[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Thunder-Times-Robinson-Borzoi/dp/1400044979/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1292072090&sr=8-1"]Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson [/ame] [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Frank-Voice-James-Kaplan/dp/0385518048/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1292072201&sr=1-1-spell"]Frank: The Voice [/ame] Interesting the similarities in their lives. Both obsessed with class, status and ambition. Both took their craft to another level-often cited at the highest level one can aspire to in boxing and popular music. And both were dogged about their draft status during WWII. Reading these two books at the same time made think about the whole, "Greatest Generation," ideal. There's a film or book there-not everyone was like Bob Feller, running to enlist. I'd like to see someone go back an work that territory about the ambivalence some in that generation had about serving. There's more to it than being classified as, 4F.
I've got a list of about 7-8 books I want to read over winter break from school and this is the first on the list: GEORGE CARLIN - LAST WORDS
Got this and Bobby Charlton's My United Years autobiography from Amazon, since they were both so cheap. Arrived really early, too, so I was chuffed to bits. Just started reading it this week in short bursts; only about three chapters in at the moment, but it's still quite good.
Back to books about words, dictionaries, things like that. This one is a cracker by any standard, let alone for a book about the making of a dictionary: Henry Hitchings, Defining the World: The Extraordinary Story of Dr. Johnson's Dictionary
Stalking the Dragon by Mike Resnick. A detective in a New York populated by goblins, trolls, gorgons, etc has one day to find a kidnapped dragon and get it to a competition. It has a few funny bits, but they tend to be used repeatedly. I might have enjoyed it when I was 12. Downloaded Captain Burle by Emile Zola. It is poorly translated, but otherwise not a bad story. It concerns an army quartermaster who is the son of a war hero who has been embezzling money to finance his weakness for questionable women.
Just finishing Gaiman's Fragile Things - thanks for the recommendation! It has been fun, and creepy, and thought provoking, and befuddling. Just right! Getting ready to start this: Paul Murray's Skippy Dies, about the events leading up to the death of a teen at an all-boys school in Dublin who dies during a donut eating contest. I believe "tragicomic" is the right descriptive.
For some reason, I have been reading all the Shannara books in reverse order and its been working for me.
I own this one and The Greatest Show on Earth by the same author... and of course, mi libro su libro...
Holy ! this is great!!!! These people are beyond Western imagination. I cant begin to recount the number of jaw droppers in this book. Its fantastic. And the shining capper is that, in one character, the Spanish Christians are at least as culturally insane.
The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom. A comic mystery about a Londoner who takes a job as the librarian for a remote Northern Irish town. Upon his arrival things immediately start going wrong for the guy, most importantly he finds the library's 15,000 books have vanished and the City Council seem to think it is his responisiblity to find them without pestering the police with the problem. It has been quite amusing and a fun read thus far (about 60% through).
I've read the first chapter or so - loved it, set it down, and then it was captured by the book gremlins. I'll keep an eye out for it at the used book store so I can start again.
Just finishing up The Three-Minute Universe by Barbara Paul. 'Tis the season for some light, media-tie-in Kindle reading.
Drawings From the Gulag by Danzig Baldaev Drawings from a former gulag prison guard. He's also the man behind the Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia. While the RCTE was sanctioned by the Soviets, this stuff would've found him in the gulag himself. Fascinating and brutal stuff.
I learned about that whole stuff from "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich"... it is worth a read if you feel up to dealing with the gulag again...