A Miscellany of Men by G. K. Chesterton

A random collection of essays.  Some pure flights of fancy.  Others on varying topics from various strikes (generally on the philosophical side) to the problem with the Solar Myth that was so popular as an explanation of every story (everyone can see the sun, no one would try to disguise it as a dragon in a tale).

Alarms and Discursions by G.K. Chesterton

A cheerful collection of essays by Chesterton with a definite thread of the whimsical, all the way up to a discussion of what kinds of cheese the moon can look like, and undertaking to carry out the duties of the Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds.

Swansong 1945: A Collective Diary of the Last Days of the Third Reich by Walter Kempowski

An interesting collection of snippets from four different days near the end. Can, of course, be repetitive and the lack of structure may make it a bit tedious. The news of the camps. The springtime going on during the war. The last gasps of Nazi media. The arrival of the soldiers here and there and whether they behaved or not.

Is Reality Optional?: And Other Essays by Thomas Sowell

Newspaper columns, of varying degrees of topicality. It helped to have lived through the times, I suspect. But also generally philosophical issues, and historical parts.

Hardtack and Coffee or, The Unwritten Story of Army Life by John Davis Billings

The go-to book if you want the details of army life in the American Civil War. Having discovered that boys were as fascinated by the details of army life as much as the battles, and realized that all the memoirs were about the battles, he wrote a book about the details. How they did get enough food, but quality was another matter. Regimental badges. Why it was the mark of a green soldier to be ashamed of lice. What they did in camp in down time. Why mules were only used behind the lines. And a lot more.

Sidelights on New London and Newer York and Other Essays by G.K. Chesterton

Chesterton mostly on the Jazz Age.

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Image and Imagination: Essays and Reviews by C.S. Lewis

A collection of his work, often occasional.

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Religions of Tibet in Practice by Donald S. Lopez Jr.

A collection of primary sources. Heavy on commentary. Includes epics and lives, instructions for pilgrimages including notes on what offers would secure what (flowers, a human birth; incense, pure moral discipline; the three sweets of honey, sugar, and molasses, the food of the gods); consecration rituals, and ones for non-attachment at meals, and also for fasting; an account of a visit to hell; rites against hail and against a malicious gossip spirit; and more

Religions of China in Practice by Donald S. Lopez Jr.

Primary source from China. Includes discussion of whether the Buddha is eternal or has ceased, a long discussion of where haunts come from and how to deal with them (for an unburied child, it's not bury the child), an autobiographical account of an emperor's sacrifice, a list of exactly how you can count up your merits, a discussion of how to save ghosts in the hells, and more.

Religions of India in Practice by Donald S. Lopez Jr.

A survey of texts about practices. From documents and also recorded oral information. Buddhism gets brushed on, because the series has another volume about it, but there is a wide diversity of the other religions -- Hinduism, Jainism, Islam, a few Christian.

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