The Crimean War by Orlando Figes. I don't know too much about the Crimean War of the 19th Century, so I decided to read this book. It looks authoritative. I expect to enjoy reading this.
I keep seeing this book referenced in different places. I finally downloaded it but haven't read it yet.
Alasdair MacIntyre: An Intellectual Biography, which is really a book about the major philosophical and political arguments that were taking place over the course of on Scottish philosopher's life in an attempt to contextualize the articles and books written by said philosopher. There's really very little "biography" in it. During any particular section, it's impossibe to tell, for example, where MacIntyre is teaching, or for that matter, living. When he leaves Britain and comes to the United States, that's mentioned, but beyond that... not much. Still, given that his transition from a Marxist in the 1950s to an Aristotelian Thomist in the 1980s has been commented on, it's never been traced in this much detail. So full credit to the late French philosopher Emile Perreau-Saussine for the attempt (and fuller props to keeping it under 200 pages. Incidentally, it doesn't mention my favorite MacIntyre quote: he was once asked in an interview if there are any ideas that he held as a Marxist that he still holds as a Catholic. He said, without missing a beat, "I still think that billionaires should be thrown in prison and their wealth redistributed to the people from whom they stole it."
Where Nobody Know Your Name: Life in the Minor Leagues of Baseball - John Feinstein Focuses on players, a manager, and an umpire in Triple-A ball. Who, of course, all want to get to the Big Leagues.
Guide Me Home - Attica Locke The final book of the Highway 59 trilogy and the first book in years that I gave up on. I got past halfway but I don't think I'll ever finish it. This is just pure race grifting garbage with a couple of interesting plot points that get ignored for pages at a time as the author has her main character and the narrator both do everything short of calling all white people evil and all people of color that don't agree with her exact politics Uncle Tom. Anyone who is friends with this woman should have throat punched her when they saw the final manuscript. The bones of a good finale to the trilogy are there, but the psycho writing it couldn't get her own self out of the way. If I'm ever in a pinch this will be the first book I pull off the shelf to use as toilet paper.
Aura by Carlos Fuentes. This is a bilingual novella, in English and Spanish. It's a tale of Felipe Montero, and his misadventures living in a house, with the title character. This is my second bilingual book, but the first in a language I have experience with. It's a new experience for me.
Everything in This Country Must - Colum McCann Two stories and a novella about the Troubles by an Irish writer who lives in the US.
F. B. Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoover's Ghostreaders Framed African American Literature, an interesting exercise in literary history in which William J. Maxwell reads the works AND the FBI files of dozens of Black writers. The word "Frame" is deliberately ambiguous, since the FBI has a history of setting up Black lefties going back to the 19-teens, culminating with their attempt to convince MLK to off himself; and "framed" in the sense of providing a paradigmatic approach. Interestingly, according to Maxwell, many of these writers knew they were under surveillance and would, he asserts with varying degrees of credibility. The book starts with a history of the Bureau, a biography of J. Edgar Hoover, a history of the Federal Bureau of Investigation under Hoover, and then readings of the authors and their files. Impressive in general. Hope the dude got tenure for this.
I once met Fuentes at an event on the campus of the University of Nebraska. He was giving a speech about Mexico-US relations so he didn't talk--nor was he asked about--his fiction, but I still got to shake his hand and tell him I was a fan. Haven't read him in decades--I should revisit some of his novels.
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage - Alfred Lansing Shipload of Antarctic explorers are stuck in the pack ice for over a year. Ship crushed by the ice, but they salvage food and gear, as well as 3 small boats. Finally the ice breaks up enough that they can make it to uninhabited island near north end of Antarctic Peninsula. Six of them then sail in a 22-foot boat 850 miles across the Drake Passage to South Georgia Island to find rescuers. As the cover says, one of the great adventure stories of our time.
The Conquest of Fitzroy - M.A. Azema 1952 first ascent of Mount Fitzroy, in Patagonia, by French expedition. One of the most beautiful mountains in the world.
Station Eleven, a compelling and readable novel about the end of civilization brought about by a worst-case-scenario flu epidemic that has a surprisingly (and well-earned) almost-upbeat ending, by Brooklyn-based Canadian novelist and culture critic Emily St. John Mandel. I’ll check out the miniseries soon, I think.
Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler. This book was listed as one of the top novels of the 20th Century, so I decided to buy it. So far, so good. It's about a prisoner in a totalitarian regime and his interrogations.The less said about the book he wrote in 1977, the better. I do like the book so far.
I read this on a trip to Budapest, Vienna, and Prague. I loved it, Orwell drew a lot from it for Animal Farm and 1984.
The Battle of Blair Mountain by Robert Shogan. This is a historical tale of the West Virginia mine wars of the 1920s. It starts out with Matewan. I'm eager to read the rest.
Midwest Futures, a short book of short essays reflecting on the American Midwest, its cultures, histories and future. Each essay is about 1000 words, and there are six of them per section, and their are six chapters that are six sections each. The idea is to structure the book in a manner similar to the grid and range survey methods that pretty much shaped the Midwest going back to the day when it initially became a thing (as the Northwest Territory as established by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (if you were ever wondering why the University of Michigan's fight song contains the lyrics "the best in the west" or why there is a college in Evanston, Illinois of all places called Northwestern. . . or for that matter, a college in Cleveland called Western Reserve... this is why). Anyway, Phil Christman uses this organizational tool to keep his essay succinct and focused, rather than as a silly gimmick, so full credit to him there
War and an Irish Town - Eamonn McCann 1974 book about early years of the Troubles in Derry, N. Ireland, by author who was part of the civil rights movement.
Were the only survivors hard core rationalists who took the vaccine and hilariously watched all the MAGAe vomiting themselves to death in the street? Wait, that wouldn’t be almost upbeat. Just kidding!
I’ve gotten 3 of these scam texts in the last week. The one Friday, I told her I’m 19 and very poor, and she still responded. No money to be had here! I thought maybe the criminals would take my cell number off their list. Nope, another one today. This area has a huge park between Raleigh and Durham that’s for hiking. Everyone calls it Umstead Park. In today’s text “she” called it William B. Umstead State Park, so she did her research. She met someone named Lina there and they exchanged phone numbers, you see. Since I was polite to her she wants to treat me to some Mexican food as an apology. I’m torn between ignoring it, responding that I need to check with my wife first, or throwing it out to the wisdom of the crowd, or at least the wisdom of this thread. Of the 4, between the one I quote in the post above, and the 3 in the last week, 2 are Asian and 2 are Latino. Not sure why that would be…unless it’s a common scam and one is being run out of North Korea or China, and the other out of El Sal or Guatemala. Or the criminals think there’s some kind of advantage in not being white or African American. I guess the other alternative to it being a scam is that loads of “attractive but not suspiciously so” women from the ages of 25-40 like reaching out to random old men for some of that sweet, sweet old man lovin’. I can only do it once a night now so I make it count. She gets hers, and then she gets to sleep. Maybe that’s appealing.
Last Tuesday see, hot but not Victoria’s Secret hot. More “yo dudes check out that chick who just ordered a drink at the bar” hot.