I re-read Catcher in the Rye recently and was taken once again with it's originality.
There is a scene of Holden watching his sister Phoebe ride a carousel in the rain that is remarkable.
Anyone read any good books lately?
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There is a scene of Holden watching his sister Phoebe ride a carousel in the rain that is remarkable.
GES4 said:
Try “The Master and the Margarita” if you want your mind blown.
Huh....never heard of this and just read the synopsis on Wiki.......very intriguing. Definitely going to add to my list.
Thanks gents.
Try “The Master and the Margarita” if you want your mind blown.
Huh....never heard of this and just read the synopsis on Wiki.......very intriguing. Definitely going to add to my list.
Thanks gents.
The Grapes of Wrath was excellent IMHO. I read Roots several months ago. I'm sure many of us watched the TV series and it was great, but the book has so many more details in it that I really enjoyed.
I am in the middle of A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution. It's pretty good. A little academic and dry. Became interested in the topic after visiting Paris and Versailles last year
I read Catcher in the Rye as an angsty sophomore in high school and loved it. Read it 20 years later in my mid-30s and just wanted to tell Holden Caulfield to STFU. Whiny b***h.
Here's what I just finished:
The Devil in The White City by Eric Lawson
Recounts how the Chicago World Fair happened and a serial killer that was there at the time. Fascinating read that really combines two stories very well.
Recounts how the Chicago World Fair happened and a serial killer that was there at the time. Fascinating read that really combines two stories very well.
I read this last week. It’s a book that would probably open a lot of people’s eyes about how quickly fire can become deadly. Very intense material. Such a senseless tragedy.
That’s a fantastic read. All of Lawson’s books are.
good and evil, political satire, art and the artist, love....lots and lots of incredibly well developed themes in here.
there's actually a not bad russian movie production with subtitles that you can find (multi part) on youtube
Not a newer book by any stretch but “One Man’s Wilderness” by Richard Proenneke. Loved it.
I’ve read that several times. I’d like to visit his cabin someday.
I’ve been in the Lee County area my entire life and didn’t know if the museum in Donnellson that has a replica of his cabin.
I read every new Reacher book (Lee Child) when it comes out. Also John Sandford books, both the Lucas Davenport series and the Virgil Flowers.
Say Nothing is one of the best books I’ve read in the last few years.
read this last month…I'm an amateur Vietnam War historian.
I just finished the classic book: "The Best and the Brightest" about how the geniuses in the Kennedy administration got America involved in the quagmire of Vietnam.
Many of them were Harvard professors or Ivy league scholars (Robert McNamara, McGeorge Bundy, Walt Rostow, Dean Rusk, Avril Harriman) who totally screwed up Vietnam.
The book was 670 pages and felt wayyyy too long. It was a real slog. I barely finished it. The author (also a Harvard alum) seemed like he wanted to put every detail in it. After the first half of the book, I would put my cell phone timer on for 40 minutes at a time while reading for 14 days in a row to force myself to complete it.
I was relieved to be finished.
I just started reading "Confessions" which is another classic by Saint Augustine.
How about you?
The Best and the Brightest - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
I’ve read a lot of war books and these guys may have been the baddest dudes around.
read this last month…
I’ve read a lot of war books and these guys may have been the baddest dudes around.
I read a book on SOG in high-school. Incredible stuff.
*Larson
****mentioned earlier i am currently reading his first ever true fiction book “no one goes alone” and so far it has been very good…..currently have no idea the direction it is going or the ending it will have (i say that in a good way)
Holden had a good heart though. Stradlater, who knows.
Couldn’t agree more. I think that book absolutely sucks. I find it appalling to be honest.
This is a really good book but man it can be grim.
He also wrote A Man Called Ove which is extremely light and has a ton of heart. Almost can’t believe it’s the same guy.
Edit to avoid another post. I always recommend City of Thieves as fiction for people.
Yeah Beartown does cover some dark subjects. Backman's with style isn't my favorite but then out of nowhere he has a sentence or paragraph that just hits so hard, like I've felt or thought those exact feelings before.
Ditto on City of Thieves. A book that defines why there are books.
UPDATE: I did NOT like the ending. For a while it was straddling a line similar to like Haunting of Hill House where you weren't quite sure how or who the creepies were which was good, but then got a touch cosmic with some weird revelations and then was kind of one of those "artistic" endings purposely left open....was definitely a "meh" ending after a pretty good middle stretch.
I would read Larson's other works before this one.
***Just started The Wager by David Grann
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Me too. After I finish The Greatest Beer Run Ever, The Wager is next up.
Just finished "The Wager" by David Grann. I liked it. I will say it "read better" than Killers of the Flower Moon if that makes sense? Had a bit more of a novel feel, not just so much historical documentary I didn't feel.
That said, I was kind of hoping for more of a climax (that's what she said), but to that end its a true story so while the ultimate outcome wasn't overly exciting or dramatic per se, the entire story was pretty amazing regarding what they all endured.
Just downloaded Shogun Part 1.......upon reading the Shogun thread here (and actually watching about the first episode and a half on Hulu/FX), got me intrigued. A longer book but I dig the storyline and that time in history so we'll see how it goes.
Over the weekend, I had time on my hands and re-read Michael Young's classic satire "The Rise of the Meritocracy, 1850-2033", which was one of the very first books I read as an undergraduate in my freshman seminar. Really good read, and fairly quick, as futurist satires go, and a little scary in terms of how some of it has become true (eg, written in 1958, contains reference to emergence of China in the 90s, describes the process by which family organization has been broken down and replaced with educational system control, and then exported into the workplace).
Young's narrator essentially provides a sociological history of the change of the British system to a hyper-meritocracy-on-steroids, where goods, services, and power have been redistributed on the basis of intelligence/iq. Now of course, since it's a satire, so the process is taken to hilarious extremes, and by the end of the 2030s period, essentially an 'old' class system based on heredity and family has simply been replaced with a new one based on intelligence/stupidity (and, of course, they've reinforced it by incorporating intelligence into hereditary mating practices).
Toward the end of the book, there is emerging unrest, which the intelligent classes poo-poo as one-offs and a function of the stupid classes being too stupid to understand the irrationality of their position. The narrator describes looking forward to explaining this at an upcoming rally, but in a delicious last footnote to the book, the editors note that the narrator was of course killed at said rally, and before he had a chance to consider some of the editors' suggestions and comments on the thesis of his position...
Young's narrator essentially provides a sociological history of the change of the British system to a hyper-meritocracy-on-steroids, where goods, services, and power have been redistributed on the basis of intelligence/iq. Now of course, since it's a satire, so the process is taken to hilarious extremes, and by the end of the 2030s period, essentially an 'old' class system based on heredity and family has simply been replaced with a new one based on intelligence/stupidity (and, of course, they've reinforced it by incorporating intelligence into hereditary mating practices).
Toward the end of the book, there is emerging unrest, which the intelligent classes poo-poo as one-offs and a function of the stupid classes being too stupid to understand the irrationality of their position. The narrator describes looking forward to explaining this at an upcoming rally, but in a delicious last footnote to the book, the editors note that the narrator was of course killed at said rally, and before he had a chance to consider some of the editors' suggestions and comments on the thesis of his position...
Started James by Percival Everett. It's a reimagining of Huck Finn from Jim's point of view. Been looking forward to reading this since I first heard about it a few weeks ago. So far it has not disappointed
Ok, just finished Shogun and loved it (agree with the Shogun TV show thread though that the end was somewhat lackluster, but in retrospect that wasn't what the book was meant to be about.....moreso the characters and the process of getting to the end, not the potential end result itself).
@GES4 and @Aardvark86 I am goin to dive into The Master & Margarita next......thanks for the recommendation, looking forward to it.
I just put a hold on that one at my library. I'm 67th in line on 8 copies... so it could be a few months
Just finished listening to a really good one that took me by surprise. Kind of went out on a limb and selected "North Woods" by Daniel Mason without much reasoning other than the quick summary I read of it seemed interesting.
And I must say I was pleasantly surprised indeed.
I would say it was a mix of:
1) Thoreau nature/natural world writings
2) Butterfly Effect
3) American Horror - murder house
4) Classic fairy-tails almost?
5) Some humor mixed in
Was just really clever I thought and I highly recommend. Plus the audiobook rendition was great too, multiple voice actors for the various Characters and narrator.
And I must say I was pleasantly surprised indeed.
I would say it was a mix of:
1) Thoreau nature/natural world writings
2) Butterfly Effect
3) American Horror - murder house
4) Classic fairy-tails almost?
5) Some humor mixed in
Was just really clever I thought and I highly recommend. Plus the audiobook rendition was great too, multiple voice actors for the various Characters and narrator.
