demos
Legend
Posts: 9,194
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Post by demos on Apr 7, 2021 21:57:13 GMT
Took a break from reading about Eurasia to finally read a book that's been sitting on my shelf since before they released Narcos: Mexico. My most recent rewatch inspired me:  It's a biography of Pablo Acosta. Pretty interesting, especially to see how it differs from the portrayal in Narcos: Mexico. Here's an interview the author did in 2010. |
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Odysseus
Legend
Trump = Disaster
Posts: 41,098
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Post by Odysseus on Apr 8, 2021 4:47:46 GMT
Recently finished reading "The Silk Roads" by a guy named Peter Frankopan. It uses UK spelling so I figure he's British. NTTAWWT.
It's an interesting enough traipse through the ages, as viewed from the "center of the world". All the way from pre-Biblical times to the recent wars in Iraq and Iran. Linking them all is the pivotal role the Middle East has played in human history. Interesting approach.
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robth
Participant
Posts: 131
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Post by robth on Apr 8, 2021 13:24:09 GMT
Don't know about you, but I won't enter the water closet without a book. Greg Or as I call it....the library. |
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Odysseus
Legend
Trump = Disaster
Posts: 41,098
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Post by Odysseus on Jul 2, 2021 3:26:26 GMT
Finished "The Silk Roads" a few weeks ago.
After which I started on a book I bought a while ago but apparently never started reading. It's a biography of Thomas Jefferson, our third president. Recently on the open forum the subject of Trump's ranking among the presidents came up. Jefferson I think is ranked #7. (Trump? 41).
Jefferson was an interesting set of contradictions. A renaissance man who owned slaves. And also he fathered more than few children with his favorite slave, Sally Hemming. A brilliant writer and theorist, but politically practical.
Author is Jon Meacham. If I see another work by him, I'll probably get it.
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Odysseus
Legend
Trump = Disaster
Posts: 41,098
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Post by Odysseus on Jul 2, 2021 3:36:19 GMT
After finishing the Jefferson biography, I started on "The Invisible Man" by HG Wells. It's a wry classic, and displays Well's gift for creating memorable if slightly absurd and strange characters. He also pokes a lot of fun at small town/village England folk of his day, and their clumsy reactions to the unexpected.
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Post by elmerfudd on Nov 26, 2021 14:19:38 GMT
I just finished a couple of books: The Path I Walked by Richard Cacace and When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park. The former is by a fellow I met on another social media platform and is basically a story of his life up to leaving the Marine Corps he wrote for his sons. It is, IMO, a very good book. It's well written and I would recommend it to any veteran, esp a Marine combat veteran of Vietnam. But it is not principally about his Vietnam experience.
I ran up on the other at a used book sale. Looked interesting, and it was. Fictional history about Korea during Japanese occupation, and one reading it will be indignant about how the Japanese tried to stamp out the Korean language and culture and make them Japanese while still looking down on them for not being fully Japanese. Then one realizes - that's what we did to the Indians in a large degree, especially with those Indian "schools" that forbade using the Indian language, many of which were sites of terrible abuse.
Now I am reading The SympathiZer by Viet Thanh Nguyen. Never heard of the book or the author until someone on that other site I mentioned in the first paragraph mentioned it. IMO, a great author. About one-quarter through it and had to look up two words already - crapulent and adamnantine. I'll never be tempted to use either one, but I like being exposed to new words. Well, old words with which I am not familiar. This one won a Pulitzer Prize.
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Odysseus
Legend
Trump = Disaster
Posts: 41,098
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Post by Odysseus on Nov 28, 2021 8:00:56 GMT
Don't know about you, but I won't enter the water closet without a book. Greg Or as I call it....the library.
You know you're over the hill when you need reading glasses to take a dump.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2021 17:35:32 GMT
Or as I call it....the library.
You know you're over the hill when you need reading glasses to take a dump.
You know you're obese when you need a rearview mirror to urinate. |
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demos
Legend
Posts: 9,194
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Post by demos on Dec 17, 2021 19:38:26 GMT
Finished this last night:  Pretty interesting; good overview. Was really hoping for more about the African kingdoms of this period, but will dig into the bibliography for that. Now back to India. |
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Odysseus
Legend
Trump = Disaster
Posts: 41,098
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Post by Odysseus on Dec 19, 2021 21:51:38 GMT
Finished this last night: Pretty interesting; good overview. Was really hoping for more about the African kingdoms of this period, but will dig into the bibliography for that. Now back to India.
So, what is the book's overall premise?
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demos
Legend
Posts: 9,194
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Post by demos on Dec 20, 2021 20:35:58 GMT
Overall premise is about how Africa was an early magnet for European exploration (gold deposits, etc.) and later that developed into the slave trade which fueled industrialization and economic development.
Sort of a 20,000 foot view.
The Half Has Never Been Told, which he references, really gets down into the weeds about the U.S. slave trade and its economic impact.
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demos
Legend
Posts: 9,194
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Post by demos on Jul 7, 2022 13:33:41 GMT
Finished this one last night:  Very interesting book. |
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demos
Legend
Posts: 9,194
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Post by demos on Aug 26, 2022 16:15:28 GMT
Finished this one last night:
It was a good read, but not straight history. Would recommend Gates of Europe over this one.
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Post by Mercy for All on Aug 26, 2022 23:50:15 GMT
I just started another trilogy by Robertson Davies, whom nobody here will have heard of because he's a Canadian author who is somewhat distinguished up here. Also just started Unseen Realm by Michael Heiser, a somewhat controversial book about second temple person interpretations of the Old Testament. Among another couple of books.
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Odysseus
Legend
Trump = Disaster
Posts: 41,098
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Post by Odysseus on Aug 27, 2022 0:05:15 GMT
I'm about 2/3 of the way through a tome called Grimm's Fairy Tales.
Two to three are generally good for a dump.
Some are really really weird.
Not sure if that helps, or not.
It is what it is.
Shit.
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demos
Legend
Posts: 9,194
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Post by demos on Jan 30, 2023 21:15:54 GMT
New bio of Nero; pretty interesting.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2023 22:55:54 GMT
New bio of Nero; pretty interesting.
So did he really burn Rome or is that a legend? |
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demos
Legend
Posts: 9,194
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Post by demos on Jan 30, 2023 23:00:17 GMT
So did he really burn Rome or is that a legend? Legend, one started by the those who did not like him (of which there were quite a few).
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2023 23:03:41 GMT
So did he really burn Rome or is that a legend? Legend, one started by the those who did not like him (of which there were quite a few).
I often confuse him with Caligula. I think it's Caligula that killed his wife with a kick in the head. |
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demos
Legend
Posts: 9,194
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Post by demos on Feb 21, 2023 23:50:55 GMT
Finished this one today; very interesting:
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