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BOOKS THREAD

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Moderator1, Apr 22, 2005.

Page 159 of 471
  1. Birdscribe

    Birdscribe Active Member

    LJB, I read the Republican Noise Machine a few years ago. Great, albeit highly depressing, read.

    The most interesting part was the beginning, which described how the media was pulled rightward over the last 30-plus years. Good, good stuff.
     
    Birdscribe, Nov 7, 2007
    #1897
  2. Herbert Anchovy

    Herbert Anchovy Active Member

    birdscribe, I agree, a sobering look.

    You think you can see right through these people, and then you understand they're so much more contemptible than ever seemed possible.

    I would have liked more on Michael Savage. No hole deep enough for him. I guess he's beneath closer inspection.
     
    Herbert Anchovy, Nov 7, 2007
    #1898
  3. Fenian_Bastard

    Fenian_Bastard Guest

    The scariest guy in there was Laurence Silberman, a sitting federal judge doing dirty tricks, who also headed one of the probes into the stovepiped intel.
     
    Fenian_Bastard, Nov 7, 2007
    #1899
  4. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    It is incredibly repetitive and not the best writing, but I am just finishing up a book I picked up on a whim called "A Pickpocket's Tale," by Timothy Gilfoyle

    It uses the life of a guy named George Appo, a career criminal in the 19th Century, to give a sense of what life was like for the underworld in NYC in the mid to late 1800s through early 1900s. What makes it interesting is that Appo attempted to write an unfinished autobiography that was never published and it excerpts pieces from it. He writes like one of the Bowery Boys. I'd love to have had the chance to have a five-minute conversation with this guy.

    He was an interesting character and was somewhat known in his time because of various criminal activities. His father was a Chinese immigrant (one of the first), his mom Irish. His dad was convicted of killing a woman. Some interesting things I learned: 1) A lot of early Chinese immigrants in NYC married Irish and other European women, because there were so many Chinese men who came over and few Chinese women. The mixing between the races was more prevalent than I realized. 2) The opium trade, it's history and how prevalent use was--and how it cut across class. 3) The prison system in the 1800s was downright scary. It explains what daily life was like, how prisoners were used as slave labor for private industry, how the untrained guards were brutal toward the inmates. One particularly brutal system of torture that was used frequently, and accepted and endorsed, to punish prisoners indiscriminately is described, as are various attempts at prison reform over time. 4) Police corruption. One interesting note was how criminals would pickpocket people and then the police would negotiate a deal in which the criminal gave back the watch or property in return for the victim paying the criminal a fee for it. 5) The criminal justice system, in general, was scary. Those accused had no clue what their rights were, so they were run before a judge and did not get the kinds of trials we are accustomed to. You pled and accepted your three years at Sing Sing. I also learned where the term "pigeon holed" came from (I won't expound). 6) It gives descriptions various scams that were run in the 1800s to bilk people of their money, most notably the "green goods game," which was an incredibly popular grift and has been long forgotten.

    There is a lot more that I learned, but how many spoilers can I include? If you think our due process rights suck today, you should really read this book. It was written by historian Timothy Gilfoyle. Again, not the best writing and a bit repetitive, but I learned a lot.
     
    The Big Ragu, Nov 11, 2007
    #1900
  5. Clever username

    Clever username Active Member

    Just finished "Shantaram," all 933 pages of it. I think I read the last 350 pages in two days. It's incredible.
     
    Clever username, Nov 11, 2007
    #1901
  6. Cansportschick

    Cansportschick Active Member

    I just started reading MJ Vassanji's book The Assasin's Song.

    This book was a Giller finalist and is on the list of nominees for the Governor General Book Award.

    This is already shaping up to be a great book and I highly recommend it.
     
    Cansportschick, Nov 13, 2007
    #1902
  7. PaperDoll

    PaperDoll Well-Known Member

    I highly recommend "The Last Chinese Chef" by Nicole Mones.

    It's a novel but reads like well-reported non-fiction. Foodies will love it, but it's actually a story of human relationships.
     
    PaperDoll, Nov 13, 2007
    #1903
  8. Del_B_Vista

    Del_B_Vista Active Member

    I'm a huge Simon Winchester fan ("Krakatoa," "The Meaning of Everything," "The Professor and The Madman") and just finished "A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906." Not saying it's bad, but it's actually my least favorite of his books I've read. I love how he interspersed the story's narrative with asides, most of the time entire chapters, about some piece of science or background information that teaches more about the subject. In this case, however, his background information was basically a personal travelog. He went across the North Atlantic techtonic plate, discuss the geology that caused the 1906 earthquake. The geology is interesting, but I didn't think his story added that much to it. I also thought the portion of the book devoted to the actual earthquake could have been more substantial.

    Still, it's a good book.
     
    Del_B_Vista, Nov 13, 2007
    #1904
  9. SlickWillie71

    SlickWillie71 Member

    The Terror Conspiracy: Deception, 9/11 and the Loss of Liberty by Jim Marrs. I'm normally not a conspiracy theorist, but this book doesn't take long (about 30 pages into it) to make you wonder about what happened that day and who and what stood to gain by it.
     
    SlickWillie71, Nov 19, 2007
    #1905
  10. Fenian_Bastard

    Fenian_Bastard Guest

    SW71 --
    You really want Marrs in all of his lunatic glory? Try to find a book called Rule By Secrecy. It's the Grand Unifed Theory of Conspiracies. It turns out that there once were inhabitants of a planet that went through our solar system and they came to Earth, warred with themselves, and they are the ancestors of everything from the Bavarian Illumnati to the Templars.
     
    Fenian_Bastard, Nov 19, 2007
    #1906
  11. finishthehat

    finishthehat Active Member


    Hey, come on -- he's a leading theorist for the JFK Conspiracy crowd. Give the man the respect he deserves.

    [Just kidding, and not looking to start a JFK threadjack.]
     
    finishthehat, Nov 19, 2007
    #1907
  12. Clever username

    Clever username Active Member

    My local library doesn't have a copy of Hamlet. I am stunned.
     
    Clever username, Nov 19, 2007
    #1908
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