What are you reading right now (II)?

cbi1972

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Nov 8, 2005
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Over the last couple of weeks:

Eldest by Christopher Paolini (read to my daughter)

And for myself, I finished Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago trilogy.
Have you ever read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich?
The courage shown by Solzhenitsyn by publishing a matter-of-fact treatment of Stalinist oppression while still residing in the USSR is awe-inspiring.
 

Bodhisattva

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Aug 22, 2001
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Have you ever read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich?
The courage shown by Solzhenitsyn by publishing a matter-of-fact treatment of Stalinist oppression while still residing in the USSR is awe-inspiring.
Haven't read that one yet, but it's on my to-do list. I can't even begin to fully appreciate the terror one feels when the state is out to get you. As you know, my wife experience this to a great extent growing up in a communist country, so I've taken an interest in Solzhenitsyn recently. I think it's a great misfortune for people in this country to be unaware just how dangerous a powerful government can be.
 

mlh

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Apr 28, 2004
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Blue-Eyed Devil by Robert B. Parker. I really like these westerns he wrote. Virgil and Everett are great characters.
 

BamaNation

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[ame=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679781781?ie=UTF8&tag=bamanation&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0679781781"]Mandela: The Authorized Biography[/ame]
 

dayhiker

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Dec 8, 2000
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I just finished, "Tattoos of the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion," by Father Gregory Boyle. It's about his 25 years of work with the gang members of East LA. I highly recommend it. I read it on a site visit to Kansas City on Tues. I actually sniffled a good bit on an airlplane. That's against guy code.
 

RamJamHam

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Jan 28, 2009
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"Light in August" by William Faulkner. Pretty good so far. It may be inspiring me to try "The Sound and the Fury" once again.
 

JPT4Bama

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Aug 21, 2006
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Just started Atlas Shrugged.
I finally read/finished Atlas Shrugged a few months ago as well. I had heard so many references to Ayn Rand and this novel in particular that I had to see for myself what all the fuss was about. Now I understand. :smile:

I enjoyed the book immensely though I confess to skimming the incredibly long John Galt speech towards the end as by that time I understood the message all too well.

She (Rand) was a fascinating person who didn't seem to fit in with any one political group or niche though the "right" would have surely seen her as their "Queen" had she not been atheist, at least in my opinion.

I found it striking that so much of what she frequently wrote about 40-60 years ago reads like it's coming from today's headlines.
 

jabcmb

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Feb 1, 2006
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Titan - Ron Chernow
It's a biography of John D. Rockefeller. The original Standard Oil magnate, he lived to age 97. I noticed just the other day that John D. Rockefeller VI was born.
 

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