What Are You Reading

[Touchofevil]

Ross MacDonald's "Find a Victim" first published in 1954.

 

[1mach1]

Brave New World by Huxley

 

[jamespowers]

Brave New World by Huxley

Scary huh? Welcome to modern times....

 

[1mach1]

Scary huh? Welcome to modern times....

 

[jamespowers]

View attachment 30306

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IKVj4l5GU4

 

[1mach1]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IKVj4l5GU4

 

[Fading Fast]

Brave New World by Huxley

I love that "Brave New World" twist on the all controlling dictatorship story wasn't another "1984" or "Darkness at Noon" dystopia, but a surface appearance of "the good life," masking the total evil behind it all.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"1000 Americans" by journalist George Seldes. Published in 1946. this is largely an examination of the National Association of Manufacturers and its absolute control over the mass media of the Era. Some of the ground covered is familiar -- Seldes was a former employee of good Colonel McCormick and has much to say about exactly how the McCormick media empire manipulated and suppressed news -- but there are some interesting, well-documented revelations about exactly who was controlling other publications, such as the Saturday Evening Post, which was a blatant NAM house organ right down the line, from its editorial pages right down to its fiction. It's an interesting look at the lay of the land just as the Boys From Marketing were reaching the height of their power over American minds. "The Good Life" indeed.

 

[AmateisGal]

The Darkest Hour by Tony Schumacher. An alternate reality story where the Germans conquered Britain during World War 2.

 

[Fading Fast]

The Darkest Hour by Tony Schumacher. An alternate reality story where the Germans conquered Britain during World War 2.

I've read a few of these type of books over the years - some good, some not so good. What do you think of this one so far?

 

[jamespowers]

I love that "Brave New World" twist on the all controlling dictatorship story wasn't another "1984" or "Darkness at Noon" dystopia, but a surface appearance of "the good life," masking the total evil behind it all.

Utopias are always Evil under their sack of manure coating.

 

[jamespowers]

The Darkest Hour by Tony Schumacher. An alternate reality story where the Germans conquered Britain during World War 2.

Darn! He stole my idea!

 

[AmateisGal]

Darn! He stole my idea!

Well, it's not that great right now...hopefully it gets better. But if not, maybe you can do a better job of it!

 

[LizzieMaine]

If you like that genre, I strongly recommend Philip Roth's "The Plot Against America," which suggests what might have happened if Charles Lindbergh ran for, and was elected, President in 1940. If you can get past the political impossibility of this actually happening, the projected future is actually quite plausible.

 

[AmateisGal]

If you like that genre, I strongly recommend Philip Roth's "The Plot Against America," which suggests what might have happened if Charles Lindbergh ran for, and was elected, President in 1940. If you can get past the political impossibility of this actually happening, the projected future is actually quite plausible.

I tried reading this one once and just couldn't get into it. Perhaps I'll give it another go.

 

[jamespowers]

Well, it's not that great right now...hopefully it gets better. But if not, maybe you can do a better job of it!

Well, if you figure that in the alternate world----Von Papen got control of Hitler and either offed him or used him as a figure head then you can go forward with the war and actually winning with a REAL strategist at the head of the government. Then with a revolt in the US and fascism taking over instead of the other side, Japan, the US and German split up the rest of the world.

 

[robrinay]

I don't read much these days, I prefer to listen to audiobooks on my iPhone especially while trying to sleep or driving (not I may add at the same time), much better than the 'chewing gum for the ears' music that most radio stations put out. I've just finished 'The Broken Empire' series by Mark Lawrence - yes it's Post Apocalyptic Fantasy but well written imho.
Rob

 

[Giftmacher]

Obeti predchazeji vitezstvi/Victims precede victory by Josef Havel. A nonfiction book about victims of both world wars in east Bohemian region. Among others there are stories of people who survived the concentration camps.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Smoke Over America," by Dr. Jesse Mercer Gehman. You'll often hear the argument "well, people smoked so much in the Era because they didn't know the harm it caused." Well, here's, you'll pardon the expression, the smoking gun that blows that argument away for good. Gehman, a naturopathic physician, in this 1943 book, here documents Era-vintage medical study after medical study linking tobacco use with shortened lifespans and a host of other ailments.

Why didn't people listen? Gehman also thoroughly documents how the corporate-controlled media, under the influence of its National Association of Manufacturers masters, went to great lengths to suppress these studies, out of fear of losing all those billions of tobacco-advertising dollars. And he also documents how the industry shamelessly bribed the U. S. military during both world wars to ensure a constant flow of new tobacco addicts. The medical establishment, under the ever-corruptible AMA, was also deeply culpable in the suppression of these facts.

It would be another twenty years before the evidence became too obvious and too conclusive to suppress any longer, but for those who were willing to dig, the information was all gathered together in Gehman's book, long before the Surgeon General's Report.

 

[dh66]

'The Jungle' by Upton Sinclair.

Having spent a considerable amount of my working life in the building industry, and a good deal of that living and working right alongside immigrant and underclass laborers, all I can say is ........... the more things change, the more they stay the same.