This week’s TTT is a freebie, so I chose to look back on some of the books added to my Godoreads wanna-read list.
America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the Present, John Ghazvinian. Something of a perennial interest of mine.
Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America, Virginia DeJohn. Animals and pioneer America? Can’t lose!
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race, Walter Isaacson. CRISPR is simultaneously exciting and dreadfully creepy. I’d like to think we’ll do great things with it, but …er, based on what we’ve done with the internet, it’ll probably just turn into a way for trendsetters to have purple or pink skin as fashion dictates.
Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters, Steven Koonin.
Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet, Yasha Levine.
Religion of the Apostles: Orthodox Christianity in the First Century, Stephen de Young
The Sopranos Sessions, Matt Seitz. The Sopranos was the most impressive (if bloodiest) bit of televison drama I’d ever witnessed prior to Breaking Bad, and I remain fascinated by its storytelling craftmanship. This is a look behind the scenes….
The Forest Passage, Ernest Juenger. I can only quote from Amazon:
“[Jünger] explores the possibility of resistance: how the independent thinker can withstand and oppose the power of the omnipresent state. No matter how extensive the technologies of surveillance become, the forest can shelter the rebel, and the rebel can strike back against tyranny. Jünger’s manifesto is a defense of freedom against the pressure to conform to political manipulation and artificial consensus”
Never more timely than now. Recommended to me by a friend of the blog.
Sid Meier’s Memoir! A Life in Computer Games, Sid Meier. Meier’s name is affixed to some of my very favorite games (Civilization III, Gettysburg!, and Railroads, just for starters).
Tyranny Comes Home: The Domestic Fate of US Militarism, Christopher Coyne. The police state is sure to grow even worse now that DC is aggressively trying to target ‘internal enemies’, by which it means anyone with any politics outside the impotent state-serving establishment.
A Pope and a President, Paul Kengor. On the relationship between President Reagan and Pope John Paul II, particularly their shared crusade against global communism.
Reading Freely 
Interesting list! Yet again I’m impressed that I have many similar books either already stacked or on my Wish List with, again, zero duplicates. I do find it intriguing (and more than a little amusing) that we are often interested in common subjects but usually come at them from different directions. But multiple perspectives is the best way to see something clearly! [grin]
BTW – I reviewed ‘Dune’ yesterday if you haven’t already seen it.
So I saw! Since it’s a strong possibility for an October read, I was avoiding reading it for fear of partial spoilers. Anything to worry about? At this moment I only know that the spice must flow. 😉
I always try to be as spoiler free as possible but I did go off on one for a bit about the supposed ‘white saviour’ critique being leveled at the movie which might contain some [small] spoilers. [lol] It might be best to skip my review for a few weeks if you want to go into it almost completely free of preconceptions. BTW – You’re right about the spice. Just can’t have soup, or pizza or well anything almost without it… and I already have blue eyes… so….. [grin]
I hope you enjoy all of these books!
My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-ten-ttt-topics-i-really-enjoyed-doing/
Interesting list! I hope you enjoy all of these when you get the chance! Here is my Top Ten Tuesday. Thank you!
Ooh The Code Breaker sounds very interesting.
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2021/09/28/top-ten-tuesday-335/