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2015-12-27 Home Front: Culture Wars

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Posted by swksvolFF 2015-12-27 00:00|| || Front Page|| [5 views ] Top

#1 I'm not sure if I saw it in an ad or mentioned here on Rantburg, but I recent dropped a couple dollars on Clifford D Simak's "The Way Station" and really enjoyed it. You know you enjoy a book when you end it going, "But....gimme more!" I admit I buy alot of $1-3 dollar books on Amazon and honestly enjoy most of them. It actually gets hard to spend more than that on a book now from 'premium' authors unless I really really like them (Ie The Dresden Files). But it was good to read some classic science fiction.

Posted by Silentbrick 2015-12-27 00:50|| 2015-12-27 00:50|| Front Page Top

#2 Thanks for the book tips. I'm trying to struggle Herman J. Cohen's 'The Mind of the African Strongman' Conversations with dictators, statesmen, and father figures.

Posted by Besoeker 2015-12-27 06:51|| 2015-12-27 06:51|| Front Page Top

#3 Often I have two books going at the same time, one fiction and the other non-fiction, so I can pick between them depending on mood. The "fiction" I'm reading now, The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain, sorta straddles the line between the two categories. For those unfamiliar, it's a collection of Twain's newspaper columns about a trip Twain took to Europe and the Holy Land just after the War Between the States. It's a good read, and a fun one. Quite interesting to compare the way things are now to then, though I haven't got too far into it (Twain is in Morocco at this point).

The other book, which I've barely started, By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia by Barry Cunliffe, was recommended on a list of "Best History Books of 2015" on a British history site. The book ambitiously attempts to present a history of Eurasia from around 9000 BC to the Mongol expansion of the thirteenth century. I had actually been planning to read another book highly recommended on the site, The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan, until I found out it won't be available until February. The former book seems like good prep for the latter.

Posted by ryuge 2015-12-27 09:54|| 2015-12-27 09:54|| Front Page Top

#4 Oh, that looks good! I have a ton of cookbooks, but this is added to my wishlist now. I've visited Santa Fe precisely once in my life, and rather liked it. A pretty little town - every single corner of which was scenic, and the food was excellent. I honestly did wonder where they stashed the auto junk yards, liquor stores, Walmart and poor people, as there honestly didn't seem to have any.

I have had two books out this year myself, if I can plead for attention from my fellow Rantburgundians: a historical fiction novel, Sunset & Steel Rails, about a young woman working in the Harvey House chain in the late 19th century (which finishes up with a bang when she and two of her children survive the horrific Galveston Hurricane of 1900. It's on Amazon, in print and Kindle.
And my daughter and I co-wrote a diversion; The Chronicles of Luna City - a set of short stories and informational essays about life in a small (but mythical) South Texas town, and the various eccentric characters who keep it interesting. Also in print and Kindle.

Did you know that the Fonda in Santa Fe was a Harvey House restaurant, and built on the very site of what had been an inn since Santa Fe was founded?

Posted by Sgt. Mom 2015-12-27 10:19|| http://www.celiahayes.com 2015-12-27 10:19|| Front Page Top

#5 I looked for a Harvey girl for 35 years. Got the looks and brains but no.

Posted by Shipman 2015-12-27 10:43|| 2015-12-27 10:43|| Front Page Top

#6 Anytime Sgt. Mom. Congratulations on your books.

I believe this cookbook is a series of books, including Jamaica; love me some jerked chicken.
stop snickering

I had the carne adovada outside of Albuquerque; rocked my world.

ryuge, have By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean on my list now.

Posted by swksvolFF 2015-12-27 22:49|| 2015-12-27 22:49|| Front Page Top

#7 stop snickering

The chicken tried chokin' his gherkin
But jerkin' was not really workin':
The cock felt no tickle,
And, checking (no pickle!),
Fled, cloaking his shame with a merkin.

Posted by Zenobia Floger6220 2015-12-27 23:58|| 2015-12-27 23:58|| Front Page Top

23:58 Zenobia Floger6220
23:37 JosephMendiola
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23:15 Pappy
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22:48 JosephMendiola
22:43 Besoeker
22:41 Barbara
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19:28 CrazyFool
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19:20 swksvolFF
18:54 Clyde Bucket1605
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