What books are you reading ?

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Raggedyann
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Post by Raggedyann » 05-14-2013 02:26 AM

kbot wrote: Started reading a non-fiction work over the weekend by Thomas Gallagher called Paddy's Lament 1846-1847: Prelude to Hatred .

The only thing that kept many Irish peasants from starving to death was a thing called a "Murphy"... a spud roasted on an open fire.

Great overview Kbot!
Last edited by Raggedyann on 05-14-2013 02:28 AM, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by kbot » 05-14-2013 06:47 AM

Raggedyann wrote: The only thing that kept many Irish peasants from starving to death was a thing called a "Murphy"... a spud roasted on an open fire.

Great overview Kbot!


I guess that much of the potato crop was a failure for a few years' running, and that, due to the poverty of the country to begin with, the only type of potato crop the people could afford to grow for their own sustenence, was also the absolute worst in terms of taste.

Last night I was reading the chapter concerning typhus and how many people - whole villages in fact, succombed to typhus which was carried by lice. Because people lost their homes for failure to pay rent - which they couldn't because of the massive crop failure, whole families were forced to live outdoors. After their homes were destroyed, they "were allowed" to take some wood and the thatch from the roof. With this, they made lean-tos on the side of hills, or would dig into the earth for try and form some shelter.

People didn't know at the time how typhys was transmitted and because they huddled together to keep warm since they had lost so much weight and whatever fireplace and hearth they had in their former homes), the disease was rapidly transmitted from one family member to another. Many time doctors and priests visiting families to help them inadvertently acquired the disease because it would become airborne.

With typhus being airborne, which was unknown at the time, in a number of instances what also occured was that people were being brought into courts because they were behind on their rents. The magistates came from a completely different segment of society - usually upper class Protestants living in fine homes vs lower-class Catholics trying to survive in virtual hovels. So, with typhus being airborne, as the defendants were in court, and the windows open or the door opening and closing, the particulates were moved around the room, and inhaled.

This set-up a case where in Catholic families, people were getting infected by lice bites, where the bacillus infection was transmited by the bite. Then whole families were being effected, and in some cases, wiped out. In Protestant families, maybe a single individual would get infected because the transmission was airborne. And, since modes of transmission weren't truly understood back then, it was a complete mystery why in some cases whole families were struck, while in others only the head of the household was struck.

Then there was dysentery, which was also a result of starvation and also highly contagious. Bloody, mucous evacuations were common which would cover the dirt floors of the "homes", and this was highly infectious/ contagious. Hospitals were overwhlemed with typhoid and dystentery patients together. Doctors and nurses died in high numbers due to the infection.

In both events, people eventually recognized that the only sure means of preventing the spread of both diseases was to quarrantine the families. Extended family and friends would bring what food they had to share in buckets and using the poles, send the food thorugh open windows. Those inside would send an extra bucket back to be filled later. When the family outside received no response from those inside, either vocal or by no tugging on the pole, they knew that the occupants inside had died, and then the remaining family members set the home on fire. Many homes were also lost this way.

The thing is, it didn't have to be this way. But the wheels of capitalism needed to be greased, so.......

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Post by Doka » 05-27-2013 07:38 PM

I read lots of books! But, I read for pure pleasure. This is one I just finished , it is one of the funniest, I have read for awhile.

STAR ISLAND by Carl Hiaasen

Meet 22-year-old Cherry Pye (née Cheryl Bunterman), a pop star since she was fourteen-and about to attempt a comeback from her latest drug-and-alcohol disaster.

Now meet Cherry again: in the person of her "undercover stunt double," Ann DeLusia. Ann portrays Cherry whenever the singer is too "indisposed"-- meaning wasted -- to go out in public. And it is Ann-mistaken-for-Cherry who is kidnapped from a South Beach hotel by obsessed paparazzo Bang Abbott.

Now the challenge for Cherry's handlers (über-stage mother; horndog record producer; nipped, tucked, and Botoxed twin publicists; weed whacker-wielding bodyguard) is to rescue Ann while keeping her existence a secret from Cherry's public -- and from Cherry herself. The situation is more complicated than they know. Ann has had a bewitching encounter with Skink, the unhinged former governor of Florida living wild in a mangrove swamp, and now he's heading for Miami to find her . . .

Will Bang Abbott achieve his fantasy of a lucrative private photo session with Cherry Pye? Will Cherry sober up in time to lip-synch her way through her concert tour? Will Skink track down Ann DeLusia before Cherry's motley posse does? All will be revealed in this hilarious spin on life in the celebrity fast lane.
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Post by megman » 06-05-2013 11:16 PM

Picked up a copy of Dan Brown's Inferno.

Hopefully it lives up to the hype.........
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Post by Doka » 06-06-2013 12:22 AM

I just put an order for it at the library. I bet it will be good. :)
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Post by Fan » 06-06-2013 09:12 AM

"Liber AL vel Legis' or "The Book of the Law" is the central sacred text of Thelema, written by Aleister Crowley in Cairo, Egypt in the year 1904. Crowley says that the author was an entity named Aiwass, whom he later referred to as his personal Holy Guardian Angel (or "Higher Self"). The interpretation of the often cryptic text is generally considered a matter for the individual reader. The general method that Crowley used to interpret the obscurities of the book was the Qabalah. This edition also reproduces the original manuscript in Crowley's hand from which the printed version is composed.
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Post by cherry » 06-22-2013 01:11 AM

The Obama Diaries --Laura Ingraham

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Post by Diogenes » 06-22-2013 02:07 PM

The Monuments Men - George Clooney has produced and is starring in the film which will be out in December.

Fascinating story of these men who were appointed to secure all of the art and historical buildings, etc. which were taken or partially destroyed by the Nazis.



http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... nazis.html
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Post by Doka » 07-13-2013 10:22 AM

Just finished Neil Gaiman's book, "The Ocean At The End Of The Lane". I liked it, but it is still hard to beat his, "The Graveyard Book" which is truly enchanting. For those into Terry Prachett, you will like Neil's books.


http://www.amazon.com/Neil-Gaiman/e/B000AQ01G2
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Death In The City of Light

Post by Diogenes » 07-13-2013 11:20 AM

This is about the serial killer Dr. Marcel Petiot, during the Nazi occupation of Paris.

Really fascinating - all true and reads like a novel.

The writing is reminiscent of Erik Larson and his historical non fiction.
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Post by Raggedyann » 07-13-2013 12:53 PM

I am on chapter 8 of 1984. Depressing book!
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Post by Doka » 07-13-2013 01:22 PM

Inferno by Dan Brown


I did not like the book. I just about drowned in it. Literally!


http://www.amazon.com/Inferno-Dan-Brown/dp/0385537859
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Post by Doka » 07-13-2013 01:26 PM

Ra, if I recall the book is quite long. Get the movie, it is excellent. Actually it was Richard Burton's last movie.
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Post by Raggedyann » 07-13-2013 01:55 PM

I don't think I would want to see this movie. I suffer claustrophobia and I find the story suffocating. It's giving me anxiety attacks! :eek:
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Post by Diogenes » 07-14-2013 10:48 AM

Raggedyann wrote: I am on chapter 8 of 1984. Depressing book!


I keep saying I'm going to read this and haven't so will download now.

Tell me why depressing- is it because it is so much of what life is today?
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