false 4 48 44 true 5711261 read 2 true 3501143 currently-reading 2 true 3501142 to-read http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78951764 to: The Panic of 1907: Lessons Learned from the Market's Perfect Storm (Paperback) by Robert F. Bruner
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78950835 to: Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity (Paperback) by John W. Loftus
I am cautious about recommending this book. As a former minister myself and I fancy myself as an independent thinker, I can read it with my faith still intact. Some of John's suppositions are quite similar to those of the religious mind he has discredited. I don't fault him for this. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. He just might tempt me to write another book in support of the faith. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77004397 to: The Great Depression: A Diary (Hardcover) by Benjamin Roth
I am enjoying this book on my Kindle DX. As I read I think the narrative is today's story. Some cute quotes follow:

[Insurance? No loans!:]
It is the old story of lending you an umbrella when the sun is shining and then demanding it back when it rains.
- Note Loc. 674-75

[The socialist party is eating this up!:]
People who are ordinarily moderate predict freely that if things do not get better very soon we will have a revolution in the U.S.A. and some form of Communism or dictatorship.
- Note Loc. 674

[Alcohol, you recall, was illegal. Shh! Speak easy!:]
Both parties adopt a plank advocating repeal of 18th Amendment but the Democratic plank is more drastic including a demand for “beer and light wine” at once. Loc. 683

[1932 and things are looking up?:]
The stock-market has been making up for past two weeks and newspaper headlines hail it as a sign of permanent betterment. I wonder how much of this sentiment between now and election day will be manufactured by the Republican Party.
Loc. 1441-42

[We are coming out; the market bottomed!:]
It now seems that this prediction was true and that the summer of 1932 marked the bottom of the depression.
Loc. 1463-64

[But:]
People are absolutely flat and except for the stock market they would be pretty hopeless. Also nobody seems to be able to figure out just why the market should go up except perhaps that it is being maneuvered for political purposes. Loc. 1503-5

[This year no cost of living on Social Security:]
Prices of all merchandise continue to plunge downward at a dizzy pace. The dollar today buys two and three times as much as it did two years ago. Loc. 1740-41

[And FDR isn't president yet......:] ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75569661 to: The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad (Paperback) by Harrison E. Salisbury
Excellent read. I went to this book after reading a footnote in one of my history books. Any friend you know that may have family in Russia will be able to add to this historical narrative about what Salisbury confirms that (quoting the official historical record) 'In world history there are no examples which in their tragedy equal the terrors of starving Leningrad. Each day.. was the equal of many months of ordinary life.' Those who maintain that suffering—undeserved and unexplained—must show there cannot be a loving God out there need only ask these people who never lost their faith or hope. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70160594 to: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (Paperback) by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Doris could cough on the page and it would be a best-seller to me. She has a naturally captivating style that imprisons my interest. And I can't discern her political leanings at all which is a mark of a true literary genius. Any bias, which is impossible to avoid, is nonetheless relegated to an unimportant footnote. I am blinded to any political favoritism by her fascinating way of illuminating real history. I must read also about President Lyndon B. Johnson. Her work is the only biography I will trust. 10 stars ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70158695 to: The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story (Mass Market Paperback) by Richard Preston
The first volume in a trilogy of horror written by a journalist whose fiction is by style as well as research realistic. I keep this book and its syblings to read again at leisure, hopefully before Dec 21, 2012! ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70160817 John's review of When the cheering stopped: The last years of Woodrow Wilson (Time reading program special edition)
by Gene Smith

An interesting study of the only president with a Doctorate-- earned ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70161391 John's review of A Sense of History: The Best Writing from American Heritage
by Byron Dobell

Yet to read ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70160640 John's review of Theodore Roosevelt: The Pulitzer Prize Biograghy
by Henry F. Pringle

Studying the presidents and the presidency has shown me that times have not really changed much. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70160730 John's review of Bruce Cattons Civil War: 3 Volumes
by Bruce Catton

Was an amateur Civil War buf 20 years ago. Perhaps, that is what revived my interest in American History. ]]>