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Grand unified books thread

Started by Syt, March 16, 2009, 01:52:42 AM

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Grey Fox

Colonel Caliga is Awesome.

FunkMonk

Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.

Malthus

#3947
Heh the book I'm reading has a wonderful bit about the history of life insurance, with the leading character a fellow with the most Puritan name ever: "If-Christ-Had-Not-Died-for-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned Barebone".  :lol:

Also this wonderful line, about theological qualms over calculating death statistics: "Thus was the life insurance industry caught between a math problem and God."
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

Admiral Yi


grumbler

Quote from: Grey Fox on October 30, 2019, 09:17:45 AM
Who's Karla?

A famous Canadian Serial killer.  :P

Also (more appropriately) the antagonist of the Smiley series of books by John le Carre.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Admiral Yi

Has anyone read the Bolitho series by Alexander Kent?  Thoughts?  I got a recommendation.

Same dude recommended Dewey Lampkin, but he must have gotten the spelling wrong because i'm getting nothing on google.

grumbler

Quote from: Admiral Yi on November 10, 2019, 06:46:25 PM
Has anyone read the Bolitho series by Alexander Kent?  Thoughts?  I got a recommendation.

Alexander Kent is a pen name for Douglas Reeman, so if you have read any Reeman you know what to expect from Kent:  good and exciting stories, but not a huge amount of character development.  Much better than Hornblower, and probably the best of the Napoleonic naval fiction.  The ones taking place in the Pacific were particularly good.  The later books (when Bolitho is an admiral and there's a lot more politic involved) are not as good, but still very readable.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!


Malthus

I read To Glory We Steer, one of that series, and I enjoyed it a lot.
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

Oexmelin

Joan (or others), have you read Skidelsky's new book, Money and Government?
Que le grand cric me croque !

Barrister

Quote from: grumbler on November 10, 2019, 09:04:44 PM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on November 10, 2019, 06:46:25 PM
Has anyone read the Bolitho series by Alexander Kent?  Thoughts?  I got a recommendation.

Alexander Kent is a pen name for Douglas Reeman, so if you have read any Reeman you know what to expect from Kent:  good and exciting stories, but not a huge amount of character development.  Much better than Hornblower, and probably the best of the Napoleonic naval fiction.  The ones taking place in the Pacific were particularly good.  The later books (when Bolitho is an admiral and there's a lot more politic involved) are not as good, but still very readable.

Is that a recommendation?  I hadn't heard of these stories before.

I adore O'brien's Aubrey/Maturin series, tried looking for something similar, tried reading Hornblower and found it just bad.
Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.

The Minsky Moment

Quote from: Oexmelin on November 18, 2019, 02:58:58 PM
Joan (or others), have you read Skidelsky's new book, Money and Government?

Nope.
Been very busy at work last few months; all the spare reading time in recent weeks has gone to slogging through Piketty.
The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.
--Joan Robinson

Syt

Finished Max Hastings's All Hell Let Loose. It's a one volume WW2 history that, while covering the major beats and having special topical chapters (UK at Sea, European Air War, civilian victims/Holocaust), works with excerpts from letters, diaries, etc. to paint a picture of how common soldiers and civilians experienced the war. Would have preferred more coverage of the Pacific theater. He's quite keen on pointing out where the Brits didn't account themselves too well. :P
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

The Brain

Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Eddie Teach

Quote from: Barrister on November 18, 2019, 03:38:58 PM
Quote from: grumbler on November 10, 2019, 09:04:44 PM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on November 10, 2019, 06:46:25 PM
Has anyone read the Bolitho series by Alexander Kent?  Thoughts?  I got a recommendation.

Alexander Kent is a pen name for Douglas Reeman, so if you have read any Reeman you know what to expect from Kent:  good and exciting stories, but not a huge amount of character development.  Much better than Hornblower, and probably the best of the Napoleonic naval fiction.  The ones taking place in the Pacific were particularly good.  The later books (when Bolitho is an admiral and there's a lot more politic involved) are not as good, but still very readable.

Is that a recommendation?  I hadn't heard of these stories before.

I adore O'brien's Aubrey/Maturin series, tried looking for something similar, tried reading Hornblower and found it just bad.

Have you read Melville?
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?