So, What Are You Freakin' Well Reading Now?
For a person who has enjoyed a life long addiction to books, I usually write suprisingly crappy book reviews, comments on books, etc. But bear with me on this one.
My shnoogly woogly bought be Doris Kearns-Goodwin's "Team of Rivals" for my birfday earlier this month.
What an excellent gift.
This book is an examination of how Abraham Lincoln and his cabinet functioned. Of course, the focal point is Lincoln himself, however the true focus is how these different individuals-- a most unlikely selection for team work-- delivered their best under Lincoln's unique direction.
I don't doubt that there are more complete biographies of Lincoln, Seward, Chase, Stanton and Bates in existance. And of course we have Nicolay's and Hay's first hand accounts from the period. And, for civil war military buffs, this book will probably add little to their encylopedic knowledge of military campaigns. However, it will doubtless add background and a fuller understanding of the political and social dynamics behind men like Grant, Sherman, Fremont, McClellan and Lee, to name a few. I think the book is singularly unique in that it examines the interaction of these people in orbit around Lincoln.
Of particular interest to many babblers is the difference between what the media and various political factions thought was going on in the Cabinet, and their assumptions about the members of it, and what was actually happening in the Cabinet. Examinations like this might prove instructive on interpreting current events.
Goodwin also gives the proper due to the women around these men, and how they impacted their careers. Mary Todd Lincoln in particular gets a better treatment than other historians have been willing to impart. I wouldn't call it sympathetic-- just, for a change, more complete, which leads the reader to see her as something more complicated than a confrontational spend thrift. And, I doubt many historians have paid attention to someone as interesting and impressive as Kate Chase before.
For those who have little or no background in the U.S. Civil War, don't be afraid that this book will leave you behind. Kearns--Goodwin supplies the necessary background without being tedious or pedantic. And, for those that are familiar with this time, there is bound to be new to the reader information.
For those who like to observe or participate in politics, the book provides a pretty good-- though I suspect not comprehensive-- study in the dynamics of the coalition of Whigs, Know Nothings, pro-Union Democrats and Abolitionists that founded the Republican Party. And, we get to see how the minority view of Abolitionists finally carried the day.
People of the Weeping Eye, to be followed by People of the Nightlands.
My partner and I have recently gotten into Canadian author Kelley Armstrong. I kept having people tell me to give them a chance and we both found them surprisingly fun even though we would usually never pick up anything from her genre.
William Trevor.
I'm reading Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy with my daughters - we read some aloud every night and then talk about the themes, story, character, etc. Great discussions coming out of it!
Best flash graphic novel i've seen in a while, on the Asbestos mine.
Hey Ze, that was quite cool.
I find I swing between non-fiction and fiction binges, been on a bit of a novel kick as of late.
Read 'Warlock' by Oakley Hall, really enjoyed it. A western which does an incredible job at building anticipation before each outbreak of violence and then frustrating your expectations while making the story increasingly complex and interesting.
Also read 'Star Named Henry' by Roddy Doyle, thought it was pretty decent, I'm not an expert on Irish history but I got some of the satire and the narrator had a pretty engaging voice. 'Paddy Clarke Hahahaha' is one of my favorites.
And read 'Three Day Road', pretty dark book, I liked it but not sure how I feel about the 'message' which might be taken away from the story's resolution.
Reading 'The Jungle' the uncensored edition that was originally published in socialist magazines originally before being cut down by six chapters and given a more reformist style. I spent half a year after highschool working in a hide plant in Alberta, which was by far the most awful job I've ever had, and while it clearly wasn't as bad as conditions in the novel, the essential character of the business hasn't changed much in my opinion.
Rites of Spring: the Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age by Modris Ecksteins
So far it's an interesting blend of ballet, warm summer nights' mass hysteria, trench warfare and assembly-line technology.
I'm 2/3 of the way through Laxer's In search of a New Left. Just in the chapter on the Waffle.
I've just started reading Against The Day by Thomas Pynchon, I haven't quite found my way into it yet but I am intrigued. One of the themes of the book is a state of "permanent siege" in which government practices unending degradation and starvation on the population in order to maintain control. Sound familiar. LOL
Almost finished "In the Footsteps of Mr.Kurtz" by Michela Wrong. Fascinating account of one of Africa's most corrupt rulers, Mobutu. One of the things that is left open-ended for the reader to ruminate upon - is who was worse - the Belgian colonial masters of Congo or the new generation of post-independence African rulers whose rampant corruption, tribalism and nepotism destroyed whatever utopian ideals those nations initially desired.
The directions for the Multnoma Community Ability Scale (Revised), which I have to score x17.
Quite a number of things I'd rather be reading just now.
#%%^*&# waste of time.
The Gathering, by Anne Enright.
Just picked up Choke and Lullaby...two works of fiction by Chuck Palahniuk. After reading Rant, I couldn't wait to get my hands on more of his books.
I finished "The Way the Crow Flies" by Ann-Marie Macdonald. A murder mystery/spy novel set in Centralia Ontario in the early 1960's. The murder mystery being losely based on the Lynne Harper murder in Clinton, for which Steven Truscott was wrongfully convicted.
An entertaining read for boomers, and particularly for boomers who live in S/W. Ontario.
Great thread for reading ideas!
I am currently reading pieces from my huge Norton's Anthology of literature by women. Fantomina by Eliza Haywood and The Disappointment by Aphra Behn were last night's reads. From the 18th and 17th centuries and fantastic! The Behn poem was actually an erotic poem about male impotence and Fantomina details a woman's attempts to discover sex before marriage, however in quite original ways. I am continuing with Behn's novella Oroonoko (1688) tonight, which is a semi autobiographical description of her time spent in "The New World" and her encounters with black slaves. It is fascinating.
I'm in the midst of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.
I've read a lot of accounts of working class life in 19th-century England and France - literary and non-literary - and this book is right up there in describing the suffering wrought by industrialisation. The Jungle has the added twist of being about immigrants, another thing it shares with those who populate the meat-packing houses of Fast Food Nation.
Just finished Kosinski's "Being There."
There's a corrupt politician in the novel named "Bush" Harper.
I just read the part where a Socialist gives an eerily prescient speech about war. He speaks about Manchuria (this was the 1905 Russo-Japanese War) but sounds as if he could be talking about the 14-18 war.
Just in time. I thought about restarting this thread then saw it had already been done.
Thanks for the tips. I'm in really bad need of fresh reading material, especially good Canuck fiction.
To kill time inbetween reads, I've re-read some William Gibson, "All Tomorrow's Parties." I love Gibson. A lean style that's fun. If I could propose to a fictional character it would be Chevette Washington.
Thanks for the tips. I'm in really bad need of fresh reading material, especially good Canuck fiction.
Then "The Way the Crow Flies" might be what you are looking for, Farmpunk. There's also "The View from Castle Rock" by Alice Munroe, though this one is non-fiction. Both deal with our stomping grounds.
I'll check out Crow. But I steer clear of Munroe. I've never been a fan.
Due to weather conditions, I had a free morning. So I went to Chapters, feeling the need. I was going to grab a couple Brad Smith novels. Smith writes neat, hill-billy redneck fiction. His characters would be Munroe's pool cleaners.
Not a single Smith in the stacks. Back to the library, I guess, or order online. I would like to own all Smith's novels.
Is there any current, non-academic styled non-fiction out there about South America?
But I steer clear of Munroe. I've never been a fan.
I'm sympathetic to that point of view. In fact, I'm not a fan of "Can Lit" in general, and Munroe is one of the icons of Can Lit. However, "View from Castle Rock" is a blend of family history, autobiography and South Western Ontario History. I don't have enough background in Munroe to say this isn't a typical "Alice Munroe" book, but I'm willing to bet that it is.
She's what I call a "cold" writer. It's very technical prose. But I'll check it out, T-P.
There's some really good CanLit. I do try and read current Canuck writers, because a bunch who don't get the recognition they deserve. Ray Robertson's "Home Movies" is one of the best novels written about Canada, especially SWOnt.
Tender is the Night, by Scott Fitzgerald.
"This western-front business couldn't be done again, not for a long time. The young men think they could do it but they couldn't. They could fight the first Marne again but not this. This took religion and years of plenty and tremendous sureties and the exact relation that existed between the classes. The Russians and Italians weren't any good on this front. You had to have a whole-souled sentimental equipment going back further than you could remember. You had to remember Christmas, and postcards of the Crown Prince and his fiancée, and little cafés in Valence and beer gardens in Unter den Linden and weddings at the mairie, and going to the Derby, and your grandfather's whiskers."
I have a chance to buy Catherine Dunphy's biography of Morgentler on sale. Has anyone read it? Thoughts?
I'm reading Scott Heim's "We Disappear" the same authour who did the amazing Mysterious Skin, which was make into a movie directed by Gregg Araki.
Just got my copy of The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy by Yves Engler. Engler is in Victoria (BC) today and was in Nanaimo last night.
I'm also reading Did I Miss Anything?: Selected Poems 1973-1993 by Tom Wayman. Another babble thread noted work SONGS. Wayman is a work poet ... at least the subject matter of many of his poems is work.
Just finished Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape, by Jessica Valenti and Jaclyn Freidman. Now I'm on to Revolutionary Road, so I can read it before I watch the movie.
Currently reading Dr. Helen Caldicott's Nuclear Power is Not the Answer. This is a must read if nuclear power corporations are breathing down the necks of your political parties and your communities. Right now there is huge debate in Sask. regarding the "benefits" of a nuclear reactor. I happen to rabidly disagree with nuclear power and this intelligent book is good for strengthening an argument regarding truly 'sustainable' sources of power.
I'm reading Ernie's War, which is a collection of Ernie Pyle's articles form the Second World War. He loves the dogfaces, but by today's standards would be considered a thoroughgoing racist for his depictions of Arabs, Sicilians and Italians.