PF Cultured Book Club Thread

[blues]

I agree. Have yet to read one of his books and regret the time spent on it.

I really need to stop picking up smaller books and destroying them, so I can focus on finally finishing Musashi...

Been a long time since I last visited "The Book Of Five Rings"

[Kanye Wyoming]

If you haven’t yet read the Flashman series by George MacDonald Fraser, you’re in for a treat. Superb historical fiction spanning the British Empire and beyond in the Victorian era, including a lot of military history and a few set mostly in the U.S., and side splittingly funny. IMHO, one of the great literary achievements of the 20th century.

Here is an overview:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flashman_Papers

And here is a link to the first book in the series:

https://www.amazon.com/Flashman-Nove.../dp/0452259614

[RJ]

If you haven’t yet read the Flashman series by George MacDonald Fraser, you’re in for a treat. Superb historical fiction spanning the British Empire and beyond in the Victorian era, including a lot of military history and a few set mostly in the U.S., and side splittingly funny. IMHO, one of the great literary achievements of the 20th century.

Here is an overview:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flashman_Papers

And here is a link to the first book in the series:

https://www.amazon.com/Flashman-Nove.../dp/0452259614

These are absolutely fantastic.

Hearty second recommendation.

[RevolverRob]

Why?

Read it, should I re read?

What'd I miss?

Though parts of it are clearly embellished, the general theme and ideas are quite important for almost any young person who could go to war. It's also an insightful look at Islamic culture and warrior culture that fell on deaf ears back in the UK when it came to policy in that region. Over a hundred years later, aspects of it are still extremely relevant to understanding the modern distribution of Islam-dominated countries in the Middle East and how the culture works from an interior political perspective. Plus it's fun as hell to read.

[RevolverRob]

5. Writing Science by Joshua Schimel. Admittedly, this book falls well outside the topic of the thread, but it was a really fantastic book for the kind of writing I do. I highly recommend it to anyone who has to write journal articles and/or grant applications. @RevolverRob @Nephrology

In this vein, the Chicago Guide to Communicating Science - https://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Guide...cating+Science Is really good.

I recently picked up two other books on writing/communicating science as a "narrative" -

Olson's book - https://www.amazon.com/Houston-We-Ha...RF8P5HE420PG40

And John McPhee's Draft No. 4 - https://www.amazon.com/Draft-No-4-Wr...ds=John+McPhee

McPhee is one of my favorite pop-sci writers and because I deal a lot with geology he is pretty relevant to me as a writer.

Back to the general discussion if folks here have not read Annals of the Former World (the compendium of McPhee's work on geology in North America) - it is an AMAZINGLY good read and very readable for the non-technical audience, but filled with great information for those who like technical aspects of geology as well. It's so good I use select chapters of it, when I teach Historical Geology to geology majors. - https://www.amazon.com/Annals-Former...sap_bc?ie=UTF8

[OnionsAndDragons]

McPhee is awesome! I agree wholeheartedly that his writing is quite readable for the Sunday afternoon science nerd in me.


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[Nephrology]

5. Writing Science by Joshua Schimel. Admittedly, this book falls well outside the topic of the thread, but it was a really fantastic book for the kind of writing I do. I highly recommend it to anyone who has to write journal articles and/or grant applications. @RevolverRob @Nephrology

Thanks for the tip! I am actually in the middle of writing my NRSA F31 fellowship grant right now....

[Qaz98]

https://www.amazon.com/Path-Between-...tween+the+seas

The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough. Classic book with everything, science, engineering, medicine, politics, and culture. It was the book that got me rolling on history/military history. The building of the Panama Canal was and remains a feat of epic proportions. I should read it again, in fact.

Also, "What Happened" by Hillary Clinton. Maybe not?

[RevolverRob]

Thanks for the tip! I am actually in the middle of writing my NRSA F31 fellowship grant right now....

Good luck dude!

I wrote an F31 two years ago, when I was proposing some dev bio experiments that had multiple health implications (in addition to the evolutionary implications which is what I cared most about). It ended up not mattering that it got rejected, because shortly after submitting, the live animal colony that was to be the source of my experiments collapsed and would have cost too much money to rebuild...And thus died my career as a developmental biologist (I'm really pretty okay with that...).

[Zincwarrior]

Not certain if these count but here goes:

For those who were fans of "The Pacific" or that bunch of hippy loving do gooders called the USMC:
1. With the Old Breed: biography of a mortar man with the First Marine Division on Pelilieu and Okinawa. Its a love story about Americans and Japanese finding ways to get along.

2. A Helmet for a Pillow: A biography of a machine gunner and later scout on Guadalcanal, New Britain (and I think Pelilieu but have not gotten that far). Dad would have loved it for its competent portrayal of the Marine's officer leadership who never lets him down. . .