The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz. Scaaaaary!!!!!!!!

Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church by N. T. Wright.

By one of my favorite authors, I'm about 2/3 of the way through it. Of the dozens of books I've read in the last year, this one is probably going to stand above the rest as my favorite in recent memory.

Tomorrow i'll finish the Roman Army book from last week.

Tomorrow i'll start a new book.


I think i'll do it in total honor of the deleted thread--during Sunday--on *Islamic wacky good fun and smarmy fun brotherhood of man* (Forest Muslims).


Jihad In The West by Paul Fregosi.


This is a very detailed book about the historical manifestations of Islamic expansion and imperialism against the Christian west since the inception of Islam until 1998 when the book was published. I've been holding off on taking it from my bookshelf because there is so much else to delve into--topically. However, after that thread got deleted yesterday I thought i'd feast my eyes and brain on the subject. Join me. Here is an extremely short excerpt I chose from the book:

"On August 1, 1571, after a long siege, the Venetians finally yielded the port city of Famagusta, in Cyprus, to the Ottoman Turks, who were eager to reclaim the island. The Christian governor of Famagusta, Marcantonio Bragadino, was imprisoned and tortured, his nose and ears cut off. His grisly execution was ordered shortly thereafter by Lala Mustafa, commander of the Muslim forces.

On August 17, Lala Mustafa ordered Bragadino to be taken out of his cell. The time had come for the big show for the people of Famagusta and for Lala's Muslim troops. For the Muslim soldiers, it was like a circus day, a moment of relaxation and laughter. For the Christian citizenry of Famagusta the objectives were different, more subtle, more satanic, a moment in the propaganda war, in the war of terror....Lala Mustafa told [Bragadino] what his fate was to be: to be flayed alive. He died during the torture. His torturers then filled his flayed skin with straw; placed it astride a cow; and took this pathetic, tortured effigy, still streaked with blood, around the town under the shelter of a parasol. Then they hung the straw-filled skin, like a large, bloody, bloated balloon, from the yardarm of Lala Mustafa's galley, in the harbor."


Amazing is it not......the distance is not so great from the Muslim soldiers who flayed Bragadino alive to those Muslims who drove airliners into the Twin Towers in 2001.

Gee......I sure hope no Muslim visitors see this post. It may cause them to think. Imagine that concept. Historical truth. What a bugger.


Oh BTW.......I love Islam. The above is a small, miniscule, infinitesmal part of why I love Islam so very much.

Right now just study papers on the Church, and what to know and expect for conformation this April, I'm a bit nervous about this. I mean I have no problem being on stage in front of a crowd, the jitters are usually gone after the first song, but professing my faith in front of the Bishop and a really big crowd, w/no liquid courage, seems a little intimadating.

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows

I'm reading a bunch of Douglas Adams...

Importing The European Army: The Introduction Of European Military Techniques And Institutions Into The Extra-European World, 1600-1914 by David B. Ralston.


The author studies and documents the ways in which five different countries—Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, China, and Japan—re-fashioned their armed forces along European lines during the three centuries after 1600. The appropriation of Western military institutions in countries outside of Europe was, Ralston argues, the major force driving these countries to adopt European administrative, economic, and cultural modes.......following the same format in his discussion of each country, the author makes this central theme--Westernization of institutions in world history of the 300 years between 1600 and 1900--that the Europeanizing of each country's military aided both the effectiveness of that country's military, and the (somewhat quickened and improved) integration into the modern age.

Interesting.

a bunch of school books

and a devotional book.

Sinner by Sharon Carter Rogers. Spooky, yet intriguing...!

and

The Bad Place by Dean Koontz. Not for the squeamish or the faint of heart!!!

SENSATION: Young British Artists From The Saatchi Collection. Exhibition catalogue.

The World Don't Owe Me Nothing by David "Honeyboy" Edwards.

The memoirs of one of the last remaining Delta Bluesmen.

Off The Rails by Rudy Sarzo. Its essentially Sarzo's memoirs of Randy Rhodes.



Arttie

An Der Spitze Im Bild - Spaher - Aufklarer - Kradschutzen in den Divisionen der Waffen-SS. (On the Point in Photos--Recon Units of the Waffen-SS Divisions) by Ernst August Krag.

This book has a dual German/English text. It is a photo study of the reconnaissance troops of the Waffen SS Panzerdivisions (Armed Protection Squads organised as fully armored divisions, there were 7 of them) and the Waffen SS Panzergrenadier Divisions (Fully motorized Armed Protection Squad infantry divisions, there were 5 of them). Examines armored cars, recon vehicles, motorcycle units.......all deployed and in action.

Ohhhh.......Ahhhh......pictures. Lots of pictures.

Duma Key - Stephen King

The Soul Hunter by Melanie Wells.

Tomorrow (Thursday) I will start:

Sherman's March Through The Carolinas by John Barrett.

In retrospect, General William Tecumseh Sherman considered his march through the Carolinas the greatest of his military feats, even greater than his Georgia campaign. When he set out northward from Savannah with 60,000 veteran soldiers in January 1865, he was more convinced than ever that the bold application of his ideas of total war could speedily end the conflict. John Barrett's story of what happened in the three months that followed the inception of the campaign is based on printed memoirs and documentary records of those who fought, and of the civilians who lived in the path of Shermans onslaught. The burning of Columbia, the battle of Bentonville, and Joseph E. Johnstons surrender nine days after Appomattox are at the center of the story, but Barrett also focuses on other aspects of the campaign, such as the undisciplined pillaging of some of the Union troops, and on its effects on local populations.

TT...my wife just finished Duma Key. LOVED IT! Let me know what you think of it...



Arttie

Yep...she said he's writing more like OLD King in this book...



Arttie