Sand
Footballguy
Not that you asked, but I wanted to throw out there that Augustus McCrae is the best literary character in history. I haven't read all books, but I'm pretty darn sure this is accurate.
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Whatcha readin now? (book, books, reading, read) (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter shuke
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kupcho1
Footballguy
He's awful good. Just missed making my top 10. He was neck and neck with Travis McGee, but being referenced in a Jimmy Buffet song broke the deadlock.
simey
Footballguy
I haven't read the book, but I saw the movie, and whenever I see purple flowers I always think of Shug saying to Celie as they walked through a field of purple, "I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field and don't notice it."
Navin Johnson
Footballguy
Just knocked out Fight Club and High Fidelity in the last two weeks. Trying to get back in to reading regularly, having a regular twenty minute train ride helps.
kupcho1
Footballguy
I think Toni Morrison's Beloved (the 1988 Pulitzer prize winner) is best described as a ghost story. Maybe.
Sethe (the protagonist) escapes from slavery and is able to join her 3 children in Cincinnati as she facilitated their escape earlier, but didn't join them because she wanted to wait to see if her husband Halle could as well. After only a few short weeks free in Ohio, Sethe sees "Schoolteacher" approaching with 3 other slave catchers and goes mad, kills her infant daughter and tries to murder her 3 other children (forgot to mention she was pregnant when she escaped and gave birth on the way to Ohio) before she's stopped. Sparknotes summed it up best
Beloved shows up around 18 years after "the misery" as it was referred to in the book. Who or what she is is a mystery. There is a brief mention in the book of a "colored girl" escaping from a white man's home, and that she had been incaptivity for many years. However, the bulk of the book leads me to believe that Beloved is the child Sethe killed made flesh and returned to punish Sethe. I'm not sure where I fall on this question. But that's OK, I don't mind if there's not a clear cut answer provided. YMMV.
Paraphrasing the source referenced above, "Beloved represents the inescapable, horrible past of slavery returned to haunt the present. Her presence, which grows increasingly malevolent and parasitic as the novel progresses, ultimately serves as a catalyst for Sethe’s and other character's respective processes of emotional growth."
This was a very good book.
75 down / 24 to go
Next up: Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler, the 1989 winner.
Sethe (the protagonist) escapes from slavery and is able to join her 3 children in Cincinnati as she facilitated their escape earlier, but didn't join them because she wanted to wait to see if her husband Halle could as well. After only a few short weeks free in Ohio, Sethe sees "Schoolteacher" approaching with 3 other slave catchers and goes mad, kills her infant daughter and tries to murder her 3 other children (forgot to mention she was pregnant when she escaped and gave birth on the way to Ohio) before she's stopped. Sparknotes summed it up best
Beloved shows up around 18 years after "the misery" as it was referred to in the book. Who or what she is is a mystery. There is a brief mention in the book of a "colored girl" escaping from a white man's home, and that she had been incaptivity for many years. However, the bulk of the book leads me to believe that Beloved is the child Sethe killed made flesh and returned to punish Sethe. I'm not sure where I fall on this question. But that's OK, I don't mind if there's not a clear cut answer provided. YMMV.
Paraphrasing the source referenced above, "Beloved represents the inescapable, horrible past of slavery returned to haunt the present. Her presence, which grows increasingly malevolent and parasitic as the novel progresses, ultimately serves as a catalyst for Sethe’s and other character's respective processes of emotional growth."
This was a very good book.
75 down / 24 to go
Next up: Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler, the 1989 winner.
beer 30
Footballguy
Started Rogue Heroes over the weekend. Watched S1 of the show, got me interested enough to get the book. These guys are every bit as incredible as you think they are.
Britain’s Special Air Service—or SAS—was the brainchild of David Stirling, a young, gadabout aristocrat whose aimlessness in early life belied a remarkable strategic mind. Where most of his colleagues looked at a battlefield map of World War II’s African theater and saw a protracted struggle with Rommel’s desert forces, Stirling saw an opportunity: given a small number of elite, well-trained men, he could parachute behind enemy lines and sabotage their airplanes and war material. Paired with his constitutional opposite, the disciplined martinet Jock Lewes, Stirling assembled a revolutionary fighting force that would upend not just the balance of the war, but the nature of combat itself. He faced no little resistance from those who found his tactics ungentlemanly or beyond the pale, but in the SAS’s remarkable exploits facing the Nazis in the Africa and then on the Continent can be found the seeds of nearly all special forces units that would follow.
Britain’s Special Air Service—or SAS—was the brainchild of David Stirling, a young, gadabout aristocrat whose aimlessness in early life belied a remarkable strategic mind. Where most of his colleagues looked at a battlefield map of World War II’s African theater and saw a protracted struggle with Rommel’s desert forces, Stirling saw an opportunity: given a small number of elite, well-trained men, he could parachute behind enemy lines and sabotage their airplanes and war material. Paired with his constitutional opposite, the disciplined martinet Jock Lewes, Stirling assembled a revolutionary fighting force that would upend not just the balance of the war, but the nature of combat itself. He faced no little resistance from those who found his tactics ungentlemanly or beyond the pale, but in the SAS’s remarkable exploits facing the Nazis in the Africa and then on the Continent can be found the seeds of nearly all special forces units that would follow.
TheBaylorKid
Footballguy
I was able to see episode one on a preview. I liked it. Sound track was pretty good too with AC/DC and Black Sabbath.
beer 30
Footballguy
Soundtrack doesn't disappoint for sure. I know S2 is out and I'm dying to watch it, just too cheap to foot for yet another streaming service.
Navin Johnson
Footballguy
Another train ride today, need to start a new book. Waffling between The Martian, Catch 22, and Hot Dog Money
On The Rocks
Footballguy
Just finished The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff.
I'm a big fan of reading early American history and while I loved this book, it had long stretches that were tough to get through. Somewhat text-book'ish in areas. Just a lot of words. I might typically get through a book of this length in 10-12 days, but this took a few weeks. And it's not that long.
But that's the bad part. I typically grade a book by how likely I am to re-read it, and I absolutely plan to read this one again at some point.
I knew of Samuel Adams to have been a Patriot and Founding Father but had not read much in the past of his role in "lighting the match" for Independence; apparently primarily due to most of his papers, he himself burned so not to put any of those he corresponded with in danger of arrest. He was actually the guy that "wired the continent for rebellion" through the development of the committee of correspondence. He was a propaganda genius. Using the press to his full advantage, He was one the originals to use the idea of "never let a good crisis go to waste".
Turning the unfortunate deaths of Boston residents, the result of a local mob getting into a skirmish with British Regulars into THE BOSTON MASSACRE! Which all these years later, I still allow that phrase to drum up a certain negative emotion towards the red coats.
A couple additional interesting thoughts:
Lots of great information in this book!
Next up, a trifecta from Nathaniel Philbrick I have on order:
I'm a big fan of reading early American history and while I loved this book, it had long stretches that were tough to get through. Somewhat text-book'ish in areas. Just a lot of words. I might typically get through a book of this length in 10-12 days, but this took a few weeks. And it's not that long.
But that's the bad part. I typically grade a book by how likely I am to re-read it, and I absolutely plan to read this one again at some point.
I knew of Samuel Adams to have been a Patriot and Founding Father but had not read much in the past of his role in "lighting the match" for Independence; apparently primarily due to most of his papers, he himself burned so not to put any of those he corresponded with in danger of arrest. He was actually the guy that "wired the continent for rebellion" through the development of the committee of correspondence. He was a propaganda genius. Using the press to his full advantage, He was one the originals to use the idea of "never let a good crisis go to waste".
Turning the unfortunate deaths of Boston residents, the result of a local mob getting into a skirmish with British Regulars into THE BOSTON MASSACRE! Which all these years later, I still allow that phrase to drum up a certain negative emotion towards the red coats.
- One of the big story lines throughout the book is the never-ending battle between Adams and Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson. Wow, did they hate each other!!
- The relationship between Adams and Hancock. On again, off again, I came away from this book thinking of Hancock as necessary to the success of the Revolution, but a total douche that basically inherited all of his wealth and used it to act like a big shot. I'm sure he was more good than that,
- It's truly a miracle that Adams didn't get captured and hung. Truly remarkable.
- One of my favorite quotes from the book came from a Captain in the Brit Army:
- "Would you believe it, that this immense continent from New England to Georgia is moved and directed by one man (Adams) of ordinary birth and desperate fortune?"
A couple additional interesting thoughts:
- I was interested to learn that the Brits fined the people of Boston an enormous fine (I don't recall the exact amount) for the tea that was dumped into the bay. And while many groups from up and down the Atlantic Coast from all colonies had offered donations, a group of Indians from Martha's Vineyard also contributed to help pay the fine.
- Benjamin Church (Physician who I get confused with Benjamin Rush) - This guy needs to have a movie written about him. Son of Liberty and Spy. I don't understand how he wasn't hung for being a traitor.
- Adams' pursuit of Liberty, and the regular notations about property and how at some point Thomas Jefferson changed the line in the Declaration of Independence from Pursuit of Property to Pursuit of Happiness.
Lots of great information in this book!
Next up, a trifecta from Nathaniel Philbrick I have on order:
- Mayflower
- Bunker Hill
- Last Stand: Custer and Sitting Bull
Long Ball Larry
Footballguy
Hot dog money was pretty good but I felt like I didn’t get quite the level of detail about specific players or programs that I wanted. Focused more on the narrative of the main guy, which wasn’t bad, but I came away a little wanting. Pretty good, not great. Would go with catch 22 (though I’ve never read the Martian…)
Long Ball Larry
Footballguy
I liked the Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki, though the ending got a little too nice too fast. As a devotee of Jorge Luis Borges, and specifically The Aleph, I was especially drawn to the part of the book (and I didn’t even know it was in there). Enjoyed the meta aspects of the multiple narrators and the themes of the interconnectedness of all things and how do you actually know what is real?
To The Lake is a sort of memoir meets travel book meets history/sociology that is written with the prose of a novelist. The author visit the area between two lakes that are on the border of North Macedonia, Greece and Albania, in an area of the world where borders have meant both everything and nothing for centuries. The author’s grandmother and prior ancestors are from the region and she traces the places they lives and went and explores the feeling and spirit of the place, along with the feelings of inherited trauma.
Slug and other stories was an … interesting collection of short stories that may not be for the faint of heart. The stories mostly feature themes of transformation, identity, alienation and sexual fluidity, though not quite as graphically as they seem on the surface. Many bodily experiences described that seem gross, tend to reflect the inner turmoil of the characters. Unexpected main characters (like the an insect and a flower in a relationship or a semi-sentient electronic sexual apparatus) make the stories more interesting than a lot a of basic drama/romance/etc.
Those are a few of my recent reads anyway.
To The Lake is a sort of memoir meets travel book meets history/sociology that is written with the prose of a novelist. The author visit the area between two lakes that are on the border of North Macedonia, Greece and Albania, in an area of the world where borders have meant both everything and nothing for centuries. The author’s grandmother and prior ancestors are from the region and she traces the places they lives and went and explores the feeling and spirit of the place, along with the feelings of inherited trauma.
Slug and other stories was an … interesting collection of short stories that may not be for the faint of heart. The stories mostly feature themes of transformation, identity, alienation and sexual fluidity, though not quite as graphically as they seem on the surface. Many bodily experiences described that seem gross, tend to reflect the inner turmoil of the characters. Unexpected main characters (like the an insect and a flower in a relationship or a semi-sentient electronic sexual apparatus) make the stories more interesting than a lot a of basic drama/romance/etc.
Those are a few of my recent reads anyway.
kupcho1
Footballguy
Just finished Breathing Lessons (1989) by Anne Tyler.
A day in the life of Maggie and Ira Moran. Maggie is a meddler who constantly tries to influence those around her. At times the book is cringe-inducing, but in a very humorous way. I laughed out loud a good number of times reading this book. It's an easy read; I would recommend.
I'd even be interested in seeing the movie that was made in 1994. Per Wiki:
76 down / 23 to go
Next up: 1990's The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos. I'm going in blind on this one. It sounds fun; I hope it's good.
A day in the life of Maggie and Ira Moran. Maggie is a meddler who constantly tries to influence those around her. At times the book is cringe-inducing, but in a very humorous way. I laughed out loud a good number of times reading this book. It's an easy read; I would recommend.
I'd even be interested in seeing the movie that was made in 1994. Per Wiki:
Now that's gotta piss the Baltimoreans off since the novel is set in and around Baltimore.
76 down / 23 to go
Next up: 1990's The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos. I'm going in blind on this one. It sounds fun; I hope it's good.
kupcho1
Footballguy
I finished The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love today, Oscar Hijuelos' story of two Cuban brothers (Cesar and Nestor Castillo) who immigrate to the US and become quasi-famous musicians (with an appearance on I Love Lucy care of Desi Arnaz to boot!).
I've got to imagine that when this award was announced in 1990, Thomas Pynchon broke a hand punching a wall. Gravity's Rainbow's Pulitzer was rescinded based in part on it being "obscene." That book has nothing on The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love for sheer raunchiness. I haven't done a count, but I'd estimate (conservatively) that 50% of the pages of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love include explicit descriptions of either sex acts or organs (mainly Cesar's enormous pinga).
The book is told almost entirely in flashback as Cesar checks into a hotel to drink himself to death. (If Leaving Las Vegas hadn't been written in 1990, I'd suspect it of plagiarism.) It's a very entertaining novel, and I learned a great deal about the music scene in NYC in the 1950s, as well as life in pre-Castro Cuba.
So now that's 77 down / 22 to go. I'm headed to the library shortly to pick up the 7 remaining Pulitzer winners from the 1990s that I haven't yet read starting with:
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley, the 1991 winner.
I've got to imagine that when this award was announced in 1990, Thomas Pynchon broke a hand punching a wall. Gravity's Rainbow's Pulitzer was rescinded based in part on it being "obscene." That book has nothing on The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love for sheer raunchiness. I haven't done a count, but I'd estimate (conservatively) that 50% of the pages of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love include explicit descriptions of either sex acts or organs (mainly Cesar's enormous pinga).
The book is told almost entirely in flashback as Cesar checks into a hotel to drink himself to death. (If Leaving Las Vegas hadn't been written in 1990, I'd suspect it of plagiarism.) It's a very entertaining novel, and I learned a great deal about the music scene in NYC in the 1950s, as well as life in pre-Castro Cuba.
So now that's 77 down / 22 to go. I'm headed to the library shortly to pick up the 7 remaining Pulitzer winners from the 1990s that I haven't yet read starting with:
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley, the 1991 winner.
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kupcho1
Footballguy
This whole Pulitzer run has been rewarding, but A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (the 1992 winner) was a revelation. I had only read one Jane Smiley book prior to this one (Moo in 1995) and I knew she was a good writer, but wow, this book was absolutely deserving of the win and I highly recommend it.
It starts slowly, but around the 1/3 mark man does it pick up steam. I'm not going to go full Stefan here becuase I don't want to spoil it, but it's got everything including Chekhov's liver sausage.
As a rough outline, it is the story of Iowa farmers the Cook family, which roughly mirrors King Lear. As with many of the other Pulitzer winners, this was also made into a movie and although it's got one of the most loaded casts I've ever seen, I'd never heard of it.
If you do intend to read the book (and you should), do not do any research on it beforehand; go in blind.
That's 78 down / 21 to go
Next up: the 1993 winner: A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain: Stories by Robert Olen Butler
It starts slowly, but around the 1/3 mark man does it pick up steam. I'm not going to go full Stefan here becuase I don't want to spoil it, but it's got everything including Chekhov's liver sausage.
As a rough outline, it is the story of Iowa farmers the Cook family, which roughly mirrors King Lear. As with many of the other Pulitzer winners, this was also made into a movie and although it's got one of the most loaded casts I've ever seen, I'd never heard of it.
- Michelle Pfeiffer as Rose Cook Lewis
- Jessica Lange as Ginny Cook Smith
- Jason Robards as Larry Cook
- Jennifer Jason Leigh as Caroline Cook
- Colin Firth as Jess Clark
- Keith Carradine as Ty Smith
- Pat Hingle as Harold Clark
- John Carroll Lynch as Ken LaSalle
- Michelle Williams as Pammy
- Elisabeth Moss as Linda
If you do intend to read the book (and you should), do not do any research on it beforehand; go in blind.
That's 78 down / 21 to go
Next up: the 1993 winner: A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain: Stories by Robert Olen Butler
On The Rocks
Footballguy
Eephus
Footballguy
It was non-fiction's turn so I just finished Season of the Witch by David Talbot.
It's of local interest to me because it chronicles the history of San Francisco from the Summer of Love to the age of AIDS. There was a lot happening in the area during those two decades even omitting some things like the Zodiac Killer. The "highlight" for me was the part about Jim Jones and People's Temple. His rise and fall happened before I moved to the Bay so I wasn't familiar with the details of how he insinuated himself into the the City's politics.
Talbot was the editor of Salon.com. He's a good storyteller but the book reads a bit like a series of magazine articles about different historical topics. Still recommended if you're interested in the subject.
I'm alternating back to fiction but am staying in the same general time period with The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
It's of local interest to me because it chronicles the history of San Francisco from the Summer of Love to the age of AIDS. There was a lot happening in the area during those two decades even omitting some things like the Zodiac Killer. The "highlight" for me was the part about Jim Jones and People's Temple. His rise and fall happened before I moved to the Bay so I wasn't familiar with the details of how he insinuated himself into the the City's politics.
Talbot was the editor of Salon.com. He's a good storyteller but the book reads a bit like a series of magazine articles about different historical topics. Still recommended if you're interested in the subject.
I'm alternating back to fiction but am staying in the same general time period with The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
kupcho1
Footballguy
I'm keeping up my blistering pace so far in 2025 (averaging a book every 3.8 days; 19 so far this year).
A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain was a very entertaining collection of short stories by Robert Olen Butler (R.O.B.). Some are funny, most are sad; there's even a ghost story. Every one of them is from the perspective of a different Vietnamese immigrant living in Lousiana after the Vietnam war (there are two more stories in the edition I read; one from the perspective of a Viet Cong, one from an American soldier that deserted and stayed to live in country). And while the stories were good, there was something that was constantly in the back of my mind as I read them.
Did R.O.B. really have the "right" to take on the voice of a Vietnamese immigrant? Perhaps the attitudes of today w/r/t cultural appropriation has infected my mind a lot more than I ever expected. R.O.B served in Vietnam in intelligence and as a translator. Did he capture the true feelings of a Vietnamese immigrant? I don't know. But I kept coming back to this even though the stories were very, very good.
Anyway, 79 down / 20 to go
Next up: one I am pretty sure I started shortly after it was published, put aside and never picked up again. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you
The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx, the 1994 Pulitzer Prize winner.
I'm going to try to maintain my pace, but past performance with this one doesn't bode well. Also, heading out to the course tomorrow for the first round of the year.
A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain was a very entertaining collection of short stories by Robert Olen Butler (R.O.B.). Some are funny, most are sad; there's even a ghost story. Every one of them is from the perspective of a different Vietnamese immigrant living in Lousiana after the Vietnam war (there are two more stories in the edition I read; one from the perspective of a Viet Cong, one from an American soldier that deserted and stayed to live in country). And while the stories were good, there was something that was constantly in the back of my mind as I read them.
Did R.O.B. really have the "right" to take on the voice of a Vietnamese immigrant? Perhaps the attitudes of today w/r/t cultural appropriation has infected my mind a lot more than I ever expected. R.O.B served in Vietnam in intelligence and as a translator. Did he capture the true feelings of a Vietnamese immigrant? I don't know. But I kept coming back to this even though the stories were very, very good.
Anyway, 79 down / 20 to go
Next up: one I am pretty sure I started shortly after it was published, put aside and never picked up again. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you
The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx, the 1994 Pulitzer Prize winner.
I'm going to try to maintain my pace, but past performance with this one doesn't bode well. Also, heading out to the course tomorrow for the first round of the year.
TheBaylorKid
Footballguy
He finishes books like I finish chapters. This is like watching high brow Nathan’s hot dog eating contest. We are watching the Joey Chestnut of bibliophages.
