My Library

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The sixty greatest conspiracies of all time : history's biggest mysteries, coverups, and cabals is an interesting read with stories from the Manson family to purported CIA ties to Jonestown to aliens among us. This book won't be satisfying to either true conspiracy theorists or total skeptics, but it is an interesting read for the curious. The book distinguishes fact from speculation, which won't make conspiracy theorists happy. On the other hand, it is willing to speculate on possibilities, which won't fly with the complete skeptics. It's interesting and you can pick a particular conspiracy, read it and put the book away for a week or a month before checking out the next one. It gives a glimpse, or more than a glimpse, into the minds of those who believe every conspiracy theory that comes their way, but it stops short of ridiculing all conspiracies as the dreams of nuts. It's also strictly bipartisan - there are plenty of conspiracy theories coming from the left and the right.

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How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It by Arthur Herman is the tale of the Scottish Enlightenment and how Scotland led the Enlightenment generally. Filled with names like David Hume, Adam Smith and James Watt, the book explores the substantial Scottish influence from philosophy to economics to science and engineering. The book is an interesting read for all and absolutely fascinating for those of Scottish descent.

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Cyrus the Great is Harold Lamb's narrative of the life of the King of Persia who conquered the Medes, Lydians and Babylonians and marched into those mysterious lands to the east forging the largest empire of the time. Some of the book is, of course, informed speculation about everything from Cyrus's childhood to his motivations as an adult. The book was originally written in 1960 and I have a 1976 printing from Pinnacle Books. Lamb wrote an entire series of history and historical fiction books, writing mostly between World War I and II, on historical figures from Genghis Khan to Alexander the Great. At the time I bought this one, I missed the opportunity to buy about a dozen others of his works at The Book Barn and have been kicking myself ever since. I check the shelves every time I'm there, but these books are really hard to come by. In searching Amazon, I did come across good news - no great news - a few of his books, such as Genghis Khan or the Emperor of All Men, are being reprinted and his book Hannibal: One Man Against Rome is available as an MP3 CD or digital MP3 download