The Swamp

Just started "reading" that BFJ, though with no commute I'll have to turn it up at home.

Just started this. Seemed pertinent.

My daughter's 5th grade class just read Number the Stars, and she was obsessed. She isn't much of a reader, and I've never seen her this into any book. It's a story about a family in Denmark helping their Jewish neighbors escape the Nazis to safety Sweden. They had to do a project picking 15 items and discussing the symbolism of those items. She was so excited for me to read the book.

While it was a very compelling story, reading about Nazi occupation and hiding Jews from the Nazis isn't the most uplifting story while going through our social isolation and fears.

As I've discussed over the year, while we are Jewish, we haven't given any religious education to our kids, despite intending to. My daughter asked if she could get a Star of David necklace, because of how much it meant to the Jewish girl in the story, and her non-Jewish friend who kept the necklace for when her friend could hopefully return.

Very interesting deep dive. Though there are chapters all about Steve Smith's clearing attempt/own goal and Lanny's goal that tied game two of the Cup against the Haps so I probably should be skipping chapters.

I normally avoid books like this - but it's a good read for tis situation.

Also loving these short stories.



And lastly - great bed time reading for stressful times...

Giff wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 2:44 pm

I read Blood and Thunder by this author. It was a great book.

I read his In the Kingdom of Ice and enjoyed it.

Giff wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 2:44 pm

That's a great book...

He has several I want to read.

The level of detail is unbelievable. If you ever wanted to know about soccer in Sierra Leone or anywhere else, this is your book.

800 pages long, perfect book to lose yourself in.

Giff wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 2:44 pm

Holy shit, I'm nearly in tears yesterday reading the section on the actual assassination and didn't even realize the date. Or that Bono is a liar.

(I feel like I may have posted this here already...I've been drinking a lot lately.)

bfj wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 3:15 pm

Really enjoyed listening to this. Audio book is great because it plays audio transcripts and interviews that are referred to in the book. It isn’t just Gladwell reading the whole time.

This was a great audio book, and I think it was one of Gladwell's better works. I was cynical when I saw he was going to discuss Sandusky and policing, but he brought an interesting perspective to it. Also, I didn't know anything about the Cuba spy stuff, which was really cool.

I just started his newest called Bomber Mafia. All about daylight precision bombing and the Norden bomb sight.

Rush2112 wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 8:58 pm I just started his newest called Bomber Mafia. All about daylight precision bombing and the Norden bomb sight.

Listened to his 4 part podcast about this and his recent interviews about this book with Dan Carlin and Larry Wilmore.

This book looks very interesting. Especially since I used to work on bombers and all of this is part of Air Force history.

Johnnie wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 7:25 am

Rush2112 wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 8:58 pm I just started his newest called Bomber Mafia. All about daylight precision bombing and the Norden bomb sight.

Listened to his 4 part podcast about this and his recent interviews about this book with Dan Carlin and Larry Wilmore.

This book looks very interesting. Especially since I used to work on bombers and all of this is part of Air Force history.

I'm waiting to hear my sister's views on it as she used to work at Maxwell and was involved with the school there (where the Bomber Mafia originated.)