BOOKS THREAD

You should. The first season was amazing.

 

Maybe you'd like Moby's "Then It Fell Apart" (I loved it). It goes back and forth between his growing up as a poor kid of hippies who lost his father very young in a rich Connecticut town, and the roughly 7 1/2 year period from when "Play" drops, he rises to superstardom and his ego inflates even faster, his descent into drugs and depression as he becomes richer and richer, and his final crash (he finally admits to himself it's time to clean up after a bad scene at a fundraiser for a future presidential candidate).

 

Handmaid is one of my all-time faves. I've read it seven, eight times. I was disappointed in "The Testaments." Curious to know what you thought?

 

"Heartland" by Sarah Smarsh, a 2018 book about poverty in rural Kansas.

Smarsh intersperses her own family's struggles and history with arguments about class, the U.S. economy and how tough it is for the working poor to "escape" from poverty. Her personal and family anecdotes make it a much more powerful and interesting read than your average sociology book.

One question I had though: for all her focus on teenage pregnancy, and how determined she was to avoid following her grandmother and mother down that road, Smarsh doesn't mention birth control at all, and how lack of access to that affects the poor in rural areas. Seems to me that is big part of the problem.

 

I wasn't as enthused about "The Testaments," but I binged the first two seasons of Handmaid on DVD and fell back in love with it all... while being intensely creeped out. I second the recommendation of "Heartland."

I'm more conflicted about Tom Rachman's "The Imperfectionists," about an English-language newspaper in Rome. The book starts in the 1950s, but I knew how the story would end.

That said, it's one of the best books I've read lately -- and this battered copy apparently acquired from a library in my coverage area -- is going on my shelf. I think the last book I kept before that is "Ready Player One," which I carried home from an overseas vacation.

 

This was an interesting and enjoyable, easy read about a real-life version of a story we all read in school -- The Lord of the Flies -- that I stumbled across while surfing. I just thought it might be good to post here.

The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months

 

This had been on my shelf for a few years, and finally got around to it. It was pretty good. I really liked Mary Roach's previous book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. Still, there were some points where I literally laughed out loud during Bonk. Joe Bob says (maybe) check it out.

 

Saw Smarsh on Book-TV a while back. Never did get the book, but enjoyed her presentation. IIRC, it was in Lawrence.

 

Ted Templeman's autobio ‘Platinum Producer...’ is a great read for people who can’t get enough behind the scenes rock and roll tales. He produced Van Morrison, Doobies and Van Halen classics, and more, so good stories about the artists and a decent amount of technical info about the recording sessions.
Music books of any kind is a genre I eat up so maybe I’m slightly bias but this is a worthwhile read. Partially into Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters bios, both great at telling stories of the progression of the blues, as I like to have 5 or so books on the go.
Julie Andrews auto also v good as is Steven Stills bio. A recent standout for me was Johnny Winters book, how great he was and how he got ripped off financially.

 

The author -- a white man -- shares his last name with former San Diego Charger LaDainian Tomlinson. Their families once shared the same land in Central Texas, as Chris Tomlinson's family owned slaves, some of whom were LaDainian Tomlinson's ancestors. This book could have been about 50 or so pages shorter and still told the same story. It goes into a bunch of detail about the Civil War. That being said, it was an interesting and sometimes painful read. Joe Bob says check it out.

 

I mentioned this in its own thread, but I'm reading through John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series.
I've finished the first seven, an starting on eight, and have three more on the way.
If you like "guy" action adventure, this series is the granddaddy of them all and the gold standard.
Dude lives on a boat, works when he wants, fishes, gets the girls, and solves the crimes.

A few newer series cut from the same cloth I've read and enjoy are:
Kirk Jockell's "Tales from Stool 17"
Michael Reisig's "Road to Key West"
Garrett Dennis' "Storm Ketchum Adventures"

Another series that's good but I'm not as big a fan is Wayne Stinnett's "Fallen Out" books.

There is an entire subset of book series for Kindle that would seem the same if you aren't into this sort of thing (and honestly I've read so many that sometimes I can't keep events straight).