ghost of miles Posted July 16, 2004 Author Report Posted July 16, 2004 Thomas Merton, NEW SEEDS OF CONTEMPLATION. Quote
ghost of miles Posted July 18, 2004 Author Report Posted July 18, 2004 Just started David Leavering Lewis' WHEN HARLEM WAS IN VOGUE, a book about the Harlem Renaissance. For anybody who's interested in early-20th-century Harlem, you might want to check out Jervis Anderson's THIS WAS HARLEM (which covers 1900-1950) and A RENAISSANCE IN HARLEM, a collection of WPA/Federal Writers' Project pieces which focuses on everyday life in Harlem during the 1930s (some of the writers include the then-unknown Dorothy West and Ralph Ellison). Quote
J Larsen Posted July 19, 2004 Report Posted July 19, 2004 Just finished The Sound and the Fury and just starting Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Quote
BruceH Posted July 20, 2004 Report Posted July 20, 2004 Just started Movieland: Hollywood and the Great American Dream Culture, by Jerome Charyn. So far, so good. Quote
Granta Posted July 22, 2004 Report Posted July 22, 2004 The Narrows - Michael Connelly Flesh and Blood - John Harvey The Light of Day - Graham Swift The House of Sleep - Jonathan Coe and in progress The Winshaw Legacy - Jonathan Coe Quote
jazzbo Posted July 22, 2004 Report Posted July 22, 2004 I'm rereading a book that has a personal history with me, "Roots of War" by Richard J. Barnet. Not an easy read, but a very eye-opening book about our society and the beurocratic homicide we have been inflicting around the world throughout the last century (and now into this one). Reading this book during the height of the Bush senior years really propped my lids up and they've never been relaxed since, as little has changed. I felt a need to reread this now that we're openly at war again and sure enough, this has plenty to say that is pertinent right now. I've found seven other of his books cheap and they're on the way. Quote
Stefan Wood Posted July 22, 2004 Report Posted July 22, 2004 Tales of Genji -- halfway through the first volume. I expect to be done around 2005...... Quote
ghost of miles Posted July 31, 2004 Author Report Posted July 31, 2004 Still reading Lewis' WHEN HARLEM WAS IN VOGUE, but have been shamed by my brother into finally starting Steinbeck's GRAPES OF WRATH (somehow never got around to reading it). Just ordered Douglas Brinkley's TOUR OF DUTY: JOHN KERRY & THE VIETNAM WAR, and hope to read that next weekend. Anybody here ever read Bernard Fall's HELL IN A VERY SMALL PLACE and STREET WITHOUT JOY? I've wanted to read him ever since coming across mention of his work in Michael Herr's DISPATCHES... supposedly some definitive writing on the French experience in Vietnam. Quote
brownie Posted July 31, 2004 Report Posted July 31, 2004 Anybody here ever read Bernard Fall's HELL IN A VERY SMALL PLACE and STREET WITHOUT JOY? I've wanted to read him ever since coming across mention of his work in Michael Herr's DISPATCHES... supposedly some definitive writing on the French experience in Vietnam. I read Bernard Fall's 'Hell Is a Very Small Place' a long time ago (but well after 'The Grapes of Wrath' ! I remember a very thoroughly researched and gripping book about the battle of Dien Bien Phu. The only book I cared to read about this event. I thought a serious non-French writer would make more sense of this than a French one! I still remember the trauma that accompanied the tragic outcome of that battle which nearly coincided with the end of my early youth. I have journalists friends who covered the Vietnam War and who had very nice things to say about Fall. Also about Michael Herr! Quote
ghost of miles Posted July 31, 2004 Author Report Posted July 31, 2004 Brownie, The culture and the ideological battles of 1950s France are fascinating to me--any recommendations for books either in English or translated into English about that era? (My French is only good enough for scanning, not really for lengthy sit-down book-reading.) Quote
brownie Posted August 1, 2004 Report Posted August 1, 2004 Ghost, not really a specialist in post-WWII French politics, just a curious follower. One book I would recommend is the biography of Pierre Mendes-France by French journalist Jean Lacouture. It seems to be still available in the USA. Mendes-France was appointed Premier shortly after the fall of Dien Bien Phu and was very instrumental in arranging a reasonable end to the IndoChina war, something that his predecessors never managed to do. Mendes France was also involved in a number of top decisions that led to the reconstruction of France after WWII. A man of the Left, he also feuded with de Gaulle and broke away from gaullist politics when de Gaulle was brought back to power in 1958. Quote
BruceH Posted August 3, 2004 Report Posted August 3, 2004 Against All Enemies, by Richard A. Clarke Quote
ghost of miles Posted August 5, 2004 Author Report Posted August 5, 2004 Am about 150 pages into Brinkley's TOUR OF DUTY and highly recommend it, especially in light of the lies that a GOP-supported group is trying to spread about John Kerry's very distinguished service record. Brinkley spoke with every person who truly served with or under Kerry; his book is well-documented ,and doesn't even include a firsthand account with Jim Rassmann, the Special Forces soldier--and future registered Republican--whom Kerry pulled from the river while under fire. Brinkley thought Rassmann's name was spelled with one n and was unable to locate him. Rassmann picked up the book in an Oregon bookstore last January, found his name in the index, read Brinkley's account, and started crying. Several days later he flew out to Iowa and joined the Kerry campaign. Aside from that, it's also a compelling read of a troubled period and Kerry's involvement in Vietnam Veterans Against the War, as well as his efforts to put the POW/MIA issue to rest and to help restore relations between the United States and Vietnam. (That's how he became friends with John McCain, who came to his defense today.) Brownie, thanks for that recommendation! Quote
ghost of miles Posted August 10, 2004 Author Report Posted August 10, 2004 Still reading TOUR OF DUTY, but I've also started Gene Lees' LEADER OF THE BAND, a biography of Woody Herman, in anticipation of the new Mosaic set. Anybody else ever read this Herman bio? Quote
jazzbo Posted August 10, 2004 Report Posted August 10, 2004 I'm still reading Richard J. Barnet's "Roots of War". . . . It's an amazingly thought provoking book. I've six others of his lined up after this, hoping I can make it through a few more with impetus. I keep thinking how we have been involved in one war or another, tiny or fullblown, since WWII and how our entire culture seems to be driven by the war business. ARGH! Quote
ghost of miles Posted August 10, 2004 Author Report Posted August 10, 2004 I'm still reading Richard J. Barnet's "Roots of War". . . . It's an amazingly thought provoking book. I've six others of his lined up after this, hoping I can make it through a few more with impetus. I keep thinking how we have been involved in one war or another, tiny or fullblown, since WWII and how our entire culture seems to be driven by the war business. ARGH! Old Ike, of all people, nailed it in 1960 with his "military-industrial complex" speech. Quote
jazzbo Posted August 10, 2004 Report Posted August 10, 2004 I know, but it's very complicated, and it's like a dirty little secret no one wants to talk about that I would shout off the mountaintops if my paranoid (clinically, and yet with good reason at other times) wife would let me! If we don't change our energy useage and our munitions building and peddling we might as well start looking for another planet to use up, fast. Quote
paul secor Posted August 23, 2004 Report Posted August 23, 2004 Just began reading and am enjoying Michael Dirda's Readings - Essays and Literary Entertainments. Picked it up beacause it includes an essay on Guy Davenport, perhaps my favorite essayist. What's happened to this thread? Doesn't anyone read in August? B-) Quote
7/4 Posted August 23, 2004 Report Posted August 23, 2004 Just began reading and am enjoying Michael Dirda's Readings - Essays and Literary Entertainments. Picked it up beacause it includes an essay on Guy Davenport, perhaps my favorite essayist. What's happened to this thread? Doesn't anyone read in August? B-) Not really. But I did pick up Dan Brown's Angels & Demons and PK Dick's Lies, Inc at B&N yesterday. Maybe I'll take a ook at the Brown this evening. Quote
nmorin Posted August 23, 2004 Report Posted August 23, 2004 Just started Philip K. Dick's "Vulcan's Hammer" this weekend. This spring I decided to reread all his novels in chronological order. Quote
Hardbopjazz Posted August 23, 2004 Report Posted August 23, 2004 I just finished this book The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time and now I am on this one. Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory Quote
ghost of miles Posted August 23, 2004 Author Report Posted August 23, 2004 Started this yesterday: BeforetheStorm It's a book about Barry Goldwater and the rise of the modern right from the ashes of the 1964 election. I met the author at a party Saturday night and we yakked for quite a long time--great guy whom I hope to hook up with again. He's very much a liberal, but conservatives would enjoy this book as well (attested to by William Kristol's glowing review for the book). Perlstein's also done some very good writing about the 2004 campaign. He's the Village Voice's chief national political correspondent--you can find his pieces online here. Quote
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