Anybody Reading Any Good Books Lately?

I really enjoyed his book Blue Latitudes. A very interesting, entertaining, and thought provoking look at how much one man, Captain James Cook, changed the world. I'll have to check out A Voyage Long and Strange. Looks like he took a very similar approach to that one.

 

I'm almost finished reading Deep Blue by RWR.

 

S.C Gwynne Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson

Interesting insight. Slow starting but very compelling towards the end. Old Jack - he's different from what I thought he would be...

 

This one's on my list.

 

This is one of the best books I've read in the past few years. I absolutely loved it. I think he nails the weird, forgotten nature of a lot of upper Midwest towns, which is pretty interesting as he's English. I actually just got a copy, borrowed it when I read it the first time, to read again.

 

It is a good read, but considering the mobbed up label and shady dealings that must have been going on, it is a fairly tame book compared to most I have read. And I have read a lot of them.

 

What book is that?

 

I'm a very casual tennis fan..was recommended to read "Open" by Andre Agassi.. incredible book. Much respect..

 

Read the book, it was really good, made me want to learn more about history of the south west. Recording the series right now, haven't started watching yet

 

It's about a person who must remain nameless because of who he was. To give any info about him would most likely involve infringing on the rules of the forum. You would recognize his name instantly if I gave it, so I can't event hint at his identity. I still have hope that I may someday just delve in and read it. It's the kind of book that should be consumed in as few helpings as possible.

 

White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America

https://www.amazon.com/White-Trash-400-Year-History-America/dp/0670785970

Excellent.

 

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind by Chuck Barris.

 

Hillbilly Elegy. Just read the book; we can't talk too much about it here.

 

This is dangerous territory to ask me. I'm a fairly rabid book-o-holic. Currently I'm slogging through a series I read roughly a million years ago, again.

Harry Turtledove is pretty much the acknowledged master of alternative history fiction. I was a fan for a long time and bought everything he came out with...until 'The Guns of the South'. Don't buy that one. It's crap. It's such crap. My current theory is that he wrote it because he lost a bet. Say for example, someone said "Hey Harry, if my team loses I'll give you my car. But if they win, you have to write a book where the south wins the Civil War." Well apparently Harry's team lost, because he wrote this awful piece of junk.

But then, the very next book he comes out with is ALSO one where the CSA won the Civil War, except they did it in a historically legitimate way that made real sense and could have actually happened if one guy, who made one mistake, one time, had somebody to say "Hey, Lieutenant. You dropped something."

So that one got the whole Civil War, excuse me, the War of Secession, out of the way in like twenty pages. Then it started a generation later with events leading up to the Second Mexican War. That book is called How Few Remain.

Then there are three books covering World War I. But since there is the USA and the CSA starting angrily at each other across a couple thousand mile border, WWI doesn't just happen in Europe. So we also have trench warfare from Virginia to West Texas. Those are The Great War trilogy: American Front, Walk In Hell, and Breakthroughs

Then there are three books for the years in between WWI and WWII. Those are the American Empire books: Blood and Iron, The Center Cannot Hold, and Victorious Opposition

Then there are four more books that get you up to the end of WWII, the Settling Accounts tetralogy, Return Engagement, Drive To The East, The Grapple, and In At The Death

There is SO MUCH detail in these books. Every one of them is big enough to make an adequate doorstop. And roughly half of what happens makes total sense, where you look and say "Okay. Sure. I can see how that would happen." and the other half or so you go "That's dumb. Why would he write that? That wouldn't happen." Well all those things that make sense? He made those up. The ones that don't make sense and would never happen? Those all really happened. And he has several awesome little cameos by actual historical figures that he makes obvious if you pay attention, but never comes out and specifically labels. Like in the first book, Mark Twain is a fairly major character. Except he's not Mark Twain. He is a newspaper editor in San Francisco named Sam Clemens, who never became America's first great author, because he never took a job as a riverboat pilot, so he never had the time to sit and write for himself so he could get good enough to write for the world.

This series is a fairly serious time investment. But it's worth it. Read them. My best indicator that a book is good is if I'm willing to read it again. A sign that it's a classic is if I'd read it yet again after that. I'm currently on my fifth re-read of this series. And I'll probably do it again in a few years, as well.

 

Ok, I think I get what you mean.

 

I love the "I can't mention it here" posts. What about initials?

 

I finally finished Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace. Remarkable.

For sci fi, I've been devouring the Expanse series by James. S.A. Corey. Not recommended right at bedtime, because you'll keep reading "just a few more pages..."

 

Currently re-reading Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. In stories like this I tend to burn through them in a (relative) hurry to find out what happens. Now I'm reading more carefully to understand all the motivations. What a great story!

 

A gift from a friend, because it's about a guitar player. I find Albom a little too cloying, but he tells a good story. Fiction, and maybe leans a little too much on the Forrest Gump device.