BOOKS THREAD

[Herbert Anchovy]

I'm not sure. The last book came out five or six years ago, so I would think it's soon.

McCullough really has no shame. The new Adams DVD set has a featurette titled "David McCullough: Painting With Words." I laughed out loud in the Best Buy when I saw that. Big Dave's newest big up to the people is a compendium of historical figures' letters to posterity. More low-lying fruit.

 

[dreunc1542]

I really can't recommend Rome 1960: the Games that Changed the World by David Maraniss enough. I think Maraniss is great and the reporting he did for this book will blow you away. The little stories he was able to get show the amount of research he did to make sure no stone was left unturned. It can be slow at times, but most of it is really well done.

 

[Birdscribe]

I'm not sure. The last book came out five or six years ago, so I would think it's soon.

McCullough really has no shame. The new Adams DVD set has a featurette titled "David McCullough: Painting With Words." I laughed out loud in the Best Buy when I saw that. Big Dave's newest big up to the people is a compendium of historical figures' letters to posterity. More low-lying fruit.

The thing is, I LOVED his Truman bio. Perhaps that's because Truman's my favorite president, but I thought it was a far more even-handed look at what made the 33rd president tick. He didn't Campho-Phenique Truman's warts like he did with Adams.

I really can't recommend Rome 1960: the Games that Changed the World by David Maraniss enough. I think Maraniss is great and the reporting he did for this book will blow you away. The little stories he was able to get show the amount of research he did to make sure no stone was left unturned. It can be slow at times, but most of it is really well done.

After I finish "Team of Rivals" (and I've got about another 100 or so pages), this is next on the word parade.

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

The Truman book was very well-received, as all of his are. He has great penetration and people do love him, I give him that. But instead of applying ointment to his subject, McCullough just pulled memoranda out of his ass that doesn't exist, and kept the filthy lie there for dozens of printings of the Truman book. And when he gets called on it, he stops being the endearing old raconteur and starts being nasty and threatens litigation.

http://www.mobylives.com/Nobile_Pulitzer_speech.html

Three Pulitzers that should be revoked. Two of them belong to "lovable" pop historians.

 

[Andy Johnston]

Just finished Horwitz's A Voyage Long and Strange. Although I didn't enjoy it as much as Confederates, which I've read 5 times, I thought it was an excellent read. It shined a light on the exploration of America that you don't get in school or other books. Remarkably researched.

 

[terrier]

Gotta find "Rome 1960" at the library, if not for the Beijing Games, for New Hampshire at the end of the month. By then, I'll probably have finished "Schulz and Peanuts," which is my hammock on the deck book this summer. As a lifelong Peanuts fan, I'm getting one revelation after another. I knew Schulz had complexes, but after reading this, God, his complexes had complexes.
I need a New Hampshire book as awesome as my Cape Cod book last month - Mark Harris' "Pictures at a Revolution," about the making of the five 1967 Best Picture Oscar nominees. A tremendous portrait of Warren Beatty's ambition, Mike Nichols' genius, Sidney Poitier's ubiquity (he was involved in two nominees, and had been cast in a third), Rex Harrison's ego and drunkenness, and one of the great film disasters ever - "Doctor Doolittle."

 

[Beaker]

terrier, I'm reading "Pictures at a Revolution" right now. There's some great stuff in there.

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

I may have to lock this thread to keep from going broke - went to Barnes and Noble today and loaded up.

Are you Edward R. Hamilton-ing?

http://edwardrhamilton.com/

Fast service, low shipping cost, great prices on non-current stuff.

I send an order about every three or four months, and he sends me a box of books.

I love half.com but when you add $3 or $4 shipping to each book, it isn't so much of a bargain unless the book is selling really cheaply.

There's this, too:

http://www.cheapestbookprice.com/

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

Birdscribe --

Yep. Two Pulitzers. That's rarefied air.

The next volume is on the presidency. He has said he will be fair and charitable, though his critics have said an overabundance of that has marred the previous books.

Yes, heaven forbid he should point out when LBJ was a tool and when he wasn't. Unlike McCullough's tiresome reach-around to John Adams, you actually felt like you got inside LBJ's brain.

When is this coming out?

Read Means of Ascent. Awesome book. Also own and have picked through (and will read oneday) the Power Broker, Caro's work about Robrert Moses. He is no doubt one of my favorite writers.

Currently about 200 pages into Brothers, about JFK and RFK and their relationship in the White House. Some interesting things, esp about how RFK thought for sure the CIA, anti-Castro elements and the mob all conspired to kill John... and who Robert and LBJ HATED each other.

 

[Birdscribe]

Birdscribe --

Yep. Two Pulitzers. That's rarefied air.

The next volume is on the presidency. He has said he will be fair and charitable, though his critics have said an overabundance of that has marred the previous books.

Yes, heaven forbid he should point out when LBJ was a tool and when he wasn't. Unlike McCullough's tiresome reach-around to John Adams, you actually felt like you got inside LBJ's brain.

When is this coming out?

Read Means of Ascent. Awesome book. Also own and have picked through (and will read oneday) the Power Broker, Caro's work about Robrert Moses. He is no doubt one of my favorite writers.

Currently about 200 pages into Brothers, about JFK and RFK and their relationship in the White House. Some interesting things, esp about how RFK thought for sure the CIA, anti-Castro elements and the mob all conspired to kill John... and who Robert and LBJ HATED each other.

All three of Caro's LBJ works are awesome, although I liked "Master of the Senate" the best. That was a fascinating work that I learned a lot from. It also showed you how amazing LBJ was as a politician.

FDR, Clinton and Reagan are in the mix -- and I know I'm D_Bing myself here _ but I still think the line forms behind LBJ as the greatest politician of the 20th century. Read "Master of the Senate" and you'll understand why.

 

[JLaff]

Anyone know a good scary book? One that doesn't involve monsters or zombies or the like. If I know it can't really happen, it doesn't really scare me.

As far as recommendations for anyone else... anything Tim O'Brien. Namely In the Lake of the Woods or The Things They Carried.

 

[PopeDirkBenedict]

jlaff,

I would highly recommend anything by Michael Connelly (esp. The Poet), but not late at night.

 

[PaperDoll]

I would highly recommend anything by Michael Connelly (esp. The Poet), but not late at night.

Oddly, I started reading Michael Connelly's "Crime Beat" last night. I believe it's nonfiction, a compilation of stories from his time as a crime reporter. I haven't been particularly impressed yet, but I was also distracted by the Olympics.

I recommend "A Few Seconds of Panic," Stefan Fatsis' story of going to training camp with the Denver Broncos -- as a kicker, not a Wall Street Journal reporter. (Fatsis also wrote "Word Freak," when he became a competitive Scrabble player.) I thought it was a bit repetitive and overly wordy, but then again, he's a kicker. ;D There was also a lot of insider stuff I'm not sure even an NFL beat guy would see. It definitely humanized NFL players.

 

[T&C]

Don't be turned of by Connelly's Crime Beat collection. It's basically pieces he wrote while working as a crime reporter in Fort Lauderdale and LA before he became a best-selling novelist. His series featuring LA cop Harry Bosch is probably the best and most consistent crime series being written by an American. Rates right up there with Scotland's Ian Rankin. If you haven't read Connelly, start at the beginning of the series as his books can easily be found in paperback.

For those of you looking for a deal, you can pick up a copy of George Plimpton on Sports for $1.00 at BookCloseouts summer sale.

 

[PopeDirkBenedict]

I just finished "1920: The Year Of Six Presidents" by David Pietrusza. My initial reaction is that Pietrusza took a forgotten election and found all of the drama that came with having 6 presidents on the national stage (TR, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, FDR). He did a nice job showing how Hoover was the Colin Powell of 1920 and how impetious, haughty and petty Wilson was. While the book was a good read, I never really thought it found the right narrative to tie all of the loose ends together. It read more like a series of well-done viginettes than an overarching story.

Up next is 15 Stars about Eisenhower, MacArthur and Marshall.

 

[buckweaver]

Oooh, I'll have to pick that one up, PDB. I'm in the middle of MacMillan's "Paris 1919" -- which is also a series of vignettes that don't quite fit together as a single narrative, but at least it's well researched and gives you a great feel for the peace conference -- right now.

Love Pietrusza's earlier works (especially "Rothstein"), and that's more than enough excuse to keep me in the same time period.

 

[Birdscribe]

I just finished "1920: The Year Of Six Presidents" by David Pietrusza. My initial reaction is that Pietrusza took a forgotten election and found all of the drama that came with having 6 presidents on the national stage (TR, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, FDR). He did a nice job showing how Hoover was the Colin Powell of 1920 and how impetious, haughty and petty Wilson was. While the book was a good read, I never really thought it found the right narrative to tie all of the loose ends together. It read more like a series of well-done viginettes than an overarching story.

Up next is 15 Stars about Eisenhower, MacArthur and Marshall.

That sounds like a keeper, PDB. Wilson was a douche; one of the most racist, petty and downright disagreeable human beings to occupy the office. Stop me if this sounds familiar, but he was one of those presidents who once he became fixated on something, never let go -- no matter the consequences.

One thing stood out: how does Pietrusza weave TR into the mix? He died in 1919.

 

[PopeDirkBenedict]

I just finished "1920: The Year Of Six Presidents" by David Pietrusza. My initial reaction is that Pietrusza took a forgotten election and found all of the drama that came with having 6 presidents on the national stage (TR, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, FDR). He did a nice job showing how Hoover was the Colin Powell of 1920 and how impetious, haughty and petty Wilson was. While the book was a good read, I never really thought it found the right narrative to tie all of the loose ends together. It read more like a series of well-done viginettes than an overarching story.

Up next is 15 Stars about Eisenhower, MacArthur and Marshall.

That sounds like a keeper, PDB. Wilson was a douche; one of the most racist, petty and downright disagreeable human beings to occupy the office. Stop me if this sounds familiar, but he was one of those presidents who once he became fixated on something, never let go -- no matter the consequences.

One thing stood out: how does Pietrusza weave TR into the mix? He died in 1919.

TR was planning to run up to his death. He stood to be the John McCain of 1920: the maverick who had battled the party hierarchy 8 years earlier and who they accepted as their best chance to hold on to the White House regardless of past differences. His death threw the GOP race into the lurch. Leonard Wood, Hiram Johnson and Frank Lowden couldn't get a broad base of support, ensuring that the convention dragged on and got Harding nominated.

 

[slappy4428]

I'm about finished with Brave New World. I thought I'd read it before, but I was wrong. I still can't believe it was actually written in 1932.

Try "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis...


I'm about to start rereading my favorite trilogy from my college years: all by John Powers -- Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up, Last Catholic in America, and The Unoriginal Sinner and the Ice Cream God...
If you were a Catholic Male growing up in the 60s, 70s and 80s in a large city, this was you.

 

[KG]

I'm about finished with Brave New World. I thought I'd read it before, but I was wrong. I still can't believe it was actually written in 1932.

Try "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis...


I'm about to start rereading my favorite trilogy from my college years: all by John Powers -- Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up, Last Catholic in America, and The Unoriginal Sinner and the Ice Cream God...
If you were a Catholic Male growing up in the 60s, 70s and 80s in a large city, this was you.

Will it shock me as much as the end of Brave New World?