BOOKS THREAD

[Moderator1]

OK, the book club has kind of faded. Fun while it lasted.

Here's what we are going to do for a while. I'll start and stick this thread for as long as there is interest. Got a book suggestion? Post it here.

Geek Love, one of the better books I've read, came from a suggestion on one of these threads.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

You-all MUST read Tom Fenton's Bad News.

An epic indictment of the current electronic
national-news industry, especially as regards
foreign coverage.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

. . . and while we're at it . . . Tom Friedman's The World
Is Flat makes many excellent points re the
current economic paradigm.

 

[Ledbetter]

Generation Kill by Evan Wright of Rolling Stone is outstanding.

Wright was embedded with the Marine Force Recon unit that led the U.S. invasion in Iraq. The book recounts the unit's push across the country to Baghdad and shows just how big a cluster**** the whole operation was.

It's intense, funny, insightful and provides what I felt was an honest depiction of what was going on over there.

 

[JR]

I read the NYTimes excerpt from Friedman's book and immediately reserved it at my local library.

BTW Moddy, this is a GREAT idea. Found out about Friday Night Lights here.

 

[Moderator1]

In trying to help my main man Led, I hope to help all of us.

 

[21]

Probably still a way to do a Book Club--maybe quarterly, with the book chosen by poll. Take nominations, put it to a vote. At least you'll get a sense of whether people are interested in a specific title.

 

[Ledbetter]

In trying to help my main man Led, I hope to help all of us.

I responded on the Random Thoughts thread, but I will say thanks here, as well.

I'm reading Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, right now. The movie Goodfellas was based on it.

 

[True_North]

1968 by Mark Kurlansky -- an in-depth look at the most tumultuous year of the 20th century.

 

[zosopsu]

Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis. Its official title is "Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players." It's pretty much exactly what it sounds like - an in-depth view of scrabble playing; it's really well written, and you don't have to be a competitive scrabble player to get into it (as that particular faction of society is a small one)

 

[JR]

Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis. Its official title is "Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players." It's pretty much exactly what it sounds like - an in-depth view of scrabble playing; it's really well written, and you don't have to be a competitive scrabble player to get into it (as that particular faction of society is a small one)

I'll second that. Interesting book because the author was also a participant.

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

Fab Five, by Mitch Albom. :D

 

[greedo]

"Bringing the Heat," Mark Bowden. A piece of sports literary genius on par with Friday Night Lights. Its subject is the 1992 Philadelphia Eagles and the iconoclastic personalities on that team. The writing is so ****ing good it just kind of dissolves in your mouth.

"The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln," C.A. Tripp. Presents pathbreaking scholarly evidence that Lincoln's primary response to everything was that of a homosexual. Never before has such a significant historical personage been outed quite like this. Fascinating stuff for wannabe psychologists.

More later.

 

[The Shocker]

Absolutely American: Four years at West Point by David Lipsky. A Rolling Stone writer follows a West Point class from 1998-2002. Very good read.

 

[Huggy]

For the history buffs out there I'd recommend Sea of Glory by Nathanial Philbrick which looks at the US Exploring Expedition of 1838-42 (which discovered Antarctica among other places). Good period piece and one hell of an adventure story.

 

[zimbabwe]

Black Betty by Walter Mosely
R.L.'s Dream by Walter Mosely
The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

"Bringing the Heat," Mark Bowden. A piece of sports literary genius on par with Friday Night Lights. Its subject is the 1992 Philadelphia Eagles and the iconoclastic personalities on that team. The writing is so ****ing good it just kind of dissolves in your mouth.

I hated it. Was looking forward to it, too. It's so densely and needlessly overwritten, it's insufferable. Doesn't deserve mention on the same page with "Friday Night Lights."

 

[HC]

Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis. Its official title is "Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players." It's pretty much exactly what it sounds like - an in-depth view of scrabble playing; it's really well written, and you don't have to be a competitive scrabble player to get into it (as that particular faction of society is a small one)

I'll second that. Interesting book because the author was also a participant.

I'll third that and I don't even like Scrabble, to be honest. But I like a book that introduces me to a part of the world I didn't know. In that sense, it did for Scrabble what Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" did - got me right inside that fascinating, fanatical place that's so potent.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

An absolute delight. What a cast of characters.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

Currently reading "The Bourne Legacy" by Eric Von Lustbader, a continuation of the late Robert Ludlum's trilogy. It's fair but not great.

Previous book: Stephen Brust's To Reign In Hell.

Excellent book, and I'm thinking about going back and re-reading it.

Holy rollers probably won't like it, though -- its central concept is that the whole thing was a big misunderstanding which got out of control.