So what books are we reading?

[bntii]

I just picked up Steven Bungay's

The Most Dangerous Enemy

-A History of the Battle of Britain-

I have been wanting to flesh out my knowledge of the period and this will get me started.

Edit- Finished and highly recommended.

[SheetWise]

Just finishing Against The Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, which I highly recommend -- and just received P.J. O'Rourke on The Wealth of Nations: Books That Changed the World, which I'm hoping I can get to today ...

[Eric Sponberg]

I am reading two books at the moment, "American Dynasty" by Kevin Phillips, which is the story of the Bush family (George H. W. and George W.) and their dynastic connections to wealth, finance, energy, politics, and the military industrial complex that go back to the 19th century.

On the lighter side, I picked up Carl Hiassen's "Double Whammy". Carl Hiassen was here in St. Augustine in Sept. as keynote speaker for the Florida Heritage Book Festival (my wife was also a speaker). His talks were a riot! All my friends who had read him could talk only about his character "Skink", a hermit and the ex-governor of Florida who survives in the woods on road kill. It's a pretty good hoot. "Double Whammy" will teach you everything you need to know about bass fishing, and this is the book where Skink first appears.

If I may, my wife, Arliss Ryan, is a novelist, and her third book came out last June, "The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare." It is the fictional account of how Will's wife Anne could really have been the true author of the world's most famous plays. It has gottten universal 5-star reviews, and is available at literally dozens of retail on-line book stores around the world, both in softcover and as an ebook download. You can learn more about it and her other books on her website: www.arlissryan.com. She welcomes invitations to speak to book clubs and book festivals. She has a PowerPoint presentation that describes her thinking and arguments about Anne Shakespeare (she speaks, I operate the computer, doubling as her "roadie"). We'll be at the Amelia Island (Florida) Book Festival on Feb 18-19, and we'll be at a big book club talk at an independent bookstore in Southern Pines, NC, the week of March 7th.

Eric

[Ad Hoc]

I too am reading two books at present.

"The greatest show on earth", by Richard Dawkins

"The fry chronicles"...by stephen fry

Both very good reads..one opens the mind the other opens the mouth in laughter

[Leo Lazauskas]

Originally Posted by Ad Hoc

I too am reading two books at present.
"The greatest show on earth", by Richard Dawkins

I thought his book "The Ancestors Tale" was a brilliant way of looking at evolutionary history.

For fun I'm re-reading "The Cyberiad: Fables for the Cybernetic Age" by Stanislaw Lem.
After watching "I Clavdivs" yesterday I'll probably read the book again.

[cthippo]

"The two ocean war" by Samuel Eliott Morrison about the USN in WW2. After that I'll probably go back to the WW1 stuff, but I needed a break.

I'd like to find something decent on the Russo-Japaneese war, but that's getting pretty obscure.

[Ad Hoc]

Originally Posted by Leo Lazauskas

After watching "I Clavdivs" yesterday I'll probably read the book again.

Is that the classic BBC 2 series made in the 1970s??...brilliant stuff.

[Leo Lazauskas]

Originally Posted by Ad Hoc

Is that the classic BBC 2 series made in the 1970s??...brilliant stuff.

Yes. We've run out of things to watch, so it's back to the old stuff.
(I also watched the movie "Memento" last night and the main character's wife was re-reading "I, Cladius" for the umpteenth time.)

Any recommendations for good old series would be most welcome (but I really don't want to watch bloody Bergerac again!)

[Ad Hoc]

Originally Posted by Leo Lazauskas

Any recommendations for good old series would be most welcome (but I really don't want to watch bloody Bergerac again!)

"Cracker"....have you seen that? With Robbie Coltrane.

or

"Rome"...the recent one by BBC/HBO, was rather good.

"Shooting The Past"..that was excellent...just a 3 parter.

Depends what your taste is, and what you want to watch.

[Eric Sponberg]

Originally Posted by Leo Lazauskas

Yes. We've run out of things to watch, so it's back to the old stuff.
(I also watched the movie "Memento" last night and the main character's wife was re-reading "I, Cladius" for the umpteenth time.)

Any recommendations for good old series would be most welcome (but I really don't want to watch bloody Bergerac again!)

How about these older BBC series:

The Six Wives of Henry the VIII (Keith Mitchell as Henry)
Elizabeth R (Glenda Jackson as Elizabeth)
Upstairs, Downstairs
Connections (Host science historian James Burke)

Eric

[JLIMA]

Currently reading "I Rant Therefore I am" by Denis Miller, it's a nice light and comical read..

[gonzo]

The sword and the Cross. It is the story of a couple of french soldiers during the colonial conquest of Algeria and Sudan. It reads like the bungling happening in current wars. I keep on becoming more convinced of the importance of reading history

[Leo Lazauskas]

Originally Posted by Eric Sponberg

How about these older BBC series:

The Six Wives of Henry the VIII (Keith Mitchell as Henry)
Elizabeth R (Glenda Jackson as Elizabeth)
Upstairs, Downstairs
Connections (Host science historian James Burke)

Eric

Thanks for the suggestions, Eric and Ad Hoc.

"Shooting the past" was great and reminded me of some classic English movies like "The Love Child".

I'm fairly sick of Tudor and Victorian England.
Shakespeare in Love was a pleasant diversion, though,
as was a doco by Ian Hislop called "The Do-Gooders", and I really liked
Jermey Brett in "Sherlock Holmes".

I wish there were more history series on European nations, (e.g. Germany, France, Hungary) of the same quality as many English docos.

HBO is good: I liked "The Wire" and "Breaking Bad" but not "the Sopranos".

I like "Callan" and Le Carre's series with Smiley.

I thought Ken Burns' docos on the Civil War and Lewis and CLark were brilliant. Any more like that on American History? (Sharma's recent doco was also very good).

I'm a sucker for historical stuff like "Hornblower".

Unfortunately, we go through about 10 hours of vids a day because we have stuff running while working from home. That means 27 years worth of series like "Taggart" don't keep us going for long.

Comedy shows are hit and miss with us.
I like stuff like "Absolute Power" but hate "Little Britain".
HIGNFY, QI, "Mock the week", and "8 out of 10 Cats" and "Grandma's House"are pretty good.

"The Teaching Company" has many fine lecture series and, to almost bring it back on topic, there are a lot of talking books that are very good.
"History of Western Philosophy" by Bertie Russell was a real hoot and kept us occupied for about 4 days.

Thanks again,
Leo.


Leo.

[hoytedow]

"Essential Dutch Grammar" by Henry R. Stern.

[SheetWise]

Originally Posted by Leo Lazauskas

(I also watched the movie "Memento" last night and the main character's wife was re-reading "I, Cladius" for the umpteenth time.)

Wonderful movie -- although I probably won't revisit it for another five years. Eerily, it made sense.