Any good suggestions for non fiction books?

I just wrapped up "Endurance" Shackletons incredible voyage. And damn I couldn't put that book down.

Also "A wolf named Romeo" was an interesting read.

And right now I'm trying to finish up American Kingpin.

Reading Binge in full effect.

I just got back from vaca in New Orleans and bought some super hot sauce named "Jean Laffite Ghost Pepper hot sauce" and you see the name Jean Laffite all over the place there. So after googlin' some and reading about the privateer and learned that he saved the US in the War of 1812. So wanted to read about the history of the Battle of New Orleans and ordered this book from amazon:

Patriotic Fire: Andrew Jackson and Jean Laffite at the Battle of New Orleans Paperback - May 8, 2007
by Winston Groom

Reading the free part from amazon and it looks interesting. Same author who wrote Forrest Gump.

I found these old paperback Louis L'Amour "Sackett" series books laying around and got kind of sucked in-

They are old western fiction/historical fiction and are great lunch break easy reads.



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I troll 2L.com to be a better person in real life

"How to Shit in the Woods", 3rd edition. who knew someone could write 109 pages on this subject.

Some recent reads:

If you like your Shackleton read or other sea related:

Twenty Years Before the Mast, Charles Erskine

Two Years on the Alabama, Arthur Sinclair

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, Nathaniel Philbrick

The Voodoo Wave: Inside a Season of Triumph and Tumult at Maverick's - Mark Kreidler

Surfing and Health - Doc Paskowitz

 

Non-sea related:

I like anything by Jeffery Toobin, I think I've read all of his books - recently American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst (I'm old enough to remember who she is)  Jon Krakauer has some pretty good books as well.

 

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Even a blind hog finds an occasional acorn

There's supposed to be a book coming out written by Robert O'Neill and his journey to shooting bin laden. I might pick that one up

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I type on fone 99% of time. Let the typos slyde. Thanks

I loved the Shackleton book as well. Looking into one called Red Notice.
I saw author Bill Browder on CNN last weekend, talking about all the organized crime in Russia and how it's made Vladimir Putin the wealthiest man in the world.

Down for a little surgery, wanted an easy reader,

so binged the entire Expanse (James Corey) series.  

Good fun!

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add a signature since I'm here in profile anyway

could be a good time to re-visit:

 

http://www.2ndlight.com/fusetalk/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=3&threadid=143985&highlight_key=y&keyword1=books

Devotion, by Adam Makos. If you love military history this is a must-read. An amazing story of the Navy's first black carrier pilot who went to war for a nation that wouldnt even serve him in a bar. Packed with unbelievable acts of heroism, centered around a friendship between a white kid from New England and the son of an African American sharecropper. With some side-stories so amazing you would swear this was created in a Hollywood studio. Dont remember how many times I said "wow!" out loud while finishing the last chapter. Gotta be brought to the big screen soon. You wont be able to put it down...

I picked up this book after your post and it was excellent!! Thanks for the recommending it I have read one other Military History called Pathfinder about the Vietnam war and it was great also.

Keep em coming.

Awesome! Stoked you liked it. I really enjoyed the way the story would go back and forth between the foot soldiers on the ground and the pilots. A lifelong buddy of mines dad was one of those Marines on the ground freezing his ass off fighting the "white coats". Mr Witt, who was my little league coach, earned a Silver Star and a Purple Heart for taking out an enemy machine gun placement that had his unit dialed in and pinned down. Pretty much single handedly saved their bacon. Decided, you guys hang here I'm gonna go sneak up on them and take em out. Bravado or survival instinct? Kinder most humble man I have ever met...I am going to check out Pathfinder.

Something that I've already read, but occasionally revisit...

Reprieve From Hell
by Samuel B. Moody


Sam Moody has recorded in faithful detail the harrowing account of his experiences
as a Prisoner of War of the Japanese Government from the surrender of Bataan until
the Japanese surrender in 1945


Kind of had a personal interest for me ...
... Sam Moody and my father were POW's and
were both survivors of the Bataan Death March.
Very late in my life my father talked of his POW days, but not
near in depth as the book. I also got to meet and speak with Sam Moody.


Very well written and with pictures.
I have two copies...one signed by Sam Moody.







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Puerto Rico 11 - 24 - 2013

Just finishing up 'In search of Captain Zero' and looking for recommendations for something new to break up the monotony of GIS for environmental management books.

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Specializing in sarcasm and condescending rhetoric since 1971.

Just ordered Quota by Jock Serong.  He's a formidable middle-aged lawyer, surfer, and now writer from Victoria, Australia.  

Cat Wars.  

I have some Randy Wayne White books if you, or anyone on here wants to take a look let me know, Mangrove Coast, Captiva, Everglades. Also have Carl Hiaasen, Nature Girl & Tim Dorsey, Florida Roadkill. They are fiction books, based on Florida locations. They're just collecting dust over here so let me know.

I'm all caught up on Carl's books. I've read the first 10 books from Tim Dorsey's Serge Storm series and they're ok, but I just don't get into it as much as Hiassan books. Somebody else recommended Randy Wayne White, never read him, but think I'll give it a shot. thanks.

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Specializing in sarcasm and condescending rhetoric since 1971.

If you liked Captain Zero, you'd probably enjoy Cosmic Banditos. I did!

I went ahead and ordered it on Amazon. For some reason neither of the those books are available for my Kendall.

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Specializing in sarcasm and condescending rhetoric since 1971.

I read that a while ago, great read. The follow up 'collapse' is pretty interesting too; kind of prophetic in a sense.

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Specializing in sarcasm and condescending rhetoric since 1971.

The Saxon Stories, Bernard Cornwell. Ten novels and supposedly another coming. Screened as two seasons of The Last Kingdom; check your Netflix.

Bernard Cornwell, one of my favorites.

I'm reading the original printings of Sherlock Holmes. I'm not sure why it's taken forty years to get to them; great stuff.

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I was right.

Cole did you ever read that book I recommended, Tales of Hooker and her Madame?

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Specializing in sarcasm and condescending rhetoric since 1971.

Just picked up a copy today. Will let you know.

Also got a copy of James Clapper's book, "Facts and Fears: Hard Truths from a Life in Intelligence." Didn't realize it until I cracked the book, but Clapper lived in Satellite Beach when he was director of AFTAC in the 1980's.

Off topic, fiction, but I'm enjoying The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. ( Neal Stephenson & Nicole Galland)
Time travel, quantum reality, witches & magic.

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"The truth is incontrovertible.
malice may attack it,
ignorance may deride it,
but in the end,
there it is." -Sir Winston Churchill

Shantaram. Its the autobiography of an Australian fugitive living in India. Very entertaining. I felt like I was in India.

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"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.

Just finished this book. Great read if you're into this kind of topic.

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Specializing in sarcasm and condescending rhetoric since 1971.

I read the Swamp awhile ago. It doesn't seem like much has changed, but it is interesting.

I'm reading Robinson Crusoe. The centuries old lingo has taken some getting used to.



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I was right.

Grunwald's book is a classic.  I'd be happy to pass my copy on to an eager reader.

Also accidentally got an extra copy of "Board," David Flangan's account of taking up surfing when approaching 40 in Orkney.  

I agree about Gruwald - not much changes here. I think you told me about the Flanagan book when Marc and I were in the UK last , and I still haven't read it, so if you want to pass that one along I'd appreciate it. I'm reading Al Franken's new book - it's good so far. Also reading a couple of graphic novels (Birthright series) and Meddling Kids (which is a dark continuation/expansion of the Scooby Doo cartoons ). For more non-fiction, I just got done reading White Trash: the 400 year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg. It's a good history. I don't recommend Hillbilly Elegy, though - Vance falls into too many of the same traps he criticizes, and doesn't reflect enough about them. For work I'm reading How Games Move Us: Emotion by Design by Katherine Isbister - if you're interested in games and narrative, it's a good primer on immersive game experiences and how they culturally change us.

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[Feminism is] a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians. ~Pat Robertson

Oops.  David Flanagan.  The normal spelling.  PM or go via FB; will arrange delivery.  

Princeton University Press is promoting a graphic novel on the beginnings of modern philosophy.  It comes with a book trailer!  

Princeton has a new director, filched from Chicago.  PUP amazes me.  Hope they keep up the good work.  

 

Patriotic Fire: Andrew Jackson and Jean Laffite at the Battle of New Orleans

Book delivered a few days ago. So far an enjoyable read. War of 1812...so clueless on it...but wow. Epic American story. The author is a pretty good writer.

I'm going to get this book and read it:
Woolly: The true story of the Quest to revive one of history's most iconic extinct creatures by Ben Mezrich

Ben also wrote Once Upon a Time in Russia, the 37th Parallel, and Bringing Down the House (they made the movie "21" from it)

"Ben Mezrich takes us on an exhilarating true adventure story from the icy terrain of Siberia to the cutting-edge genetic labs of Harvard University. A group of young scientists, under the guidance of Dr. George Church, the most brilliant geneticist of our time, works to make fantasy reality by sequencing the DNA of a frozen woolly mammoth harvested from above the Arctic circle, and splicing elements of that sequence into the DNA of a modern elephant. Will they be able to turn the hybrid cells into a functional embryo and bring the extinct creatures to life in our modern world?

Along with Church and his team of Harvard scientists, a world-famous conservationist and a genius Russian scientist plan to turn a tract of the Siberian tundra into Pleistocene Park, populating the permafrost with ancient herbivores as a hedge against an environmental ticking time bomb. More than a story of genetics, this is a thriller illuminating the race against global warming, the incredible power of modern technology, the brave fossil hunters who battle polar bears and extreme weather conditions, and the ethical quandary of cloning extinct animals. Can we right the wrongs of our ancestors who hunted the woolly mammoth to extinction - and at what cost?"

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GOP:

Gaslight
Obstruct
Project

Fire and Fury - a couple of tidbits but overall not a good read.

Big Bass Magic - Doug Hannon, outstanding.

John D. Macdonald’s Travis Magee series is pretty good; the main character lives on a houseboat in SE FL.  There were 21 written from ‘66-‘85.

Guns germs and steel.

It changed my entire perspective about how and why Europeans seemed to be more advanced. Truly enlightening.

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"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.

Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS and Modern American Espionage


I can't put it down, the story is fast moving, historically fascinating, and very "American".

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“It is the heart of US policy to use fascism to preserve capitalism while claiming to be saving democracy from communism “ - Michael Parenti

I just pulled out Tom Robbins - " Still Life With Woodpecker" for a reread

IMO, Robbins is one of the greatest wordsmiths of the 20th century

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"Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do." - Bertrand Russell


"Morality is doing what is right, regardless of what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, regardless of what is right.


If I do not answer you .... nothing personal, I just have you on ignore.

Just completed a quick trip to Europe - only thing worthwhile of two days of Delta was some reading time.  Completed:

The Last Fighter Pilot - The True Story of the Final Combat Mission of WWII - Don Brown with Captain Jerry Yellin.  Yellin recently passed, reading about what the greatest generation did for us during WWII makes my couch potato life seem very pathetic.

Also read 

Barbarian Days A Surfing Life - William Finnegan.  Some of the best description of wave riding I have read.

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Even a blind hog finds an occasional acorn

Just arrived,
"Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past" by David Reich.  Looks like a bit of a slog.  Interesting and informed, but sloggy.

For biology, on a January trip I read Neil Shubin's "Your Inner Fish: A journey into the 3.5 billion-year history of the human body."  It's a delight.  

Just arrived,
"Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past" by David Reich.  Looks like a bit of a slog.  Interesting and informed, but sloggy.

For biology, on a January trip I read Neil Shubin's "Your Inner Fish: A journey into the 3.5 billion-year history of the human body."  It's a delight.  

Now reading Ursula K. LeGuin's Conversations on Writing. Very good.

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[Feminism is] a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians. ~Pat Robertson

Now reading Ursula K. LeGuin's Conversations on Writing. Very good.

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[Feminism is] a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians. ~Pat Robertson

Best State Ever....A Florida Man Defends His Homeland.- Dave Barry

I laughed so hard, it literally made me cry.

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Specializing in sarcasm and condescending rhetoric since 1971.

My Cross to Bear - Gregg Allman Bio, excellent.

Amazon spammed me with some international author free books right before I went to costa on vacation.  I picked up "A River in darkness" about a Japanese kid who went to N.K and lived through hell to make it back to Japan as an old man.  Very interesting look at that reality.  I also downloaded a book called "The great passage" about a japanese encyclopedia being written.  Both interesting as my basic reading is total engineering theory.

The Pope of Palm Beach by Tim Dorsey.

Dorsey is Hiaasen unhinged.

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I was right.

I've been reading Dorsey too. Just finished The big bamboo. He definitely knows Florida history, but the Serge Storm stories can be a little cheesy.

Just downloaded 'Big Trouble' by Dave Barry for my read today; 6 hour purge on a well today, this should help.

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Specializing in sarcasm and condescending rhetoric since 1971.

Timothy Egan, "The Big Burn."    Page turner, and also required reading.

A wild surfing thriller that takes place in Brevard: My Twisted Summer.

Available at lulu.com

And, same writer, new eccentric book, Blueberries and Coffee.

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www.mytwistedsummer.wordpress.com

I judged a book by the cover and it turned out to be a great read. Very insightful with his unique approach to life.

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Specializing in sarcasm and condescending rhetoric since 1971.

Just finished Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. Short. Brilliant. Timeless.

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"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.

Tolstoy. War and Peace. Again. Its better now that I am old.

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"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.