Welcome to bookchat where you can talk about anything...books, plays, essays, and audio books. You don’t have to be reading a book to come in, sit down, and chat with us.
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July 4th, Independence Day, always inspires me to think about our history; the good, the bad and the ugly. There are some really wonderful and important history books that I have enjoyed reading. The research has been carefully done and the writing is readable and well organized. I learn so much and then the book sends me to read more about the topic.
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It is important to read widely to overcome myths and even lies that spring up.
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It is amazing to see the courage of so many people on display. It encourages us to keep up the good fight as well. Learning about the past opens up my heart as I try to understand what it was like. I usually say that if someone can talk or write about their life, then I can read it.
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I have read many, many books about the Holocaust, but the list is so long, it belongs to another diary about people of courage.
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There are many historical fiction stories that are very good, too.
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My favorites for non-fiction
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist
1861: The Civil War Awakening by Adam Goodheart
1863: The Rebirth of a Nation by Joseph E. Stevens
Gettysburg by Stephen Sears
Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson and
Hallowed Ground
A Stillness at Appomattox by Bruce Catton
Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman
First World War by John Keegan
March by John Lewis, trilogy (a graphic novel)
Taylor Branch:
Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963
Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65
At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
Stephen Ambrose:
Citizen Soldier
D Day
Wild Blue
Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle Nest
Incredible Victory: The Battle of Midway by Walter Lord
In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors
by Doug Stanton
Biography, Autobiography, Memoirs
Black Boy by Richard Wright
Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
Code Talker by Chester Nez with Judith Avila
Promises to Keep by Joe Biden
Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption about Louis Zamperini by Laura Hillenbrand
Currahee! : A Screaming Eagle at Normandy by Donald R. Burgett
John Adams by David McCullough
The Cat from Hue by John Laurence
Destiny of the Republic by Candace Millard about Garfield
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My favorites for historical fiction
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Kenneth Roberts:
Oliver Wiswell
Northwest Passage
Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
Jubilee by Margaret Walker
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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What books are your favorites?
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I just have to include this. It has always meant so much:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address
Despite the historical significance of Lincoln's speech, modern scholars disagree as to its exact wording, and contemporary transcriptions published in newspaper accounts of the event and even handwritten copies by Lincoln himself differ in their wording, punctuation, and structure. Of these versions, the Bliss version, written well after the speech as a favor for a friend, is viewed by many as the standard text. Its text differs, however, from the written versions prepared by Lincoln before and after his speech. It is the only version to which Lincoln affixed his signature, and the last he is known to have written.
The Gettysburg Address
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Diaries of the Week:
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Write On! Who was that masked, umm...?
By strawbale
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/06/23/1639690/-Write-On!Who-was-that-masked,-umm
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Introducing the New Kos Katalogue!
By Avilyn
www.dailykos.com/...
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Climate Change, Blue Water Cargo Shipping and Predicted Ocean Wave Activity: Part Two of Three Parts
By Agelbert
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/6/23/1672918/-Climate-Change-Blue-Water-Cargo-Shipping-and-Predicted-Ocean-Wave-Activity-Part-Two-of-Three-Parts
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Eastern Bluebird
Jun 22 · 08:24:38 AM
I would like to invite all the DKos book lovers to a diary that is posted on Sunday mornings called Literacy Counts which selects a pair of book/literacy projects each week from the Donors Choose website. The current long term project Honest History for My Students has 13 days left to fund. The middle school teacher would like her class to read Howard Zinn’s history book "A Young Peoples History of the United States” to teach the non-textbook version of American History from the people's perspective. I recently finished the book and donated it to a school library. The version the teacher is requesting is appropriate to middle school age kids and basically distilled down version of the original history written by Professor Zinn.
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I have contributed small amounts (less than $10) to Donors Choose projects and it really does make a difference. It is my way of giving directly to schools in need and making a difference to some kid’s life with books. When I want to maximize your giving to the teacher’s project, I adjust the contribution to the DonorsChoose charity at check out. (I usually adjust that number to 0% which helps fund the project more quickly).
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NOTE: I hope you have a fun and safe 4th of July!!
NOTE 2: Hubby says major T-storms are heading our way so if I am not here later, tonight, I will hopefully be here, tomorrow, to rec and chat. :)