Author Topic: Book Suggestions (Read 3238 times)

Gazoo · « **on:** January 27, 2014, 02:31:20 pm »

The storm is coming and I want to read a good book in my kindle.

I like historical/political/prophecy/NDE books.

Is Gates book out?

Any suggestions for reading? Post the books you have read or are reading.

Chieftain · « **Reply #1 on:** January 27, 2014, 03:07:47 pm »

Just finished Gates' book "Duty" and I highly recommend it. His unwavering support of the troops comes through clearly, and some of it will bring a tear to your eye, while other parts anger and still other parts confirm what you already knew or suspected.

I think Leon Panetta's memoir will be much more memorable.....

EC · « **Reply #2 on:** January 27, 2014, 03:11:33 pm »

Hey - you could always read a sci fi prophecy by yours truly

But quick recommendations -

The Demon Haunted World, Carl Sagan. It's the intersection of science and psychology, well explained.

Wolf of the Plains, Conn Iggulden. There are now 5 books in the series, and it details the rise and life of Genghis Khan. Factional.

And - as a return for a kind and gentle man taking time out of his very busy day to write a long, encouraging and incredibly cheerful email to a wannabe author:

Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, Spider Robinson. It's strange, it's odd and - in a heck of a lot of ways - it's like being here.

massadvj · « **Reply #3 on:** January 27, 2014, 03:29:09 pm »

The two best books I've read in the past year are Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography and American Pastoral by Philip Roth. American Pastoral has been out for a while, but I found it surprisingly insightful, relevant and conservative, especially considering its writer.

Gazoo · « **Reply #4 on:** January 27, 2014, 05:52:07 pm »

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

I will look for Gates book.

I read a secret service tell all yet professional boo kand it was confirmed Hillary is a witch but they said Michelle Obama is nice. Also said Carter was a pain in da ass.

EC · « **Reply #5 on:** January 27, 2014, 06:28:07 pm »

Michelle Obama is not only nice - she is very charming, interested in absolutely everything, and her Secret Service detail absolutely dote on her and the girls.

The wrong Worm got elected.

Luis Gonzalez · « **Reply #6 on:** January 27, 2014, 06:42:20 pm »

Chieftain · « **Reply #7 on:** January 27, 2014, 06:44:14 pm »

Any Science Fiction fans out there??

Try reading "Live Free or Die" by John Ringo. I guarantee you will be reading everything he ever wrote once you read that book.

Another Ringo series is referred to as "The Legacy of the Aldenata"...the first of a dozen books is "A Hymn Before Battle". The basic premise is that in 2001, Earth is visited by a friendly Galactic being bearing some very bad news. An alien species known as the Posleen are invading across the Galaxy, and since the Galactics cannot defend themselves, they want to hire the humans as mercenaries to fight for them. The Posleen are the size of horses with crocodilian heads, and they eat anything they kill. The problem is that the Posleen are coming in six different waves and just one massive lander has the equivalent of 100,000 battalions on it.....Ringo actually comes up with a very creative and permanent solution to Muslim extremists...sic the Posleen on 'em and they will fight a Jihad to the man, to the death...the Posleen call food "thresh". They call humans "Threshkreen" or "Food that stings".......

EC · « **Reply #8 on:** January 27, 2014, 07:00:38 pm »

YES! Seconding most enthusiastically. That is a wonderful series (there are a few derivative moments, but you expect total originality?)

Chief - if you enjoyed that, try David Weber. No, not the Honor Harrington series, you are educated, but the Dahak series. Baen books has them for free.

Chieftain · « **Reply #9 on:** January 27, 2014, 07:02:49 pm »

Quote from: EC on January 27, 2014, 07:00:38 pm

YES! Seconding most enthusiastically. That is a wonderful series (there are a few derivative moments, but you expect total originality?)

Chief - if you enjoyed that, try David Weber. No, not the Honor Harrington series, you are educated, but the Dahak series. Baen books has them for free.

I have a number of David Weber novels EC....nobody writes a space yarn like Weber does......

EC · « **Reply #10 on:** January 27, 2014, 07:07:46 pm »

Quote from: Chieftain on January 27, 2014, 07:02:49 pm

I have a number of David Weber novels EC....nobody writes a space yarn like Weber does......

His odd foray into fantasy is invariably good too.

Tried Jim Butcher? He wrote "The Dresden Files." Those are totally worth the read - a guy, slightly out of his depth a lot of the time, in a world where magic and technology co-exist. It's no Sartre, but they are good fun.

happyg · « **Reply #11 on:** January 27, 2014, 09:30:47 pm »

Quote from: EC on January 27, 2014, 06:28:07 pm

Michelle Obama is not only nice - she is very charming, interested in absolutely everything, and her Secret Service detail absolutely dote on her and the girls.

The wrong Worm got elected.

Have you met her?

EC · « **Reply #12 on:** January 27, 2014, 09:43:20 pm »

Quote from: happyg on January 27, 2014, 09:30:47 pm

Have you met her?

Yes. Talked to her for about 20 minutes, in fact. She was genuinely nice and interesting, and interested in what I do. Could it have been an act? Course it could (not THAT innocent) - but she had zero reason to do so. Non-national, no advantage to be gained by being nice to me, no press around, and I ain't exactly Brad Pitt in the looks department to put it very kindly!

Met him too, for like 5 seconds. He shook my hand once (I will say, he may look weedy for his height but he's got a grip on him, must be the golf) and dived into a private room, leaving her behind. That was a thrill and doesn't really count. /s

Chieftain · « **Reply #13 on:** January 27, 2014, 10:01:28 pm »

Another set I thoroughly enjoyed was the Dune prequels...

EC · « **Reply #14 on:** January 27, 2014, 10:07:02 pm »

Quote from: Chieftain on January 27, 2014, 10:01:28 pm

Another set I thoroughly enjoyed was the Dune prequels...

I tried hard with those. I loved the Frank Herbert ones, all 6 of them are still in pride of place on my book case (Yes, one is signed) but I couldn't manage the prequels. They just didn't have his mix of education and insanity.

Rapunzel · « **Reply #15 on:** January 27, 2014, 11:20:27 pm »

Here ya go, Gazoo...... it gets five stars

http://www.amazon.com/Divinity-Dogs-Stories-Miracles-Inspired/dp/1451621590/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=

The Divinity of Dogs: True Stories of Miracles Inspired by Man's Best Friend Paperback
by Jennifer Skiff (Author)

Gazoo · « **Reply #16 on:** January 28, 2014, 07:25:09 am »

Quote from: Chieftain on January 27, 2014, 06:44:14 pm

Any Science Fiction fans out there??

Try reading "Live Free or Die" by John Ringo. I guarantee you will be reading everything he ever wrote once you read that book.

Another Ringo series is referred to as "The Legacy of the Aldenata"...the first of a dozen books is "A Hymn Before Battle". The basic premise is that in 2001, Earth is visited by a friendly Galactic being bearing some very bad news. An alien species known as the Posleen are invading across the Galaxy, and since the Galactics cannot defend themselves, they want to hire the humans as mercenaries to fight for them. The Posleen are the size of horses with crocodilian heads, and they eat anything they kill. The problem is that the Posleen are coming in six different waves and just one massive lander has the equivalent of 100,000 battalions on it.....Ringo actually comes up with a very creative and permanent solution to Muslim extremists...sic the Posleen on 'em and they will fight a Jihad to the man, to the death...the Posleen call food "thresh". They call humans "Threshkreen" or "Food that stings".......

I am a sci fi channel watcher and reader forgot to add that.

Gazoo · « **Reply #17 on:** January 28, 2014, 07:30:18 am »

Quote from: EC on January 27, 2014, 09:43:20 pm

Yes. Talked to her for about 20 minutes, in fact. She was genuinely nice and interesting, and interested in what I do. Could it have been an act? Course it could (not THAT innocent) - but she had zero reason to do so. Non-national, no advantage to be gained by being nice to me, no press around, and I ain't exactly Brad Pitt in the looks department to put it very kindly!

Met him too, for like 5 seconds. He shook my hand once (I will say, he may look weedy for his height but he's got a grip on him, must be the golf) and dived into a private room, leaving her behind. That was a thrill and doesn't really count. /s

Interesting. I don't think she was first lady long but he said Michelle Obama was nice. Barbara Bush was the best, very kind and genuine as well as Laura Bush. Hillary and Jimmy Carter were horrific.

The secret service book I read

Gazoo · « **Reply #18 on:** January 28, 2014, 07:37:15 am »

Quote

and I ain't exactly Brad Pitt in the looks department to put it very kindly!

Met him too, for like 5 seconds. He shook my hand once (I will say, he may look weedy for his height but he's got a grip on him, must be the golf) and dived into a private room, leaving her behind. That was a thrill and doesn't really count. /s

Did you meet Brad Pitt in the US? Were you a former secret service agent as well as military?

PzLdr · « **Reply #19 on:** January 28, 2014, 09:43:36 am »

"Those Angry Days" - about the run up to WW II, and FDR vs. Lindberg.

If you can find it, "The Devil's Horsemen" about the Mongol invasion of Russia and Eastern Europe [plus a good, concise précis of the rise of the Mongol Empire, the organization of their army, etc.

Rick Atkinson's three volume history of WW II in Europe.

"The Devil Knows How to Ride"- a history of William Clarke Quantrill, the Bushwhackers and the Border War.

EC · « **Reply #20 on:** January 28, 2014, 02:25:51 pm »

Quote from: Gazoo on January 28, 2014, 07:37:15 am

Did you meet Brad Pitt in the US? Were you a former secret service agent as well as military?

The Kessler book is well worth the read. Some details are deliberately vague or downright wrong, of course, as they should be. Being in the line of fire doesn't mean you give away all your routines to invite said fire!

Nah - never met Brad Pitt, the him in question was the Worm. The wife has met Pitt, she had him sitting in her cabin once. He's also apparently very nice and quite chatty.

Chieftain · « **Reply #21 on:** January 28, 2014, 02:46:07 pm »

EC, how far have you gotten reading Tolkien??

EC · « **Reply #22 on:** January 28, 2014, 03:02:59 pm »

Quote from: Chieftain on January 28, 2014, 02:46:07 pm

EC, how far have you gotten reading Tolkien??

Lord of the Rings - been through the trilogy three times so far. I dig out the books every 15 years or so, on average. I tend to skip over Tom Bombadil though. He's annoying.

The Hobbit - I can't count. Three or four times before I were 17, then about once every 18 months, aloud to the kids and grandkids. That, plus Alice in Wonderland, are the two favorite bedtime story books. Not one member of our family has seen or will see the movie, because it would destroy something special we have as a family.

The Simarillion - Look, I tried. Never managed to get more than 40 pages in. It is an instant insomnia cure as far as I can tell!

Rapunzel · « **Reply #23 on:** January 28, 2014, 05:47:17 pm »

Phillip Dru Administrator - this was Woodrow Wilson's favorite book and the blueprint for what is going on today.

http://www.amazon.com/Philip-Dru-Administrator-Tomorrow-1920-1935/dp/143441633X

Philip Dru: Administrator: A Story of Tomorrow, 1920-1935 [Paperback]
Edward Mandell House (Author)

Book Description
Publication Date: June 26, 2010

"Philip Dru: Administrator: a Story of Tomorrow, 1920-1935" is a futuristic political novel published anonymously in 1912 by Edward Mandell House, an American diplomat, politician and presidential foreign policy advisor. His book's hero leads the democratic western U.S. in a civil war against the plutocratic East, and becomes the dictator of America. Dru as dictator imposes a series of reforms that resemble the Bull Moose platform of 1912 and then vanishes.

Gazoo · « **Reply #24 on:** January 28, 2014, 06:20:36 pm »

I started the sample version of reading Gates book, "Duty" in the kindle. I will be buying it. So far, he is a very humble man with deep emotion for our military. And that was from just reading 45 minutes. Thanks for the recommend Chief, spot-on review!

BTW: I saw another Gates book and previewed it a bit. Can't remember the name.