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Gary
Social climber
From A Buick 6
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Apr 26, 2015 - 05:35pm PT
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If you saw Cory Richards film "Cold" this book leads up to that.
Spider, was that at the Banff film show at Caltech a couple of years ago? The one I'm thinking of was really good, a far cry above the usual "look at all the badass stuff I do" fare at Banff.
Just finished George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia. It concerns his time fighting in the Spanish Civil War. He describes his time fighting the fascists on the Aragon Front. Catalonia was semi-independent at the time and mostly under the "rule" of the Anarchists. It was an interestingly different sort of army.
He details how the Russians stabbed the Spanish workers in the back.
A very good read.
Dead Wake is next.
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Tobia
Social climber
Denial
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 26, 2015 - 05:40pm PT
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George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia
Sounds like a good read.
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SC seagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, Moab or In What Time Zone Am I?
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Apr 26, 2015 - 05:50pm PT
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All the Wild that Remains by David Gessner. A compare/contrast of Edward Abbey and Wallace Stregner and their respective approaches to environmentalism. I'm enjoying it. Thought provoking.
Susan
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Tobia
Social climber
Denial
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 29, 2015 - 06:48am PT
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Can anyone recommend a book on Joan of Arc? I have found one, much to surprise that was written by Mark Twain!
Posted on Amazon, Twain considered it "not only his most important but also his best work". It also says he spent 12 years researching in both England and France before he "reached his conclusion about Joan of Arc's unique place in history only after studying in detail accounts written by both sides, the French and the English".
Another person considered it a fictional biography(?)
Other authors that I am not familiar with include Helen Castor,.Kathryn Harrison,Régine Pernoud and George Benard Shaw
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Apr 29, 2015 - 08:13am PT
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Tobia, so little is truly known about La Pucelle d'Orléans that all the extant bios are mere
conjecture or outright hagiographies.
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ydpl8s
Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
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Apr 29, 2015 - 10:26am PT
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10% Happier - Dan Harris
This book my wife gave me might actually help me figure out how to meditate. I've always had a hard time, felt silly when I tried it. His irreverent everyman perspective is easy to read and doesn't make New Age type and other worldly claims that have previously turned me off.
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Stewart
Trad climber
Courtenay, B.C.
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May 14, 2015 - 07:44pm PT
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Spitfire Women of World War II: A beautifully written book that tells the largely unknown story of the women pilots who served in the Air Transport Auxiliary. The ATA was composed of pilots, many of whom were women, who flew thousands of aircraft to front line units in Britain and, later in the war, to the European mainland. These females came from all over the world, including such nations as Poland, Canada, the U.S., and elsewhere.
The book follows the struggles of these women to be permitted to perform this vital contribution to Allied victory in the air and recounts many heroic and tragic events related to this story, while never neglecting the often hilariously irreverent way that they performed their duties.
This is a must read for anyone with an interest in World War II, especially for those who wish to develop a greater appreciation of the many ways in which women served the Allied cause.
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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May 14, 2015 - 09:45pm PT
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In the process of reading:
The Ardennes 1944-1945: Hitler's Winter Offensive (2014) by Christer Bergstrom
The diction and syntax are at times a bit awkward (Bergstrom is a Swede), but arguably the best tactical analysis of the many small unit actions and engagements that comprised the Battle of the Bulge. Offers American and German after-action reports along with eye-witness testimony. Better even that Peter Caddick-Adams' monumental study, Snow & Steel (2015), and topping an Oxford edition says a lot. Fantastic photographs, many of them published for the first time, compliment Bergstrom's narrative. You really get a sense how during the first 6 or 7 days of the battle, the US almost lost WWII in Europe as the Allied command structure frayed and buckled under the unanticipated German onslaught.
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Adventurer
Mountain climber
Virginia
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May 15, 2015 - 10:41am PT
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"A Pound of Paper" by John Baxter
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Tobia
Social climber
Denial
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Topic Author's Reply - May 20, 2015 - 06:48pm PT
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Finished The Great Bridge by David McCullough, a fascinating tale of engineering and political graft.
I followed that up with George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia because I knew very little of the Spanish Revolution or Civil War.
The last sentence really grabbed me, as foreboding as it was, (written in early 1937 upon his return to England after his stint in the Spanish revolt):
Down here it was still the England I had known in my childhood: the railway cuttings smothered in wild flowers, the deep meadows where the great shining horses browse and meditate, the slow-moving streams bordered by willows, the green bosoms of the elms, the larkspurs in the cottage gardens; and then the huge peaceful wilderness of outer London, the barges on the miry river, the familiar streets, the posters telling of cricket matches and Royal weddings, the men in bowler hats, the pigeons in Trafalgar Square, the red buses, the blue policeman--all sleeping the deep, deep sleep of England from which I sometimes fear that we shall never wake till we are jerked out of it by the roar of bombs.
Now I will try to find a good book on Joan of Arc, thanks for the suggestions.
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jgill
Boulder climber
The high prairie of southern Colorado
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May 20, 2015 - 08:20pm PT
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In the middle of Command by David Poyer. Too much distracting TV. I've been on this book for a month.
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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May 20, 2015 - 10:17pm PT
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I just listened to The Glass Castle, and while I wouldn't say it was the best book ever, it was one of the only defenses (to the extent that it was) of not-totally-crazy or drug-addicted people choosing homelessness because it just suited them that I've ever seen get mass-market traction. It was slow going to start, but I'm glad I finished it.
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Gary
Social climber
From A Buick 6
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May 27, 2015 - 01:49pm PT
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Just finished Unbroken. What a yarn. Hillenbrand is a captivating writer.
So, I came here looking for something to read. I might give The Boys in the Boat a try.
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Gunkie
climber
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May 27, 2015 - 01:52pm PT
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Hotel Kerobokan
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DanaB
climber
CT
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May 27, 2015 - 02:55pm PT
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The Life of Samuel Johnson
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Jun 22, 2015 - 07:59am PT
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Realism, Rationalism & Scientific Method Vol 1
Problems of Empiricism Vol 2
Philosophical Papers of Paul Feyerabend
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ydpl8s
Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
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Jun 22, 2015 - 09:05am PT
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Reading an older book by Kim Stanley Robinson (of Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars fame) called The Memory of Whiteness. If you like scifi and you like music, and philosophical themes, this book is quite the mind bender.
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pud
climber
Sportbikeville & Yucca brevifolia
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Jun 26, 2015 - 06:58pm PT
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A rare treat.
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