What book are you reading?

[Sasaki Kojiro]

I recently finished The Riddle of the Sands which I recommend...great sort of spy/mystery novel written around 1900...

I just received and started 'A People History of the United States', authored by Howard Zinn(RIP).
Its considered by many to be the unvarnished version of the history of the Americas, and starts with Columbus's rather complete genocide of the Arawak Indians, of what is now known to be Haiti/Dominican Republic.
And then it on to the Americas...yipee yee haw.
Mans own inhumanity to man, is deeply disturbing, to put it mildly.
Dont want to get too into it, but it seems a pretty interesting read, and I look forward to finishing it.
In his own words Zinn tries to tell the history from the view of the the people who were often oppressed by it.
Its a well known fact that history is wrought by the victors, and they simply don't tell the losers story.
In this book Zinn tries to correct some of these historic imbalances.
If you are interested in the more real history of the USA, and North America in general, you would do well to check it out.
If nothing else it should help me to achieve a more rounded, and complete understanding of our forefathers in the USA.
While I am Canadian, I am a child of history, and especially the more recent history of our world.
We just seem to forget things so quickly nowadays.
Peace all.

That's a terrible book and the amount you know about history will decrease with every chapter you read. Try walter mcdougalls history instead, though it only goes up to 1880 or so...

Next up: Partially on a whim, but partially because I've long been meaning to check out the series (but have never gotten around to doing so until now), I picked up The Midshipman Hornblower and Lieutenant Hornblower by C.S. Forester at the library.

Given how big a fan I am of David Weber's Honor Harrington books, I realized it's only natural & right that I read up on the character that inspired them in the first place. Also, Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World (the film adaptation of Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey/Maturin novels) is one of my favorite movies, which gave me further impetus to check out (what seems to be considered) the gold standard of the "Wooden Ships and Iron Men" genre.

I've definitely not regretted it so far. I'm already over 2/3 of the way through Midshipman after just two days of reading, and am eager for more. I'm actually having to pace myself so I don't get through the books too quickly!

I like all of those books...there's like 10 more I think...