The Conservative Cave
Interests => Hobbies => The Book Club => Topic started by: Alpha Mare on October 03, 2009, 06:21:47 PM
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I'm halfway through "The Forgotten Man." Highly recommend. So much about FDR ( and his advisors) that I didn't know.
I just started "The Empire of Wealth." Very, very interesting.
I like books that make me curoius to learn more about the subject, or some aspect mentioned within.
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I'm reading a biography of Will Rogers (1879-1935) at the moment; one of those "by chance" things.
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I'm reading Bernard Cornwell's latest bit of historical fiction Agincourt. I love his stuff.
He wrote the famous Sharpe series, which I have not read. He also wrote an excellent series on Anglo-Saxon England around the time of King Alfred. He is very good at writing large-scale battles.
Just finished reading Some Ken Bruen stuff, about an irish private investigator. What a great writer.
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Just read The Arms of Krupp about the German arms maufacturing family. No reading Inside Hitler's Bunker by Joachim Fest.
I only read German history.
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I only read German history.
That's an area I haven't read yet. Any pre-WWII recommendations?
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That's an area I haven't read yet. Any pre-WWII recommendations?
There's a book called Weimar Germany : promise and tragedy by Eric D. Weitz about Germany between WWI and WWII thats pretty good. Many libraries carry it.
I rarely buy books. I prefer to use the library.
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Just read The Arms of Krupp about the German arms maufacturing family.
That's a monstrously large book, and interesting, although the last 100 or so pages were boring. It was interesting all through the Krupp family history until one reached the 1960s decadent playboy gayboy son of Alfried Krupp, after which it went downhill.
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There's a book called Weimar Germany : promise and tragedy by Eric D. Weitz about Germany between WWI and WWII thats pretty good. Many libraries carry it.
I rarely buy books. I prefer to use the library.
Reviews sound good, thanks!
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One of the last books I read was Wilson's War: How Woodrow Wilson's Great Blunder Led to Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, and World War II (http://www.amazon.com/Wilsons-War-Woodrow-Blunder-Hitler/dp/1400082366). Lots of pertinent information and historical perspective, but the correlation between the individual actions and events that led up to World War II were not entirely plausible. All in all, a decent read if only for the historical data.
I picked up a couple book on the British period of India but didn't have time to finish both of them.
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That's a monstrously large book, and interesting, although the last 100 or so pages were boring. It was interesting all through the Krupp family history until one reached the 1960s decadent playboy gayboy son of Alfried Krupp, after which it went downhill.
Yep. He wanted to design jewlery. :o Guess he took after his ancestor who liked to play with boys on Capri.
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Guess he took after his ancestor who liked to play with boys on Capri.
Yeah, his great-grandfather, during the last part of the 1800s.
But the difference was, at least his decadent great-grandfather built something, while this flabby descendant lived only for hedonism, consuming capital rather than creating weath.
It sort of reminds one of the primitives.
One wonders if he's still alive--Arms of Krupp was after all written a long time ago--but if he is, he probably weighs 300+ pounds, sags a lot, and wears perfume. At least that's the way he seemed headed, when the book was written.
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I finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy last night. It was interesting. He also wrote All The Pretty Horses and No Country For Old Men. The Road was a dark book, set after some sort of apocalypse (they never exactly explain what happened). A man and his son are trying to go South to escape the cold, but most of the survivors have turned into cannibals and they have to dodge them all of the way. It is written in a sort of stream of consciousness type style. I liked it a lot.
I am also reading the John Sandford, Lucas Davenport series. I am almost done with the current books. Good crime novels with very likable, human sorts of characters.
Next is James Patterson's newest Alex Cross novel. They are always good.
Then I will be starting on the Dean Koontz Frankenstein novels.
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They're working on a movie version of The Road.
I'm not really looking forward to it. No Country For Old Men wasn't bad, but Joel and Ethan Cohen seem to have a bit more talent than the usual junk from people like Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay.
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mamacags:
I am also reading the John Sandford, Lucas Davenport series. I am almost done with the current books. Good crime novels with very likable, human sorts of characters.
Next is James Patterson's newest Alex Cross novel. They are always good.
Then I will be starting on the Dean Koontz Frankenstein novels.
I've read quite a few of the Davenport series, and some of his other books. Also most of the Alex Cross series by Patterson and other.
I have the third of the Frankenstein books, but haven't started it yet. I'm currently reading the latest of the "Odd Thomas" series by Koontz.
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But the difference was, at least his decadent great-grandfather built something, while this flabby descendant lived only for hedonism, consuming capital rather than creating weath.
That's what often happens to characterless people born to great wealth. They're given everything since childhood and fail to develop a sense of humility and gratitude. I come from a wealthy family but I know how fortunate I am and my parents instilled in me the desire to make it on my own. When I inherit my money at 40 I'll probably give a large portion to Vets organizations and charity. I don't want the hassle of having money. People with big houses and fancy cars don't impress me. I'd rather sit down and have a beer with a CMH or Purple Heart recipient than some rich man.
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That's what often happens to characterless people born to great wealth. They're given everything since childhood and fail to develop a sense of humility and gratitude.
Witness the clueless offspring of the Rich and Famous.
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I"m reading Dinesh D'Souza's "What's so Great about Christianity." I'm also reading one of Mr Smith's grandfather's books, "The Woman of Tekoah," a book of sermons. For fun, I'm rereading a Mercedes Lackey fantasy and a James Herriot book.
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I"m reading Dinesh D'Souza's "What's so Great about Christianity." I'm also reading one of Mr Smith's grandfather's books, "The Woman of Tekoah," a book of sermons. For fun, I'm rereading a Mercedes Lackey fantasy and a James Herriot book.
You read sermons too?
One of the best finds I ever found was a three-volume collection of sermons by a Methodist minister in northern Iowa circa 1890-1920. I got all three of them for fifty cents, in a bargain bin at a used bookstore.
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The newest book in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon...can't recall the title at the moment and I'm too lazy to go get the book... :tongue:.
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finally found a forum not listed on the sidebar
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I just read "One Second After"
and
"The Collectors" by Davis Baldacci
and I am reading a little book called:
"Little Commonwealth: Family Life in the Plymouth Colony", published around 1980 by John Demos.
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"The Traffickers" by W.E.B. Griffin and his son William E. Butterworth 111.. A kind of interesting read in wikipedia..
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I was reading along with my granddaughter the Nancy Drew Series when I by chapter 2 realised these books had been changed dramatically.
I rummaged about in boxes and found my Aunts books printed in the 1930's. What a difference, The books for sale today have been cleansed, politically correct changed.
We are now reading the ORIGIONAL Nancy Drew, no mention of drugs, drinking or cigarettes.
Fortunately I also saved the Hardy Boys she collected, and Trixie Belden storeys.
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"The Traffickers" by W.E.B. Griffin and his son William E. Butterworth 111.. A kind of interesting read in wikipedia..
Me I am rereading the biography's of ARM and HAMMER.
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I was reading along with my granddaughter the Nancy Drew Series when I by chapter 2 realised these books had been changed dramatically.
I rummaged about in boxes and found my Aunts books printed in the 1930's. What a difference, The books for sale today have been cleansed, politically correct changed.
We are now reading the ORIGIONAL Nancy Drew, no mention of drugs, drinking or cigarettes.
Fortunately I also saved the Hardy Boys she collected, and Trixie Belden storeys.
Any Bobbsey Twins?
I devoured those when I was a kid, even though they were like 75 years old by then.
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"The Traffickers" by W.E.B. Griffin and his son William E. Butterworth 111.. A kind of interesting read in wikipedia..
I love W.E.B Griffen...the Presidential Agent series, and the OSS series are my favorites.
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You read sermons too?
One of the best finds I ever found was a three-volume collection of sermons by a Methodist minister in northern Iowa circa 1890-1920. I got all three of them for fifty cents, in a bargain bin at a used bookstore.
I hadn't before, but I now find them interesting. Mr Smith's grandfather was a preacher, and we now have most of his library. There are a ton of great books! :-) Many of them are fairly old, too...so not yet slanted by the liberal trend of some "christian" writers.
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The newest book in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon...can't recall the title at the moment and I'm too lazy to go get the book... :tongue:.
I read the first 3 or 4 of them, really enjoyed them. I'd forgotten all about that series...now I'll have to look it up again. :cheersmate:
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Haven't read a new book in over 1....no ...2 years. Been rereading some of the old ones from school days. 14 year old son has to read a lot for English classes and I guess I'm just going into my second childhood. Right now he's reading War of the Worlds and The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. I really enjoyed those when I read them....and the "old" movies when they were made. I don't think the remakes movies aren't near as good.
Right now I'm trying to convince him to check out Les' Miserables by Victor Hugo but just ain't having any luck with that....to many pages. :-)
Oh, 2 weeks ago he came home from WAL-MART all excited....he had spotted Michelle Malkins latest book, Culture of Corruption(?). He wanted it bad so at 5 am this morning I went to WAL-MART with the intention of buying it as a "bribe" gift to get him to read Victor Hugo...they were sold out (of course I was going to read it also...dang it). Spoke with his English teacher last week and she was quite alright with him reading "1984" and "Atlas Shrugged" so all is not lost.
Edit to add: WAL-MART had a bunch of Glen Becks latest book prominently displayed on the end of all the counters but I didn't buy one. And they had a bunch of Ted Kennedy's book down the isle on the bottom with dust on'em. :-)
For once I used spell check and for 'on'em' spell checks first choice is "enema". :rotf: I guess you'd feel like you just had one if you read Teddy's book.
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Read The Road about a year and a half ago. Very dark.....I wonder how they will do the movie. Seems like it would be appropriate to do it in black and white, or sepia tones at the very least.
Just finished Jonathan Kellerman's Compulsion....took half the book to get into it.
Prior to that read Vince Flynn's Extreme Measures.....I highly recommend it!!!!
Just started reading Mariah Stewart's Acts of Mercy.....the third in a series.
Next up is David Baldacci's Divine Justice.
Loved Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden....and also Cherry Ames. Read all of those back in elementary.
Les Miserables was required reading when I was in school....9th or 10th grade, I think.
I'm a fiction junkie.....murder, mayhem, psych thrillers. :-)
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Any Bobbsey Twins?
I devoured those when I was a kid, even though they were like 75 years old by then.
As a kid MY grandparents had belonged to a book club back in the 1930-60 eras and I searched their attic for the 3 books in one that Readers Digest put out then.
I loved the old Thin Man series and the other perhaps 5 other detective couples set pre WW2 and just after. Today on the Classic Chanel it is a delight to watch these storeys filmed back then, the clothing, the attitudes of the day.
Buck Rogers and Flash Gorden, the small magazines of Alfred Hitchcock presents, short storeys that came out every month. Science Fiction the way most of our most brilliant writers got their start, Issac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Pol Anderson.
As an adult I was introduced to Louis Lamore, what westerns ? If that is all there is to read I will do so.
To this day when traveling about the south west I have on hand a couple of his books written about the area we are in. His research was so accurate that it becomes a mystery hunt to find the areas he writes about and ask some what intelligent questions of the people that live there now.
Sometime in the future I wish to visit a bed and breakfast in Mass. that was the home of Lizzie Borden. There are many questions left unanswered about her sister and the fathers business partner who was run off and charges were to be placed against him.
BTW, I read THE GRAY LADY, true story about our last British Governor run out of town, Governor Wentworth. His home still stands and is now part of a nursing home. The original wall paper is still on the walls, bullet holes over the fireplace mantel and hoof prints from the horses being road into the home by those darn river rats of town.
I know this because I worked a summer 11-7 shift, had plenty of time to roam about wondering about all the storeys of patients being awakened by a ghost in top hat and tails.
I think the ghost was on vacation that year as I never saw him, or his wife that some thought had poisoned her first husband in order to marry him.
Sorry for flight of ideas, one thing leads to another.
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As a kid MY grandparents had belonged to a book club back in the 1930-60 eras and I searched their attic for the 3 books in one that Readers Digest put out then.
My parents belonged to the Reader's Digest Book Club too.....used to read those books cover to cover when they came!!
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My parents belonged to the Reader's Digest Book Club too.....used to read those books cover to cover when they came!!
I found a box of those years ago and I read them all. I don't where I lost them at.
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Haven't read a new book in over 1....no ...2 years. Been rereading some of the old ones from school days. 14 year old son has to read a lot for English classes and I guess I'm just going into my second childhood. Right now he's reading War of the Worlds and The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. I really enjoyed those when I read them....and the "old" movies when they were made. I don't think the remakes movies aren't near as good.
Right now I'm trying to convince him to check out Les' Miserables by Victor Hugo but just ain't having any luck with that....to many pages. :-)
Last year, my daughter (then 11 years old) misunderstood the instructions for choosing your Advanced Reader points, so chose 100. The rest of the class chose 15 or 20, which was several books. When she was down to the last 2 weeks of the 9 weeks, she only had 30+ points. She checked out Les Miserables (worth something like 95 points), read it, enjoyed it, and passed her test.
But I suppose it would be too hard for a 14 year old boy... :evillaugh:
(Let me know if this changes his mind, Reb.) :-)
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Last year, my daughter (then 11 years old) misunderstood the instructions for choosing your Advanced Reader points, so chose 100. The rest of the class chose 15 or 20, which was several books. When she was down to the last 2 weeks of the 9 weeks, she only had 30+ points. She checked out Les Miserables (worth something like 95 points), read it, enjoyed it, and passed her test.
But I suppose it would be too hard for a 14 year old boy... :evillaugh:
(Let me know if this changes his mind, Reb.) :-)
Gone With The Wind is worth like 80 points. My daughter is going to read this one this year and kill off all of her points with one book.
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Parallel Lives ~Plutarch...still.
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I stopped by the library today and picked up some light reading... bug: The Strange Mutations of the World's Most Famous Automobile and Traffic: Why We Drive The Way We Do.
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I just ordered this... http://www.amazon.com/Princess-Found-American-Chiefdom-Connected/dp/0312378793/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255138162&sr=8-1
A Princess Found: An American Family, an African Chiefdom, and the Daughter Who Connected Them All (Hardcover)
Sarah Culberson was adopted one year after her birth by a loving, white, West Virginian couple and was raised in the United States with little knowledge of her ancestry. Though raised in a loving family, Sarah wanted to know more about the birth parents that had given her up. In 2004, she hired a private investigator to track down her biological father. When she began her search, she never imagined what she would discover or where that information would lead her: she was related to African royalty, a ruling Mende family in Sierra Leone and that she is considered a mahaloi, the child of a Paramount Chief, with the status like a princess. What followed was an unforgettably emotional journey of discovery of herself, a father she never knew, and the spirit of a war-torn nation. A Princess Found is a powerful, intimate revelation of her quest across the world to learn of the chiefdom she could one day call her own.
I used to babysit her when she was little. She was a really cool kid and her family is awesome. Her story is amazing!
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I've been reading the Stephanie Plumb series. My wife loves them (she's a Ranger girl). As a guy, they're OK, but not great.
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Just finished Atlas Shrugged and started on What You Have Left.
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James Patterson's Cross Country
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Still waiting for one of you imps, I mean swell people to send me a free book. :p
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James Patterson's Cross Country
I finished Alex Cross's Trial this morning. It was seriously freaking awesome! It is about an ancestor of Alex Cross, and a huge trial. The story is set in a Klan run town in Mississippi in 1906 (I think). The story is mostly about the white lawyer that takes on the white racists in the town.
I am out of books right now so I have to go to the library and get some more this afternoon. I still have Atlas Shrugged sitting there but for the life of me I can't start it. :bawl:
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I finished Alex Cross's Trial this morning. It was seriously freaking awesome! It is about an ancestor of Alex Cross, and a huge trial. The story is set in a Klan run town in Mississippi in 1906 (I think). The story is mostly about the white lawyer that takes on the white racists in the town.
I am out of books right now so I have to go to the library and get some more this afternoon. I still have Atlas Shrugged sitting there but for the life of me I can't start it. :bawl:
You really should. It was a very rewarding read and more than once I was forced to stop reading and simply say, "wow."
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It took me a bit to get started with that book. You just have to jump into it.
I need something new to read. I'm already bored.
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It took me a bit to get started with that book. You just have to jump into it.
I need something new to read. I'm already bored.
Read Vince Flynn's Extreme Measures...it's in paperback.
It's fiction, but it's about a CIA agent using torture to get intel to prevent an attack on US soil and those who want to arrent the agent for his "criminal behavior". I couldn't put it down, even when it was sending my blood pressure skyrocketing...
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Read Vince Flynn's Extreme Measures...it's in paperback.
It's fiction, but it's about a CIA agent using torture to get intel to prevent an attack on US soil and those who want to arrent the agent for his "criminal behavior". I couldn't put it down, even when it was sending my blood pressure skyrocketing...
Since no other CC member has expressed an interest in mailing me their old, used, worn out books... :bawl: ... I decided to reread HANNIBAL.
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ROUGH COUNTRY by John Sanford
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I finished Alex Cross's Trial this morning. It was seriously freaking awesome! It is about an ancestor of Alex Cross, and a huge trial. The story is set in a Klan run town in Mississippi in 1906 (I think). The story is mostly about the white lawyer that takes on the white racists in the town.
Are you high? That book was nothing but bait and switch! It should have been called: Using the Name Alex Cross to sell a book by a minor, unknown author who rented Patterson's name and several characters.
I don't hold it against Patterson, I wish I could rent my name out.
Anyone who wants to rent my name should email me to discuss terms and rates
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My son is reading "The Time Machine" for school....I read it 45 years ago and enjoyed it. So yesterday I reread it, took about 3 hours of reading and hanging up on health insurance telemarketers....sheeesh. Anyway this time I noticed he mentioned the evils of communism....twice. Then I noticed that the Eloi and the Morlocks were referred to as having maybe been at one time the "Haves" and the "Have-Nots".
I guess it just took 45 years to learn to finally "read between the lines"..... :rotf:
or to at least catch a few obvious things as I read.
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Are you high? That book was nothing but bait and switch! It should have been called: Using the Name Alex Cross to sell a book by a minor, unknown author who rented Patterson's name and several characters.
I don't hold it against Patterson, I wish I could rent my name out.
Anyone who wants to rent my name should email me to discuss terms and rates
Yeah, but it was a good book! :p
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I just started "Three Roads to the Alamo-the Lives and Fortunes of David Crockett, James Bowie and William Barret Travis " by William C. Davis.
Very interesting!
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I'm reading "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" for the second time by William Shirer as well as "1984" for the third time by Orwell. Good books never die. :cheersmate:
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I'm half way through The Lost Symbol By Dan Brown. Much better read than The Da Vinci Code.
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I'm half way through The Lost Symbol By Dan Brown. Much better read than The Da Vinci Code.
I watched the 2 hour show about "The Lost Symbol" last night on the History Channel. It amazes me that so many people get bent out of shape about his books.
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I watched the 2 hour show about "The Lost Symbol" last night on the History Channel. It amazes me that so many people get bent out of shape about his books.
That's because its about a super secret anti American Nazi spy group that wears sheets to their meetings.. The masons. Marcia and Perry. :-)
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I raced to the book shelf to see if I still had Steven Kings book ( that became a movie) about the plane flight where everyone fell asleep and ended up at a deserted airport.
I can't find it, but that was the first thing I thought about when the news of the pilots from North West ended up where they weren't suppose to be. It would have been poetic justice had Steven King been a passenger.
In honor of Halloween I am reading Richard Laymon's The Midnight Tour. Silly piece of fiction.
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I watched the 2 hour show about "The Lost Symbol" last night on the History Channel. It amazes me that so many people get bent out of shape about his books.
I tried to watch it last night, but I guess I have had my fill of secret symbols, everything is a code, nothing means what it says shows. Couldn't stay focused, and ended up watching some nature show about that Kandahari Desert. Lions and elephants and hippos oh my!
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Almost done with Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War. Good overview of the political and military developments that led to Jackie Fisher's HMS Dreadnought and the subsequent battleship arms race.
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I tried to watch it last night, but I guess I have had my fill of secret symbols, everything is a code, nothing means what it says shows. Couldn't stay focused, and ended up watching some nature show about that Kandahari Desert. Lions and elephants and hippos oh my!
It did get boring at times, which is why I was also online. It's nice to be able to check out things they mention. They talked about how George Washington was almost looked upon as a deity.
The mural at the top of the capitol rotunda showing Washington surrounded by other deities.
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/media/collections/nc/Apotheosis_of_George_Washington.jpg
A statue of Washington in an Olympian pose.
http://www.onejourneyatatime.com/site/images/09us35033.jpg
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Just started Under the Black Flag (the Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates) by David Cordingly.
Only 50 pages in but it's been a great read so far. Really fascinating and well told history.
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Just finished 'An Army at Dawn' by Rick Atknison
Now reading 'Arguing with Idiots' by Glennn Beck
Next Atkinson's sequel 'The Day of Battle' --- both his books are US in WWII North Africa, then Sicily/Italy
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Just started Intervention by Terri Blackstock last night. She is one of my favorite Christian authors. I will probably finish it tonight because it isn't a very big book. Tomorrow is library day. WHOOO HOOO!
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The library seems to have lost a book I turned in about three months ago. Seventy five dollars. So, no reading material for me until they find it. I'm not paying for some library employee's mistake. :censored:
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The library seems to have lost a book I turned in about three months ago. Seventy five dollars. So, no reading material for me until they find it. I'm not paying for some library employee's mistake. :censored:
A cop told my B-I-L today that he had a warrant out from the county but didn't arrest him. The warrant was "paid up" like 4 years ago but apparently he had to go to the county courthouse and get a receipt and give it to the locals.
Don't the cities and counties have these newfangled computers? Its not like we're backward like the NYC cops buying a million worth of typewriters.
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My brother wound up in a similar situation. Davidson County had "lost" their record of him paying some fine or another and demanded that he pay them a second time.
They have three metall drop-boxes outside the building... I put the book in one of them after the library was closed. They cut you off after your late fees exceed $25.
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The MidwayUSA ad for Nov.
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My brother wound up in a similar situation. Davidson County had "lost" their record of him paying some fine or another and demanded that he pay them a second time.
They have three metall drop-boxes outside the building... I put the book in one of them after the library was closed. They cut you off after your late fees exceed $25.
That happened to quite a few people that used the drop off slot at this one small video store in town. It was a scam and word got around very fast.
Go into the Library, check to see if your book is back on the shelves. find it, take it to the desk and tell them, with a smile that they had your book all the time, you understand how these things happen and REQUEST, don't demand, that all fines be dropped. It would not hurt to have a stranger see you find the book and accompany you to the desk.
Keep in mind there may have been a double check out also. All too often when the staff comes in to work they gather the returned books, place them on a rack to be gone through at a later hour. People coming in early morning may examine the returns and find one they like, walk in and check it out before the staff has time to credit you with the return.
You can request a history of dates and times the book was checked out and returned, and find the problem with an overlap in its history.
Well worth your time and effort when it comes to that much money.
With problems such as yours if you work with them they will be overjoyed to help you and themselves find the book if possible.
Please let us know how this turns out. Regards Vesta