BOOKS THREAD

I loved Station Eleven. I don't read a lot of fiction and I read even less science fiction. I finished it months ago and I still think about it.

 

It's got a certain cinematic flourish. I could easily see it being optioned.
Even opens with a nod to Shakespeare.
Look forward to your review.

 

Allen Klein usually gets skewered in any book about the Beatles and Stones but Fred Goodman's new bio shows that while he would run afoul of both groups he did plenty to help them - and others - get more control over their finances and their music.

As a longtime Playboy subscriber, I also read Down The Rabbit Hole, Holly Madison's memoir of life in the Playboy Mansion (AKA Her Prison Without Bars). Little there that I hadn't read elsewhere about Hef: he is a lecherous, manipulative drama queen who likes to pull his goalie in a house that smells like dog piss. (One thing I didn't know: until a few years ago he didn't own the Mansion, it was owned by Playboy Enterprises, for many years a public company, and he paid a big buck every month as the tenant.)

Anyway, Ms. Madison bitches endlessly about how much she hated life with Hef who treated her like shit, like many of the other bimbos who lived there at various times, and how she was basically held captive in the place without noting that she could have walked out the fucking door and moved on with her life any time she wanted.

 

My "brush with Hefness"; Holly's co-star was married to my high school buddy; he could not have been a nicer guy, super guy.

 

Based on this I bought Don't Ever Look Back on Kindle. LOVED IT!
Love the Buck Schatz character. Great character. Made my LOL several times.
I'll start Don't Ever Grow Old this weekend.

Thanks for the recommendation.

 

I don't read much fiction these days but read The Cartel based on what I saw here and in some online reviews. Great book, terrific characters, great plot. It was tough at times to follow which gang was which and who was aligned with who but maybe that was the point: the only stability there was the instability.

 

Awesome. Glad you liked it. I'm hoping Friedman keeps them coming.

 

New Jack Reacher book is coming out in two weeks. Awesome."Small Town Guy waited."

In mystery genre, I've read like six of Karin Slaughter's books this year. Really good reads; the characters aren't just stereotypical hero detectives. They're all pretty flawed and sometimes pretty hard to like, but so well-written. And the plots always keep me guessing till the end. Might wanna read them in order, though, because things from previous books do affect newer ones.

Reading Rick Perlstein's The Invisible Bridge, the third in his series of books covering America from early 60s through, I'm assuming, end of Reagan's presidency. This one covers 1973-76. Really good, of course, like the first two.

Might have mentioned this on here previously, but Explaining Hitler is one of the best books I've ever read. Ron Rosenbaum, one of my favorites. It feels a bit weird saying a book about Hitler is a "favorite" -- like liking a Facebook post about someone dying -- but it is. Rosenbaum's curiosity and sharp mind carry the book and the arguments -- those he makes and those he gets into with others -- are fascinating. There's a new version that came out last year with updated Afterword that's worth buying.

 

History buff that I am, and always wondering how such a catastrophic breakdown of society and such a monumental state of denial as occurred in Germany at that time came about, I might have to check out that book. Because my dad and myself both were/are such "fans" of WWII stuff, I have a whole bookcase of things related to that period already. But not "Explaining Hitler."

 

Definitely get it when you can, Write.

Here's good interview with Rosenbaum last year.

No Higgs Boson of Hitler: Ron Rosenbaum Explains 'Explaining Hitler' | VICE | United States

The guy's right, the book is somehow, despite its subject, funny, in addition to being thorough, thought-provoking, engaging, smart and everything else.

 

Huggy, if you haven't already, read "The Power of the Dog." "The Cartel" is a sequel to that. They're both brilliant. (I'm partway through "The Cartel" right now.) Don Winslow may be my favorite writer working these days.

And yes, keeping all the characters and their allegiances straight is a bitch.

 

Definitely going to read that one. Was very intrigued by the Keller-Barrera back story reading The Cartel.

Rolling Stone website had a post Friday about music books coming this fall. Among them, memoirs from Chrissie Hynde, Tom Petty and John Fogerty.