BOOKS THREAD

Capote & Vonnegut, amirite PCLL?

 

Exactly. No clue on the others.

 

Finished three books recently:
Peter Guralnick's Sam Phillips bio belongs with his two-volume Elvis bio and his Sam Cooke bio as the definitive works on the subject. Phillips was a bit of a strange cat, but this is highly, highly recommended to anyone with any interest in the early days of rock and roll.

Bob Woodward's The Last of the President’s Men is a quick, interesting read on the guy who blew the whistle on Nixon's Oval Office taping system.

Keith Dunnavant's new Joe Montana bio is good even if it doesn't appear to include any new interviews with Montana or notables such as Steve Young or George Seifert. Does a good job on documenting his high school career and his struggles to get on the fields at Notre Dame.

 

A couple of oldies but goodies:

Stephen King, "The Dead Zone" — wow, the plot at the end is so relevant to today's politics, it's scary. Our doomed hero, Johnny Smith, becomes obsessed with stopping the rise of a populist/fascist politician.

Studs Terkel, "The Great Divide" — his books are always good late-night reading for me, because you can read as few or as many of his interviews as you want. This set was recorded at the height of Ronald Reagan's popularity in the mid-1980s, and it's interesting to see in-the-moment commentary on his policies and persona, compared to the mythology that surrounds him now.

 

Gonna have to check out that Phillips book.

 

I inadvertently saw what my wife ordered on Amazon, and I'm pretty sure I'm getting that Phillips bio for Christmas. Really looking forward to it.

 

The Comedians, by Kliph Nesteroff.
I enjoyed it but it had some gaps and factual errors.
It's about the evolution of comedians from the vaudeville circuit to today. I read it on my Kindle, and was glad of it. I can't tell you how many times I clicked onto Google to look up a Name in the book.
The book has some gaps... There's two paragraphs that mention Lucille Ball. Two pages on Edde Murphy, but it focuses on what he did for Chris Rock in the 90s... And there's NO mention of Jeff Foxworthy of the Blue Collar Comedy.

Nesteroff has some good stuff from the old guys who worked clubs, the Catskills and Vegas in the 40s and 50s.

 

Where are all the readers at?


I'm 62 pages away from finishing the Revenant, Michael Punke's 2002 book (now a movie) based on the survival story of Hugh Glass.

Quick read. I started it last night. Really enjoyable. I'm not a big fan of those stories from that time period, but was a good story. I'm curious as to how close this novel is to actual tale of Glass' survival. I suspect some of Glass' claims may not hold up on close inspection.
But really, enjoyed the book.

 

I'm ashamed (not really) to admit that I have been feasting on cheap detective novels and thrillers. When I find a book for less than $4.99 on Amazon, I will give it a shot. Found some pretty good ones, not least of which is the Miami Jones series by AJ Stewart.

 

Reading over the vacation was light and fun:
The Bazaar of Broken Dreams (Stephen King) - good, not great, collection of King short stories.
Splinter the Silence (Val McDermid) - 9th in the Tony Hill & Carol Jordan series. Really enjoyed this and the series is a favourite of mine.
More Fool Me (Stephen Fry) - 3rd volume in memoir. Not as compulsively readable as the first 2 but a great picture of 1980's excess

 

I just finished "Once in a Great City" by David Maraniss, about Detroit in 1963. It was a really interesting period - Detroit was still in its boom time and riots and ruin were just around the corner. Maraniss clearly researched the hell out of this, but it could have used more editing.

 

Jim Trotter's new Junior Seau bio is pretty good.