Mailing it in this morning. I spent all day yesterday with mrsS and friends in Amador County sampling wines. We had a lovely time celebrating the 30th anniversary of a good friend's illegal entry into the country (he's long been a citizen, and is a teacher at my kids' high school), but it didn't get my taxes FMBD blurb done.
Among the many books I did not read last month were these. But I have been plowing through the assorted beheadings, impalements, assassinations, flayings, etc., of A Dance With Dragons.
This mammoth installment of George R.R.R.R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series is, well, mammoth. And fascinating. And disconcerting. Much of the first couple hundred pages feel like back-tracking, because they re-tell some story lines from a different perspective, or simply move back in series time to pick up another character's thread that had been left lagging in the previous volume. Still, there are plenty of guts spilled and bones crunched here to satisfy any devoted reader.
I'm only about a third of the way into this one, but I'm anxious to see the return of Arya Underfoot, for Roose Bolton and his bastard to get what's (surely?) coming to 'em, and for somebody to pay the Walders back for the Red Wedding. Let's get on with it, already.
What are you reading?
Finished The Reckoning by David Halberstam. The final 150 pages were very disconcerting because every single issue that was raised by him as a problem the auto industry was facing in 1986 seemed to cause the thing that ventured into the Forbidden Zone in 2008. Were the execs just hitting snooze for twenty years and wishing away their problems without every attempting to confront them? Did they try and just fail? I'm not a car guy at all, so I don't really have a grip on the inner workings of Detroit, but the book left me very frustrated mainly because I remember reading all of these same arguments and excuses in the newspapers just a few years ago. Still, I love Halberstam's ability to look at the giant huge picture of an area of myopia (Vietnam, the auto industry, the press covering the Preznit) and being able to piece together the puzzle in a very straightforward way. I think his only book I have left to read is The Coldest Winter, so I'll probably tackle that in the next year or two.
Also read The Natural. I was very impressed at how different it was from the movie. The initial chapter mirrors the first scene of the movie, but then there is a pretty huge departure. Pretty enjoyable read to help get my baseball juices flowing for the year.
I started The Grapes of Wrath last night on the flight back from the Happiest Place on Earth, and am already about a hundred pages in. I make it a point every few years to go back and re-read some Steinbeck, and I'm never disappointed.
Definitely Halberstam is a favorite. Also I reviewed The Natural over at the old basement. Not sure if those reviews were ever archived.
Nah, all the reviews and images are gone.
I'm pretty sure SBG has everything, just not accessible.
I'm pretty sure SBG has everything, just
not accessibleforbidden.FTFY.
I read the reckoning soon after it came out. Halberstam needs an editor. But still a worthy book.
I'm still working on Wheel of Time. I need to read more often, dammit.
But I did share your issues with the first part of Dance. The second half of the book picks way up and is much more compelling because it is stuff we didn't visit once already. Also, the ending is awesome.
This month I finished Ghosts of Belfast, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Play It As It Lays.
Ghosts of Belfast is a turd. A really, really, really stinky turd with a really, really, really predictable 'twist' ending. Boo on the publishers of this book.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is an excellent, if not a tad repetitive, read. I'm impressed with Ms. Skloot's tenacity in tracking down the story of Henrietta's family, and for handling their emotions extremely well. I wasn't so impressed with the afterword that deals with the moral and ethical implications of tissue 'donations'. It's clear that the issue needed to be addressed, and equally clear that Ms. Skloot wasn't as into the ethical dilemma as she was interested in the family's perspective. I highly recommend reading this book.
Play It As It Lays was an equally great, if not far more depressing, read. Having just come home from LA I found this book to be a scathing examination of American culture and entertainment in the late 60s.
I just went back to Afluenza, and have found that the authors were ahead of their time. They essentially point to the source of our current economic crisis which makes this a fascinating read a decade plus after it was published.
I'm also going back to Hunter S. Thompson's gonzo papers this month.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP1bIU-xHSQ&feature=related
No kidding. The Nation gave up reading for Lent, I guess.
two quick thoughts:
1) that video would have been perfect if the semi nailed the tumbleweed.
2) i've also apparently haven't been reading much lately (and in all honesty, these posts make me realize that more than i would on my own), and am still plugging through the hunger games trilogy. almost done with book 3: it's still okay.
I recently finished On The Road. It was the "original scroll" unedited. So no paragraphs, no chapters, just straight balls forward writing. It can be a little tedious at first but sometimes the writing is exquisite. For example, probably the most famous passage:
Right now I am reading James Wolcott's memoir Lucking Out about his time being a young writer in mid-70s New York. Already met Pauline Kael, now he's on to Patti Smith, Television, and the Ramones. Bootsy, you would probably like this book.
http://www.npr.org/2011/11/08/142110033/james-wolcott-lucking-out-in-1970s-new-york
Still pounding away at "Catch-22" for me. Work has been crazy busy trying to get settled, so not a lot of free time around the byt (flat).