Registered: Sep 2004
Location: Thirty Years Later
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Marching as to War by Pierre Berton



For a book about Canada, as a developing country, during the years 1899 - 1953, with the main focus on its 4 wars during that time (Boer War, WWI, WWII, Korean War), this is not as heavy as it might seem. Berton does not get bogged down in the minutiae but rather is able to pick and chose the most pertinent details in order to give a comprehensive and cohesive overview of events. His style of writing is more of a storyteller than of a lecturer which makes it an easy read, as does his inclusion of personal stories from veterans, writers, even his own, that help illustrate his point. For anyone that saw the film Passchendaele I would recommend picking up this book and, at the very least, reading that section to learn what they failed to tell you in the movie.

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Fuck Politics, Vote Anarchist
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I read this book a couple of years ago. It was very good. You have it dead on Big jim.

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Rina say get lost you drunken,hairy ass,blows his money on gambling,get a life loser,leave alone you don't even know how to kiss or even know where to put your dick,you play with your balls when talk on the phone with eli,blair,liam

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Registered: Sep 2004
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I've read a couple of Berton's books and have found them all to be very enjoyable.

Just finished The Ghost by Robert Harris.


Interesting thriller but not really unique. Still will be curious to see how the movie turns out.

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Finally got around to reading A Brief History of Time. A lot of it went right over my head. Still, even though I didn't understand it all it was still an interesting read.

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The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh of Homer - A collection of philosophy essays using The Simpsons as examples. I enjoyed it but found many of the essays could have been written with no knowledge of The Simpsons and simply been reworked to include it. Seemed like they were "here's my grad-school thesis - I've re-written the conclusion to show how my argument relates to The Simpsons". But an interesting book anyway.

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In case the title isn't blatant enough for you, this is a biography of Dick Winters who you would know if you've seen the mini-series Band of Brothers, or if you've read the book it was based on. Once I was able to get past the beat-you-over-the-head-with-a-stick title, I found it was a very enjoyable book. Having read Band of Brothers and seen the movie several times I found it to be a good mix of "I didn't know that" and "I know what's coming next". The book also covers Winters' involvement in both the book and film on E Company and his reactions to both. I would recommend it to anyone who has seen the movie, or read the book, as I think it is a very good companion to both.

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Citizen Soldiers by Stephen Ambrose. The first third, and last third, of the book are basically a comprehensive overview of the US army in Europe from the day after D-Day until the surrender of Germany. The middle of the book focuses on the stories and groups who don't generally get much attention, who get lost in the big-picture histories. You don't often hear about how poorly replacements were trained and dumped individually on the front lines. A very good follow-up to Ambrose's D-Day.

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Pride & Prejudice - After seeing the movie version of this book a few years ago (the one with Keira Knightley) I was curious to see if the book would have a similar tone. I finally got around to reading it and found it to be quite enjoyable. Something about the subtle humour, the double-entendre type style of speaking that appeals to me.

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Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - You will notice Jane Austen is credited, first, as the co-author of this book. For the most part it is her book. However, "violent zombie mayhem" has been added to enhance the story. I would not recommend doing what I did, reading this right after reading the original, as you are basically reading the same book twice (only the second time has zombies, as well as a few more blatant double entendres). I found it to be very funny, and the added bits were well integrated into the story. I look forward to the next in the series, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

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The Time Traveler's Wife - Despite jumping around to different time periods, it is a fairly linear story. The author does include the time and the characters ages at the beginning of each section; it's such a simple thing but it really does help. I've been avoiding pretty much anything to do with the movie so as to not come across spoilers. So I don't even know if the film was generally thought to be a good adaptation, or good at all. Guess I'll find out when I go see it.

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King Lear - I've been watching Slings & Arrows on DVD (if you haven't seen it, I suggest you search it out). First season revolves around Hamlet; season two it's Macbeth. The third season is King Lear. I read it in High School and have seen it performed but am not nearly as familiar with the play as I am with the other two so I decided to read it before watching the rest of the season. You don't have to be familiar with the plays to enjoy the show but it does add to the enjoyment of it.

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Fuck Politics, Vote Anarchist
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American Fascists - Great and vile. About the Christian Right in the US and their rise in power and their intentions.

Secrets: Notes on the Pentagon Papers - Great followup by Daniel Ellsburg about his experiences in US intelligence in the 1960's during the Vietnam era and his relaese of the Pentagon Papers.

Failed States - Yet another great Noam Chomsky tomb. A little repetitive but very relevant.

Dilemmas of Domination by Walden Bello - A great addition to the American Empires series dealing mainly with Asia and it's role in US based power structures.

Gag Rule - excellent commentary of the usurpation of civil liberties and free speech in the US.

End of America by Naomi Wolf - Great book. Great documentary. Discusses the 10 main steps a free society takes to become a fascist state and applies it well to the present US.

the Bible - No, not the whole thing. I was discussing it with this Christian dude yesterday which got me picking it up again. I like finding it's inconsistencies. I found one today - if you look at the 2 chronologies in the new testament (Matthew and Luke) they each show different descendants for jesus. In one Jesus' grandpa is Jacob and the other his name is Heli. Many of the names are different and one of the family trees goes back to God and the other just to Abraham and in the other Abraham is not even mentioned. If Jesus was the Son of God wouldn't his family tree go - God then Jesus and that's it?

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Rina say get lost you drunken,hairy ass,blows his money on gambling,get a life loser,leave alone you don't even know how to kiss or even know where to put your dick,you play with your balls when talk on the phone with eli,blair,liam

Last edited by betelguise on 10-02-2009 at 08:49 PM

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A while back Betel mentioned the upcoming (still) Dance with Dragons and I realized I had yet to read both the third and fourth book in the series. It had been a couple of years since I'd read the first two so I did a quick recap thanks to Wikipedia then dove right in. As 1000+ page books go, it's a very easy read. An impressively complex story that is at the same time very accessible. Being a well paced book with some truly shocking moments made this easy to get into and hard to put down.

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This is a fantastic book about that last Stanley Cup win and how the team fell so hard and fast, never again (so far) to make it into the finals. The 1967 playoffs are the core of this book, but it is about so much more. Cox & Stellick look at the players who made up that team and their careers, the ownership battles, and the changing structure of the NHL. The book looks back at the postwar era as well as forward to recent years (it was published in 2006), and how those event affected, or were affected by, the events of the mid-to-late '60s. It's a great snapshot of the NHL at at time right before it really started to change - when there were only 6 teams, no players' association, and no draft; when an owner was a person, not a corporation, and when players, while often idolized, weren't celebrities. I strongly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in sports history as well as all Leafs fans.

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Toronto, Ontario
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Shows Clemens as nothing more than a country-bumpkin from a torn family who let the money and the fame get to his head and when his natural abilities started to decline, he turned to steroids. Both his father and step-father died, his mother was a chain-smoking old woman and his brother was a crack addict. He did persevere to make the Major Leagues, when everyone was telling him he wasn't good enough. He wasn't all bad either. He seemed to have a soft spot for kids and for helping out those who were less fortunate. I kind of felt bad for him reading the book. Clemens was one of my favourite players when I was growing up and it's sad how his surefire Hall of Fame career ended. He probably should have just admitted he took steroids from the beginning. Maybe things would not have turned out so badly for him.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Big Jim


A while back Betel mentioned the upcoming (still) Dance with Dragons and I realized I had yet to read both the third and fourth book in the series. It had been a couple of years since I'd read the first two so I did a quick recap thanks to Wikipedia then dove right in. As 1000+ page books go, it's a very easy read. An impressively complex story that is at the same time very accessible. Being a well paced book with some truly shocking moments made this easy to get into and hard to put down.

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__________________
Rina say get lost you drunken,hairy ass,blows his money on gambling,get a life loser,leave alone you don't even know how to kiss or even know where to put your dick,you play with your balls when talk on the phone with eli,blair,liam

Last edited by betelguise on 11-20-2009 at 07:51 PM

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I'd never heard of him until my cousin gave me the first 3 books for Christmas about 4 or 5 years ago. He described them as "like Lord of the Rings, but with more political intrigue".

quote:

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Originally posted by betelguise
it's too bad there isn't any hockey in it or maybe I could get Chachi to read it.

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