So, What Are You Reading?

Finished Fighting for Common Ground: How We Can Fix the Stalemate in Congress by Olivia Snowe (2013). Mostly a memoir, with a bit of discussion about the polarization in Congress and the Congressional reforms that might fix that.

A frustrating read, if only because Snowe spent most of her career having her views dismissed by her colleagues only to be rescued by Democrats who would support her amendments and rally support for her bills, with no insight into how sharply her views on universal healthxare, women's rights, campaign finance, etc., diverge from most Republicans.

If she were running today she'd be called a RINO.

 

Finished Yale Needs Women by Anne Gardiner Perkins (2019). A well-researched exploration of the years surrounding Yale's decision to admit women and their experiences when it did. Some people have to be dragged into the future. Notably, EE 11246 (put in place by LBJ and rescinded by Trump in 2025) makes an appearance as the basis for an early sex discrimination lawsuit.

 

Is reading the "Exploring Statistics - States of Distribution" DSRT 734 Textbook count?

 

Failure is Not an Option-Gene Kranz (Backstory. I worked at NASA from 2004-2006. I never met the man, but I have been in the same room as he, twice.)

 

Surviving Autocracy by Masha Gessen (2020) carefully documents America's democratic backsliding and increasingly "post-truth society." It also explains how our institutions repeatedly fail to respond to someone with visions of leading as an autocrat or dictator.

Unfortunately it gives no actual advice on surviving life in an autocracy, save for a brief mention that autocrats must squash those with "moral authority" who pose a threat to their rule.

I also have "On Tyranny" on the shelf which I'm hoping is much more action-oriented.

 

I Am a SEAL Team Six Warrior (2013) by Howard Wasdin describes his path to BUD/S, his transfer to SEAL Team Six and his time in Somalia during the Battle of Mogadishu. Picked it up for a dime at a thrift store.

A quick read, it felt like an abridged version or a diary of a full book. That was confirmed when I looked it up after finishing to find out it was a "young adult" version of Wasdin's original memoir, SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper.

After leaving the service, Wasdin became a chiropractor and died at 61 in a plane crash.

 

1774: The Long Year of Revolution by Mary Beth Norton

 

I am stopping at page 110 of the 1774: The Long Year of Revolution to knock out A Brilliant Solution by Carol Berkin for my History 1301 class. My lecture on Thursday is the Constitutional Convention and I am just rereading it to fill in some blanks in my mind. LOL.

 

How Hitler Could Have Won World War II (2000) by Bevin Alexander. Delivers what it promises. Hitler repeatedly ignored his Generals and held to a few policies exploited by the Allies: his refusal to give up territory no matter how strategically useless and his disdain for allowing troops to fall back onto better defended positions.

 

Two books at once. The Jefferson Persuasion by Lance Banning and Turning Japanese by Marty Friedman (former lead guitarist of Megadeth)

 

Fallen Angels (1988) by Walter Dean Myers. A young adult book, it was pretty good. Describes a young man's experience during his deployment to Vietnam and how the war changed him.

Apparently one of the most frequently challenged books in high school libraries.

 

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the 20th Century by Timothy Snyder (2017).

This is an amazing book, action-oriented and full of advice for how to respond to a slide towards authoritarianism and life under it.

It's also my 10th book of the year.