Larry’s Comments (group member since Nov 23, 2020)

Larry’s comments from the Nonfiction Reading - Only the Best group.

Ioana wrote: "Larry wrote: "BEST BOOKS ON CANCER --ALSO FILED UNDER HEALTH AND MEDICINE

If you just want to know a lot about cancer, I can totally recommend the following two books. But these two books can be s..."


Ioana,

I am glad you found it. I do hope that it is useful.

Best,

Larry

Sarah wrote: "Thank you both for this group and for this list. I had pediatric leukemia (ALL) back in the 1980's, when Mukhergee was a Fellow. In his book, he traces the development of the protocol with which I ..."

Dear Sarah,

You have an amazing attitude. You mention the development of a protocol for treatment. Few understand the importance of that. My wife's cousin, who eventually became the Director of Oncology at Johns Hopkins, decades earlier was part of the team that developed the drug regimen that allowed the treatment of ovarian cancer with two powerful drugs. Three other drugs were used in a chemo session to lesson the side effects. "I believe future treatment will be completely individualized, based on personal DNA, not disease classification. " So true. So important.

But like I said, you have an amazing attitude. We all die ... one day at a time. If we gain a little wisdom, we figure out how to live during those days ... and sometimes to live fully.

Best,

Larry

John & Carol,

The coastal areas, like the one around the USS North Carolina, are being affected by both rapidly rising seas and subsidence of the land. Not good.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/concerning...

Carol wrote: "Played badminton this morning for the first time in years and discovered I could no longer hit the shuttlecock even when standing still! Much laughter from family who started giving me advice on ho..."

Carol, a few months ago, I played basketball with my 12 year old granddaughter. It is so good that she is a sweet girl who does not want to make her 74 year old grandfather look totally pathetic on a basketball court. The lack of physical activity in recent years has left me in pretty poor shape.

Dear Ctbk,

I have been reading Mary Beard's collected blog entries ... as published in the Times Literary Supplement and then collected in It's a Don's Life and It's a Don's Life. If you want to know what life is like for a don at Oxford or Cambridge, I think the books are great for that. Sometimes it's deeply philosophical and sometimes it's just really mundane stuff. And sometimes the latter is better than the former.

Ron wrote: "Saw that 'Palo Alto' is on the list for August. I might join that one. I already have a copy, but lately I've been thinking about getting the paperback edition because of how thick the hardback is."

I guess I'm lucky in that I bought a Kindle copy when it was published without even thinking of its physical size. And the latter is still improtant to me ... as I am reading more library books these days.

NONFICTION READING - ONLY THE BEST

Newsletter -- JANUARY 2024

* BOOK OF THE MONTH - MODERATOR'S CHOICE
* BOOK OF THE MONTH - MEMBERS' CHOICE

* UPCOMING BOOKS OF THE MONTH - MOD'S CHOICE
* UPCOMING BOOKS OF THE MONTH - MEMBERS' CHOICE
NOMINATIONS & VOTING

* BUDDY READS ...

*****
JANUARY BOOK OF THE MONTH - MODERATOR'S CHOICE

Michael Herr - Dispatches

Why you may want to read this book from 1977. I think that I read in a review shortly after it was published that the book was "searing hot." It is that and so much more. Emmett Rensin, years later in 2016, looked back at the book, and it is worth quoting a long passage from his article.

"His masterpiece, Dispatches, has been out of fashion for a while, but when it was published in 1977, it was widely regarded as the seminal work of new journalism about the Vietnam War. Today, aside perhaps from Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, it is the seminal work about the war, full stop.

It arrived late. Herr served as Esquire’s Vietnam War correspondent from 1967 to 1969, and returned to the United States intending to quickly produce a book about what he’d seen there.

But 18 months after his return, he suffered a nervous breakdown and wrote nothing for five years. The book ultimately arrived in 1977, and Hunter S. Thompson’s reaction is as accurate as any: "We have all spent 10 years trying to explain what happened to our heads and our lives in the decade we finally survived," he wrote, "but Michael Herr’s Dispatches puts all the rest of us in the shade.""

SOURCE: https://www.vox.com/2016/6/24/1202711...

Herr's work is one of two books where I have been viscerally shaken by the words describing the terrible events. [We'll get to that second book in a few months.] Not by the terrible events but by the power of the writer's words. As such, it is important, but it may deeply trouble some readers. True, it's about the Vietnam War long ago, but war is still too much with us.

LINK TO THE DISCUSSION: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

***

JANUARY BOOK OF THE MONTH - MEMBERS' CHOICE

NONE

*****
DECEMBER BOOK OF THE MONTH - MODERATOR'S CHOICE

Michael Ruhlman - Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America

LINK TO THE DISCUSSION: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

***

DECEMBER BOOK OF THE MONTH - MEMBERS' CHOICE

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

LINK TO THE DISCUSSION: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

*****

UPCOMING BOOKS OF THE MONTH - MODERATOR'S CHOICE


February 2024 - Michael J. Sandel - Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?

March 2024 - Isabel Wilkerson - The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America's Great Migration

April 2024 - Camilla Townsend - Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs

May 2024 - Bill Buford - Among The Thugs

June 2024 - Michael Lewis - The Fifth Risk

July 2024 - Usherwood & Tinder - The European Union: A Very Short Introduction, 3rd Ed. by John Pinder - The link is to the third edition ... the recommendation is for the 4th edition, which so far has no link.

August 2024 - Malcolm Harris - Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World

September 2024 - Ben Rawlence - The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth

October 2024 -John Keay - India: A History

November 2024 - Chris Miller - Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology

December 2024 - Henry Marsh - And Finally: Matters of Life and Death

***

UPCOMING BOOKS OF THE MONTH - MEMBERS' CHOICE
The nominations process and voting are open to all members ... I only ask that you nominate and/or vote for a book that you think you may read.

I would hope that the person who nominates a book that is chosen will actively participate in the discussion. You don’t have to lead that discussion, but if you do, that’s great.

Beginning on January 1, nominations are open for the Monthly Reading - Members’ Choice for February.

On January 11, voting may begin for the books nominated from any and all members. (Please remember to vote for the book you nominate. Unless you want to vote on a book nominated by another member. Yeah, that can happen!)

On January 21, I will announce the winner. That book will be the February Members’ Choice Book of the Month. In case of ties, I will choose the winner.

LINK TO THE NOMINATIONS AND VOTING FOR THE FEBRUARY BOOK OF THE MONTH MEMBERS' CHOICE: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...



***

BUDDY READS - If you want to read any (or almost any ... I have some limits) book with someone else here, I will set up folders for doing just that. Just propose a book that you would like to read as a Buddy Read along with any details, e.g. when you want to start and how long you want the discussion to continue.

I'll set up a topic/thread for a proposed buddy reads when someone proposes a book and someone else opts in for the shared reading experience ... or in some cases, even before someone accepts the invitation.

Here's a link to the Buddy Reads folder, with a number of ongoing Buddy Reads: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

I wish you all a Happy New Year and hope that you will find some time in 2024 for reading books that you find rewarding and worth sharing with those around you.

Good Reading!

Larry, Founder and Moderator

UPCOMING BOOKS OF THE MONTH - MEMBERS' CHOICE

The nominations process and voting are open to all members ... I only ask that you nominate and/or vote for a book that you think you may read.

I would hope that the person who nominates a book that is chosen will actively participate in the discussion. You don’t have to lead that discussion, but if you do, that’s great.

Beginning on January 1, nominations are open for the Monthly Reading - Members’ Choice for February.

On January 11, voting may begin for the books nominated from any and all members. (Please remember to vote for the book you nominate. Unless you want to vote on a book nominated by another member. Yeah, that can happen!)

On January 21, I will announce the winner. That book will be the February Members’ Choice Book of the Month. In case of ties, I will choose the winner.

Use this thread to nominate a book ... and then later (beginning on January 11) to vote for the book of your choice.

JANUARY BOOK OF THE MONTH - MODERATOR'S CHOICE

Michael Herr - Dispatches

Why you may want to read this book from 1977. I think that I read in a review when shortly after it was released that the book was "searing hot." It is that and so much more. Emmett Rensin, years later in 2016, looked back at the book, and it is worth quoting a long passage from that article"

"His masterpiece, Dispatches, has been out of fashion for a while, but when it was published in 1977, it was widely regarded as the seminal work of new journalism about the Vietnam War. Today, aside perhaps from Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, it is the seminal work about the war, full stop.

It arrived late. Herr served as Esquire’s Vietnam War correspondent from 1967 to 1969, and returned to the United States intending to quickly produce a book about what he’d seen there.

But 18 months after his return, he suffered a nervous breakdown and wrote nothing for five years. The book ultimately arrived in 1977, and Hunter S. Thompson’s reaction is as accurate as any: "We have all spent 10 years trying to explain what happened to our heads and our lives in the decade we finally survived," he wrote, "but Michael Herr’s Dispatches puts all the rest of us in the shade.""

SOURCE: https://www.vox.com/2016/6/24/1202711...

Herr's work is one of two books where I have been viscerally shaken by the words describing the terrible events. [We'll get to that second book in a few months.] Not by the terrible events but by the power of the writer's words. As such, it is important, but it may deeply trouble some readers. True, it's about the Vietnam War long ago, but war is still too much with us.

Please ... post it every year. Its perfect.

To all who celebrate it, I wish a very Merry Christmas … and to all others I wish the Happiest Holidays! May there be peace in this world.

Carol, thank you for starting us in the wishing of Seasons Greetings!

Ron, let me know what you think of that book. I acquired it a while back.

Cynda, I’ll do that … maybe beginning in mid January if that works for you?

Cynda, I think I will move the Nicholas Best book up onto my TBR list and try to get to it soon.

And then I wondered what would happen if I asked Bing for the 10 best books on Trafalgar. Would it start with the five it told the first time and then list five more ... or something else? Here's that result:

"Here are some of the best books on the Battle of Trafalgar:

Nelson: Britannia’s God of War by Andrew Lambert 1: This book is a great place to start if you want to understand the man himself and his enduring celebrity status.

The Pursuit of Victory: The Life and Achievement of Horatio Nelson by Roger Knight 1: This is one of the heavyweight biographies of the vice-admiral. It employs the latest research to provide a detailed analysis of the man and his place in history.

Nelson: A Dream of Glory by John Sugden 1: This book covers Nelson’s early life and career, from his birth in 1758 to the disastrous, failed attack on Tenerife in 1797, in which he lost his right arm.

Nelson’s Trafalgar: The Battle That Changed the World by Roy Adkins 23: This book presents the definitive blow-by-blow account of the world’s most famous naval battle, when the British Royal Navy under Lord Horatio Nelson dealt a decisive blow to the forces of Napoleon.

Seize the Fire: Heroism, Duty, and Nelson’s Battle of Trafalgar by Adam Nicolson 2: This book provides a vivid and visceral account of the battle, drawing on first-hand accounts from sailors and marines who fought on both sides.

Trafalgar: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sea Battle in History by Nicholas Best 2: This book provides a comprehensive account of the battle, including the political and social context in which it took place.

Voices from the Battle of Trafalgar by Peter Warwick 2: This book provides a unique perspective on the battle, drawing on first-hand accounts from sailors and marines who fought on both sides.

The Battle of Trafalgar by Geoffrey Bennett 2: This book provides a detailed account of the battle, including the tactics used by both sides and the key events that led to the British victory.

The Trafalgar Companion by Mark Adkin 4: This book provides a comprehensive guide to the battle, including detailed maps, diagrams, and illustrations.

The Campaign of Trafalgar by Julian S. Corbett 4: This book provides a detailed analysis of the battle, including the political and strategic context in which it took place."

Cynda, this one is one that I recommend: Trafalgar by Nicholas Best. I asked the Bing A.I. and got the following answer:

"There are many books about the Battle of Trafalgar, but here are some of the most popular ones:

Nelson: Britannia’s God of War by Andrew Lambert: This book is a great place to start if you want to understand the man himself and his enduring celebrity status. It is up-to-date, easy to read, and short compared to many of the other biographies 1.

The Pursuit of Victory: The Life and Achievement of Horatio Nelson by Roger Knight: This is one of the heavyweight biographies of the vice-admiral. It employs the latest research to provide a detailed analysis of the man and his place in history, backed up by many pages of references and notes, as well as a section of biographical sketches of people who interacted with Nelson 1.

Nelson’s Trafalgar: The Battle That Changed the World by Roy Adkins: This book presents the definitive blow-by-blow account of the world’s most famous naval battle, when the British Royal Navy under Lord Horatio Nelson dealt a decisive blow to the forces of Napoleon 2.

Trafalgar: The Biography of a Battle by Roy Adkins: This book tells the story of the war at sea in Napoleonic times. It is written in a way that is easy to understand and is a great read for anyone interested in naval history 3.

Nelson: A Dream of Glory by John Sugden: This book covers Nelson’s early life and career, from his birth in 1758 to the disastrous, failed attack on Tenerife in 1797, in which he lost his right arm. These years are presented in great detail in the 788 pages; publication of the second volume was expected this spring, and its delay is a huge disappointment to Nelson enthusiasts 1.

"

What a good summary of the battle, Allan. I, of course, know of the Mahan work, and I have the Dreadnought book but have not read it.

Great posting about Nelson and Trafalgar.

I never got into fantasy sports. My son was really into it (both baseball and football) for several years and really enjoyed it as a way of maintaining contact with old friends. Next year (for a reason I don't want to explain right now) we will have cable tv again and will have all the Nats and O's games.

The greed of the owners established those blackout rights. Stupid greed that hurt the fans who couldn’t watch the games on the MLB app as they were being played but only on a delayed basis.