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Any Great Books?
July 25, 2008 | Stephanie32

Posted on 07/25/2008 3:01:11 PM PDT by Stephanie32

(My first thread, hope I'm doing this right!)


TOPICS: Books/Literature; Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: bookclub; bookreview; books; firstthread; godsgravesglyphs; readinglist
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Does anyone have any recommendations for any really great books that you've really enjoyed lately? Fiction or nonfiction. I would start but nothing I've read lately thrilled me that much.
1 posted on 07/25/2008 3:01:12 PM PDT by Stephanie32
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To: Stephanie32
The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
2 posted on 07/25/2008 3:02:21 PM PDT by Old Sarge (CTHULHU '08 - I won't settle for a lesser evil any longer!)
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To: Stephanie32

The one book I think every American should read is the Pulitzer Prize winning book, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll


3 posted on 07/25/2008 3:07:04 PM PDT by PajamaTruthMafia
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To: Stephanie32
The only book you'll ever need to read in your lifetime
4 posted on 07/25/2008 3:08:09 PM PDT by Daffynition
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To: Stephanie32

The Aubrey/Maturin series, by Richard O’Brian.
It will consume your life until you finish it. Seriously.


5 posted on 07/25/2008 3:08:09 PM PDT by LongElegantLegs (We are all humans, and humans poo.)
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To: Stephanie32

Gideon’s Spies- The secret history of the Mossad by Gordon Thomas

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Time and Again by Jack Finney

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand


6 posted on 07/25/2008 3:09:32 PM PDT by Kimmers (Take all the sh** out Obama, and you are left with hairy shoes)
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To: Stephanie32
The Doorbell Rang or Some Buried Caesar-- Rex Stout

Pope Pius VII -- Robin Anderson (www.tanbooks.com)

The Omnivore's Dilemma -- Michael Pollan (yeah, he's a lib, but the book is well-written)

Why the Democrats are Blue -- Mark Stricherz (not a great read, but covers an underreported epoch)

Martin Chuzzlewit -- Charles Dickens (very underrated book)

My Grandfather's Son -- Clarence Thomas (a must read)


7 posted on 07/25/2008 3:10:21 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics)
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To: Stephanie32

The Living Lincoln, Angle & Miers


8 posted on 07/25/2008 3:10:41 PM PDT by mdittmar (May God watch over those who serve,and have served,to keep us free)
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To: Stephanie32

In keeping with the recent Canteen threads on the Berlin Airlift, I’ll recommend Armageddon, by Leon Uris.


9 posted on 07/25/2008 3:12:36 PM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: Stephanie32
The Diaries of Adam and Eve: As Interpreted by Mark Twain by Mark Twain.

It's a really fast read, but it's incredibly touching and laugh-out-loud funny. The notes in the back indicate it's Twain's love letter to his wife.

10 posted on 07/25/2008 3:14:51 PM PDT by Melpomene
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To: Stephanie32
War and Peace, Pride and Prejudice, Lord of the Flies, Moby Dick, Thucydides' The Peloponnesian War, a number of Shakespeare's plays and the sonnets, William Faulkner's Absalom! Absalom!, Les Miseables, The Brothers Karamazov--if anybody's missed these, you're in for a wonderful experience.
11 posted on 07/25/2008 3:15:17 PM PDT by Savage Beast ("Some people are born knowing, and some people will die searching." -Antonio Banderas)
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To: Stephanie32

If you want to feel better about yourself, read “My Life: In and Out of the Rough”... by golfer John Daly! :-)

Pillars of the Earth is excellent, as is the sequel, “World Without End”.... but, both books are also “without end”... clocking in at 1000 pages EACH!

If you want a thrill... try the series of books written by Vince Flynn that starts with, “Term Limits”. Now, THERE’s some good reading!

Have fun..


12 posted on 07/25/2008 3:16:37 PM PDT by SomeCallMeTim ( When you find yourself going through Hell, keep going!)
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To: Stephanie32

My Grandfather’s Son by Clarence Thomas was an excellent read.


13 posted on 07/25/2008 3:18:56 PM PDT by ConservaTexan (February 6, 1911)
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To: Stephanie32
Oh, and Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides. It's about the Army Ranger's first mission -- to rescue the POWs from the Bataan Death March. I'm not a non-fiction reader, but I could not put this book down. It's a great story. It was a pretty good movie, too; but the book was fantastic.
14 posted on 07/25/2008 3:19:42 PM PDT by Melpomene
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To: Stephanie32

You’re doing well. ‘Great’ is in the mind of the reader.

If you like baseball. Just finished an oldie Summer of ‘49 about the Yankee - Red Sox rivalry. If you are a young ‘un the names will not be familiar!

You will probably get a lot of suggestions. We are very good here at giving advice here. {;-) PS It will be good.


15 posted on 07/25/2008 3:20:29 PM PDT by ex-snook ("Above all things, truth beareth away the victory.")
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To: Stephanie32
Atlas Shrugged - The first 50 or so pages are boring, but it gets better. If you've paid attention to what you have read, you can skip over most of John Galt's VERY LONG rambling monologue. You'll know it when you get to it. Here is a small excerpt ;

Men who have no courage, pride or self-esteem, men who have no moral sense of their right to their money and are not willing to defend it defend their life, men who apologize for being rich -- will not remain rich for long. They are the natural bait for the swarms of looters who stay under the rocks for centuries, but come crawling out at the first smell of a man who begs to be forgiven for the guilt of owning wealth. They will hasten to relieve him of the guilt - and of his life, as he deserves.”

“Then you will see the rise of the men of the double standard - the men who live by force, yet count on those who live by trade to create the value of their looted money -- the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you against them. But when a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law --men who use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims -- then money becomes its creators’ avenger. Such looters believe it is safe to rob defenseless men, once they have passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes on, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter.”

“Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors -when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honest becoming self sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed. “
By the character Francisco d’ Anaconia in Ayn Rand’s book Atlas Shrugged


16 posted on 07/25/2008 3:21:11 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (G-d is not a Republican. But Satan is definitely a Democrat.)
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To: Stephanie32; Amelia
Oh yeah! 1984 and Animal Farm! (Thanks, Amelia!)
17 posted on 07/25/2008 3:21:26 PM PDT by Savage Beast ("Some people are born knowing, and some people will die searching." -Antonio Banderas)
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To: Stephanie32
PhotobucketPhotobucket

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18 posted on 07/25/2008 3:22:36 PM PDT by martin_fierro (FREE LAZZY, YOU BASTARDS!)
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To: Dr. Sivana

From a conservative perspective the must read book is “America Alone” by Mark Steyn. Does an excellent job of desribing the nature of the Isamic threat and the unique and civilization saving role of the USA.


19 posted on 07/25/2008 3:23:45 PM PDT by Maneesh
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To: Stephanie32
The Federalist Papers, by A. Hamilton, John Jay, and John Adams, under the pseudonym “Publius”.

They were written to sell the Constitution to the public. They argued a strong central government was good for trade and national defense.

They're part of our national history and used in Supreme Court decisions.

20 posted on 07/25/2008 3:24:38 PM PDT by Forgiven_Sinner (For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son that whosoever believes in Him should not die)
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