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Book Thread number ?

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Re: Book Thread number ?

erin said:
There are some neat little stories in it, about his boxing days, being a "draft dodger", Parkinsons...
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I love pop culture books (athletes, musicians, etc). They view the world so differently, and provide a view that is narrowed to "their time" here. Ali's should be quite intriguing.
 
Re: Book Thread number ?

Brenthoven said:
I love pop culture books (athletes, musicians, etc). They view the world so differently, and provide a view that is narrowed to "their time" here. Ali's should be quite intriguing.
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It's not super detailed or in-depth, but a nice look in, I think.
 
Re: Book Thread number ?

Brenthoven said:
Oh that's fine. If it has any sort of random insight, I'm game.

See: previously mentioned Chuck Klosterman. ;)
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Ha :)

A bit of it is written by one of his daughters, talks about his kids some, the Olympic torch thing etc.
 
Re: Book Thread number ?

Grant and Sherman: The Friendship That Won the Civil War by Charles Bracelen Flood

This was very good. Summarizes their early lives, then goes into greater detail once they rejoin the army as volunteer officers at the start of the war. Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga are all covered, at which point the story splits as Grant is promoted to the overall command of the whole army and decides to go east and chase Lee, while Sherman takes over command of the Western theater and begins the Atlanta campaign, leading to the March to the Sea.

Also, I finally got around to In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. It's a good analysis of the problems with the Western diet and why America is fat, but I also felt that some of it needed to be run through the de-arsehole cycle.
 
Re: Book Thread number ?

Read two semi-related books - <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Jackie-Robinson-Reader-Perspectives/dp/0525940960">The Jackie Robinson Reader: Perspectives on an American Hero</a> - basically a collection of earlier works about Robinson. Very interesting, though - some of the behind-the-scenes stuff with Rickey was great. The chapter about his testimony against Paul Robeson before HUAC was a little long and boring, but I enjoyed the rest of the book. Also read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Double-Play-Robert-B-Parker/dp/0425199630/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338550960&sr=1-2">Double Play</a> by Robert Parker - fiction about a guy who gets a job as Jackie Robinson's bodyguard (among other things). Pretty quick read, and enjoyable.
 
Re: Book Thread number ?

Brenthoven said:
Lady Wore Black lent me a bunch of Chuck Klosterman books. Finished "Fargo Rock City" and it was decent (although some parts were funnier because I know what North Dakota is like), and am about halfway through "Sex, Drugs, And Cocoa Puffs." That's also a decent read so far.
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Finished "Cocoa Puffs" and am just about done with "Killing Yourself To Live." Overall, I think "Killing" is his best, with "Fargo" 2nd, and "Cocoa" a distant third. One more Klosterman book to go ("IV").
 
Re: Book Thread number ?

Brenthoven said:
Finished "Cocoa Puffs" and am just about done with "Killing Yourself To Live." Overall, I think "Killing" is his best, with "Fargo" 2nd, and "Cocoa" a distant third. One more Klosterman book to go ("IV").
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Killing Yourself to Live was sort of humorous. He's basically a hipster who gets his jollies making 80s references instead of talking about bands no one has ever heard of.
 
Re: Book Thread number ?

FadeToBlack&Gold said:
Killing Yourself to Live was sort of humorous. He's basically a hipster who gets his jollies making 80s references instead of talking about bands no one has ever heard of.
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The rambling pop culture prose is interesting. I agree on the hipster view, despite him not seeming like a hipster. Some of his stuff in that book made me nod slowly, and other stuff was more "...the hell?"

He's kind of all over the board for subject matter (besides the 80's music references).
 
Re: Book Thread number ?

Since I've caught up on all the TV shows that I've missed from my last couple work trips, I decided to go on a reading kick instead of playing video games, like normal.

The Hunger Games trilogy, Collins - Meh. I enjoyed the "action" scenes of the three books. The character development in the first book was entertaining and had the most action, so it was the best. I probably would have been satisfied just reading Cliff Notes of the other two. I figured that Katniss would end up with the other potential partner, but not all that upset with the end result. I just wished that the other two books hadn't dragged so much.

Moneyball, Lewis - Awesome. Focused more on the long-term development of the idea of advanced statistics, including a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that could not have been brought to the big screen. It makes me wish that I had gotten into sabremetrics a lot earlier than I did. Even now, I read AA more for the recaps than I do for the statistical analysis. Basically, I need to do more research. Suggestions?

Ender's Game, Card - Entertaining. There was a little less dystopian-type culture than I was expecting, but it was a good book and it only drives the point into your brain five times, instead of fifty. And, even I was able to realize that there were multiple levels to the story without too much work (I have a terrible habit of only reading things for surface-level entertainment).

Next up for me is one of The Giver, Slaughterhouse Five, or 1984. I've already read 1984, but I absolutely loved it and want to read it again, since it's been probably 8 years.
 
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I recently read The Noise Within and The Noise Revealed by Ian Whates. They're OK but nothing special, and a little disappointing because it feels like there's a much better novel/duology/trilogy struggling to get out.

Since the last update here, I've also read Academ's Fury by Jim Butcher (second book in the Codex Alera series), which was as good as the first book in that series. I've also started another fantasy series, as I'm partway into Gardens of the Moon by Steve Erickson. I'm not far enough into the book to give a recommendation on it either way.

burgie12 said:
Ender's Game, Card - Entertaining. There was a little less dystopian-type culture than I was expecting, but it was a good book and it only drives the point into your brain five times, instead of fifty. And, even I was able to realize that there were multiple levels to the story without too much work (I have a terrible habit of only reading things for surface-level entertainment).
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If it's not already in your queue, I'd recommend reading Speaker For the Dead.
 
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Re: Book Thread number ?

Craig P. said:
Since the last update here, I've also read Academ's Fury by Jim Butcher (second book in the Codex Alera series), which was as good as the first book in that series. I've also started another fantasy series, as I'm partway into Gardens of the Moon by Steve Erickson. I'm not far enough into the book to give a recommendation on it either way.
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The Codex series is decent. I thought that at times Butcher struggled to maintain the story enough to make it a 5 book series. But still well worth the time to read them.



Craig P. said:
If it's not already in your queue, I'd recommend reading Speaker For the Dead.
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I concur.
 
Re: Book Thread number ?

Reading The Wrecking Crew, the Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best Kept Secret, by Kent Hartman. A formulaic, rather poorly written account of the large group of studio musicians in LA who played on many hits in the 1960s and 70s, all the while the public believing that the faces on the covers of the records played all the notes. Man was the world a naive place even as recently as my early years.
 
Re: Book Thread number ?

WeAreNDHockey said:
Reading The Wrecking Crew, the Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best Kept Secret, by Kent Hartman. A formulaic, rather poorly written account of the large group of studio musicians in LA who played on many hits in the 1960s and 70s, all the while the public believing that the faces on the covers of the records played all the notes. Man was the world a naive place even as recently as my early years.
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I heard a radio interview about this book. A decent number of those Wrecking Crew guys eventually went on to have some pretty strong careers releasing albums of their own. I think I would be ashamed to have my name and face attached to another person's work as though it were my own.
 
Re: Book Thread number ?

St. Clown said:
I heard a radio interview about this book. A decent number of those Wrecking Crew guys eventually went on to have some pretty strong careers releasing albums of their own. I think I would be ashamed to have my name and face attached to another person's work as though it were my own.
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A number of bands and artists fought hard against it, expressing just the sentiment you speak of, while others just seemed to take it as part of the business. The Monkees were one band that did object, and vehemently so, fighting to finally actually play on all of the songs. They of course contributed musically to all of the early releases (contrary to popular belief), but it was only after a number of releases (and getting Don Kirshner fired) that they prevailed, making albums pretty much on their own. The original lead guitar player of the Grass Roots was another. He quit the band long before they were through "making" hits because he wanted to do his own thing.
 
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