BOOKS THREAD

Sirs, Madames,

Cognitive dissonance at the NYT. Arts section review pans Julian Barnes' Arthur & George this week, a minor and failed work. Sunday's NYT Book Review makes it the cover review, enthusiastic thumbs up.

The latter is, of course, correct.

YHS, etc

 

This book is brilliant. Tells a story you won't find in any history books. Did you know the Great Plains were originally named the Great American Desert by cartographers during the Jefferson presidency? Timothy Egan does a ton of firsthand research and really lets you get to know the people who were living in Oklahoma/Kansas/Colorado/Texas at the turn of the century, how their way of life was shaped by world economics and politics, and how it resulted in the dust bowl. I'm about 80 pages in and can hardly put it down.

 

Is there a preeminent biography on the Kennedy family? Not one with right- or left-wing bias, but one that's generally regarded as the best?

 

Long-time lurker, first-time poster on books thread ...

Just finished Marley and Me by John Grogan. A nice, sweet little read.

I bawled my eyes out at the end, as to be expected with books like that. I recommend it.

 

This is the one for Kennedy.

 

Misleading title. Technically, it was a finished life, albeit a shorter one than he and most other people had envisioned.

 

Reading "Foul Lines" right now, the new basketball fiction by Jack McCallum and L. Jon Wertheim. OK so far (50 some pages), kind of seems like it was written late at night in hotel rooms and through e-mail chats between the two. I like the two from SI, so I wanted to see how they'd do with this.

 

Isn't that just on JFK?
A thorough bio on the Kennedy family would have to be way to long for me to read.

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=ZtR3ujbjyE0C&dq=%22kennedy+family%22+and+%22books%22&oi=print&pg=PA238&sig=bKI4A2B3EvNKWCD197vLx7rVyOo&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DISO-8859-1%26safe%3Doff%26q%3D%2522kennedy%2Bfamily%2522%2Band%2B%2522books%2522

A short list of bibliographic entries on the Kennedys. I recommend the one co-authored by Horowitz.

 

Thanks guys, especially LJB. I'll look at "Unfinished Life" and the Horowitz one.

 

no problem, guy

 

"The Soul of Politics" by Jim Wallis is an excellent read so far. Balanced, passionate look at how spiritual morality can rebuild politics and transcend categories of "left" and "right".