But let's see what the books are. Maybe they're all about riling us up about today. Oh. Wait. There's this introductory material from WaPo.
It’s the classiest, most passive-aggressive move Barack Obama could make: He posted a list of books he’s been reading on Facebook...The WaPo book editor (Ron Charles) is trying to deflect the message I heard. He's seeing AGGRESSION! in Obama's amiable communication. Classy aggression.
Obama didn’t rage against his enemies or attack the pillars of our democracy. He didn’t call anybody a “dog.” He didn’t brag about his own bestsellers — or the size of his book-reading hands.La la la. Isn't he wonderful? And isn't his wonderfulness all we really need to make the argument that Trump is intolerably horrible?
Instead, he just presented a small window into the mind of a man who appreciates how books can alter the pace of our lives and illuminate the world.
“One of my favorite parts of summer is deciding what to read when things slow down just a bit,” Obama wrote, “whether it’s on a vacation with family or just a quiet afternoon.”
For a nation showered by the sputtering rage of his replacement, Obama’s implicit reminder of how incurious and aliterate the Oval Office has become is almost cruel.
Credit to Ron Charles for deploying the word "aliterate." It's different from "illiterate." It means "unwilling to read, although able to do so; disinclined to read" (OED).
ADDED: This post made me think of Obama and the waffle. Remember? "I was wondering why it is that, like, I can't just eat my waffle. Just gonna eat my waffle right now." (By the way, have you ever noticed that the waffle quote is virtually always remembered in paraphrase form, as "Why can't I just eat my waffle?" Go ahead, Google the verbatim quote, which I've provided, and you'll get lots of hits, all substituting the paraphrase.)
ALSO: Althouse on Facebook (but don't try to friend me)(click to enlarge):
पोस्ट्स
१४८ टिप्पण्या:
Sigh! What a dreamboat. Too bad about the reality of Obamareign.
Fake news. He didn't read any of those books. Ben Rhodes made up that list.
And, of course, Trump doesn't read at all. He's too busy being leader of the free world and making America great again.
If Barack really read those books I want a video camera trained on him while he writes book reviews of those books. Video doesn't lie as long as it isn't edited.
Credit to Ron Charles for calling Obama passive-aggressive.
It's too bad we can't suspend the pillars of democracy and elect Obama as our forever king.
"He didn’t call anybody a “dog.” "
He ate one.
Obama is not reading any Camus books?
Obama, "Set after WWII, Warlight by Michael Ondaatje is a meditation on the lingering effects of war on family."
Me, "Warlight 2. A story of two families in Syria and Libya trying to recover from the terrible wars that Obama either started or failed to do anything about."
I hear the cries of all the people living with the chronic symptoms of TDS: tummy ache/I don't feel good/I wanna throw up excuses children use to try and stay home from school, only adults using them in the desperate hope possessing these ills will get rid of Trump.
Obama's reading list provides temporary TDS relief which washes over them in an awesome wave...
Side effects include election delusion and psychosis. Continual reliance leads to addiction and hangover effect when Trump is still in office tomorrow.
You know, that sounds just like the MSM praise W used to get for all the books he read, being a voracious reader married to a librarian.
For a nation showered by the sputtering rage AT his replacement
Fixed it for you.
Passive-aggressive is classy now?
Maybe to the mean girls of the media who, in fellating Obama, unwittingly condemned themselves to a life of nostalgia.
Given the choice between The One's book reading list and his NCAA bracket, I choose his NCAA bracket.
And I don't give a s**t about basketball.
He posted a list of books he’s been reading on Facebook
You can't read books on Facebook.
It's all a lie.
Especially absent homoerotica on the list.
“You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.” - Barack Obama referring to Sarah Palin
Barack and Hillary have the time to read everything in the Library of Congress.
Passive-aggressive is classy now?
You're not supposed to recognize the passive-aggressive part. Only the cool kids are supposed to see it.
Yes, I'd like to see book reviews of what he read but, of course, they would be written by staff as well.
"When things slow down."
The story of his life.
I tell you what Barack has really being doing this summer: playing 36 holes of golf every day with John Boehner and smoking about two packs of cigs. He needs to get out of the house and away from Michelle and Val.
...a remarkable memoir of a young woman raised in a survivalist family in Idaho who strives for education while still showing great understanding and love for the world she leaves behind.
Kind of a poor book report: Why can't Obama summarize the first book's theme on the most general level?
Specifically, where's the plot tension in a storyline between "striving for education" and "still showing great understanding and love for the world she leaves behind"?
Isn't the tension between her "survivalist" family life of isolation and her connection to education and the world she leaves behind?
Did Obama totally miss the point or just not grasp it?
Obama reads complete crap.
He needs to write more law review articles.
I saw that list yesterday. There wasn't one book on it that attracted my interest. Maybe the Naipul book, but the one Obama recommended is the blandest one in Naipul's oeuvre. These books will have a pick up in sales but will rival that Stephen Hawking's book for most unread bestseller of all time.
Trey Gowdy's summer reading list is everything we need right now.
Credit to Bob Boyd for making the joke we were all about to make.
Hillary has entered into negotiations with several publishers about which books she will describe as her summer reading. Some of the offers are extremely low ball. She's holding out for a much higher figure. And, it goes without saying, that all the books she recommends will be classy and informative. She has flat out refused to put Stormy Daniel's autobiography on the list, at least not for the ridiculously low figure Stormy's publisher has offered.
It's great to be reminded of the repulsive fawning of Obama's acolytes. They love Obama at least as much as they despise Trump.
I generally don't have such strong feelings one way or another for any president or celebrity, or musician, or sports figure whom I've never met and never had a personal relationship with. I may like or dislike what they do and/or say. I may love or hate what I think they represent. But it strikes me as odd to invest so much passion into a stranger.
I bet at night OBH sits and watches TV- just like did a the WH.Maybe has doobie. These WaPo people are totally unserious- they fall for the virtue signaling everytime.
Question - Ann is primarily a contrarian. When man landed on the moon, as you'll recall, Ann refused to watch it on TV as it was popular. If by some miracle Trump became popular in Madison would Ann suddenly develop TDS?
Obama didn’t rage against his enemies or attack the pillars of our democracy. He didn’t call anybody a “dog.” He didn’t brag about his own bestsellers — or the size of his book-reading hands.
Funny how Trump's coarse language makes him persona non grata in the public sphere, but Obama totally gets a pass on murdering hundreds of kids, destroying Libya, and aiding radical jihadis in Syria. Jimmy Fallon tugging Trump's hair was an affront to common decency, but Obama'a drone joke is a-ok. Gee I wonder why so many people see the media as sycophantic mouthpieces for the elite rather than noble truth seekers.
The possibilities of Trump becoming popular in Madison WI is zero.
Yeah, Barack is likeable enough.
"I may not be Donald Trump now, but just you wait; if I don't make it, my children will." -- Obummer
Addendum to Barack's list.
"The World As It Is." Ben Rhodes. This thrilling bestseller is by one of my closest foreign policy aides. Ben recounts how we screwed up Libya beyond belief, restored full relation with the murdering Castro brothers' Cuba, did nothing while Putin ran wild and allowed China to steal us blind. Our crowning achievement was handing billions to Iran so that the mullahs could continue suppressing their people and spreading terrorism throughout the world with special emphasis on "Death to America."
Who gives a sh*t....
I really detest these BS puff pieces. Thank God I haven't seen many about Hillary lately. She had people planting similar garbage stories all the time.
And the adoration dripping from these things is disgusting.
Obama never needed to fight back against the Chuck Todd fawning press.
“One of my favorite parts of summer is deciding what to read when things slow down just a bit,” Obama wrote, “whether it’s on a vacation with family or just a quiet afternoon.”
--
I think he (Barack & Nobel) stole that from a Barnes & Noble commercial.
The guy was in a hammock wearing readers, dog snoozing below.
Nostalgia for an empty suit.
On vacation with the Clooney's or at the Seinfelds for cocktails.
Is he reading Camus?
* * *
This kind of fawning stupidity makes me sorry for Obama. It's a version of The Emperor's New Clothes in which the Emperor is wearing a perfectly normal suit and his loyal subjects are falling over themselves with hosannas. Kind of like this, but with no Jesus.
The possibilities of Trump becoming popular in Madison WI is zero.
But as a thought experiment - what would happen? I'd say Ann would develop TDS within a week.
For the record, I hope everyone reads Hans Rosling. Though, I'm not sure why he wrote a book when what is really cool is the interactive web site.
Trump was spotted with zein und zeit but it was not reported.
Speaking of bastardized quotes, all weekend I heard reference to Amex Jones saying “get your rifles ready... against the media” which is a really creative way of rewriting what Jinescactually said, as if everyone is accepting the paraphrased version of the guy who got Jones kicked off Twitter. Very strange. The original is quite anodyne.
And the whole "summer reading list", like everything Obama puts out into the world, seems highly contrived, carefully crafted to maximize a specific image and message. I wouldn't be surprised if it was focus tested. Obama is the consummate politician.
This, of course, is the polar opposite of Trump. Trump doesn't carefully craft messages. Trump seems to operate on impulse, instinct, gut feeling. He's largely unfiltered. He's instantaneous. He reacts. It drives his enemies nuts and emboldens his supporters.
"But as a thought experiment - what would happen? I'd say Ann would develop TDS within a week."
Work on your premise. Tending to be contrarian is not the same as tending to be deranged.
Attacking the pillars of our Democracy is a funny image. Who attacks pillars? Samson? Samson is on God's side.
On the waffle quote: I think that happens because the full quote is just clunky.
Couldn't Obama at least say to buy all these books through Althouse's Amazon portal? C'mon, WaPo! Earn your keep!
"Obama didn’t rage against his enemies or attack the pillars of our democracy."
-- He wasn't "raging," but he was very much an in your face sort of person willing to cut people down verbally when needed "Likeable enough" and "I won" are just classic examples. Also: spying on journalists sure SOUNDS like an attack on democracy, if mean tweeting them is.
Lesser known Obama quote:
"I was wondering why it is that, like, I can't just eat my dog?"
I recall Sir Paul McCartney saying upon his first visit to the White House and seeing the library, “Finally a president deserving this room.” This was a slam at the doofus, illiterate Bush who, unknown to McCartney, competed with Karl Rove to see who could read the most books in a year. (Bush won with around a hundred, if memory serves me correctly.) The hagiography of Obama’s as intellectual was and is very important for so-called “progressives” since intellect is the great advantage they believe they possess over their troglodyte conservative brethren.
It’s all a lie. Conservatives are smarter than liberals and Trump is much smarter than Obama (Sarah Palin is as well). Trump, I’m betting, doesn’t read many books but neither did Obama during his presidency. In 8 eternal years I never heard him quote from a book he was reading. My opinion: everything about liberals is a lie. They don’t care about the poor, they don’t care about immigrants, they only care about themselves and their treasured virtue stance.
Somewhere buried deep in every liberal is an honest bone but if and when it ever surfaces, guess what? It’s a conservative rib crying out to construct a new person.
Is this part of the “pre-missing” of Obama we read about?
We cannot post-miss him until he goes away.
Obama threw a guy in prison for making a video he didn't like.
I do miss all those galas at The White House with Stevie Wonder, etc! Those were the days!
Obama the Boyfriend. I'll read what he reads because he's so dreamy.
"AllenS said...
The possibilities of Trump becoming popular in Madison WI is zero."
I dunno. I have a friend who spent the latter part of 2016 mingling with the Madison libs, handing out Trump lit.
She tells me there was a surprising number who quietly told her they were sort of intrigued by the guy. She admits she's crazy, of course, Who'd do such a thing?
Her next gig: handing out Leah lit while mingling with the Madison libs.
Late August and we're just now getting to his Summer reading list? Talk about cramming for the book report due in a few weeks...
Sick burnt waffles. The Passive Aggressive version of Wheaties.
I'm going to read Lying to the American People for Dummies, written by Barack H. Øbama.
That's it? That's the list of books? My wife loved Educated. Me not so much.
As for Warlight? I've now read three of Ondaatje's novels--and am the intellectually poorer for having done so. I'll be happy to send my copies of "Divisadero" and "Anil's Ghost" to Obama. I bet he won't crack the covers of them--or Warlight for that matter.
But here we go with the WaPo's posterior osculation again. They are as in love with Obama as Steven Foster was with life among the darkies on the antebellum plantation (See--My Old Kentucky Home lyrics). They may purvey fake new, but their adoration of the New Light Worker is their true sentiment.
Thoroughly unimpressed with Obama's reading list. Weak drivel, in my view.
Here's my summer list:
1. Season of the Witch by David Talbot
2. Origins of the Second World War by AJP Taylor
3. The Science of God by Dr. Gerald Schroeder
4. Rush to Judgment by Mark Lane
Not saying I agree with the thesis of these books either. (The Lane book is kinda conspiratorial).
"Obama is not reading any Camus books?"
Remember when George W. Bush read "The Stranger"?
I'd rather have a good president.
If you like your booklist you can keep your booklist.
My booklist will be more flexible after the election.
"'He posted a list of books he’s been reading on Facebook.' You can't read books on Facebook."
Yeah, Meade and I were just talking about that. That's such poor writing. An easy mistake to make, but if there's any word editor around, the ambiguity should be noticed and fixed.
It's embarrassing for the book editor to be exposed writing so sloppily.
We were making jokes about kids not knowing what books are and reading that and thinking they were something else you could do on Facebook.
I think the IRS might be interested in auditing people who don’t read the same books as I do.
If you say bad things about my booklist, I think that would be a Red Line people should think twice about crossing.
And I really want my stapler back.
I have read books in all 57 states.
I once read a book about how to toast the queen of England.
I didn’t get it.
Charles has his head so far up Obama's ass, his nostrils are clogged with Obama's shit.
If you properly inflate your books they are easier to read.
If these are all from one, or a small number of publishers, I wouldn't rule out kickbacks to Obama.
Tending to be contrarian is not the same as tending to be deranged.
Good point. Would her support of Trump decline in proportion to how popular Trump became in Madison? My money is on direct inverse correlation.
I was supposed to read a bunch of books in college but I was too busy hanging out with fictional girlfriends.
Good thing they didn’t let anyone see my grades and everyone wrote my speaches for me.
It was really tough when nothing was on the TelePrompTer.
It's embarrassing for the book editor to be exposed writing so sloppily.
I pointed out to my sister a headline in the Chicago Tribune yesterday that was misspelled. They misspelled Basketball !
I guess editors were the first to go, or are so obsessed with white men and Trump that they have no time for spelling.
Those books are never coming back.
What, does Trump think he can wave some sort of magic wand?
"Her next gig: handing out Leah lit while mingling with the Madison libs."
2 things your friend should know: 1. In addition to being leftiest of left in the U.S. Senate, Tammy is hometown favorite in Madison and 2. Hillary wasn't popular in Madison. Bernie was. Madison liberals never felt any threat from Trump because, well, he can never win -- it's settled (political) science. Until, gulp, the 8th of November, the beginning of the Great Derangement (or as the deranged like to call it - the Resistance.)
Meade,
I question your timeline.
The Swamp started planning for a Trump win in at least February 2016.
People who only followed the MSM were the last to know.
It would be nice to have a summer reading list, and to have all summer to sit on your ass and read like a school kid or a teacher. I expect Obama to have one and to use it like a fancy hat. I doubt that Trump has one, and I'd be disappointed to hear he does.
Three novels, one memoir of a young woman, and one nonfiction book.
I call B.S. Men don't read novels. Obama skipped the novels completely, read the blurb for the memoir, then decided it was for chicks, and made it through about two chapters of the nonfiction book before he got bored. He then read a book about the Civil War he saw at the bookstore, going slowly through the chapter about the Siege of Petersburg and the Battle of the Crater because big bombs are awesome and Meade was a freaking idiot.
much on OUR reading list has been redacted
Biswas is quite autobiographical.
Its a fine bit of exposition on Indian traditional culture, from the inside, and for which Naipaul really hasn't much sympathy.
You have in it Naipauls hint of mockery, or not such a hint.
The rest of the list - well, de gustibus.
Birkel, I agree. But I wasn't talking about the Swamp. I was talking about the 77 Square Miles Surrounded by Reality.
My summer reading list is mostly operator manuals for things like lawn mowers, pool equipment, air conditioners, speedos, and thongs.
Matt,
"because big bombs are awesome and Meade was a freaking idiot"
Present company excepted, right?
"I call B.S. Men don't read novels."
Are you fricking kidding?
Only aliterate men don't read novels.
(eaglebeak)
I guess he's reading the translation of an Austrian-language book about the occupation of 57 Irish states by a bunch of Corpsemen.
Men don't read novels.
Tom Clancy, John le Carré ...Ian Flemming? Exclusively female readership?
I'm...I'm OK with this.
If this is, truly, EVERYTHING progressives need, then they are more than welcome to it.
Conservatives, I think, would prefer to keep the House, pick up a few seats in the Senate, and keep the rocking economy going.
Heck, I'd be happy to dress up in an ice cream shop uniforms, put a big smile on my face, and dish them out two big scoops of smug to go along with the book list.
"...Bush...competed with Karl Rove to see who could read the most books in a year. (Bush won with around a hundred, if memory serves me correctly.)"
C'mon...even children know better than to believe White House myth-making.
Wow. The snobbery contained in that is simply amazing to me- really, how could Charles write that and be completely unaware of how it plays with normal people? This just one reason you got Trump, and why you are going to get a lot more of him. Looking down your nose at the deplorables doesn't shame them any longer, nor should it.
I haven't had a summer reading list since 8th grade.
Men used to read novels.
I want to go back three decades, say, and present an airport book rack or bookstore - which used to have a lot of books.
It was at least half novels, and the majority of the sort women wouldnt be caught dead with.
Naipaul, for one, sold very few books to women.
Fair enough. I over-generalized. Men read some novels. Tom Clancy, John le Carre, Ian Fleming, maybe a little Game of Thrones, LOTR, and probably some detective works or Stephen King. My father reads those books about horses. I think I've seen the Da Vinci Code in some men's bookshelves.
Here's Obama's list of novels: Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (who also brought you that action-packed thriller, the English Patient), A House for Ms. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul, and An American Marriage by Tayari Jones. Be honest, do they really sound like novels guys would read?
Le Carre and Fleming did have female crossover.
Just anecdotal on my part, bur both my mother and my mother-in-law were Le Carre fans, and my wife had all the James Bond books.
"Yeah, Meade and I were just talking about that. That's such poor writing. An easy mistake to make, but if there's any word editor around, the ambiguity should be noticed and fixed."
The word editors are taking the year off to finish their reading lists.
I’d suggest, in lieu of a reading list, that all of Obama’s sycophants get a copy of Eric Hoffer’s “The True Believer” and a mirror.
“This summer I’ve been absorbed by new novels,” the former president wrote Sunday, “revisited an old classic, and reaffirmed my faith in our ability to move forward together when we seek the truth.”
Whenever you hear self-serving mealy-mouthed flim-flam like this, check your pockets to make sure your wallet is secure in its place.
His actual list may be real, in that he may actually be reading these books, but his choices are all so bourgeois, so bland and cozy, so Upper West Side. (I say this as a resident of the Upper West Side--though no fan of such NY Times-recommended comfort-reading for the leisure class.)
I've noticed the same kind of contempt for Trump that J.Q. Adams had for Andrew Jackson. The courts of Europe led JQA to forget the rough-and-tumble origins of our Revolution.
Be honest, do they really sound like novels guys would read?
Not real guys. ;-)
My summer reading list:
Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama's Washington by Sharyl Attkisson
13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened In Benghazi by Mitchell Zuckoff
Astroball by Ben Reiter
I know a guy who hates the Obamas. He shows me photos on his phone of Michele with a lump in her dress and insists it's a cock, and that Barack is gay. I disagreed with him, but that list is not helping me.
Waffle: apparently, it's not VIRTUALLY always paraphrased.
I cut and pasted into Google, and received this
No results found for "I was wondering why it is that, like, I can't just eat my waffle".
Then it said there were About 64,200,000 results (0.56 seconds)
Results for I was wondering why it is that, like, I cant just eat my waffle (without quotes):
Who is this "we" of which The Washington Post speaks of?
Am I the only one who thinks Obama may have written more books than he's read? It used to be true of a lot of boomers, like poets, that they write more than they read--they don't even read each others' shit.
Men don't read novels? I do, or I used to. I assigned a Jane Austen novel once for a poli class (OK, shoot me). My female TA said something like: no offence, but women like Jane Austen a lot more than men do.
After my feudal Japan binge, I am currently reading, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, by Rebecca West, a travelogue/history of the Balkans, written in the 1930's. Ms. West is truly one of the best writers and most brilliant thinkers I've ever read. Thanks once again to Roughcoat, who recommended it.
My female TA said something like: no offence, but women like Jane Austen a lot more than men do.
Maybe some do. I've never been able to finish one of her novels. Boring beyond words.
mockturtle,
And you still liked Austen more than did I.
:-)
I don't get this "Summer Reading" idea. Why is it somehow more special than everyday reading?
Summer reading is different than Winter reading? Are we required to read certain books or styles of books in the summer? Danielle Steel? Who has summer OFF anyway and time to lay about and read in the sun or on the beach? This seems like a very antiquated and snobby idea.
Just pick up books that you like, think you might like, which may be of interest and read.
If you don't like the book, throw it against the wall....ok....kidding. Donate it to the library or thrift store.
Reminds me of Hillary Clinton's ridiculous 2014 "By the Book" piece in the NY Times where she named approximated 700 books as among her favorites.
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/books/review/hillary-rodham-clinton-by-the-book.html
Obama didn’t...attack the pillars of our democracy
Except for the unelected group of people who make up the Supreme Court, and the Congress that wanted a moat and stood by the ditch with their slurpees instead of getting out of his way, the Congress whose cooperation he needed until he found his phone and pen. Besides those two branches of government and the surveillance state he used to set up his successor, he was
-well, that aside he was still shit.
Summer reading? The early morning temperatures and ever later sun rise reminds me that Winter is coming. I can feel it.
Who has summer OFF anyway and time to lay about and read in the sun or on the beach? This seems like a very antiquated and snobby idea.
Political journalists (since congress recesses) and grad students.
I recently finished Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card
Time travel, alternate realities/histories, cultural issues, religious ideas, the effect on the future in changing a few things in the past and the pivotal role that one person can play.
I doubt that is on anyone else's list though :-)
It's a list of books to have on one's coffee table at Martha's Vineyard this season.
I don't understand a 'summer' reading list, I read all the time. I work in the history field, and am constantly hunting down sources I find in footnotes. I will often find 5 or 6 journal articles in footnotes each original article I read. At work, I'm currently looking at 17th Century English land ownership and rent conditions to see why immigration to the colonies was so successful (hint - easy ownership, lax tax enforcement and the franchise). I also have many books open at any given time. I've read most already, so these are more refresher reads than the initial in depth first go. I went about the house and found I am currently reading Hewitt's 'The organization of war under Edward III', 'Almost a Miracle' by John Ferling, 'The Last Offensive' by McDonald, Child's 'Army of Charles II' and Michno's 'Lakota Noon' I recommended to Mike earlier. I have to separate time periods when I read, otherwise I get confused. I would rather loose my limbs than my eyes, and they suck already.
Why doesn't obambi just listen to all his old speeches?
I hear that works for the Queen.
I read somewhere that notorious egghead Adlai Stevenson died with the Social Register on his nightstand, but I suspect that was made up.
The few books I've read the last year I've read before. Comfort reading.
@DBQ: Orson Scott Card is great. The first few books of the Alvin Maker series (alternate reality version of early America) are wonderful -- seems to get bogged down a bit after that. My favorite is the collection of stories called Folk of the Fringe.
Good Heavens, what an utterly transparent bit of phony image-making. Are progs truly this stupid? I'd love to hear from one of our resident Lefties whether or not they think this is for real.
@ Mark
Yes. Orson Scott Card is a good read. I have many of his books in paperback and refuse to send them to the library as I will read them again...someday....maybe....(book hoarder). Agreed on the Alvin Maker series. They do get bogged down.
Conquistador by SM Stirling is also a good alternate history read. I was especially interested in the alternate California and the descriptions of what a paradise on earth the state was. Descriptions of the area in which I grew up which was so rural and agricultural and which is now just a concrete and asphalt wasteland known as Silicon Valley.
While trying to fix his radio in his basement, Rolfe accidentally created a gate to an alternate California in which Europeans had yet to discover the Americas. After looking at the new world on the other side of the Gate by himself, Rolfe brought a dozen trusted members of his wartime platoon to see for themselves.
Historical biographies are also interesting. Peter the Great by Robert Massie is one that I intend to read again.
European Discovery of America vol 1 and 2 are also interesting historical reading.
Book reports everyone!!!
mockturtle:
Thanks for your king words re Black Lamb, Grey Falcon, and you're more than welcome.
Next you might want to read "The Sabres of Paradise" by the incomparable Lesley Blanch. She's an author/historian cast in the same mold as West. "Sabres" is the book that Frank Herbert thematically (and in some instances literally)plagiarized in his conceptualization and writing of "Dune". Of course Herbet never (so far as I know) gave any credit to Blanch and his countless fans know nothing about her and her book.
Sabres is a history that reads like a novel, better than any novel actually, and certainly better than Dune. It's a blood and thunder epic and it's all true.
See the Lesley Blanch website https://www.lesleyblanch.com.
I read a whole series of murder mysteries by the Lockridges about Inspector Heimrich who detected in the NYC exurbs in the Forties to Seventies. Reading the Lockridges is exactly like reading Nancy Drew, empty-headed fun in a grown-up kind of way. A three volume History of Massachusetts - Colony, Province, Revolution - by Thomas Hutchinson, a Loyalist apparatchik from the time of the Stamp Act to the Revolution. Winston Churchill's two books on the Boer war; Bruce Catton on the Civil War. I guess I wonder if a civil war of some kind is coming and I'm nostalgic for the post-war upper middle-class suburban way of looking at things.
There's nothing in Obama's list that would help him understand why Hillary lost (which was a comment on himself) except that the list itself is so out of touch with American life right now. Three books are about foreigners from a post-colonial point of view. One American book is Idaho-to-Harvard whereas at the moment the need is for Harvard to Idaho; the other is about a family stressed by the father's imprisonment (suggesting to me how the Obama's viewed their time in the White House) whereas the question now is how to handle a married father who works at a job and whose children go to school. Why?
Thanks for the tip, Roughcoat.
There's nothing in Obama's list that would help him understand why Hillary lost
Obama must understand exactly why Hillary lost to him, and it's similar to the reason she lost to Trump.
Is there anything more tedious than lists of "everything we need right now" constructed by maudlin lefties, aside from the maudlin lefties who come up with those lists?
My Summer reading (LOL at such a stupid concept aimed at NYT readers who are off to the Hamptons) is much the same as my Spring, Autumn and Winter reading. I am currently enjoying William Boyd's "Sweet Caress," Ford Maddox Ford's "The Good Soldier" (3rd time through this masterpiece), Paul Fussel's "The Great War and Modern Memory" (2 nd trip through this moving account), and Roger Scruton's "Conservatism:an invitation to the Great Tradition". Many more in waiting. Obama's list is uninspiring but for his Naipal choice. PC driven crap. I have more unread books in my library than our former President has read in his life and more read books than unread. I have no discipline in book buying and storage constraints have relieved by books on Kindle.
I highly recommend Anthony Powell's " A Dance to the Music of Time". This 12 volume novel does for the English reader what Proust did for the French. And for those bored by Proust, Powell is the answer
#Pretentious prick.
Summer reading is different than Winter reading?
Summer reading is for those who don't have to work year 'round.
The rest of us? Well, nevermind.
Yes, 'summer reading' is an academic thing.
Men read some novels. Tom Clancy, John le Carre, Ian Fleming, maybe a little Game of Thrones, LOTR, and probably some detective works or Stephen King.
I've read most of the WEB Griffin novels. I never got into his "Men at War" series but have read and reread the "Corps" series, the "Brotherhood of War" series and his two Argentina series.
The Brotherhood series is a lot about his own experiences in the Army. The Corps is mostly about his friends in southern Alabama where he lived for years. The Argentina series are about his time in Argentina, where he lived for some years.
All are very well researched down to the streets in officer housing at Fort Rucker.
I read Clancy when he was writing them. I think he ex-wife got the rights to them in their divorce. I have no interest in the new ones that have ]been since his death.
I read a lot of LeCarre, especially the early ones before his anti-Americanism got so bad. I had to see the movie "The Little Drummer Girl" before I figured it out.
I have read some of the Daniel Silva series of Gabriel Allon novels. My wife is still reading them and loves them.
Other than those I read very little fiction and no "serious" fiction. Except Rafael Sabatini and Charles Dickens, and Dumas, which don't qualify for the Obama voters.
The mens book club I belong to, mostly doctors and cancer researchers along with one Liberal Arts major, is made up of those Madison liberals that Meade and Althouse like to make fun of, but in spite of living on an ideal isthmus, we all knew that Hillary was going to lose to Trump in Wisconsin. Our reading choices tend to be history, biography and philosophy more than fiction, but , we plan on reading V.S. Naipaul's House for Mr. Biswas prompted by Naipaul's passing and not Obama's list. Our summer reading was News of the World by Paulette Jiles to be followed by Sapiens by Yuval Noah Haari. After Biswas we slated Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacLean which if Obama had more edge he would have put on his list.
Would her support of Trump decline in proportion to how popular Trump became in Madison? My money is on direct inverse correlation.
Because nobody who supports Trump thinks for themselves. Everybody in the anti Trump hive mind? THEY all think for themselves.
I'm shocked, shocked! I was expecting books by Milton Friedman, Hayek and von Mises--and maybe on a lighter note, Bastiat's THE LAW or Leonard Read's ANYTHING THAT'S PEACEFUL.
But seriously . . . I doubr if Il Dufe is reading even half of these books. He's too much of a lightweight.
By the way, contrary to what has been said here, men do read novels, and sometimes even novels not written by Tom Clancy or John Grisham. Educated men, that is.
those Madison liberals that Meade and Althouse like to make fun of,
You do make it awfully easy with self-congratulatory comments like that.
R/V likes to tell us how smart he is, but he never seems to show us. All of his posts are either warmed over hive mind stuff, or assertions of his intellectual authority. Yet for all of the philosophy he “reads,” he never seems to write comments that demonstrate any mastery of the art of thinking, but he has mastered “what to think so that his friends and neighbors don’t ostracize him.”
The Swamp started planning for a Trump win in at least February 2016.
Based on that analogy, I guess that make Obama King Farquod, the guy who populated the swamp with all of those creatures.
After Biswas we slated Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacLean which if Obama had more edge he would have put on his list.
I certainly believe it. That book has been so thoroughly debunked as a piece of SJW trash that I am sure it is high on your list.
As readers may recall, Democracy in Chains by Duke History Professor Nancy MacLean is a very badly-flawed account of the life, career, and influence of the late Nobel Prize winning economist, James Buchanan. Despite the fact that the book has been shown to be replete with errors, exaggerations, and misinterpretations, it was a finalist for a National Book Award and more recently received honors from the Los Angeles Times. Most disturbingly, despite serious allegations of academic malfeaseance, MacLean is the plenary speaker at the AAUP's annual conference this Fall.
MacLean has refused to respond to any of the substantive critiques of the book, beyond to claim that her critics are almost all somehow associated with the Charles Koch Foundation, and thus somehow tainted. (In the book, she grossly exaggerates the influence of Buchanan on Koch, but the critics do not focus on that point, as there are so many other errors to deal with.)
As for Obama's summer reading, Here is a sample.
Page 1
MEDIUM / CLOSE UP SHOT – WHITE BACKGROUND – SOFT BACK LIGHTING TO CREATE AN AURA OF "SUPERNATURAL BENEVOLENCE" (PER BHO CONTRACT)
President Obama smiles, and speak directly to the camera / viewer:
"Hello! I'm Barack Obama. I'm a husband, a father, a celebrated orator, and, um, former president of the United States of America. Michelle and I, and all the folks at Netflix, are thrilled to share with you this project we've been working on for the last several months. In this first episode of Barack Obama Presents: Barack Obama's American Dream and Other Stories, we're going to hear from a number of talented, inspiring, and creative young men and women who reminded me of me by working hard every day to promote greater empathy and understanding between peoples all over the world.
But first, I'd like to say a few words about the alarming political climate we find ourselves in today, and the many challenges that lie ahead.
Right up your alley R/V. Especially the "Supernatural " part.
LeCarre is anti-American and was so even in his early books. Also anti-Israel, which is to say, anti-Semitic. Also boring.
The book on Obama should be a fantasy
--->> "The never-ending blowjob"
Me,
I'm gonna read twitter and buzzfeed for the summer
I like my knowledge the Modern Way
in 140 char blurbs.
le carre was rather jaundiced at the beginning in spy, then again so was len Deighton, with his debut in the ipcress file, tinker tailor, showed some annui, but he could still recognize evil in the voice of bill hayden, the Philby character on the move,
I recently watched the BBC six episode versions of The Spy Who... and Smileys People. On YouTube with pretty good quality. Super acting.
I liked the early LeCarre novels. The later ones did definitely turn anti-American.
"Tailor of Panama" was one of the worst,.
@ bagoh20
That guy should go looking for pictures of girl Michelle in athletic shorts
Hillary in yoga pants.
I recall Sir Paul McCartney saying upon his first visit to the White House and seeing the library, “Finally a president deserving this room.”
Speaking of self-important nitwits.
"LeCarre is anti-American and was so even in his early books."
How so? And so what?
"Also anti-Israel, which is to say, anti-Semitic."
Really? Any criticism of Israel is, by definition, anti-Semitic?
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