Always looking for a good book recommendation from like minded (or not) individuals. Let me know what you got!

Right now I am reading "Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression multiple authors. A pretty hefty and grim detailed accounting of every incidence of communist terror. Translated from French. Especially interesting analysis of how communism killed far more than nazism or fascism, yet still gets pretty much a free pass even today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Book_of_Communism

Just finished "The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln: Story of America's Most Reviled President" by Sacramento's own Larry Tagg. As I mentioned before, great writing and one of those books that tests what you think you knew about history. Its hard to read this book without comparing old Abe to Doobya or Jimmy Carter's. I won't give away the ending.
http://www.amazon.com/UNPOPULAR-MR-LINCOLN-Americas-President/dp/1932714618

My other summer reading was "Great Powers: America and the World After Bush" by Thomas PM Barnett. This is his third book (Pentagon's New Map being the first and most recognized). He is a military geo-strategist and futurist, with a pretty good grasp of how economics intertwines with military actions. Great section of the book compares the lack of democracy in America's first 50 years to the conditions in many present day undemocratic or recently democratic countries.
He has a pretty insightful blog which I read regularly commenting on the affairs of the world, and the Green Bay Packers.
http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/weblog/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Barnett

Hey great topic! Great book choices. I know I need to read that Lincoln book I will soon.

Right now I am reading multiple books (as always)

Writers Tools - http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Tools-Ess ... 598&sr=1-1

Basic Christianity (my SECOND reading of this incredibly compelling work!) - http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Christianit ... 649&sr=1-2

Rhetoric - http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=s ... ic&x=0&y=0

Figures of Speech - http://www.amazon.com/Figures-Speech-Wa ... 774&sr=1-1

After these, I'm headed for some lighter reading. There are so many classics I still need to read.

Joe there is something amusing about you reading a book on Rhetoric at this point in your literary arc ... but I am absent of a snarky quip at this point.

Aristotle blows my mind!

From Rhetoric:

"If fear is associated with the expectation that something destructive will happen to us, plainly nobody will be afraid who believes nothing can happen to him; we shall not fear things that we believe cannot happen to us, nor people who we believe cannot inflict them upon us; nor shall we be afraid at times when we think ourselves safe from them. It follows therefore that fear is felt by those who believe something to be likely to happen to them, at the hands of particular persons, in a particular form, and at a particular time. People do not believe this when they are, or think they a are, in the midst of great prosperity, and are in consequence insolent, contemptuous, and reckless -- the kind of character produced by wealth, physical strength, abundance of friends, power: nor yet when they feel they have experienced every kind of horror already and have grown callous about the future, like men who are being flogged and are already nearly dead -- if they are to feel the anguish of uncertainty, there must be some faint expectation of escape. This appears from the fact that fear sets us thinking what can be done, which of course nobody does when things are hopeless. Consequently, when it is advisable that the audience should be frightened, the orator must make them feel that they really are in danger of something, pointing out that it has happened to others who were stronger than they are, and is happening, or has happened, to people like themselves, at the hands of unexpected people, in an unexpected form, and at an unexpected time...."



Fear drives politics. Heck, fear drives everything. I once worked for an executive who told me "everyone fears something...if you really want to understand someone, ask them what they fear."

Some people fear ridicule; others fear failure; still others fear success. And the funny thing is, when you get right down to it, most all of our fears are--in the end-- irrational.

Personally, I believe there is only ONE thing I should fear.. now if I could just get the other 200 things out of my head.

I would like to recommend Twilight by Stephanie Meyer is the best book i've ever read. It is a young adult book. I actually have read the whole series 3 times. It is about the forbidden love of a vampire and a human.