10 thoughts on “Books”

  1. When Breath becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
    Written by a terrific doctor that died too soon. 8/10

  2. Just finished “Killing Patton” by Bill O’Reilly, about the last year or so of Gen Geo Patton’s life, the last battles of WWII as the allies closed in on Germany, and the government activities leaders…and ‘influencers’ of leaders, in DC, London, Moscow, and Berlin. LOTs of new (to me) information. I wasn;t really an O’Reilly fan, but this is the 2nd book I’ve read by him (previously I was gifted other one “Killing Lincoln). He doesn’t let his polital views intrude on the story (in fact it seems he’s no fan of Pres Eisenhower), and I’ve come to believe he’s an excellent well-researched author. The book seems to be all facts, plenty of footnotes (I love footnotes!) that really fleshed out the story on all sides of the war both on the battlefields and in the national capitols.

    I read my books on Kindle and the free Kindle apps for my phone, laptop, and PC.

  3. The Lathe of Heaven, by Ursula K, LeGuin. The story of a man whose dreams become reality, and the consequences of this. A “be careful what you wish for” story. I saw the movie back in 1980, and never realized it was a book. Then it just popped into my head to look for it, and now I’ve read the book, which is better than the movie.

  4. The Expendable Man, Dorothy B. Hughes – Published 1962
    The author was noted as a crime writer but included much more in her work. This the story of a Doctor driving from Los Angeles to Phoenix for a family wedding. In a rather sudden moment race becomes a central theme along later with abortion and murder her insight and treatment of those issues enhances rather than distracts from the crime novel. The pacing of the story is well done and she uses sparse but effective dialog.
    Given that the work is now sixty years old it’s significant to see how our country has changed and how much further we need to go. Two of Hughes novels were made into movies, The Pink Pony and In A Lonely Place, the latter regarded as perhaps Humphrey Bogarts finest role.

  6. Empire of the Summer Moon by S. C. Gywnne about the Texas frontier: Pioneers, U.S. Cavalry, Texas Rangers vs. Comanches. Fascinating and very bloody history of this country that I was not taught in school.

  7. I am slogging through The Complete Works of Joseph Conrad. This is a collection of his stories; I am still in the first one is called “The [n-word] of the Narcissus. It was written in about 1914 in England; apparently, they were more willing to use the slur than the US. The Narcissus is an ocean-bearing sailing ship; the story is about their travels around the world and the sick Black sailor with them. If you are in to sailing, you will enjoy the details.

    Stories written around that time were rather verbose; the paragraphs can go on for days. Much different than today; Hemmingway probably helped change that.

    • Thanks for saying the stories were verbose because I tied to read Conrad years ago and I got really tired. I thought it was just me but I have read some books that seemed like they were just paid by the word and stretched the story out way too far without actually adding anything to the content.

    • “Verbose” is a nice way to put it. I managed to get through Lord Jim many years ago and that was it for Conrad for me. Kudos to you for undertaking his complete works.

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