What are you reading at the moment?

[Bebeslut]

stranger in a strange land

 

[Verdad]

The Making of the Slavs by Florin Curta. Interesting material, exceptionally dull presentation. I'm crawling through it half-heartedly.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Re-reading THE ART OF CLEAR THINKING by Rudolf Flesch.

Its an old timer from 1951. Flesch explores many of the combinations and permutations of thought, and explains how many of our public institutions work in practice, based on the institutional thinking.

For example, juries exist to hold judges harmless from political penalties for bad verdicts. I mean, no one blamed Judge Ito for the OJ verdict.

Argument and debate are futile cuz all beliefs are based on individual experience, and you really cant walk a mile in another person's sneakers. Empathy is sentimental and charming myth. This is an idea Goethe laid and hatched.

The problem solving chapter is interesting.

Logic really boils down to 2 considerations: SO WHAT? and GIMME AN EXAMPLE.

 

[SeaCat]

Right now I'm reading "Duel for the Golan" by Jerry Asher.

I just finished reading "Crosshairs on the Kill Zone" by Craig roberts.

Next on my list is "The Cruelest Miles" by Gay Salisbury. (A history of the Vacine run that inspired the Iditarod Dog Sled Race.)

Cat

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I'm re-reading COGAN'S TRADE by George V. Higgins.

Three ex-cons plan a caper to rip-off the local mob. The writing is sublime, and the pages fly. Elmore Leonard says he thought he knew how to write till he read Higgins. I agree; Higgins style makes more popular writers 'also-rans.'

 

[trysail]

...This sort of cruelty is a problem in any narrative about American Indians, because Americans like to think of their native aboriginals as in some ways heroic or noble. Indians were, in fact, heroic and noble in many ways, especially in defense of their families. Yet in the moral universe of the West— in spite of our own rich tradition of torture, which includes officially sanctioned torments in Counter-Reformation Europe and sovereign regimes such as that of Peter the Great in Russia— a person who tortures or rapes another person or who steals another person's child and then sells him cannot possibly be seen that way...

...Such behavior was common to all Indians in the Americas. The more civilized agrarian tribes of the east, in fact, were far more adept at devising lengthy and agonizing tortures than the Comanches or other plains tribes. The difference lay in the Plains Indians' treatment of female captives and victims. Rape or abuse, including maiming, of females had existed when eastern tribes had sold captives as slaves in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But that practice had long ago been abandoned. Some tribes, including the Iroquois federation, had never treated women captives that way. Women could be killed, and scalped. But not gang-raped. What happened to the Parker captives could only have happened west of the Mississippi. If the Comanches were better known for cruelty and violence, that was because, as one of history's great warring peoples, they were in a position to inflict far more pain than they ever received...

...But the Indians did not fight that way— not by choice, anyway. They did not advance in regimental ranks across open fields. They never took a direct charge, scattering and disappearing whenever one was made. They never attacked an armed fort. They relished surprise, insisted on tactical advantage. They would attack whole villages and burn them, raping, torturing, and killing their inhabitants, leaving young women with their entrails carved out, men burned alive; they skewered infants and took young boys and girls as captives... Torture of survivors was the norm, as it was all across the plains...

​

-S. C. Gwynne
Empire of The Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
New York, N.Y. 2010.





I've read a fair portion of the "modern" revisionist, aboriginal-centric histories spawned by Dee Brown's Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, but I'd never run across much mention of the Comanches before. Sure, there were brief mentions of them but mainly in passing. At the risk of revealing a LEast Coast orientation, I always associated "Plains Indians" with the Lakotas, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Blackfeet, Kiowas, Crows, Utes, Dakotas, Pawnees, et al. I'm embarrassed to admit that it never occured to me that Plains Indians inhabited West Texas. I always thought of the southwest as the home of the Apaches and the Navajo. For some reason, I'd gotten an impression that the word Comanche described a variegated, mixed race band of native Americans, mestizos, and whites. Nothing could be further from the truth. This book was an eye-opener. The amazing saga of the Parker family and the origin of the Texas Rangers is a bonus.

S. C. Gwynne is a new author to me. I'd never seen his name before. He writes well and tells a good story.

 

[PennLady]

Just finished "Imitation in Death" and "Purity in Death" by JD Robb (aka Nora Roberts). On the Kindle I have "Romance Island" by Zora somebody...an older book, I think. In the wings, "King of the City" by Michael Moorcock.

 

[trysail]

http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=agxZytQ9LtzA

Muslim Pirates Sold a Million Europeans as Slaves
Book review by Lewis Lapham

March 26 (Bloomberg) -- On Aug. 4, 1639, William Okeley sailed from the Isle of Wight on the Mary, bound for South America. He was captured by pirates and taken to Algiers, where he was paraded in front of the pasha, Yusuf II, before being sold at the slave market...

...Okeley had a lot to fear. Christians were sometimes tortured to force a conversion to Islam, males could be raped, and punishment was appalling. One slave had his arms and legs broken with a sledgehammer, another was thrown from a high wall onto a meat hook and left to die, while another was dragged naked through the streets, his ankles tied to a horse’s tail.

In the 17th century, more than a million Europeans were sold into slavery on the Barbary Coast. Okeley was one of the very few who, after years in captivity, managed to escape and make it back to England...


more...

 

[sethp]

"Washington...a life" and"The Power"

 

[sr71plt]

Greg Iles's Turning Angel--bought at a signing in Natchez when I was visiting there in the fall. I'm not sure about it. It's written in present tense. Not sure how much of that I can take.

 

[SanctaPeccatrix]

1.Blowback~Brad Thor

2. The Cook's Herb Garden~No idea, cause I'm a bit too lazy to pick it up and see who wrote it.

3. Paris in a Basket~see #2


*Since it's 21 days before my wedding I'm all about "lighter" reading.*

 

[SlickTony]

Re-reading John D. MacDonald's Condominium which I do every few years.

I live in Florida. I've lived in hurricane country all my life.

Lit's html code is case-sensitive? Who knew? And when did this begin?

 

[SeaCat]

"Steel Boat, Iron Hearts" by Hans Goebeler.

Cat

 

[LettersFromTatyana]

For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History, by Sarah Rose.

I'm a total sucker for any "how a random commodity changed the world" book. Salt, Cod, The Tulip, The Botany of Desire... the stranger the good(s), the more I love it.

 

[spookshowxbaby]

Currently, I'm struggling through Paradise Lost by John Milton for one of my classes. When I have time (which isn't often with 18 credit hours this semester), I pick up City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare or Stephen King's Full Dark, No Stars. I'm really ready for summer to be here so I can get to my fun reading.

 

[CountCunninglvr]

Antichrist by Frederick Nietzche

 

[plusquamperfekt]

"Quantum Consciousness" by Stephen Wolinsky.

"I Am That" - Conversations with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

 

[trysail]

Zong

For those from the more egalitarian societies of the United States, Denmark, Iceland, and Australia, it can be hard to comprehend how hierarchical many business cultures are. If you are used to getting in the front of a cab and calling your driver "mate," it may seem absurd, if not downright wrong, that such a straightforward approach to others of all backgrounds is not universal. But respect comes in many different forms. In China it means knowing someone's title and deferring to their rank. You do not confuse the changzhang ( factory manager ) with the chejian zhuren ( shop foreman ); nor should you fail to pay homage to the zong jingli ( general manager ). In France, Germany, and Italy, likewise, where businesses are structured vertically, respect for higher-ups is important, and your counterpart remains monsieur, Frau Doktor, or Commendatore until they tell you otherwise.
​

-Mark McCrum
Going Dutch in Beijing: How To Behave Properly When Far From Home
New York, N.Y. 2007.




We've all heard of or witnessed the "ugly American" who was apparently raised with no manners and no sense of decorum making a perfect fool of themselves ( and simultaneously embarrassing those who might potentially be identified as guilty by association ) abroad. Fortunately, the problem seems to have diminished somewhat over time— in part due to caricatures, in part due to "globalization," heightened awareness and sensitivity to cultural differences, and— in part— due to books such as this one.

Most of us know by now that, in countries where cutlery is not employed ( generally in Africa and the Middle East), you don't eat with your left hand. As a rule, prior to making finger or hand gestures, it might be a very good idea to consult this book— you wouldn't want to send a message that was the exact opposite of what you intended, would you?

 

[plusquamperfekt]

"The Tao of Physics", by Fridjof Capra

"Quantum Psychology", by Robert Wilson.

 

[BrianCaster]

The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho.
I never read back to back two novels by him. His philosophy, sometimes, too hard to digest.

 

[Lady_Fiona]

An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon.

7th in the series.

 

[DehviantGirl]

Lover Unleashed

Black Dagger Brotherhood Series; JR Ward -

Released yesterday - Fuckin' A this is a great read! The whole series is awesome. I recommend it all the time.

A great week because another release I've been waiting for from a fav author Larissa Ione, is due tomorrow. First book in a new series.

--

I usually have a few books going at a shot - it's just my way.

I'm also reading The Milagro Beanfield War, by John Nichol's

and

A Life Decoded My Genome: My Life, by J. Craig Venter

I post my reviews on another site.

 

[DehviantGirl]

An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon.

7th in the series.

Hey Lady -

Love D. Gabaldon!!! Her first book in this series completely changed my genre focus from non-fiction for many years to well.... just about everything else. What a sweet journey it's been. Naughty too. Sooooo very very naughty.

Impossible to describe the impact one of the scenes she wrote had on me. The protagonist was spanked!!! omg, I still squirm just thinking about that scene. The emotions and cycle of thoughts reading that scene provoked within me?!??

God, that's the "good stuff" right there!

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History, by Sarah Rose.

I'm a total sucker for any "how a random commodity changed the world" book. Salt, Cod, The Tulip, The Botany of Desire... the stranger the good(s), the more I love it.

Try A.G. CAIRNS-SMITH's book about clay, SEVEN CLUES TO THE ORIGIN OF LIFE.

 

[past_perfect]

"Why Sex Matters" by Bobbi S Low.

"Schroedinger's Rabbits" by Colin Bruce.