with me about them is pointless.
How about "The Informant" by Kurt Eichenwald, A true story of corruption and greed at Decatur's ADM Headquarters it came out in 2000 and follows a FBI mole who was an executive and helped ADM become "Price fixer to the World" Real cloak and dagger stuff.
How about "The Informant" by Kurt Eichenwald, A true story of corruption and greed at Decatur's ADM Headquarters it came out in 2000 and follows a FBI mole who was an executive and helped ADM become "Price fixer to the World" Real cloak and dagger stuff.
There was another one about the same scandal called "Rats in the Grain" by James Lieber, which was also good.
Obasan by Joy Kogawa is a poetically beautiful account that deals with Canadian internment during WWII.
Baseball and the American Dream: Race, Class, Gender and the National Pastime by Robert Elias is a must for anyone who loves baseball or America or both ;P
Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago by LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman is getting old, but no less relevant.
David Roediger is one of UIUC's institutions so it wouldn't hurt to check out his work.
If you want a couple of great choices that will have you reading a chapter and then pausing to reflect on an author's brilliant observations on human interaction, read Blindness and Seeing by Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago. The first book adopts a survival theme, while the second considers politics and power gone awry.
I enjoyed reading Neal Boortz's "Somebody's Gotta Say It" that came out earlier this year (feeds my libertarian streak). If you want to take my copy, stop by the house.
I'll also second TeacherMan's recommendation of "Devil In the White City".
I'm going on vacation in July and will be taking some of these selections with me. They all sound interesting.
Find some books about how the country has been misguided since January 2001.
October 1964 by the late David Halberstam. It's the Cardinals whupping the Yankees in the World Series and the summer that led up to it, but in historical context.
Find some books about how the country has been misguided since January 2001.
"A Troll Too Far," by Hap Les
"A Time To Troll," by Stat S. Quo
"A People's History of Trolling," by Dee Fender
Mortland... my first thought was, well, a bit mean spirited.
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Glock21 Op/Ed
Like the History Guy I found Audrey Niffenegger's "The Time Traveler's Wife" a good read.
Given your tastes, you might consider "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson and David Relin. It is about one man's (an American-Greg Mortenson) mission to promote peace in Muslim Pakistan by building schools for girls.
There's a great book by former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill about our Idiot in Chief. Excellent glimpse into the decision-making process we've had in the last six and a half years.
Why don't you read the Tristano indictment? It's a story about a group of young staffers led blindly into the pit of dispair.
McCullogh's Truman
The Last Full Measure-Jeff Shaara a sequel to his father's The Killer Angels
Citizen Soldier- a bio of Dick Winters of Band of Brothers (another good one)
the Nate Heller series by Max Allan Collins (historical detective fiction based in Chigao from the 20s through the 50s)
Hell, Gordy, it's a vacation. Why clutter your mind with meaningful stuff? Read the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I'll loan you the first few books. Not the usual SK.
"Hell, Gordy, it's a vacation. Why clutter your mind with meaningful stuff? Read the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I'll loan you the first few books. Not the usual SK."
Years ago, I read the first two or three Dark Tower books. Very good, but I'd have to go back and re-read them to do the whole series.
And I read non-fiction for relaxtion. (Yes, I'm a geek - just ask my wife.)
I picked up the Cold War book today, and I'll start it tonight, and I've requested a bunch of others. Keep the recommendations coming, please.
On June 5th, 2007 at 10:09 PM, IlliniPundit said: “Keep the recommendations coming, please.”
Since you asked so nicely…. :)
For historical fiction, I’d suggest any of the following by David Liss: “The Coffee Trader”, “A Conspiracy of Paper”, and “A Spectacle of Corruption”. All three are very good reads, very well researched. I listed them in the chronological order within the books; “Coffee” is a prequel to the latter two novels, and I found it to be a bit…deterministic…for me, it seemed to force the author’s hand. I’d recommend “Conspiracy” before either of the other two.
To stay within the historical fiction theme, Bernard Cornwell (famous for the Sharpe series, among other works) wrote “Gallows Thief”, a very enjoyable, well-researched novel.
For more strictly historical readings, “Guns of August” by Barbara Tuchman is a classic, and I also enjoyed “The Proud Tower” by her as well.
I would easily recommend anything by Joseph Ellis, particularly “Founding Brothers” and “His Excellency”. The latter is a biography of George Washington, but focus’ exclusively on his adult life, the War of Independence and his Presidency. I thought it would include more on his childhood, but enjoyed it a great deal.
Personal taste in fiction is fickle; but I can recommend the following: “Good Omens”, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman; and “Murder on the Orient Express”, by Agatha Christie
Enjoy!
HG