Book recommendations

[Gert T]

I'm not much of a fiction guy, so does anybody have any biography or non-fiction recommendations for me?

[vivalaultra]

I'll recommend Gabriel Garcia Marquez's autobiography. He's the greatest living novelist, and he's had a fantastically interesting life. The book is called Living to Tell the Tale. It's the first part of a planned three-part biography. Hopefully, he'll get to finish, as he's pretty old and battling cancer. I also recently read A People's History of the United States by...God, I forgot the guy's name, but it was good. And the David Foster Wallace essay collections are good.

[Guest Felonies!]

Howard Zinn. It is good.

[snuffbox]

Arthur Schlesinger Jr - Robert Kennedy & His Times

Barry Miles - Allen Ginsberg, a Biography

Ulysses S Grant - Memoirs

[Dr. Tyler; Captain America]

Read the one I suggested a few pages back: The Gulag Archipelago. It's a good mix of history and autobiography.

[Edwin MacPhisto]

Philip Roth is wonderful. The Human Stain is also very good--it's sloppy at times, and kind of falls apart in the final third, and is really two or three different books smushed together, but it's still pretty damn great, sometimes because of those inconsistencies.

[FroGG_NeaL]

I liked Bill Clinton's Auto-Biography.

 

And Stan Lee's is good also.

[Guest Felonies!]

On Roth: I had planned to read The Plot Against America at some point, but I reconsidered and bought No Logo instead. I was worried the characterization of Lindbergh would just be an unmitigated smear job, painting him as having Nazi ties he never had. Would I still like his other novels?

[Edwin MacPhisto]

You have weird novel concerns, but yeah, I think you'd like his stuff. I haven't read The Plot Against America either, but I'm going to say you'd like most of his stuff just because it's...well, good.

[snuffbox]

I liked Bill Clinton's Auto-Biography.

 

That was one of my better finds so far at Book Thing (a free bookstore in Baltimore). I never got around to buying it before and I havent read it yet...but I will.

[FroGG_NeaL]

I got it for 99 cents at Wal-Mart. It's the paperback version, and is split into two books, however, so I really paid $2-somethin' for it.

 

I liked it, Bill's a good writer, and there's lots of funny and interesting shit in there.

[Giuseppe Zangara]

On Roth: I had planned to read The Plot Against America at some point, but I reconsidered and bought No Logo instead. I was worried the characterization of Lindbergh would just be an unmitigated smear job, painting him as having Nazi ties he never had. Would I still like his other novels?

So you refuse to read it because maybe Lindbergh might not be portrayed in a flattering light? Dumb.

[Guest Felonies!]

Unrealistically unflattering, yeah. I mean, I know he was an isolationist xenophobe who was really into eugenics, but the premise (The Republicans finding someone who can finally unseat the Roosevelt juggernaut) is so interesting to me that I'd hate to see it ruined by taking a ham-fisted approach to it. I'll read it soon, anyway.

[Giuseppe Zangara]

I haven't read TPAA, but Roth's simply too good a writer to let that happen, I think.

[Take it]

Anyone read the time travellers wife?? I would recommend it to pretty much anyone

[vivalaultra]

I bought The Time Traveller's Wife, but haven't read it yet. I heard it was good, but the structure of the novel looked odd.

[Hank Kingsley]

In Cold Blood is really, really great. I was inspired to read it after seeing Capote, and it did not disappoint. Whereas the movie focused mostly on Capote's friendship with Perry Smith and how that friendship was affecting his view of the murders, the book goes into detailed (albeit sometimes too detailed) accounts of the history, thoughts, and actions of not just the victims but both killers, as well as the detectives and other related events. Capote really builds a sense of empathy, not surprisingly mostly for Perry Smith, and when he is finally hanged there is a sense of sadness. But Dick Hicock can burn in hell for all I care.

 

I think the most well-written scenes were the interrogation of Hicock and the graphic description of the murders. "I thought he was a nice man. Soft spoken. I thought that right up until I cut his throat." gives me chills.

[snuffbox]

Currently going through old Artie Schlesinger's A Thousand Days on the Kennedy administration. I reccomend it to people with plenty of spare time.

[snuffbox]

Currently going through old Artie Schlesinger's A Thousand Days on the Kennedy administration. I reccomend it to people with plenty of spare time.

 

I really enjoyed this passage...

 

The President produced a copy of Theodore White's The Making of the President: 1960 and expressed his admiration for it. The only trouble was, he said, that Teddy made his characters larger than life; this was the occupational defect of historians. Turning to me, he said, "When I read your Roosevelt books, I thought what towering figure those men around Roosevelt were -- Moley and Tugwell and Berle and the others. Then I read Teddy's book and realized that they were just Sorensen and Goodwin and you."

-pg481

[Giuseppe Zangara]

Guys, there's a new Thomas Pynchon novel coming out this December—his first in nine years—and I'm really, really excited. I never get excited for new book releases! Anyway, I started reading Gravity's Rainbow again today; it may surpass Infinite Jest as my favorite novel.

[vivalaultra]

I've never read Gravity's Rainbow straight through. Like James Joyce's Ulysses, I always seem to just read random parts of it at different times. I'm behind on my Pynchon. Mason & Dixon waits on my bookshelf to be read.

[Guest Felonies!]

Im trying to slog through Bob Spitz's biography of the Beatles, entitled The Beatles, but I keep hopping around to different parts.

[vivalaultra]

Heeeeeeey....I have that book. I haven't read it. I've read many-a biography on the Beatles in my day and I keep getting more for gifts even though I haven't actively professed my undying love of the Beatles in going on 10 years. It looks pretty comprehensive, however.

[LessonInMachismo]

The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You! by Harry Harrison

 

Not the first book in the series, but a short, quick, entertaining and funny read. Harrison's depiction of the galactic conman can be very formulaic, but this book changes things up a bit.

[luke-o]

I'm not much of a fiction guy, so does anybody have any biography or non-fiction recommendations for me?

 

Danny Wallace/Dave Gorman - Are You Dave Gorman?

Dave Gorman - Googlewhack Adventure

Danny Wallace - Join Me

Danny Wallace - Yes Man

 

All are EXCELLENT non fiction books.

[Guest Felonies!]

I'm about halfway through The Godfather. Started it at Barnes & Noble yesterday, found my dad's old copy in the basement two hours ago. Naturally, I can't picture Don Corleone as anyone but Marlon Brando, Tom Hagen as Robert Duvall, etc., even when the book's descriptions differ slightly from the film. Johnny Fontane is about ten times more important in the book than he ever was in the film. He's practically the main character.

 

I picked up Catch-22 yesterday, and that's next on the list, unless I go with David Sedaris's Barrel Fever as a respite of sorts.

[Masked Man of Mystery]

I'm about halfway through The Godfather. Started it at Barnes & Noble yesterday, found my dad's old copy in the basement two hours ago. Naturally, I can't picture Don Corleone as anyone but Marlon Brando, Tom Hagen as Robert Duvall, etc., even when the book's descriptions differ slightly from the film. Johnny Fontane is about ten times more important in the book than he ever was in the film. He's practically the main character.

 

I picked up Catch-22 yesterday, and that's next on the list, unless I go with David Sedaris's Barrel Fever as a respite of sorts.

I can say I liked the movie better, mostly because there's a lot of extra stuff in the book that has nothing to do with anything, like there's a long description of a sugery that a girl has to have done that has nothing to do with the plot. The book seems more like it was meant to be just light reading, whereas the movie is heavy, I thought that was interesting.

[Guest Felonies!]

That wasn't just any girl having any surgery, that was Lucy Mancini of getting-banged-by-Sonny-up-against-the-bedroom-door fame getting her vagina tightened because Sonny stretched it out with his huge cock.

 

Hi.

[Guest DRH 502]

I know that it is Oprah's book of the month or whatever (I think anyway) but Night by Ellie Wiesel (SP) is a hard book to put down.

[Guest Felonies!]

I enjoyed Night when I read it for world history during my sophomore year of high school. I didn't mean to sound condescending there, but that's when I read it. It's a very good book. If you're looking for more concentration camp literature, I recommend Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl, which I've probably endorsed a few pages back, but I don't feel like looking.