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Grand unified books thread

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

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Syt

Quote from: Sheilbh on April 07, 2009, 10:57:29 AM
Quote from: Syt on April 06, 2009, 10:28:58 AM
Robert Dallek: Nixon and Kissinger - Partners in Power (I also consider picking up his "John F. Kennedy - an unfinished Life")
Let me know how that is.  I've almost bought it a few times.  I enjoyed the JFK biography.  I think it's fairer than the worship or pseudo-intellectual denigration - which is the historical equivalent of theatre that just tries to shock.

I like it so far. I finished the first part (ca. 85 of the 600 pages), lining out the way of Kissinger and Nixon into the White House, with the last part focusing on the 1968 election campaign. The book itself focuses, naturally, on their impact on foreign policy.

The author's own opinion is summarized on page 81:
QuoteCircumstance and shared interest in great foreign policy issues was the ostensible bond bringing Nixon and Kissinger together. But the connection rested on larger commonalities. True, their backgrounds and experience could not have been more different: the small-town Southern California Quaker who gained prominence through political combat and the German-Jewish émigré whose innate brilliance elevated him to the front rank of American academics. But they were as much alike as they were different: both self-serving characters with grandiose dreams of recasting world affairs.

Their coming together also represented a union of two outsiders who distrusted establishment liberals: Nixon, their greatantagonist, and Kissinger, the academic, who was held at arm's length by the Kennedy-Johnson administrations. In addition, harsh life experiences had made both men cynical about people's motives and encouraged convictions that outdoing opponents required a relaxed view of scruples. Ironically, their cynicism would also make them rivals who could not satisfy their aspirations without each other.
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.

jimmy olsen

There's a David Gemmel fantasy award that fans can vote for.

The fields already been winnowed from 90~ to a final 5.

Joe Abercrombie's Last Argument of Kings
Juliet Marillier's Heir to Sevenwaters
Brandon Sanderson's The Hero of Ages
Andrzej Sapkowski's Blood of Elves
Brent Weeks's The Way of Shadows

Click here to vote
http://gemmellaward.com/
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

Queequeg

Any good fiction on the Copper and Neolithic ages?  I'll settle for Bronze. 
Quote from: PDH on April 25, 2009, 05:58:55 PM
"Dysthymia?  Did they get some student from the University of Chicago with a hard-on for ancient Bactrian cities to name this?  I feel cheated."

jimmy olsen

Soon to be seen at a bookstore near you! :w00t:

It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

Habbaku

Five minutes?  But I want it now.   :mad:
The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.

-J. R. R. Tolkien

Ed Anger

Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

saskganesh

it's like a hi tech photocopier. progress!
humans were created in their own image

Darth Wagtaros

Was reading a book on the history of American foods, which is pretty good. but I lent it to a friend of mine so I can't get the author or title.

I'm reading Tom Clancy's book on American Special Forces and also Terry Brooks' latest Shanarra book.
PDH!

jimmy olsen

It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

BuddhaRhubarb

reading an odd book. Diary of a Drag Queen. short version? A bitchy old Queen decides she needs to look the part and starts tarting up as a Tranny for sex only with "straight guys" all this thru chat rooms, and craigslist (back in the heady days of 04 mind you) as his fantasy had always been of The Straight Guy. Some staright guys are desperate enough to pretend you are just the ugly chick you appear to be.

Also there is an interesting study of poor vs. rich and race relations amongst gays of the straight, closeteds, bi, whatever stripe. apparently class crosses all those pockets and takes all yr silver.

Interesting bio in that the guy is a real asshole and professes peace with that, and his unflinching self-loathing that seeps from the pages like acid flashbacks from an HST book. As a man or a woman he's an asshole, and he's ok with that, and oddly I'm glued to the book, like watching a car wreck.
:p

jimmy olsen

Saw this at the store, and Monkeybutt's voice popped up in my head, saying buy it. So I did.

It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

Ed Anger

Good lad.

Remember, you don't really have to read the rest the books. The three in that omnibus are just fine by themselves.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

Darth Wagtaros

The Silver Spike is an acceptable book.  But avoid the Books of the South.  BotS=Teh sux
PDH!

ulmont


Darth Wagtaros

PDH!