BOOKS THREAD

Finished "American War" last night. Powerful novel set against a fictitious second Civil War that takes place 60 years in the future. A ban on gas-burning vehicles triggers it. Three southern states form the new south (Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi). Most of Louisiana is underwater due to rising sea levels. Most of the both coasts are also underwater. Melting ice caps have forced them to rebuild a new Anchorage. The US capital has been moved to Columbus, Ohio. The book focuses on the journey of a young girl through the war from the time she's 5 and how the atrocities she endures turn her into a vengeful, bitter terrorist. Great case study in how the horrors she endures and influential people can contort how she sees the world.

 

"The Box" is a much better book than "The Great A@P". Levinson demonstrates that the shipping container is something that really changed to economy of the world because it facilitated international trade.

I thought the A@P book bogged down in the amount of time it spent discussing anti-chain store legislation in the 30's. Though I think one reason that Levinson had to do that their public records he could use in his research of the political battles. A@P was a privately held company until about 1958 and it seemed to me that Levinson could not find very much on the company. There were no public records and employees had gone to their grave.

And I am still waiting for a solid business history of how Wal-Mart took over the world.

 

Good luck. James McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom" is a great one volume book.

 

Reading "Homeward Bound", the Peter Ames Carlin biography of Paul Simon. Pretty good so far -- Simon always struck me as a bit of a dick, which is pretty decently documented.

 

After I finished Beautiful You, I read some reviews, and it was not a popular book among those who write such reviews. However, I enjoyed it. It's the story of one guy's attempt to control all the women in the world by using a line of sex toys. It gets pretty weird at times -- duh...it's Palahniuk -- but I enjoyed it. The final paragraph was funny, I thought.

Anywho....Joe Bob says check it out.

 

The horror, the horror

 

I knocked this one out in just a few days. It's the second in the Mr. Mercedes trilogy, though I read the last one before I read this one, and it didn't ruin it for me.

This one deals with an author who quit publishing after a big hit, though -- rumor had it -- he kept writing. Bad guys break into his house...yadda yadda yadda...typical Stephen King thriller.

Joe Bob says check it out, especially if you can find a hardcover at Barnes & Noble for $6.98, like I did last week.

 

I actually just finished reading Mr. Mercedes last week ... (spoiler alert!)

... it creeps me out that both of the mass killing plots in the book have happened IRL since then.

A good read, though, and I will have to check out Finders Keepers.

 

Read this in two nights. Once I got into, I kept going. I didn't like the ending and I wasn't real thrilled with the journey, but it kept me interested all the way through.

 

Try, "In Sam We Trust." It's a bit old (2000) but it gives a good idea of how they became so big.

 

Halfway through Meet by in the Bathroom, an oral history of the 2001-2011 NY rock scene by Lizzy Goodman. Great stuff if you like the bands discussed (e.g., the Strokes).

 

Breezed through the first eight chapters of that last night.