What Book Are You Currently Reading? (2.0.)

[Schiff for Senate]

Ken Follett's The Third Twin is the book I'm reading at the moment.
I haven't read any of Follett's works before but found this book to be quite interesting and I've been reading it fairly rapidly on some days. Wednesday, I read Chapters 1-17. Thursday, I got my booster shot, and on Thursday and Friday I took it very light and read one chapter each. Saturdy, I bounced back and read Chapters 20-47. Today, I've read Chapters 48-50 and will be reading from Chapter 51 now.

I've also previously read parts of Jessamyn Conrad's What You Should Know About Politics But Don't: Fourth Edition, but have decided to reread it. So far I've only reread the first chapter (on elections and the electoral process), but I'll get back to it in a book. It really is a fairly good book in my opinion even if you do know a good bit about most issues as I'm sure most of us do, though parts of it are (despite it being republished as 'fourth edition' in 2019) quite outdated, and there are some errors (such as calling Rod Blagojevich Ron Blagojevich).

Last long weekend I also read Jeffrey Archer's Tell Tale (a collection of short stories). I've read two full-length books by him before (both in 2019-2020: Kane & Abel and The Prodigal Daughter), as well as one collection of short stories (last November: A Twist In the Tale). I intend to read more of his short stories soon as well.

Some of the books I intend to read a bit later in the future are God's Own Party, by Daniel K. Williams, which documents the rise and fall of the religious right, and Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes.

[beesley]

Currently re-reading Sir James Lemon's autobiography titled 'Reminisces of Public Life in Southampton'. It is unusually formatted (but in a way that suits the note takers among us) but is an interesting first hand account of the local government side of urban politics, which you don't always get beyond the bigger cities.

[Aurelius]

Finished John Brown's Body.  This is truly one of the best things I have ever read.  The First Manassas scene is one of the best things I've ever read.  I was glued to my seat on the metro reading it.

The epic poem by Stephen Vincent Benet?

[Schiff for Senate]

Ken Follett's The Third Twin is the book I'm reading at the moment.
I haven't read any of Follett's works before but found this book to be quite interesting and I've been reading it fairly rapidly on some days. Wednesday, I read Chapters 1-17. Thursday, I got my booster shot, and on Thursday and Friday I took it very light and read one chapter each. Saturdy, I bounced back and read Chapters 20-47. Today, I've read Chapters 48-50 and will be reading from Chapter 51 now.

I've also previously read parts of Jessamyn Conrad's What You Should Know About Politics But Don't: Fourth Edition, but have decided to reread it. So far I've only reread the first chapter (on elections and the electoral process), but I'll get back to it in a book. It really is a fairly good book in my opinion even if you do know a good bit about most issues as I'm sure most of us do, though parts of it are (despite it being republished as 'fourth edition' in 2019) quite outdated, and there are some errors (such as calling Rod Blagojevich Ron Blagojevich).

Last long weekend I also read Jeffrey Archer's Tell Tale (a collection of short stories). I've read two full-length books by him before (both in 2019-2020: Kane & Abel and The Prodigal Daughter), as well as one collection of short stories (last November: A Twist In the Tale). I intend to read more of his short stories soon as well.

Some of the books I intend to read a bit later in the future are God's Own Party, by Daniel K. Williams, which documents the rise and fall of the religious right, and Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes.

Finished The Third Twin very late on Sunday night - it was great. Am now simultaneously reading two of Archer's short-story collections: To Cut a Long Story Short (2000) and And Thereby Hangs a Tale (2010). Have read a little bit of both but neither have had (m)any great stories thus far.

[beaver2.0]

Finished John Brown's Body.  This is truly one of the best things I have ever read.  The First Manassas scene is one of the best things I've ever read.  I was glued to my seat on the metro reading it.

The epic poem by Stephen Vincent Benet?

Yes.  It's very good.

[Aurelius]

"2001: A Space Odyssey". Taking a much-needed break from the presidents. It's become much more of a slog since Van Buren, now that the presidents are mostly venal politicians instead of great statesmen. Might read another scifi or two before jumping into Polk.

[Aurelius]

Blew through that one in a day.

"Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America". Walter R. Borneman.

[Senator Incitatus]

Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 by Stephen Kotkin
Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry that Forged a Nation by John Ferling
The Know-Nothing Party In Massachusetts: The Rise and Fall of a People's Party by John Mulkern
Exodus

[beaver2.0]

"2001: A Space Odyssey".

That's a good one.  I had a phase from 7th-10th grade where I was obsessed with that book.  I'm not longer like that, but there's a certain sense of mystery in the book that I still enjoy.

[HillGoose]

currently splitting my time between "Go Dog Go" and "Fixed Income Mathematics: Analytical and Statistical Techniques"

"Go Dog Go" has been quite a challenge I'm still struggling to understand it, super high level stuff

[Aurelius]

"Zachary Taylor: Soldier, Planter, Statesman of the Old Southwest" by K. Jack Bauer.

Polk was surprisingly interesting, pretty good page turner. Top 4 or 5 of the bios I've read so far. I suspect Taylor will be more of a slog.

4 more till Lincoln, the big prize.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Finished John Brown's Body.  This is truly one of the best things I have ever read.  The First Manassas scene is one of the best things I've ever read.  I was glued to my seat on the metro reading it.

The epic poem by Stephen Vincent Benet?

Yes.  It's very good.

My impression of Benet's body of work in general is that it isn't very well-regarded in retrospect--basically as just a series of exercises in American nationalist mythmaking without a ton of literary merit separate from that. Would you say this is an unfair characterization, or is John Brown's Body in particular just a lot better than the rest of his work?

[beaver2.0]

Finished John Brown's Body.  This is truly one of the best things I have ever read.  The First Manassas scene is one of the best things I've ever read.  I was glued to my seat on the metro reading it.

The epic poem by Stephen Vincent Benet?

Yes.  It's very good.

My impression of Benet's body of work in general is that it isn't very well-regarded in retrospect--basically as just a series of exercises in American nationalist mythmaking without a ton of literary merit separate from that. Would you say this is an unfair characterization, or is John Brown's Body in particular just a lot better than the rest of his work?

I've only ever read this and The Devil and Daniel Webster so I can't speak firsthand on all of it, but I believe you are correct in saying that his works are a series of exercises in mythmaking.  However, everything I've read of him has been entertaining as well.  John Brown's Body is not the best thing ever written, and I may have been a bit too infatuated with it when I made my earlier post but I still maintain that it is very well-written and certainly is worth reading.  I personally would argue that there are certain scenes with literary merit, but my perspective could be skewed having come into the book expecting a nationalistic tone.

[Dr. MB]

Mark Booth - The Secret History of the World

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

Dorothy Kunhardt - Pat the Bunny

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Currently suffering through The Mists of Avalon. I certainly wish I could ~separate the art from the artist~ on this one, but it's awfully difficult considering how much energy the narrative devotes to hammering home the Good and Feminist nature of ritualized sexual promiscuity that you're not allowed to say no to if Marion Zimmer Butwhatifthechildconsents or one of her author mouthpiece characters thinks it's a good idea. The genuinely hilarious levels of protagonist-centered morality and occasional moments of bizarre antisemitism DESPITE THE BOOK HAVING NO JEWISH CHARACTERS IN IT are difficult to ignore too.

[Schiff for Senate]

Finished both Archer short story collections last evening. I also read the chapter on the military from Conrad's book but have now put it away for the time being. Currently, I'm reading God's Own Party by Daniel K. Williams - I've been wanting to for a bit - and am in Chapter 1. Quite interesting so far. I didn't actually know this, but Jerry Falwell was apparently pro-segregation. After this I intend to read one more Archer collection (The Short, The Long and the Tall), as well as Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon.

[Cassandra]

I'm working my way through Eric Finer's Reconstruction masterpiece. I'm more than halfway through the US 19th Century read list I made myself nearly a year ago, feeling pretty proud of myself tbh. Starting to think I might be able to hack grad school after all, if I end up going in that direction.

[Aurelius]

"Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President" by Robert J. Rayback.

The preface calls him "a statesman with only a handful of White House rivals", so this will certainly be an interesting read. My impression coming in is that Fillmore, while the least bad of the Terrible Trio leading up to Lincoln, was a doughface who was too conciliatory and too weak of character to handle the acute challenges facing the Union in the 1850s.

[fhtagn]

"Love & Responsibility" by Karol Wojtyla (aka JPII)

[Aurelius]

"Abraham Lincoln: A Life (volume 1)" by Michael Burlingame.

I finished Fillmore and Pierce still hasn't arrived in the mail, so I'm reading Lincoln up to 1852 in the meantime.

[Schiff for Senate]

Finished both Archer short story collections last evening. I also read the chapter on the military from Conrad's book but have now put it away for the time being. Currently, I'm reading God's Own Party by Daniel K. Williams - I've been wanting to for a bit - and am in Chapter 1. Quite interesting so far. I didn't actually know this, but Jerry Falwell was apparently pro-segregation. After this I intend to read one more Archer collection (The Short, The Long and the Tall), as well as Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon.

Have read the first two chapters of God's Own Party.

Very interesting. Basically, Christian conservatives who were prior alienated from politics used anticommunism as their bridge to mainstream America (which was, of course, very anticommunist and borderline paranoid about communism, in the 1950s). They tied Christianity to capitalism and linked atheism to communism. Billy Graham was able to perfect this art to the point that he had Eisenhower's ear while he was president. However, as Chapter 2 demonstrates, southern fundamentalists (such as Jerry Falwell) were still more alienated from the rest of the country than southern baptists and northern evangelicals, because while northern evangelicals and southern baptists were cautiously pro-civil-rights, southern fundamentalists were (surprise, surprise) ardently segregationist (including Jerry Falwell). Graham was pro-civil rights, which obviously didn't hurt his relationship with Eisenhower and the mainstream public (and politicians), but one of the reasons was that the USSR was able to attack the US over being segregated, and Graham thought it was best to gradually and carefully liberalize on the issue. Southern fundamentalists were highly segregationist and somehow connected integration with big government, the New Deal, socialism, communism, etcetra. This kept them at arm's length from mainstream America and non-segregationist politicians. It really is surprising to read a book where 'evangelical' is considered moderate (though it's not too surprising, either, given the comparison is to pro-segregation 'fundamentalists'). Will be reading Chapter 3 next, about 'God and Country During the Kennedy Presidency'. Should be an interesting read.

[Brother Jonathan]

In addition to my ongoing non-fiction reading, I picked up Solzhenitsyn's In The First Circle which I am quite enjoying.

[Mr. Smith]

Just started reading George Orwell's Animal Farm.

Funny, I'm doing that book with my class.

[Aurelius]

In addition to my ongoing non-fiction reading, I picked up Solzhenitsyn's In The First Circle which I am quite enjoying.

Reminding myself to get to that one eventually.