Book

Missive #610 Published 8 December 2025

Heat-Moon offers a view of 1848 America via a British doctor’s journal in this introspective adventure narrative. After 34-year-old physician Nathaniel Trennant gives a lecture in London on fantastical beasts, an American sea captain in attendance offers him a berth on the Narwhale for a cross-Atlantic voyage. The philosophically minded doctor accepts, writing in his journal that he has a “slender notion of why I am outward bound, but I am quite lacking awareness of what I am bound for.

Missive #607 Published 2 December 2025

After losing his bid for the United States Presidency as a third party candidate, Theodore Roosevelt decided to take on the most dangerous adventure left on earth. He and his son, Kermit, accepted Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon's invitation to help him plot the course of the River of Doubt. The River of Doubt could just as easily have been named the River of Death. The river's rapids turned out to be much more ferocious than expected, cannibalistic natives dogged the group through most of the journey, and Murphy was their constant companion. The expedition lost men, supplies, and canoes. At one point, Roosevelt contracted a flesh-eating bacteria and became so weak that he urged his son to leave him behind to die. Ultimately Teddy and Kermit emerged from the wilderness triumphantly. Here is their story in Theodore Roosevelt's own words.

Missive #605 Published 29 November 2025

Lee Kuan Yew played the pivotal role in Singapore's transition from British Crown Colony to independent developing nation, and on to the economically powerful and diplomatically influential city-state it is today. Throughout this surprising and at times painful journey, he has proved a charismatic and occasionally controversial leader. Lee is a conviction politician whose speeches are unambiguous, characterful and eminently quotable; this collection of almost 600 short quotations provides a compelling summary of his views on a wide range of topics from Singapore's past, present and future. In Lee's own words: "I have been accused of many things in my lfe, but not even my worst enemy has ever accused me of being afraid to speak my mind."

Missive #603 Published 26 November 2025

Howards End is considered by many to be E. M. Forster’s masterpiece. First published in 1910, this beguiling and completely captivating tale explores social conventions, codes of conduct, and relationships in turn-of-the-century Edwardian England. The story revolves around three families…
I'm not sure why this book was on my To Read List but it was a happy accident. The story starts rather slow but becomes more interesting as you read through the book. You also need to keep in mind that it is about British society and the period is early 20th century

Missive #601 Published 22 November 2025

Veteran nature writer Gene Logsdon debuts a brilliantly comic novel set in rural Minnesota in the 1950s. The novel, inspired by the author's ten years studying in vain for the preisthood, follows the sometimes hilarious, sometimes tragic lives of a group of seminarians who realize they no longer believe the theology they are being taught, nor in the celibate life they are supposed to be leading. They resolve their problems in highly unusual ways, some tragicvally, some happily. Along the way readers encounter a rogue's gallery of colorful and eccentric characters. In the mix there is stuff about organic farming, alcohol distillation, cowboy philososphy, baseball and alternative medicine. This is a truly original work, and it is sure to be controversial.

Missive #599 Published 20 November 2025

Written in the spirit of his father Theodore Roosevelt's wilderness books, The Happy Hunting Grounds is a collection of hunting stories, some [one] of which recount the expeditions Kermit took with his father. Theodore once said of his son, "It is rare for a boy with his refined tastes and his genuine appreciation of literature — and of so much else — to be also an exceptionally bold and hardy sportsman." The Happy Hunting Grounds has something for everyone, giving insight into American leaders, nature and exploration, and game hunting.

Missive #598 Published 19 November 2025

A Prairie Home Companion  was probably the only thing that I ever listened to on NPR radio until my hearing began to deteriorate and the show went off the air in 2016. If you listened to the show and liked it then you may like this book. If you never listened to the show then this book might not be as enjoyable.

Missive #597 Published 17 November 2025

Do big government debts and fast rates of adding to them threaten our collective well-being? In this groundbreaking analysis, Ray Dalio, one of the greatest investors of our time and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Principles, shares the reasons behind his fears for the US debt markets, answering some of the most important market and economic questions. Are there limits to debt growth? Can a big, important reserve currency country like the US really go broke? Is there such a thing as a “Big Debt Cycle” that can tell us when to worry about debt and what to do about it?

I don't recommend this book as an eBook. The author relies on numerous graphs to tell his story, such as it is, and in the eBook that I had they are very small and not in color (which in his text he refers to graph lines by color). I also did not learn anything from what he had to say that I think I can use. The book was more a self promotion than one that I could learn from.

Missive #594 Published 11 November 2025

From the bestselling author of Public Enemies & The Big Rich, account of the battle between the FBI & revolutionary movements of the '70s: Weathermen, The Symbionese Liberation Army, The FALN, The Black Liberation Army. The names seem quaint now, but then bombings by domestic underground groups were daily occurrences. The FBI combated these & other groups as nodes of a single revolutionary underground dedicated to the violent overthrow of the USA. Burrough's Days of Rage recreates an atmosphere almost unbelievable decades later, conjuring a time of native-born radicals, often nice middle-class kids, smuggling bombs into skyscrapers & detonating them inside the Pentagon & the Capitol, at a Boston courthouse & a Wall Street restaurant.