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Posted
On 1/27/2019 at 9:35 AM, Brad said:

Having just finished Howards End, one of the best books I've read in a long time, I'm now starting

 

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I finished this just now. A rather shocking book. Won't say anymore for those who might want to read it. 

Posted (edited)
6 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

Wrapping up Victory City (which has been excellent) and getting ready to start this:

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Please let us know what you think of the Bates book, I've been interested in that topic for a long time, I'm just starting this book:

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Edited by Matthew
Posted
18 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

Wrapping up Victory City (which has been excellent) and getting ready to start this:

9780807849293.jpg

 

12 hours ago, Matthew said:

Please let us know what you think of the Bates book, I've been interested in that topic for a long time, I'm just starting this book:

51gTosQRZOL._SX333_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

This book might interest you. 

UNEXAMPLED COURAGE:The Blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S. Truman and Judge J. Waties Waring by Richard Gergel. 

Posted
13 hours ago, Matthew said:

Please let us know what you think of the Bates book, I've been interested in that topic for a long time, I'm just starting this book:

51gTosQRZOL._SX333_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

That’s the other Pullman-porters book on my to-read list... great Pullman-curious minds think alike, eh? ^_^ We’ll have to trade reviews! 

Posted
1 hour ago, Matthew said:

 

Thanks for the recommendation! it looks like an interesting read. 

It received a good review from David Blight, the Dean of Civil War historians (along with Eric Foner), which is high praise indeed. Blight was just awarded the Lincoln Prize for his bio on Frederick Douglass, the top honor in civil war history studies. 

Posted
On 2/9/2019 at 0:55 PM, Brad said:

Having read And Quiet Flows the Don at least a year ago, I'm now ready to read 

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I'm a Russian literature and history junkie, but I've never read those Sholokhov books.

I need to fix that, add And Quiet Flows the Don to my reading list. 

 

Posted
23 minutes ago, Brad said:

It received a good review from David Blight, the Dean of Civil War historians (along with Eric Foner), which is high praise indeed. Blight was just awarded the Lincoln Prize for his bio on Frederick Douglass, the top honor in civil war history studies. 

Foner's history of the Reconstruction is sitting on the table at which I'm typing--hoping to get to it sometime this year.  (It may become my next "breakfast book," which often tends to be a history volume of some kind.  Current "breakfast book" is Joseph C. Goulden's Korea: The Untold Story Of The War.)

Posted
1 hour ago, HutchFan said:

I'm a Russian literature and history junkie, but I've never read those Sholokhov books.

I need to fix that, add And Quiet Flows the Don to my reading list. 

 

I quite liked the first one and it wasn’t hard to find a copy. Finding a copy of the second one was difficult. There seems to be a crying need for a new edition of this series. 

Posted
On 12/11/2010 at 4:56 AM, Dave James said:

Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels For what they are, they're about as good as it gets. Completely and totally mindless and completely and totally entertaining.

I started reading Child's Reacher series and I agree with all points. Reading a Reacher novel is a lot like watching a Rambo movie. The bad guys are sneaky, dirty scumbags that deserve what Reacher dishes out and he will kill or maim them all by the end.

I see that they made 2 movies but... with Tom Cruise as Reacher??? Jack Reacher is 6' 5" 220. Tom Cruise?? Really? No way.

Posted
5 hours ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

I started reading Child's Reacher series and I agree with all points. Reading a Reacher novel is a lot like watching a Rambo movie. The bad guys are sneaky, dirty scumbags that deserve what Reacher dishes out and he will kill or maim them all by the end.

I see that they made 2 movies but... with Tom Cruise as Reacher??? Jack Reacher is 6' 5" 220. Tom Cruise?? Really? No way.

A big Lee Child fan here, but I disagree with Dave James' "completely and totally mindless." While Reacher's near implacable, highly honed physical skills are a key given, especially in that few of his antagonists are aware that they're facing in him not just another very big/muscular guy, every Reacher novel I recall turns not only (and not really that much)  on his ability to be effectively violent but also (and I would say primarily) on his ability to think through/figure out what is always a very puzzling/"what the heck is going on here?" initial situation -- and things typically remain quite puzzling for a good while.. Without the "thinking" Reacher, the bashing Reacher would be up a creek. Further, the bashing Reacher is, I would say, quite thoughtful in his bashing. As is emphasized time and again, he knows exactly how to rapidly muster his immense physical skills to fit the given situation, (we're usually told just how he scopes things out along those lines), while his antagonists typically do not know how to effectively muster the force that's available to them. They're out-thought as much as they're out-fought.

Posted
8 hours ago, Brad said:

It received a good review from David Blight, the Dean of Civil War historians (along with Eric Foner), which is high praise indeed. Blight was just awarded the Lincoln Prize for his bio on Frederick Douglass, the top honor in civil war history studies. 

I've been eyeing that Douglas bio also -- so many good books to read, so little time. Though, when I think of that, I always remember the Twilight Zone episode with Burgess Meredith, Ack!!!!

Posted
13 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

A big Lee Child fan here, but I disagree with Dave James' "completely and totally mindless." While Reacher's near implacable, highly honed physical skills are a key given, especially in that few of his antagonists are aware that they're facing in him not just another very big/muscular guy, every Reacher novel I recall turns not only (and not really that much)  on his ability to be effectively violent but also (and I would say primarily) on his ability to think through/figure out what is always a very puzzling/"what the heck is going on here?" initial situation -- and things typically remain quite puzzling for a good while.. Without the "thinking" Reacher, the bashing Reacher would be up a creek. Further, the bashing Reacher is, I would say, quite thoughtful in his bashing. As is emphasized time and again, he knows exactly how to rapidly muster his immense physical skills to fit the given situation, (we're usually told just how he scopes things out along those lines), while his antagonists typically do not know how to effectively muster the force that's available to them. They're out-thought as much as they're out-fought.

I tend to agree that there is a lot of mindful bashing. :) And the bad guys are so deserving of the bashing/killing that you really have no sympathy for them. Guilty pleasure, really.

I am starting book 5 - I bought a box set of the first 6 books - and so far, I have been able to decipher some things well before Reacher. For instance, in the 3rd book, "The Visitor", I figured out that the victims were being hypnotized by the FBI agent about halfway into the book. (highlight the previous text to see the spoiler). It was one of those books where you close the book and say out loud, "You idiots!! It's right in front of you!" :)

I do enjoy a good action/mystery/adventure book and these are well written. I can see myself going through this series pretty quickly. Heck, I've already gone through 4 of them on two weeks.

Posted

With respect to the two Reacher films, the first one is actually quite serviceable (the fight scene outside the bar with the five smart-ass punks is really well done)...while second is a real dud. Cruise is surprisingly effective in the title role in spite of the significant physical differential.  Lee Child has said that if there is a third Reacher film, Cruise will not reprise his role.  That begs the question, who among today's actors could most effective play Reacher?  I don't see The Rock doing this...but perhaps you disagree.  Something kind of fun to consider.  

FWIW, I have also heard that the third film would be based on "61 Hours" which, IMO, is the best of all the Reacher books.    

 

 

Posted (edited)
19 hours ago, Matthew said:

I've been eyeing that Douglas bio also -- so many good books to read, so little time. Though, when I think of that, I always remember the Twilight Zone episode with Burgess Meredith, Ack!!!!

That is a great episode.  Yes, there is so little time and I find buying books even more addictive than buying CDs. 

Edited by Brad
Posted

Been enjoying the Archer Mayor police procedural series, set in Vermont, about Joe Gunther --  police chief in Brattleboro, later connected with the VBI (Vermont Bureau of Investigation). 

 

The Joe Gunther Series

“Archer Mayor’s Vermont police procedurals are the best thing going…” New York Times Book Review

Archer Mayor’s Joe Gunther detective series, 26 books in all, is one of the most enduring and critically acclaimed police procedural series being written today. For years, Archer has integrated actual police methodology with intricately detailed plot lines into novels that The New York Timeshas called “dazzling,” and Booklist has said are “among the best cop stories being written today.” Whereas many writers base their books on only interviews and scholarly research, Mayor’s novels are based on actual experience in the field. The result adds a depth, detail and veracity to his characters and their tribulations that has led The New York Times to call him “the boss man on procedures,” and the Arizona Daily Star to write, “Few deliver such well-rounded novels of such consistent high quality.”

The Joe Gunther detective series began in 1988 with Open Season, and now includes Borderlines, Scent of Evil, The Skeleton’s Knee, Fruits of the Poisonous Tree, The Dark Root, The Ragman’s Memory, Bellows Falls, The Disposable Man, Occam’s Razor, Marble Mask, Tucker Peak, The Sniper’s Wife, Gatekeeper, The Surrogate Thief, St. Albans Fire, The Second Mouse, Chat, The Catch, The Price of Malice, Red Herring, Tag Man, Paradise City, Three Can Keep A Secret and The Company She Kept.

The Los Angeles Times featured Scent of Evil in its 1992 year-end list of recommend readings and proclaimed The Skeleton’s Knee one of the best ten mystery books of the year” in 1993. That book also prompted The New York Times to call Mayor “one of the most sophisticated stylists in the genre,” and in 1997, to proclaim The Ragman’s Memory one of only eleven “Notable” mysteries of the year—an honor it repeated in 2002 with The Sniper’s Wife.

Me again: I can vouch for "Bury the Lead," "The Catch," "The Ragman's Memory," and "Borderlines."

 

The Joe Gunther Series

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