Thanks Dino - I actually recently picked up The Guns of August (I know it’s a classic but I’ve never read it). I’ll definitely check out The Wilderness Warrior and First to Fight too. Great tips!

it is my pleasure......douglas brinkley has written a book dedicated to the conservation efforts of fdr.
an interesting wwi book i found discarded at a local library is eden to armagedden - a one volume book about ww1 in the middle east - britian vs the ottoman empire - roger ford - 2010.

All great suggestions Dino!

That bit about Tyler is priceless. Sounds like some legitimate competition for Trump.

So, sometimes you learn from odd places.
I read Hampton Sides great "Blood and Thunder" (ostensibly a biography of Kit Carson---but really much broader than that) and learned more about President James Polk in that book than other direct treatments on him as the subject!

Great read BTW.

I miss your opinions around these parts!
Many voices makes a better stew!

thanks Bob...very much.
i have blood and thunder...havnt read it yet but it is one of my top choices....i have some other books about kit carson as well.
i comment here but i really am retired from the non sports section.

a new gallup poll that in 2019 americanos spent more time in libraries then movie theaters....concerts...sports events or casinos.

Gallup must have been polling "americanos" from somewhere else!! Here in the good ol USA I don't believe for a minute that "Americans" spend more time in libraries than they do in casinos, etc. I'd have to see the details on how and WHO was polled, but without that information I'd HIGHLY suspect that that "poll" is a complete statistical farce. Here in AZ we probably have 10 or 12 bars/saloons for every library. And nearly as many casinos as libraries!

a lot of people might go to the library lets say 8 times a year but the casino twice and movie theater 1 - 3 times per year.

Years ago there was a strip club outside Las Vegas named "The Library", guys could tell their wives or girlfriends they were at the library after work.

Twice per year at casinos?? Not in these parts. Most casino goers go much more often than that.......... and they spend HOURS each and every time.
Gallup has their heads somewhere with this poll!! SHOW ME the poll parameters............ Bet you can't!!

The poll is as bogus as the Trump presidency!!

from the classic tour de force on american presidential power written in 1973 by arthur sclessinger jr - THE IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY.....1973.
some excerpts -

called impeachment " the blunt instrument. "
benjamin franklin quoted as saying that if there were no provision for impeachment the only recourse would be assassination
( of course character assassination has replaced guns today in the political arena )
quote - from 1973 by mr. sclessinger - there was broad agreement among scholars at least on doctrine...Impeachment was a proceeding of a political nature, by no means restricted to indictable crimes..
Quote - if a president declined for whatever reason to yield material evidence in his possession , whether to the courts or to the House, this itself might provide clear grounds for impeachment.
Quote -we have noted that corruption appears to visit the white house in 50 - year cycles.......around the year
2023 the american people would be well advised to go on the alert and start nailing down everything in sight....

prescient...yes....




.....

Vonnegut

Deadeye Dick: bad, really bad

Slapshot: well i'm readin now but first impression bad, really bad

same book maybe

same life story fo sho

Speaking of bad, really bad: My Life as a Man (1974) by Philip Roth. A long, whiny rant about the author's first wife, who was already buried in the ground six years by the time the book was published. Kicking a dead horse, etc. Only slightly better was Prague Orgy (1985), a novella relying on sitcom-like stereotypes of artists living under communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Some funny dialogue, but that’s it. The first two Roth books I've read that I couldn't recommend.

Mr. Hire’s Engagement (1932) by George Simenon. Another 150-page little gem, this one about a small-time crook and pervert who gets framed for a big-time crime.

Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three (2002; updated 2011) by Mara Leveritt. Great true crime book about three Arkansas teens getting railroaded by the justice system for the murder of three eight year old boys.

Gates of Eden (1998) by Ethan Coen (re-read). Coen bro’s nifty collection of 14 stories, at least half a dozen of them brilliant, the rest good to very good. Wish he wrote more, but as far as I can tell this is his only book.

Posted by bagchucker on 1/31/2020 8:00:00 AM (view original):
Vonnegut

Deadeye Dick: bad, really bad

Slapshot: well i'm readin now but first impression bad, really bad

same book maybe

same life story fo sho

Yeah both of those books were really disappointing. Like Dylan albums from the mid-80s.

Vonnegut's great books are Player Piano, Breakfast of Champions, Sirens of Titan, God Bless you Mr. Rosewater, and Slaughterhouse Five.

I think I would take Cat's Cradle or Mother Night over Player Piano. I know I would take them over Slaughterhouse Five. Never understood how that became his 'high school classic' instead of Breakfast of Champions, which seems to me to be the obvious choice.