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[A Human Becoming]

Convert while reading the book, then convert back afterward. Problem solved.

Spoiler

I, too, struggle reading books with overt religious themes. I'm fine if it's a fictional character that believes in religion and God or whatever. I'm less fine when it's the author clearly making a case for their religious beliefs.

I'm surprised my eyes didn't roll out of my head when he said people who don't have a relationship with God and Jesus were "typical" compared to those who do.

 

[ShaneB]

Hate when I'm at work and read an incredibly emotional moment in a book. Hard to hold back.

 

[Cade]

Hate when I'm at work and read an incredibly emotional moment in a book. Hard to hold back.

Let the tears flow, Shane.

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

Man, as an agnostic Love Does is going to be hard to read. So much God and Jesus...at least it's short and was free.

Similarly, I started reading The Transhumanist Wager after reading a blurb and seeing it was free on the Kindle store. I didn't get very far. It reads like someone who read "Atlas Shrugged" and "Ishmael" and really enjoyed the ideas but has no idea how to write characters. Or plot. Or maybe English isn't his first language and it's a bad translation?

Zoltan Istvan is founder of political organization the "Transhumanist Party" and is its 2016 presidential candidate.

Leading futurist, philosopher, and former National Geographic journalist Zoltan Istvan presents his award-winning, bestselling visionary novel, The Transhumanist Wager, as a seminal statement of our times.

His philosophical thriller has been called "revolutionary," "life-changing," and "a masterpiece" by readers, scholars, and critics. The novel debuts a challenging original philosophy, which rebuffs modern civilization by inviting the end of the human species—and declaring the onset of something greater.

Set in the present day, the novel tells the story of transhumanist Jethro Knights and his unwavering quest for immortality via science and technology. Fighting against him are fanatical religious groups, economically depressed governments, and mystic Zoe Bach: a dazzling trauma surgeon and the love of his life, whose belief in spirituality and the afterlife is absolute. Exiled from America and reeling from personal tragedy, Knights forges a new nation of willing scientists on the world's largest seastead, Transhumania. When the world declares war against the floating libertarian city, demanding an end to its renegade and godless transhuman experiments and ambitions, Knights strikes back, leaving the planet forever change

I don't have the blurb handy that made me think it was an interesting book. I wish I did so I could figure out what past me was thinking. It's so bad I kinda don't want to admit having read some of it.

 

[Woorloog]

Let the tears flow, Shane.

You sure he wants to cry? Perhaps he wants to laugh long and hard enough it is not suitable for a workplace?

 

[ShaneB]

Let the tears flow, Shane.

You sure he wants to cry? Perhaps he wants to laugh long and hard enough it is not suitable for a workplace?

Yeah it was a need to cry. Things got watery, but the dam held! Had I been home I would've let it all out though.

 

[Cade]

Yeah it was a need to cry. Things got watery, but the dam held! Had I been home I would've let it all out though.

Close call, eh?

You sure he wants to cry? Perhaps he wants to laugh long and hard enough it is not suitable for a workplace?

I think laughter would be fine unless you have a somber and serious job.

 

[ShaneB]

Close call, eh?

I think laughter would be fine unless you have a somber and serious job.

Yeah, buried my head and held it back as much as I could.

I've laughed out loud plenty while reading at work, that's actually great fun when my coworkers look and wonder what the heck I must be reading.

 

[survivor]

Finished reading Age of Ambition. An overview of China's rise in wealth and power observed by a reporter living there for 8 years. Mixes historical events with stories of different people of various backgrounds and wealth and their lives in modern day China.

I finished reading 1984 not a long time ago, and it's pretty interesting to see the Party in China and how their actions mimic the ones in the novel. Banning mentions of past events, erasing a person's involvement and contribution in the past when the Party turns again him, and the obvious censorship of the media and internet. Some people mentioned did make a case that they aren't against the system cause the alternative might not be any better or a radical change is too risky, but still there gotta be a better way that doesn't involve comical internet censors or bogus charges of crimes against stability and order to silence critics. Still, will be interesting how government evolves itself in the future or if it will grow too stagnant or fall due to massive corruption.

 

[Chris R]

I'm on track to finish The Stand before the month is out. About half way through it so far and it's mostly enjoyable as long as the point of focus isn't Trashcan Man or Mr. Underwood.

 

[ShaneB]

Finished up A Deadly Wandering, and gave it 4/5. Really liked it a lot, certainly lots of info that makes me think a lot about my own driving habits and the little things that really aren't so little. Great insight into the technological overloaded age we live in and what it all means in trying to not let it rule over us. Lots of emotion as well from Reggie Shaw and all people involved, heartbreaking stuff really.

Will likely start something much lighter, nice to have read something so quick after Lonesome Dove took me so long. edit: I do think I'll watch the Lonesome Dove miniseries soon. And added Streets of Laredo to my to-read list. Perhaps I liked it even more than I thought, and may just bump up my score to 5/5.

 

[SyenceLabb]

Books I've read so far this month:

Letters to a Young Contrarian - Christopher Hitchens

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig




About to read Catch-22 for the first time.

 

[Tragicomedy]

About to read Catch-22 for the first time.

Congrats on your new favorite book!

 

[besada]

Loved, loved, loved it.

Yay! So good. It, and her others, are on my re-read list. If you want to read more about the parents who did crack while their kids were out, they feature heavily in her novel Music for Torching.

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

Recently finished up Revival by Stephen King, Joyland by Stephen King, Horns by Joe Hill, and "I have No Mouth and I Must Scream" by some author I'm too lazy to look up.

Actually, literally JUST finished the short story. Now that was a fucking dark little tale. Quite liked it though.

Revival is a fantastic book. Joyland was fun, though nothing more than that. Not a whole lot happened, I guess. Still, solid writing. Horns was alright. Felt like a dark comedy through most of it, but I don't think it was supposed to be funny. Ending was slightly strange, but also satisfying.

 

[Piecake]

Well, I am going to put The Rise of American Democracy on hold. Those reviews kinda confirmed my apprehensions about the book and actually made me a bit worried about whether it was worth it to continue since the author apparently fails to deal with recent scholarship and, therefore, his interpretations are misguided and left wanting.

I'll probably pick it up after I read my next book though.

I am currently reading this one. The introduction was quite good. Of course, the intro to democracy was quite good as well, but I have a feeling that this one will be better because I get the impression that it is a bit more balanced and judiciously researched. I mean, going by Wilentz's interpretations, the federalists were a blight on the American politic who's only good act was imploding itself. I have a feeling that this book will take a different approach.

Whoever designed that cover should be fired though. Yikes

 

[leroidys]

Currently reading Fires on the Plain by Shohei Ooka, and re-reading Kafka on the Shore for the 3rd or 4th time. Just got Master and Margarita (to re-read) and Seiobo there Below in the mail!

 

[RepairmanJack]

About halfway through The Last Empire(Mistborn 1). I'm really really liking this so far. Vin is a pretty great character.

 

[Wurst]

Finished The Martian.

Which I adored. It really resonated with me and it is one of the few books I really rooted for the main character.

Spoiler

I couldn't put it down during that rescue mission. I was constantly thinking: "After all that we've been through together, don't die on me, Watney!!"

. The immediate ending (last few pages) was underwhelming, though.
Can't wait for the movie!

Now onto...

Catch-22

To see what all the fuzz is about. First 70 pages were good.

 

[Loke13]

I'm around 64% according to my kindle and I already see things are ramping up a lot. Really excited.

Who's your favorite character so far?

I love that book the Epigraphs for the books just have some awesome imagery attached to them:

“A man stood on a cliffside and watched his homeland fall into dust. The waters surged beneath, so far beneath. And he heard a child crying. They were his own tears.”

“I’m standing over the body of a brother. I’m weeping. Is that his blood or mine? What have we done?”

“I hold the suckling child in my hands, a knife at his throat, and know that all who live wish me to let the blade slip. Spill its blood upon the ground, over my hands, and with it gain us further breath to draw.”

“They come from the pit, two dead men, a heart in their hands, and I know that I have seen true glory.”

 

[sparky2112]

I am currently reading this one. The introduction was quite good. Of course, the intro to democracy was quite good as well, but I have a feeling that this one will be better because I get the impression that it is a bit more balanced and judiciously researched. I mean, going by Wilentz's interpretations, the federalists were a blight on the American politic who's only good act was imploding itself. I have a feeling that this book will take a different approach.

Whoever designed that cover should be fired though. Yikes

I think this book is generally considered THE book on the time period. It's still in print and it's how old? 25 years?

 

[Mumei]

Yay! So good. It, and her others, are on my re-read list. If you want to read more about the parents who did crack while their kids were out, they feature heavily in her novel Music for Torching.

I actually found a copy of May We Be Forgiven at a used bookstore before I bought The Safety of Objects, so I'll probably read that next when I read another of her books.

And update:

read:

Currently reading:

My Traitor's Heart was really, really good. I didn't really know much at all about apartheid and it's so depressing. Anyone have any suggestions for post-1986 South African history? I'm very curious to learn what happened - and how it happened! - over the last generation since the book was written.

When I finish Earth's Deep History or An Empire of Wealth I'll either read the next Wheel of Time book or Cry, the Beloved Country; it depends on whether my hold on the latter has been filled at the library by then. I just started Earth's Deep History yesterday, and I like it so far. I find the potshots at atheist fundamentalism tedious; while I'd agree he's correct about the misconceptions about, for instance, Ussher's 4004 estimate that many atheists have (I was one of them!), I still find myself rolling my eyes at the phrase "atheist fundamentalist." It just doesn't reflect my experience of atheism that atheists, upon learning that the situation around Ussher's estimates was more nuanced than "lol creationist yammering" would reject that knowledge on dogmatic grounds. It's a matter of pure ignorance rather than dogmatic rejection, I suppose is how I'd characterize it. But anyway.

It's very interesting as a history about how we moved from "The age of the Earth and the human race is about the same and can be measured in a matter of tens of centuries" to where we are today, so here's my tentative early recommendation based on the few dozen pages I've read. I read an excerpt of the book here, which sold me on it.

 

[Bazza]

Since my last post I have read these

and about half way through

Firefight was pretty much as I expected, fun easy read,

Spoiler

really gutted for the prof though years of restraint ended.

Looking forward to seeing how things progress in the next book.

As for the The Magister Trilogy, really good I think, cant say for sure if I prefer it to the Coldfire series, I have them more or less level at the moment with 50% left to go in Legacy of Kings.

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

uh, "atheist fundamentalist?"

How does that come into play exactly in a book that I can only assume, is about archaeology? And what position did you change on, precisely?

 

[Regiruler]

This month I've read:

Everyone knows the classic WoT covers give the better experience. Shame on you!

 

[Loke13]

Ok this is a pretty bad ass cover. Cadsuane is awesome.

 

[Mumei]

uh, "atheist fundamentalist?"

How does that come into play exactly in a book that I can only assume, is about archaeology? And what position did you change on, precisely?

I didn't change my "position" on anything; I just learned something new! It's in the Salon article, actually:

In modern times, Ussher and his date of 4004 BC have been much scorned and ridiculed. But Ussher was not a religious fundamentalist in the modern mold. He was a public intellectual in the mainstream of the cultural life of his time. His work doesn’t deserve to be treated as a joke like those in 1066 And All That, the classic spoof history in which the English national story is studded with unmistakeable Good Kings and Bad Kings, Good Things and Bad Things. Ussher’s 4004 BC was not, in its time, a Bad Thing. On the contrary, what it represented was in some important respects a thoroughly Good Thing. Ussher’s view of world history may seem so far removed from the modern scientific picture of the Earth’s deep history that there can be no possible link between them, except as irreconcilable alternatives (which, in the eyes of modern fundamentalists, both religious and atheistic, is just what they are). In fact, however, what 17th-century historians such as Ussher were doing is connected without a break with what Earth scientists are doing in the modern world. Ussher is therefore a good starting point for understanding the origins of our modern conception of the Earth’s deep history. Moreover, once Ussher’s ideas are understood in the context of his own time, their superficial similarity to modern creationist ideas of a “Young Earth” is transformed into a stark contrast. The creationists, unlike Ussher, are out on a limb, and a precarious one at that.

That's where the (first of two so far) potshot at atheist fundamentalists comes in. And I wasn't aware that Ussher was a pubic intellectual, or that the similarities between Ussher and YE creationists is only superficial.

... Though they do still seem like irreconcilable alternatives to me. It can't be both "a handful of thousands" and "about 4.7 billion." It can't be both after all. But still, I take his point that by understanding Ussher in the context of his own time, he was doing something very different from what the YE creationists are doing today, and he's better understood as part of the lineage of attempts to discover the age of the Earth than as someone standing athwart history shouting, "Stop!"

Everyone knows the classic WoT covers give the better experience. Shame on you!

Heh. Yeah, I wasn't a fan of the old ones so I've been buying the new ones. I have all the ones that are out so far; just three more to go.

 

[sparky2112]

Everyone knows the classic WoT covers give the better experience. Shame on you!

'WoT - now with 98% less artistic cheese!'

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

Recently finished up Revival by Stephen King, Joyland by Stephen King, Horns by Joe Hill, and "I have No Mouth and I Must Scream" by some author I'm too lazy to look up.

Actually, literally JUST finished the short story. Now that was a fucking dark little tale. Quite liked it though.

Revival is a fantastic book. Joyland was fun, though nothing more than that. Not a whole lot happened, I guess. Still, solid writing. Horns was alright. Felt like a dark comedy through most of it, but I don't think it was supposed to be funny. Ending was slightly strange, but also satisfying.

Just finished Revival yesterday. That ending kept me up at night. It wasn't particularly frightening, just really made you think about what is really waiting on the other side of that door.

Spoiler

The part I'm held up on is how Con was affected by the energy and yet he was cured by something that was built while the pastor was still a pastor so he wouldn't have had as much research into the 'forbidden' texts, right?

Maybe some of the time frame was missed by me while reading? King sometimes is a little too flowerly with descriptions so I do tend to skip around longer paragraphs.

 

[Interfectum]

I'm currently reading The Night Eternal (Strain book 3) and I'm really enjoying it. I pretty much blasted through all these of these books this month. It's been a fun apocalyptic vampire story.

 

[Mumei]

Currently reading Fires on the Plain by Shohei Ooka, and re-reading Kafka on the Shore for the 3rd or 4th time. Just got Master and Margarita (to re-read) and Seiobo there Below in the mail!

I missed this before! I hope you enjoy it. <3

I've read the Salon article, and I'm not sure it does as much to salvage Ussher as the author claims. Like, ok, nobody had a particularly good way of estimating these things. And it's an accident of history, really, that Ussher's estimate is the one everyone remembers. On the other hand, so what?

Well, I think it paints a more sympathetic picture of his work:

Ussher’s world history embodied the best scholarly practice of his time. Chronology fully deserved its status as a historical science (using that word in its original sense, which is still current except in the Anglophone or English-speaking world). It was based on a rigorous analysis of all the ancient textual records known to him. These were mostly derived from sources in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Half a century earlier, the French scholar Joseph Scaliger, the greatest and most erudite chronologist of them all, had also used those in several other relevant languages such as Syriac and Arabic. But even Scaliger knew only a little about sources further afield, for example from China or India, and the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs had not yet been deciphered. Nonetheless, chronologists had available to them a massive body of multicultural and multilingual evidence. From all these varied records they extracted dates such as those of major political changes, the reigns of ancient monarchs, and memorable astronomical events. They then tried to match them up, often across different ancient cultures, and to link them together in a continuous chain of dated events. (The science of chronology is not extinct: the results of modern chronological research are on display in our museums, wherever artifacts from ancient China or Egypt, for example, are labeled with dates BC or BCE; all such dates are derived from similar correlations between the histories of different cultures.)

By far the greater part of Ussher’s evidence, like that of other chronologists, came not from the Bible but from ancient secular records. Not surprisingly, his sources were most abundant for the more recent centuries BC, and tailed off rapidly as he penetrated into the more remote past. For the very earliest times they were extremely scanty and almost confined to the bare record in Genesis of “who begat whom” in the earliest generations of human life. This makes it clear that Ussher’s main objective was indeed to compile a detailed history of the world, and not primarily to establish the date of Creation or to bolster the authority of the Bible in general. Ussher treated the Bible as one historical source among many, even if it was also, from his perspective, the most valuable and reliable of all.

He was actually trying to create a history of the world, using the best knowledge that was available to him from a variety of sources; contrast this with modern day YE creationists. He might have been completely off-base in his assumptions, but I think the point he was making is that the way Ussher went about his work is what differentiated him from modern day creationists and makes him instead part of a lineage of ever more accurate and sophisticated attempts to describe the age and history of the Earth. He shouldn't be lumped in with modern day ignoramuses because he had the ill fortune of being born at the beginning of the journey, right?

 

[LProtag]

Who's your favorite character so far?

Hm, tough call. Almost done with the book, only about 2-3 more hours to go so I'll probably finish today.

Obviously I like Kaladin since he's the main character and has an interesting story.

Dalinar is cool, but I find myself liking his sons a bit more even though we don't get too much of his background. I like Adolin but for some reason I like Renarin a lot even though he's a pretty minor character.

 

[Cade]

Finished Acceptance. I thought just enough was answered to keep me satisfied while enough open-endedness to keep me thinking about it. What did any of you who were unsatisfied with the ending want resolved?

I think Acceptance was my favorite, then Annihilation and then Authority which, while good, just felt too samey until the end. Great series all around; I definitely want to read more Vandermeer stuff.

--
Still reading Explorer but I'm starting Jurassic Park now. Just saw the movie for the first time recently so I'm excited to read the novel.

 

[Mumei]

Hm, tough call. Almost done with the book, only about 2-3 more hours to go so I'll probably finish today.

Obviously I like Kaladin since he's the main character and has an interesting story.

Dalinar is cool, but I find myself liking his sons a bit more even though we don't get too much of his background. I like Adolin but for some reason I like Renarin a lot even though he's a pretty minor character.

One of these days someone is going to say Shallan and I am going to be entertained by people's reactions.

But today isn't that day.

 

[LProtag]

One of these days someone is going to say Shallan and I am going to be entertained by people's reactions.

But today isn't that day.

Haha, sorry. I really like her story so far and I'm really curious about her background (

Spoiler

I like how Sanderson just casually drops that she's about to summon a shardblade out of nowhere

), so I'm excited to move on to the next book as I hear that's supposed to be her book.

 

[X-Frame]

Haha, sorry. I really like her story so far and I'm really curious about her background (

Spoiler

I like how Sanderson just casually drops that she's about to summon a shardblade out of nowhere

), so I'm excited to move on to the next book as I hear that's supposed to be her book.

I'm still disappointed in myself that I completely missed that. I enjoyed the book so much and wanted to know what would happen that I'm sure I read too fast for complete comprehension.

Before the 3rd book comes out, I will set aside plenty of time to re-read the first 2 books, and damn am I excited.

 

[Dandy Crocodile]

I like Shallan just as much, if not more than Kaladin.
Then again, I'm only 300-some pages into the first book and have only been slowly picking at it for quite some time.

 

[Woorloog]

I like Shallan just as much, if not more than Kaladin.
Then again, I'm only 300-some pages into the first book and have only been slowly picking at it for quite some time.

I certainly like Shallan more than Kaladin. Kaladin does have his moments, and does have some interesting musings, but overall he manages to be kind of standard Luke-Skywalker-like hero.

(It is funny how Sanderson noted somewhere that he just could not write a "standard" fantasy story of a farmboy etc.... yet pretty much all his works do feature the Hero's Journey somehow! Ofc those two things are not the same thing. Perhaps he did mean that he can't write about a farmboy literally (no pun intended).)

 

[Mumei]

No one is ever going to say that.

I was thinking of you specifically when I thought about how people would react. <3

Edit: What did you think about my response to your post? Agree / Disagree?

 

[Piecake]

I think this book is generally considered THE book on the time period. It's still in print and it's how old? 25 years?

That's good to hear. I thought Wilentz's Rise of American Democracy was also considered one of THE books to read on that period, but I found What Hath God Wrought to be far superior.

I am still not done, but, oh man, this book is absolutely fantastic. I especially liked the part where the author talked about the Jackson-Biddle bank war, the consequences of that, the crash of 1837 and 1839, and its impact on slaveholders and slaves. Not only was it riveting, but he also managed to really tie everything together, the political, economic and social actions and consequences of one decision. Crazy.

What I also found interesting is how he tied that credit boom and crash to the 2008 recession. They were remarkably similar, almost to the point of being eerie. I'd be interesting to get some of the 'Masters of the Universe''s opinion on how, in their brilliance, basically followed the exact same model of one of the early commodity credit-boom depressions. Doomed to repeat it, yada yada yea...

 

[Cerity]

Reading City of Stairs to see what the hype is about, I'm about 30% through and I did not like the romance segment at all, it just seemed unnecessary so early in. Things are actually starting to happen now and I'm enjoying it a bit more, the present tense deal makes it a bit more interesting too.

 

[Apt101]

Picked up Kitchen Confidential by Bourdain yesterday. It's OK so far.

 

[Regiruler]

Who's your favorite character so far?

I love that book the Epigraphs for the books just have some awesome imagery attached to them:

MAJOR WoK SPOILERS

Spoiler

To see that there was actually a significant story element behind the collection of them was mind blowing. It's still the biggest twist in the book for me, along with the king being Szeth's controller.

 

[Mumei]

I think to the extent people mock or insult Ussher specifically, it's a relevant point. It seems like it's more often the estimate itself that's mocked. "lols the universe is 6000 years old" etc. Do modern-day YECs have their own estimates that differ from Ussher? If so, then maybe we need to update our target for mockery!

According to this, there are some YE creationists who use different dates to account for written sources older than 7,000 years old, but it's still in the 10,000 or less range.

I am still not done, but, oh man, this book is absolutely fantastic. I especially liked the part where the author talked about the Jackson-Biddle bank war, the consequences of that, the crash of 1837 and 1839, and its impact on slaveholders and slaves. Not only was it riveting, but he also managed to really tie everything together, the political, economic and social actions and consequences of one decision. Crazy.

What I also found interesting is how he tied that credit boom and crash to the 2008 recession. They were remarkably similar, almost to the point of being eerie. I'd be interesting to get some of the 'Masters of the Universe''s opinion on how, in their brilliance, they basically followed the exact same model of one of the early commodity credit-boom depressions. Doomed to repeat it, yada yada yea...

It really is brilliant. Chapter 4, Left Hand, is one that particularly stood out to me. It's brutal, and especially when paired with those graphs of the results. I read it around the time that the Senate report on torture had come out, which made it especially powerful just to consider the scale of the torture that was performed routinely.

 

[Piecake]

It really is brilliant. Chapter 4, Left Hand, is one that particularly stood out to me. It's brutal, and especially when paired with those graphs of the results. I read it around the time that the Senate report on torture had come out, which made it especially powerful just to consider the scale of the torture that was performed routinely.

Was that the chapter on the pushing system and the ever-increasing efficiency and production that was eked out due terror, violence and torture? If so, that definitely was one of my other highlights of the book so far. What was insane was that it made out the other forms of slave work, the task system and small gang work (forget the exact name) to appear comparatively benign.

 

[Mumei]

Was that the chapter on the pushing system and the ever-increasing efficiency and production that was eked out due terror, violence and torture? If so, that definitely was one of my other highlights of the book so far. What was insane was that it made out the other forms of slave work, the task system and small gang work (forget the exact name) to appear comparatively benign.

Yes. The Right Hand chapter was about more overt forms of power; the Left Hand chapter was about the power of the subjugated to resist in small ways, and how that was broken by the constant monitoring of production combined with torture and terror. It was negotiations, of a sort, between the "power" of the masters and the "cunning" of the enslaved that had created the task system, as he points out.

It's just impossible to imagine, where even the most petty sort of resistance - slacking - is largely closed to you. And the crazy thing was that they actually tortured the best performers, just to eek out even better performance from them. Being extraordinary wasn't going to make you safe; it was going to make you a target just as surely as doing mediocre would.

 

[LProtag]

I'm still disappointed in myself that I completely missed that. I enjoyed the book so much and wanted to know what would happen that I'm sure I read too fast for complete comprehension.

Before the 3rd book comes out, I will set aside plenty of time to re-read the first 2 books, and damn am I excited.

Really?

Spoiler

When she's running away from all of the stuff that she sees in her drawings she holds her hand out and starts counting her heartbeats. I guess it could be easy to miss as it's a pretty frantic scene.

I'm like an hour away from the ending right now. I just finished

Spoiler

the big fight scene. So good.

 

[Piecake]

Yes. The Right Hand chapter was about more overt forms of power; the Left Hand chapter was about the poor of the subjugated to resist in small ways, and how that was broken by the constant monitoring of production combined with torture and terror. It was negotiations, of a sort, between the "power" of the masters and the "cunning" of the enslaved that had created the task system, as he points out.

It's just impossible to imagine, where even the most petty sort of resistance - slacking - is largely closed to you. And the crazy thing was that they actually tortured the best performers, just to eek out even better performance from them. Being extraordinary wasn't going to make you safe; it was going to make you a target just as surely as doing mediocre would.

Yea, that whole bit about destroying the self to disassociate hands from the brain (or something like that) so that cotton pickers could move faster and faster was just heart-wrenching.

We should note though that he only supported his argument with a few instances of anecdotal evidence from slaves and that white people should have been treated as the heros of the anti-slavery story, or something like that.

Obviously, I am joking. I just happened to read some reviews of the book on amazon and good reads. The 1 star ones were huge fans of The Economist's review

I have to say, the more I read about US history, the more I come to the conclusion that The South was an evil, shit-hole that should have been bombed off the face of the earth. (key word is was)

 

[neogaffer1]

It's probably aimed at high schoolers or middle schoolers, but I'm currently making my way through the Star Wars Republic Commando books after finishing the Clone Wars series and watching some of the prequels. Would read other Star Wars books but the canon just got wiped and I don't want to read something that will be ultimately not necessary. Reading this series because RC is one of my favorite games and the ties into the Clone Wars series points to it possibly making a resurgence.

 

[ImpalingNarwhal]

I just started going through the Fables graphic novels. So far, I think they are excellent. And I just picked up Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman yesterday.