Skip to main content

What would you like to read?




Now that we have gotten over American Colonies, maybe we should try another book reading group?  Hamilton is all the rage with his broadway musical.  It is based on Chernow's 2005 biography.  There's the more recent War of Two, by John Sedgwick, which treats the parallel lives of Hamilton and Burr.



With all the fuss being made over the empty Supreme Court seat, I'm inclined to read Notorious RBG, which looks like it could be a lot of fun. At 83, you figure Judge Ruth Ginsburg doesn't have too many more years on the bench herself, so Bernie shouldn't be fretting over not being able to pick a USSC justice himself, not that he is likely to have the chance to do so.



But, our choice doesn't necessarily have to be political.  All the Wild that Remains looks like a very good book.  I'm a big fan of Wallace Stegner and Edward Abbey, and their visions of the American West.

Any other suggestions?

Comments

  1. Howdy - it's been a while since I've ventured here. Looks like the old crowd has gone the way of the Romans. This in all likelihood due to old age. As for me, I use audio books because my eyes have worn out from age & overuse. Been reading mostly fiction, especially magazines such as Good Old Days and Grit.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It does get kind of lonely in here. A lot of hits but very few comments. Not reading much in the way of history myself these days. Wrapped up in current events as far as this blog goes. Maybe that scared away some folks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your political comments are 100% spot on. So keep up the good work.

      Delete
  3. Thanks Trip, but it would be fun to have a group read again.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

O Pioneers!

It is hard not to think of Nebraska without thinking of its greatest writer.  Here is a marvelous piece by Capote, Remembering Willa Cather . I remember seeing a stage production of O Pioneers! and being deeply moved by its raw emotions.  I had read My Antonia before, and soon found myself hooked, like Capote was by the simple elegance of her prose and the way she was able to evoke so many feelings through her characters.  Much of it came from the fact that she had lived those experiences herself. Her father dragged the family from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, when it was still a young state, settling in the town of Red Cloud. named after one of the great Oglala chiefs.  Red Cloud was still alive at the time, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the aftermath of the "Great Sioux Wars" of 1876-77.  I don't know whether Cather took any interest in the famous chief, although it is hard to imagine not.  Upon his death in 1909, he was eulogi

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

  Welcome to this month's reading group selection.  David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908.  At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades.  Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society.  I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran.  Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Colonel

Now with Colonel Roosevelt , the magnum opus is complete. And it deserves to stand as the definitive study of its restless, mutable, ever-boyish, erudite and tirelessly energetic subject. Mr. Morris has addressed the toughest and most frustrating part of Roosevelt’s life with the same care and precision that he brought to the two earlier installments. And if this story of a lifetime is his own life’s work, he has reason to be immensely proud.  -- Janet Maslin -- NY Times . Let the discussion begin!