What Are You Reading Right Now?

"Indentured To Liberty Peasant Life And The Hessian Military State 1688-1815"

Peter K. Taylor


I think the title does a good enough job explaining the subject matter.

The Knife - Jo Nesbo

France, A Modern History from the Revolution to the War with Terror - Jonathan Fernby

Furies of Calderon
By Jim Butcher


Since I have enjoyed The Dresden Files so much, I decided to start reading his Codex Alera series. Though, while the Dresden Files is preparing to release volume 16, Codex Alera is a 6 book series.

I've completed book one, The Furies of Calderon, and I'm about half way through book two , The Academ's Fury, and I like it quite a bit. It has the same kind of palace intrigue fantasy feel of the George RR Martin books, but for my money, Butcher is just better and writing believable characters and gripping action sequences than Martin is. I've read all of Martin's published A Song of Ice and Fire books and I think there is less valuable insight into the characters in the whole million pages than Butcher fits into a single conversation in one of his books.

The first book just sets up the main characters, and the overarching plot. The fantasy world of Alera is one where everyone in it knows magic, or not really. The world of Alera is filled with elemental spirits which control, well, the elements... these spirits sort of adopt a person at some point in their youth, and bind themselves to the will of that person, at which point the person becomes a "Crafter". the person can then commend the spirit (called a fury) to perform actions within the realm of that element, water to heal, wind to fly and move quickly, earth to shape stone, wood to shape wood, and also make deadly archers, metal craft to make and wield weapons.. and so on. When a fury binds to you the magic it gives you is yours for life. Some people get weak furies, others get strong, some get one fury, some get many and of varying element.. except for the main character, a young boy named Tavi, an orphan, living with his aunt and uncle (they are not married, they are brother and sister) who is 15 when the story opens. He controls no furies.

While Tavi is a key figure in the story, the primary thrust of the story, that you learn very early on, is that the political system in Alera is in turmoil. The Aleran society heavily utilizes slaves, and is run as a fiefdom where Houses rule under an all powerful Lord. The lord is one of the most powerful crafters in the known world, but he is aging, and his only heir was killed in battle with a foreign barbarian army, and the system is collapsing.

That's as far as I will go. It is an interesting and exciting book with its own self contained story, while beginning the longer 6 book story arc. Butcher is very good at this kind of thing.

You never could have convinced my 30 years ago that I would be writing book reports for fun!


Oh, also, I should add that my only time with books lately has been with books of the audio variety, and when I post a report on a book here it means I have completed it, that the book is available on loan through Audible. Just PM me is you are interested in any books I have reported on and we can work out how I can loan the book to you.

I have all 15 books in the Dresden Files series

I have 2 books in Codex Alera (though I am still working through book 2)

I have The Killer Angels

I have Band of Brothers

.. eh... A Good Clean Fight (war fiction in the North Africa campaign in WWII)

A lot of other stuff too that I can't recall right now.

just finished :



currently :

Why Soldiers Miss War: The Journey Home

By Nolan Peterson - Casemate - 2019 - 208pp

What is it about war that soldiers miss? This is a question that every civilian should try to understand.

The Volunteer: One Man, an Underground Army, and the Secret Mission to Destroy Auschwitz

By Jack Fairweather - Custom House - 2019 - 528pp

The incredible true story of a Polish resistance fighter’s infiltration of Auschwitz to sabotage the camp from within, and his death-defying attempt to warn the Allies about the Nazis’ plans for a “Final Solution” before it was too late.

"Pilecki's Report" by Witold Pilecki (in 1943) was the first investigative account of Auschwitz to be followed by others....

"Karski's Reports" by Jan Karski (his fourth report in 1943 focused on the plight of the Jews)
"Polish Major's Report" by Jerzy Tabeau (1943-1944)
"Vrba-Wetzler Report" (1944)
"Rosin-Mordowicz Report" (1944)

Mulholland Books/Little, Brown & Co. - 2019 - 336pp

by David Cay Johnston - Simon & Schuster - 2018 - 320pp

Bestselling author and longtime Trump observer David Cay Johnston shines a light on the political termites who have infested our government under the Trump Administration.

Zuleikha - A Novel

by Guzel Yakhina (tr. Lisa C. Hayden) - Oneworld Publications - 2019 - 496pp

A sweeping novel set in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, as gangs of marauding soldiers terrorize and plunder the countryside. Zuleikha, the 'pitiful hen', is living in the home of her brutal husband and despotic mother-in-law in a small Tatar village. When her husband is executed by communist soldiers for hiding grain, she is arrested and sent into exile in Siberia. In the first grueling winter, hundreds die of hunger, cold and exhaustion. Yet forced to survive in that harsh, desolate wilderness, she begins to build a new life for herself and discovers an inner strength she never knew she had. Exile is the making of Zuleikha.

NF about a British thief turned double agent in WWII. Great narrative and character descriptions.

I'm reading 3 books at the moment: vol. 1 of the Collected Short Stories of Philip K. Dickk; Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay. Gould; and a recent biography of Thomas A. Edison. I found that watching TV shows like the Curse of Oak Island on my table was stimulating my brain & making it difficult to go to sleep. Reading, especially very different genres in sequence, has the opposite effect on my ability to sleep.

JacksinPA said:

I'm reading 3 books at the moment: vol. 1 of the Collected Short Stories of Philip K. Dickk; Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay. Gould; and a recent biography of Thomas A. Edison. I found that watching TV shows like the Curse of Oak Island on my table was stimulating my brain & making it difficult to go to sleep. Reading, especially very different genres in sequence, has the opposite effect on my ability to sleep.

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Dick is a fun author to read. Not one of the best writers, but a terrific imagination. In real life, plain crazy, and he had to be kept on major antipsychotic meds like thorazine so he wouldn't kill anyone. Died because those drugs did a number on his kidneys and liver. I have that same five volumes of collected stories and novellas. Read through it more than a half dozen times, and each time found his stories fresh and enjoyable. Enjoy yourself with Dick, and I don't say that to be nasty.

OldFatGuy said:

Dick is a fun author to read. Not one of the best writers, but a terrific imagination. In real life, plain crazy, and he had to be kept on major antipsychotic meds like thorazine so he wouldn't kill anyone. Died because those drugs did a number on his kidneys and liver. I have that same five volumes of collected stories and novellas. Read through it more than a half dozen times, and each time found his stories fresh and enjoyable. Enjoy yourself with Dick, and I don't say that to be nasty.

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I enjoyed Beyond Lies the Wub. Most of his early 50s stories are pretty lack-luster with so much emphasis on nuclear war & war with the Martians. Some of his later novels like 'Flow my Tears...' & 'A Scanner Darkly' are more enjoyable, perhaps because of a LSD-infused schizophrenic component. Most of the sci-fi move adaptations are pretty lack-luster but I've enjoyed 'Blade Runner.'

Mr Putin: Operative In The Kremlin

By Dr. Fiona Hill /Clifford G. Gaddy - Brookings Institution Press - 2012 - 587pp

Fiona Hill is director of the Center on the United States and Europe, and senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at The Brookings Institution. From 2006-2009, Fiona was on leave from Brookings as the National Intelligence Officer for Russia and Eurasia at The U.S. National Intelligence Council. Prior to joining Brookings, she was director of strategic planning at The Eurasia Foundation in Washington, DC, and held a number of positions directing technical assistance and research projects at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Dr. Hill holds an A.M. in Soviet Studies and Ph.D. in History from Harvard University; an M.A. degree in Russian and Modern History from St. Andrews University in Scotland; and has pursued studies at Moscow's Maurice Thorez Institute of Foreign Languages. Fiona Hill is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the Board of Trustees of The Eurasia Foundation.

The Quiet American by Graham Greene- This is the first GG novel that I have read, and it’s stunning: a prescient literary masterpiece that foretells American involvement in Vietnam. It tells the story of Fowler, a cynical British journalist living in Saigon and covering the struggles of the French, who are vainly trying to hold onto their colonial fiefdom in Vietnam.

Fowler knows a lot but keeps out of politics. He prefers to spend his days with his Vietnamese girlfriend Phuong, but his somewhat idyllic life is changed when a young American aid worker named Pyle enters the scene. Pyle is actually working for the CIA, and he’s an idealist who firmly believes in the cause- namely that America has been chosen to defend the world against communist expansion.

Fowler tries to dissuade the American, telling him that the Vietnamese just want to be left alone, but Pyle will not be dissuaded- he has read too many books, and he thinks he knows the answers to everything- Pyle wants to create a Third Force, neither French nor communist, and will stop at nothing to get it done. In the end, Pyle even takes Phuong away with promises of marriage and money, and this love triangle spirals downward towards destruction.

Having been to Saigon, I can say that GG captures the city’s breath and beauty as well as the Vietnamese people accurately. America’s misadventure had started out with good intentions, but as they say, it’s how the road to Hell gets paved. 9/10

PoS said:

…

The Quiet American by Graham Greene- This is the first GG novel that I have read, and it’s stunning: a prescient literary masterpiece that foretells American involvement in Vietnam. It tells the story of Fowler, a cynical British journalist living in Saigon and covering the struggles of the French, who are vainly trying to hold onto their colonial fiefdom in Vietnam.

…

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Yes, fascinating book, interesting movie (I remember the recent one, with Michael Caine). The only quibble is that the French had already lost their colonial French Indochina (to Japan in Sept. 1940 - part of their war on China). IJ allowed the French to administer VN, but it was on sufferance, up until 1945.

southwest88 said:

Yes, fascinating book, interesting movie (I remember the recent one, with Michael Caine). The only quibble is that the French had already lost their colonial French Indochina (to Japan in Sept. 1940 - part of their war on China). IJ allowed the French to administer VN, but it was on sufferance, up until 1945.

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True, but the French returned after the Japanese surrender at the end of WW2 and tried to keep Indochina until they were defeated by the Vietminh in 1954 or thereabouts, so the novel takes place at the end of that era.

PoS said:

True, but the French returned after the Japanese surrender at the end of WW2 and tried to keep Indochina until they were defeated by the Vietminh in 1954 or thereabouts, so the novel takes place at the end of that era.

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Yah. But we (the US) transported their troops (from Algeria?), abandoned US uniforms, side arms, rifles, MGs, arty, trucks, jeeps, light aircraft to them in VN. We also provided political cover, intel, surveillance, air support, arty & navy arty support. We eventually wound up paying a lot of their military expenses - payroll, bribes, the lot. I've never understood why we thought we needed to not only subsidize but eventually replace the French in their quest against windmills.

southwest88 said:

Yah. But we (the US) transported their troops (from Algeria?), abandoned US uniforms, side arms, rifles, MGs, arty, trucks, jeeps, light aircraft to them in VN. We also provided political cover, intel, surveillance, air support, arty & navy arty support. We eventually wound up paying a lot of their military expenses - payroll, bribes, the lot. I've never understood why we thought we needed to not only subsidize but eventually replace the French in their quest against windmills.

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Because communism lol. Our leaders back then all thought the Domino Theory was correct. Anyway, this is getting off topic, so if you would like to talk about Vietnam, I guess we could start a thread in the history forum and help drive away the Russian spam in there.

PoS said:

Because communism lol. Our leaders back then all thought the Domino Theory was correct. Anyway, this is getting off topic, so if you would like to talk about Vietnam, I guess we could start a thread in the history forum and help drive away the Russian spam in there.

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I think our diplomats, military & spooks all severely underestimated the resiliency of the VC & their political/military apparatus. There also seems to have been some US condescension to the French diplomatic/military efforts there, as if throwing more of the same @ the struggle would pay inordinate returns.

It was all so long ago - probably time to let it go. Thanks.

The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution

By Eric Foner - W. W. Norton & Company - 2019 - 256pp

The Declaration of Independence announced equality as an American ideal, but it took the Civil War and the subsequent adoption of three constitutional amendments to establish that ideal as American law. The Reconstruction amendments abolished slavery, guaranteed all persons due process and equal protection of the law, and equipped black men with the right to vote. They established the principle of birthright citizenship and guaranteed the privileges and immunities of all citizens. The federal government, not the states, was charged with enforcement, reversing the priority of the original Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In grafting the principle of equality onto the Constitution, these revolutionary changes marked the second founding of the United States.

I really love to read. Recently, I often read bedtime fiction. I was a little tired of motivational books from the great gurus of efficiency and decided to re-read Charles Dickens. I set a goal to read 4-6 books a month. I set aside an hour at bedtime for reading every day. Sometimes I read on weekends. I like this personal challenge. Many people say that reading in bed is very bad for eyesight, but I know that if you choose the right lighting, it doesn't affect vision. I found an article on this portal bestlightguide about which reading lamp is best to choose. I plan to set a goal to read 100 books next year. I really noticed that I began to speak more beautifully and quote classics in conversation.

I just finished A Republic if you can keep it by Justice Neil Gorsuch.



This is a heavy read. Justice Gorsuch writes in lawyerese- Long complicated sentences and never uses a simple word where a more complicated one can be found. That said, this is an amazing look at the level of thinking and reasoning that goes on in the judicial system up to SCOTUS. Gorsuch spends a lot of time talking about the proper roles and relationship amongst the three branches of government. Won't surprise anyone that he's against "legislating from the bench" but he's not kind to the way the executive sneaks judicial powers into its agencies, bureaus, etc.

As I said, I don't recommend saving this book for your summer beach reading, but I recommend it for a deeper understanding of the roles and functioning of SCOTUS.

The Bringer of Death - Michael Monahan.