• Happy National Pfeffernusse Day! ⚪🇩🇪😋

What are you reading?

I finished The Source. A tough read, easier in the more modern day latter chapters, but worth the effort.

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/martin-doyle/the-source-doyle/

And picked up a copy of the slender Know your Bill of Rights Book; Do Not Lose your Constitutional Rights, LEARN THEM!

https://www.amazon.com/Know-Your-Bill-Rights-Book-ebook/dp/B0076Q53EO

That is a horribly misleading title. I was expecting some right wing Posse Comitatus screed. It is nothing of the sort.

It is instead a historical overview of each of the Bill of Rights Amendments to the Constitution, including English Common Law & Magna Carta precedence, pre-constitutional colonial State Rights legislation, and Founding Fathers writings and opinions both for and against.

Despite the horrible book title that was a fascinating historical overview of the Founding Fathers struggle to establish a Bill of Rights.

That slender 92 page volume also includes the text of the US Constitution, a worthy document. Especially Article III, Section 3:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.
The Congress shall have the power to declare Punishment of Treason, and no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attained.

Those were some smart dudes, who foresaw any number of difficulties. I can only hope my Country abides.
 
I am still finishing H is For Hawk by Helen Macdonald. As a young girl the author was fascinated with raptors and became a falconer. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmon...ence-1.4777794 Later in life after the difficult and sudden passing of her father she takes up the sport again as a soulsearching way of reconnecting with both the untameable wild and herself. This book is that journey. I know I will need to read this over and over again to fully appreciate the layers of introspection.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...-h-is-for-hawk
 
Odyssey said:
I am still finishing H is For Hawk by Helen Macdonald. As a young girl the author was fascinated with raptors and became a falconer. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmon...ence-1.4777794 Later in life after the difficult and sudden passing of her father she takes up the sport again as a soulsearching way of reconnecting with both the untameable wild and herself. This book is that journey. I know I will need to read this over and over again to fully appreciate the layers of introspection.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...-h-is-for-hawk
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That is a truly great book, Odessey. One of the best reads for me over recent years.

Currently rereading John McPhee's Survival of the Bark Canoe. I understand it better this time now that I know more about canoe construction.
 
DaveOR said:
Just finished rereading A Town Like Alice/Nevil Shute (nee Nevil Shute Norway), who also wrote On The Beach, which was the basis for the classic movie of the same name.
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That's a good one. I've read almost all of his books and there really aren't any duds among them. I have them in epub format, if anyone is interested.
 
Just recently finished reading 3 different books:

Boundary Water Boy by Jack Blackwell (Alec Boostrom's Life In Canoe Country)

The Swamp Fox by John Oller (How Francis Marion Saved The American Revolution)

Her Majesty's Spymaster by Stephen Budiansky (Elizabeth I, Sir Francis Walsingham and the Birth of Modern Espionage)

On my to read list:

Bosworth 1485 Story by Mike Ingram (History of the Battle of Bosworth)

The Quest for the Lost Roman Legions by Major Tony Clunn (Discovery of the 9 AD Varus Battlefield)

In the Kingdom of Ice (The Grand and Terrible Voyage of the USS Jeannette) by Hampton Sides

Need I say, I like history.........

BOB aka Joker

P.S.
Two books worth reading: The Endurance and The Bounty; both by author Caroline Alexander.
 
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Checking out Algonquin Lakes trip report jogged my memory. It's been a number of years since we last paddled those historic waters. Algonquin is Canada's oldest provincial park, established in 1893. Arguably among other places it was also a birthplace of inspiration for those young Canadian Impressionists - The Group Of Seven. That connection between Tom Thomson and Algonquin Park is what initially drew me there many years ago to discover it for myself. I pulled a book down from off the shelf the other night, Northern Light by Roy MacGregor. I've been meaning to read this for quite awhile now and needed a gentle reminder of that time and place to take me there. Barely a century ago the bustling town of Huntsville and the neighbouring new park and their inhabitants all were swept up in the mysterious death of an emerging young artist. This book investigates that with depth and intrigue, and a personal view offered by the author who has had close family ties to the community and its many interesting characters. MacGregor is our guide taking us back through time to walk and paddle, talk and observe the goings-on. I've only just begun this book but am immediately transported there and am hopeful for some answers to age old questions to the mystery. I think I'll plan another visit and paddle there to refresh my own connection to that place and its significance to our history.
 
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Off on another reading tangent, this time the Industrial Revolution.

Behemoth; a History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World (Joshua Freeman, 2018)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35167677-behemoth

Textiles mills, steel mills, Fordism, Soviet Giantism (with US help), Foxconn. Quite a path.

And another - Empire of Guns; the Violent Making of the Industrial Revolution (Priya Satia, 2018)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/09/...ges-the-role-of-war-in-industrialization.html

I like guns and will always own guns, but I acknowledge their impact on history, culture and peace.

Neither are the easiest reads, and I have been switching back and forth between the two a chapter at a time. Both are still worth the historical understanding effort.
 
Also on a tangent.....Just finished reading it, and I recommend this book highly. "The Righteous Mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion" by Jonathan Haidt. Fitting for our times, and I think it should be required reading for all adults. It's part evolution, part psychology, and part sociology - but it's actually a pretty easy and fascinating read.
 
Tonight I had just settled in to watch the Bruins play the Wings when I get a call from the local Electric Co. advising me that due to some damage to the lines they were going to have to shut down the power for a couple of hours. The power goes out at 7:45, way too early to go to bed so I went to my shop and brought up two Ryobi 18V Lanterns to read by. I've been thinking about paddling the Connecticut River so I pulled out 'River Days', 40 pages later thankfully the power came on. I am not a fisherman, reading 40 pages about 2 guy sectionally fishing the CT trying to pull some canoe information from the book is about all I can take. It's going back on the self and I'll find another source of information.
 
Radio
Although I am reading every day I am also finding time during the supper hour to listen to a good read too.
(I could've posted this in the media section but chose to place it here instead; apologies for bending the rules.)
I got started listening to radio plays many years ago, back when for a time we didn't have a television but did manage to pull in a faint radio signal either in our decrepit little car or on the HiFi set in the farmhouse. It made the winters so much more cozier letting our imagination run wild merely by listening. Years later I've revisited the Victorian idea of reading, or being read to, Christmas ghost stories. Charles Dickens' Christmas Story is a fine example of this. As far as listening to these I've found a fair variety of them on the internet, thru podcasts and youtube. I'll let you wander and find them for yourselves, and they run the gamut from detective serials to sci-fi. Among the more "traditional" types I enjoy the writer M.R. James. Tune in a radio story, turn down the lights, and give them a listen.


btw I'm reading Peter Mayle's My Twenty-Five Years In Provence. The author died shortly before this publication last year. It's an enjoyable read about the then and now of his years spent in sunny southern France. He was among the first to have extolled the virtues of a slower pace of expat life in an enjoyable strange land. Great food, great wine, and quirky customs. Many blame him for the international crush of tourism to that part of the world. I say Boo-Hoo, and I'd love to punch my ticket to there.
 
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Last recommendable read, if you are OK with war history, kinda continuing a personal fascination with Korea,
On Desperate Ground: The Marines at the Reservoir, the Korean War’s Greatest Battle.

I’ve read other books on the battle and retreat from Chosin, but this one was well paced, well written and well balanced, including some Chinese strategy and point of view. It did nothing to better my already low opinion of the blinded-by-narcissism MacArthur, nor his sycophant General Ned Almond.

Even one of Almonds likewise sycophant aids later disparaged his leadership. Some guy named Alexander Haig.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...sperate-ground

Waiting on the bedside table, a three-book pile of riches.

Continuing with MacArthur readings
Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita and the Battle of Manila. I doubt that one will do anything for my image of MacArthur (“The Japanese will be attacking the Philippines any minute. I’ll line up my entire air force wingtip to wingtip, so they can destroy it on the ground. And when I retreat to the Bataan Peninsula I’ll leave warehouses full of rice tonnage behind, ‘cause my soon to be starving surrendered men aren’t eating dang rice. When I make my escape, taking along my favorite staff and my son’s nanny, leaving the nurses and wounded behind, I’ll refuse to board the first plane they send because, Bwaaaa, I wanna brand new shiny plane)

How much lower can my opinion get?

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...om_search=true

Continuing a fascination with maps and map history,
Theater of the World, the Maps That Made History.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...om_search=true

I am a devout maphead, and will probably crack that one first, and then Rampage. Both of those were waitlisted library loan books, and I can sit on the third, an own-it Christmas gift; Imperial Twilight, the Opium War and the End of China’s Last Golden Age.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...om_search=true

All three of those are from lists of Best Non-Fiction of 2018, I was 18[SUP]th[/SUP] and 24[SUP]th[/SUP] in line for the available library copies.
 
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With the recent passing of Alex Hall, I decided to reread "Discovering Eden'. With his background as a wildlife biologist, he must have made an interesting guide.
 
I read two coots in a canoe a month ago
it was an interesting book about two old friends paddling the Connecticut river to the end
They were inexperienced paddlers so I didnt learn any canoeing techniques but the stories of who they stayed with each night were amusing
 
Mary Oliver has passed. She was an American Pulitzer winning poet of the natural world, and best described our intimate connection to it.

Sleeping In The Forest

I thought the earth remembered me, she
took me back so tenderly, arranging
her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds. I slept
as never before, a stone
on the riverbed, nothing
between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated
light as moths among the branches
of the perfect trees. All night
I heard the small kingdoms breathing
around me, the insects, and the birds
who do their work in the darkness. All night
I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling
with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.

- Mary Oliver

Sept. 10, 1935 - Jan.17, 2019
 
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I have very much liked Mary Oliver's poetry for many years, she will be missed.
Another great poet and author Jim Harrison's has also crossed over in the past few years. I love his poetry and novels, his character "Brown Dog" has been my life coach.
They may be gone, but they will live with us until we join them, through their books.
 
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