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Hawai'i. 2013. Not bad book on history of Hawai'i. Heart warming and touching story. Last Aloha. By Gaelen Quin. History of Hawai'i. She's from Maui or Molokai. I forgot what island.
Another good book. Hawai'i. The Tattoo. By Chris McKinney. 1998 copyright. It is about a prisoner in Halawa telling his side of the story. He falls in love with a Korean stripper. In one of the bars in Hawai'i. He ends up in prison because of his samurai spirit. He is accused of murder and rape. He tells his side of the story to the tatto prisoner doing his tattoo while in prison. Almost as touching how he falls for her and she puts him in prison. Never denied his love for her. Even at the expense of being put in prison for that love. Wow. Was my reaction to Chris McKinney. An exceptional writer. The best I've seen in drama, and excitement. A must read book for anyone wanting excitement and maybe inspiration of some sort.
Last edited by tyCable; 01-08-2022 at 05:04 AM..
Reason: spelling tattoo
History does not look fondly on the hubris of those who, like Galileo’s inquisitors, appoint themselves as arbiters of permissible speech and thought. Their authority is only ever contingent on the wisdom of their time. Today’s free speech sceptics are characterised by a similar tendency to mistake self-satisfaction for infallibility. If nothing else, the story of Galileo is a potent reminder of the importance of freedom of speech, and how none of us can ever be sure which heresies of today will become the certainties of tomorrow.
I start from the proposition that free speech is nothing less than the keystone of our civilisation.
I just read a very, very powerful book that I wished had gone on for 2000 more pages: When Heaven and Earth Changed Places by Le Ly Hayslip, an escapee from Vietnam in 1970.
I've read a number of these "Escape" books (one of a ISIS sex slave who escaped) and given what they were through it's amazing they escaped without lifelong health issues, and they're still, miraculously, alive.
This book, like other "Escape" books, had any number of peaks and valleys, and very stressful to read. You go down one deep valley and wonder if there'll be another peak. Another peak, and down deep in valley you go once again.
You can see her on some Youtube video's.
If you really want to know what all went on during that shameful Vietnam War, this is the book to read. This book was turned into an Oliver Stone movie.
My all-time favorite non-fiction book remains Dave Cullen's Columbine. It is written by a reporter out of Denver on the horrible 1999 school shooting at Columbine High. He arrived at the scene an hour after the shooting and took ten years to write this book. He marvels at some of the media myths that shape(d) how we thought of the shooting almost immediately. He's fair to all the players, but doesn't mince words when describing the killers. It's a fascinating book.
Next up is J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets by Curt Gentry. It covers Hoover's entire life and paints him as a troubled man. Hoover to me is one of the fascinating characters of the last century along with Richard Nixon. It's a great read.
A list of some of my favorite non-fiction books, so far. I read 100's of books. These all have 4 or 5 star ratings from me:
"Born to Run," by Bruce Springsteen - amazing memoir. You don't have to be a fan of his, or even love music. There is much, much more to this book.
"Ecology of a Cracker Childhood," by Janisse Ray - "Janisse Ray grew up in a junkyard along U.S. Highway 1, hidden from Florida-bound vacationers by the hedge at the edge of the road and by hulks of old cars and stacks of blown-out tires. Ecology of a Cracker Childhood tells how a childhood spent in rural isolation and steeped in religious fundamentalism grew into a passion to save the almost vanished longleaf pine ecosystem that once covered the South. In language at once colloquial, elegiac, and informative, Ray redeems two Souths."
"Ordinary Girls," by Jaquira Diaz - "A fierce, beautiful, and unflinching memoir from a wildly talented debut author. While growing up in housing projects in Puerto Rico and Miami Beach, Jaquira DÃaz found herself caught between extremes: as her family split apart and her mother battled schizophrenia, she was surrounded by the love of her friends; as she longed for a family and home, she found instead a life upended by violence. From her own struggles with depression and sexual assault to Puerto Rico’s history of colonialism, every page of Ordinary Girls vibrates with music and lyricism. DÃaz triumphantly maps a way out of despair toward love and hope to become her version of the girl she always wanted to be."
"An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters, and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas," by Diane Wilson - "When Diane Wilson, fourth-generation shrimp-boat captain and mother of five, learns that she lives in the most polluted county in the United States, she decides to fight back. She launches a campaign against a multibillion-dollar corporation that has been covering up spills, silencing workers, flouting the EPA, and dumping lethal ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride into the bays along her beloved Texas Gulf Coast. In an epic tale of bravery, Wilson takes her fight to the courts, to the gates of the chemical plant, and to the halls of power in Austin." Diane is a hero!
"Up From Slavery," by Booker T. Washington - A classic. Life-changing (for me).
"The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.," by Martin Luther King, Jr. - Another must-read, life-changer.
"The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe V. Wade," by Ann Fessler
"The Rarest of the Rare: Vanishing Animals, Timeless Worlds," by Diane Ackerman
"The Moon by Whale Light and Other Adventures Among Bats, Penguins, Crocodilians and Whales," by Diane Ackerman.
I hope you will enjoy some of these! I have more - but tried to cut it short
"Ecology of a Cracker Childhood," by Janisse Ray - "Janisse Ray grew up in a junkyard along U.S. Highway 1, hidden from Florida-bound vacationers by the hedge at the edge of the road and by hulks of old cars and stacks of blown-out tires. Ecology of a Cracker Childhood tells how a childhood spent in rural isolation and steeped in religious fundamentalism grew into a passion to save the almost vanished longleaf pine ecosystem that once covered the South. In language at once colloquial, elegiac, and informative, Ray redeems two Souths."
As you might imagine from my user name, I loved this book (both times that I read it). Such a seamless weave of the author's past with her knowledge about the vanishing old growth pines.
As you might imagine from my user name, I loved this book (both times that I read it). Such a seamless weave of the author's past with her knowledge about the vanishing old growth pines.
I agree. A really beautiful book!
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