What Book Are You Reading Now, Round 2.

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Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Sep 20, 2014 - 09:20am PT
Acid Test: LSD, Ecstasy and the Power to Heal by Tom Shroder, which I reviewed for The Washington Post.

Acid Test review

Pretty fascinating stuff about the therapeutic uses of psychedelic drugs, particularly in the treatment of PTSD.
Sierra Ledge Rat

Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
Sep 20, 2014 - 05:18pm PT
Tobia

Social climber
Denial
Topic Author's Reply - Sep 20, 2014 - 07:04pm PT
Gregory,
Does the book cover the use of Psilocybin for treatment of depression? I've read a couple of articles (or heard news stories on NPR) about research in that area.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Sep 20, 2014 - 07:10pm PT
Dead Souls was probably the first novel to address the twenty first century style of robber baron consciousness.

Man, were those backwoods Russians prescient or what?

Edit; published in 1842!!
jgill

Boulder climber
Colorado
Sep 21, 2014 - 06:56pm PT
Think of a Number by John Verdon. A detective novel as literature.
two-shoes

Trad climber
Auberry, CA
Sep 21, 2014 - 08:44pm PT
The Plutonium Files, by Eileen Welsome, 1999. Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning series written by Welsome in the Albuerque Tribune. A very well documented read.

Check out the thumb-nail sketch in Wikipedia at the very least. This is the second time I've read this book through the years,-- some really, really heavy stuff!
Gary

Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
Sep 22, 2014 - 07:44am PT
Being 100 years since the start of The Great War and all...

No Parachute by Arthur Gould Lee. A good read about a no name fighter pilot in a no name squadron flying obsolete aircraft. Lee had an amazing run of good luck. He gives a portrayal of not only the horror of the air war, but also the joy of flying in those days. Imagine cruising at 20,000 feet in an open cockpit wood and doped fabric airplane, no oxygen, and with nothing more than an altimeter and a compass.

‘They could see him struggling to get clear of his harness, then half standing up. They said it was horrible to watch him trying to decide whether to jump. He didn’t and the machine and he were smashed to nothingness. … God imagine his last moments, seeing the ground rush up at him, knowing he was a dead man, unable to move, unable to do anything but wait for it. A parachute could have saved him, there’s no doubt about that. What the hell is wrong with those callous dolts at home that they won’t give them to us?’
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Sep 22, 2014 - 05:38pm PT
Tobia--It does, briefly. The main focus is MDMA and PTSD, but those profoundly pychoactive drugs apparently have lots of therapeutic applications. I found it pretty interesting.
wilbeer

Mountain climber
Terence Wilson greeneck alleghenys,ny,
Sep 22, 2014 - 05:42pm PT
little Z

Trad climber
un cafetal en Naranjo
Sep 22, 2014 - 06:32pm PT
The Guns of August

dug it out for the 100 year annivesary of the events. Still chilling after many reads.

On the heroic King Albert of Belgium..."His ultimate passion was mountaineering, which, incognito, he pursued all over Europe."
Gary

Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
Sep 22, 2014 - 07:52pm PT
Albert is one of our fallen brethren.

A passionate alpinist, King Albert I died in a mountaineering accident while climbing alone on the Roche du Vieux Bon Dieu at Marche-les-Dames, in the Ardennes region of Belgium near Namur. His death shocked the world and he was deeply mourned, both in Belgium and abroad. Because King Albert was an expert climber, some questioned the official version of his death. Nonetheless, rumors of murder have been dismissed by most historians. There are two possible explanations for his death: the first was he leaned against a boulder at the top of the mountain which became dislodged; or two, the pinnacle to which his rope was belayed had broken, causing him to fall about sixty feet.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/24912558
wbw

Trad climber
'cross the great divide
Sep 22, 2014 - 08:07pm PT
I've just re-read The Forever War. I think Dexter Filkins especially captured the contradictions wrapped around every aspect of the war in Iraq. There is a scene he describes where during the battle of Falluja in 2004, amidst the sound of guns and bombs, one can hear the rally from the local minaret to the neighborhood people to pick up their weapons and fight the invading Americans. At the same time, the Marines are blasting Hell's Bells by AC/DC at full volume on an outdoor sound system they had brought along to help with battle psyche.

I read And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini at the end of the summer. I just really enjoy how his novels span lifetimes, and his descriptions of Afghanistan and its culture. As with his other books, one feels the regrets that his characters tend to carry throughout their lives, but ultimately his stories are uplifting.
Bruce Morris

Social climber
Belmont, California
Sep 22, 2014 - 09:49pm PT
Blood Brotherhoods, John Dickie's 800 page account of the rise of organized crime in Italy since 1860 or so:

http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Brotherhoods-John-Dickie/dp/034096393X

What happens when an entire society is corrupted by extortion, graft and murder. A real page turner. I like to read it in short snippets over breakfast. It's good in a way for the USA that Christian Sunday School cadets like Herbert Hoover built and entrenched themselves in the FBI and DOJ where they remained incorruptible (if reactionary) Christian soldiers. Now the Italian police force on the other hand . . . !!!!!
neebee

Social climber
calif/texas
Sep 23, 2014 - 02:55am PT
hey there say, sierra ledge rat... man oh man, what a book!

"the backyard blacksmith"

:)


say, please, wow, hope you can post on what things you learn to make:

in the 'what are you building thread'


:)
Ezra Ellis

Trad climber
North wet, and Da souf
Sep 23, 2014 - 03:36am PT
Edward abbey
Desert Solitaire

One of the best nature/ society books ever !
bookworm

Social climber
Falls Church, VA
Sep 23, 2014 - 05:40am PT
just finished H.W. Brands' biography of Grant--superb writing about the most underrated and underappreciated general in american history

also read Winston Grooms' "Shiloh" and "Vicksburg"
TwistedCrank

climber
Released into general population, Idaho
Sep 23, 2014 - 06:23am PT
De spam bump
rockermike

Trad climber
Berkeley
Sep 23, 2014 - 12:27pm PT
I don't read anymore.... in fact I may have forgotten how. ha
But books on tape, Teaching Company University lectures and Podcasts keep me going.

Just finished a great pod-cast on Genghis Khan. Great "read". 5 free pod-casts of about 1.5 hours each. What I guy he was. Biggest empire in human history I believe. From Beijing to Turkey or something... even into parts of Russia. His 'hordes' used to ride 120 miles overnight, attack a city, murder 20,000 people then ride home.... non-stop (these 'facts' from some other book I read years back). Kind of like the nose in a day. Imagine 20,000 of the most talented horsemen and dynamic archers in history galloping down on your town. They regularly would kill every single man women and child. Even sent teams back a few days later to make sure no one had survived.

They say he may have been responsible for 60,000,000 deaths. Hitler, Stalin and Mao couldn't compare.

anyway... the pod cast. Dan Carlin, hardcore history. The ones I just finished are titled 'Wrath of the Khans'. Real page turners to say the least.

http://www.dancarlin.com//disp.php/hharchive/Show-43---Wrath-of-the-Khans-I/Mongols-Genghis-Chingis
deuce4

climber
Hobart, Australia
Sep 27, 2014 - 01:53pm PT
Two books:
World Order, Henry Kissenger
The Wondrous Life of Oscar Woa, Diaz

Both awesome reads, depending on the mood of the moment. Been reading both for a few weeks now. Should be able to finish one or both now that we're on school break here on Tassie.
Captain...or Skully

climber
in the oil patch...Fricken Bakken, that's where
Sep 27, 2014 - 02:12pm PT
Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales.......fascinating stuff.
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