2009 Reading Log

Cie

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Book 3 completed: The Five People You Meet in Heaven By Mitch Albom

2.5/5 rating for this straitforward read. Too mushy for me, but my wife loved it.

I need to get off of this fiction train, but not before I finish Blood Meridian. Started last night, and am through chapter 8. Enjoying it thus far.
 

fatdaddycool

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Well being that I read a lot, I kind of am all over the place with what I read and re-read the classics several times and often. I re-read The Iliad by Homer over Christmas holiday and that is always a must read for anyone but can be difficult at times. Then went to Consent to Kill by Vince Flynn which is a secret agent type book with a recurring character named Mitch Rapp and a auick, thrilling read. After that was Whiteout by Ken Follet I believe which was okay. I was about the theft of a virus and a blooming love affair between the old scientist and his head of security...blah blah blah. Now reading a Nelson Demille thriller called the Talbot Odyssey and it is okay so far.

In between I read the Gold Bug and The Raven by Poe but those are just shorts.
 

ga_ben

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FDC, DeMille is my favorite author. I think Charm School is my favorite with Gold Coast a close second.

I've also thought about re-reading some Pat Conroy novels. The Great Santini and Lords of Discipline are really good reads. Haven't picked up Friedman's book in 2 weeks but I've finished The Bodies Left Behind by Jeffrey Deaver and the latest Baldacci novel Divine Justice.
 

Happy Hippo

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Had the same reaction as you ga ben, but I managed to finish it. Had several people tell me it was funnier than anything they had read, so thats why I read it. Not funny in the least, IMO.

Finished Tropic of Cancer on Thursday night, next up is The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky--one that I have always had on my list, figured now was as good as time as any to get started on it.

I agree - Conf of Dunces came highly recommended but I didn't find it entertaining or funny...I just started reading the book Cie Grant just finished, 5 people you meet in heaven. Also just finished South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami - if you are a Henry Miller and Dostoevsky lover, then I highly recommend this author. Of course, Brother's K is in the top 5 of books I've ever read, and I have decided to reread it this year - it will be about the 5th time, but it never gets old. But check out Murakami - I would start with The Wind Up Bird Chronicle. I think he is brilliant - have read about 8 of his books and love them all.

Will check out some of these other books you all have recommended, thanks.
 

BleedDodgerBlue

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FDC, DeMille is my favorite author. I think Charm School is my favorite with Gold Coast a close second.

Ditto

Demille my personal favorite by far. I think Up Country might be the best work of fiction I've ever read. Charm school would probably be second. Check out plum island/lions game/airplane one forgot name/etc. the john corey novels....love his sarcasm. Liked the gold coast and loved the sequel the gate house although it didn't get great reviews.

Also will throw Greg Iles into the mix.....great author when he writes about Natchez Mississippi and deep south novels. His last novel about kidnapping was a farce and ruined his name, but his old stuff is great.


gl
 

Terryray

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while on the humor topic...

while on the humor topic...

"A Confederacy of Dunces" is one of the few books that made me laugh out loud reading it!

some good bits below (but the funniest stuff too long to quote here):

Part of the letter sent by Ignatius to a complainer, a Mr. "Abelman (Mongoloid, Esq.)": We are a busy and dynamic organization whose mission needless effrontery and harassment can only hinder. If you molest us again, sir, you may feel the sting of the lash across your pitiful shoulders.

? My respiratory system, unfortunately, is below par. I suspect that I am the result of particularly weak conception on the part of my father. His sperm was probably emitted in a rather offhand manner.

(To his mom) 'It's not your fate to be well treated,' Ignatius cried. 'You're an overt masochist. Nice treatment will confuse and destroy you.



reminded me of that distinctive dry British humor--perhaps it's an acquired taste.

I hadn't laughed some much since reading P.G. Wodehouse's "The Code of the Woosters":

"As for Gussie Finknottle, many an experienced undertaker would have been deceived by his appearance and started embalming on sight"

"If I had my life to live again, Jeeves, I would start it as an orphan without any aunts. Don't they put aunts in Turkey in sacks and drop them into the Bosphorus?" "Odalisques, sir, I understand. Not aunts." "Well why not aunts? Look at the trouble they cause in the world"



Then there's always those hilarious plays by Oscar Wilde


a good companion to "Blood Meridian" is the equally violent but hilarious parody "Ghost Town" by Robert Coover. It opens with (sort of) Cormac sentences:

''Bleak horizon under a glazed sky, flat desert, clumps of sage, scrub, distant butte, lone rider. This is a land of sand, dry rocks and dead things. Buzzard country. And he is migrating through it. Because: it is where he is now, and out here there's nothing to stop for, no turning back either, nothing back there to turn to.''

the violence is just as bad, but with slight humor twist:

"The one-eared man's head splits with a pop as a clay bowl might and his brains ooze out like spilled oatmeal."

and the expressions are almost as telling and idiomatic, but with some fun:

"Shet yer lip fore I dissect yer innards and make sausages outa em for my dawg's breakfast."

.......

and about Dostoevsky--if you like his stuff, then the appropriate read for folks on this forum is his novel "The Gambler"! Not his best overall, but it is one of the best descriptions of the frenzied crazy gambling mind (and the author oughtta know!)

.....

On "The Iliad", it's always better read aloud--check out Derek Jacobi's suberb audio book reading, of the Fagles translation (available in free torrent download online)
 

AR182

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there doesn't seem to be many people here who like bios....but here are 2 that i recently finished & recommend....

"his excellency...george washington" by joseph ellis....pretty self explanatory but after reading this book & other things on washington, i believe he was our greatest president....hows this for a cabinet....john adams as vp, thomas jefferson as set'y of state & alexander hamilton as treasury sec't....eventhough washington had slaves he was very much against slavery & freed them in his will when he died....

the other book that i would recommend is....

"jimmy stewart...a biography" by marc eliot....this guy was a great man in addition to being a great actor....& served his country well during ww2....& banged some great beauties of his time, including kim novak who i always had the hots for...:142smilie
 

Terryray

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Hey AR

I'll take a peek at that Stewart bio..thanks!

You check out that Nick Tosches book "The Devil and Sonny Liston" I mentioned while back? It mixes biography, boxing, the Mob and Las Vegas all in one fun pile.

also see the clip I uploaded on YouTube while back of "Milton Berle Roasts Jimmy Stewart" from a Dean Martin Celebrity roast show.


and about that torrent download I mentioned: sorry dunclock!
 

AR182

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hey terry...

i have the sonny liston book on my list....& i have a tape of that roast.....some of the stuff was very funny....

thanks
 

redsfann

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I agree - Conf of Dunces came highly recommended but I didn't find it entertaining or funny...I just started reading the book Cie Grant just finished, 5 people you meet in heaven. Also just finished South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami - if you are a Henry Miller and Dostoevsky lover, then I highly recommend this author. Of course, Brother's K is in the top 5 of books I've ever read, and I have decided to reread it this year - it will be about the 5th time, but it never gets old. But check out i Murakam- I would start with The Wind Up Bird Chronicle. I think he is brilliant - have read about 8 of his books and love them all.

Will check out some of these other books you all have recommended, thanks.

Will add Murakami to my list of authors to take a look at, HH.

Not too far into Brothers K but already am enjoying it.

TerryRay--
I have actually read "The Gambler" by Dostoevsky and that might be why its taken me this long to pick up Brothers K. While its a decent story, it in no way makes one want to pick up other Dostoevsky novels, IMO.
 

fatdaddycool

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Ditto

Demille my personal favorite by far. I think Up Country might be the best work of fiction I've ever read. Charm school would probably be second. Check out plum island/lions game/airplane one forgot name/etc. the john corey novels....love his sarcasm. Liked the gold coast and loved the sequel the gate house although it didn't get great reviews.

Also will throw Greg Iles into the mix.....great author when he writes about Natchez Mississippi and deep south novels. His last novel about kidnapping was a farce and ruined his name, but his old stuff is great.


gl
Yea I like the John Corey character also and didn't realize that DeMille did anything but as the book concerning the TWA flt. that was shot down or whatever was the first I read. Funny guy though.
 

Toledo Prophet

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Nice thread and excellent idea.

Avid reader myself, but do go through slumps where time/interest/other issues creeps in and keeps me from reading all I want to....i have countless books at home that I keep saying its my goal to read that sometime in my life......not to mention all the new or more recent titles that I dont have that I want to read.....it really is a lifetime pursuit.

So, I will knock some of those out this year and add to the thread.

So far this year, I have read two books. Both were David Baldacci thrillers, Stone Cold and Divine Justice.

They are parts 3 and 4 of his Camel Club series. The previous two were Camel Club and the Collectors. I read those over a year ago and just brezzed right through the latest installments.

Balducci is a great political/spy/thriller author and the Camel Club series were fun reads and would tell anyone who likes the genre to go for it.

Still not sure what my next title may be. I have a couple of ideas in mind, notably Clemente, a bio of Roberto Clemente by David Marinnis and then Micheal Lewis, the moneyball author, wrote a book about the finacial crisis and I wanted to check that one out.

Either way, I am sitting on a couple of Borders and Barnes and Nobles gift cards, so I need to do a little shopping.
 

Toledo Prophet

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you should check out abook written by david mariniss (sp?) about vince lombardi...it is suppose to be a very good book...it's defintely on my list....

I would endorse that book. Man, read that sucker almost 9 years ago when it came out. It might just be one of the best football books ever.

Not only is it a great portrait of Vince, but there's tons of other football history in there as he played on a great college team (did not know that) and was an assistant coach for some great and historically compelling teams, like Army and the NYG (again, I did not know that).

Marannis is a great author. I have his bio on Roberto Clemente at home.....and I also want to read his latest which is an in depth look at the 1960 Olympics. But, I told myself I would read Clemente first before I bought his latest.
 

AR182

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Not only is it a great portrait of Vince, but there's tons of other football history in there as he played on a great college team (did not know that) and was an assistant coach for some great and historically compelling teams, like Army and the NYG (again, I did not know that).


tp....

here is some trivia for you....the offensive coordinator for the giants in the 1950's was lombardi & the defensive coordinator was tom landry.landry devised the 4-3 defense, that teams use now, with the giants because i think it was to defend against jimmy brown.

both lombardi & landry left the giants at about the same time because they each thought that they should have gotten the giant's head coaching job instead of allie sherman. i wonder how the 3 teams would have turned out if either one of them had gotten the giant head job.

anyway i think it's interesting...:142smilie
 

fatdaddycool

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Nice thread and excellent idea.

Avid reader myself, but do go through slumps where time/interest/other issues creeps in and keeps me from reading all I want to....i have countless books at home that I keep saying its my goal to read that sometime in my life......not to mention all the new or more recent titles that I dont have that I want to read.....it really is a lifetime pursuit.

So, I will knock some of those out this year and add to the thread.

So far this year, I have read two books. Both were David Baldacci thrillers, Stone Cold and Divine Justice.

They are parts 3 and 4 of his Camel Club series. The previous two were Camel Club and the Collectors. I read those over a year ago and just brezzed right through the latest installments.

Balducci is a great political/spy/thriller author and the Camel Club series were fun reads and would tell anyone who likes the genre to go for it.

Still not sure what my next title may be. I have a couple of ideas in mind, notably Clemente, a bio of Roberto Clemente by David Marinnis and then Micheal Lewis, the moneyball author, wrote a book about the finacial crisis and I wanted to check that one out.

Either way, I am sitting on a couple of Borders and Barnes and Nobles gift cards, so I need to do a little shopping.


Have read Stone Cold and really enjoyed it didn't realize it was the third of a series. If you liked Baldacci then you would definitely like and I highly recommend Vince flynn
 

BleedDodgerBlue

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Have read Stone Cold and really enjoyed it didn't realize it was the third of a series. If you liked Baldacci then you would definitely like and I highly recommend Vince flynn

guess we have the same tastes. the mitch rapp series is probably my favorite series. he's just a badass. two books before was pretty poor, but this last one executive decision i think was great.....as well as the older ones with the cia mentor who dies in book 3 or 4.

as for baldacci, i loved his first 3 or 4 books. Simple truth is what got me back into reading after a long hiatus. he's gotten worse as he's gone on, but the camel club series is mildly entertaining imo. last man standing was one of the worst books i ever read.


gl
 
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Mr. Poon

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good thread to get some ideas.

Just finished Rigged, the latest book by Ben Mezrich. It chronicles the story of an Ivy League graduate and his work at the New York Mercantile Exchange and work towards establishing the Dubai Mercantile Exchange. I don't think he is that great of a writer, but these stories that he retells are pretty interesting and almost write themselves. If you liked his other books this one is worth a look, but it isn't as good as Ugly Americans or Bringing Down the House.

John Feinstein was mentioned earlier in the thread. The Last Amateurs is a must read for anyone that is interested in college basketball. He chronicles a season in the Patriot League back when they didn't grant athletic scholarships.
 

buddy

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New Release -

The story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

Born mute, speaking only in sign, Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents on their farm in remote northern Wisconsin.

For generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a fictional breed of dog whose thoughtful companionship is epitomized by Almondine, Edgar?s lifelong friend and ally.

But with the unexpected return of Claude, Edgar?s paternal uncle, turmoil consumes the Sawtelles? once peaceful home.

When Edgar?s father dies suddenly, Claude insinuates himself into the life of the farm--and into Edgar?s mother?s affections.

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Forced to flee into the vast wilderness lying beyond the farm, Edgar comes of age in the wild, fighting for his survival and that of the three yearling dogs who follow him.

But his need to face his father?s murderer and his devotion to the Sawtelle dogs turn Edgar ever homeward.

David Wroblewski is a master storyteller, and his breathtaking scenes--the elemental north woods, the sweep of seasons, an iconic American barn, a fateful vision rendered in the falling rain--create a riveting family saga, a brilliant exploration of the limits of language, and a compulsively readable modern classic.
 
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