Book recommendations....

[Captain Moondog]

Anybody wanting to know what life is like for the general population in North Korea should read Under the Same Sky by Joseph Kim. Death by starvation is commonplace, a large percentage of the population is homeless and corruption is accepted as a fact of life. Josephs father dies, his mother takes his sister to China to be sold and he is locked up in the Saro-cheong Detention Center where people are routinely beaten to death, he's 12 at the time.
Putin said sanctions against North Korea would have no impact as they would probably eat grass, it seems they're already doing it and have been for some time. Not the Great Leader and his cohorts in Pyongyang though, they've still got plenty of money to spend on nice shiny rockets.

 

[Harvies elbow]

Anybody wanting to know what life is like for the general population in North Korea should read Under the Same Sky by Joseph Kim. Death by starvation is commonplace, a large percentage of the population is homeless and corruption is accepted as a fact of life. Josephs father dies, his mother takes his sister to China to be sold and he is locked up in the Saro-cheong Detention Center where people are routinely beaten to death, he's 12 at the time.
Putin said sanctions against North Korea would have no impact as they would probably eat grass, it seems they're already doing it and have been for some time. Not the Great Leader and his cohorts in Pyongyang though, they've still got plenty of money to spend on nice shiny rockets.

I heard about them eating grass just to put something in their stomach....
Unbelievable.
I just finished Scorched Earth by sue Rosen about the policy in 1942 to leave nothing in case of a Japanese invasion.
Everything from foodstuffs to cattle, machinery to dare I say it and god forbid, booze.
Nothing was to be left functional including wharves up and down the east coast of Australia.
Wells were to be poisoned and crops burned.
It was very heavy, quite hard to imagine what was going through the minds and emotions of the people.
It was only revealed officially quite recently but was fairly well suspected that this was to happen.
This book has all the documents laid out in an easy to read manner.
Certainly opened my eyes and shows what a resourceful people we were because the preparation and willingness were meticulous.

 

[Captain Moondog]

Lord Dunsanys book Dean Spanley about an alcohol loving clergyman who thinks he is the reincarnation of a dog is quite funny ( I love all of Dunsanys books though)

 

[Captain Moondog]

Anybody interested in the history of whistling (and who isn't) could do worse than read John Lucas and Allan Chatburns book A Brief History of Whistling. I was particularly interested in the origin of the wolf-whistle..."In mountainous parts of Southern Europe, shepherds have for centuries used the whistle to warn each other, and their dogs, when wolves appeared. They’d put two or three fingers in their mouths, then blow those notes. “It’s an incredible carrying whistle, unbelievably noisy,” Lucas says, “You’d hear it for miles.” Both the technique and the tune seem to have been called wolf whistling." ....... Moondog says,"In New Zealand sheep are known to become quite agitated at the sound of a wolf-whistle, strange considering the lack of wolves in NZ"

 

[manlyfan76]

https://openroadmedia.com/the-forbidden-bookshelf

 

[Captain Moondog]

This is a book about the importance of individuality....in the end it turns out the gigantic beard wasn't evil just misunderstood.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

A great thread (particularly for a drab season)
Recently finished March Violets by Phillip Kerr, about a private investigator but set in Berlin in 1936. Was very happy to learn there are more in the series, Bernie Gunther rules!
For page turners I found the early Jack Reacher novels (Lee Child) impossible to put down. (Forget Tom Cruise, that casting was one of the greatest travesties in cinematic history).
On a totally different track - read A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. The first few pages had me thinking wtf is this, but soon got into it and found it quite brilliant. Harlot O'Hara, lol
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Some of the passages in this book are unbelievably evocative. Try to get a version with historical notes, that is a story in itself

 

[mozgrame]

I was at the post office of all places the other day and picked up a copy of Australian Desperadoes. Great read!

It's the true story of a gang of Aussies led by Jim Stuart that became the first organised crime gang in San Francisco during the Californian gold rush in the 1850's. They called themselves The Coves and set up shop at the waterfront district and named it Sydney Town. Murder, robbery, standover tactics...the men and women of the gang ruled it all. The police were too frightened to go into Sydney Town, or they were paid off to keep away. At one stage, Jim Stuart had killed more men in California than anyone else had. They even burnt down San Francisco more than once to prove they run the show!

I read a lot, I usually have at least two books on the go at once, but this one I couldn't put down. I love true stories much more than novels.

I also just finsihed The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau. Another interesting read that I am trying to get my boys to read!

 

[nightster]

Not as highbrow as your collective recommendations ... but I just enjoyed reading
'You Can't Always Get What You Want: My Life With The Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead and Other Wonderful Reprobates' by Sam Cutler

 

[Captain Moondog]

Not as highbrow as your collective recommendations ... but I just enjoyed reading
'You Can't Always Get What You Want: My Life With The Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead and Other Wonderful Reprobates' by Sam Cutler

A Long Strange Trip by Dennis McNally is another good book about The Dead. Captain Beefheart the Biography by Mike Barnes is worth a read too.....Fuzz Acid And Flowers by Vernon Joynson is a great reference book as are his other volumes.

 

[mozgrame]

Just finished Life after death by Deepak Chopra. Interesting read with some great insights into the differences between our cultures and beliefs.

 

[Captain Moondog]

Just finished Life after death by Deepak Chopra. Interesting read with some great insights into the differences between our cultures and beliefs.

Soylent Green seems inevitable but this season has been spectacularly uninspiring

 

[mozgrame]

Harold Kushner would be handy. When bad things happen to good people or Overcoming life's disappointments...

lol!

 

[globaleagle]

Gunpowder and cinnamon

The Cellist of Sarajevo

Both v good books.

 

[Captain Moondog]

I

Gunpowder and cinnamon

The Cellist of Sarajevo

Both v good books.

They both sound good, I've read neither but I'll check them out......I'm re-reading Stephen Kings Gunslinger series at the moment ( I'm only admitting this 'cause I'm drunk)

 

[nightster]

I was at the post office of all pplaces the other day and picked up a copy of Australian Desperadoes. Great read!

It's the true story of a gang of Aussies led by Jim Stuart that became the first organised crime gang in San Francisco during the Californian gold rush in the 1950's. They called themselves The Coves and set up shop at the waterfront district and named it Sydney Town. Murder, robbery, standover tactics...the men and women of the gang ruled it all. The police were too frightened to go into Sydney Town, or they were paid off to keep away. At one stage, Jim Stuart had killed more men in California than anyone else had. They even burnt down San Francisco more than once to prove they run the show!

I read a lot, I usually have at least two books on the go at once, but this one I couldn't put down. I love true stories much more than novels.

I also just finsihed The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau. Another interesting read that I am trying to get my boys to read!

similar to that Moz ... I just read a novel called The Coves by David Wish-Wilson about the aussie gang in old San Fran in 1849 ..... I assume you meant 1850's in your thread

 

[mozgrame]

similar to that Moz ... I just read a novel called The Coves by David Wish-Wilson about the aussie gang in old San Fran in 1849 ..... I assume you meant 1850's in your thread

Ooops...I sure did mean the 1850's.

Good spot. Fixed!

 

[globaleagle]

I too am reading a book set in San Fran about that time. (1870's)

It's called "Frog Music" by Emma Donoghue.

Don't bother, it's rubbish and making me angry reading it.

 

[mozgrame]

Not one for the lard arses out there. (lolopotamus )

Pandora's Seed by Spencer Wells is an interesting read. Spencer Wells is a anthropologist, biologist, geneticist, and in this book, gives his views and evidence on why returning to a hunter/gatherer lifestyle would be greatly benefcial.

 

[Woodsie]

Not one for the lard arses out there. (lolopotamus )

Pandora's Seed by Spencer Wells is an interesting read. Spencer Wells is a anthropologist, biologist, geneticist, and in this book, gives his views and evidence on why returning to a hunter/gatherer lifestyle would be greatly benefcial.

.. by reducing the expected lifespan back to 35 year of age ?

PSS .. The Silvertails accepted term for overweightedness is "Salad Dodger"