Summer Reading -- midterm exams ?
As we've reached the half-way through the summer, I'm curious how well Ricochet participants have done with their summer reading lists -- without regard to format (even Long's ipad-read books count). What were your reading lists? Which books did you finish? Which books disappointed or excelled? Which books do you still hope to finish and which do you recommend?
The number one book for me this summer, so far, has been Winston Churchill's History of the English-speaking Peoples. I became curious about it because it is often mentioned by rarely read these days, and because both sides of the Atlantic seem to be doing their best these days to ruin a special relationship which will nevertheless endure. I've also been enjoying Bernard Cornwell's RIchard Sharpe series about the adventures of a British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars, which were made into a British mini-series starring Sean Bean. It's been great pulp fiction, like the Aubrey-Maturin Master and Commander series on land.
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Re: Summer Reading -- midterm exams ?
My 2010 summer reading has been a grab-bag. Among the best books so far: Raghuram Rajan's Fault Lines, Norman Podhoretz's Making It, David Willetts's Modern Conservatism, and Ian McEwan's Atonement. A recent trip to Los Angeles brought to mind Harlan Ellison, whose short stories and essays, when I encountered them in my early teens, made me want to be a writer. So lately I've been on an Ellison kick, revisiting the yellowed, musty, out of print paperbacks I've collected over the years, and trying to come up with a peg for an article on the great controversialist. His "I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream" is still one of the scariest things you will ever read.
May '10
Re: Summer Reading -- midterm exams ?
Sebastian Junger's War is a terrific, at time heart-stopping, visceral read. The companion film Restrepo is also worth seeing if only to wonder at the Canon technology which allows a Digital SLR to shoot an HD movie.
I'm an Alan Furst fan and he continues to tell wonderfully plotted, stories redolent of their time and place inSpies of the Balkans. His characters are always at the margins of larger events and it's sobering to realise that similar stories are no doubt being played out across the landscape of the war against Islamic facism.
And I'm re-reading (this time in the Kindle (so that's two sales for the publisher) John J. Miller's The Cell, the only book as far as I know to trace the events that lead to 9/11 from their inception. The first 30 pages had me enraged all over again at the legal, law-enforcement and political malfeasance that enabled these attacks.
Arthur C. Brooks The Battle pretty much lays out the stakes for the rest of this century, and Mark Frost's Game Six is an extraordinarily well-written book about the 1975 World Series.
May '10
Re: Summer Reading -- midterm exams ?
While we're on the John J. Miller kick, The First Assassin was entertaining and not half bad for his first try at fiction.
I re-read Parliament of Whores by P.J. O'Rourke. Classic. Irreverent. Hilarious. As a matter of fact, I think I'll start it again.
I'm almost through Steyn's America Alone and I'm pretty embarrassed that I haven't come around to reading it until now.
Aside from that, I've been reading a ton of legal opinions as part of my day job, which I don't consider to be a wholesome diet of prose. I'd like to get Professor Yoo's reaction to that.
May '10
Re: Summer Reading -- midterm exams ?
My current stack (the ones I jump between) are Stephen Myer's The Signature in the Cell and Mark Moyar's Triumph Forsaken (RE Vietnam, after visiting the place). Thus far I've also completed two David Gratzer books on health care, and the odd one-day mystery novel, plus two Updikes, as lighter fare.
No legal opinions- just draft contracts.
May '10
Re: Summer Reading -- midterm exams ?
I'm rereading Naipaul's Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey, where he spends the turn of the 70's travelling to Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Indonesia. He's opinionated and judgmental, and I don't care because I trust him. It was great the first time, better the second.
I'm also reading Tobias Dantzig's Number: The Language of Science. It's a number theory book, although it reads like history, because it is. It was written in the 30's and has the nicest discussion of zero, before its reinvention as a digital necessity.
Finally, PC-authority John Leo's 2000 (year, not number; if only) essay collection Incorrect Thoughts: Notes on Our Wayward Culture, as an essay-a-day, before bed wind down. There's been a fair amount of Zuckerman bashing this week, so let John be a reminder that Mort's done at least one thing right.
So if you're looking for a book with a colon in the title...
Re: Summer Reading -- midterm exams ?
Like the Glaswegian, I began the summer with Sebastian Junger's War, which I read to prep for an interview with him. Junger can write. Most recent reading event: finishing Dostoyevsky's The Devils. Why, I don't know, but whereas I tried three or four times, always without success, to force myself to read The Brothers Karamazov, I couldn't put The Devils down. Now, no book at hand, I'm suffering something like post-partum depression.
May '10
Re: Summer Reading -- midterm exams ?
I'm splitting my time between books and audiobooks. On paper, I recently finished Jim Butcher's final book in the Codex Alera series, First Lord's Fury. I also just polished off Stephen King's Gunslinger series (my second time through the series). I'm about to begin an interesting book called The Salt Seeker by Daravann Yi. One of my best friends recommended it to me and it turns out that Yi was a college classmate of hers at Penn State. He survived the slaughter committed by the Khmer Rouge as a child and the book is an account of how that happened as well as his journey to the United States. It looks very interesting.
My audiobook pile includes David Weber's Off Armageddon Reef and a couple Agatha Christie Poirot books. I finished Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind about a week ago. I recommend that one highly.
May '10
Re: Summer Reading -- midterm exams ?
I have a question about reading the works of leftist authors. A conservative friend recommended Barry Eisler and Justin Cronin as good summer reads. They're both Obama supporters, bar none. I've read every book by Barry Eisler except his latest and I'd rather not read the same old canard about the evil CIA and sheeple Americans. Justin Cronin got a 3.75 million dollar deal for writing a "literary" trilogy about vampires who were created by the US government (who else).
I didn't like the Overton Window, so I'm not some rabid conservative. If I didn't want to listen to obama-zombies in real life, why bother with them when they write fiction?
I have no patience for authors who bash the values of the west while they derive its every benefit.
Edited on November 3, 2010 at 5:55amJul '10
Re: Summer Reading -- midterm exams ?
i think it took me two of three tries ... but the last one was the charm for Brothers. Crime and Punishment,on the other hand, basically deprived me of sleep it had me so gripped.
I am slowly working through another Russian this month, Solzhenitsyn's In the First Circle. This is a very good book that has a lot of threads, is compellingly written and makes me glad to be a free person. My progress on that book has become inconsistent as I flip back and forth with Robert George's collection of essays In Defense of Natural Law.
Jun '10
Re: Summer Reading -- midterm exams ?
I just finished Melanie Phillip's The World Turned Upside Down. It's a terrific takedown of modern liberalism's irrationality. They're the supposed smart people, but Phillips shows that, issue after issue, they're irrational, emotional, and naive. She writes beautifully.
I'm reading Andrew McCarthy's Grand Jihad, a provocative but completely convincing recounting of the odd alliance between the hard left and the Islamist (all with the tacit approval of Obama).
I'm also proud to say that a month ago I finished War and Peace, and it was worth the effort. A magnificent book.
As to John's recommendation of the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, I second the motion with one small caveat. Patrick O'Brian is, in my view, the greatest historical novelist ever. Cornwell is terrific, but without the artistry of O'Brian.
On to The Brothers Karamazov.
Jul '10
Re: Summer Reading -- midterm exams ?
A really entertaining book: Simon Winders', "Germania: in wayward pursuit of the Germans and their History": it's ALMOST convinced me to go visit that part of the world.
As to revolutionary change, though, Paterson's "A Land Afflicted: Scotland and the Covenanter Wars, 1638-1690", along with McGrigor's "Anna, Countess of the Covenant", are great intros to that wretched century. A later upheavel, thankfully without 'killing times', was the 1843 "Great Disruption" of Scotland's Established Presbyterian Church: this time, a bourgeois pamphleteering rebellion against the then landowning elite. A bio, "Hugh Miller: stonemason, geologist, writer", by Taylor, is interesting: Miller was one of the first men to study fossils; yet many of today's Free Church of Scotland (which he helped start) do not believe in evolution. Of course, neither did he, at least not like today's hardliners.
Finally, Lee Harris' "The Next American Civil War: the populist revolt against the liberal elite" is packed with ideas relevant to today.
Last: Dick Lochte wrote marvellous thrillers: I just re-read a couple of them.
Jun '10
Re: Summer Reading -- midterm exams ?
One other recommendation. I'm slowly re-reading the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. It's fantasy (which I rarely read), and the funniest stuff being written today--he's England's new Wodehouse. You can also get them on CD, read by wonderful narrators, Nigel Planer and Stephen Briggs.
Sadly, Pratchett has been stricken with a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's disease, which is a great tragedy for those of us who need a little laugh-out-loud humor now and then. He's still writing, but no one knows how long he'll be able to.
May '10
Re: Summer Reading -- midterm exams ?
This summer reading list lacks some good cotton candy reading. Pick up The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson. Then you'll want to read the next two books because who doesn't love a tale about a severely abused-anti-social-hacker turned Swedish billionaire mystery/thriller?
May '10
Re: Summer Reading -- midterm exams ?
Tabula Rasa, I was saddened when I heard about Pratchett's illness, too. He's one of my constant companions when I travel--and a hilariously twisted mind.
As for my reading list, I've been slacking. It started well with Alexandra Fuller's Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight and James Teitelbaum's Tiki Road Trip. It then moved to Hanson's A War Like No Other (which I'd been intending to read for a ridiculously long time). But there is a stack of new books that I want to get to that is just sitting there mocking me.
I started (haven't finished) Craig Ferguson's American On Purpose, intended to re-read Sean Stewart's spectacular fantasy A Perfect Circle, and still have Lord Birkenhead's biography of Rudyard Kipling along with five or six others that I bought last month and haven't touched.
The older I get, the further behind on my reading I find myself.
May '10
Re: Summer Reading -- midterm exams ?
I buy audiobooks to listen to on the way to work and on long airline flights. One advantage of audiobooks is that I can listen to them two or three times, which i never do with a paper book. I recently finished Churchill's WWII, and am now listening to Morison's Admiral of the Ocean Sea (for the second time).
Jul '10
Re: Summer Reading -- midterm exams ?
A War Like No Other was a great book. I second that recommendation to anyone looking for some interesting insights into the Peloponnesian War. Victor's view definitely enhanced my own understanding of that period in our civilization. It makes me wish I had a whole lecture series on ancient Greece from him that I could listen to ... something like the OCW courses that are online.
Re: Summer Reading -- midterm exams ?
Anything by Andrew Klavan.
Let me repeat: anything by Andrew Klavan, meaning any book by not a book titled Anything, although if Drew wrote it, I'd read that, too.
And like you, Glaswegian, I zoomed through the new Alan Furst, which was just wonderful as always. My not-so-secret dream is to produce a big Furst miniseries, knitting all of his WWII novels together into one big tapestry.
Jul '10
Re: Summer Reading -- midterm exams ?
my name is Heather and I am a fan of the Twilight series, including the most recent Bree Tanner novella. I am re-reading Eclipse, which is much better than the movie.
Re: Summer Reading -- midterm exams ?
I read Game Change a few weeks ago -- very diverting! -- and am looking forward to Goldberg's Liberal Fascism. I inhaled Reginald Hill's latest Dalziel and Pascoe mystery (Midnight Fugue) last week and just got my hands on a friend's copy of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I'd been resisting it because I'd heard it was full of nonsensical hocus-pocus computer wizardry, but I've now heard too many good things about it to ignore, and I'm intrigued by the ecstatic reviews the Swedish movie version is getting. On my iPod I'm listening to Bobby Cannavale read Richard Price's Lush Life (I read it first and loved it; it adds a lot to hear it read with an authentic New York accent) and a whole lineup of Agatha Christie and P. G. Wodehouse, which are my desert island books.
Re: Summer Reading -- midterm exams ?
Here's an excellent question. What are the best books by liberal authors -- or progressives, as they call themselves?
As an academic, I spend most of my time reading liberal professors -- which often calls for my secret decoder ring. But in a political contest, it is important to understand how an opponent thinks.
A book that may give an insight is Thaler & Sunstein's Nudge (the latter is now a powerful regulator in the administration). Their basic point is that we all suffer from certain irrationalities (like failing to save enough for retirement) and that government can push us to make the "right" decision. A more sophisticated justification for big government -- I wish this were the kind of thinking that was motivating Obama.