hitman

I've just finished up Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose, really good book better than Nothing Like It In the World which is the only other Ambrose I've read and pretty good in its own right. I also read Ball Four by Jim Bouton, this was a good fast read that hasnt lost any of its fun even if its no longer a tell all shocker. Im now reading Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, honestly I'm not a huge fan at this point.

I read Red Clay Pink Cadillacs and White Gold a book about kaolin mining in Gerorgia. I had heard good things about this book and wanted to read it to get a better look into the industry I work for but was saddened to find it was little more than campaign propaganda from 1996 that was poorly written highly repeditive and frankly had been stretched to book length (barely) by use of every trick the printer could readily imagine. That being said it does shine a light (a highly dated light) on a miserable subject. I also listened to The Edgar Allen Poe compilation Raven edition volume 1. The reading varies in quality but hey whatta ya want for nothin'. As to the stories.....there from Poe, nuff said.

Soaking

Just finished Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. The obvious fact that this book is the inspiration for almost all subsequent non-fiction crime books is manifest from the outset, yet it is so well written that unlike most genre originators it has not in and of itself been diminished over time.

Double Fail, I checked out Havoc's Sword (book 11 in the Alan Lewrie series) only to realise I had already read it and that it was my least favorite in the series thus far. Then the libraries E-book reader updated and I wasn't able to read Grant's Final Victory despite having waited for a few weeks to get it. Ugh oh well.

Saw this over on io9 and thought it might garner some intrest here despite being OOP. http://m.io9.com/5902375/incredible-video-shows-100-years-of-shipping-routes-1750+1850

Read Freedom TM a real good book but not quite as good as Daemon. Highly recommend both though.

Just finished reading Arctic Drift by Clive & Dirk Cussler. Fun book and way better than the early Clive/Dirk combo stuff. I own an abriged audio version of this book but the full version is much better.

Yeah dropped it off Monday along with African Game Trails. I've got two more books coming and Arctic Drift by Clive Cussler in my bag.

Steering

Just finished Crusade in Europe Eisenhower's memoir of World War II. This was one of the most detailed views of strategic command in war that I personally have come across. The page count (478) doesn't do justice to the raw amount of information in this book. (Thanks in no small part to the small font and large pages as compared to more moderen books.) I also must admit that I really wanna "lose" this book onto my own shelves and pay the library the replacement cost. Don't get me wrong I'm not going to but its really tempting as it not only appears to be a first edition but it has a wierd plastic punch card that just screams early computer cataloging system. Did I mention it has that smell of old book about it. Ugh, back to the library it must go. Capn. Bob, ¦]

Mistake

I just finished African Game Trails by Theodore Roosevelt. A good read though not as "excited" as a modern writer would lay out. In addition the outright racism of the age was quite staggering. Even more so considering that for his time T.R. was something of a progressive on racial issues indeed his appointments of black men to government posts was a continuous source of political angst throughout his administration. All this being said however the descriptions of his and Kermit's hunts left me eyeing my gun cabinet and dreaming of African plains.

Thanks to the joys of audio books I just got through with Revolutionaries. A good deep look at the back stories, reasonings, and interactions of many of the founding fathers. I have been reading a good bit of non-fiction lately and was worried that this 20+ hour book would begin to bore me but fortunately this was not the case due to a fine writing style and good narration. That being said I do take offence to the author at one time describing Georgia as a rural frontier portion of South Carolina. This was never the case legally,technically, or in spirit. Beyond this I have no complaints. Peglegstrick- they only get better. :)

Irish

Furnace

I picked up Steve Martin's Born Standing Up from the library yesterday and finished it this morning while killing time at work. Excellent memoir by all means worthy of the hype its received.

Plague Plague inducing carcass projectile

Saw this pop up on my Facebook feed and thought it might find a few intrested parties here. http://www.history.com/news/2012/03/06/faces-of-drowned-civil-war-sailors-from-uss-monitor-reconstructed/?cmpid=Social_Facebook_Hith_03062012_1

Fire

Hundred weight

Football Screwed that sea trip up. Oops

Just finished up, Eisenhower, The White House Years. This was excellent for a presidential bio indeed it would be a good book for any non-fiction genre. Reads quick, even handed (IMHO), informative, and to what little knowledge I have of the subject accurate. Hurray for library e-books!

Indy

Boy