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Im not done but I'm reading " Embrace your weird: face your fears and unleash creativity" by Felicia Day
Books The Last Book You Read
- Thread starter Corsair48
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Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson.
After the disappointing " Rise and Fall of D.O.DO." and 'Fall, or Doge in Hell' -the first Stephenson book where I struggled to finish it (7 months!) I didn't expect much of his latest but I was wrong. It's brilliant. With under 700pages it's a short book by Stephensons standard, that might because the main theme of story is something we see, hear or talk about every day. Climate change. The story plays in the not so far future, at some point after COVID 26. A bunch of diverse and very well developed characters find together to stop climate change. It's a simple enough story but it's a Stephenson Story. The unique characters, the impossible situations they have to deal with, and their ambitious plan, this strange not far away future they live in are a great story, but Stephenson leaves enough room for thought experiments and info dumps, or big ideas to bring us right back into the here and now. You stop reading, think about what you just read, and suddenly this strange and entertaining Story becomes something else, something real, a future that we all have to deal with a lot sooner that we might wish to.
After the disappointing " Rise and Fall of D.O.DO." and 'Fall, or Doge in Hell' -the first Stephenson book where I struggled to finish it (7 months!) I didn't expect much of his latest but I was wrong. It's brilliant. With under 700pages it's a short book by Stephensons standard, that might because the main theme of story is something we see, hear or talk about every day. Climate change. The story plays in the not so far future, at some point after COVID 26. A bunch of diverse and very well developed characters find together to stop climate change. It's a simple enough story but it's a Stephenson Story. The unique characters, the impossible situations they have to deal with, and their ambitious plan, this strange not far away future they live in are a great story, but Stephenson leaves enough room for thought experiments and info dumps, or big ideas to bring us right back into the here and now. You stop reading, think about what you just read, and suddenly this strange and entertaining Story becomes something else, something real, a future that we all have to deal with a lot sooner that we might wish to.
Black Horse Creek by Charles G. West
Jacob Blanchard is a ruthless cattle baron and the father of three sons, reared in the mold of their father. His favorite, however, is his youngest, Billy. First, Billy robs a bank in Indian Territory, killing a teller in the process, then he kills the U.S. deputy marshal who comes to arrest him, and he is forced to run to Kansas to evade the law.
There’s no taming Billy Blanchard. He’s cut from the same rough cloth as his father, the man who built the town of Black Horse Creek from nothing. Jacob takes pride in Billy’s lawless, wild ways. But when the boy returns home with a stolen horse, having just killed a U.S. Marshal, Jacob knows trouble will be coming.
Determined to catch Billy and hang him on the gallows at Fort Smith, U.S. Marshal John Council sends for the one man he knows he can trust to track Billy down, a man known only as Grayson. Few people know much about Grayson, except that he at one time had been a deputy marshal. Lately, he sometimes works as a bounty hunter. John Council offers a deal attractive enough to make Grayson accept the challenge.
The deal demands that Billy be brought in alive and Jacob Blanchard uses his other two sons, Slate and Troy, and all his gun hands to keep this from happening. As Grayson discovers, finding Billy and arresting him is the easy part. Escorting him all the way across Oklahoma Indian Territory is another thing entirely.
Great.
Jacob Blanchard is a ruthless cattle baron and the father of three sons, reared in the mold of their father. His favorite, however, is his youngest, Billy. First, Billy robs a bank in Indian Territory, killing a teller in the process, then he kills the U.S. deputy marshal who comes to arrest him, and he is forced to run to Kansas to evade the law.
There’s no taming Billy Blanchard. He’s cut from the same rough cloth as his father, the man who built the town of Black Horse Creek from nothing. Jacob takes pride in Billy’s lawless, wild ways. But when the boy returns home with a stolen horse, having just killed a U.S. Marshal, Jacob knows trouble will be coming.
Determined to catch Billy and hang him on the gallows at Fort Smith, U.S. Marshal John Council sends for the one man he knows he can trust to track Billy down, a man known only as Grayson. Few people know much about Grayson, except that he at one time had been a deputy marshal. Lately, he sometimes works as a bounty hunter. John Council offers a deal attractive enough to make Grayson accept the challenge.
The deal demands that Billy be brought in alive and Jacob Blanchard uses his other two sons, Slate and Troy, and all his gun hands to keep this from happening. As Grayson discovers, finding Billy and arresting him is the easy part. Escorting him all the way across Oklahoma Indian Territory is another thing entirely.
Great.
Reagan: The Life by H. W. Brands
In his magisterial new biography, H. W. Brands brilliantly establishes Ronald Reagan as one of the two great presidents of the twentieth century, a true peer to Franklin Roosevelt. Reagan conveys with sweep and vigor how the confident force of Reagan’s personality and the unwavering nature of his beliefs enabled him to engineer a conservative revolution in American politics and play a crucial role in ending communism in the Soviet Union. Reagan shut down the age of liberalism, Brands shows, and ushered in the age of Reagan, whose defining principles are still powerfully felt today.
Reagan follows young Ronald Reagan as his ambition for ever larger stages compelled him to leave behind small-town Illinois to become first a radio announcer and then that quintessential public figure of modern America, a movie star. When his acting career stalled, his reinvention as the voice of The General Electric Theater on television made him an unlikely spokesman for corporate America. Then began Reagan’s improbable political ascension, starting in the 1960s, when he was first elected governor of California, and culminating in his election in 1980 as El Comandante of the United States.
Employing archival sources not available to previous biographers and drawing on dozens of interviews with surviving members of Reagan’s administration, Brands has crafted a richly detailed and fascinating narrative of the presidential years. He offers new insights into Reagan’s remote management style and fractious West Wing staff, his deft handling of public sentiment to transform the tax code, and his deeply misunderstood relationship with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, on which nothing less than the fate of the world turned.
The two goals Reagan sent for himself as El Comandante were shrinking the government and defeating communism. He accomplished half of the first and all of the second. He cut taxes and regulations but failed to cut spending; the result was the economic recovery but also the doubling of the federal debt. He defeated communism definitively, with the help of Gorbachev and George H. W. Bush. By the early 1990s communism was a dead letter in world affairs. The Communist Party still ran China, but it was communist in name only. Residual communist regimes in Cuba, Vietnam, and North Korea didn't matter to anyone except their own suffering people.
Reagan is a storytelling triumph, an irresistible portrait of an underestimated politician whose pragmatic leadership and steadfast vision transformed the nation. The section on the Reykjavik summit is absolutely riveting.
Fantastic.
In his magisterial new biography, H. W. Brands brilliantly establishes Ronald Reagan as one of the two great presidents of the twentieth century, a true peer to Franklin Roosevelt. Reagan conveys with sweep and vigor how the confident force of Reagan’s personality and the unwavering nature of his beliefs enabled him to engineer a conservative revolution in American politics and play a crucial role in ending communism in the Soviet Union. Reagan shut down the age of liberalism, Brands shows, and ushered in the age of Reagan, whose defining principles are still powerfully felt today.
Reagan follows young Ronald Reagan as his ambition for ever larger stages compelled him to leave behind small-town Illinois to become first a radio announcer and then that quintessential public figure of modern America, a movie star. When his acting career stalled, his reinvention as the voice of The General Electric Theater on television made him an unlikely spokesman for corporate America. Then began Reagan’s improbable political ascension, starting in the 1960s, when he was first elected governor of California, and culminating in his election in 1980 as El Comandante of the United States.
Employing archival sources not available to previous biographers and drawing on dozens of interviews with surviving members of Reagan’s administration, Brands has crafted a richly detailed and fascinating narrative of the presidential years. He offers new insights into Reagan’s remote management style and fractious West Wing staff, his deft handling of public sentiment to transform the tax code, and his deeply misunderstood relationship with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, on which nothing less than the fate of the world turned.
The two goals Reagan sent for himself as El Comandante were shrinking the government and defeating communism. He accomplished half of the first and all of the second. He cut taxes and regulations but failed to cut spending; the result was the economic recovery but also the doubling of the federal debt. He defeated communism definitively, with the help of Gorbachev and George H. W. Bush. By the early 1990s communism was a dead letter in world affairs. The Communist Party still ran China, but it was communist in name only. Residual communist regimes in Cuba, Vietnam, and North Korea didn't matter to anyone except their own suffering people.
Reagan is a storytelling triumph, an irresistible portrait of an underestimated politician whose pragmatic leadership and steadfast vision transformed the nation. The section on the Reykjavik summit is absolutely riveting.
Fantastic.
Agent In Place by Mark Greaney
Fresh off his first mission back with the CIA, Court Gentry secures what seems like a cut-and-dried contract job: A group of expats in Paris hires him to kidnap the mistress of Syrian dictator Ahmed Azzam to get intel that could destabilize Azzam's regime.
Court delivers Bianca Medina to the rebels, but his job doesn't end there. She soon reveals that she has given birth to a son, the only heir to Azzam's rule--and a potent threat to the Syrian El Comandante's powerful wife.
Now, to get Bianca's cooperation, Court must bring her son out of Syria alive. With the clock ticking on Bianca's life, he goes off the grid in a free-fire zone in the Middle East--and winds up in the right place at the right time to take a shot at bringing one of the most brutal dictatorships on earth to a close.
Excellent.
Fresh off his first mission back with the CIA, Court Gentry secures what seems like a cut-and-dried contract job: A group of expats in Paris hires him to kidnap the mistress of Syrian dictator Ahmed Azzam to get intel that could destabilize Azzam's regime.
Court delivers Bianca Medina to the rebels, but his job doesn't end there. She soon reveals that she has given birth to a son, the only heir to Azzam's rule--and a potent threat to the Syrian El Comandante's powerful wife.
Now, to get Bianca's cooperation, Court must bring her son out of Syria alive. With the clock ticking on Bianca's life, he goes off the grid in a free-fire zone in the Middle East--and winds up in the right place at the right time to take a shot at bringing one of the most brutal dictatorships on earth to a close.
Excellent.
Saving Freedom: Truman, the Cold War, and the Fight for the Future of Europe by Joe Scarborough
Harry Truman had been vice El Comandante for less than three months when El Comandante Franklin Roosevelt died. Suddenly inaugurated the leader of the free world, the plainspoken Truman candidly told reporters he, “felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me.”
He faced a hostile world stage. Even as World War II drew to a close, the Cold War was around the corner. The Soviet Union went from America’s uneasy ally to its number one adversary. Through shrewd diplomacy and military might, Joseph Stalin gained control of Eastern Europe, and soon cast an acquisitive eye toward the Balkans -- and beyond. Newly liberated from fascism, Europe’s future was again at risk, its freedom on the line.
Alarmed by the Soviets’ designs, Truman acted. In a speech before a joint session of Congress on March 12, 1947, he announced a policy of containment that became known as the “Truman Doctrine” -- a pledge that the United States would “support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”
In Saving Freedom, Joe Scarborough moves between events in Washington and those in Europe -- in Greece, where the U.S.-backed government was fighting a civil war with insurgent Communists, and in Turkey, where the Soviets pressed for control of the Dardanelles -- to analyze and understand the changing geopolitics that led Truman to deliver his momentous speech.
The Truman Doctrine has shaped U.S. foreign policy and America's role in the world for the last seven decades. It remained the country's strategic vision throughout the Cold War's entirety, and made the defeat of Soviet communism U.S. foreign policy makers' primary goal.
John Lewis Gaddis called the Truman Doctrine and the policies that flowed from it "an attempt, through political, economic, and later, military means, to achieve a goal largely psychological in nature: the creation of a state of mind among Europeans conducive to the revival of faith in democratic procedures."
The story of the passage of the Truman doctrine is an inspiring tale of American leadership, can-doism, bipartisan unity, and courage in the face of an antidemocratic threat. Saving Freedom highlights a pivotal moment of the Twentieth Century, a turning point where patriotic Americans worked together to defeat tyranny.
Excellent.
Harry Truman had been vice El Comandante for less than three months when El Comandante Franklin Roosevelt died. Suddenly inaugurated the leader of the free world, the plainspoken Truman candidly told reporters he, “felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me.”
He faced a hostile world stage. Even as World War II drew to a close, the Cold War was around the corner. The Soviet Union went from America’s uneasy ally to its number one adversary. Through shrewd diplomacy and military might, Joseph Stalin gained control of Eastern Europe, and soon cast an acquisitive eye toward the Balkans -- and beyond. Newly liberated from fascism, Europe’s future was again at risk, its freedom on the line.
Alarmed by the Soviets’ designs, Truman acted. In a speech before a joint session of Congress on March 12, 1947, he announced a policy of containment that became known as the “Truman Doctrine” -- a pledge that the United States would “support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”
In Saving Freedom, Joe Scarborough moves between events in Washington and those in Europe -- in Greece, where the U.S.-backed government was fighting a civil war with insurgent Communists, and in Turkey, where the Soviets pressed for control of the Dardanelles -- to analyze and understand the changing geopolitics that led Truman to deliver his momentous speech.
The Truman Doctrine has shaped U.S. foreign policy and America's role in the world for the last seven decades. It remained the country's strategic vision throughout the Cold War's entirety, and made the defeat of Soviet communism U.S. foreign policy makers' primary goal.
John Lewis Gaddis called the Truman Doctrine and the policies that flowed from it "an attempt, through political, economic, and later, military means, to achieve a goal largely psychological in nature: the creation of a state of mind among Europeans conducive to the revival of faith in democratic procedures."
The story of the passage of the Truman doctrine is an inspiring tale of American leadership, can-doism, bipartisan unity, and courage in the face of an antidemocratic threat. Saving Freedom highlights a pivotal moment of the Twentieth Century, a turning point where patriotic Americans worked together to defeat tyranny.
Excellent.
The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck ~ Mark Manson
I don’t read anymore I do audiobooks. But the last one I finished inhibitor phase by Alastair Reynolds. I’m a sci-fi super fan. Especially space opera
"What Would Jackie Do?"
I do have an autobiography lined up next it’s flea from the chilli peppers
This Kind of War: A Study in Unpreparedness by T.R. Fehrenbach
This classic history of the Korean War is a dramatic and hard-hitting account of the conflict written from the perspective of those who fought it. Partly drawn from official records, operations journals, and histories, it is based largely on the compelling personal narratives of the small-unit commanders and their troops. Unlike any other work on the Korean War, it provides both a clear panoramic overview and a sharply drawn "you were there" account of American troops in fierce combat against the North Korean and Chinese communist invaders. As Americans and North Koreans continue to face each other across the 38th Parallel, This Kind of War commemorates the past and offers vital lessons for the future.
"This Kind of War," said General Colin Powell, "has been studied by two generations of soldiers. Fehrenbach describes good decisions and bad ones with insight and expertise. But what he does best of all, and what is so memorable, is his eloquent, sometimes painful description of the GIs who must bear the burden of those decisions. That is the awful beauty of this book -- it cuts straight to the heart of all the political and military errors, and reveals the brave souls who have to bleed and die for mistakes made."
Citizen soldiers generally do not want war, but if a war is necessary, they prefer that it be for a great crusade, instead of a war for limited objectives. But because the world is full of tigers, legions are needed to hold the line on the frontier. "The lesson of Korea," concludes Fehrenbach, "is that it happened."
Excellent.
This classic history of the Korean War is a dramatic and hard-hitting account of the conflict written from the perspective of those who fought it. Partly drawn from official records, operations journals, and histories, it is based largely on the compelling personal narratives of the small-unit commanders and their troops. Unlike any other work on the Korean War, it provides both a clear panoramic overview and a sharply drawn "you were there" account of American troops in fierce combat against the North Korean and Chinese communist invaders. As Americans and North Koreans continue to face each other across the 38th Parallel, This Kind of War commemorates the past and offers vital lessons for the future.
"This Kind of War," said General Colin Powell, "has been studied by two generations of soldiers. Fehrenbach describes good decisions and bad ones with insight and expertise. But what he does best of all, and what is so memorable, is his eloquent, sometimes painful description of the GIs who must bear the burden of those decisions. That is the awful beauty of this book -- it cuts straight to the heart of all the political and military errors, and reveals the brave souls who have to bleed and die for mistakes made."
Citizen soldiers generally do not want war, but if a war is necessary, they prefer that it be for a great crusade, instead of a war for limited objectives. But because the world is full of tigers, legions are needed to hold the line on the frontier. "The lesson of Korea," concludes Fehrenbach, "is that it happened."
Excellent.
Gonna be honest, this one wouldnt be a page turner for me
Military history is definitely not everyone's thing.
"Becoming Michelle Mister Niceguy"
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Without Sanction by Don Bentley
After surviving a clandestine operation that went tragically wrong, Matt Drake escaped Syria with his life, but little else. Now, to save the life of another, he must return to Syria and confront his biggest failure.
Defense Intelligence Agency operative Matt Drake, a former U.S. Army Ranger, broke a promise. A promise that cost three people their lives and crippled his best friend. Three months later, he's paralyzed by survivor's guilt and haunted by the memories of the fallen. Matt may have left Syria, but Syria hasn't left him.
In the midst of his self-imposed exile, Matt is dragged back into the world of espionage and assets that he tried to forget. A Pakistani scientist working for an ISIS splinter cell has created a terrifying weapon of mass destruction. The scientist offers to defect with the weapon, but he trusts just one man to bring him out of Syria alive.
An excellent debut novel.
After surviving a clandestine operation that went tragically wrong, Matt Drake escaped Syria with his life, but little else. Now, to save the life of another, he must return to Syria and confront his biggest failure.
Defense Intelligence Agency operative Matt Drake, a former U.S. Army Ranger, broke a promise. A promise that cost three people their lives and crippled his best friend. Three months later, he's paralyzed by survivor's guilt and haunted by the memories of the fallen. Matt may have left Syria, but Syria hasn't left him.
In the midst of his self-imposed exile, Matt is dragged back into the world of espionage and assets that he tried to forget. A Pakistani scientist working for an ISIS splinter cell has created a terrifying weapon of mass destruction. The scientist offers to defect with the weapon, but he trusts just one man to bring him out of Syria alive.
An excellent debut novel.
Calling Me Hone by Julie Kibler
" Sandy Hook" by Elizabeth Williamson
It's not about the day of the shooting.Its about the horror the families went through for years because smellynews, A. Jones amd his "truhers' nutjobs declared the shooting as fake. It's a well researched but not a easy one to read
It's not about the day of the shooting.Its about the horror the families went through for years because smellynews, A. Jones amd his "truhers' nutjobs declared the shooting as fake. It's a well researched but not a easy one to read
