BOOKS THREAD

[Buck]

I have a Cornwell nonfiction that I haven't read yet. I'm interested in the Jack the Ripper case (I'm not a serious buff, but I've read abit about it), so my father got me Cornwell's 'Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper — Case Closed.'
My father handed me the book last year and said 'Case closed? Kind of an arrogant title, isn't it?'

 

[Bill Horton]

sort of like the people who post an opinion on SportsJournalists.com and follow it with "end of thread?"

 

[Ledbetter]

I read a couple of books while on vacation, Ugly Americans and In the Company of Soldiers: A Chronicle of Combat.

Ugly Americans is about the Ivy League guys who made millions playing the Japanese stock market. It was written by the same guy, Ben Mezrich, who wrote Bringing Down the House, the story of six M.I.T. students who made a fortune counting cards in Vegas. Ugly Americans was interesting, especially for those interested in investing, but I felt like there were a bunch of holes in the story.

In the Company of Soldiers, by Pulitzer winner Rick Atkinson, chronicles the months he spent covering the war in Iraq for the Washington Post. Specifically, he was covering Major General David Petraeus. This was a lot different from Generation Kill, which I loved, but very interesting and entertaining.

In a used bookstore in San Francisco I found the 1994 BASW, which I'm currently enjoying.

 

[n8wilk]

I just got a 25% off coupon at Borders and was thinking of getting Hornby's "A Long Way Down." I've seen nothing but good reviews so far but I was interested in hearing some of your opinions. Thanks in advance and don't give away too much, save that for the Book Club thread.

 

[NDub]

Wow, this thread is huge. Honestly, I haven't looked through all of it, so I'm not sure if this is a second or third or whatever to a book.

I'm reading "Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror" by Richard A. Clarke and it is very interesting. It is just as the title reads, its Clarke's experience with America's war on terror for the past 20 years. If you want to know some inside stuff about the war and the way things were handled before 9/11, then read this. Its like the 9/11 Commission report, but not as confusing.

 

[User 1019]

I have a copy of the 9/11 report, but haven't delved into it, yet.

If you're into that stuff, read "Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War On America."

It's a pretty good insight into his mind and operations.

 

[NDub]

Actually, I find it quite interesting to read books like this.

Thanks for the title.

By the way, the 9/11 Commission report is very detailed and requires a long attention span. Ha. For real, I'm about a 1/3 of the way done and had to take a break for a while because it is a lot of information to take in. However, I do suggest in reading it. I think every citizen who wishes to be informed should.

 

[FuerteJ]

So is the 9/11 report something very interesting to read or do you have to be really interested in the subject to find the book interesting?

Also, I'll second or third or fouth what's been said about A Time to Kill. By far the book that I most enjoy by Grisham. It was probably the first book like it (law-type thriller) that i was able to just blow through in like 3 days.

 

[luckyducky]

John Grisham's The Last Juror. Anyone who's worked at a weekly paper (or a small-town paper) will appreciate it. VERY good book, keeps you reading for sure.

 

[jzenor]

Whoever recommended Neal Bascomb's "The Perfect Mile" on here, thanks. It's a terrific book and very motivating even for a fairly slow jogger like myself.

 

[NDub]

So is the 9/11 report something very interesting to read or do you have to be really interested in the subject to find the book interesting?

Yes and no. The first 80 or so pages is about how the terrorists got on the flights, what happened on the planes and the our governmental response that day along with explaining Islam, which is all quite interesting. In fact, I've read through those pages a few times just because they are so interesting and sparks memories of my 9/11 day.

I'm around page 180 or something right now and much of the past 100 pages have been policies and why the agencies failed pre-9/11 which has kind of made me yawn. Honestly, I'm not sure about the rest of the book. I know it has to deal with the Al-Qaeda buildup, U.S. response to it, the intelligence of the summer of 2001, the preparedness (or lack thereof) for 9/11 and the recommended changes in the intelligence system of the U.S. It also delves into the Iraq-Al Qaeda link (or lack thereof).

Some of the stuff is hard comprehend and I would say that you have to be very interested in the stuff to read through it all. But other parts of the book are, I think, necessary for citizens to know what happened behind the scenes on that day and why it was all ****ed up.

 

[ink-stained wretch]

Taking this thread in a different direction, three very "quiet", understated books that deserve a read:

Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
Wish You Well by David Balducci
Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

 

[playthrough]

I haven't read all 12 pages of this thread so maybe it's been brought up already, but I thought Mark Kriegel's "Namath" was very, very solid. Thorough as hell, I enjoyed reading the notes in the back of the book at the same time as the text so I could see how he got the info. Kind of breezed through his later years in the final 50 pages or so, but then again Namath was out of the spotlight for the most part so there weren't many newspaper stories to use as background (and Namath didn't give an interview to Kriegel). Overall a very fair and insightful jock bio, and Lord knows there aren't many of those.

 

[slappysquare]

Right now I'm reading Waterfront : A Walk Around Manhattan by Phillip Lopate. It's an interesting history of the city and it's waterfront. I'm about 50 pages in and have thoroughly enjoyed it so far.

 

[User 1019]

Some time ago I read "The Lovely Bones," by Alice Sebold – a pretty good book. It's a first-person story told by a little girl who was raped and killed. Her narration includes the crime, the family's search for the killer and her idea of "her heaven."

It's probably a chick read, but it's pretty good.

 

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

Box Socials by WP Kinsella. Cool baseball read and quirky insights into Canada.

 

[Trezay]

I'll throw out The Dante Club. I'm probably one of the later folks to read it, and I'm just past the halfway point, but it's a good one. Great subject, great writing.

I've been trying to go from modern to classic on my reading, and just finished The Naked Lunch. I'm getting a CAT scan later this week to check for brain damage. Damn that book was out there!

 

[Buck]

'Naked Lunch' is a waste of effort to read.
Has anybody read 'The Historian' yet? Supposed to be the new 'Da Vinci Code.'

 

[HoopsMcCann]

just finished the new hornby... was entertaining, quick read. but, you know, not as good as high fidelity or about a boy or fever pitch -- better than how to be good

 

[Double Down]

Hoops, I'm counting on you to be a major player in the Horby book discussion.