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Books recommended on GC

Discussion in 'Too Hot for Swamp Gas' started by phatGator, Apr 30, 2024.

  1. Apr 30, 2024 #1
    phatGator

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    I’ve listened several books because they were recommended by people on GC. This thread serves two purposes, to thank those people for the recommendations and also to see if others have read books recommended on GC and what you thought of them.

    Don Quixote - Miquel de Cervantes
    About eight years ago someone mentioned this as the greatest novel they had read. I don’t remember who it was. I thought I had remembered and last year asked that person if it had been him who recommended it, but that person never answered either way.

    I downloaded and listen to the audiobook, all 42 hours of it. It took a while to get used to the arcane language, but once I did, the book was fantastic. I was surprised how relevant the message was for today.

    The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise - Michael Grunwald
    This book was recommended by @tampagtr. It was fascinating how recent Florida history really is. It seems some of the early battles are still being fought today.

    Say Nothing - Patrick Radden Keefe
    Also recommended by @tampagtr. Being half Irish, I am fascinated by The Troubles, and have read or watched quite a bit about it. This book filled in a lot of the backstory I didn’t know.

    Devil in the Grove - Gilbert King
    This book was recommended by @Trickster and is the story of four men accused of rape in Groveland, Fl. The men were defended by Thurgood Marshall. The book’s coverage expands beyond Groveland to other aspects of Marshall’s early career.

    This book was also fascinating although I can’t say I “enjoyed” it. The book was heartbreaking about how blacks were treated in FL in my lifetime.

    What made the book more personal to me is that I had a good friend in high school who lived in Groveland and I visited multiple times. I had no idea what had gone on there 15-20 years before. I have been to all of the Florida towns mentioned in the book.

    I will throw out a suggestion of my own in case anyone is interested. I recently finished The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan. It’s about the dust bowl in the Great Plains. I had learned about the dust bowl in school growing up, but had no comprehension of how bad it was:
    • Dust blizzards with 60 mph winds full of grit, sandblasting paint off cars and the sides of houses.
    • Some of these dust blizzards occurred in below freezing weather.
    • Millions of tons of soil relocated.
    • Cars driving down the road shorting out because of the electrical charge in the air interrupted the electrical system of the car. But you couldn’t see to drive the car anyway.
    • Cattle suffocating in the field just by breathing the air.
    • People dying of dust pneumonia.
    The book explored the cultures and mindsets of the both people who developed and the people who settled the Great Plains.

    The sad thing is that it was mostly brought about by a combination of not-well-thought-out government policies, free market opportunism and corruption, and peoples’ resistance to implementing the changes needed, with some nature thrown in. No side of the political spectrum was innocent. Congress didn’t act until a dust storm from the upper plains hit all the way into DC.

    Anyway, have any of you read books that were specifically recommended on GC by other posters?
     
    Last edited: Apr 30, 2024
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  2. Apr 30, 2024 #2
    tampagtr

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    Devil in the Grove also great. Just placed a hold on The Worst Hard Time. Another poster who I shall not identify because I don't have express permission recommend this one which I am reading now. Very interesting read. About 40% of the way through
     
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  3. Apr 30, 2024 #3
    phatGator

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    Thank you for this recommendation. This is a subject that concerns me.
     
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  4. Apr 30, 2024 #4
    gator7_5

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  5. Apr 30, 2024 #5
    wgbgator

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    I know some people are Civil War heads, and I recently read On Great Fields by Ronald White (Joshua L Chamberlain bio) and Longstreet: The Confederate General who Defied the South by Elizabeth Varon.
     
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  6. Apr 30, 2024 #6
    tampagtr

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    How was Longstreet? I have debated that one.
     
  7. Apr 30, 2024 #7
    wgbgator

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    I think you'd definitely get something out of it, and I didnt know much about him beyond the military stuff. A really interesting historical figure, given the trajectory of his life.
     
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  8. Apr 30, 2024 #8
    BigCypressGator1981

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    Non Fiction:
    The devil in the white city
    The black hand
    Midnight in the garden of good & evil

    Fiction:
    Shantaram
    1,000 splendid suns
     
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  9. Apr 30, 2024 #9
    Trickster

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  10. Apr 30, 2024 #10
    gator7_5

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    I'm reading The Bounty now because of it. Another solid read. Not as nautical though. More about character relationships.
     
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  11. Apr 30, 2024 #11
    gator7_5

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    Devil in the white city was great. Just finished it.
     
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  12. Apr 30, 2024 #12
    BigCypressGator1981

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    Yeah that one is hard to classify as strictly non-fiction as the author took some liberties filling in the gaps. But yeah it’s great. Can’t wait for the film/series adaptation if it ever gets made.
     
  13. May 11, 2024 #13
    tampagtr

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    Just finished this one. Man is it mind-blowing. Pure madness. Kruschev was right - the survivors will envy the dead.

    Many worst case scenarios on how it starts, but still. Fred Kaplan's book talked about most new Presidents, after ordering a Nuclear Posture Review, conclude that nuclear war and nuclear weapons are just too unthinkable to contemplate. I see why.

     
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  14. May 11, 2024 #14
    Gator515151

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    I'd suggest Green eggs and ham for the Biden crowd.
     
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  15. May 11, 2024 #15
    ursidman

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    Ordered this a couple of days ago.
    The Undertow by Jeff Sharlet mines some of the same material (possibly). Very much enjoyed it

    I read Devil in the Grove a couple of years ago and developed a deep respect for Thurmond Marshall
     
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  16. May 11, 2024 #16
    gatorjo

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    The Sympathizer. Fiction about : Viet Nam war/immigrant experience/loyalty. About to become a movie.

    Just re-read 36 Righteous Men by Steven Pressfield. Futuristic apocalyptic crime fiction. Everything he's written is worth reading.
     
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  17. May 12, 2024 #17
    92gator

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    I might be the perpetrator who recommended El Quijote, as it is my all time favorite book, and I have written a fair amount on this site pitching it. I also --originally--had an avatar of dQ, and my sig was a dQ quote. Either way...cheers to don Quixote!

    Btw/fyi: some other noteworthy fans of this extraordinary book:

    George Washington and Don Quixote.



    2nd book I've long and oft recommended is GK Chesterton's The Everlasting Man, credited by CS Lewis as being one of the biggest influences in converting him from hard core dedicated atheist, to dedicated Christian.

    The book is divided into 2 parts: the creature called man, wherein he does a masterful job of showing how uniquely man stands out above all the creatures of the earth--the 2nd part called the man called Christ, wherein he shows how uniquely Christ stands out, among all of mankind.

    He wrote it in response to a book or essay on the history of the world written by HG Wells (he was atheist) in which he wrote of man as just another animal species.

    Read about it here:

    The Everlasting Man


    Access it free on line here:

    The Everlasting Man by G. K. Chesterton
     
    Last edited: May 13, 2024
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  18. May 12, 2024 #18
    agigator

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    He ends up liking green eggs and ham.
     
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