What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by quicknss »

Reading an advanced copy of an emergency medicine question book (The Kaji Review). I know, lame. But sometimes it pays to study http://www.amazon.com/Kaji-Review-Emerg ... aji+review
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Bustoff »

Spend "Til the End, by Kotlikoff and Burns. It felt like I was reading a 300 page sales brochure for ESPlanner.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Blues »

"Alex" by Pierre Lemaitre
"J" by Howard Jacobson
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by gd »

E.O. Wilson's Life On Earth intro biology textbook done as an iPad app, thanks to whoever mentioned it on the "reading textbooks" thread. It's a masterpiece, and the first textbook I've seen in decades that didn't infuriate me with overproduced bloviating. And free. Anyone who considers themselves highly educated but hasn't had a biology course in a long while should read it, because you probably don't know some stuff you should. It does have some silly effects on the animations, though-- I'm pretty sure the inside of a cell doesn't sound like a "Sea Hunt" sound track.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by willie838 »

just finished

Zealot by reza aslan
-- review and combining historical christ from biblical christ. It was a very good book to me, i'm a heavily lapsed catholic but found it much easier to grasp the concept of the man from the past as opposed to the deified biblical version that seems so otherworldly. Eye opening take on a lot of different concepts christ taught and their modern misinterpretations.

Starting
The Looming Tower
-- book on the history of al qaeda. I dove into it last night. I think i'm going to love it. It's great when an author can add flavor to a history book and stop history from being as dry as burnt toast.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by heartwood »

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. It's a big disappointed to me. It's a story told by several unreliable witnesses. I find so much of the story repetitive in a way I won't disclose for fear of spoiling. I will finish it to see how it ends but I am skipping much of the dialogue and focusing on any key actions moving things forward.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Michread »

Small Victories by Anne Lamott. Great book just like her other works of non-fiction.

I read The Girl on the Train and didn't care for it - TOO dark!

Yes, All The Light You Cannot See was a great book.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Petrocelli »

I just finished Redeployment, which is a series of 10 short stories about American soldiers and bureaucrats in Iraq. Highly recommended.

I am reading The Martian. I am about 15% into it. The jury is still out. So far, it's good, not great

Once again, I HIGHLY recommend All the Light We Cannot See. It is one of the best books I have EVER read. (And yes, I do realize BOLD is the equivalent of shouting.)
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Dave55 »

"The Stranger" by Harlan Coben
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by jebmke »

Petrocelli wrote:I am reading The Martian. I am about 15% into it. The jury is still out. So far, it's good, not great
I recently finished this. I had the same reaction at first. It grew on me. Not great literature but in the end I was glad to have read it.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by avenger »

jebmke wrote:
Petrocelli wrote:I am reading The Martian. I am about 15% into it. The jury is still out. So far, it's good, not great
I recently finished this. I had the same reaction at first. It grew on me. Not great literature but in the end I was glad to have read it.
I think I posted in the Science Fiction thread about having read this book. I agree. It was definitely not great literature. Not sure I'm glad I read it, though. I would not recommend it.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Retired1809 »

"The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien



http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlaye ... =125128146
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by heartwood »

Petrocelli wrote:I just finished Redeployment, which is a series of 10 short stories about American soldiers and bureaucrats in Iraq. Highly recommended.

I am reading The Martian. I am about 15% into it. The jury is still out. So far, it's good, not great

Once again, I HIGHLY recommend All the Light We Cannot See. It is one of the best books I have EVER read. (And yes, I do realize BOLD is the equivalent of shouting.)
I started The Martian but did not finish it. OK, but i just lost interest about midway.

I read All the Light We Cannot See. It was a good read, but I'm not sure what is was really about. Yes, I know WWII; a blind girl; a German youth who becomes a soldier. The girls character is well written. My wife's book group has it for their next meeting. Maybe she'll explain it to me after she reads it.

I'm more of a beach book guy. I'm also making my way through the Jeffery Archer Clifton Chronicles. Standard Archer plotting and characters . Volume 5 was just issued and he's recast it to a seven book series from five, with a cliff hanger at the end of each novel.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by LadyGeek »

Under a Graveyard Sky, by John Ringo. Zombie apocalypse - what more needs to be said? :)

This is book 1 of the Black Tide Rising Series. It keeps my attention.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

The Baby Boom: how it got that way, and it wasn't my fault, and I'll never do it again, by P. J. O'Rourke. Not everyone will like his brand of humor and occasional potty mouth. Examples: "the people who insist on organizing life and the people who have no idea how life is organized were and always will be the same people."; and "[t]he Baby Room's greatest achievement of all has been in the field of [(removed) --admin LadyGeek]. We excel not only at communicating, but at marketing, public relations . . . and all professions that employ important-sounding jargon."
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Petrocelli »

ruralavalon wrote:The Baby Boom: how it got that way, and it wasn't my fault, and I'll never do it again, by P. J. O'Rourke. Not everyone will like his brand of humor and occasional potty mouth. Examples: "the people who insist on organizing life and the people who have no idea how life is organized were and always will be the same people."; and "[t]he Baby Room's greatest achievement of all has been in the field of [(removed) --admin LadyGeek]. We excel not only at communicating, but at marketing, public relations . . . and all professions that employ important-sounding jargon."
I had the book on my "to read" list. I have loved PJ since his National Lampoon days. I am going to have to buy the book just to figure out what was deleted from your post.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by LadyGeek »

^^^ Sorry, I should have explained. It was a street language term that was above the "family friendly" threshold used for this forum.

You now have 2 options, which is a choice of marginal utility: (1) buy the book, or (2) PM me and I'll give you the original text for free.

(Please keep the language in this forum limited to things you can say in front of the little ones.)
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Petrocelli »

LadyGeek wrote:^^^ Sorry, I should have explained. It was a street language term that was above the "family friendly" threshold used for this forum.

You now have 2 options, which is a choice of marginal utility: (1) buy the book, or (2) PM me and I'll give you the original text for free.

(Please keep the language in this forum limited to things you can say in front of the little ones.)
There is no explanation necessary. I'll buy the book.

And I'll try to keep my conversations family friendly. IF I use curse words, I'll behave like Yosemite Sam in the old Looney Tunes

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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by gkaplan »

I have been reading (slogging through) Triumph and Turmoil: a Personal History of Our Time, a memoir by Edgar Ansel Mowrer.

Mowrer wrote this book in 1968, towards the end of his life. (He was born in 1892.) Mowrer reminisces about his Midwest childhood; his student days at the University at Michigan; and his World War I reporting from France, Belgium, and Italy. After World War I, he continued as a foreign correspondent in Italy, watching the rise of the Fascists and the ascendancy of Mussolini. Transferred to Germany in 1923, he reported on the rise of the Nazis and Hitler in the twenties and early thirties. His reporting won him a Pulitzer Prize. The German government eventually expelled him in 1933. Following his expulsion, his paper transferred him to France, where he witnessed events in Europe that would lead to World War II. He stayed in Europe reporting on the War, with occasional trips back to the States. After World War II, he quit his newspaper job and worked mostly as a freelance journalist.

Mowrer seems rather selective in what he chose to include in his memoir, omitting events that he must have written about or at least observed. In addition, even though this is a first persona account, the book would have benefited if it had bibliographic citations. Finally, the back-of-the-book index is less than adequate. It omits numerous critical entries, offers few differentiated locators, and has virtually no cross references.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by SGM »

In the Kingdom of Ice The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides. This is an exciting piece of history previously unknown to me. Never give up. Never despair. Nil desperandum.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by BenBritt »

A Hundred White Daffodils by Jan Kenyon.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Valuethinker »

HikerNC wrote:"The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien



http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlaye ... =125128146
In my collection of Vietnam War reading, O'Brien is definitely towards the surreal/ literary -- Going after Cacciato (sp?) etc. TTTC is good but perhaps not exceptional.

I stick it in my mind with Michael Herr's Dispatches (surreal war reporting). Or Lucius Shepherd's Science Fiction novel (set in Central America) "Life During Wartime".

For more "realistic" depictions (in writing style) certain memoirs (Tobias Wolf "In Pharoah's Army") and novels (Jonathan Marlantes "Matterhorn").

http://www.jurisjurjevics.com/ "Red Flags" was another novel I enjoyed about US-South Vietnamese relations.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by pezblanco »

In a Sun Burned Country by Bill Bryson. If you have ever been to Australia or think you might like to go, a highly recommended very humorous account of his experience with the land and people of down-under. I liked it much more than "The Fatal Shore" another actually very good book about Oz.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Petrocelli »

pezblanco wrote:In a Sun Burned Country by Bill Bryson. If you have ever been to Australia or think you might like to go, a highly recommended very humorous account of his experience with the land and people of down-under. I liked it much more than "The Fatal Shore" another actually very good book about Oz.
Read it. Loved it.

Any book by Bryson is worth reading.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Petrocelli »

SGM wrote:In the Kingdom of Ice The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides. This is an exciting piece of history previously unknown to me. Never give up. Never despair. Nil desperandum.
That's one off the best books I read last year. I also recommend Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides. It's about the life of Kit Carson
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by jfn111 »

Dancing with myself-Billy Idol
I was never a huge Billy Idol fan but the book is well written and interesting for those of us that grew up with the music of the 70's and 80's.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by 6miths »

I know that some here have read the book 'The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer' written by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Pulitzer Prize in 2011 for non-fiction. Just a heads up that it has been made into a 3 part series airing on PBS the next 3 Monday nights.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

Petrocelli wrote:
SGM wrote:In the Kingdom of Ice The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides. This is an exciting piece of history previously unknown to me. Never give up. Never despair. Nil desperandum.
That's one off the best books I read last year. I also recommend Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides. It's about the life of Kit Carson
+ 1. Also Ghost Soldiers , by Hampton Sides, the story of Army Rangers rescuing prisoners of the Japanese in the Philippine Islands near the end of WWII.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by logicon »

Becoming Steve Jobs by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli. Considered by many to be a better account of Steve's life than the "official" biography. About halfway through.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Petrocelli »

ruralavalon wrote:
Petrocelli wrote:
SGM wrote:In the Kingdom of Ice The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides. This is an exciting piece of history previously unknown to me. Never give up. Never despair. Nil desperandum.
That's one off the best books I read last year. I also recommend Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides. It's about the life of Kit Carson
+ 1. Also Ghost Soldiers , by Hampton Sides, the story of Army Rangers rescuing prisoners of the Japanese in the Philippine Islands near the end of WWII.
Someone else recommended that book to me. It is on my list of books to read this year.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

I am now back to completely frivolous reading.

The Blockade Runners, by Jules Verne. Not equal to his usual science fantasy novels.

You Can Date Boys When You're Forty, by Dave Barry. Very funny.

The Border Legion, by Zane Grey. A young woman is kidnapped by the leader of a bandit gang.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Petrocelli »

Petrocelli wrote:
I am reading The Martian. I am about 15% into it. The jury is still out. So far, it's good, not great
This was one of the worst books I have ever read. Ever. It had the most unrealistic and stilted dialogue ever. It also had the most exclamation points I have ever seen in a book.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by LadyGeek »

To Sail a Darkling Sea, by John Ringo. The zombie apocalypse continues. This is Part 2 of the Black Tide Rising series.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by jginseattle »

I just finished: The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Impostor, by Mark Seal. Also, Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade, by Walter Kirn.

Two books about the con man, kidnapper, and convicted murderer who pretended to be a Rockefeller. Fascinating.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by gkaplan »

I am reading – almost finished – Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France by Caroline Moorehead.

During the Second World War, the inhabitants and parishes of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a tiny, remote mountain village in south central France, banded together to saved thousands wanted by the Gestapo: resisters, Freemasons, communists, and, above all, Jews, many of them orphans whose parents had been deported to concentration camps. Remarkably, there were no informers, and there were no denunciations. No-one broke ranks. During raids, the children would hide in the woods, waiting to hear the farmers' song that told them it was safe to return. After the war, Le Chambon became the only village, and just one of two places, to be honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among Nations.

This is an excellent book and difficult to put down.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by dewey »

Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. It's subtitled a brief history of humanity. Really well written. Thoughtful. Definitely useful in the current discussions about how we evolved and how we evolved culturally as well. Recommend.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by VictoriaF »

I am listening to an audiobook Point to Point Navigation: A Memoir by Gore Vidal. It's unexpectedly interesting. I've encountered Vidal's name before but did not pay attention. Now I will. Early in the book, I found an explanation of why he's not mentioned among great American authors. In the late 1940's he wrote a novel The City and the Pillar that depicted homosexual relationships realistically and positively. A powerful conservative New York Times book reviewer proclaimed that he will never review Vidal's books. Since then NYT has been mistreating Vidal by avoiding reviewing him, providing late reviews, providing poor reviews, and not acknowledging that his book was a #1 on the NYT list, even as it was #1 on other similar lists. University departments also avoided Vidal and his name did not make it on their lists.

Earlier Valuethinker has explained how New York Review of Books (NYRB) started out when NYT review was temporarily unavailable. NYRB provided Vidal with a venue for publishing literary essays.

Here is an ultimate irony: Vidal was well born, talented, prolific, and connected. And yet hardly anybody knows who he was. His novel The City and the Pillar is now cited as the first post-World War II novel describing an openly gay and well-adjusted protagonist. And still the fame seems to have evaded him.

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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Valuethinker »

VictoriaF wrote:I am listening to an audiobook Point to Point Navigation: A Memoir by Gore Vidal. It's unexpectedly interesting. I've encountered Vidal's name before but did not pay attention. Now I will. Early in the book, I found an explanation of why he's not mentioned among great American authors. In the late 1940's he wrote a novel The City and the Pillar that depicted homosexual relationships realistically and positively. A powerful conservative New York Times book reviewer proclaimed that he will never review Vidal's books. Since then NYT has been mistreating Vidal by avoiding reviewing him, providing late reviews, providing poor reviews, and not acknowledging that his book was a #1 on the NYT list, even as it was #1 on other similar lists. University departments also avoided Vidal and his name did not make it on their lists.

Earlier Valuethinker has explained how New York Review of Books (NYRB) started out when NYT review was temporarily unavailable. NYRB provided Vidal with a venue for publishing literary essays.

Here is an ultimate irony: Vidal was well born, talented, prolific, and connected. And yet hardly anybody knows who he was. His novel The City and the Pillar is now cited as the first post-World War II novel describing an openly gay and well-adjusted protagonist. And still the fame seems to have evaded him.

Victoria
I have to say that in the last 2 decades of his life, particularly with his monumental books on American history (Lincoln, Burr etc.) he seemed very much in the limelight to me.

That was perhaps in the popular mind rather than the literary one (I am uneducated in matters literary) but certainly from the mid 1980s-- I am sure I would have known who he was as an undergraduate in the early 1980s.

The ironic thing about AIDS was that it blew homosexuality out of the closet in the early 1980s. Suddenly everyone had an old "bachelor" family friend or uncle who was dying of the mysterious malady. Or as the old joke went 'the day you are diagnosed with AIDS is the day you explain to your mother that you are Haitian'. All of a sudden we were discussing condoms on primetime TV.

That, and the murder of Harvey Milk.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

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6miths wrote:I know that some here have read the book 'The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer' written by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Pulitzer Prize in 2011 for non-fiction. Just a heads up that it has been made into a 3 part series airing on PBS the next 3 Monday nights.
A fantastic book (if depressing in parts).
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by jebmke »

Two Days in June by Andrew Cohen
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What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by gouldnm »

gkaplan wrote:I am reading – almost finished – Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France by Caroline Moorehead.

During the Second World War, the inhabitants and parishes of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a tiny, remote mountain village in south central France, banded together to saved thousands wanted by the Gestapo: resisters, Freemasons, communists, and, above all, Jews, many of them orphans whose parents had been deported to concentration camps. Remarkably, there were no informers, and there were no denunciations. No-one broke ranks. During raids, the children would hide in the woods, waiting to hear the farmers' song that told them it was safe to return. After the war, Le Chambon became the only village, and just one of two places, to be honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among Nations.

This is an excellent book and difficult to put down.
I was very excited when I read your review to see that there has been another book written about Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. I have a personal interest in this history because I am Jewish and my first husband was of French Huguenot descent. However, the reviews on amazon.com said it was an awful book and horribly inaccurate. The reviewers included people who had lived in the village at the time, including the producer of the award-winning documentary on the subject ("Weapons of the Spirit"), Pierre Sauvage. So I decided not to read the book.

BTW, the history of the Huguenots is worth studying. They went through something very similar to the pogroms that my grandparents experienced in Russia. Many of the founding fathers from George Washington to Franklin Roosevelt had Huguenot ancestry... [off-topic comments (political opinions) removed by admin alex]

The word "refugee" first came into the English language when the Huguenots were forced to flee from France to other countries, including England.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by jginseattle »

VictoriaF wrote:I am listening to an audiobook Point to Point Navigation: A Memoir by Gore Vidal. It's unexpectedly interesting. I've encountered Vidal's name before but did not pay attention. Now I will. Early in the book, I found an explanation of why he's not mentioned among great American authors. In the late 1940's he wrote a novel The City and the Pillar that depicted homosexual relationships realistically and positively. A powerful conservative New York Times book reviewer proclaimed that he will never review Vidal's books. Since then NYT has been mistreating Vidal by avoiding reviewing him, providing late reviews, providing poor reviews, and not acknowledging that his book was a #1 on the NYT list, even as it was #1 on other similar lists. University departments also avoided Vidal and his name did not make it on their lists.

Earlier Valuethinker has explained how New York Review of Books (NYRB) started out when NYT review was temporarily unavailable. NYRB provided Vidal with a venue for publishing literary essays.

Here is an ultimate irony: Vidal was well born, talented, prolific, and connected. And yet hardly anybody knows who he was. His novel The City and the Pillar is now cited as the first post-World War II novel describing an openly gay and well-adjusted protagonist. And still the fame seems to have evaded him.

Victoria
Gore Vidal was a lively, sharp conversationalist, essayist and novelist. He appeared as a frequent talk show guest and acted in movies. He may be more well known than you think. He will be missed.

Be sure to check out this recent documentary on Vidal: Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia.
Last edited by jginseattle on Tue Apr 07, 2015 7:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
gkaplan
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by gkaplan »

gouldnm wrote:
gkaplan wrote:I am reading – almost finished – Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France by Caroline Moorehead.

During the Second World War, the inhabitants and parishes of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a tiny, remote mountain village in south central France, banded together to saved thousands wanted by the Gestapo: resisters, Freemasons, communists, and, above all, Jews, many of them orphans whose parents had been deported to concentration camps. Remarkably, there were no informers, and there were no denunciations. No-one broke ranks. During raids, the children would hide in the woods, waiting to hear the farmers' song that told them it was safe to return. After the war, Le Chambon became the only village, and just one of two places, to be honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among Nations.

This is an excellent book and difficult to put down.
I was very excited when I read your review to see that there has been another book written about Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. I have a personal interest in this history because I am Jewish and my first husband was of French Huguenot descent. However, the reviews on amazon.com said it was an awful book and horribly inaccurate. The reviewers included people who had lived in the village at the time, including the producer of the award-winning documentary on the subject ("Weapons of the Spirit"), Pierre Sauvage. So I decided not to read the book...
Library Journal gave it a star review. Pierre Sauvage is not exactly an objective reviewer here, since Ms. Moorehead calls him out for this very film.

I would read the book and draw your own conclusions.
Gordon
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Igglesman »

Recent books:

All The Light We Cannot See -- really liked this book. Even better than the Book Thief.

Station Eleven -- not a big sci fi fan, but not a bad read....but it clued me into my next read...

The Martian -- Liked first 50% of the book. Actually all of it...no spoilers, but the plot.... 1. hopeless situation 2. Solve the issue. 3. Return to step 1. Repeat this 1000 times.

Dead Wake - The Crossing of the Lusitania --- by Erik Larson... (In the Garden of Beasts, Thunderstruck, Devil in the White City, etc.)
only 20% in. In typical Erik Larson fashion he sure does write a good novel!!!

Next up: Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town - Jon Krakauer (releases 4/21)
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market timer
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by market timer »

Started reading David Mitchell's Number9dream on my trip to see the cherry blossoms in Tokyo.
Barefootgirl
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Barefootgirl »

Freak Show Without A Tent: Swimming with Piranhas, Getting Stoned in Fiji and Other Family Vacations by Nevin Martell.


Nevin is a local DC food writer, cookbook author and restaurant reviewer....this book details his interesting and eclectic childhood including many family travel adventures. His father Ralph Martell, now retired, - was a well known Manhattan bar owner and restaurateur. (sp?) I have a connection with the Martells - sometimes after work in Manhattan, I'd stop in for a cocktail or two. My grandfather, a carpenter, often worked for Ralph building rural vacation property buildings.

BF
How many retired people does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Only one, but he takes all day.
gouldnm
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by gouldnm »

gkaplan wrote:
gouldnm wrote:
gkaplan wrote:I am reading – almost finished – Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France by Caroline Moorehead.

During the Second World War, the inhabitants and parishes of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a tiny, remote mountain village in south central France, banded together to saved thousands wanted by the Gestapo: resisters, Freemasons, communists, and, above all, Jews, many of them orphans whose parents had been deported to concentration camps. Remarkably, there were no informers, and there were no denunciations. No-one broke ranks. During raids, the children would hide in the woods, waiting to hear the farmers' song that told them it was safe to return. After the war, Le Chambon became the only village, and just one of two places, to be honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among Nations.

This is an excellent book and difficult to put down.
I was very excited when I read your review to see that there has been another book written about Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. I have a personal interest in this history because I am Jewish and my first husband was of French Huguenot descent. However, the reviews on amazon.com said it was an awful book and horribly inaccurate. The reviewers included people who had lived in the village at the time, including the producer of the award-winning documentary on the subject ("Weapons of the Spirit"), Pierre Sauvage. So I decided not to read the book...
Library Journal gave it a star review. Pierre Sauvage is not exactly an objective reviewer here, since Ms. Moorehead calls him out for this very film.

I would read the book and draw your own conclusions.
Pierre Sauvage wasn't the only negative reviewer. There were a ton of negative reviews on amazon.com by people who were there and/or directly involved (or closely related to people who were directly involved) who called out the book for its inaccuracies.

BTW, I'm not sure there's ever such a thing as an "objective" review.
jdb
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by jdb »

Now about half way through re-reading Moby-Dick, based in part on comments on this thread. Had last read many years ago during college freshman English, novel too good to be wasted on the youth. Very much enjoying it after too long hiatus. Edit: in my reading schedule try to alternate between recently published (in my definition within past 30 years or so) that have not read and old classics that either have not read yet or want to re-read.
Last edited by jdb on Mon Apr 13, 2015 1:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by LadyGeek »

I removed a number of comments which were triggered from gkaplan's review of Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France by Caroline Moorehead.

In spite of some self-editing to remove content after the fact, the disagreements remained. I removed the entire exchange.

Please bear in mind that religion is a very sensitive topic - more so than politics. Providing a personal perspective of a religious group (political - where to live), may result in a contentious disagreement - and was the case here.
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TimDex
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by TimDex »

Just finished the first five books in The Accursed Kings series by Maurice Druon....fans of both medieval history and the game of thrones might be interested. Comes with an intro by George rr martin. It concerns 14th century France. The first five books aware on kindle. The last two in the series are not. Well written. Tim
"All man's miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone. " -- Pascal
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