BOOKS THREAD

That sounds like a keeper, PDB. Wilson was a douche; one of the most racist, petty and downright disagreeable human beings to occupy the office. Stop me if this sounds familiar, but he was one of those presidents who once he became fixated on something, never let go -- no matter the consequences.

One thing stood out: how does Pietrusza weave TR into the mix? He died in 1919.

 

TR was planning to run up to his death. He stood to be the John McCain of 1920: the maverick who had battled the party hierarchy 8 years earlier and who they accepted as their best chance to hold on to the White House regardless of past differences. His death threw the GOP race into the lurch. Leonard Wood, Hiram Johnson and Frank Lowden couldn't get a broad base of support, ensuring that the convention dragged on and got Harding nominated.

 

Try "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis...


I'm about to start rereading my favorite trilogy from my college years: all by John Powers -- Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up, Last Catholic in America, and The Unoriginal Sinner and the Ice Cream God...
If you were a Catholic Male growing up in the 60s, 70s and 80s in a large city, this was you.

 

Will it shock me as much as the end of Brave New World?

 

No, but it will strike you as familiar with current events with the current administration...

 

I read Mike Magnuson's "Heft on Wheels: Field Guide to Doing a 180" a couple weeks ago. I love to read but hadn't finished a book in at least six months. Breezed through this one in one day of cross-country travel. It's Magnuson's story of going from fatty to a fit bike racer and all the stuff he dealt with as part of it. Hard to put down and, thankfully, super inspiring to make me kick my own ass.

 

Five months later ... 900 pages finished!
The book was amazing... a modern epic set in Bombay/Mumbai, pitting a self-made gangster and a middling police detective.
Now on to "Lush Life" ....

 

I know I said "Rome 1960" was next on the word parade, but I picked up "15 Stars" in the Oakland Mall while killing time on my way to the airport today.

Started reading it on the plane home. A bit slow right now. I didn't realize that the author is pushing 80. Impressive.

 

Birdscribe,

That's my biggest complaint about 15 Stars. It throws the reader into the middle of some very tepid action without a ton of context. I think there could be a very good book written about the three that only focuses on their post WWII lives/paths.

 

Currently reading:



I'm only a couple of chapters in right now, but he's got some powerful, powerful stuff to tell about the situation in Darfur. His writing is often all over the place with different stories he's played part in, but overall, it's pretty gripping.

I'll keep in touch.

 

Sirs, Madames,

Reading Denis Johnson's Angels. I liked Jesus' Son but Already Dead, well, I pitched it after 100 semi-coherent pages (self-proclaimed "California Gothic). I figured I want to work up to Tree of Smoke.

YD&OHS, etc

 

I'm catching up with the four-part short story (maybe it's a novella) he's writing for Playboy (part three just came out) called Nobody Move. Not bad stuff.