14 Comments

Thank you, I look forward to the interview & I did enjoy the novel.

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Thanks for the suggestions. I read "The Boys" this weekend & it was an interesting view into the long-term effects of childhood trauma & how a couple does, or does not manage to cope with them. Nice character development & unexpected plot twists.

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Glad you read it — and hope (as I infer) that you found it worthwhile. There was a good interview / first-person article by Katie Hafner yesterday in the Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/08/12/boys-author-katie-hafner-her-path-journalist-novelist/

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Oh, good. I was afraid I’d run out of reading material. 🫣

And another chance to create a password to forget!

Is there a support group for those who can’t stop adding things to the Read This Next! Pile?

?

Never mind. 🥹

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fortunately, this nice couple addressed that!

Steve Leveen in "Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life" has great advice about organizing the reading library at home. Steve quotes many other authors, too, about: there is nothing wrong with having many shelves of unread books and read books, organized by category. The author discusses how to curate the home library with effective results!

Steve Leveen website:

"History to be written:

Today, the Levenger commitment to readers, writers and thinkers continues.

As Lori and Steve say, “We learned early on that a customer is more important than any transaction.

We treat customers like friends, we tell the truth, watch out for them, protect them—not the company—and trust that they will continue to give us their trust in return.

We look forward to continuing to surprise and delight the serious readers of the world.

Steve and Lori Leveen co-founded Levenger in 1987 with a vision to provide “Tools for Serious Readers.”
"Levenger" is a blend of the couple’s last name"

https://www.levenger.com/AboutLevenger/ourfounders.aspx

(A great idea is to donate any unwanted books to the local nursing home or hospital for their library!)

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I look forward to reading Katie's book - I remember her byline from the NY Times.

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Thanks. This book is different from Kate's previous work, but I think you will like it. At least I did.

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Also, thank you so much for the likes and comments on some of my postings at this site from everyone on this travelling ship of news. We are only Hitchhikers seeking the Guide to the Galaxy, after all, JF

I also love reading all the different comments and postings listed after the article; this site draws some great voices! The site encourages deep thought but the subscribers also represent many hundreds of years of deep experience in all things worldly, political, and philosophical.

Thanks, James Fallows, for providing this forum!

On to the midterms! ;)

" Battle!"

- John Travolta as the character in Michael, the comedy about the Archangel who visits small town America

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This is so generous of you to provide all the links below. Thank you! (Much of the reason I wanted to re-establish an online presence, as in the old blogging era, was precisely for this kind of exchange.)

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you are very kind to reply, thanks!

it was a given that your substack would draw the most interesting folks, and then I can watch the passing parade!

the comment section is a wonderful part of the substack scene

As a goodbye for this evening, I'll quote famous Texan Kinky Friedman, when he took leave of his friends: "See you on the parade route!" :)

Stuart Stevens twitter:

"I know it’s Saturday and most of us are out enjoying life but there’s no reason to pretend that American conservatism isn’t transforming into an anti-democratic domestic terrorism movement."

posted at Stevens' site: Nietzsche: "And when you look long into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you." The Lincoln Project

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" There is always time for reading. So, have you read a good book lately?" conclusion, Steve Leveen audiobook, The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life

Thank you sharing really interesting books!

I hope that everyone is able to have a favorite reading place to enjoy their books, beach or beach chair. I really like new suggestions so thank your for sharing! Journalist/book reviewer is an awesome combination :)

On the deck:

The Great Gatsby

Time and Tide in Acadia, Seasons on Mount Desert Island

The Jonesport Raffle, John Gould

The Last of his Kind, The Life and Adventures of Brad Washburn, America's Boldest Mountaineer

The Terranauts, T. Corraghessan Boyle

Bicycle Diaries, David Byrne (Talking Heads, worldwide travel on a bike)

Ex Libris 100 Books to Read and Reread, Michiko Kakutani

Creating Acadia National Park, Ronald Epp

Horizons, Barry Lopez

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The Histories, Herodotus:

“Of all men’s miseries the bitterest is this: to know so much and to have control over nothing.”

The King replied, 'It was caused by your good fate and my bad fate. It was the fault of the Greek gods, who with their arrogance, encouraged me to march onto your lands. Nobody is mad enough to choose war whilst there is peace. During times of peace, the sons bury their fathers, but in war it is the fathers who send their sons to the grave.”

“It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half of the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen.”

“If a man insisted on always being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.”

“Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal, while others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than ever before”

“But this I know: if all mankind were to take their troubles to market with the idea of exchanging them, anyone seeing what his neighbor's troubles were like would be glad to go home with his own.”

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For anyone who finds Noah Smith insightful, I would also recommend the Substack of Noah's occasional podcast partner, Brad DeLong (https://braddelong.substack.com/) . Sometimes in the weeds with academic economics references (he is a UC Berkeley econ professor), Prof. DeLong has broad interests linking history to present day economic debates in sometimes surprising ways. I will also plug his new book, out next month, "Slouching Towards Utopia," which seeks to explain why the 20th C. has failed to deliver utopia notwithstanding unprecedented levels of technological advancement.

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Appreciate it, and agree. I've known Brad off and on through the years and always respect his views. (During the same year I was at UC Berkeley journalism school with Katie Hafner, I saw Brad a couple of times in the area.) I have pre-ordered his book and look forward to it.

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