Every couple years or so I re-read favorites about the Browns, such Paul Brown's autobiography (PB: The Paul Brown Story, 1979) and The Best Show in Football: The 1946-1955 Cleveland Browns—Pro Football’s Greatest Dynasty by Andy Piascik, 2006.

This year, however, I've put that category aside and have begun plowing through three other books from the past that educate and stretch the mind in a different way. Each requires tenacity and endurance on the reader's part. The shortest of them is 731 pages, the longest 937 pages.

They are:

Hawaii, a 1959 novel by James Michener (not to be confused with Michener's Tales of the South Pacific, his Pulitzer Prize winner in 1947).

The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1987 for nonfiction.

Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb, also by Rhodes, and a 1996 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in history.

Michener's Hawaii, while a work of fiction, was the first major chronicle of the Hawaiian Islands and their disparate people. His emphasis, as always, is on the characters and their triumphs and tragedies.

If you hated chemistry/math/physics in school (I did), you'll find Rhodes' books damn near incomprehensible on the first reading. A second or even a third reading is necessary before the fog beings to clear. They aren't technical manuals. Rather, they are historical narratives of gifted men and women from the turn of the 20^th century through the 1950s who played definitive roles in the story of mankind's most awesome (and frightful) discovery and invention.

RebelNC wrote:

 

The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1987 for nonfiction.

 

Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb, also by Rhodes, and a 1996 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in history.

 

MHill wrote: I just finished Rise to Rebellion by Jeff Shaara.

I'm currently rereading John Adams by David McCullough.

chipperjones wrote: Dude Where's My Car?

I must say I'm a little disappointed - the movie was much better.

MHill wrote: I just finished Rise to Rebellion by Jeff Shaara

I'm currently rereading John Adams by David McCullough

Republicdawg wrote: Currently reading "Treasure" by Clive Cussler , "The Lord of the Rings" for about the 30th time and the New Testament.

 

max4196 wrote:

Republicdawg wrote: Currently reading "Treasure" by Clive Cussler , "The Lord of the Rings" for about the 30th time and the New Testament.

 

Ahhh a fiction fan,

Republicdawg wrote:

max4196 wrote:

Republicdawg wrote: Currently reading "Treasure" by Clive Cussler , "The Lord of the Rings" for about the 30th time and the New Testament.

 

Ahhh a fiction fan,

Don't understand your need to editorialize when other similar posts weren't included under your appointed umbrella.

DoggyII wrote: I am all up to date on Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series so I picked up my second Linda Fairstein book. When I finish it...hopefully this week, I am going to start Alexandre Dumas' Three Musketeers (a translation of course since my French was never very good and is a lot rusty). If that goes well I expect to find copies of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Man in the Iron Mask.

Republic, I stopped reading Clive after his first Kurt Austin book...and I know he doesn't write by himself anymore).  Thought he really jumped the shark but glad to know someone still enjoys his work!  Give me Night Probe or Raise the Titanic any day!

Republicdawg wrote:

DoggyII wrote: I am all up to date on Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series so I picked up my second Linda Fairstein book. When I finish it...hopefully this week, I am going to start Alexandre Dumas' Three Musketeers (a translation of course since my French was never very good and is a lot rusty). If that goes well I expect to find copies of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Man in the Iron Mask.

Republic, I stopped reading Clive after his first Kurt Austin book...and I know he doesn't write by himself anymore).  Thought he really jumped the shark but glad to know someone still enjoys his work!  Give me Night Probe or Raise the Titanic any day!

Treasure is one of his earlier works. I had stopped reading him for awhile because the Dirk Pitt-Al Giordino repartee was repetitive and tiresome.

brett wrote: I'm finally finishing up the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series.  I'm about 30 pages away from the end of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest.