Tigers X - Number one Source to Talk Auburn Tigers Sports
The Library => Haley Center Basement => Topic started by: Tiger Wench on June 03, 2011, 02:28:59 AM
-
I read. A LOT. It's my primary form of relaxation and escapism. I have made a few recommendations here and there, but as the heat of summer and the boredom of the offseason set in, I thought maybe an official thread might be worthwhile.
Y'all feel free to jump on in if you read something good or want to comment on something someone else posts.
Here's my current bedside reading:
In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson
Larson writes non-fiction, and this book takes place in Berlin during the late 1930's. It's based on the lives of the American Ambassador to Germany and his family who spent a year in Berlin as Hitler rose to absolute power.
You have to constantly remind yourself as you read that people then had a vastly different perspective on Hitler than we do with the benefit of hindsight. They thought that conservative forces within the German government would keep Hitler in power, or more likely, kick him out of power all together. Much of the world - even the U.S. - was openly anti-Semitic, and the initial stages of violence against Jews were not viewed with much concern anywhere - including in some American Jewish circles, surprisingly enough. After all the horror of WWI, no one was interested in getting back into it with Germany. FDR certainly did not see such persecution as enough of a reason to even chastise Germany for violation of human rights - but again, that was really not at the front of the public consciousness then like it is now - mainly because the Holocaust taught us what genocide was truly all about, and made subsequent generations sensitive to the first signs of ethnic cleansing. Even when Hitler began to openly re-arm German in direct violation of the treaty to end WWI, no one acted, or even grew concerned. Many people thought the Germans had been humiliated enough, and since they were a sovereign nation, they had that right.
Adding an air of salaciousness to it all was the Ambassador's slutty daughter. She was in her 20s when her father took the post, and so she ran off to Germany to escape a bad, secret marriage. She then proceeded to sleep her way through the SS/SA Officers, including Diehl, and even a commie from the Soviet Embassy. The family socialized and partied with high ranking Nazis - Goering, Himmler, Goebels, and even Hitler - in the name of US - German relations. You can see the progressive fanaticism of the Nazis creep into every encounter the Ambassador has, even though he openly ignored it. The daughter's journals provide a fascinating behind the scenes look at how incredibly naive everyone was about Hitler and his ambitions.
Larson has also written a couple of others, one particularly worth mentioning - Devil in the White City is the story of a serial killer that was preying on people during the Chicago World's Fair. It is such a wild story that you can't believe it is not fiction.
-
Latest Book: Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. By Seth Grahame-Smith
This is NOT twilighty true blood with glittery vamps kissing humans in the sunshine kind of book. This is a wickedly funny, very entertaining premise that combines real events in the life of our 16th President with his secret quest to rid this nation of vampires, starting with the one that killed his mother.
The Lost Colony of Roanoke? Vampires.
The spread of slave market in the South? Vampires buying the old, young and infirm to use as a buffet at parties.
This is just a great book. For anyone who has ever read one of the many MANY biographies of Abe Lincoln, you can see how his dark, tormented, depressive personality would blend quite well into this story line. It is a quick and easy read, and very enjoyable.
They are also making a movie from it, due out next year.
From some reviews:
Seth Grahame-Smith, who wrote the pop-novel mash-up on which the movie is based, said he was beginning to suspect that his “Vampire Hunter†conceit tapped something deeper than originally planned. Speaking by telephone last week, he said he couldn’t help thinking of Lincoln and vampires on seeing President Obama with “his chest pumped up†after the killing of Osama bin Laden.
“There’s something in the American psyche, we want our presidents to be warriors,†Mr. Grahame-Smith said. “We’re giving that to Abraham Lincoln, sort of posthumously in this case.â€
[snip]
The “Vampire Hunter†film, like the book, follows Lincoln from his boyhood on the frontier through his assassination by John Wilkes Booth and — because this is a vampire story — beyond. Young Lincoln, having learned that his grandfather and mother were killed by vampires, vows to kill every last blood-sucker in a country that is crawling with them.
On realizing that vampires are tangled in the slave trade, Lincoln’s resolve grows and takes on a moral dimension. To complicate matters he also learns that the creatures come in two varieties, good and bad.
-
Latest Book: Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. By Seth Grahame-Smith
This is NOT twilighty true blood with glittery vamps kissing humans in the sunshine kind of book. This is a wickedly funny, very entertaining premise that combines real events in the life of our 16th President with his secret quest to rid this nation of vampires, starting with the one that killed his mother.
The Lost Colony of Roanoke? Vampires.
The spread of slave market in the South? Vampires buying the old, young and infirm to use as a buffet at parties.
This is just a great book. For anyone who has ever read one of the many MANY biographies of Abe Lincoln, you can see how his dark, tormented, depressive personality would blend quite well into this story line. It is a quick and easy read, and very enjoyable.
They are also making a movie from it, due out next year.
From some reviews:
Glad you posted this. I picked it up at the airport and read the first chapter but for some reason, never went back to it. I was thinking about reading it the other day and I think I will now.
-
Wench, I know we've talked about our mutual interest in the Jack Reacher series before...but the new one comes out in September.
Anybody that hasn't read any of them, I highly suggest them if you enjoy easy, entertaining reads. Perfect summer books imo.
-
And I'll throw the Dresden Files into the mix as well. New book, number 13 in the series, comes out in July. Jim Butcher is the author, and I highly recommend it.
-
Wench, I know we've talked about our mutual interest in the Jack Reacher series before...but the new one comes out in September.
Anybody that hasn't read any of them, I highly suggest them if you enjoy easy, entertaining reads. Perfect summer books imo.
Jack Reacher is the only man I would leave my husband for. He is a STUD.
Every. Single. Book. in that series is a killer read. Considering this is Reacher series book 15 or 16? The lack of drop-off in quality is remarkable. Lee Child is one of my all time favorite authors.
-
Jack Reacher is the only man I would leave my husband for. He is a STUD.
you haven't met me yet.
-
Here's a blurb about the latest book by author and Auburn man Ace Atkins. He is coming to Houston on Saturday to discuss and sign this new novel, and I will be in attendance!! I never miss a chance to see Ace when he is in town. I will post my thoughts on it next week.
Ace Atkins: The Ranger (Putnum; $25.95). From the acclaimed, award-winning author comes an extraordinary new series about a real hero, and the real Deep South. Ace Atkins returns with an extraordinary new series. Northeast Mississippi, hill country, rugged and notorious for outlaws since the Civil War, where killings are as commonplace as in the Old West. To Quinn Colson, it's home-but not the home he left when he went to Afghanistan. Now an Army Ranger, he returns to a place overrun by corruption, and finds his uncle, the county sheriff, dead-a suicide, he's told, but others whisper murder. In the days that follow, it will be up to Colson to discover the truth, not only about his uncle, but about his family, his friends, his town, and not least about himself. And once the truth is discovered, there is no turning back.
"With terrific, inflected characters, and a dark, subtle sense of place and history, The Ranger is an exceptional novel." -John Sandford
"One of the best crime writers at work today." -Michael Connelly
Ace Atkins is the author of nine novels, including The Ranger, the debut novel in the Quinn Colson series, from G.P. Putnam’s Sons. A former journalist who cut his teeth as a crime reporter in the newsroom of The Tampa Tribune, he published his first novel, Crossroad Blues, at 27 and became a full-time novelist at 30.
While at the Tribune, Ace earned a Pulitzer Prize nomination for a feature series based on his investigation into a forgotten murder of the 1950s. The story became the core of his critically acclaimed novel, White Shadow, which earned raves from noted authors and critics. In his next novels, Wicked City, Devil's Garden, and Infamous, blended first-hand interviews and original research into police and court records with tightly woven plots and incisive characters. The historical novels told great American stories by weaving fact and fiction into a colorful, seamless tapestry.
The Ranger represents a return to Ace’s first love: hero-driven series fiction. Quinn Colson is a real hero—a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan—who returns home to north Mississippi to fight corruption on his home turf. Ace lives on a historic farm outside Oxford, Mississippi with his family.
-
Here's a blurb about the latest book by author and Auburn man Ace Atkins. He is coming to Houston on Saturday to discuss and sign this new novel, and I will be in attendance!! I never miss a chance to see Ace when he is in town. I will post my thoughts on it next week.
Stalker
-
Stalker
Would have been "accused rapist" had I been given half a chance... he was one of my students when I was in grad school at AU... hotter than a two dollar pistol then, and he has aged VERY VERY well...
-
Speaking of modern southern authors, have you tried any Tom Franklin? I really enjoyed his first two books "Hell at the Breech" and "Poachers" (collection of short stories).
"Hell at the Breech" is a fictionalized account of an actual event that took place in my home county (also the author's home county) that was great IMO. "Poachers" was a really good collection also. His third book "Smonk" was a bit weird. It was a little bit western, a little bit Stephen King, a little bit dark comedy. Tom calls his books "Southerns" as a play on the western genre.
I haven't read his latest "Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter" but I have heard it is may be his best.
If you see anything by this guy I would advise you to pick it up, especially "Hell at the Breech". At one time Eastwood was connected with trying to turn it into a movie, but I think that has gotten dropped.
-
I will add Tom Franklin to the list. Always on the search for a new read.
Another good "Southern" writer is Joe Lansdale. I think I have mentioned him before on here, but I cannot say enough superlatives about his writing. Most of his books are about the piney woods of East Texas. Lansdale captures "redneck' in the written word like few have been able to. Most of us could read one of his character descriptions and think "I know someone like that..."
The Bottoms and Leather Maiden are two of his stand alone books that ovrewhelmed me with their awesomeness. Savage Season is his first "Hap and Leonard" novel - the main characters are an East Texas redneck and his best friend, who is a gay, black Vietnam vet. Totally out there, but it works, and in a hugely awesome way.
-
you haven't met me yet.
still no comment...i like my chances.
-
you haven't met me yet.
Did not know you were a closet Michael Buble fan...
That's pretty much a deal killer for me. That, and the lingering stench of unwashed liberal hippies that clings to your person.
-
Did not know you were a closet Michael Buble fan...
That's pretty much a deal killer for me. That, and the lingering stench of unwashed liberal hippies that clings to your person.
You asked for it...
-
This may be my next biography - never heard of this guy, but he sounds creepy/horrifying...
James Palmer’s 2009 biography The Bloody White Baron traced the life of Nikolai Maximilian von Ungern-Sternberg—a psychotic Baltic aristocrat who became an officer in the czar’s army and, eventually, Mongolian khan. The book (just out in paperback) is unpredictable in all sorts of interesting ways.
Ungern-Sternberg was paranoid, messianic, and murderous on a scale that set the stage for Hitler, Stalin, and others to come. Oddly, only the experts know his name. Palmer—an English travel writer who lives in Beijing—knows a lot more than that, and he digs up a slough of grotesque but fascinating details. If you have a strong stomach and an appetite for off-road histories, this real-life horror show may be your cup of tea. If not, you’ll find that the baron’s name still makes for a memorable Google search.
-
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Just finished this at the beach. Excellent book. Not beach reading. I wish I had been sitting in a dark room with a low lit lamp when I read this book.
The ending is a bit weak, but it honestly doesn't need a good ending. The journey is the real story.
-
This sounds interesting too:
Deborah Baker is best known as the author of relatively straightforward books about Laura Riding and Allen Ginsberg. Her latest, The Convert: A Tale of Exile in Extremism, is a near-total departure for the author: It tells a fascinating story, and pushes the envelope of the biographer’s art.
Baker was rummaging around in the New York Public Library when she ran across personal papers of Margaret Marcus–an American woman who left her life in the New York suburbs behind in 1962, and became a radical Islamist in Pakistan. (Marcus, who’d changed her name to Maryam Jameelah, had written a number of diatribes against Western materialism, but she’d also continued to correspond with her Jewish parents in Westchester County.) Baker follows the paper trail, which ultimately leads her to Pakistan, and to a bracing confrontation with Marcus/Jameelah herself.
-
This one is going in the queue:
Long before any of us had heard of Julian Assange, Kevin Mitnick was the world’s foremost computer hacker—and a sometime fugitive who spent three years on the lam, and five more in prison, for his criminal actions. Open his new memoir, Ghost in the Wires, to any given page, and you’re likely to run across sentences like the following: “At seventeen, I was still in high school but dedicated to working on what might be called a Ph.D. in RSTS/E hacking.†Or: “Incredibly, the people at Pacific Bell Security had never changed the manufacturer’s default PIN on these boxes.†Or: “Agent Thomas glares at me and says, ‘Mitnick, the jig is up!’ †It ain’t Shakespeare. But it’s a quick and fascinating read.
Working with his longtime writing partner, Bill Simon, Mitnick gives us step-by-step descriptions of his hacks and cons, as well as the details of his prolonged cat-and-mouse game with the FBI. (The latter involved more than a few close calls and quick evasions, and the assumption of various false identities.) Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak contributes a foreword; he calls Mitnick’s story an “incredible, almost unbelievable tale†and assures us that no real harm was caused by his actions. (“He took software but never sold any of it. He was hacking just for the fun of it, just for the challenge.â€) The corporations that Mitnick hacked might have a few things to say on that score—but that probably won’t stop their security teams and IT departments from ordering his book in bulk.
-
Here's a blurb about the latest book by author and Auburn man Ace Atkins. He is coming to Houston on Saturday to discuss and sign this new novel, and I will be in attendance!! I never miss a chance to see Ace when he is in town. I will post my thoughts on it next week.
Better late than never.
If you like the Reacher novels, you have GOT GOT GOT to read this book. Quinn Colson is a stud. Ace has channeled Child and James Lee Burke and NAILS it. Loved it. The ending is not a cliff hanger, but leaves the segue into book two, which cannot come soon enough to suit me. I have not been this excited about a new series in a long time. And lest there be snark about a prejudiced opinion because I know the author and think he is uber hot, I did not really like his first fiction novels. They were merely meh. But this? This ROCKS.
Ace Atkins: The Ranger (Putnum; $25.95). From the acclaimed, award-winning author comes an extraordinary new series about a real hero, and the real Deep South. Ace Atkins returns with an extraordinary new series. Northeast Mississippi, hill country, rugged and notorious for outlaws since the Civil War, where killings are as commonplace as in the Old West. To Quinn Colson, it's home-but not the home he left when he went to Afghanistan. Now an Army Ranger, he returns to a place overrun by corruption, and finds his uncle, the county sheriff, dead-a suicide, he's told, but others whisper murder. In the days that follow, it will be up to Colson to discover the truth, not only about his uncle, but about his family, his friends, his town, and not least about himself. And once the truth is discovered, there is no turning back.
-
For you military/COD war games people, the new Larry Correia book is stellar. TOTALLY different from Monster Hunter International and Hard Magic, but still awesome it is own unique way.
Dead Six: Larry Correia (Baen Books): Michael Valentine, veteran and former member of an elite private military company, has been recruited by the government to conduct a secret counter-terror operation in the Persian Gulf nation of Zubara. The unit is called Dead Six. Their mission is to take the fight to the enemy and not get caught.
Lorenzo, assassin and thief extraordinaire, is being blackmailed by the world’s most vicious crime lord. His team has to infiltrate the Zubaran terrorist network and pull off an impossible heist or his family will die. When Dead Six compromises his objective, Lorenzo has a new job: Find and kill Valentine.
As allegiances are betrayed and the nation descends into a bloody civil war, Lorenzo and Valentine must face off. Two men. Two missions. Only one will win.
Larry wrote this book in tandem with an active duty military guy. The first few chapters are available as A FREE SAMPLE HERE (http://www.webscription.net/chapters/A9781451637588/A9781451637588.htm?blurb).
-
I just finished Lee Child's latest, The Affair. Y'all know from my histrionic explosion over the choice of Tom Cruise to play Jack Reacher in "One Shot" that I am a huge Reacher fan. I consider that the most fucked up casting decision in movie history. That's like letting the late Anna Nicole Smith play Jackie Kennedy. But the word from the book tour from The Affair is that Child is telling people to piss off, that Cruise is a great choice, and that despite the fact that Reacher's enormous size and physique is almost a separate character in and of itself in terms of impact on the plot line of EVERY BOOK, it really doesn't matter that Jack Reacher's penis is bigger than Tom Cruise.
So add Child's position about the Jumping Couch Monkey to the plot of the latest book, and you have to come to the inevitable conclusion.
Child is officially a sell-out.
The Affair reads like a movie treatment than the creative Reacher novels I have come to know and love. You have the hot sheriff, the mysterious death in a tiny military town in Bumfuck, MS, racial tensions, and the perquisite stupid redneck scumbags that try to pick a fight with Reacher several times with predictable results. The plotlines are so obvious, even when Child thinks he is being clever - the red herrings are real... until they aren't, for the most implausible of reasons. For example, the Sheriff's official Marine Corps file is a top secret document incapable of being tampered with - until is isn't. It's like he wrote himself into a crack and then just knocked a hole in the wall to get out of it.
It also has the longest and most detailed love scenes of any of the previous Reacher books. That is not necessarily a bad thing for those of us who would leave our husbands for Jack Reacher, but this many books into the series, with the female Reacher fans being used to just fantasizing about those love scenes, a long, detailed description of Reacher having sex is almost TMI now. But... no action movie is complete without a love scene, so Child had to write one. Another plot device checked off the list!
I believe Child is winding down the series. We get explanations for everything from Reacher's D.C. bank account to the folding toothbrush to his thought process in deciding to hit the road and go off the grid. Then in the end, we discover what lead him to Margrave, Georgia, which, of course, is the setting for the very first Reacher novel (and the absolute best book of the bunch) Killing Floor.
Child started out in television production, and it has become obvious that he is coming full circle. He is beginning to focus more on "How can I write these books to be movies that will make me money?" rather than "How can I write the kick ass stories about an awesome character my fans have come to know and love?" James Patterson and others have followed this same path - create a unique character, write interesting books, then once you become a household name, start churning out the pabulum for the masses, while allowing everything that attracted the real readers to your stories to wither on the vine. To her credit, Charlaine Harris is quitting on Sookie Stackhouse before this happens. Child should do the same.
Bottom line, The Affair is a good book. It is not, however, a good Reacher book.
-
Now that I have vented my spleen over how much The Affair breaks my heart... on to Virgil Flowers!
John Sanford is best known for his Prey novels, which feature Lucas Davenport, a cop/investigator in Minneapolis. Recently, Sanford spun off one of Davenport's fellow cops, Virgil Flowers, into his own series and they are fabulous. The most recent is Bad Blood - Flowers (or, as he is affectionately and repeatedly referred to throughout all the books "that fucking Flowers") is sent to assist a small town sheriff with a nasty murder that turns out to be linked to some seriously horrible stuff.
Sanford is unique in his writing in that he lets you into the bad guy's/guys' head while Flowers and Davenport are kind of stumbling along trying to make sense of it all. So while there's not really a "who dunnit?" factor, you can still get seriously wrapped up in the twists and surprises that come along, even though you know what both sides are thinking and planning and doing. It actually makes the stories flow easier.
Flowers is a scoundrel, and has a thing for the ladies, so he scores with anything with boobies. But his personality flaws make him engaging and likeable and yeah, I would let him tumble me around for fun too. He is smart without being improbably so, and he makes mistakes that cost him and others, so overall the stories have a very realistic flair to them.
I like the Virgil Flowers books as much as I like the many Lucas Davenport books, and hope Sanford keeps Virgil around for a good while.
-
Latest Book: Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. By Seth Grahame-Smith
This is NOT twilighty true blood with glittery vamps kissing humans in the sunshine kind of book. This is a wickedly funny, very entertaining premise that combines real events in the life of our 16th President with his secret quest to rid this nation of vampires, starting with the one that killed his mother.
The Lost Colony of Roanoke? Vampires.
The spread of slave market in the South? Vampires buying the old, young and infirm to use as a buffet at parties.
This is just a great book. For anyone who has ever read one of the many MANY biographies of Abe Lincoln, you can see how his dark, tormented, depressive personality would blend quite well into this story line. It is a quick and easy read, and very enjoyable.
They are also making a movie from it, due out next year.
From some reviews:
By the way, I missed this thread, but read the book around the same time as this this discussion took place.
Just watched the movie. I know it's cliché, but DAMN was the book better.
Granted, some of the action scenes were cool, but way too "special effectsy". The scene where he chases a vampire across the backs of a trampling herd of horses comes to mind.
Henry is not revealed to be a vampire himself until much later in the movie. What purpose does that serve besides cheapening the whole dynamic of the character? Abe didn't want to abolish slavery to cut off the lifeblood of the vampires. He did it because of his fondness of his black buddy from childhood (a character not in the book). He doesn't kill hundreds of vampires because he vowed to erradicate them to avenge his mother. He went after specific ones that did him wrong, including a "head vampire" character that didn't exist in the book. The cool way that the book intertwined historical fact, people Abe knew (for example Edgar Allen Poe) and places in Abe's real life are absent here. The fact that the protagonist is Abe Lincoln is almost coincidental here. His name could have been Robert Daniels and the script could have remained virtually the same. Going to refrain from spoilers, but one of the best parts of the book was the ending. No John Wilkes Boothe here. The movie ends before Lincoln's assassination.
Bottom line: read the book. Don't bother with the movie.
-
Some of ya'll need to read the "Left Behind" series
It could end up being a "How To' series for a few of you in the future.......
-
Some of ya'll need to read the "Left Behind" series
It could end up being a "How To' series for a few of you in the future.......
I let Kirk Cameron read it aloud while VV is giving him a rusty trombone. I highly recommend this as the inflection gets really intense when the hobbit finds a nugget he can sink his teeth into.
-
I let Kirk Cameron read it aloud while VV is giving him a rusty trombone. I highly recommend this as the inflection gets really intense when the hobbit finds a nugget he can sink his teeth into.
Nothing like dying my facial hair brown in the morning.
-
Some of ya'll need to read the "Left Behind" series
It could end up being a "How To' series for a few of you in the future.......
Ironically enough, this series can be compared to Fifty Shades of Grey. If not for the subject matter, they would never have been read by anyone - the writing itself is ATROCIOUS.
-
By the way, I missed this thread, but read the book around the same time as this this discussion took place.
Just watched the movie. I know it's cliché, but DAMN was the book better.
Granted, some of the action scenes were cool, but way too "special effectsy". The scene where he chases a vampire across the backs of a trampling herd of horses comes to mind.
Henry is not revealed to be a vampire himself until much later in the movie. What purpose does that serve besides cheapening the whole dynamic of the character? Abe didn't want to abolish slavery to cut off the lifeblood of the vampires. He did it because of his fondness of his black buddy from childhood (a character not in the book). He doesn't kill hundreds of vampires because he vowed to erradicate them to avenge his mother. He went after specific ones that did him wrong, including a "head vampire" character that didn't exist in the book. The cool way that the book intertwined historical fact, people Abe knew (for example Edgar Allen Poe) and places in Abe's real life are absent here. The fact that the protagonist is Abe Lincoln is almost coincidental here. His name could have been Robert Daniels and the script could have remained virtually the same. Going to refrain from spoilers, but one of the best parts of the book was the ending. No John Wilkes Boothe here. The movie ends before Lincoln's assassination.
Bottom line: read the book. Don't bother with the movie.
(http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d58/saniflush/only-slightly-less-accurate.jpg)