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comment by ButterflyEffect
ButterflyEffect  ·  3362 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Hubski Best of 2014 List

The Jean Paul Sartre Cookbook always and forever.

The Great Books List has created an unreasonably long backlog and I swear if I ever finish Team of Rivals I'll get around to reading something off of that list or the other books lists that have been floated around here.

Out of things not on this list I'm going to shamelessy plug: the discussion from my post about Duke University Porn Star from earlier in 2014.

The first "Pubski" should be somewhere on the best of 2014, I think.





user-inactivated  ·  3362 days ago  ·  link  ·  

How are you finding Team of Rivals?

ButterflyEffect  ·  3362 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It's a lot to take in. The book centers around Lincoln and his cabinet and a bunch of other players in the political scene in the decades leading up to and including the civil war, and starts off with the childhood and early political careers of many people before even reaching the Presidency. It can be a slog at times, but I'm enjoying it and have learned a tremendous amount of information about these politicians as people and about the political landscape leading up to the Civil War. Haven't even reached Lincoln's presidency or the war yet.

user-inactivated  ·  3362 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Haha, I know what's it about, I've read it.

As with all of Kearns Goodwin's books, there's tons and tons of information thrown at you. I love it but it turns some people off. The beginning of that one was a bit slow, as you say. To be followed up after a healthy amount of time with this.

ButterflyEffect  ·  3362 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Ah, my apologies. I don't know of anyone in real world space that has read it, hence the rundown.

Seward and Stanton are the most interesting people outside of Lincoln so I will have to try and pick that up after this. I also appreciate the pictures and diagrams in Team of Rivals a lot.