Free Republic Book Club, 2/24/05

Tanniker Smith

[Tanniker Smith]

Welcome to the Free Republic Book Club.

It was suggested a couple of days ago, in the FReeper's Book Rockets Up Amazon After Ingraham Show! thread (somewhere toward the end) that it would be great if there FR Book Club. Somehow, I think I got nominated to start one. I don't really know how to do that other than just to go ahead and do it. So I am -- please, feel free to point out mistakes, or point out how to make a "ping" list for folks that want to be a part of this.

Anyway, if there are no complaints, I think it would be better to have a Book Club rather than a Conservative Book Club (or a Republican Book Club or a Libertarian Book Club, etc). Yes, let's focus on the bounty of conservative books that we didn't have even a dozen years ago, but if anyone wants to occasionally talk about a mystery or SF book, it won't be off topic (unless The Powers That Be decide that it is, at least at FR). I don't know about anyone else, but the majority of my reading is composed of other stuff, as can be seen on this thread: Books Read in 2004 (Read Any Good Books Lately?)

Other than that, I have only one ground rule: judge (or slam) the books themselves, not the authors. The latter is way too easy, and beside the point. Likewise, I know the opinions folks have of Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly, but please separate the books from the people, particularly if you haven't read them.

So what should we discuss first?

[Teacher317]

I heartily suggest America's 30 Years War, by Balint Vaszonyi

He was a concert pianist (recently deceased) who came to America and noticed the similarities between the Progressive movement and the early days of Soviet Communism. He also is very diplomatic and fair about how the subtlest of differences in the original philosophies of the Left and Right make such huge differences when they are carried out to their logical conclusions.

[Freedom with Responsibility]

Add me to the PING list, please.

[sarasota]

Please add me to the ping list and thanks.

[Physicist]

Bibliopath ping.

[Physicist]

Recently read:

• Before the Fact by Francis Iles
• Trent's Last Case by E.C. Bentley
• The House of the Arrow by A.E.W. Mason

All three of the above are collected in an omnibus edition Three Famous Murder Novels, published by Modern Library. All three novels were good, but the first one made the biggest impression on me.

Currently reading: Standing Next to History by Joseph Petro.

[Xenalyte]

Right now in my bag:

Fowler's Modern English Usage, the 1957 edition (an amazing read for the grammar wonk)

How to Talk to a Liberal (already read, but it's good for five-minute fixes when I need a break from work)

The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Highly recommended - romance, mystery, thrills, plot twists. I do not recommend fiction lightly, and I say check it out.

[Tax-chick]

"Knowledge and Decisions" by Thomas Sowell, America's greatest living intellectual

"Home-Alone America" by Mary Eberstadt

"Hating Whitey" by David Horowitz
and a thank you to *Do not dub me shapka broham* for talking up Horowitz, and I also have "Destructive Generation" out of the library.

I was halfway through "Mr. Midshipman Hornblower" by C.S. Forester, when my husband snarfed it,

and I've got "The Dragons of Expectation," by Robert Conquest (author of "Harvest of Sorrow") in the pile.

[Tax-chick]

Library ping

[Citizen Soldier]

Have you or anyone read a book by DeMille (Plum Island author) called "Night Fall" ? I heard an interview with him on Savage yesterday and it is based on the TWA800 crash where he looked into the details and made it into a novel. It sounds reaaly good as I never thought it was a faulty wire but a terrorist attack. I am 117 on the waiting list at our library.

[Tax-chick]

"Tyrone Martin's, "A Most Fortunate SHip", about the USS Constitution. "

Library ping with the book in it.

[Physicist]

Right on, girl! For instance... I've just read Cormac McCarthy's "Cities of the Plain," and found it breathtaking. Anyone want to talk about it?

I love McCarthy. Cities of the Plain was good, but the best of the trilogy was The Crossing, IMHO.

Also IMHO, Blood Meridian is on a completely different level from anything in the Border Trilogy. It's just a masterpiece.

[SouthParkRepublican]

Great idea! Please add me to the ping list. Thanks.

[Galactic Overlord-In-Chief]

I haven't read Men in Black yet, but I'm thinking about buying a few copies and giving them for gifts. Would the average non-political person like it for a birthday or St. Patrick's Day gift?

Sure. The book is very clear for political novices, for anyone who has a basic understanding of American history. Even I, who is very interested in politics, learned a lot.

[Galactic Overlord-In-Chief]

I'm interested in any FReeper fiction writers. :-)

Well, hop on over to my Free Republic homepage. I've got my latest release featured there. :)

[baseballmom]

Please add me to your ping list.

[RadioAstronomer]

I just finished "The Perfect Machine". :-)

[pocat]

Hey Travis! My wife just started reading EFAD. We talked about the story for about an hour tonight after I got home from work. She asked me what kind of gun the "T.C." is...

Hmmm...Do I see another gun purchase developing?

[Burn24]

I'm now reading "Blood Meridian" and am finding it somewhat horrifying - have just covered the Indian massacre. But I can't put it down. Somehow it's clean in its brutality.

[mamalujo]

Just finished Huxley's Brave New World
Today I started C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet

(a homeschool Mom that never read these in school so I am reading them with my sons).

[hollyberry53]

Patrick O'Brian is a lifelong addiction. Next summer I will start my third read through. If I live to be a hundred and can still see, it will still be on my reading list. Just finished "Over the Edge of the World" by Laurence Bergreen, about Magellan's Circumnavigation. Very good.
Other great reads: Natan Sharansky's "The Case for Democracy"
Tommy Franks "American Soldier"