Hey, Books

[roberto73]

Currently splitting my time between Justin Cronin's The Passage and Walter Dean Myers' Fallen Angels.

I was a little leery of the former – it's a postapocalyptic vampire novel – but so far it's pretty good. It's better written than it has any right to be, and it deals with the vampiric elements in a fairly novel way. Essentially, it's a virus that the military was trying to mine for bioweapons, and – as these things usually happen – Things Got Out of Control.™ The first two hundred pages are the discovery of the virus and the buildup to the outbreak, then it skips forward to the year 92 A.V. (subtle, that), and we meet an entirely new cast of characters, struggling to survive. The section I read this morning had them wandering down from their mountain hideout and seeing a field of wind turbines in the San Gorgonio Pass, which should be recognizable to all of us Coachella attendees. Fun stuff so far, and grounding it in a real location gives it a nice touch of verisimilitude.

The other book is a Young Adult novel about the Vietnam War. It follows a black kid from Harlem who was drafted and finds himself right in the thick of things. I've been a fan of Myers from way back. He writes to a younger audience without condescending, and he really doesn't pull any punches here. The language and violence is appropriate for the setting, and the really cool thing about the book so far is that it's pretty morally ambiguous. Heavy stuff for younger readers, and it's a prime example of how the best YA Lit is just quality stuff, period, regardless of how old you are.

[Alchemy]

I've been reading The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham. It's pretty good so far.

[Hannahrain]

Any of you ever read and/or check out nonlinearly The Original of Laura?

[Alchemy]

Any of you ever read and/or check out nonlinearly The Original of Laura?

I'd never heard of this until now. I'm interested in looking at it. I've only read Invitation to a Beheading. I liked it a lot, though I read it immediately after reading Kafka's The Castle, and it almost felt kind of... I don't know... I definitely don't want to say derivative, but there was a similarity that didn't feel as satisfying in Invitation to a Beheaded as it did in The Castle (even though The Castle lacks the last pages). I read them both in the same week.

[Hannahrain]

My copy of Invitation actually has a foreword addressing the similarity and saying he had no knowledge of The Castle at the time, but what can you do.

[Alchemy]

My copy of Invitation actually has a foreword addressing the similarity and saying he had no knowledge of The Castle at the time, but what can you do.

Well, for one, you can send a letter to the Council Chairman about your ignorance of similarities. The Council Chairman can then send a letter that announces the arrival of your original letter to the officials, so that your letter may be received, and then your ignorance can be officially recognized (should they choose to approve).

That's what he could have done.

[bmack86]

Wait, there's a book that went from a guy wandering up to a completely incomprehensible village to him residing in a school house to him wandering through a purgatory-like hotel attempting to find out about the grand leadership that's not The Castle?

[Alchemy]

Wait, there's a book that went from a guy wandering up to a completely incomprehensible village to him residing in a school house to him wandering through a purgatory-like hotel attempting to find out about the grand leadership that's not The Castle?

Pretty much. Except that it's a completely incomprehensible jail in a purgatory-like village and he's not attempting to find out about the grand leadership, but rather, when he shall be executed.

[bmack86]

Ah, so it's a mix of The Castle and The Trial. I might actually have to read that. The worst thing, and also quite probably the best, about Kafka is all the missing pieces and ambiguities of his work. It's incredible for The Trial, and infuriating for The Castle, yet I can't imagine either work work with any more pieces.

[PotVsKtl]

So, The Unconsoled, then?

[bmack86]

I just read a one-sentence synopsis of The Unconsoled and am going to purchase it ASAP. Thanks.

[Hannahrain]

I did the same thing. Cheers.

[PotVsKtl]

Godspeed. It's pretty merciless.

[guedita]

I stopped reading The Unconsoled half way through. It's just sitting at my desk at work, staring at me. Luckily I don't think it's that hard of a book to start up again.

[PotVsKtl]

Who cares, they're going to defund PBS and rape all our children.

[guedita]

I love PBS! But I can't justify donating to it, because how else would I buy mochalochafrappas every morning? Budgets.

[Hannahrain]

Current events are covered to my full satisfaction in the Starbucks line every morning. I say nuke the CPB.

[Sublime]

Pillars of the Earth - amazing read front to back. To imagine all that went into building these Cathedrals during The Anarchy really blows your mind. The ending (last sentence) pretty much defines the future.

[menikmati]

Just finished Eyewitness Auschwitz, and have to say it's one of the most detailed and hard to read (subject wise) Holocaust books I've come across. Filip Muller's descriptions and accounts of being a sonderkommando (and one of the very few who to have held that position and survived) are very moving yet full of despair. He basically writes about what he did and saw, and how it almost made him choose to end his own life willingly in the gas chambers before a chance encounter. I would def recommend this (along with Five Chimneys, and Survival in Auschwitz) for anyone wanting to read and study up on the Holocaust and its survivors stories.

I really need to read something uplifting next though, which is why I'm picking up Adrift: 76 Days Lost at Sea.

Also the used book store down the street from me is so awesome. Walked over there yesterday and for under 20 bucks, walked out with a book about the Titanic, 2/3 of the LotR trilogy, The White Bone (which I hear a lot of people hate), among others.

[humanoid]

Just finished Eyewitness Auschwitz, and have to say it's one of the most detailed and hard to read (subject wise) Holocaust books I've come across. Filip Muller's descriptions and accounts of being a sonderkommando (and one of the very few who to have held that position and survived) are very moving yet full of despair. He basically writes about what he did and saw, and how it almost made him choose to end his own life willingly in the gas chambers before a chance encounter. I would def recommend this (along with Five Chimneys, and Survival in Auschwitz) for anyone wanting to read and study up on the Holocaust and its survivors stories.

Sounds almost exactly like this: Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account, Dr. Miklos Nyiszli

Which was a great read, very heavy, yet fascinating to hear the story from such a unique perspective. Nyiszli supposedly worked directly under Joseph Mengele in the camp.

I need a little something uplifting too...

just finished The Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez

and The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer

Just started
The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins

[menikmati]

Sounds almost exactly like this: Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account, Dr. Miklos Nyiszli

Which was a great read, very heavy, yet fascinating to hear the story from such a unique perspective. Nyiszli supposedly worked directly under Joseph Mengele in the camp.

Sounds like it would be interesting...I'll have to pick that one up soon. I really enjoy (though that really sounds like the wrong word to use in this case) books about the Holocaust and its survivors.

[Alchemy]

I have now finished W. Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge. I recommend it to anybody that likes France, paintings, aristocracy, and Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums.

The next book I read shall be David Mitchell's number9dream, and that will be it for him (until he publishes something new), as I've read the rest of his books already.

[Hannahrain]

The other day at Powell's I picked up one of those three-in-one Brautigan compilations so I could read Trout Fishing in America for the first time, but then when I opened the book I automatically flipped to the back and reread In Watermelon Sugar for the first time in a very, very long time and it remains as frank and lovely in its serenity as it ever was. The poetry collection in between the two is still bad.

[humanoid]

Sounds like it would be interesting...I'll have to pick that one up soon. I really enjoy (though that really sounds like the wrong word to use in this case) books about the Holocaust and its survivors.

It's definitely interesting. I even got my brother (a devout non-reader)to read it, and he loved it.

I have a Nazi\Holocaust fascination as well, so I completely understand. If one were to look at my bookshelves without knowing me, it might leave a strange impression.

[stepup2stepout]

Just bought a Kindle a few days ago, and started reading The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe and 1984 by George Orwell.

[Yablonowitz]

I just started reading The Puce Rutabaga by Benion Festuflaga. It's about a man in the calvary during the Civil War who comes upon a large family of escaped circus midgets who speak in one word sentences. The chief has a pool in the middle of his tent with a faintly orange pulsating jelly fish. It examines the notion of the communal grotesque and challenges the modern agricultural paradigms.

[bmack86]

So, The Unconsoled, then?

I'm absolutely loving this so far. I just finished Book I and am contemplating ruining my sleep schedule by starting Book II right now.

[Courtney]

(Better book covers)

[amyzzz]

Nice find, Courtney. I am quietly chortling to myself in my cube.

[jackstraw94086]

Finally finished Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate, and boy am I relieved to learn rape is perfectly natural and women enjoy making less money.