I liked Henry V. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Dan Jones. I'm going to reread his book about the Magna Carta. Seems timely.
There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
^Good writer. Read his last two, but haven’t got to this one yet.
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brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,267
I finished this one last night. The horrors Louie Zamperini went through in this true story are almost unimaginable. There were times when reading this that I would finish a particularly gruesome section that left me feeling almost sick. The Japanese prison camps in WWII were beyond atrocious. The timing of this read for me was not good. There always has been horrible brutality among humans, but with the state of the world as it is now, I really didn't need more misanthropic inducing horrors. I wish I had read this one first AND THEN followed with Bono's hope filled Surrender. But at least I'm a little further educated, and Hillenbrand is an excellent writer.
"It's a sad and beautiful world"
-Roberto Benigni
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F Me In The Brain
this knows everybody from other commets Posts: 31,719
It really is, for sure. The timing was off for me, that's all. I've read books by Charles Bowden that describe things that were even more horrific that what Hillenbrand describes. I knew they would be and went into reading them with a fair idea of what they were going to be about. Somehow I was thinking that Hillenbrand's book was going to be more along the lines of some of Hampton Sides work.
"It's a sad and beautiful world"
-Roberto Benigni
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F Me In The Brain
this knows everybody from other commets Posts: 31,719
It really is, for sure. The timing was off for me, that's all. I've read books by Charles Bowden that describe things that were even more horrific that what Hillenbrand describes. I knew they would be and went into reading them with a fair idea of what they were going to be about. Somehow I was thinking that Hillenbrand's book was going to be more along the lines of some of Hampton Sides work.
I get that.
Just started Commanche Moon. (Part of the Lonesome Dove run) I know I'm not getting too deep into things. Been reading a lot of historical fiction and them a horror book. Wanted to grab something lighter from the pile. (Even if it is a heavy physical book!)
It really is, for sure. The timing was off for me, that's all. I've read books by Charles Bowden that describe things that were even more horrific that what Hillenbrand describes. I knew they would be and went into reading them with a fair idea of what they were going to be about. Somehow I was thinking that Hillenbrand's book was going to be more along the lines of some of Hampton Sides work.
I get that.
Just started Commanche Moon. (Part of the Lonesome Dove run) I know I'm not getting too deep into things. Been reading a lot of historical fiction and them a horror book. Wanted to grab something lighter from the pile. (Even if it is a heavy physical book!)
McMurtry, good move!
I'm probably going to go for something lighter soon as well. Maybe take a short break from a book to read these two goodies I found in the garage a few days ago:
"It's a sad and beautiful world"
-Roberto Benigni
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brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,267
Changed my mind...
After reading Laura Hillenbrand's most excellent but brutal Unbroken, I figured it was time to go for something both entertaining and well written next. So when I read this excerpt from Bill Flanagan's Author's Note
at the beginning of this book, I decided to jump right in. (Besides,
Flanagan was always one of my favorite editor/ writers from the Musician magazine days.)
"Those aristocrats who fall on the floor writhing and swallowing their
tongues when writers put rock & roll into the same boat as high art,
poetry, philosophy, and other university subjects should get out now.
You won't like it here. But if you want to understand U2, you have to
understand how they draw from the highbrow as well as the dumb things
down in rock & roll's designated station.
And it might save a fistfight or two if I spell this out: when I talk
about U2's relationship with Bill Clinton or Salman Rushdie or Wim
Wenders or other cultural bigshots, it is not to suggest that U2
influenced those people; it is to show how those people influenced U2.
All right, that should shake off the whiners. Let's go."
I finished Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson. I liked Black Cake better, but this was a good read. It began with the dismantling of a relationship, and that relationship is the weakest part of the story.
There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
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brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,267
I got a kick out of this quote from Flanagan in the U2 book I'm reading. I told my wife it sounds like a slightly exaggerated version of her:
"Many people on this planet say they hate horseshit, but no one hates horseshit as much as Larry Mullen Jr., does. The possibility that he might somehow add to the rising stew of crap that threatens to submerge our civilization in hype and nonsense appalls him so much that he slaps on a scowl and shuts his mouth at the first inkling of glad-handing, backslapping, false sincerity, sucking up, ass-kissing, air-kissing, overpraise, fair-weather friendship, freeloading, hyperbole, ligging, flattery, posturing, complement chewing, ego-stroking, bootlicking, cheek smooching, groveling, pratspeak, toadying, , leg lifting, fame-grubbing, schnoring, idol worship, starfucking, or brown-nosing.
Boy, did he pick the wrong business!"
I'm not even sure I know what some of those things are. "liggin"? "pratspeak"? "schnoring"?
Comments
The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
Prague Krakow Berlin 2018. Berlin 2022
EV, Taormina 1+2 2017.
I wish i was the souvenir you kept your house key on..
It really is, for sure. The timing was off for me, that's all. I've read books by Charles Bowden that describe things that were even more horrific that what Hillenbrand describes. I knew they would be and went into reading them with a fair idea of what they were going to be about. Somehow I was thinking that Hillenbrand's book was going to be more along the lines of some of Hampton Sides work.
Just started Commanche Moon. (Part of the Lonesome Dove run)
I know I'm not getting too deep into things. Been reading a lot of historical fiction and them a horror book. Wanted to grab something lighter from the pile. (Even if it is a heavy physical book!)
Prague Krakow Berlin 2018. Berlin 2022
EV, Taormina 1+2 2017.
I wish i was the souvenir you kept your house key on..
"Those aristocrats who fall on the floor writhing and swallowing their tongues when writers put rock & roll into the same boat as high art, poetry, philosophy, and other university subjects should get out now. You won't like it here. But if you want to understand U2, you have to understand how they draw from the highbrow as well as the dumb things down in rock & roll's designated station.
And it might save a fistfight or two if I spell this out: when I talk about U2's relationship with Bill Clinton or Salman Rushdie or Wim Wenders or other cultural bigshots, it is not to suggest that U2 influenced those people; it is to show how those people influenced U2.
All right, that should shake off the whiners. Let's go."
Yes siree, with pleasure!
The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird