What book(s) are you currently reading?

[87 Penn St8]

Gotti: Rise and Fall by Jerry Capeci and Gene Mustain.

Picked this up in a free bin. not a big fan of mobster stuff- but I started working in NYC in June of 1988. It was shocking to me the love that the tabloids and some of the populace seemed to show this crook.

Gotti = scumbag and this book sheds some really interesting light.

 

[hoflane]

Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs

The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs

 

[Chickenman Testa]

The 3rd in a 4 part series about an EMP attack on the US. He’s not the greatest writer, but it’s a great idea about a real scary threat.

 

[PSUWrestlingFanSince2011]

The Berenstein Bears currently.

 

[87 Penn St8]

The Berenstein Bears currently.

Enjoy that genre as much as you can! My son loved Curious George. My bride didn't enjoy the style and length of the stories. So that became "Daddy Domain." I read the same stories over and over and over. Great times!

 

[b&w1987]

Liked the first two books in this series. I hope the third is as good:

Love this series. It’s like junk food for sci fi fans. So much fun to read. Just biding my time to read book 6.

 

[McCloudersportLion]

Just finished Cryptonomicon... solid 9 out of 11. Almost there, right next to 10 but not quite. Very well done. About as good as book as you could write if you were a dork that refers to our Alpha (and) Omega and writer of the prequel and sequal, an "Architect of the Universe".

 

[GSPMax]

"The Guns of August".

 

[Hugh Laurie]

The Secret Life of Real Estate and Banking by Phillip J Anderson

 

[Aardvark86]

I have two on my list for the beach:


Justice Gorsuch’s “Overruled” and Cardinal Pell’s Prison Journals.

 

[RochLion]

"Empire of the Summer Moon" by S.C. Gwynne

 

[Op2]

"Troubled" by Rob Henderson. His father was never in the picture. His mother was a drug addict Korean college student that got deported when he was three years old. Then he lived in foster homes for four years until the foster care system realized he could be adopted by a family since there was no chance any blood relative would be in the picture.

That all was in Los Angeles. Then a couple (with a girl child) in upstate hardscrabble rural California adopted him. The couple split after a year and his mother started living with another woman, which is who Rob grew up with. His father was angry that the woman left him so he would only see his biological daughter and refused to see Rob.

Rob tells about his tumultuous upbringing, how he went into the military right out of high school (he never even considered college), was in the military for eight years, got out and when to Yale, then went to Oxford (or one of those fancy English schools) and got a PhD in Psychology.

It's an interesting story and he's a sharp guy and I'm on his email list. He has very good insights into our society. He's the guy that coined the term "luxury beliefs" in case you've heard that one.

 

[Jerry]

Three books I've read over the past year and would highly recommend are:

On Desperate Ground -- the incredible story of the breakout of the 1st Marine Division from Chinese encirclement at the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea in December 1950. Vastly outnumbered and fighting in unimaginably horrible weather conditions, the Marines took terrible casualties but wrecked the Chinese force surrounding them. Of all the proud chapters in Marine history, this battle may rank as the proudest.

The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions -- a jolting saga of the insidious nature of schizophrenia as told by the childhood friend of a brilliant man who finally succumbed to the demons in his mind and killed his pregnant girlfriend. The tragedy is that the signs of accelerating mental deterioration were clear to see but a range of people, to include the girlfriend, preferred for various reasons not to look...until it was too late.

The Little Way of Ruthie Leming -- author and commentator Rod Dreher tells the story of how his 40-year old sister, loving wife and mother of three, was suddenly struck down by a deadly form of lung cancer but fought back with grace and faith as her small-town Louisiana community rallied around her. It's a heartbreaking but inspiring account of the triumph of the human spirit. In the end, Ruthie lost the battle...but won the war.

 

[GSPMax]

Three books I've read over the past year and would highly recommend are:

On Desperate Ground -- the incredible story of the breakout of the 1st Marine Division from Chinese encirclement at the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea in December 1950. Vastly outnumbered and fighting in unimaginably horrible weather conditions, the Marines took terrible casualties but wrecked the Chinese force surrounding them. Of all the proud chapters in Marine history, this battle may rank as the proudest.

Another in the same vein. "The Last Stand of Fox Company: A True Story of US Marines in Combat".

One company of Marines kill 1000 to 2000 Chinese while holding a mountain top keeping open the escape route from the Chosin Reservoir. Incredible bravery.

 

[Hotshoe]

The Troubles, Ireland's Ordeal by Tim Pat Coogan.

 

[PSU210]

The Troubles, Ireland's Ordeal by Tim Pat Coogan.

Read three books this summer....Michael Richards book, very insightful. I come away feeling for him, nothing like the character. The Luckiest Man Alive, story about a Holocaust survivor that was an easy read and amazing, and right now, Challenger. NASA story and the Challenger explosion. Amazing what they knew and failed to correct. Highly recommend all three.

 

[olelion]

Space Flight for Beginners, ( don't ask me why)

 

[saturdaysarebetter2]

The Day after World War III by Edward Zuckerman

Faldo/Norman The 1996 Masters by Andy Farrell

 

[ForesterGump]

Hot Dog Money by Guy Lawson. Talks about the college basketball scandal with Marty Blazer. PSU mentioned a couple of times when Blazer was pumping money into college football players. Eventually went over to college basketball when he got caught and worked with the FBI. Amazing what money can buy.

 

[MacNit2.0]

"Empire of the Summer Moon" by S.C. Gwynne

Great author.

 

[MacNit2.0]

I’m reading When the Lions Roared by Bill Contz. The story of the ’82 Nittany Lions which happened to be my junior year and first year at main campus. I’ve read some stories that I haven’t heard before. I’m up to Sugar Bowl week and can’t wait to find out how we do against Herschel Walker and #1 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl! Who doesn't love a happy ending?

Lawrence in Arabia by Scott Anderson.

Great insight on how the current Middle East came into being.

 

[PSU4U]

I’m reading When the Lions Roared by Bill Contz. The story of the ’82 Nittany Lions which happened to be my junior year and first year at main campus. I’ve read some stories that I haven’t heard before. I’m up to Sugar Bowl week and can’t wait to find out how we do against Herschel Walker and #1 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl! Who doesn't love a happy ending?

The Paradigm.

 

[SUPERTODD]

"Empire of the Summer Moon" by S.C. Gwynne

Phenomenal book. He got a lot of hate for it,
because he wrote a truthful, balanced account of the conflicts between settlers and Indians.

 

[Aardvark86]

So a buddy got me Karl ove knaussgard’s my struggle. I started but just found it tedious. Mrs a started, found it tedious, stuck with it, and is now on volume 2. Do I give it another try?

 

[Fletchster1]

Just finished "Divided on D-Day". Tough read (for me), but lots of interesting info on the lead-up and carrying-out of NEPTUNE and OVERLORD.

 

[GSPMax]

Just pulled Stanley Karnow's "Vietnam, A History, The Complete Account of Vietnam at War". I read it about 25 years ago but wanted to refresh my memory on some facts from what was happening in the 1940's and early 50's.

It details Vietnam's history of conflict going back to the late 1700's. A must read for anyone to understand how the US gets tangled up in foreign wars and our sometimes faulty reasons to get involved.

 

[Jerry]

Just pulled Stanley Karnow's "Vietnam, A History, The Complete Account of Vietnam at War". I read it about 25 years ago but wanted to refresh my memory on some facts from what was happening in the 1940's and early 50's.

It details Vietnam's history of conflict going back to the late 1700's. A must read for anyone to understand how the US gets tangled up in foreign wars and our sometimes faulty reasons to get involved.

That's an excellent work of history by Karnow.

Two other superb Vietnam books -- I read them 40 years ago -- are Dispatches, war correspondent Michael Herr's stories of frontline service as he observed it while reporting the war for Esquire Magazine, and Fields of Fire, James Webb's fictionalized account of the war based on his service as a Marine combat officer there.

Vietnam is a kind of dividing line in modern American history on so many fronts: cultural, economic, military, societal, and political.

 

[GSPMax]

That's an excellent work of history by Karnow.

Two other superb Vietnam books -- I read them 40 years ago -- are Dispatches, war correspondent Michael Herr's stories of frontline service as he observed it while reporting the war for Esquire Magazine, and Fields of Fire, James Webb's fictionalized account of the war based on his service as a Marine combat officer there.

Vietnam is a kind of dividing line in modern American history on so many fronts: cultural, economic, military, societal, and political.

Couple of things I ran across today. First American killed was an OSS officer in 1945.
And the leadup to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. In the election year of 1964 LBJ was iching for a way to look as tough as Goldwater. There was a resolution already in place waiting for a reason to go to the Senate and House. A lot of misinformation was thrown around to have a reason to rev up the country for the escalation that followed.