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Flint Central High School
Class of 1963

Member of the Flint Alumni Connection

2018 Recommended Reading from FCHS, Class of ’63

Libby Steinbach O’Neil: At the age of 65, I became a baseball fan. One of those crazy fans. I learned the nuances of the game, and fell in love with the players of the SF Giants. My favorite book this year has been an old one, about baseball, called "Calico Joe" by John Grisham.

 

Jim Ryder: “My recent books may not be very popular with your audience, but what the heck.”

"The Earth is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West" by Peter Cozzens (2016) (I have read this and it’s an excellent account of the plight of the American Indian and settlement of the west. – Libby H

"Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory" by David W. Blight PhD (2001) from U.of WIS & Flint Central grad 1967; now chair of history dept at Yale University. David also taught history at Flint Central HS after graduating from MIchigan State Univ. 1971. Several of you knew his "famous" brother Jim Blight (1964) who pitched for the Central Indians.

"American Ulysses: The Life of Ulysses S. Grant" by Ronald C. White (2016). Same author of the NYTimes bestseller "A. Lincoln"

"Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America" (2016) by T. J. Stiles. Covers a lot of his wife Libby Bacon Custer from Monroe, Michigan.

"Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West” (2006) by Hampton Sides. Reading for second time.

 

Libby Hubbard Schooley: A Flint Central graduate, W. David Tarver, Class of 1971 has written a memoir. He was the band drum major, played basketball and was the Flint Science Fair Finalist. He enrolled in GMI (now Kettering), then U of M studying engineering, attaining a masters. A very successful career led him to telecommunications and his own company. The book, “Proving Ground: A Memoir” has been out awhile, but I’m anxious to read it.

“When Breath Becomes Air” by Paul Kalinathi has been recommended to me several times.

“A Writer’s Roadmap” by one of our classmates, Wendell Wellman. Wendell, we hope to see you at the next reunion.

“The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed our Minds” by Michael Lewis. It’s about the remarkable friendship of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, two brilliant Israeli psychologists who, together are “more responsible than anybody for the powerful trend to mistrust human intuition and defer to algorithms.”

An older book (1944), “Wind in the Sahara” by Ronald Bodley, is highly acclaimed. The author was “enticed” by Col. T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia) to live seven years with the Bedouins in tents in the dessert. Bodley gave many interesting observations and discusses the Arab “fatalism” and “foreordained” attitudes. It is a detailed account of Arab and Islamic culture.

“The Woman in Cabin 10” by Ruth Ware was also recommended to me. Very good read, page turner; reviewers say it’s like an Agatha Christie.