BOOKS THREAD

Reading the Malcolm X biography which made a bunch of top 10 lists. Have to say that I'm not loving it. The author (who I believe passed away pre-publication) editorializes a bit too much for my taste. It's well researched, but so far doesn't move that much past what I learned in the autobiography.

 

The Ertegun book is terrific, a great look at a fascinating life. The guy was in the middle of everything going on in R&B, soul and rock for decades.

Now reading - and loving - Talking To Girls About Duran Duran by Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone. If Beej ever gets done his 10th reading of the MTV book he won't last eight seconds with this one. Just great stuff for anyone who grew up in the 80s.

 

Really glad to hear this. Got it for Christmas and hoping to start it soon!

 

Awesome book. I also finished two night ago and had tears in my eyes when I did.
Easily, IMO, King's best and most complete work. Usually I hate his endings. This one was well done. Not mashed together and hanging.


I never thought I would read a book about the JFK assassination and find myself bored by the assassination stuff.

 

Another book to add to the reading list.

My wife has a copy of "Love is a Mix Tape" which she has read over and over again. Sheffield always managed to pack a punch in his short reviews and columns in Rolling Stone, and it's good to see he can do well with more words at his disposal.

 

Sheffield is my fave guy at RS, even if I have rarely seen any of the TV shows he writes about. Just wish they gave him bigger features to do. This new book is very funny, I was howling out loud at some of it causing Mrs. Huggy to wonder - again! - what the fuck was wrong with me.

 

Also....this is not a one-night read. It's 849 pages. It took me about a week, but I was also off work during part of that time. But it was time well spent. And I, too, loved the ending. I was expecting it to end one of two different ways, and both my ideas we wrong. King's ending was much better than either of mine.

 

Evil, curious about the plot of a Stephen King book on the JFK assassination. Have no problems being filled in here, if you could, please.

 

A man goes back in time to stop the Kennedy Assassination. He goes back to 1958. So he has time to kill. He also has to find out if Oswald acted alone. He has the notes of a man who went back in time before him so he knows a lot of Oswald's movements leading up the Kennedy attempt, including the possibilty of the attempt on Gen. Ed Walker.

The character interacts with Oswald, his family and some of the other players bandied about in the Kennedy conspiracies.

 

Umberto Eco's latest is out in trade paperback.
I love this guy.

 

Here's a good interview with him, though it indicates that the new book is a bit of a slog: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/nov/27/umberto-eco-people-tired-simple-things.

 

Cool. Thanks for the link.
I'm just starting 'Prague Cemetery' and am not finding it a slog at all.
'The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana' was the weakest of his novels. "The Island of the day Before' started as a slog, but by the end I loved it.

'Foucault's Pendulum' is my favorite, with 'Baudolino' as a close second.

'How to Travel with a Salmon' is the only nonfiction of is that I've read. When I have more time for personal reading, I plan to address the rest of his nonfiction bibliography.