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Posted on 10/03/2011 7:39:10 AM PDT by MplsSteve
Re-reading “The First Chronicles of Amber” and “The Second Chronicles of Amber” by Roger Zelazny.
When did Reston start writing for the Times?
I have probably posted most of his output for the period October 1939 through November 1940, when he was covering WWII from London. He submitted many stories about the blitz and other war-related topics. Then he returned to Washington and pretty much dropped off the WWII +70 Years radar. I see his name as I scroll through the pages so I know he was still a full time writer for the Times but I tend to only pick up articles with Washington datelines when they are the day’s lead article. Reston as avoided writing lead articles for some reason.
I have his articles indexed on my profile if you care to check it out. The index takes up about the bottom 98% of the profile and the authors are listed alphabetically.
Atlas Shrugged.
Recently read the Hunger Games trilogy and One Second After.
I just finished that a few days ago! I was going to read all of the Barchester Chronicles (they, and all the Palliser novels, are available for free kindle download at Amazon) but after suffering through the atrocious Doctor Thorne , I gave up on that idea. (How can someone who wrote books as good as BT, The Way we Live Now, and even The Warden write something so horrid?) So I am going through Page Smith’s 8 volume history again (the first 3-4 books are pretty good IIRC) and Can You Forgive Her? , the first book in the Palliser series. I hope it’s better than Doctor Thorne, and there’s no way it can be worse.
How far along are you?
The Audible version comes in seven packets or books. I’m about halfway through book six.
And what do you think of it?
My first Malcolm Gladwell book was “blink”, which I found very interresting; if you liked Outliers and the Tipping Point, you should probably check out “Blink” if you haven’t read it already.
Dean Koontz’s “From the Corner of His Eye.”
If you’d asked me last week I could have said, “In My Time,” by Dick Cheney. It’s an excellent book, by the way, HIGHLY recommended. You’ll learn some super interesting stuff. I took a lot of time and wrote a review and posted it at Amazon. They rejected it! I cannot for the life of me figure out why since they let obvious idiots who haven’t read the book post reviews. But as someone who has actually read the book and can speak about what’s in it..... go figure. I’d post it here but it’s on my other computer.
I LOVED Lost Boys and just finished the one about the guy going way back in time, the one that is about Sleeping Beauty. That was just pretty good. I just discovered Orson Scott Card, where has he been all my life?
Should I read the Ender series?
The Founding Foodies: How Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin Revolutionized American Cuisine by Dave Dewitt
The Paper Garden: An Artist Begins Her Life’s Work at 72 by Molly Peacock
Psalms from the Orthodox Study Bible
Well, I can only say that I loved it. The series fascinated me in two main ways: (1) Card excels at putting his characters in the midst of impossible (yet realistic) dilemmas, where pretty much any choice leads to a bad result. He takes us through the reasoning processes by which the characters finally make their imperfect choices. IMO he represents well the fallen nature of humanity and how this affects their choices. (2) Card has a good, realistic grasp of geopolitics (the "Bean" branch of the series takes place here on Earth).
Reston started writing for the NYTimes shortly before WWII. He was covering sports in the UK, since he was originally a sportswriter, but switched when WWII began.
In the early 50s, he was promoted to head of the Washington bureau, so he spent a lot of his time supervising the team of reporters. The work that involved hanging out with presidents, secretaries of state, and such, he did himself. He covered Eisenhower, JFK, Johnson, and Nixon.
He did well for a man who arrived at age 12 as a poor immigrant from Scotland.
I just got to page 900 (out of 1100+). I'm one of those folks who ususally reads a few minutes before I go to sleep, so it's taken me several months to get this far.
I'm amazed that Ayn Rand wrote this book more than 50 years ago and it describes pretty well what's happening in the USA today.
Same reaction I’m having.
Will try to say this without giving anything away to you (if you are behind me) or anyone else here who hasn’t read the book.
I’m at the point where the people running the country have scheduled a very important radio/TV announcement but something goes wrong. (Not the radio interview with Dagny earlier in the book.)
I listen to the book while I’m running every other day, so it’s taken me a few months as well.
I'm a slow reader.
The Collapse of the Third Republic: An Inquiry into the Fall of France in 1940 by William Shirer. The fellow who wrote Rise and Fall of the Third Reich examines what happened in France to make the fall of that country to the Wehrmacht so different from the heroism of Verdun. I'm finding it rather disturbing, actually.
Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 and Legends of the Mouse Guard - cute stuff, very lightweight but well-drawn. Anthropomorphic mice with tiny swords and derring-do. Just enough tongue-in-cheek to avoid a sugary overdose.
I just advance-ordered Paul Johnson's Socrates - kind of excited about that one. Can't wait.
“Hitler’s Generals”, a compendium edited by Corelli Barnett.
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