BOOKS THREAD

The Dirt was terrific about the crue

 

Just started reading "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls. Only 20 pages in, but already liking this memoir a lot. One seriously eccentric family.

 

Yeah, the family spent some time in McDowell County. The movie opens this fall, right?

 

My vacation reading list:
Trajectory – Richard Russo
Opening Belle – Maureen Sherry
Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison – Piper Kerman
The Vintage Caper – Peter Mayle
On the Runway: Premiere – Melody Carlson
What Elephants Know – Eric Dinerstein

"Orange is the New Black" was the best of the bunch, and I don't have Netflix so I haven't seen the TV adaptation.

 

A rock book from a few years ago: "Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY and the Lost Story of 1970" by David Browne.

A mouthful of a title, but a good read with an interesting mix of articles/interviews from 1970 and the author's interviews 40 years later.

I have read quite a bit about the Beatles and CSNY and their breakups/misadventures during that year. What I learned about Simon and Garfunkel and, particularly, James Taylor was very interesting. For example, the early 1970s cult movie "Two-Lane Blacktop" had somehow escaped my attention all these years (it stars Taylor AND Dennis Wilson. Think there were a few drugs on the set?).

 

Jimmy Webb's new memoir, The Cake and the Rain is not bad and covers a lot of that territory too

 

Oh not sure. Seems perfect for a movie. reminds me of Running With Scissors

 

"Gumption" It's impossible to read it and not hear Nick Offerman's voice. Some of the sections feel a little overwritten, but I can excuse that because the author seems to be in love with words.

 

The Girl Who Was Taken by Charlie Donlea...

Good summer read.

I have "Angela's Ashes" up next and "A Man called Ove" on deck.
I read "Tis" years ago at the beach and enjoyed it.

 

"Trouble Boys": Terrific Replacements bio. One of my favorite music books evah.
Next up: "Beatles '66."

 

I need a non-newspaper person to give an opinion on Rainbow Rowell's "Attachments." Two of the main characters are a movie critic and a copy editor, and there's a romantic entanglement with the IT guy. I'm loving the insiderness too much to tell if the book is actually any good.

FYI, the author is a columnist for the Omaha World-Herald.

 

Really enjoyed "A Man Called Ove," the ending was a little too neat, but I really liked the whole experience. Probably going to check out the Amazon series.

Started "The General vs. The President" yesterday by HW Brands. I'm only about 1/3 of the way through it, and I love it!
It's the story of MacArthur v. Truman.
I am admitted Truman fan (best President of the 20th Century), and Brands does great work gleaning passages from the letters, speeches and interviews. Lot of great stuff. I was familiar with MacArthur, I had forgotten how much influence he had in rebuilding Japan and remaking it: politically, socially and economically.