# Books - Music



## Karl89 (Feb 20, 2005)

Gents,

I have a $100 bill thats burning a hole in my pocket. My plan is to spend it this weekend at Borders (thats a book/music store for all our foreign members.) I want to pick up the new Kagan book on Napolean and Europe and the new Decemberists cd. Other than toying with the new Niall Ferguson book on European warfare and the perhaps the new Sarah McLachlan Christmas cd anyone have any good book or music suggestions? My tastes are pretty ecclectic so any recommendations are welcome.

Karl


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## pt4u67 (Apr 27, 2006)

I read the Kagan book a few months ago and its excellent. Interesting take on the whole Napoleonic era. Its actually the first in a series of four (?) volumes culminating in 1812. 

I'm reading Robert (Fred's brother) Kagan's book "Dangerous Nation". It's a good book.


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## BertieW (Jan 17, 2006)

Karl, 

Don't know if this is too far out for your consideration, but an intriguing read I've enjoyed is Daniel Pinchbeck's "Cracking Open the Head." His new book is also interesting: "2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl." 

I don't take the stuff too seriously, but some enjoyable thought experiments/perspectives. You may agree. 

Cheers.


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## Patrick06790 (Apr 10, 2005)

The new Yo La Tengo CD is pretty good. I've only listened to it straight through once but I can tell it's going to be a keeper.


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## PennGlock (Mar 14, 2006)

Patrick06790 said:


> The new Yo La Tengo CD is pretty good. I've only listened to it straight through once but I can tell it's going to be a keeper.


That is a pretty good album, especially after the last few.

Karl, I have to recommend Mastadon - Blood Mountain. It's the best album released this year.

The new Tom Waits is good, if he's your cup of tea.


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## Lushington (Jul 12, 2006)

Karl89 said:


> Gents,
> 
> I have a $100 bill thats burning a hole in my pocket. My plan is to spend it this weekend at Borders (thats a book/music store for all our foreign members.) I want to pick up the new Kagan book on Napolean and Europe and the new Decemberists cd. Other than toying with the new Niall Ferguson book on European warfare and the perhaps the new Sarah McLachlan Christmas cd anyone have any good book or music suggestions? My tastes are pretty ecclectic so any recommendations are welcome.
> 
> Karl


The sixth and final volume of Marsilio Ficino's _Platonic Theology_ has recently been published by The I Tatti Renaissance Library at Harvard.

https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/FICPL6.html

Individual volumes retail for $29.95, but if you use your Rewards card discount you can pick them up for about 20 bucks apiece. A C-note will buy you the first three volumes, with enough left over for a CD - which I suggest you spend online at the website of the Ft. Wayne, Indiana duo Left Lane Cruiser. Think The Black Keys, but really drunk and surly.

https://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=25297276

If not that, there is always Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers _Free For All_. Incomparable.

https://www.amazon.com/Free-All-Bla..._bbs_sr_1/002-5232442-4093636?ie=UTF8&s=music


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## Concordia (Sep 30, 2004)

Louis Menand's Metaphysical Club was an excellent chewy read. A sort of loose-jointed survey of James, Pierce, and the other founders of American pragmatism.


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## Wayfarer (Mar 19, 2006)

Screw that other stuff, get the _2007 Your Daily Horoscope._


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## jackmccullough (May 10, 2006)

If you haven't read them already you might read the Neal Stephenson series that starts with Cryptonomicon.


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## BertieW (Jan 17, 2006)

That's a good one. I interviewed Stephenson about 8 years ago after a book tour. The guy was a basket case, "filled with self-loathing," as he put it. Too much time on the circuit I guess.



jackmccullough said:


> If you haven't read them already you might read the Neal Stephenson series that starts with Cryptonomicon.


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## jpeirpont (Mar 16, 2004)

Dip Set is putting a Christmas album out.


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## chadn2000 (Aug 4, 2006)

*Buckley's Saving the Queen*

Blackford Oakes.


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## patbrady2005 (Oct 4, 2005)

*Get your priorities straight...*

I believe that Borders sells Playboy, stock up.


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## DukeGrad (Dec 28, 2003)

*Books*

Karly,

Niall Fergusen is one of several British authors who I enjoy. I recently read Robin Neillands book about the 8th Army, the North Africa campaign. It was a great read about the Africa theater, and what th 8th accomplished during the war.
I also recommend Nelson, by Vincent. A rather dry, long read. A big biography that end in a dramatic last chapter.
I was ready to throw the book away, then finished the last 2 chapters.
It was then I became an admirer of Vincent. A very good author, who can take a boring, dry material, and make it into the exciting life, which was what Nelson led.
My friend, enjoy your reading.

Good morning gentlemen


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## Tom72 (May 8, 2006)

If you like European military history, I would recommend Adam Zamoyski's "Moscow 1812 - Napoleon's Fatal March" (HarperCollins Publishers, 2004), which, as far as I know, is the most recent evaluation of a campaign that resulted in the crushing defeat of what was the world's largest army up to that time, and the world's largest ego of all time.

Yours,


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## pt4u67 (Apr 27, 2006)

Tom72 said:


> If you like European military history, I would recommend Adam Zamoyski's "Moscow 1812 - Napoleon's Fatal March" (HarperCollins Publishers, 20040


Excellent read.


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## jbmcb (Sep 7, 2005)

It's post weekend, but:

Make magazine: How to build stuff. Runs the gamut - iPod gadgets, indoor gardening, robots, salad, knitting, speakers, rockets, steadi-cam mounts, toys, atom smashers, games, aerial photography... you name it. In the latest issue Mythbuster Adam Savage teaches you how to do body castings. It's expensive, and book-like in length.

To Engineer Is Human - All about faulty engineering and it's impact on society
The Code Book - The history of cryptography
Fermat's Enigma - A complicated history about the proof of a simple theorem
Double Eagle - The story of the rarest, most collectible and illegal coins of all time
I'm just here for the food - Alton Brown's cookbook. Tells you how to cook, and why it's done that way


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## Wayfarer (Mar 19, 2006)

Well, it's Monday Karl, what did you get? My horoscope says you did not follow my suggestion


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## Grayishhues (Feb 25, 2006)

A little bit belated, but my music suggestion would be Harlem Nocturne, by Kofi. And my book would be The Pillars of the Earth, By Ken Follet.


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## patbrady2005 (Oct 4, 2005)

Grayishhues said:


> A little bit belated, but my music suggestion would be Harlem Nocturne, by Kofi. And my book would be The Pillars of the Earth, By Ken Follet.


+1 on The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - a great read.


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## Karl89 (Feb 20, 2005)

Gents,

Thanks for all the suggestions. Wound up getting the Kagan book and the new Rodric Braithwaite book on the battle for Moscow in late 1941-early 1942. Bought the new Decemberists cd and took Patrick and Penn Glock up on the Yo La Tengo cd - so far so good btw. Still I could have spent a few hundred more and not gotten everything I wanted. In my next life I will work at a bookstore.


Karl


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## ajo (Oct 22, 2007)

Karl89 said:


> Gents,
> 
> I have a $100 bill thats burning a hole in my pocket. My plan is to spend it this weekend at Borders (thats a book/music store for all our foreign members.) I want to pick up the new Kagan book on Napolean and Europe and the new Decemberists cd. Other than toying with the new Niall Ferguson book on European warfare and the perhaps the new Sarah McLachlan Christmas cd anyone have any good book or music suggestions? My tastes are pretty ecclectic so any recommendations are welcome.
> 
> Karl


Yes we antipodean's have Borders their coupon sales are very good. First books have you heard of an Australian author Les Carlyon he did an excellent job with The Great War Europe 1916 to 1918, if you want fiction I found Peter Hoeg 'The Quite Girl' a good read.

And for music I have two Boulez doing the Mahler 2, don't get me started on this I have five versions of the 2nd and this is the stand out also the new Jarrett Trio. Mind you when it comes to eclecticism I just got Chicken Skin Music by Ry Cooder, first had it back in 76.


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## EAP (Jan 19, 2007)

Grayishhues said:


> And my book would be The Pillars of the Earth, By Ken Follet.


Another +1 on _Pillars of the Earth_.

By the way, Follet's sequel to Pillars, _World without End_ is now out.


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## queueball (Jun 16, 2005)

PennGlock said:


> That is a pretty good album, especially after the last few.
> 
> Karl, I have to recommend Mastadon - Blood Mountain. It's the best album released this year.
> 
> The new Tom Waits is good, if he's your cup of tea.


I second the recommendation for Mastadon. This is a brilliant band.


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

patbrady2005 said:


> I believe that Borders sells Playboy, stock up.


I never knew they sold Playboy.


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## RSS (Dec 30, 2003)

*Music: Holiday Twists by Steve Swayne*

If you'd like some holiday music with a twist ... both sophisticated and fun ... *Steve Swayne* -- a rather talented pianist -- has a CD called *Holiday Twists*. I do not share this to make Steve rich -- it certainly isn't going to do that -- but because it is a wonderfully entertaining Christmas album. I've given it to all my good friends and family.

I first got to know Steve back in the days when he was working on his Ph.D. at Berkeley. Today he is an associate professor in the Music Department at Dartmouth.

While attending college, as a way of making a bit of extra money, Steve spent some time during the holidays playing the piano at Nordstroms. The same old thing got boring ... so Steve got creative ... turning _Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer_ into _Tango Rudolpho_ ... while _We Three Kings_ becomes _Three Disoriented Kings_ followed by _Three Reoriented Kings._ And of course, there is_ Fosty der schöne blaue Schneeman ... Mary's Calypso Child ... Jolly Old St. Pachelbel ... Thelonious is Comin' to Town ... _and a version of _the Twelve Days of Christmas (Twelve Long Days_ he calls it_)_ where each of the twelve gifts is rendered via a musical reference to a word associated with the gift.

Now do keep in mind that this is not music intended to be background ... as it will constantly grab your attention. It's the most fun I've had with music in years.


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