Books Thread

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PonyGirl
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Re: Books Thread

Post by PonyGirl »

jr29 wrote:
jr29 wrote:The postman delivered the new jeff Tweedy memoir this week. I'm looking forward to getting into it.
I just finished the Uncle Tupelo section and it's heartbreaking. I know the Jay vs. Jeff thing has been beaten to death but reading Jeff's firsthand take is tough.
Received this for Christmas and have finished it and I can't really recommend it enough. I really loved it. There is a bunch of people hoping to borrow it, but I want it back and would like to read it again, possibly with a highlighter. I hope he writes something else of this nature.

The end of Uncle Tupelo is heartbreaking. But also hilarious. Classic.
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Re: Books Thread

Post by whatwouldcooleydo? »

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very good read, fully expect a film version of this

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Hadn't read this in 36-37 years

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absolutely loved it! 660+ pages but I devoured it in three sessions

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beantownbubba
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Re: Books Thread

Post by beantownbubba »

"Chinatown meets Mad Max" is pretty fucking high praise in my book, so before I get too excited, would you put The Water Knife at that implied level of greatness?
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Re: Books Thread

Post by whatwouldcooleydo? »

beantownbubba wrote:"Chinatown meets Mad Max" is pretty fucking high praise in my book, so before I get too excited, would you put The Water Knife at that implied level of greatness?
While it's a really good book, it only meets the bare minimum technically in that it's a book about water rights/water wars/corruption set in a near-future dystopia.

Forget it Jeff, it's Buttholeville*

*=yes, it's forced. Been dying to work this in seamlessly but the proper context keeps alluding me, so fuck it
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Re: Books Thread

Post by beantownbubba »

whatwouldcooleydo? wrote:
beantownbubba wrote:"Chinatown meets Mad Max" is pretty fucking high praise in my book, so before I get too excited, would you put The Water Knife at that implied level of greatness?
While it's a really good book, it only meets the bare minimum technically in that it's a book about water rights/water wars/corruption set in a near-future dystopia.

Forget it Jeff, it's Buttholeville*

*=yes, it's forced. Been dying to work this in seamlessly but the proper context keeps alluding me, so fuck it
The real question is did u double down w/ "alluding" or is it just a typical internet type confusion (not quite a homonym but I'm not sure what the exact term is). If it was intentional it's super duper impressive. Either way, and forced or not, I'm also giving u credit for "it's buttholeville" - a good effort. But yeah, I may just skip this one, at least for the short term. Thanks for the head's up.
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Cole Younger
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Re: Books Thread

Post by Cole Younger »

Mason Jars In The Flood. A collection of short stories by Gary Carden. Some of you Carolina boys may already be familiar with him. I discovered him through an excellent documentary he did called Mountain Talk. It's about the North Carolina Appalaichan accent but more broadly the people of that region. You will see some familiar faces on camera like Marvin Popcorn Sutton and Jim Tom Kendrick. I highly reccomend it and the book. It was a Christmas present from my sister and Mr. Garden even signed it.
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Re: Books Thread

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Still on an intermittent Otessa Moshfegh binge, currently working my way through Homesick for Another World, her collection of short stories. Damn she can write.
Also working my through a Dashiell Hammett collection--perfect for winter reading and sipping.
Trying to get through Little Panic: Dispatches from an Anxious Life, a worthy, but exhausting, and not all that well written, memoir of living with debilitating anxiety disorder.

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Re: Books Thread

Post by beantownbubba »

The Middleman is not Olen Steinhauer's best thriller, but it is remarkable and incredibly timely in its depiction of the US of A circa 2018. Considering how long it takes for a book to gestate, it's really astonishing how much he gets right about the stresses, strains and divisions in American society while still telling an interesting, very readable story.
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Re: Books Thread

Post by jr29 »

PonyGirl wrote:
jr29 wrote:
jr29 wrote:The postman delivered the new jeff Tweedy memoir this week. I'm looking forward to getting into it.
I just finished the Uncle Tupelo section and it's heartbreaking. I know the Jay vs. Jeff thing has been beaten to death but reading Jeff's firsthand take is tough.
Received this for Christmas and have finished it and I can't really recommend it enough. I really loved it. There is a bunch of people hoping to borrow it, but I want it back and would like to read it again, possibly with a highlighter. I hope he writes something else of this nature.

The end of Uncle Tupelo is heartbreaking. But also hilarious. Classic.
Jeff's take on the bit about Jay thinking everyone aroud UT was sabotaging him was pretty great.

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Re: Books Thread

Post by whatwouldcooleydo? »

Image
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Re: Books Thread

Post by beantownbubba »

whatwouldcooleydo? wrote:Image
Wow. That's some heavy duty shit right there. Brings back memories of slow going and much head scratching, but so, so worth it. What did u think?
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Re: Books Thread

Post by whatwouldcooleydo? »

beantownbubba wrote:
whatwouldcooleydo? wrote:Image
Wow. That's some heavy duty shit right there. Brings back memories of slow going and much head scratching, but so, so worth it. What did u think?
I am about 300 pages in and can’t put it down. First time reading it, and for all the reputation of it being a “tough” read, I am finding it to be exceptionally readable. I don’t know if it was written in English or if this is a translation, but regardless, the writing is superbly descriptive, making for a quite “visual” read, and at times even downright snappy. Subject matter aside, this is exquisite writing

ETA: it was written in Greek

Been ages since I have seen the film, probably shortly after its release, so I have absolutely nothing to offer in the way of telling how the book compares to the film

And speaking of the film: this is one of my very favorite collections of music, period

Image
Last edited by whatwouldcooleydo? on Sat Jan 26, 2019 6:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Books Thread

Post by whatwouldcooleydo? »

beantownbubba wrote:
whatwouldcooleydo? wrote:Image
Wow. That's some heavy duty shit right there. Brings back memories of slow going and much head scratching, but so, so worth it. What did u think?
You ever read this?

Image

Been years since I read it, but Last Temptation is making me think of this excellent work. He's such a great writer, he'd be be a giant if he had written nothing other than this and the great Cairo Trilogy. I'm fairly certain that I will be revisiting Children of the Alley before too long, probably after I mix a bunch of music books in that are sitting on my dresser (Lou Reed bio, the Tweedy book, several of the lesser-known books on Dylan, Sam Phillips bio, et al.)
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Re: Books Thread

Post by Flea »

whatwouldcooleydo? wrote: Been years since I read it, but Last Temptation is making me think of this excellent work. He's such a great writer, he'd be be a giant if he had written nothing other than this and the great Cairo Trilogy. I'm fairly certain that I will be revisiting Children of the Alley before too long, probably after I mix a bunch of music books in that are sitting on my dresser (Lou Reed bio, the Tweedy book, several of the lesser-known books on Dylan, Sam Phillips bio, et al.)

I think you'll dig the Lou Reed bio. Right now I'm reading

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and

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Re: Books Thread

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Image

Image
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Re: Books Thread

Post by whatwouldcooleydo? »

Image

about halfway through this one after it being in the "to be read" pile for a long time. Not terribly impressed, quite a few obvious factual errors and some wacky opinions, such as stating that John Sebastian's acoustic set was THE highlight of Woodstock. Plus the breadth of his premise leads him to giving significant artists/songs just a sentence or two. Will finish because I almost never put a book down after starting it in earnest, but that said I am puzzled as to the high regard for this. It's a fun read, don't get me wrong, but it's not offering much I didn't already know
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Re: Books Thread

Post by Cole Younger »

Hell, I Was There-Elmer Keith. Adventures of a Montana cowboy who became world famous as a big game hunter.
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Re: Books Thread

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Image

This may be the best rock star autobiography I've read. It's funny, heartbreaking and honest. Just a great book.
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Re: Books Thread

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Have now finished all four of Otessa Moshfegh's books (two novels, a collection of short stories, and a novella) and was blown away by each one. An amazing talent.
Now on to this...

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Re: Books Thread

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Re: Books Thread

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Really dug this, it mostly lived up to the significant hype. I read it from beginning to end last night without ever putting it down. I think it is a fairly sizeable accomplishment to write a book in which a huge chunk of the plot is a rewriting of the Manson Family and their crimes, with just a few name changes and slightly different details to the murders, yet still have a compelling story that doesn't feel like a cheap attempt at fictional history. As it is, the story is more about the young girl, Evie Boyd, who is living a deadend teenage middle-class life in Petaluma and how the cult had something to offer that her family wasn't giving. Don't want to go more into plot or details or subtext, so I'll just end by saying that I recommend this highly.
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Re: Books Thread

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Re: Books Thread

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polished this off last night, lives up to the hype
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Re: Books Thread

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Image

anyone else read this? Imagine there's a few here who have. Would love to hear other takes, just finished it
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Re: Books Thread

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Wasn't really crazy about this one:

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Liked this one a lot:

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Just started and so far, so good:

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Re: Books Thread

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just finished this new release

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Re: Books Thread

Post by beantownbubba »

Second page for the books thread? What's going on, people? I've been reading at more or less my usual pace, but haven't read much that called for commentary until recently. Here's a sampling:

I always look forward to the annual Gabriel Allon novel by Daniel Silva, and Silva rarely disappoints. This year's offering, The New Girl, is the exception that proves the rule. Not bad, just ordinary, which is way below Silva's high standard. And the dialogue, omg, as cliched and boring as it gets. Oddly enough, the story, focused on a Saudi crown prince who gets in trouble by killing a journalist in an embassy, is ripped right from the headlines yet does not come across w/ Silva's usual narrative rhythm and apparent insider's knowledge and insight.

Paris By the Book by Liam Callanan is kind of an odd duck. I found it in the new mysteries section of the library but it is a mystery in only the broadest sense. It is, however, a very good novel in that specific genre of American novels about Paris. Hard to say anything new on the subject and I'm not sure Callanan does, but the book is entertaining and the main characters are very appealing and about as non-stereotypical as possible.

An Anonymous Girl by the writing team of Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, surprised on multiple levels. First, I virtually never read fiction by multiple authors because, not to put too fine a point on it but they invariably suck. This one is another exception that proves the rule. Second, the book starts off badly enough that I came w/in a chapter of abandoning it. But I was amply rewarded for sticking w/ it - a taut, well played innocent young woman in peril thriller w/ some nice twists and appealing (or appealingly creepy) characters. Things get a bit obvious towards the end which tells me it could have been about 50 pages shorter but still, I really enjoyed this one and will definitely seek out their prior collaboration.

For the token non-fiction summer read we have Michael Tomasky's If We Can Keep It. Another surprise because I've never felt too much in any direction about Tomasky's writing when I've come across it (mostly in the NYT, occasionally elsewhere, i think). This book won't change your world but I suspect you'll learn something from it and it will give you at least some ammunition to think about old problems in fresher ways. It is excellent on the history of parties ("factions") and polarization in American politics. His thesis is that the era of calm and cooperation that so many of us grew up with from the end of WWII into the late 60's or early 70's is very much the aberration and it is far more typical for our politics to be fraught and dirty. Just understanding this is helpful and helps one to stop thinking about some nostalgic past that we must get back to. His thoughts on gerrymandering, winner take all single district voting for Congress and the electoral college include some fresh perspectives including the important idea that for the most part these apparently institutional factors are in fact not inevitable at all and can be changed quite easily for the most part (i.e. short of by Constitutional amendment). He also helpfully reminds us that politics reflects the culture not the other way around, so it's not just our political system that's broken. It's fairly short and written in plain English so it's a pretty breezy read as these things go and I recommend it.
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Re: Books Thread

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Some interesting bits, but overall a raging meh for me. But most of the ladies in my bookclub gave it higher praise, so what do I know. I was, however, intrigued to learn there were (are?) actual blue people in Kentucky. No, actually blue people.

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Re: Books Thread

Post by John A Arkansawyer »

beantownbubba wrote:For the token non-fiction summer read we have Michael Tomasky's If We Can Keep It. Another surprise because I've never felt too much in any direction about Tomasky's writing when I've come across it (mostly in the NYT, occasionally elsewhere, i think). This book won't change your world but I suspect you'll learn something from it and it will give you at least some ammunition to think about old problems in fresher ways. It is excellent on the history of parties ("factions") and polarization in American politics. His thesis is that the era of calm and cooperation that so many of us grew up with from the end of WWII into the late 60's or early 70's is very much the aberration and it is far more typical for our politics to be fraught and dirty. Just understanding this is helpful and helps one to stop thinking about some nostalgic past that we must get back to. His thoughts on gerrymandering, winner take all single district voting for Congress and the electoral college include some fresh perspectives including the important idea that for the most part these apparently institutional factors are in fact not inevitable at all and can be changed quite easily for the most part (i.e. short of by Constitutional amendment). He also helpfully reminds us that politics reflects the culture not the other way around, so it's not just our political system that's broken. It's fairly short and written in plain English so it's a pretty breezy read as these things go and I recommend it.
Tomasky does a lot of his writing at The American Prospect. It's a traditionally liberal Democratic magazine and site which I like a lot.
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Re: Books Thread

Post by beantownbubba »

The Rhythm Secton by Mark Burnell is surprising in a number of ways. First, it and the following books in the series, have been around for some time and I haven't even heard of either him, the book or the series. Second, for a 20 year old thriller I've never heard of, this book is surprisingly good, which is to say, it's really good, why haven't I heard of it? Third, after 20 years it's only now being made into a film which was originally scheduled for release in February (presumably prompting the re-release of the entire series) but now scheduled for November. And most surprising of all, the plot of this book, published in 1999 is surprisingly close to predicting the actual events of 9/11 and a tangent to the plot essentially predicts 9/11 in almost every detail. Astonishing and spooky. In an afterward to this new edition the author acknowledges that he gets asked about this all the time, suggesting that this is not just my interpretation or something, it's very real.
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