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What NON-Christian books are you currently reading?

Discussion in 'Books & Publications Forum' started by fromtheright, Dec 28, 2005.

  1. Phillip

    Phillip <b>Moderator</b>

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    My book?

    I'm currently reading:

    Engineering Design Handbook
    Principles of Explosive Behavior
    by Hedquarters, U.S. Army Materiel Command April 1972.

    Why? Work. . . :sleep:
     
  2. fromtheright

    fromtheright <img src =/2844.JPG>

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    Just finished The Fourteenth Amendment and the Bill of Rights, by Raoul Berger. Excellent book, which was written as a response to an activist piece, in which Berger argues that the 14th Amendment was not intended to "incorporate" the Bill of Rights so that they apply to the States. Also just finished Alf Mapp's The Faiths of our Fathers: What America's Founders Really Believed, a very good study, which doesn't have the problem of many works such as David Barton's and Peter Marshall's of trying to push a particular view, is a more nuanced study of a handful of the Founders (including Patrick Henry, James Madison, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Haym Salomon, Charles Carroll of Carrollton), though I don't think it's nearly deep enough.

    Presently reading:

    --Vol. 1 of Hippolyte Taine's The French Revolution
    --The Idea of Natural Rights by Brian Tierney, a study of intellectual history in the period 1120 to 1650.
    --The Great Collaboration: Jefferson and Madison, by Adrienne Koch
     
  3. TC

    TC Active Member
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    You sound a lot like me. I read a few books at a time and flip from one book to another depending on how I feel at the time. Right now I'm reading books about John Adams, the Civil War battles along the mississippi, and various computer books along with the encyclopedia set I obtained recently from a used book sale ($20 for entire set - 2002 edition of Britannica) at the local public library.
     
  4. fromtheright

    fromtheright <img src =/2844.JPG>

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    What are you reading about Adams? I read McCullough's and Ellis's books about him. There is a new one, Party of One (author James Grant, I believe) about him. I've got it but I've been putting off for too long reading the thick Madison bio by Ketcham.
     
  5. TC

    TC Active Member
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    It is John Adams and the American Revolution by Katherine Drinker Bowen. I believe it was first printed in 1960. I also have McCullough's. Next on my list are two on George Washington and one on Ben Franklin, but I do not remember the authors right now.
     
  6. TC

    TC Active Member
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    oops. double post.
     
  7. fromtheright

    fromtheright <img src =/2844.JPG>

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    Richard Brookhiser's book on Washington is very good, as is Patriot Sage, a collection of essays about him, published by ISI books, I believe.
     
  8. TC

    TC Active Member
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    The ones I have are Goerge Washington: The Forge Of Experience by James Thomas Flexner and His Excellency: Goerge Washington by Joseph J. Ellis.

    The Benjamin Franklin book is a biography by Ronald W. Clark. Two more books on my list for this summer are John von Neumann by Norman Macrae and Witness to the Holocaust by Azriel Eisenberg.
     
  9. fromtheright

    fromtheright <img src =/2844.JPG>

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    Just started on one that is newly released, James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights. From the intro, it appears the focus is on the conflict between Madison and Patrick Henry in the Virginia Constitution ratifying convention but the author begins right after the Constitution was sent to the Congress just after it was written.

    I'm looking forward to hearing from you, TC, re the Ellis book when you get done. Have read a couple of others of his and thoroughly enjoyed them.
     
  10. Pete Richert

    Pete Richert New Member

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    [​IMG]
    Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax" by Philip C. Plait

    Decent book. Fun at times. I recently read an Astronomy textbook which covered a lot of the same topics (obviously in more detail), but a worthwhile few hours nontheless.

    [​IMG]
    What Evolution Is by Ernst Mayr

    Though this is pitched as a popular level introduction, you really need a better background in biology then I do to understand a good deal of this book. Mayr doesn't even attempt to defend the evidence of evolution, assuming it is so overwelming and obvious that any informed person would already agree. That was a disapointment since it was the main reason I was reading this book. (He does have the decency to give some references to check). Some interesting insights on genetics in populations, but all in all somewhat tedious, and I gave up about half way through. I now must admit purposleful ignorance on evolution and creation since I had my chance to learn and gave up.

    [​IMG]
    Design of Analog CMOS Integrated Circuits by Behzad Razavi

    My field. Doing a little review.
     
  11. fromtheright

    fromtheright <img src =/2844.JPG>

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    The James Madison book was excellent, for anyone interested.

    Now reading Adams vs. Jefferson and Liberty and American Experience in the Eighteenth Century, a collection of essays published by Liberty Fund, an excellent source of references.
     
  12. TC

    TC Active Member
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    The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant.
     
  13. av1611jim

    av1611jim New Member

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    "Hero of Battan, the story of General Jonathan M. Wainwright" by Duane Shultz.
     
  14. Bible Believing Bill

    Bible Believing Bill <img src =/bbb.jpg>

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    Just finished Blow Fly by Patricia Cornwell.

    Recently have read:
    Black Notice - Patricia Cornwell
    Trace - Patricia Cornwell
    The Last Precinct - Patricia Cornwell

    OK now I think I am caught up on the Kay Scarpetta novels.

    Also recently finished:

    One Knight Only - Peter David
    This book has King Arthur as a present day President of the United States.

    Bill
     
  15. Daisy

    Daisy New Member

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    Richard Feynman's Six Easy Pieces. Easy and entertaining lectures on physics.
     
  16. Magnetic Poles

    Magnetic Poles New Member

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    Just now getting back to America on Trial: Inside the Legal Battles That Transformed Our Nation by Alan Dershowitz.
     
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