Book Bonanza

The Ruin of the Roman Empire: A New History by James J. O’Donnell
Worlds at War: The 2,500-Year Struggle Between East and West by Anthony Pagden
The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall by Christopher Hibbert
What new books have you just picked up?
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Joseph Fouche:
October 10th, 2010 at 11:06 am
Leebaert taught me that, when writing about the Cold War era, any slow patch can be covered by pulling out George Kennan and kicking him around. The same ploy works equally well for any discussion of contemporary grand strategy.
zen:
October 10th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
"Leebaert taught me that, when writing about the Cold War era, any slow patch can be covered by pulling out George Kennan and kicking him around."
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A process not unlike George Kennan’s actual career. 🙂
J. Scott:
October 10th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
Zen, A few disconnected titles: The (Mis) Behavior of Markets, by Benoit Mandelbrot (very good), Applied Imagination, by Alex Osborn (old title, ridiculous beginning, but ok overall), Success Through Failure, Henry Petroski (only read a few pages, not bad), Fooled By Randomness, NN Taleb (Black Swan was very good, haven’t started this one), Flatland, by Edwin A. Abott (old title, new to me–so far, so good), The Ruin of Kasch, Roberto Calasso (haven’t started–bought after reading Hill’s Grand Strategies), On the Rails, by Linda Hiemann (found this recommended at chicagoboyz), and Dante’s Inferno, the Mark Musa translation (read this many moons ago, but this don’t remember the power conveyed in this translation). I did pick up the Oxford History of Islam and read a few essays and almost finished with Islamic Imperialism. That is all for now. The "Ruin" and the Hibbert (I’ve read Hibbert’s Virgin Queen–not bad) book look very good, I’ll have to add to the list.
onparkstreet:
October 10th, 2010 at 10:20 pm
1. Graham Greene, Complete Short Stories
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2. David Kilcullen, Counterinsurgency
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3. Still finishing up an Iris Murdoch novel Under The Net, which I don’t quite "get." No matter. It fascinates.
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Picked up a copy of The American Interest. The Sept/Oct. issue is military-themed and has a review by Dr. Kilcullen: "Learning From the Al-Anbar Awakening."
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I finally decided that good quality magazines and short story collections were better suited to my schedule….of laziness….
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🙂
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– Madhu
onparkstreet:
October 10th, 2010 at 10:30 pm
Oh wait. Those are not particularly "new" books, except for Counterinsurgency. For fiction, I tend to ignore quite a lot of the "hot off the press" stuff, although I may make an exception for Franzen’s Freedom. We’ll see.
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– Madhu
Dave:
October 11th, 2010 at 12:20 am
Leebaert’s To Dare and to Conquer was also very good.
Lexington Green:
October 11th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Currently reading The Expansion Of New England: The Spread Of New England Settlement And Institutions To The Mississippi River 1620-1865 By Lois Kimball Matthews Rosenberry (1909). Next up, A Journal of the Disasters in Afghanistan,1841-2 (1843) by Lady Florentia Sale. Both freebies off Google Books, onto the Kindle.
Arherring:
October 11th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
Just finished The Eerie Silence by Paul Davies. Currently reading The Junior Officer’s Reading Club by Patrick Hennessey. On deck is The Ghosts of Cannae by Robert L. O’Connell or American Insurgents, American Patriots by T. H. Breen. I haven’t decided.