What Are You Reading Now?

[Pelado]

[Pelado]

...

[BigPiney]

The author is in my FIL's ward. I got a signed copy for Christmas. May get to soon.

[All-American]

The National Book Critics Circle Awards has announced their finalists.

For fiction:



Non-fiction

I don't mean to embarrass you, but you listed Piketty in "non-fiction."

[Pelado]

The author is in my FIL's ward. I got a signed copy for Christmas. May get to soon.

My niece got it for me, including an autograph from Lavell. My 10-year-old wants to read it with me.

[SteelBlue]

I don't mean to embarrass you, but you listed Piketty in "non-fiction."

Ha ha. I've been waiting for Pelagius to dissect the thing for us on here.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Finally got around to reading Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee. It is a history of the American Indians from 1860-1890. Published in 1970, it has become a classic.

Sheesh. What a heartbreaking book. Nazi Germany doesn't have much on us when it comes to genocide. In fact, I have read (not in this book), that Hitler studied this part of American history carefully and was said to have patterned concentration camps and ethnic cleansing on our example. In some cases, he patterned the actual layout and design of concentration camps on Indian reservations (Bosque Redondo).

There were some good and kind-hearted Indian agents and Army officers. Unfortunately, they were typically fired after showing some kindness and humanity.

[Paperback Writer]

Finally got around to reading Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee. It is a history of the American Indians from 1860-1890. Published in 1970, it has become a classic.

Sheesh. What a heartbreaking book. Nazi Germany doesn't have much on us when it comes to genocide. In fact, I have read (not in this book), that Hitler studied this part of American history carefully and was said to have patterned concentration camps and ethnic cleansing on our example. In some cases, he patterned the actual layout and design of concentration camps on Indian reservations (Bosque Redondo).

There were some good and kind-hearted Indian agents and Army officers. Unfortunately, they were typically fired after showing some kindness and humanity.

I'll have to revisit BMHAWK, it's been well over a couple of decades since I last read it. When I first read it, I was going through a reading phase about the settling of the west, particularly the great plains. Anyway, what I remember is that although BMHAWK gives an important perspective, it is a biased perspective. There was plenty of savagery on both sides when native americans clashed with white settlers. And there was also savagery when native american tribes clashed with each other. Nevertheless, BMHAWK was an important work in that it presented another side of the American West very different from the Hollywood version and from what was typically taught in our education system. I either didn't make the connection, or dismissed it, between the eradication of the American Indian and what took place in Nazi Germany. World War II has also long been an area of interest of mine and one that I've read extensively. Thus my reason for wanting to take another look at it from that perspective.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I'll have to revisit BMHAWK, it's been well over a couple of decades since I last read it. When I first read it, I was going through a reading phase about the settling of the west, particularly the great plains. Anyway, what I remember is that although BMHAWK gives an important perspective, it is a biased perspective. There was plenty of savagery on both sides when native americans clashed with white settlers. And there was also savagery when native american tribes clashed with each other. Nevertheless, BMHAWK was an important work in that it presented another side of the American West very different from the Hollywood version and from what was typically taught in our education system. I either didn't make the connection, or dismissed it, between the eradication of the American Indian and what took place in Nazi Germany. World War II has also long been an area of interest of mine and one that I've read extensively. Thus my reason for wanting to take another look at it from that perspective.

There was no mention of that in the book. That was my observation.

There is no such thing as unbiased history. It is a myth. That being said, it is not really fair to say that the book whitewashes Indian raids and killing of white settlers. For many of these tribes, raiding was a way of life and was something they had been doing (against other tribes and against Mexicans) for centuries. Westward migration was inevitable and conflict was inevitable. However, there were many cases where Indians had either completely stopped raiding or had never raided in the first place, but were still slaughtered and pushed off their lands because white settlers wanted the gold or the prime land. For example, there was a small tribe in Iowa (IIRC) that were traditionally agricultural (they raised corn) and they had a long history of being friendly, starting with their initial encounter with Lewis & Clark. Not a single incident of conflict or bad behavior and they adapted the English language, and were doing everything they could to assimilate. But some farmers wanted their land so they complained to the corrupt Indian agents and the army came in and drove them hundreds of miles to a reservation in the snow. Hundreds died. Then they starved at the reservation because they were dependent on the government for food and the food was not allocated or was confiscated by corrupt contractors along the way. The tribe was almost wiped out. This was repeated over and over again throughout the west. No to mention the many massacres.

I remember as a kid hearing heroic stories about Custer's last stand. Custer had been involved in a horrible massacre on an indian village. Then he was engaged in an unprovoked attack on another camp when he was killed (he didn't realize how many Indians were there). These Indians had done nothing wrong but they were living in the Black Hills (which was Indian land by treaty) when gold was discovered. There is nothing at all heroic about Custer.

[Armenag]

Ready Player One, aka the novelization of Buzzfeed's classic listicle "50 Things Only ’80s Kids Can Understand." The characters are pretty generic and the author apparently subscribes to the notion prevalent in some corners of the internet that simply making and catching references is commendable, without doing anything with them. That said, it was pretty entertaining.

[Uncle Ted]

These books come up now and then in various "last day" discussions...

http://www.amazon.com/A-Greater-Tomo.../dp/0996097406 ("#1 best seller in Mormonism")

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1462111181/

I haven't read either one of them but the plot seems pretty much the same... the author has a near-death experience and receives some grand vision of what is going to happen in the last days. In short, all kinds of sh*t goes down. They make the claim they need to tell everyone they can about this so they can be prepared. So they write a book and sell it (and it becomes a #1 best seller in Mormonism).

So my question is to the authors of such books would be: If you feel that you have such an important message then why the hell are you charging money to read your book? Why not just make a nice PDF file and put it up on the internet for folks to download to get the word out to as many folks as possible? I think these books are yet another 'Boy Who Came Back From Heaven'. These authors are in it for the money and not because they are trying to warn folks about some apocalypse. My BS meter is showing some very high readings.

[wuapinmon]

Ready Player One, aka the novelization of Buzzfeed's classic listicle "50 Things Only ’80s Kids Can Understand." The characters are pretty generic and the author apparently subscribes to the notion prevalent in some corners of the internet that simply making and catching references is commendable, without doing anything with them. That said, it was pretty entertaining.

That's why I loved Oscar Wao so much....not only is it replete with references, he also describes Trujillo as Sauron, his henchmen as Nazgul, and so on. The references add to the story instead of just being endless easter eggs.

[SandYFan]

House of Leaves. Only a few pages in, but kind of nuts so far. I understand it progresses into full-blown crazy. Kind of looking forward to it.

[SteelBlue]

Making my way through "Infinite Jest" for the first time. It's taken me 2 weeks to get through the first 1/3 of the novel.

[old_gregg]

Making my way through "Infinite Jest" for the first time. It's taken me 2 weeks to get through the first 1/3 of the novel.

you're reading way too fast