more books
Dec. 6th, 2011 11:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadger40/50: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. Another re-read, of a justly classic book. While some of the puns and whimsy may seem a bit labored, this is a charming book about a boy (and his dog...and a bug) exploring language, numbers, and the whole realm of imagination. While ultimately paedagogical it its goal of demonstrating how fun learning can be, this adventure story has plenty of entertainment value. And the Jules Feiffer illustrations enhance the mood and amusement value tremendously.
41/50: Europe's Last Summer: Who Started the Great War in 1914? by David Fromkin. A wonderful, meaty history (*and* historiography, Peter!) of the origins of the Great War. Fromkin dispels some of the popular myths about how the war came about. These arose partly through the energetic efforts of all the participants to shift blame and partly through the efforts, either by most of the same participants or by other forces, to destroy or obscure relevant materials that will make understanding events clearer. Fundamentally, Fromkin credits a basic and understandable but false analysis of the principle nature of the conflict that began in 1914. His central thesis is that there was not one war but two, and that the two wars arose not out of an imperialistic aggression on the part of the Central Powers but out of a nearly paralyzing paranoia, an existential fear on their part--Austria's fear of implosion as Balkan nationalism rose and Germany's fear of future defeat and domination by a modernizing Russia. It's a fascinating book, an easy read, and I would strongly recommend it.
In progress (if I could finish most of these--or substitutes--this month, I would pass the 50 book goal!)
Bible and Sword: England and Palestine from the Bronze Age to Balfour by Barbara W. Tuchman
The California Voodoo Game by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes
The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat
Doom Castle by Neil Munro
Hostile Skies: A Combat History of the American Air Service in World War I by James J. Hudson
Drinking Arak Off an Ayatollah's Beard: A Journey Through the Inside-Out Worlds of Iran and Afghanistan by Nicholas Jubber
Understanding China by John Bryan Starr
The Williamite Wars in Ireland, 1688-1691 by John Childs
My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk
Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775 by Thomas Desjardins
Theoretical Criminology by George B. Vold et al.
Knights of the Cross; or, Krzyzacy by Henryk Sienkiewicz
41/50: Europe's Last Summer: Who Started the Great War in 1914? by David Fromkin. A wonderful, meaty history (*and* historiography, Peter!) of the origins of the Great War. Fromkin dispels some of the popular myths about how the war came about. These arose partly through the energetic efforts of all the participants to shift blame and partly through the efforts, either by most of the same participants or by other forces, to destroy or obscure relevant materials that will make understanding events clearer. Fundamentally, Fromkin credits a basic and understandable but false analysis of the principle nature of the conflict that began in 1914. His central thesis is that there was not one war but two, and that the two wars arose not out of an imperialistic aggression on the part of the Central Powers but out of a nearly paralyzing paranoia, an existential fear on their part--Austria's fear of implosion as Balkan nationalism rose and Germany's fear of future defeat and domination by a modernizing Russia. It's a fascinating book, an easy read, and I would strongly recommend it.
In progress (if I could finish most of these--or substitutes--this month, I would pass the 50 book goal!)
Bible and Sword: England and Palestine from the Bronze Age to Balfour by Barbara W. Tuchman
The California Voodoo Game by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes
The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat
Doom Castle by Neil Munro
Hostile Skies: A Combat History of the American Air Service in World War I by James J. Hudson
Drinking Arak Off an Ayatollah's Beard: A Journey Through the Inside-Out Worlds of Iran and Afghanistan by Nicholas Jubber
Understanding China by John Bryan Starr
The Williamite Wars in Ireland, 1688-1691 by John Childs
My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk
Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775 by Thomas Desjardins
Theoretical Criminology by George B. Vold et al.
Knights of the Cross; or, Krzyzacy by Henryk Sienkiewicz
