BOOKS THREAD

[Webster]

Just read "Wilt, 1962" Found it to be a little boring, but with some interesting nuggets.

 

[Trezay]

Someone earlier mentioned Erik Larson, and I'll give kudos to Devil in the White City... fantastic read about the world's fair and the serial killer...

Other favorites:
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut... proof that you can pack power in less than 300 pages
In Cold Blood... I agree with an earlier post. BEST EVER
Wicked... not necessarily a chick book. Just an interesting take on the ol' Witch

 

[flanders]

Wicked... not necessarily a chick book. Just an interesting take on the ol' Witch

I praised this in another thread. This is not a "you have to be a chick or 'Judy Garland fan' to appreciate it" book. Simply an amazing work, the most imaginative, original book I think I've ever read.

 

[baseballhottie]

A book I just read which was phenomenol was called "Illegal Tender: Gold, Greed and the Mystery of the Lost 1933 Double Eagle" by David Tripp. Its a true story about how right before the depression, FDR recalled all the personally owned gold in the US.  The year was 1933 and the 1933 double eagle (a $20 piece, the eagle was worth $10) was the very last gold piece coined by the mint.  The 1933 double eagles were never released to the public and they were all melted down into bricks of gold.  Somehow a few of these coins made it into collectors hands and the book is the story of the investigation into how the coins got out and the Secret Service agents that were assigned to get them back into the government's custody.  It was an awesome book, sorry no sports involved though.

 

[funky_mountain]

i am about two-thirds of the way through jon krakauer's 'under the banner of heaven,' and it is a great read.

and baseballhottie, no need to apologize for not recommending a sports book. we have a wide range of interests here.

 

[soccer dad]

baseballhottie? quite the handle.

anyway, just finished scar tissue -- autobiography of anthony kiedis (red hot chili peppers lead singer). very honest about his drug use, how he hurt people, etc. hated the ending -- which came across as rushed -- but a good read and good insight into one of my favourite bands.

by the way, this is the best thread here.

 

[Bubba Fett]

i am about two-thirds of the way through jon krakauer's 'under the banner of heaven,' and it is a great read.

and baseballhottie, no need to apologize for not recommending a sports book. we have a wide range of interests here.

Under the Banner of Heaven is outstanding. My favorite Krakauer book is Into the Wild.

 

[Moderator1]

Krakauer is pretty good and soccerdad, I agree. I'm making a list for my next run to Barnes and Noble, to spend my gift certificates.

 

[Huggy]

I just finished Disneywar by James Stewart, an inside look at Disney under Michael Eisner. Great, great stuff full of lots of juicy inside stuff and when it's over you get the impression that Eisner isn't capable of managing a Dairy Queen....

 

[Jackson Sundown]

Just finished Phillip Roth's "Plot Against America." Great read about political power in a time of war. Roth creates a world that has Charles Lindberg winning the 1940 election over FDR. Good stuff.

 

[Jackson Sundown]

Has anyone read anything about Warran Spahn? The guy was one of the greatest lefties ever and he won a Purple Heart at the Battle of the Bulge, but I haven't seen anything written about him.

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

This is bar none the best book written about journalism in the early republic. Also awarded in the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication book contest.

 

[friend of the friendless]

Sirs, Madames,

Two things:

1. I can't believe the scathing review the NYT gave Arthur & George, the latest by one of my favorites, Julian Barnes. It was a great read and only slightly behind his History of the World in Ten-and-a-half Chapters and Flaubert's Parrot. I've just never, ever, read a review that was so off-base. The book has been available in Canada for months but is only just hitting the US market--the NYT review will sink a book that was (I think) a Booker finalist wholly on merit and in fact a favorite to win the Booker.

2. I picked up collections (Library of America) of the Nathaniel West oeuvre and Phil Roth's first novels. I had read Miss Lonelyhearts almost 30 years ago but not his other work. Miss L is a great "newsroom" novel. I'm not expecting much of the other NW stuff to be close to it, tho' Day of the Locusts has fans. Re Roth, I really jumped on board with Sabbath's Theatre, American Pastoral, The Human Stain and The Plot ... and I read Goodbye Columbus back in the day. I think it might be worth the effort to track the first efforts and maturation of America's nonpareil fictionist (still-breathing division).

Mr Humble Servant, etc

 

[HC]

Sirs, Madames,

Two things:

1. I can't believe the scathing review the NYT gave Arthur & George, the latest by one of my favorites, Julian Barnes. It was a great read and only slightly behind his History of the World in Ten-and-a-half Chapters and Flaubert's Parrot. I've just never, ever, read a review that was so off-base. The book has been available in Canada for months but is only just hitting the US market--the NYT review will sink a book that was (I think) a Booker finalist wholly on merit and in fact a favorite to win the Booker.



Mr Humble Servant, etc

If it's any comfort, Entertainment Weekly looooooved "Arthur & George".  :)

 

[abesimpson22]

Has anyone read "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey? It is supposed to be searing and heart-wrenching. A must-read!

 

[Ben_Hecht]

Everybody loves it . . . easily-locatable, in the fiction dept., right beside "Tuesdays With Morrie"

 

[flanders]

Million Little Pieces is certainly getting some press lately....read it and My Friend Leonard in a few days. Great reads. How do you guys feel about some of the details being embellished/fabricated?

edit: duh, never mind...just saw the 2346-page james frey thread.

 

[farmerjerome]

Speaking of memoirs, I just read Smashed by a chick named Koren who went to Syracuse (I can't spell her last name and the book is in the car).

It's about a woman who recounts her past as an alcohol abuser. Intersting stuff, though she uses too many metaphors.

 

[Trezay]

I just remembered two more, both by Barbara Kingsolver: The Poisonwood Bible and Prodigal Summer. Both very engrossing for different reasons. Poisonwood is pretty somber, and Prodigal is one of the most calming books I've ever read. Very nature-laden.

 

[Bubba Fett]

I enjoyed Dry, by Augusten Burroughs, largely because I though it avoided the wallowing in the details of the terrible thinks I did when I was drunk, and instead focused on why he drank, especially the sort of vicious circle that can ensue when an addict drinks because he or she thinks they are a bad person, then acts like an ass when drunk, etc.

His next book, Magical Thinking, is also quite good. He's not quite David Sedaris, but he's close.