Finished The Rum Diary by Hunter S Thompson over the weekend, also nearly finished with Time's Arrow by Martin Amis. Both recommended. Reading Mitsuo Fuchida's Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan on the side. I've known the US side of the story pretty well, but catching the rivalry between Combined Fleet Headquarters and the Naval General Staff makes you wonder if the General Staff's plan might have been enough to force the US Navy into a battle that might have put their carriers at risk more.
Just finished Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis. Now tackling Thank You For Not Smoking by Christopher Buckley.
Liar's Poker is awesome. My favorite part was the trader who tells him to buy $10 worth of travelers life insurance because "I feel lucky."
Looks like their finally shooting Rum Diary with Johnny Depp. Should be interesting to see him play someone in their early 20s again.
I'll probably post this on the "random thoughts" thread, but it fits here, too: Jazz critic Ted Gioia also writes about "conceptual fiction" and the changing status of "realism" and fiction. http://www.conceptualfiction.com/notes_on_conceptual_fiction In a strange quirk of history, literature in the late 20th and early 21st century failed to follow in the footsteps of Joyce and Pound. Instead, conceptual fiction came to the fore, and a wide range of writers—highbrow and lowbrow—focused on literary metaphysics, a scenario in which sentences stayed the same as they always were, but the “reality” they described was subject to modification, distortion and enhancement. This was seen in the magical realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Salman Rushdie; the alternative histories of Michael Chabon and Philip Roth; the modernist allegories of José Saramago; the political dystopias of Margaret Atwood and Kazuo Ishiguro; the quasi-sci-fi scenarios of Jonathan Lethem and David Foster Wallace; the urban mysticism of Haruki Murakami and Mark Z. Danielewski; the meta-reality musings of Paul Auster and Italo Calvino; the edgy futurism of J.G. Ballard and Iain Banks; and the works of hosts of other writers. Elsewhere on this website, Gioia lists the best fiction since 1985. His choices include Robinson, of course, but some surprises as well.
I am reading The Road now and it is unbelievable. I think when I'm done I'll read it again - and I never do that.
The book implies that Kemp is actually 30. Yeamon is the one in his early 20's. It sounds like they folded the Yeamon character into Sanderson, who'll be played by Aaron Eckhart. Amber Heard plays Chenault.
Not this one specifically, but since it is the season of the Master's defense, most of my reading time is committed to these babies.
This sounds intriguing. Love to hear more about this. As for me, presently reading William Bennett's America: The Last Best Hope Vol. 2. Great read and really makes history readable. Yes its from an American perspective, but Bennett does a fairly good job to not bias the subjects. I'm also trying to bull my way through Red Hot Lies by Christopher Horner. And its a real chore. He may know his shit, but lord his writing is bad. Repetitive, tedious and not entertaining at all.
The Roger the Chapman series is about an itinerant peddler, called a chapman back then, who uses his curious nature to solve "puzzles" as he calls them, most of the time he is trying to solve a murder. The stories are quite interesting, and I always look forward to reading the next one. I just finished Heroes, by Valerio Massimo Manfredi. On its original publication in Europe it was called The Talisman of Troy. There are a number of books I have read over the years that have had titles published under different names here and abroad; I always wonder, especially when the book was first published over there: do they think we are not smart enough over here to read a book called The Talisman of Troy, but would rather read a bookcalled Heroes? Or we would rather read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as opposed to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone?
Strangely, I requested The Talisman of Troy from the Columbus Library via inter-library loan, and was told it was not available for lending by any of the owning libraries. I tried the State Library of Ohio for it, as sometimes some libraries have better luck than others, but again was turned down. When I recalled the alternate title, on a lark I requested a copy, and received it about a week later.
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Mussolinis-Intellectuals-Fascist-Political-Thought/dp/0691127905/ref=pd_sim_b_2"]Amazon.com: Mussolini's Intellectuals: Fascist Social and Political Thought: A. James Gregor: Books[/ame]
I'm reading Ficciones one or two bits at a time, so started reading this too: The Maltese Falcon from this collection:
War as they knew it: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and America in a time of unrest Weird combination of topics, but a very entertaining read nonetheless.
Last week I re-read Cees Nooteboom's Rituelen (available in English as Rituals). I'd forgotten what a brilliant book it is. I'd recommend it to anyone especially when much of the new literature that's out there is so shallow. One of the best books of modern Dutch literature. [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Rituals-Harvest-Book-Cees-Nooteboom/dp/0156003945/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240573921&sr=8-5"]Amazon.com: Rituals (Harvest Book): Cees Nooteboom: Books[/ame]
I love all of Hammet's fiction, but I think the editors here have saved the best for last. Red Harvest is one of my favorite novels, period.