BOOKS THREAD

Just finished Horwitz's A Voyage Long and Strange. Although I didn't enjoy it as much as Confederates, which I've read 5 times, I thought it was an excellent read. It shined a light on the exploration of America that you don't get in school or other books. Remarkably researched.

 

Gotta find "Rome 1960" at the library, if not for the Beijing Games, for New Hampshire at the end of the month. By then, I'll probably have finished "Schulz and Peanuts," which is my hammock on the deck book this summer. As a lifelong Peanuts fan, I'm getting one revelation after another. I knew Schulz had complexes, but after reading this, God, his complexes had complexes.
I need a New Hampshire book as awesome as my Cape Cod book last month - Mark Harris' "Pictures at a Revolution," about the making of the five 1967 Best Picture Oscar nominees. A tremendous portrait of Warren Beatty's ambition, Mike Nichols' genius, Sidney Poitier's ubiquity (he was involved in two nominees, and had been cast in a third), Rex Harrison's ego and drunkenness, and one of the great film disasters ever - "Doctor Doolittle."

 

terrier, I'm reading "Pictures at a Revolution" right now. There's some great stuff in there.

 

Are you Edward R. Hamilton-ing?

http://edwardrhamilton.com/

Fast service, low shipping cost, great prices on non-current stuff.

I send an order about every three or four months, and he sends me a box of books.

I love half.com but when you add $3 or $4 shipping to each book, it isn't so much of a bargain unless the book is selling really cheaply.

There's this, too:

http://www.cheapestbookprice.com/

 

Read Means of Ascent. Awesome book. Also own and have picked through (and will read oneday) the Power Broker, Caro's work about Robrert Moses. He is no doubt one of my favorite writers.

Currently about 200 pages into Brothers, about JFK and RFK and their relationship in the White House. Some interesting things, esp about how RFK thought for sure the CIA, anti-Castro elements and the mob all conspired to kill John... and who Robert and LBJ HATED each other.

 

All three of Caro's LBJ works are awesome, although I liked "Master of the Senate" the best. That was a fascinating work that I learned a lot from. It also showed you how amazing LBJ was as a politician.

FDR, Clinton and Reagan are in the mix -- and I know I'm D_Bing myself here _ but I still think the line forms behind LBJ as the greatest politician of the 20th century. Read "Master of the Senate" and you'll understand why.

 

Anyone know a good scary book? One that doesn't involve monsters or zombies or the like. If I know it can't really happen, it doesn't really scare me.

As far as recommendations for anyone else... anything Tim O'Brien. Namely In the Lake of the Woods or The Things They Carried.

 

jlaff,

I would highly recommend anything by Michael Connelly (esp. The Poet), but not late at night.

 

Oddly, I started reading Michael Connelly's "Crime Beat" last night. I believe it's nonfiction, a compilation of stories from his time as a crime reporter. I haven't been particularly impressed yet, but I was also distracted by the Olympics.

I recommend "A Few Seconds of Panic," Stefan Fatsis' story of going to training camp with the Denver Broncos -- as a kicker, not a Wall Street Journal reporter. (Fatsis also wrote "Word Freak," when he became a competitive Scrabble player.) I thought it was a bit repetitive and overly wordy, but then again, he's a kicker. ;D There was also a lot of insider stuff I'm not sure even an NFL beat guy would see. It definitely humanized NFL players.

 

Don't be turned of by Connelly's Crime Beat collection. It's basically pieces he wrote while working as a crime reporter in Fort Lauderdale and LA before he became a best-selling novelist. His series featuring LA cop Harry Bosch is probably the best and most consistent crime series being written by an American. Rates right up there with Scotland's Ian Rankin. If you haven't read Connelly, start at the beginning of the series as his books can easily be found in paperback.

For those of you looking for a deal, you can pick up a copy of George Plimpton on Sports for $1.00 at BookCloseouts summer sale.

 

I just finished "1920: The Year Of Six Presidents" by David Pietrusza. My initial reaction is that Pietrusza took a forgotten election and found all of the drama that came with having 6 presidents on the national stage (TR, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, FDR). He did a nice job showing how Hoover was the Colin Powell of 1920 and how impetious, haughty and petty Wilson was. While the book was a good read, I never really thought it found the right narrative to tie all of the loose ends together. It read more like a series of well-done viginettes than an overarching story.

Up next is 15 Stars about Eisenhower, MacArthur and Marshall.

 

Oooh, I'll have to pick that one up, PDB. I'm in the middle of MacMillan's "Paris 1919" -- which is also a series of vignettes that don't quite fit together as a single narrative, but at least it's well researched and gives you a great feel for the peace conference -- right now.

Love Pietrusza's earlier works (especially "Rothstein"), and that's more than enough excuse to keep me in the same time period.