Books you recommend - nonfiction

[ratpie]

Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation by Dan Fagin

Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman & Rom Brafman

all 3 books are excellent, no matter your political or socio-economic persuasions.

 

[ratpie]

Bible

he said non fiction...

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^
We've got a good discussion going. Please don't get it locked.

 

[/pine]

^^^
We've got a good discussion going. Please don't get it locked.

Based on his titles and his comment (that contradict each other) it's obvious he has an agenda that does not belong here...

 

[om21braz]

"Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion and Naturalism" by Alvin Plantinga. A difficult read to say the least but a vigorous evaluation of the conflict between science and religion done at the highest level of academic work. The conclusions are iconoclastic and will be surprising to most.

"Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis.

"John James Audubon: The Making of An American" by Richard Rhodes. Most people don't know much about Audubon but he was an amazing character.

"Roll Jordan Roll: The World the Slaves Made" by Eugene Genovese. One of the best and most complete explorations of slavery in America. Extremely interesting and with lots of information contrary to popular notions of what slavery was all about without excusing or diminishing the evil that slavery was.

Some good ones there

 

[/pine]

I just finished reading Robert Moore's: ' A Time to Die' the story of the Russian submarine Kursk disaster...
It's worth the read IMO...

A movie, according to the author (Moore) is based on the book will be out later this year...the cast includes Colin Firth and Max von Sydow...
Kursk (2018) - IMDb

 

[FarmWrench]

Any of the textbooks by Herbert L. Nichols Jr. "Moving the earth. The workbook of excavation", is a must have.

"Was God on Vacation" by Jack Van deer Geest is a book I have liked enough to have bought copies to give away (need some more) and the people I have given copies to have done the same thing.

"The Box. How the shipping container made the world smaller and economy.... .."
I had two copies and they both are out.

 

[Jstpssng]

"The Sea Hunters", books 1&2. Fiction writer Clive Cussler has formed an organization that searches for famous shipwrecks. Amkng many other things they found the " Hunley", the Confederate submarine that sunk a Union ship then disappeared. They also document searches which fail, such as a steam boat which allegedly sailed the Great Lakes prior to Robert Fulton. They also have been in Maine searching (like so many other people) for The White Bird, a French plane that disappeared in 1927 while attempting a trans Atlantic flight.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Empire of the Summer Moon, is excellent. About the Comanche raids, during the westward expansion of Texas and Colorado, the kidnapping of Sarah Parker and her life with the Comanches, the rise of the Texas Rangers, etc. I hunted this area of Texas and was interesting to see what happened there not that many years ago.

Another is River of Doubt, about Teddy Roosevelt痴 adventure down an uncharted river in the Amazon basin.

Lost in Shangri-La. A true story about a crash of a WW II bomber (on a sightseeing cruise with officers and nurses) in the darkest regions of New Guinea in 1945, their survival and rescue, and their encounter with a cannibalistic Stone Age tribe that had never seen civilized man.
Interesting, it includes interviews with both the survivors and the tribal members who were forever changed by this exposure.

I'm ordering this. I grew up in Victoria and a tale I read years ago (but can't find the book now)is about the great Comanche raid just as it hit Victoria Tx. A young salesman had done well enough in the days before the raid that he was able to upgrade his horse to a younger/faster horse. He started north out of town and came upon the Comanches. He turned and high tailed it back a few miles into downtown, barely outrunning the Comanche scouts. As he got to downtown, he was yelling at the top of his lungs about the imminent Indian raid, and nobody initially took any action. But that soon changed.

The precursor of the fight which happened in San Antonio where much of the Comanche higher ups got killed was a very interesting read. The Mexican gov't had tried to supply and pay to get the Comanche to fight from the north while the Mexicans attacked again from the south. This got found out about and stopped in it's infancy.

Last year, I helped my 7th grade daughter do a class report on this and found it to be some of the most interesting Texas history to be found.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed, a book about Clarence "Kelly" Johnson and his management of the Lockheed Skunkworks. Phenomenal read, considering what they built, and what they had to build it with.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/skunk-works-ben-r-rich/1112060960/2660017182168?st=PLA&sid=BNB_DRS_New+Marketplace+Shopping+Textbooks_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP211671&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7a_Zjv7C3AIViobACh0q5QloEAQYAyABEgKP_fD_BwE