Book(s) you are currently reading.
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American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Just finished:
I read it again after twenty years and was extremely impressed by how it holds up. Weiner is a great voice for scientists; he did a fantastic job with the earlier The Beak of the Finch.
Now reading, another re-read. I'm really digging this.
“ Do Great Cases Make Bad Law?” by Lackland Bloom.Just finished:
I read it again after twenty years and was extremely impressed by how it holds up. Weiner is a great voice for scientists; he did a fantastic job with the earlier The Beak of the Finch.
Now reading, another re-read. I'm really digging this.
Analysis of the most important U.S. Supreme Court cases.
The Bourne Sacrifice was just released this week. #15 of the series. First 3 by Ludlum, then 9 by Lustbader. This then3rd by Brian Freeman. Lustbaders last 2 or 3 weren't very good. Freeman 1st 2 were pretty good.
In honor of Saint Patrick’s Day, a day early. The dead airman was Major Robert Gregory, the son of Yeats's great friend and colleague Augusta Gregory, killed in action January 23, 1918.
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.
An Irish Airman foresees his Death
I know that I shall meet my fate Somewhere among the clouds above; Those that I fight I do not hate, Those that I guard I do not love; My country is Kiltartan Cross, My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor, No likely end could bring them loss Or leave them happier than before. Nor law, nor duty bade me…www.poetryfoundation.org
I Have a Rendezvous with Death
Alan Seeger - 1888-1916(Alan Seeger was born in New York City in 1888 and was killed in action in World War I in 1916. He was the author of Poems(Charles Scribner's Sons, 1916), which was published posthumously.)
I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple-blossoms fill the air—
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair.
It may be he shall take my hand
And lead me into his dark land
And close my eyes and quench my breath—
It may be I shall pass him still.
I have a rendezvous with Death
On some scarred slope of battered hill,
When Spring comes round again this year
And the first meadow-flowers appear.
God knows ’twere better to be deep
Pillowed in silk and scented down,
Where love throbs out in blissful sleep,
Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,
Where hushed awakenings are dear...
But I’ve a rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town,
When Spring trips north again this year,
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.
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I just finished, for the second time, The Reckoning by Grisham. For any World War II buff it’s a great read that spends a significant portion of the book following a fictional character’s survival in the Phillipines and escape after the Bataan Death March.
Good read. But my favorite Grisham book is "The Brethren"
Reading the recent biography of Kurt Godel. Will report back. He made his great discoveries when he was 23, imagine that.
Just so there’s no confusion: the greatest mathematical biography is hands down “The Man Who Knew Infinity,” about Ramanujan. The biography of Godel I’m reading doesn’t come close to this, I know that much by now.
Just so there’s no confusion: the greatest mathematical biography is hands down “The Man Who Knew Infinity,” about Ramanujan. The biography of Godel I’m reading doesn’t come close to this, I know that much by now.
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I love this book.I've finally gotten to the sequel.
I like it.
Ben Macintyre's "Doublecross: The true story of the D-Day Spies", tale of double agents and their role in Operation Fortitude. Operation Fortitude was a plan to deceive the Nazis into thinking that the Normandy Operation was a diversionary tactic, and that the primary invasion would be at Pas de Calais. The ruse was designed to keep the Nazis from moving additional troops to Normandy in the early, most critical phase of D-Day.
Here is an extremely thorough, albeit dry, account of Fortitude. I found it a very worthwhile read but it reads like a textbook.
Edwin Arlington Robinson’s Eros Turranos, a poem of masterful technique. The theme: a bad marriage.
www.poetryfoundation.org
Eros Turannos
Poems, readings, poetry news and the entire 110-year archive of POETRY magazine.
www.poetryfoundation.org
Let us know how it holds up. (The writing from that era can be too formal, plus it’s a translation.)
I'd never read it. The writing/translation was excellent - brought the brutality and sadness of WWI to life. It's a quick read. I'm going to watch the Netflix movie to see how close they stayed to story.
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