BOOKS THREAD

I've glanced at it a million times in The Strand (only place I've seen it) but never got. But finally was like, this is supposed to be amazing, buy the damn thing.

 

FYI, I just finished “Killers.” Two things stand out here:

- Late in it, Grann writes: “So when I stumbled upon a reference to the murders, I began to look into them.”

- He cites “Public Enemies” as a source on the Hoover material.

I am guessing he was reading “Public Enemies,” the line piqued his curiosity, and down the rabbit hole he went.

 

Yeah, I will second this, great, great book.

 

Thirded. Really, really good.

Edited to add a thought on why the Bringing the Heat is underappreciated. which is that the team and period it covers didn't really make a mark on the sport. The best those Eagles teams could muster was a wild card win. The reporting is great and the characters are fascinating, but that team and that period will not in and of itself draw in anyone. Were I not a Philly guy, I doubt I would have ever picked it up.

 

Quick story on that Queenan book...

I remember standing in Borders thumbing through it when it came out, 20+ years ago. There is a chapter on the worst actors in Hollywood. It has a lengthy section on Christopher Reeve, with a line that says something like "If there is a God in heaven, He will do anything in His power to make sure Reeve never acts again." Reeve had fallen off the horse a few weeks before I read that line.

I immediately bought the book.

 

Got this as a gift for birthday or Christmas last year. Loved it. It's the story of two gentlemen who travel to Samoa to try and steal Robert Louis Stevenson's latest novel. Lots of good plot twists and an ending I wasn't expecting (and didn't particularly like, but I could see it happening).

Joe Bob says check it out.

 

As a Rolling Stone subscriber since 1978 I was really looking forward to Sticky Fingers, Joe Hagan's new bio of Jann Wenner. And it did not disappoint. This is a tremendous book.

This isn't some hack job full of old quotes and recycled research, Hagan extensively interviewed Wenner, his wife and family, RS staffers, business partners, music bidness heavyweights like David Geffen, Bono, McCartney, Springsteen and Jagger and dozens more. The result is as comprehensive a look at Wenner and his magazine as we are likely to get. He comes across as driven, ambitious, tyrannical, petty, impulsive, drug-addled, sexually conflicted (this is a theme throughout the entire book), a guy who dismissed the internet and MTV and a complete, 100% groupie who was desperate to be as famous as the people he chronicled.

Anyone with interest in the magazine (barely a shell of its former self), publishing, rock and roll and popular culture over the last 50 years should check this out. Highly recommended.

 

Reading "Good Morning Moonlight"; an unknown disaster has prompted everyone to abandon an astronomy observatory in Alaska, but one person decides to stay and is essentially cut off from other civilization because there's radio silence; meanwhile the crew coming back from Jupiter confronts the same radio silence as they make their return towards Earth. Very enjoyable read so far (25% left).

 

Thanks for posting this. I'm looking forward to reading that. I'm about halfway through the bio of Sun Records founder Sam Phillips. It, too, is really good. The author knew Phillips for years, and it sounds like Phillips -- as did Wenner -- give full access to everything and everyone for the sake of the story, which I respect.

 

The Phillips book was great too, even if Sam came off as a little crazy. Both books covered as many bases as possible on their subjects.

 

I set a record today, finally finishing a book I first cracked open in the late '80s. Modern Times by Paul Johnson. A conservative history of the world from the 20s to the early 80s (from an ardent fan of Churchill's point of view). For a big-ass book (734 small-print paperback pages) it actually moved along pretty briskly when I actually had the time to sit with it. I most appreciated reading about those corners of history that don't get a lot of attention - post-colonialism, Africa, Southeast Asia, China - particularly the post-WWII years. To say that a lot of what occurred since WWII is still in play and very relevant, (while also getting a better understanding of where conservative viewpoints come from) is an understatement.

Now I'm into The Brothers a biography of the Dulles boys.