Books Thread

[Iowan]

Great read, as everything this man writes is. I feel like Chuck is one of my buddies from back home. There is so much I relate to in his books. We share a similar background (upper Midwestern farm boys) and a plenty of similar outlooks/attitudes (but enough differences that we'd undoubtedly argue about all sorts of shit). If Chuck Klosterman showed up at a gathering with my good friends from my hometown, he'd slide seamlessly into the gang.

At least that's how I feel when I read his books, which I suppose is the point.

[njMark]

A great read and very informative as all of her books are. Brightsided is also great, I love the skewering of the Positive Thinking Cult that is prevalent today, things really are as bad as you think they are.

['Scratch]

Reality is starting to bum me the #### out. Economy dragging, cyber cold war with China, politicians, greed, one environmental catastrophe after another...

I'm all about hitting the literary escape button these days.

[Duke Silver]

Just started Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin. Chapter three is one of the best short-stories-within-a-novel I've ever read. Just the right amount of heartbreaking, with a tiny little moment of redemption at the end. If the rest of the book is as good as the first three chapters, I might have a new favorite author.

[scotto]

"yes I said yes I will Yes."

A lovely Bloomsday to one and all.

[Penny Lane]

Great read, as everything this man writes is. I feel like Chuck is one of my buddies from back home. There is so much I relate to in his books. We share a similar background (upper Midwestern farm boys) and a plenty of similar outlooks/attitudes (but enough differences that we'd undoubtedly argue about all sorts of shit). If Chuck Klosterman showed up at a gathering with my good friends from my hometown, he'd slide seamlessly into the gang.

At least that's how I feel when I read his books, which I suppose is the point.

LOVE this--have you checked out his new blog with Bill Simmons (the Sports Guy?) www.grantland.com


(and Scratch--just finished All the Pretty Horses!)

[Penny Lane]

Every one needs to READ THIS!

[Smitty]

['Scratch]

A little light reading.



Gotta love a guy who, back against the wall and surrounded by those begging for a truce, bust out with this:

"Even though large tracts of Europe...have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

[Smarty Jones]

Just finished this one, recommended to me by Scratch. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read. The characters were well-rounded, the story was original and heartbreakingly simple at its core. The beautifully described wilderness scenes and experiences were top-notch. And there were plenty of great horses to go around! Thank you, Scratch!!

[Penny Lane]

Loved this...I wanna read it again

[Zip City]

The Lovely Bones

['Scratch]

Just finished this one, recommended to me by Scratch. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read. The characters were well-rounded, the story was original and heartbreakingly simple at its core. The beautifully described wilderness scenes and experiences were top-notch. And there were plenty of great horses to go around! Thank you, Scratch!!

Yay! I'm very glad to hear you liked it. And happy belated. Has anyone told you you're very mature for such a young lady? Really, you curse and pontificate like someone much older and more world weary.

I read GWTTW at your suggestion and it was great. You read TWF at mine and liked it. Now it's your turn again. After Churchill I want something that's got all the stuff you and I seem to like. Characters, big adventure, sex, love, heartbreak, landscape, horses, grit, seediness, transcendence....you know what I'm talking about. Whatcha got there pardner?

[cortez the killer]

[Smarty Jones]

Yay! I'm very glad to hear you liked it. And happy belated. Has anyone told you you're very mature for such a young lady? Really, you curse and pontificate like someone much older and more world weary.

I read GWTTW at your suggestion and it was great. You read TWF at mine and liked it. Now it's your turn again. After Churchill I want something that's got all the stuff you and I seem to like. Characters, big adventure, sex, love, heartbreak, landscape, horses, grit, seediness, transcendence....you know what I'm talking about. Whatcha got there pardner?

Thank you for the compliment! My grandma always tells me that I grew up too fast as if it was a shame, but I really don't think so. In fact, immaturity is a pet peeve of mine. I couldn't stand it when people acted immature in school, and I still hate it at college. Having a little goofy fun is one thing, behaving like you belong in preschool (without even any drugs or alcohol in your system!) is another.

Characters, big adventure, sex, love, heartbreak, landscape, horses, grit, seediness, transcendence...Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon fits the bill. Purely excellent book. Run to the library and find your copy - you're going to like this one, Scratch.

[The Black Canary]

The Lovely Bones

What did you think of it? I had to put it down and walk away from it. For some reason this book is just not going down that easy.

[Duke Silver]

['Scratch]

Yay! I'm very glad to hear you liked it. And happy belated. Has anyone told you you're very mature for such a young lady? Really, you curse and pontificate like someone much older and more world weary.

I read GWTTW at your suggestion and it was great. You read TWF at mine and liked it. Now it's your turn again. After Churchill I want something that's got all the stuff you and I seem to like. Characters, big adventure, sex, love, heartbreak, landscape, horses, grit, seediness, transcendence....you know what I'm talking about. Whatcha got there pardner?

Thank you for the compliment! My grandma always tells me that I grew up too fast as if it was a shame, but I really don't think so. In fact, immaturity is a pet peeve of mine. I couldn't stand it when people acted immature in school, and I still hate it at college. Having a little goofy fun is one thing, behaving like you belong in preschool (without even any drugs or alcohol in your system!) is another.

Characters, big adventure, sex, love, heartbreak, landscape, horses, grit, seediness, transcendence...Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon fits the bill. Purely excellent book. Run to the library and find your copy - you're going to like this one, Scratch.

I'm on it!

[Zip City]

The Lovely Bones

What did you think of it? I had to put it down and walk away from it. For some reason this book is just not going down that easy.

I'm about 2/3 in. I think it's incredibly compelling

['Scratch]

Just started this one...

[Kudzu Guillotine]

Picked this up some time ago but I've just now started reading it. Having spent some time in the broadcasting world I had some knowledge of the history of radio but my classes in college didn't get this deep into it. For instance, it's news to me that when radio was new you couldn't play phonograph records on the air. Back in the day, many artists apparently had them stamped with a "Not Licensed For Airplay" warning. I'm finding lots of parallels to how the internet is being received compared to back when radio and TV were new. I'm about halfway through the book and haven't even gotten to the heyday of FM radio in the 70s yet. I'm really looking forward to that part as that's a huge reason why I'm the music fan that I am today.

[Smarty Jones]

Been getting A LOT of reading done:


Not going to lie, it sounds dry and it IS dry. But the examples the author uses to prove how our intuition is actually more logical than using logic were pretty cool.


This was pleasantly surprising. I picked it up expecting (and dreading) another lecture on the virtues of environmentalism. It was actually warm, personable, hilarious, and demonstrated what true happiness is in comparison to what our rat race society thinks it is. It was definitely an eye-opener for me. I really enjoyed it. It inspired me to look up composting methods for large- and small-scale farm operations -- I ought to learn how to make running a horse business good for both the economy AND the environment.


I grew up spellbound by this series of books as a kid. I read this one cover-to-cover in all of a day. Me loves my Thoroughbred Legends.

[Duke Silver]

I'm 3% (according to Kindle) into this:



The first chapter ("A Sack of Puppies") crushed me. You can probably guess what happens...

[Lake Man]

Just picked this up - but have not started it yet.

[Duke Silver]

I'm 3% (according to Kindle) into this:



The first chapter ("A Sack of Puppies") crushed me. You can probably guess what happens...

Still working on this. Similar to Winter's Bone, Hell at the Breech is one I'd recommend without reservation to fans of DBT. Blood feuds, corrupt lawmen, a gang of hooded killers terrorizing the countryside, lovable moonshiners, loosely based on a true story...hard to believe Patterson hasn't written a song about it.

On top of all that, Tom Franklin is an incredible writer. Go get it.

[rlipps]

[Smarty Jones]

Very good, interesting read. The author is incredibly well-researched. However, it kind of reads like a thesis at times instead of a historical perspective, since the author loves to cite the same lines from the same references multiple times throughout the book.

But the perspective Wall offers is amazing. Kentucky's Bluegrass region nearly lost its horse-centered economy in the period immediately following the Civil War, due to competition from other regions, namely New York and New Jersey. Though NY governor Charles Evans Hughes and the passage of the Hart-Agnew Act certainly helped matters, the author convincingly argues that it was only through Kentucky, a region formerly renowned for its lawlessness and frontier/mountaineer folk, adopting an idealized, Neo-Southern image of columnaded mansions and Kentucky colonels sipping mint juleps while raising blooded horses. Ironically, Kentucky was more of a confused, neutral border state during the war that sent soldiers to both sides, even though Kentucky was an antebellum slaveholder. But it was only through the proliferation of a myth that markedly identified Kentucky with the Old South that the Bluegrass regained control as the cradle of the American racehorse.

In effect, Kentucky rewrote its own history in order to preserve its economy. One line in particular stood out: "The victim of the Lost Cause has been history, for which the legend has been substituted in national memory."

The book closes by mentioning the erection of a statue of Confederate General John Hunt Morgan in Lexington funded by the horsemen of Lexington in the early 20th century. The statue and Kentucky textbooks thus enshrined the general as a hero, when in reality Morgan was hated and feared by Kentucky horsemen during the war for the raids he conducted on their farms, shooting their hands and making off with some of their best horses. Talk about the duality of the Southern thing...

[beantownbubba]

The good and bad news is that I have now read all the Maisie Dobbs novels. Thank you for that superb recommendation, Smarty. There was only one less that satisfying book in the whole run (the third, i think) but even that was worth reading. Now i'll just have to wait 'til next year for the next one

I've discovered the spy thrillers of David Ignatius, including Agents of Innocence and Bank of Fear. Very, very good. This guy seems to have real inside knowledge/info.

Don't think I've posted since finishing 1861. Loved it. Highly recommended!

Also liked that Daniel Woodrell trilogy. Thanks Duke.

Re-read The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George Higgins. A must read for those of you unfamiliar w/ this classic.

Zen and the Art of Murder by Elizabeth Cosin is a promising debut w/ an interesting, funky central character/detective but as far as i can tell, there's been only one follow-up, so i'm not sure what's going on there. OTOH, inspired by the PBS/BBC TV series i looked up the Aurelio Zen mysteries by Michael Dibden, and the first one i read, A Long Finish was horribyly disappointing. I guess I'll give the series one more chance.

I'm pretty sure I read William Coughlin's novels way back when, but i don't remember them, so reacquainting myself w/ Clarlie Sloan in Shadow of a Doubt was a real pleasure.

The Fifth Witness is a pretty good Michael Connelly effort, but I fear his best days are behind him. Still "pretty good Connelly" is better than most of what's around.

Too Big To Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin is an excellent account of the 2008 financial crisis, one of the best books on the subject i've read, and i've read too many lol.

[never going back]

I'm about a third of the way through this. I really like it.



When googleing the cover, I discovered that there's also a tv movie out.

[Duke Silver]

Making my way through Tom Franklin's catalog.

E.O. Smonk is an ugly, unwashed, murdering rapist who has terrorized the small town of Old Texas, Ala., for years. In 1911, the town summons Smonk to stand trial, and a nonstop blood-orgy of brutality and destruction is the result in Franklin's gloriously debauched second novel (following Hell at the Breech).

If you're gonna have a blood-orgy, I guess nonstop is the way to go.