What book are you reading?

[ladyvibrant]

Anyone who relishes simply gazing at pictures of people reading, pick up this one. Breezy read.

[Mike from back east]

Secrets, by Daniel Ellsberg. It's saddening to see how badly our leaders lied to us, for decades, about Vietnam. Lied to us since 1945, and the lies didn't stop until Congress cut off all funding for the war after Ellsberg and the NY Times published the Pentagon Papers which I read a few years ago and was the basis for a 2003 TV movie as well as a 2017 movie with Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep.

I've also just finished reading these books:
- The Best and the Brightest, by David Halberstam which tells the story from another perspective.

- The Road Not Taken, by Max Boot which details the efforts of USAF Officer Edward Lansdale to use a less forceful way to proceed in Vietnam but was ignored in place of using the military hammer.

My next book is on the way:
- A Bright Shining Lie, by Neil Sheehan about a U.S. Army officer (John Paul Vann) who tried to change how we operated in Vietnam but unable to overcome the entrenched thinking. Sheehan partnered with Ellsberg on the Pentagon Papers.


I just loaned a couple of these books to the young Vietnamese woman who does my pedicures so she can read them on the long flight back to Ho Chi Minh City when she visits her family . . .

[ladyvibrant]

I read this book over the weekend. I agreed with many of the points. Any woman with a backbone and some self-control should maintain a vital romance.

[jbgusa]

I just finished reading Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. It is rare that I read a novel, but it was worth the wait on the library waiting list. Basically it's a discourse on the loneliness and competitiveness of the literary world, plagiarism, racism and reverse racism and "cultural appropriation." I will leave my overall comments on the latter two subjects to different threads and forums.

It's sad that the public discourse about so much of the arts, going back to Mozart and Salieri and other side issues, without focusing on the awe that such work is created. Even Paul McCartney in "Paperback Writer" beefed: "Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book? It took me years to write, will you take a look? It's based on a novel by a man named Lear, And I need a job So I wanna be a paperback writer." Yellowface focuses on the public discourse and backbiting on such matters.

[burdell]

Originally Posted by KiwiKate

My next book, which I hope to start this weekend, is "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien. The Amazon book summary says:

A classic work of American literature that has not stopped changing minds and lives since it burst onto the literary scene, The Things They Carried is a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling. The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. Taught everywhere—from high school classrooms to graduate seminars in creative writing—it has become required reading for any American and continues to challenge readers in their perceptions of fact and fiction, war and peace, courage and fear and longing.

In a similar vein I would highly recommend Shrapnel In The Heart by Laura Palmer. Billed as "Letters and Remembrances from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial".

Fair warning: You may well need a handkerchief or tissue, I know I did.

[jbgusa]

Excerpt:

Originally Posted by Thomas Cahill-The Gifts of the Jews

The story of Jewish identity across the millennia against impossible odds is a unique miracle of cultural survival. Where are the Sumerians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians today? And though we recognize Egypt and Greece as still belonging to our world, the cultures and ethnic stocks of those countries have little continuity with their ancient namesakes. But however miraculous Jewish survival may be, the greater miracle is surely that the Jews developed a whole new way of experiencing reality, the only alternative to all ancient worldviews and all ancient religions. If one is ever to find the finger of God in human affairs, one must find it here.
There is nothing neat about the Bible. As the record of one "family" over the course of two millennia- millennia that are now two to four millennia distant from us- the Bible harbors all the mess and contrariness of human life.

I just finished reading The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels by Thomas Cahill. Don't worry, I did not finish this book in a day; I read a novel called Yellowfingers in between, where I was on a long wait at the library. This one was freely available.

First, the quibble. The title was this book was a bit misleading until the very end, and even then only mildly accurate. The book, however, was probably the most powerfully written of any book that combines the history of the Jews and the theology of most of the Jews. The excerpt above relates to probably the most important fact about Jews and their monotheistic and far more numerous offshoots the Christians and the Muslims. Thomas Cahill traces the Hebrews' history from their Sumerian roots in modern Iraq, through G-d's command to Avram (eventually Abraham) to go "to a land G-d will show you." He outlines their tempestuous history and development into a mature, monotheistic religion.

At the conclusion he closes the loop convincingly. I highly recommend this book.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

The newest Patricia Briggs arrived yesterday. I haven't had time to crack the cover yet.

[pathrunner]

Picked this up from the free pile by the checkout station at the library last week. Totally looks like my dog, who DNA says is not a black lab And yes, she is determined. I love this book!

[Babe_Ruth]

Hitler's Arctic War (Mann & Jorgensen)

I feel kinda unpatriotic, reading this on the 4th of July, but.. a look in to the strategy & objectives that underwrote the Nazi invasion/occupation of Norway. And the Nazis' one-time alliance with Finland. Also war with Soviet Union (but that was something I already knew a little..).

[DubbleT]

Gold Digger: The Remarkable Baby Doe Tabor by Rebecca Rosenberg
Historical fiction based on the life of the controversial Elizabeth 'Baby Doe' Tabor who scandalized Colorado and the nation. I had never heard of Baby Doe but her story is fascinating, the unusual choices she made as a woman for her time, and the consequences that followed make for an interesting read.