BOOKS THREAD

Just finished Billy Idol's memoir, Dancing With Myself. Very entertaining stuff.

 

Took an extended break, but I got back on the Jack Reacher kick this week. Going to try to catch up with the series ASAP. I think I have like 12 or 13 to go. Work is slow, so a book a week right now is pretty easy to accomplish.

 

Good to know.

 

Thanks, PFTC!

 

Clearly one of Reacher's favorite expressions went right over your head.

I am reading Personal right now and then I'm tapped out until Child releases another. Last few
have been really good. Starting with 61 hours there is some carry over from previous.

Recently had a lot of long driving road trips and tried Reacher on tape. A good way to pass the time

 

Good to know.

 

Primary Fallopian Tube Carcinoma?

 

Took a break from my "Star Trek" books kick to finally read "Unbroken," the story of 1936 U.S. Olympian Louis Zamperini by Laura Hillenbrand.

It's an excellent book, with a historical bent that puts the reader in the midst of the WW II years. It's a bit eye-opening in terms of the Japanese approach to the war and doesn't gloss over the reasons for U.S. animosity toward Japan. It goes beyond Japan just being "the enemy." I read more in this book about that, and could see/understand the reasons for it more here than I had with most other books. There tends to be a general sense that the U.S. dropped the atomic bombs on Japan as reprisal for its attack on Pearl Harbor. And while that was certainly a reason, I gleaned clearly from this well-researched book that that certainly wasn't the only one that Japan was targeted.

The promo TV ads for the upcoming Christmas-time screenings of the film version of "Unbroken" describe the story in reviews as "Unbelievable," among other things, and there are things in the book that do seem so -- Zamperini's survival at sea for so long without food, water or supplies after his plane went down, and some of the descriptions of cruelty by Japanese guards in prison camps really are unimaginable. One example included one incident in which POWs made a plea for some meat/protein, and were allegedly served up a dog's skinned head on a stake, and another described a U.S. servicemen who was made to watch, awake and totally un-anaesthetized, as a sadistic Japanese doctor supposedly sawed off his badly injured and infected leg.

The research that went into this book is obvious and impressive, and even the all the footnotes are interesting.

 

I might have told this before. Anyway. I read 61 Hours when it came out. Few months later on the 18-hour flight to Cape Town, I was trying to get some sleep. I wanted something in my ears as I drifted off but the music selections didn't do much and I didn't want a movie playing. But the entertainment selection also had audiobooks. And one of them was 61 Hours. I thought what the hell. Great story, and I wouldn't miss anything if I slept through it since I'd already read it. The narrator had a great voice, but, and this isn't surprising, it really fucked up my sleep. All of a sudden I'd stir and just hear something like, "Reacher waited." Or the countdown that was going on throughout the book. Reacher infiltrated my subconscious like it was a bad guy's mansion guarded by 6 lackeys at 4 a.m.

 

My boy and wife read Unbroken (he was 11!) and then met him personally at an event at our local library. He's an amazingly inspirational person and while it may seem unbelievable and maybe even some slight puffering (I don't know), I've got to believe that the core facts are correct and amazing in and of themselves. Louie may you RIP, you inspired my boy. Thanks.

 

Oh, I have no doubt the core of the story is accurate, and has even been verified as much as is possible. As I noted previously, the research done for this book was copious -- clearly very thorough and it was all footnoted for reference, so anybody could check back on it all if they wanted.

Whatever unbelief I had over a couple of incidents was more of a sentiment, probably stemming more from my own admitted lack of experience with or personal impacting by war. I've been fortunate in that respect, and I truly can't relate to or understand such sadistic evil on the part of one human being toward another human being (or animal).

But those were the times in this book when readers' cynicism might kick in. If I didn't trust Zamperini, and Hillenbrand's obviously exhaustive historical work, mine certainly might have at those points, because Zamperini's story really is, well, kind of unbelievable.

 

Just got "Broken Monsters" from the library; got great reviews so excited to start.