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Movie Theater Recommend books

Finished The Fountain head last night. Will give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars. The court scene is a bit of a reach. That is not reality, at least today, in 1930's I don't know, but don't think so. Also sad that Gail was destroyed in the process, and nothing really happened to Toohey.

I liked Atlas more, but it was much more long winded. In truth if I had read this one first I doubt I would have gone farther then this one book.
 
I am not much of a reader unless it is books about car’s & motorcycles. Have two six foot bookcases stuffed with those. Also books about motor design like Miller & Cosworth.
A while back YouTube selection came back with Jack Hinsons’s One Man War. Now retired I am making my way thru it. Only problem, my eyes are not young anymore. Even w/ reading glasses they get tired pretty fast.
When General Grant burned everything to the ground so many of this country’s records were lost. Family histories, where land was located & the boundaries all gone.

Maxwell
 
A brave new world.

After this one I am going to hit 1984 again, I had not read that in decades. Still on this same kick that started several months ago.

In the book, another I read that I can recommend but it was a bit of a hard read, as well as dated is.

Amusing ourselves to death. This one covers how the TV is shaping EVERYTHING. How we learned things before TV, vs now. It is quite eye opening.

Postman, who wrote amusing goes into this theme quite often. Are things going to be Orwell as in 1984, or Huxley as in new world. As both these guys are not living today, and me being a product of todays world, really a product of yesterdays world have a different view from both of them.

I see it as both, something these guys did not think of. You will have a ministry of truth, as well as everyone will be happy.

This stuff is really changing the way I look at the world.
 
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Brave new world finished, I bet it has been 40 years that I "had" to read that for school. Doubt that kids today are assigned that. I had forgotten the ending.

Oh Ford that was a hard ending.

On to 1984 and refresh my memory on that one.
 
Just started this one.

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I am about 8 chapters in so far and it has been pretty darn good. It is a book really about Red Cloud, and has been pretty focused on him with small touches into "general" information. It has been a pretty quick read and I have learned some things I did not know before. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
 
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I did not go over 1984 and Brave new world.

When you read those two books again, and if it has been years for you I do suggest it again. You really come away thinking, yes a bit of both worlds is going on now.
 
I read Agatha Christie Murder of Roger Ackroyd and CS Lewis Out of the Silent Planet.

Tried to finish Zelazny's Roadmarks but the book is just plain unreadable shit.

Bought a pile of old books for 25cents each at the local yardsale so that is my next project.
 
Just finished:
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This one I can say held pretty true to being about Red Cloud. So many books about this or that indian goes way off into the weeds, this one stayed pretty on target.

If you are interested in the first guy that ever won a war against the United States this is your book.
 
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I've probably responded to this thread before saying that I read right before bed and want to be entertained.

Just read 'Armada' by Ernest Cline (Ready Player 1 and RPO 2) and it filled the bill. Took me all of 2 days to run thru the book. It wasn't quite a 'stay up reading till 0400' book, but it was close.

M
 
As my wife stole my SHTF book by the bosnia guy, we have a thread floating around here on that one, I started something new.

Currently about halfway through this one and feel like I can give my two bits that is not worth two quarters.

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I admit I am a bit of a Jordan Peterson fanboi, I like what he has to say, and I think "they" are trying to shut him the hell up.

This book I don't think is political at all, it is more of a look at you and the choices you make type book. I hate the term self improvement, but I guess you could call it that. I bought it really because of the guy that wrote it. I like his way of thinking.

You can read this and see yea I can see if this is how a person thinks, you understand his position on everything that is "political" and everything is political now, we all know it.

It is going fairly quickly, and has a few moments you go.....wow that was really good, I should remember that one.

All in all I would give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.
 
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A commitment for sure but so far is such an awesome read. I never laughed out loud while reading in my entire life until I picked this up. I am on a classics binge at the moment. This is definitely one of them.

If you get it, make sure you go with the translation above. It is supposed to be by far the most true to the original.
 
As my wife stole my SHTF book by the bosnia guy, we have a thread floating around here on that one, I started something new.

Currently about halfway through this one and feel like I can give my two bits that is not worth two quarters.

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I admit I am a bit of a Jordan Peterson fanboi, I like what he has to say, and I think "they" are trying to shut him the hell up.

This book I don't think is political at all, it is more of a look at you and the choices you make type book. I hate the term self improvement, but I guess you could call it that. I bought it really because of the guy that wrote it. I like his way of thinking.

You can read this and see yea I can see if this is how a person thinks, you understand his position on everything that is "political" and everything is political now, we all know it.

It is going fairly quickly, and has a few moments you go.....wow that was really good, I should remember that one.

All in all I would give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

One chapter to go and I think I can comment on this book overall.

It is a slow going book, and I don't mean that in a bad way. There are places where you will go.....hang on a sec, I need to stop and think about that one for a sec.

If you have seen any of his interviews over the years you likely have seen bits of this here and there. But this puts it all in a nice little place all together.

There is quite a few "bible" references in there, that can be good or bad depending on your view point, he uses current events to back up the points of the bible references.

If you are in a book store and you come across this, open it up to chapter 11 and give that one chapter half a read, I have a feeling that one chapter will make you leave with the book in your hand.

It is no wonder why those in Canada want to send him in for "re education" if he wants to keep his lic.
 
Just finished Stephen Hunter’s Bullet Garden.

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Totally awesome and one of the best of the Earl Swagger series.

I’m a couple of books behind, but a buddy of mine sent me this (it’s even signed!!) and it reminds me why I love his books so much.

Yup… pulp. But so engaging… always great plot twists. And he gets all kinds of cool technical details right. He must hang out in the Vintage section!

This is a WW2 book with Earl in Normandy… and I won’t say any more except that I couldn’t put it down. Lots of cool spy stuff, too.

Cheers, Sirhr
 
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Someone here brought up this one:
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I started it over lunch, only a fist full of pages in and wow.....heavy hitting stuff here.

 
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I read Agatha Christie Murder of Roger Ackroyd and CS Lewis Out of the Silent Planet.

Tried to finish Zelazny's Roadmarks but the book is just plain unreadable shit.

Bought a pile of old books for 25cents each at the local yardsale so that is my next project.

Zelazny is fantastic, you can read a half dozen of his books and they are wildly different in just about any way possible (Lord of Light, Creatures of Light and Darkness, et. al.). He was incredibly experimental in a number of his books. Unless you have read his works, there is no way to have any idea what you are getting into when you pick one of his works up.


I have read Roadmarks at least a half dozen times. But it shifts a lot and is telling an offbeat story.
If you dabble in enough Fantasy, you will end up with stuff that isn't linear, Roadmarks is not, and then some.
The main character has access to a time highway, and can take exits at various points in time.

From wiki:

Roadmarks is a science fantasy novel by American author Roger Zelazny, written during the late 1970s and published in 1979.

Structure and characters​

The novel postulates a road that travels through time, with a nexus placed every few years where a handful of specially gifted people are able to get on and off. The plot involves a series of assassination attempts on the protagonist, with short vignettes on each of the would-be assassins.

The book has two poetry collections as characters. Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire and Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman appear as cybernetic extensions of themselves. They are companions of the protagonist and his son Randy, and referred to as "Flowers" and "Leaves" respectively. They talk, argue and frequently quote their own content, exhibiting human-like levels of intelligence.

The novel alternates between non-linear "Two" and linear "One" chapters. According to Zelazny:

I did not decide until I was well into the book that since there was really two time-situations being dealt with (on-Road and off-Road—with off-Road being anywhen in history), I needed only two chapter headings, One and Two, to let the reader know where we are. And since the Twos were non-linear, anyway, I clipped each Two chapter into a discrete packet, stacked them and then shuffled them before reinserting them between the Ones. It shouldn't have made any difference, though I wouldn't have had the guts to try doing that without my experience with my other experimental books and the faith it had given me in the feelings I'd developed toward narrative."[1]
The book's editor was confused by the "Two" chapters and required Zelazny to rearrange the order of a few of them before publication.[1]/quote]


If you want to try Zelazny, I would recommend 9 Princes in Amber, book 1 of the Chronicles of Amber series (5 books)
minor description:

The Amber stories take place in two contrasting "true" worlds, Amber and Chaos, and in shadow worlds (Shadows) that lie between the two. These shadows, including Earth, are parallel worlds that exist in — and were created from — the tension between the opposing magical forces of Amber and Chaos. The Courts of Chaos are situated at the very edge of an abyss. Members of the royal family of Amber, after walking in a Pattern that is central to Amber, can travel freely through the Shadows. While traveling (shifting) between Shadows, they can alter reality or create a new reality by choosing which elements of which Shadows to keep or add, and which to subtract. Nobles of the Courts of Chaos who have traversed the Logrus are similarly able to travel through Shadows.
 
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Someone here brought up this one:
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I started it over lunch, only a fist full of pages in and wow.....heavy hitting stuff here.



Finished this. It is not often that I just can't finish a book. This was one. While I do see some promise in the theory, the end of the book written in 97 is just so far off the mark I found myself stopping far too often and saying, nope did not work that way to the point I just said I can't do this anymore.

I do see there is a new version of the book written by one of the same guys, the other died. It is in my cart to pickup down the road. And that is a bit odd as well, I could not finish the first one, and want to read the second. Must say something about something.

Off to another one, not going to clue you in yet as I may not stick with it, starting off REALLY slow.
 
The most powerful book I've ever read on WWII is The Nine Hundred Days by Harrison E. Salisbury, about the Siege of Leningrad. It completely pushes your understanding of what human beings are capable of doing to survive to new levels. Harrowing, powerful, incredibly grim but also uplifting. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer is a very good general overview of both the military conflict and the lead-up to it. It's written in a novelistic fashion and Shirer was an American journalist working in Berlin up to the outbreak of US-German hostilities, which means he was an eyewitness to quite a lot of events which adds a lot. Both of those books are old (both published in the 1950s and 1960s, and the early parts were written alongside the conflict) so they lack the modern historiography and greater access to records. Of the modern books on the conflicts, John Keegan's overview of WWI (just called The First World War) is very hard to beat and Antony Beevor's books on Stalingrad and Berlin (Stalingrad and Berlin: The Downfall) are very strong works.
 
I'm currently re-reading 2 books I had to read in college that were a bit of a force feed.....I mean it was school work. Much more interesting this time around b/c I have 33 more years of life under my belt and a different lens to view them through. Also incredibly insightful as we see economies, personal freedoms and social upheaval pendulum swings at a much larger and faster swings from side to side....points in both books

FA Hayek - The Road to Serfdom
Milton Friedman - Capitalism and Freedom
 
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"The Comfort Crisis" was a really solid book. Passed it along to many others and all have really enjoyed it.
 
I just finished this one. I would give it 3 out of 5 stars.

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Just started this one over lunch.

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Sara parker has always interested me, and really the part about after she was "rescued".

Not sure if a 100 year old photo can be NSFW, but I will post up a pretty famous photo of her taken after her so called rescue. The horror of all horrors an adult woman, white woman photographed in this way. Her death was pure hell. I think if it is possible for someone to die of a broken heart she did.

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Almost done with the Blue Tattoo. It is pretty well done and goes pretty deep into the.....well what you learned about this years ago is not quite right.

In reading this you come away with a few things, This woman was smart enough to know she needed money to live in the "white man's world" and that people just giving her things would dry up. The "original" book Captivity of the oatman girls is quite self serving. The "clergyman" that wrote it could see $$$ signs, and really who would know in 1857 what was true and what was not....only Olive at the start of all this and like I said she was smart. It really spends a great deal of time tearing that first book apart, and I did welcome that. Some things in there are just flat not possible, where other things just left out to serve this priests desire to be famous and make money. The Oatmans being Mormon for example is totally left out, and being in a splinter faction of that religion is also left out.

They took great care in finding docs to back up the claim the first book is filled with lies. Using Olive's interviews from the first time she was "rescued" to interviews in the early 1900's of members of the tribe she was with. Including the famous tattoo, and her indian name. That totally left out of the book because it would damage her as something that could be sold. A poor white girl that held onto her virtue the entire 5 years sells to Victorian women much better then knowing she had an Indian name that basically means sore vagina. Kind of makes you wonder how that could happen. She also never had children so likely she was infertile, this is why no indian children are found.

All in all a real good book that I think sets straight the entire Oatman "massacre" and the role of the father in all that, as well as what in all likely hood happened to Olive during her time with the two different indian tribes.

I found an original copy of the book for sale, just wow, by the dates this would be a first or second printing. It originally sold for $1

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One of the most incredible story of courage, leadership, and just plain survival ever documented. I highly recommend this book.

And for those of us who think we are tough guys and have experienced hardship, read this book. I believe it will gift you some humility, which is always a boon.

By the by, the cover art is an actual photo taken of their ship, the Endurance, caught in the antarctic pack ice. Would you sail 10k miles to Antarctica in that thing? And just a year ago they finally found this ship 10k feet down on the bottom in the Wendell Sea. Incredible.
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I think I listened to that at about the same time. Not sure if folks were just tougher or if it shows how far you can go when there's no going back.

It took me a week and a half to start my next book, just that profound.
 
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Book suggestions for men:
Fiction: The Traveler's Gift - Andy Andrews

Non-Fiction: Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankel

Most Importantly: The Holy Bible - Almighty God
 
Just finished Stephen Hunter’s Bullet Garden.

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Totally awesome and one of the best of the Earl Swagger series.

I’m a couple of books behind, but a buddy of mine sent me this (it’s even signed!!) and it reminds me why I love his books so much.

Yup… pulp. But so engaging… always great plot twists. And he gets all kinds of cool technical details right. He must hang out in the Vintage section!

This is a WW2 book with Earl in Normandy… and I won’t say any more except that I couldn’t put it down. Lots of cool spy stuff, too.

Cheers, Sirhr
Just finished this one, hadn't been on my radar until I saw your post, so thanks! I've been reading about Swaggar's at war since the 1990's. "Point of Impact" got me interested in shooting. I thought the 168 grain Sierra Match King was the best bullet out there, probably for longer than I should have, haha.

Bullet Garden was really good, Hunter got back to his roots and wrote a great story, glad he wasn't trying to work in too much rainbow crap into this one. I liked seeing "the Swede" angle! Good fun.
 
I read both books, but I liked Atlas more. I can't say that Fountainhead is bad, just the book did not evoke any emotions in me
I agree you can tell it was an early work of hers. Not as polished. I just was not invested in the people in Fountain.
 
This is the one I am currently on:
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Fairly good, I am not a big fan of bouncing around with the stories. He is talking about something happening in vietnam, then switches to flight school for the lesson learned there. Or about a person from there, then back to the "present". I think this is a "me" thing, it always takes me a bit to switch gears back.

All in all some really good stories about different missions. And this is really why I read these books, I like the first person stories.
 
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This is the one I am currently on:
View attachment 8235228

Fairly good, I am not a big fan of bouncing around with the stories. He is talking about something happening in vietnam, then switches to flight school for the lesson learned there. Or about a person from there, then back to the "present". I think this is a "me" thing, it always takes me a bit to switch gears back.

All in all some really good stories about different missions. And this is really why I read these books, I like the first person stories.
To the Limit is darned good. I read it years ago. Might go back and read it again!
 
To the Limit is darned good. I read it years ago. Might go back and read it again!
Almost finished, He just got shot down a sau valley. My eyes would not stay open even with it being a really good part. Engine just went quiet he hit the ground and is hanging by the straps, looks up and sees NVA with their laundry.....ahh son I think you are going to need that rifle.
 
I also liked the part at the other camp where they painted over the markings on his helicopter.
 
I had to look it up, this was one I read a year or so ago. It was pretty good, and covered a different war. It was interesting to read about the different countries and how things went down.

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Finished To the Limit. This one is quite good, 5 out of 5. A very quick read, and an easy read.

Plan on starting this one at lunch.

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WOW!

I had that "Easy Eye" version of King Solomon's Mines as a child! My parents bought me a large box of Easy Eye classics like that for Christmas one year because they knew I liked to read so much. It was one of the best presents I ever received. King Solomon's Mines really captured the imagination of an elementary student (me!). I was sucked into the story and could not put it down. Adventure, suspense, mystery, exotic locales, death and even some titillating hints about sex. It had everything a young boy wanted to read about.

Ha, ha, Thanks for posting that picture. It brought back some good memories.
 
Brave new world finished, I bet it has been 40 years that I "had" to read that for school. Doubt that kids today are assigned that. I had forgotten the ending.

Oh Ford that was a hard ending.

On to 1984 and refresh my memory on that one.
I read 1984 as a high schooler, and then again as an adult approaching middle age. The second time around, it was a very different read, having some experience in the world. The story had deeper meanings for the older me than the high school me.
 
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I read 1984 as a high schooler, and then again as an adult approaching middle age. The second time around, it was a very different read, having some experience in the world. The story had deeper meanings for the older me than the high school me.

It is just a totally different book. Really makes you think with the stuff going on today.
 
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Six chapters in, and this is a different book. I am finding it very hard to get into a "flow".

The guy that wrote it was to have kept a detailed diary with him. This is against regs of the time. He had a "real" diary but lost it early on. So the book says he made his entries on anything he could wright on and put them into the lining of his coat. But around chapter 5 he tosses the coat running from the Commies. I have little doubt a lot of this is etched into the mind, and I know that once the memory gate is opened forgotten memories will come back to the surface.

The real issue I have is the flow of the book. It just reads disjointed. It is like you are reading his diary.

Dec 12
During shelling I noticed some blood around my knee. There was a small hole the size of a pea and it was leaking black blood. My knee started to swell, and the medic put a dressing on it. The next morning from my knee to my foot was blue, the medic said it was internal bleeding and I would need to be evacuated. How I can't walk. Lucky a supply truck came faster and I got the trip back.

Dec 14
On the train to the hospital I met with.........................

On and on like this, it is interesting, but it just seems so disjointed.

I am not sure I am going to finish this one, Six chapters in, so pretty deep already, but it is just not really enjoyable for me.
 
Just finished this one yesterday:
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Pretty good again, a covey pilot in vietnam in 71-73, but that needs some detail added. He did his first tour in 71, went home went stir crazy and went back in 73 to finish flying out of Thailand.

Pretty good book and goes into details I did not know about this aspect of the war, FAC type things. "Normal" covey pilots flew a bit different from the pilots that supported the SOG teams, and it does not go into what those guys did, this is really about flying for the SOG teams.

A real good book and if you have not read much on the FAC job it provides good insight to that aspect of those "over the fence" operations.

4.5 out of 5 stars
 
To Live & Die In L.A.

The Callahan series by Spider Robinson

The Aeneid by Virgil

The Kybalian by the Three Initiates

Anything by Lawrence Auster or Joseph Fallon

The Use and Abuse of Art by Jacques Barzun

A Race Against Time by George McDaniel (My Favorite)

Anything by Madison Grant or T. Lothrop Stoddard
 
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A Fate Worse Than Death, by Michno.

It's about Plains Indians' captives treatment. The authors cover the documented cases of a small segment of those captured, primarily by the Commanche, Cheyenne, and Sioux. I read this book this summer while visiting many of the sites covered in the book. The Indians come across as a death cult worse than the ISIS, Taliban or Hamas.

One thing to note is that I visited many of the battle sites listed in here and there was nothing about the captives held at the site nor their treatment, or the "{historians" who came up with the signage at the sites. This book is one of the many that have come out or about to come out about the real history of the West.

The prose is rather dry at times, but it has to be. given just how bad it was. Lots of good stories of Indian attacks, fights, and battles, along with inside baseball on how tribal culture worked. I learned a lot in general. May be hard to read for some. It literally has hundreds of accounts.


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To Live & Die In L.A.

The Callahan series by Spider Robinson

The Aeneid by Virgil

The Kybalian by the Three Initiates

Anything by Lawrence Auster or Joseph Fallon

The Use and Abuse of Art by Jacques Barzun

A Race Against Time by George McDaniel (My Favorite)

Anything by Madison Grant or T. Lothrop Stoddard


I have all of Stoddard's books, original first editions. I also have first editions of both of Grant's books. I've read most of Stoddard and most of Grant.

The French Revolution in San Domingo was one of the hardest books to find an original first edition of, since there were only three known to be in existence in North America, and they were in various university libraries. Fortunately a friend of mine had one of the only known privately held copies and he sold it to me for a reasonable price.
 
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I have all of Stoddard's books, original first editions. I also have first editions of both of Grant's books. I've read most of Stoddard and most of Grant.

The French Revolution in San Domingo was one of the hardest books to find an original first edition of, since there were only three known to be in existence in North America, and they were in various university libraries. Fortunately a friend of mine had one of the only known privately held copies and he sold it to me for a reasonable price.
Can you recommend any other American authors of their genre? I struggle to find any. I don’t believe Wickliffe Preston Draper ever wrote a book.

I am also interested in the German authors of their time, if any English translations exist.

You might like Gottfried Feder’s Manifesto for the Abolition of Interest-Slavery.
 
Can you recommend any other American authors of their genre? I struggle to find any. I don’t believe Wickliffe Preston Draper ever wrote a book.

I am also interested in the German authors of their time, if any English translations exist.

You might like Gottfried Feder’s Manifesto for the Abolition of Interest-Slavery.


It depends on your topic/area of interest.

If you want to learn about Europe in the late 1800s to early 1900s, "Through Thirty Years" by Henry Wickham Steed, as well as "The Hapsburg Monarchy" by Henry Wickham Steed. Through Thirty Years details his career as a journalist in Europe from 1892 to 1922.

If you want to read about the historical conspiracy of the period around the French Revolution, anything by Nesta Webster. "The French Revolution a Study in Democracy," "The French Terror and Russian Bolshevism," "World Revolution the Plot Against Civilization," "Secret Societies and Subversive Movements," "The Surrender of an Empire," and "Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette Before the Revolution."

An American author on the topic of FDR being a communist who surrounded himself with known communists... Elizabeth Dilling. "The Red Network: A Who's Who and Handbook on Radicalism for Patriots." "The Roosevelt Red Record and Its Background."

I have a large number of original German books [in German] from the late 1800s to the early 1940s which are fairly rare given that the occupying powers held mass book burnings of many books in Germany from 1945-1947, censoring (by destruction) many books as enemy propaganda. The originals I have are ones that escaped the burning.

Das land ohne herz eine reise ins unbekannte Amerika (The Land Without a Heart, a Journey into Unknown America)

In Gottes eigenem land (In God's Own Land- a look into the Dollar Paradise)

I also have Spengler in the original German, not nearly as rare "Der Untergang Des Abendlandes." The Decline of the West.

Aside from obviously knowing English, I know German, among other languages (I actually know six languages, although I seldom use any language other than English on a daily basis).

A good friend of mine has an original French language newspaper detailing Napoleon having an interesting meeting with a group of bankers in Paris in what establishes a clear Rothschild banking connection (on both sides) to the Napoleonic Wars, not only financing the British, but also the French.