Author Topic: What are you reading?  (Read 551860 times)

James28

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #450 on: September 26, 2012, 01:05:29 PM »
The Troy series by David Gemmell. Again.
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Benny B

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #451 on: September 26, 2012, 04:40:38 PM »
I read that about a month ago. Good stuff.

I especially liked how delusional the assassin was (can't remember his name now). The stuff on Bell was interesting as well.


Yes, besides learning about Garfield, the back story on the crazy assassin was fascinating. He was a real loon. Also, the absolutely horrendous job the primary doctor who took over the president's medical care after the shooting. Those were the most interesting parts of the story, and it was written in a way that made it seem like a novel.

Had the meglomaniac doctor who took over the case not gotten involved, Garfield would likely have survived the assassination attempt.
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garebear

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #452 on: September 27, 2012, 06:27:28 PM »
Anybody read the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child.

A guilty pleasure, I admit, but always very entertaining.

I just finished 'Gone Tomorrow'. Another great one.

I think a Tom Cruise movie is coming out where he plays Reacher. I'm looking forward to it.
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dr.chimps

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #453 on: September 28, 2012, 03:59:59 AM »
Anybody read the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child.

A guilty pleasure, I admit, but always very entertaining.

I just finished 'Gone Tomorrow'. Another great one.

I think a Tom Cruise movie is coming out where he plays Reacher. I'm looking forward to it.

Agree. So formulaic and genre-bound, but I can get through one like a box of cookies. Fun books to read. Met Child a couple of years ago - very debonair looking. Will be seeing him again in a month, and I will definitely ask him his thoughts on casting Tom Cruise as Reacher.  >:(

dr.chimps

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #454 on: October 01, 2012, 06:11:48 PM »
Junot Diaz was just awarded a MacArthur Award - the Genius thingy. Boy, if anyone was in the hunt for this, it would him. Nice.  :)

Kahn.N.Singh

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #455 on: October 03, 2012, 03:40:33 PM »
Junot Diaz was just awarded a MacArthur Award - the Genius thingy. Boy, if anyone was in the hunt for this, it would him. Nice.  :)

Using Dominicanized Spanglish to chronicle the interior world of Washington Heights tigres is not my idea of what merits MacArthur recognition.
But Diaz has been on a roll (deserved or not), and let a hundred flowers bloom.

Irongrip400

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #456 on: October 03, 2012, 04:45:52 PM »
Anybody read the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child.

A guilty pleasure, I admit, but always very entertaining.

I just finished 'Gone Tomorrow'. Another great one.

I think a Tom Cruise movie is coming out where he plays Reacher. I'm looking forward to it.


Tell me more about this Reacher fella. I'm on a roll of reading a bunch of historical/fallen empire type books, and named a read that will be a bit lighter.

garebear

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #457 on: October 03, 2012, 07:45:33 PM »
Tell me more about this Reacher fella. I'm on a roll of reading a bunch of historical/fallen empire type books, and named a read that will be a bit lighter.
There are many books of this sort by Lee Child. Just look on the cover for the words " A Jack Reacher Novel".

I highly recommend getting one written in the first person. They are much more interesting.

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dr.chimps

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #458 on: October 04, 2012, 04:08:44 AM »
Using Dominicanized Spanglish to chronicle the interior world of Washington Heights tigres is not my idea of what merits MacArthur recognition.
But Diaz has been on a roll (deserved or not), and let a thousand flowers bloom.
Of course not - that's why you're the observer and he's the prize-winning writer.    ;D

Kahn.N.Singh

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #459 on: October 04, 2012, 07:34:13 AM »
Of course not - that's why you're the observer and he's the prize-winning writer.    ;D

Yeah, thanks for pointing that out! :o

Still, take care, my good simian, literary promiscuity might satisfy superficially, but it loses any lasting gratification when it's led by indiscriminate taste.
Bonobo much? ;D  

dr.chimps

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #460 on: October 04, 2012, 09:21:02 AM »
Yeah, thanks for pointing that out! :o

Still, take care, my good simian, literary promiscuity might satisfy superficially, but it loses any lasting gratification when it's led by indiscriminate taste.
Bonobo much? ;D  
Ha! Playing the literary snob card, eh? That's a risky move in these anti-intellectual times. I think you're bluffing.    ;D

dr.chimps

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #461 on: October 13, 2012, 03:49:23 PM »
Finished David Simon's 'Homicide,' his 1991 book about a year with Baltimore's murder squad detectives, which was later made into a tv series. A long book, which covers a lot: personalities, politics, geography and race among other things. Took me a bit of time to get into the book as a lot is thrown at the reader - just keeping the cast of characters straight in one's head is an initial problem. Book also has some structural issues as well, but these can be forgiven because what Simon does is fascinating -ie. following cases from corpse on the ground to guilty verdict; watch detectives fail or succeed to keep their shit together under pressure; show us the politics of a police unit; or, describe some really bizarre crimes, if you like the prurient stuff. Ultimately, the book really works because Simon is a superb writer and the whole of this book is so much greater than it's sums. If you like true crime stuff, this one is a keeper. Wonderful.

garebear

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #462 on: October 13, 2012, 10:35:19 PM »
Started reading this book. The opening chapter is just mind-blowing. Since getting the Kindle I'm getting a little out of control on reading too many books at once. Reading three ebooks right now and reading the newer Malcom X bio in paperback.
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Benny B

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #463 on: October 13, 2012, 10:43:43 PM »
Started reading this book. The opening chapter is just mind-blowing. Since getting the Kindle I'm getting a little out of control on reading too many books at once. Reading three ebooks right now and reading the newer Malcom X bio in paperback.
If it's Manning Marable's book you are referring to, be careful with believing every thing you read in that one. ;)
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Benny B

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #464 on: October 13, 2012, 10:51:08 PM »
Still marinating on the depth of Frantz Fanon's "Wretched of The Earth", while reading these two books:



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garebear

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #465 on: October 14, 2012, 04:01:28 AM »
If it's Manning Marable's book you are referring to, be careful with believing every thing you read in that one. ;)
Yes, it is.

I'm a little surprised it won a Pulitzer. It seems to say pretty much the same things as the Autobiography but corrects it from time to time.

Which part or parts do you think aren't true?

Not a flame, I just wouldn't know where to begin on knowing what is true or not.

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The True Adonis

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #466 on: October 14, 2012, 08:44:11 PM »
The Robots of Dawn by Issac Asimov.

Roger Bacon

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #467 on: October 14, 2012, 09:15:50 PM »
George Washington, The Indispensable Man - James T. Flexner

Have American Lion, (Andrew Jackson Bio) in queue.

Roger Bacon

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #468 on: October 14, 2012, 09:35:25 PM »
ken follet pillars of the earth's follow on book, world without end,,,,,, amazing book from an amazing auther

YES!!

My favorite two novels ever!  Have them both sitting right next to me now.

They made Pillars of the Earth into a TV mini series on Showtime, you should check it out!!!

Roger Bacon

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #469 on: October 14, 2012, 09:36:13 PM »

Roger Bacon

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #470 on: October 14, 2012, 09:50:12 PM »
Biographies are my favorite, recently read...



quote from Memoirs:

"For more than a century, ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents such as my encounter with Castro to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure — one world, if you will. If that is the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it."

dr.chimps

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #471 on: October 16, 2012, 03:15:45 PM »
Hilary Mantel has just now won her second Booker prize for 'Bringing up the Bodies,' her follow-up to her like-winning 2009's 'Wolf Hall.' Read the latter and really liked it. Have the former, but it is up on the shelves and probably won't be seen for months/years. Good on her.

/also: working, and liking, my way through chris ware's 'building stories,' for those who like graphic novels. stunning in an awesome amount of work way. some emotional impact stuff, too.

CalvinH

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #472 on: October 18, 2012, 07:40:04 AM »
Man I have to update here.

...probably been through a dozen books

Benny B

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #473 on: October 18, 2012, 12:23:57 PM »
Yes, it is.

I'm a little surprised it won a Pulitzer. It seems to say pretty much the same things as the Autobiography but corrects it from time to time.

Which part or parts do you think aren't true?

Not a flame, I just wouldn't know where to begin on knowing what is true or not.


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Benny B

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #474 on: October 18, 2012, 12:37:28 PM »
Yes, it is.

I'm a little surprised it won a Pulitzer. It seems to say pretty much the same things as the Autobiography but corrects it from time to time.

Which part or parts do you think aren't true?

Not a flame, I just wouldn't know where to begin on knowing what is true or not.


A Lie of Reinvention is a response to Manning Marable’s biography of Malcolm X, A Life of Reinvention. Marable’s book was controversially acclaimed by some as his magna opus. At the same time, it was denounced and debated by others as a worthless read full of conjecture, errors, and without any new factual content. In this collection of critical essays, editors Jared Ball and Todd Steven Burroughs lead a group of established and emerging Black scholars and activists who take a clear stance in this controversy: Marable’s biography is at best flawed and at worst a major setback in American history, African American studies, and scholarship on the life of Malcolm X.

In the tradition of John Henrik Clarke’s classic anthology “William Styron’s Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond,” this volume provides a striking critique of Marable’s text. In 1968, Clarke and his assembled writers felt it essential to respond to Styron’s fictionalized and ahistorical Nat Turner, the heroic leader of one of America’s most famous revolts against enslavement. In A Lie of Reinvention, the editors sense a different threat to an African American icon, Malcolm X. This time, the threat is presented as an authoritative biography. To counter the threat, Ball and Burroughs respond with a barbed collection of commentaries of Marable’s text.

The essays come from all quarters of the Black community. From behind prison walls, Mumia Abu-Jamal revises his prior public praise of Marable’s book with an essay written specifically for this volume. A. Peter Bailey, a veteran journalist who worked with Malcolm X’s Organization for Afro-American Unity, disputes how he is characterized in Marable’s book. Bill Strickland, who also knew Malcolm X, provides what he calls a “personal critique” of the biography. Younger scholars such as Kali Akuno, Kamau Franklin, Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua, Christopher M. Tinson, Eugene Puryear and Greg Thomas join veterans Rosmari Mealy, Raymond Winbush, Amiri Baraka and Karl Evanzz in pointing out historical problems and ideological misinterpretations in Marable’s work.






Compiled as a response to Manning Marable’s controversial new biography of Malcolm X, more than 30 noted scholars from the African American community offer their opinions on Marable’s portrayal of the man whose short life still inspires speculation of what might have been.

Contributors include: Imam Al-Hajj Talib Abdur-Rashid, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Abdul Alkalimat, Molefi Kete Asante, Rick Ayers, Bryonn Bain, Amiri Baraka, Aslaku Ber­hanu, Amir Bey, Todd Steven Burroughs, Ta-Nehisi Coates, William Jelani Cobb, Karl Evanzz, Iyaluua and Herman Ferguson, Bill Flectcher, Jr., Glen Ford, Rhone Fraser, Wil Haygood, Kelly Harris, Errol A. Henderson, Fred Hord, Peter James Hudson, Ezra Hyland, Regina Jennings, Peniel E. Joseph, Clyde Ledbetter Jr., Fred Logan, Kevin McGruder, Starla Muhammad, Nell Irvin Painter, Imani Perry, Gregory J. Reed, Sonia Sanchez, Diane D. Turner, Ilyasah Shabazz

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