Finished Lord of the Rings the other day... Bill (friend with no Blog) that gave me a great list of books, gave me another list... I've shortened the description, but here it is...

US History

Brothers Founding:  Each chapter covers a discrete part of US history (involving the founding fathers) showing how differing philosophies and compromises molded our country.   Great writing…very easy to digest…fascinating stories.  Chapters include a discussion of the Aaron Burr/Alexander Hamilton duel, negotiations that led to Washington DC being made the capital, the “hidden” slave debate, etc.  I believe that this was either a Pulitzer or National Book Award winner.  I bought the hardback a year or so ago, but I’ve seen the paperback – for cheap – at Costco in the last month or so.

John Adams:  Excellent, very readable biography of John Adams.  Interesting to read this after seeing Zinn characterize all the founding father’s as wealthy businessmen (not that Adam’s was poor by any means…but he had to watch his income!)  Between the stories relayed in Founding Brothers and here it’s a wonder our country survived its infancy.  This book was last year’s Pulitzer Prize winner.

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt:  Teddy Roosevelt did more before 30 (hell make that 20) than a dozen normal men in their lifetime.  Again…I don’t care that Zinn pitches him as a “war monger” there’s a lot more to the story here.  This is a dense book so you might want to take the others first, but it’s a great read.  There’s a sequel that covers his presidency (entitled Theodore Rex – I’m a quarter through that).  Rise won the Pulitzer a dozen or so years ago.

NOTE:  If you go down the path above…I’d recommend the goal of tackling 2 presidents a year!  There are a ton of great biographies of the presidents and you get the benefit of learning general US history as well.  This project will take you the next 25 years.

Nothing Like it in the World and Undaunted Courage:  Okay…so Stephen Ambrose has taken some lumps as a historian but so what!  These books are fun and informative.  “Nothing Like it” is about the construction of the transatlantic railroad.  Undaunted Courage is about the journeys of Lewis and Clark.  Both recommended.

World Events

From Beirut to Jerusalem:  Excellent, excellent, excellent viewpoint on what’s happening between Israel and Palestine.  Sadly it’s out of date regarding recent events since it was written about 10 years ago…but the fundamental information regarding WHY these people hate and distrust each other is still valid.  Written by Thomas Friedman who was a New York Times correspondent (winning 2 Pulitzer Prizes for reporting) in the middle east for 10 years.  Although Friedman is Jewish I think he gives a very fair & impartial treatment to the subject.

The Cult at the End of the World

Fun

Orchid Fever:  Very quick read on the weird and wacky world of Orchid collecting and breeding…filled with smugglers, deceit, and Indiana Jones type adventure (all true!).  Interesting that one of the world’s most famous Orchid smugglers is in the movie “Adaptation” that was just released.  Not sure how the 2 are related – just goes to show that the weird stuff you read today is tomorrow’s popular media!

The Professor and the Madman:  Another quick read…this time on the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary.  Turns out that one of the key goals of the OED was not only to catalog all of the words in the English language – but to include passages showing the different usage of the word over time.  For these passages, the editors wanted the earliest published reference.  To accomplish this task they asked the public to submit these references.  One person sent in something like 15K slips of paper…of which a huge number were used in the OED.  When the editor tracked this person down it was discovered the author was an inmate at an insane asylum (held there for a terrible murder!) 

Hinge Factor and What If?:  Different books that cover similar ground.  Hinge Factor looks at famous battles and tries to discern the pivotal issue that determined the outcome.  What If? speculates on what would have happened if famous battles had turned out differently.  These are both fun and a quick read.  There’s even a “What if? 2” but I haven’t had a chance to read it yet.