BOOKS THREAD

you revel in the fact you blasted through the entire book today at madison square park. you say it's one of the books that ranks high in your pantheon of greats.

 

My girlfriend is representing our paper on one of those Freedom Flights to Washington DC with some WWII vets, going to take them to see the WWII memorial.

Besides watching Band of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan, is there a quick crash course of books she could do?

She has less than 3 weeks.

Is there any other movies or documentaries she should/could watch?

 

Hmm, I always thought a "Freedom Flight" was one that combat veterans took when they ended their deployments overseas. Any idea of the background of those soldiers, 'Gola? Which battles they fought in, or even which theater (Pacific or European)?

It would definitely help her to read up on their specific backgrounds, but hard to know which books to recommend ...

 

Not real sure. We haven't started our new jobs yet - won't until next Tuesday - but I'll try and find out what the new paper knows about them tomorrow.

That's a good point.

Oh, and the Freedom Flight thing? That's just what the ME said to me and her, I don't know if that is actually what they are called.

 

'Gola, two books I read in conjunction with each other when learning about WWII were David Kennedy's "The American People in World War II:Freedom From Fear Part Two" and Studs Terkel's "The Good War" (an oral history). I'm not sure if they're exactly what you're looking for, but they're both very good books on WWII.

 

Kennedy's book is a good one.

I'd also add Ambrose's "Citizen Soldiers." It's a bigger-picture view of what the grunts went through from D-Day to VE Day. Think of "Band of Brothers" on a macro scale.

 

In time, you'll look back at your posts and realize what a hokey writing device 2nd person narration is.

 

I have the new tome on Nixon, Kennedy and LBJ waiting on the on-deck circle. Has anyone here read it?

 

you think about what doubledown posted and think that you probably won't realize how hokey it is. you think he pulled it off pretty damn well. the ending could've been a little better, but you love the story. you really do.

ok, enough of the 2nd-person.

 

You are not the type of guy to weep great big girly tears because someone has slighted one of the favorite books of your long-vanished youth but here you are. Typing frantically, as if your very life depended on it, a post that most, if not all, will quickly skip over.

And, oh yeah, I didn't see it in any of the previous pages but A Fan's Notes, by Frederick Exley. A classic tale of one man's love of Frank Gifford, the New York Giants, alcohol and failure.

 

Drawing inspiration from this thread, I read the following books over my Rosh Hashanah family break:

"Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy" -- Robert Leleux (gay man grows up in greater Houston... eh)

"Bottlemania" -- Elizabeth Royte (interesting non-fiction account of where bottled water comes from)

"Far Afield" -- S.L. Price (good stuff)

"Foreign Body" -- Robin Cook (same ol, same ol, which was fine by me!)

"Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" -- Barbara Kingsolver (duller than expected, but then again, it's about growing veggies in the backyard!)

and I'm in the middle of "Waiter Rant," which has been entertaining so far. I also started "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" right before I left, but I wasn't really engaged... which is why I brought something else on the road.

I could use some (semi-fluffy) fiction recommendations for Yom Kippur. I confess history isn't really my favorite, unless it involves JFK, the Titanic, or the Mafia.

 

No, but I'd be interested in hearing if it's any good.

I'm in the middle of "Nixonland" and liking it well enough. I disagree with some of the author's interpretations, but he does a good job recreating just how crazy the 60s were politically. (He basically tries to examine how the US went from giving LBJ a landslide in `64 to giving Nixon a landslide in `72.)

Makes some odd mistakes, though -- "Jimmy" Hendrix, and calling LBJ's press secretary "George Christopher" instead of George Christian. No doubt others that I missed.