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Old 08-24-2011, 02:31 PM   #1041
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Edit: just searched for A Canticle for Leibowitz and found a free ePub available.
Don, do you have a link for that. All the sites I've found so far require signup or have other problems.

Thanks.
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Old 08-24-2011, 02:40 PM   #1042
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I Googled Canticle for Leibowitz epub and saw an obscure link to a calibre page that contains a link to download it. Maybe from the Calibre forum?
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Old 08-24-2011, 04:03 PM   #1043
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Embarrassed to say I finally got around to reading In Cold Blood (4 years after my son had it as required reading in high school and left his copy on the shelf). I now understand what all the praise about the book and Capote were all about. Amazing detail and terrific insight. You couldn't write fiction any more gripping.
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Old 08-24-2011, 04:09 PM   #1044
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Just finished Longfellow's Evangeline (free on my Kindle). With vast poetic license, this classic describes the origin of the Louisiana Cajuns ( = Acadians) and how/why they emigrated from Canada to Louisiana. One of the most tragic and romantic word poems ever.

The legend of Evangeline and Gabriel, part history and part fiction, still continues by word of mouth in Louisiana. St. Martinsville is full of Evangeline stories including the Evangeline oak and more.
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Old 08-24-2011, 04:37 PM   #1045
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Just finished Longfellow's Evangeline (free on my Kindle). With vast poetic license, this classic describes the origin of the Louisiana Cajuns ( = Acadians) and how/why they emigrated from Canada to Louisiana. One of the most tragic and romantic word poems ever.

The legend of Evangeline and Gabriel, part history and part fiction, still continues by word of mouth in Louisiana. St. Martinsville is full of Evangeline stories including the Evangeline oak and more.
I'd bet that is the inspiration for this song by The Band:

THE BAND - EVANGELINE LYRICS

The Band had some knowledge of the Acadians, seeing that they had Canadian members and one Southerner (Levon Helm)

THE BAND - ACADIAN DRIFTWOOD LYRICS

Check out Acadian Driftwood on youtube - wonderfully poignant song.


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Old 08-24-2011, 06:42 PM   #1046
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I just read Kate Atkinson's "Case Histories " . It had been highly recommended to me by one of my gym pals . It was a little weird . I may read another of her books to see if they get better .
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Old 08-26-2011, 08:44 AM   #1047
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Just read A Bali Conspiracy Most Foul by Shamini Flint. It is an entertaining mystery featuring Inspector Singh, a quirky Sikh homicide inspector from Singapore. The insubordinate, but talented, Singh is exiled to Bali to help with the Bali bombing investigation. Officials there realize he has nothing to offer on the terrorism investigation but they find a skull fragment with a gunshot wound in the rubble and assign it to him. Naturally, he gets his murderer. Fun read. I will order more in the series.
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Old 08-26-2011, 09:51 AM   #1048
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Just finished Blood Safari by Deon Meyer........have others on order from our library.
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Old 08-26-2011, 02:13 PM   #1049
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The idea is to read something in French that I wouldn't have to struggle with. With my knowledge of French being pretty rusty right now, I would require a dictionary at my elbow for many of the French classics. Even Dumas was more than I wanted to tackle right now. This is just right - - easier to read along at a reasonable pace without having to stop and look things up, and yet still allowing one to learn a little along the way.

So far, so good. One of the things I had on my list for retirement was brushing up on my French.
I'd also recommend the Harry Potter series for this. Great stories, obviously, and for whatever reason, I felt a little silly reading them in English.
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Old 08-26-2011, 03:11 PM   #1050
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Baidarka The Kayak by George Dyson - out of print but can be found used on Amazon. Aleuts, kayaks and early Russian hunting in Alaska. Also George's 6061-T6 aluminum frame/skin kayak building efforts.

Because I got into a discussion with an old white haired gentleman who conducted a workshop building 6 or 7 of them(retired school teacher). This while waiting for my Sister to finish a Yogi class at the community center.

heh heh heh - Over the decades I've always met 'very interesting' people in the State of Washington.
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Old 08-26-2011, 04:34 PM   #1051
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I'd also recommend the Harry Potter series for this. Great stories, obviously, and for whatever reason, I felt a little silly reading them in English.
Oh good idea! I haven't read them in English, either, and I am sure I would like them in French. Thanks!
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Old 08-28-2011, 09:18 AM   #1052
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I tried another Lee Child book (Amazon.com: 61 Hours: A Reacher Novel (Jack Reacher) (9780440243694): Lee Child: Books) and I was enjoying it, until I got to what is apparently the main premise of the book:
A town's police force has to guard a witness, but because they signed a contract with the prison to have all cops drop everything and assist if there is a riot or breakout, they are concerned that they will have to leave the witness unprotected in that situation.
That's just unrealistic, so I've given up on Lee Child.
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Old 08-29-2011, 11:30 AM   #1053
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T-Al, I felt the same way after reading a number of Clive Cussler's novels. They just got further and further from anything resembling reality.
I worry for Ted Bell, as I fear he's heading down the same path with the Hawke novels that I love dearly.
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Old 08-29-2011, 04:13 PM   #1054
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I tried another Lee Child book (Amazon.com: 61 Hours: A Reacher Novel (Jack Reacher) (9780440243694): Lee Child: Books) and I was enjoying it, until I got to what is apparently the main premise of the book:
A town's police force has to guard a witness, but because they signed a contract with the prison to have all cops drop everything and assist if there is a riot or breakout, they are concerned that they will have to leave the witness unprotected in that situation.
That's just unrealistic, so I've given up on Lee Child.
I think I have read all of the "Jack Reacher" books. They are definitely entertainment. There has to be *some* suspension of disbelief.

I don't believe that if we get attacked by aliens a Macbook delivering a virus to an interstellar species is going to cut it - but I still liked Independence Day
I am not sure there is a super spy/soldier/CIA/FBI/grunt like Jason Bourne but I liked some of those movies and books as well.

I don't want to analyze and think about a book, if I did, that means I would be reading a textbook
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Old 08-29-2011, 05:32 PM   #1055
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Just finished reading "Blown for Good - Behind the Iron Curtain of Scientology." The big story in Clearwater right now is $400,000 in daily fines which were incurred due to an 8 year (?) delay in completing a major construction project, the Scientologist Super Power Center, in downtown Clearwater. I thought I would learn a little more about my "neighbors."

One of the most gut-wrenching books I've ever read.
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Old 08-29-2011, 09:36 PM   #1056
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Based on recommendations in this thread, I just read "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand. A riveting tale! So amazing was Zamperini's resilience that I wondered whether he had been putting a few legs on the story. After all, what are the odds of making it through all those challenges? Anyway, I enjoyed it a lot. Thanks for the recommendation.

Following on the forced imprisonment theme, I am now halfway through "Under an Afghan Sky" by Mellissa Fung. This book was on my list and when first published a few months ago it was not available on Kindle. I checked again last week and there it was (but not cheap). Fung is a 30 something CBC reporter who was kidnapped while on assignment in Afghanistan in October 2008 and held in horrible conditions for over a month. She made it home alive and is back on TV, showing no obvious signs of PTSD. This week she has been reporting on Irene. This is her "Memoir of captivity". She has never openly said that she was raped, but describes sexual threats while closely confined with a captor, and I believe she was indeed raped. She is amazingly matter of fact, probably trying to be as objective as possible. Interspersed with the narrative are letters, written but never received, between Fung and her boyfriend, a reporter with another network, also based in Afghanistan. That was an angle I was unaware of. I will be watching both of them with interest from now on.
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Old 09-05-2011, 04:51 PM   #1057
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Just picked up Lost in Shangra-La by Mitchell Zuckoff.

It's a true story of survival, aventure, and the most incredible rescue mission of WWII. Well that's what the cover says.

The first 233 pages are great.
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Old 09-08-2011, 06:06 AM   #1058
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A Plague of Secrets by John Lescroart is an enjoyable entry in his Dismas Hardy series. Got it from the library electronically.
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Old 09-13-2011, 05:46 PM   #1059
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After all the discussion above about dystopian novels I finally read my downloaded ePub of A Canticle for Liebowitz. It is very good. It follows 1500 years of a Catholic Abbey dedicated to preserving writings (memorabilia) from our civilization after it was destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. Hopefully (and actually) these memorabilia will spark and/or support a renaissance. It is depressing and hopeful at the same time - well worth reading. The activities of the Liebowitzian Order reminded me of the description of the activities of Irish monks saving ancient memorabilia in the non-fiction book: How the Irish Saved Civilization.
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Old 09-13-2011, 07:18 PM   #1060
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I have been working my way through The Jackson Brodie books by Kate Atkinson. The first book "Case Histories" was strange but the following were much easier to follow ."One Good Turn ""When will there be good news ""Started early took my dog". The all take place in Scotland & England and actually they turned out to be a really good read .
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