What book are you reading right now?

[nj1639]

Granny gave me the 1873 that my grandfather was issued in the war with Spain. 45-70, in good condition, seldom fired. Used for hunting, you usually get only one shot anyway.

Reading, with relish>
Molotov Remembers, Inside Kremlin Politics. Molotov lived a long time and was visited (in cramped commie apartment) over about 10 + years for reminiscence...notes were typed up after every interview - the last of the Bolsheviks, more or less. He was the diplomat that dealt with everybody... Hitler and the other nazis, and Roosevelt, and Churchill...slept in their fine houses. Has personal impressions many, including of the Dulles brothers (which match my own view of those characters). Stalin had Molotov on the liquidation list, and changed his mind ! And yet Molotov defends with cold logic the Stalin purges and trials and executions. Gives deep insight into the war, I mean both that war and this one a-brewin' up. Withal, taking the long view of history of the formation of the peoples and nations of what MacKinder called heartland we begin to see the Soviet period as a transitional necessity in world history. The first invasion of "Rus" was by Poles and Germans in 1012.... by the way. And Rus is still there... Worth study, as zone west provokes them again. Three flags fly over Kremlin as equals today, Rus Imperial, Soviet, and the three colors...which are red white and blue! (but not in that order!)

Sun Tsu advises us to study both ourselves and our enemies. Honestly though, in the example, the peoples of zone west and of zone east are not enemies, but some "leaders" do not serve their people, they serve themselves... which makes for "enemies", and for horrors this Memorial Day. May all the dead lie in grace and glory, and the soldier dead especially.

Molotov
Brought to mind the Winter War.
If I have this right the soviets were bombing Finland saying they were dropping humanitarian supplies when the world asked what they were doing.
The Finns brought drinks to the banquet in response , Molotov Cocktails.

 

[40north]

Molotov
Brought to mind the Winter War.
If I have this right the soviets were bombing Finland saying they were dropping humanitarian supplies when the world asked what they were doing.
The Finns brought drinks to the banquet in response , Molotov Cocktails.

Molotov speaks to this as well! He discussed it with Hitler... The history we "know" is very complex.

 

[nj1639]

Compendium of the Emerald Tablets by Billy Carson
View attachment 327147

Heard Terrance Howard discussing the Flower of Life symbol and the concept of "As above, so below", which is mentioned in the Emerald Tablets. Fascinating.
Me Pops used to buy the little Fate magazines when I was a young teen, I'd read them cover to cover......couldn't get enough of the worlds mysteries.

 

[40north]

I study Russia too, she will always tell you what she will do next if you have the courage to listen.

It has a tortured and convoluted past and present. It’s people, victims of its leadership, past and present.

Personally, I have deep Germanic roots, my ancestors literally lived in a 200km radius for 1500 years. We came to Canada in the 1960s , as we were at that time, living in that good old workers paradise then called the GDR ( or as known as East Germany), stazi was a thing, we were slated for transportation for “reeducation “ somewhere near Madagan …so we left , the hard way.

Russia looms large in my families past;

First war

Great Grandfather as a member of the Frei Korps ( killed in firefight , Polish Civil war . 1921.)

Grandfather, Army Group North , siege of Leningrad, Army Group South , Siege of Sevastopol….arty FOO, siege guns

“Guest of the Soviet Union” until 1947.

Father , Hitler Youth, tank killer team … at 12. ( 3 T-34s ). April 1945.

And so here, Canada, my 3 brothers and I, all have served in the Canadian Military. Upon joining , my Opa ( who told us all to join to repay the debt we owed to Canada for allowing us in) said , “ you learning to fight Russia??” Ja, Opa, we are ….

Gut! , you will never face a tougher adversary, study well.

I have his full combat log. Reading it , I see as westerners , we are wholly unprepared for the savagery that the “Krieg im OST” would be like.

It’s clear , very clear , our leaders have no idea how bad this would be

Russia absorbed 25 million casualties, Germany , 10 million

Fact is the western allies , as tough as it was after D day, only faced 15 % of the German Army … Every one else was fighting Russia, a war that was without quarter.

A ramble, sorry. im a student of history , with skin in the game unlike many. Good book choice though, we could have learned so much

When the wall fell, Russia needed a version of the Marshall Plan like West Germany was provided , instead , we gloated and laughed …. Just like what happend to Germany in 1919…. And look where that went ….

I am about half German from Frankfurt...every member of that branch that remained in Germany was killed, one fella is MIA from the Imperial German Air Force! (and he left Kansas to die in WW1)... the other half all Quaker Scot and American since 1620's. A son of the revolution several times over. I have no antipathy toward the Ruskies, they are what they are, and they are there. We earnestly agree about their character. Actually I like them from a distance. It remains the Eastern Rome. And yes, they are quite frank and honest, and say what they'll do. The soft fellas that have never been in a fight have no idea what they're provoking when they poke the bear (and the panda that morphs into a dragon). I agree with my brother Quaker and distant cousin Smedley, the only thing worth fighting for is the bill of rights and our homes. Honestly, it seems to me that taken altogether in the long history, the 500 years of anglo saxon diaspora from the European peninsula, and colonial rent extraction that came with it - a long era - is ending. And with it, as "proof" we are in world war now. And that due to moral decline, the west will be vastly changed by the war. I have deeply mixed feelings about this...as I was a cadet, and learned arms and drill as I learned to read. I am glad, and very sad too, to be free to watch the horror show, as I'm too old to be obliged to take part.
Blessings brother, we seem to be on the cusp of a terrible time.

 

[Paleomechanic]

I am about half German from Frankfurt...every member of that branch that remained in Germany was killed, one fella is MIA from the Imperial German Air Force! (and he left Kansas to die in WW1)... the other half all Quaker Scot and American since 1620's. A son of the revolution several times over. I have no antipathy toward the Ruskies, they are what they are, and they are there. We earnestly agree about their character. Actually I like them from a distance. It remains the Eastern Rome. And yes, they are quite frank and honest, and say what they'll do. The soft fellas that have never been in a fight have no idea what they're provoking when they poke the bear (and the panda that morphs into a dragon). I agree with my brother Quaker and distant cousin Smedley, the only thing worth fighting for is the bill of rights and our homes. Honestly, it seems to me that taken altogether in the long history, the 500 years of anglo saxon diaspora from the European peninsula, and colonial rent extraction that came with it - a long era - is ending. And with it, as "proof" we are in world war now. And that due to moral decline, the west will be vastly changed by the war. I have deeply mixed feelings about this...as I was a cadet, and learned arms and drill as I learned to read. I am glad, and very sad too, to be free to watch the horror show, as I'm too old to be obliged to take part.
Blessings brother, we seem to be on the cusp of a terrible time.

And to you, my mothers side of the family is German Mennonite, we are kindred folk it seems
As well, too old , all I can do now is prepare my children the best I can in our farming ways, to keep their eyes up and minds sharp ( oh, and they are hella good shots …)

 

[nj1639]

@40north and @Paleomechanic
Interesting, fellas.
Dads side goes back to the Swede/Finn Colony on the Delaware, patriarchs Peter Gunnerson Rambo and Peter Cock. They entertained old Willie Penn in their homes when he was granted his charter and showed up to establish Philly. Lars Cock, Peters son, had been appointed by the Swede colony to trade with the Lenape. Lars was the interpreter for Penn with his treaty with the Delaware . Mix in the new Quaker immigrants that followed Penn. A couple families in there had patriarchs martyrd . One in Charles 2nd's revenge of his fathers death .....hung, drawn and quartered, and the other in Bloody Mary's purge of the protestants.....Canterbury burnings at the stake.
Anti-catholic sentiment was still being expressed by my Gggrandmother, according to Dad. He said Nana would be rolling in her grave if she knew his picture was in a catholic high school yearbook shown dancing at a school dance. He said she'd get him aside if he brought a girl to the house and ask him if she was one of "those" while making the catholic sign of the cross.

Mums colonial side goes back too mid 1700's Scot, seems Penns Colony needed some muscle on the frontier and encouraged the Presbyterians to immigrate. They'll fight.
Then add Prussian from Mecklenburgh in the 1860's.
Mums mother was first generation Northern Irish with the mixing of who they all are, late 1800's.
Grandmother had family that immigrated to Oz about the same time, Kilpatricks.
I'll note on Dads side during the ReV War that some of the relatives were Loyalists and fled to Canada, Hollingshead by surname, Quaker stock.

Avatar served multiple short enlistments during the Rev War. Jonas Cattell, lots of documentation and first hand accounts of character. "Young man with no horse" in a census.
My paternal grandmother would often remind me that our family had lived under four flags here in country, Swede, Dutch, English and finally Old Glory.

 

[40north]

Wonderful! My brothers! My German is difficult, I read it slowly, often need the dictionary (which I keep next to the 'puter) and composition takes a long time. So this was some trouble... Memorial Day and here we are, yet living. So? A prayer, I guess: Jeder Mensch hat seine eigene Sicht auf die Geschichte, Friede sei mit den Soldaten und den Toten ( every man has his own view of history, peace be with the solders and the dead.)

 

[DogBunny]

Just finished:
THE MASTER OF SILENCE A ROMANCE
By Irving Bacheller 1892
Short story, 50 pages, easy and enjoyable read. More mystery than "romance."
I stumbled on this by accident while at the computer. It is free to download, read on various devices, or print out here:
https://m.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7486/pg7486.txt
It is from a library of 70,000 free eBooks that can be viewed here:
https://www.gutenberg.org/
Also has a lot of audiobooks.

 

[40north]

Doug Valentine's CIA as Organized Crime (amazon> https://www.amazon.com/CIA-Organized-Crime-Illegal-Operations/dp/0997287012

Saving the 25 sambuckies, listen to the author tell the sordid tale> https://archive.org/details/DouglasValentine

In the second portion of the book brother Doug describes the CIA in Ukraine for 70 years... well it's more than 70 now. The interview and the book are dated. It may be worthwhile to recall that Lenin created the former Ukraine, and Khrushchev added Crimea. Regrettably, Lenin and the fellas included some non-amicable nations into Ukraine, Galicia, and such. These people and the spies made whoopie, it seems. Very droll. Lenin and the fellas made a boo boo.

As I posted previously - I read Molotov... There we read his views and opinions many years later...among these, that Lenin was a man of very "strident morality", I would say immoral - as he put the goal alone as defining policy and action, with no regard for justice. Many of the Bolshevik thought his acts excessive, though necessary,and avoided being shot by keeping silent. They knew that in the Terror, many men were innocent in fact, but saw shooting them as necessary in order to get all the traitors. Let Heaven judge them. Molotov compares Lenin and Stalin, with the commentary that Stalin was considered quote moderate compared to Lenin. All of which I am glad is well behind us all. Nevertheless, the Soviets built a federal State and a massive infrastructure, and defeated the European nazis (it was not just Germans, most of Europe attacked USSR).

Right or not, the successor State has decided, in view of what Valentine describes, and which continues with massive gifts of funds and treasure, to correct one of Lenin's errors. Thus the Special Military Operation. Not that I like it, or dislike it. It simply is. It's the History we live in, like leaves on the pond.

 

[RC4MAN]

Beginning the Allan Eckert "Winnng of America" series.
They were owned by my late brother in law who lived in southern Ohio where many of these are set.

 

[40north]

Long time ago I read the Journals of Louis and Clark, which was very interesting. Interesting too that the chick was by to-days rules, a child...and she saved the fellas from death, and carried a baby along. Meantime I am slugging it out with Comrade Molotov in his sorta crazy interviews in Molotov Remembers. The Bolshies were, it seems, "worshiping" a non-reasonable and immoral ideology inconsistent with Ruskie character and history. A tragic story. Molotov rationalizes the crimes under the rubric of "necessity", even as he acknowledges their evil qualities. It goes with the Master and Margarita, which is exquisite literary art. Molotov, btw, may be correct that they would have been defeated in W2 if they had not committed the crimes. We'll never know.

 

[drgonzo]

Shane by Jack Schaefer, a book my father read as a boy. It has to be why my dad bought 200 acres and had a small cattle farm. Shane was one of his favorite movies, and mine.
After reading about half the little book I realized that as much as my dad loved cowboy culture, John Wayne and so forth, he didn't really identify with Shane, but he was one a hell of a Joe Starrett!
My oldest son gave me the book for my birthday. He's a pretty smart man.

 

[nj1639]

Beginning the Allan Eckert "Winnng of America" series.
They were owned by my late brother in law who lived in southern Ohio where many of these are set.
View attachment 330833

Duuude! That's some good reading. The footnotes and references are extensive with tons of first person accounts. Reading " The Frontiersmen " got me hooked especially as it deals with my general locale. Missing in your acquisition is "That Dark and Bloody River" which introduces Lewis Wetzel and centering around Wheeling, ("Wheelunk" - place of the head/skull) West Virginia.
Overall, layers and layers of American frontier history. Good score!

 

[DogBunny]

Just finished another in my ERS Series (Easy to Read Stuff), "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" by C. S. Lewis, the first book written in The Chronicles of Narnia.
I was pretty well-read as a child, but somehow never heard of this until the movies started coming out in 2005. Read it out of curiosity.
I can see how this would capture a youngster's imagination, but there are scores of way better children's books. I did enjoy the dated (published in 1950) British proper-ness (what are these small children doing drinking tea all the time? I guess it's a lot better than Cokes, which is what I drank as a kid), and it has great illustrations, but I will not be reading any more books in the series.

Shane -- much better book for young (or old) adults.

I read the Journals of Louis and Clark, while backpacking in Utah for a whole month. It gave a better appreciation of the narrative to be in the wilderness where some of it happened.

 

[RC4MAN]

Duuude! That's some good reading. The footnotes and references are extensive with tons of first person accounts. Reading " The Frontiersmen " got me hooked especially as it deals with my general locale. Missing in your acquisition is "That Dark and Bloody River" which introduces Lewis Wetzel and centering around Wheeling, ("Wheelunk" - place of the head/skull) West Virginia.
Overall, layers and layers of American frontier history. Good score!

Just getting started, I understand there's also a biographies of Tecumseh and Blue Jacket so I figure I'm tied up through winter

I read the Journals of Louis and Clark, while backpacking in Utah for a whole month. It gave a better appreciation of the narrative to be in the wilderness where some of it happened.

Actually Clark appears in these, in some of his early enterprises before and after the Revolutionary War though not as a major character in what I've started so far.

 

[40north]

Duuude! That's some good reading. The footnotes and references are extensive with tons of first person accounts. Reading " The Frontiersmen " got me hooked especially as it deals with my general locale. Missing in your acquisition is "That Dark and Bloody River" which introduces Lewis Wetzel and centering around Wheeling, ("Wheelunk" - place of the head/skull) West Virginia.
Overall, layers and layers of American frontier history. Good score!

see, speaking of frontier> https://archive.org/details/vigilantedaysway00lang I read an old copy from Sac State library, now it's in archive. There was also a california version, iirc.

 

[40north]

Book, which I hesitate to bring up. A compilation of reports from western correspondents in Russia during the war, the war our fathers fought, not the one going on. Obviously this history is being "revised" in the western political arena - which is why I hesitate. But these are copies of the originals. The Ruskies obviously have a reason to publish them. Nevertheless they're the originals, history, not politics. That said, I'd take them with a grain of salt, the correspondents probably had their own prejudices when they wrote, and the Reds probably influenced what got written... that's the way it goes. We can say the same of Churchill, or David Irving. Anyway, take the book with a grain of salt, and as history, not advocacy. I've said before that I study the Reds, and Russia. So, iirc, have some others said here at the "XS club"...
free download> 335 pages. ‘Miracle in the East. Western war correspondents report. 1941–1945.’ https://www.fiip.ru/upload/iblock/2...2k97tzq8oc690/Miracle-in-the-East-english.pdf

excerpt> CHAPTER I PRELUDE TO THE STORM The Times, May 8, 1945 Rise and Fall of the Third Reich:Long Road to VictoryOn September 1, 1939, Germanarmour crossed the Polish frontier andGerman aeroplanes attacked Warsaw.Ten days earlier the signature of aRusso-German non-aggression pact1had proclaimed the imminence of warand the Germans had now completedtheir preparations for its outbreak.They had perfected a new method ofwarfare, later to be known as Blitzkrieg,by a development of the tactics whichhad finally overcome the static de

 

[DogBunny]

Just finished "The Rainbow Trail," another in my ERS Series (Easy to Read Stuff). This is the first book I've read by Zane Grey, one of the most prolific writers of Westerns (along with Louis L'Amour, who I've also never read).
This was another freebie from:
https://www.gutenberg.org/
(Over 70,000 free eBooks.)
This is the first book I've read on my new Kindle. I was very skeptical of the Kindle, but it turns out I really like it.
"The Rainbow Trail" takes place on the Utah/Arizona border, with a heavy dose of Mormonism and polygamy, which was a little unusual, I guess. It was okay, and one of his better known books, but I doubt I'll be reading any more Grey.

 

[Paleomechanic]

My other hobby …..

 

[TJZ662]

View attachment 330840
Just finished another in my ERS Series (Easy to Read Stuff), "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" by C. S. Lewis, the first book written in The Chronicles of Narnia.
I was pretty well-read as a child, but somehow never heard of this until the movies started coming out in 2005. Read it out of curiosity.
I can see how this would capture a youngster's imagination, but there are scores of way better children's books. I did enjoy the dated (published in 1950) British proper-ness (what are these small children doing drinking tea all the time? I guess it's a lot better than Cokes, which is what I drank as a kid), and it has great illustrations, but I will not be reading any more books in the series.

Shane -- much better book for young (or old) adults.

I read the Journals of Louis and Clark, while backpacking in Utah for a whole month. It gave a better appreciation of the narrative to be in the wilderness where some of it happened.

If you enjoyed the Chronicles book, I’d highly recommend the others. And if you’re into that sort of genre I’d also suggest “The Wing Feather Saga”.