Books we are reading.

[KCPowercat]

I don't normally read, some of the books you guys are describing sound cool though...but I did get one book for christmas that so far is awesome.

[Beermo]

finished reading wolves, jackals and foxes: the assassins who changed history. by kris hollington.

a decent book. it's broke down into 36 chapters. he tells you about different assassinations and attempts. names names and lays out who the target was, why he was a target and who was doing the targeting. he also goes into the history of some of the assassin's. he also covers a lot of the political history behind the different assassinations. you learn about individual assassins, group assassins, etc...

here's an excerpt from the intro.

"this book is the first to study in detail not only the causes and surprising consequences of assassination, but also the crucial seconds of the act itself and the psychology of the assassin in an effort to understand why some assassinations succeed where others fail - and what might be done to prevent them. it is also the first book to examine the fascinating facts and figures of assassination, revealing everything from the success rate by type of weapon and the escape and survival rates of assassins to the most popular time of year and location for assassination. for the first time, too, it provides the definitive answer to the most important question of all: can one murder really change the world?"

in case you were wondering about the stats, here are some.

most popular for an assassination..

time of day -  6-9 pm
day - friday
month - april, followed closely by november
location - public for heads of state. home for all.

it was a good read especially if you are into world history. he also notes that many of the lone assassins are mentally unstable and many of them had previously targeted people other than the one they actually killed. arthur bremer who shot george wallace previously had targeted mcgovern but it didn't work out so he went for wallace instead. he didn't care about the political ends, just his own.

i would recommend it.

[Highlander]

for the first time, too, it provides the definitive answer to the most important question of all: can one murder really change the world?"

I know it is a major spoiler but what was the conclusion?  I certainly think the assasination of Lincoln changed the course of reconstruction in south by replacing his reconcilitory tone with Andrew Johnson's harsh one (not to mention bring to office what was probably the worst president in the history of the US).  The assasination of Ferdinand sparked WWI but that was most likely going to happen anyway.  Certainly, had the Valkryie conspiritors suceeded, the world would most likely be a different place today although much of the damage done by Hitler had already happened. 

[Beermo]

the book had all sorts of facts. i think he concluded that it's possible to change the way things are in the political world by one carefully placed assassin.

he didn't go into lincoln or even the archduke that much. he did go into some of the ethnic genocide, but not a whole lot. he did delve into the conspiracy concerning the death of that marko guy from serbia.

[NDTeve]

Just finished "Blood Meridian" and "The Good War"...getting ready to read American Pastoral by Phillip Roth.

Started going through this list and have liked every one so far...

http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature/75-books

[Gretz]

I read Blood Meridian last year and quite enjoyed it.  What did you think of American Pastoral?  I've had it sitting on my shelf for years but it's never managed to surf to the top of my reading queue.

Current reads:
The Clinton tapes
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men: short story collection by David Foster Wallace
The Reprieve: the second of the Roads of Freedom series, Sartre
The Muslim Discovery of Europe: Bernhard Lewis, an intriguing look at history from the perspective of the Muslims, as the title suggests.

Recent reads:
Read some Cormac McCarthy over the last few months and find it compelling, if a bit one-dimensional.  After a couple of reads one starts to say to oneself, "I get it, Cormac; humans are vile and violence is our natural state."  Whether one agrees with that world-view or not, the writing is compelling and there's some sort of atmospheric feeling to his style that prevents the fairly simple world view from getting old and even annoying as it does with, say Tom Robbins.

Read Infinite Jest last summer, and I think it is probably the best piece of contemporary lit I've ever read, though, to be fair, I think I've had pretty bad luck with contemp lit and haven't read as much of it as I maybe should have because of myriad bad experiences.  It's intimidating @ 1100 pages of thick, verbose prose but very rewarding and definitely worth the time investment.

Others recent reads include The Age of Reason by Sartre, which is excellent and a very fast read.  Wading into the second installment of the roads to freedom series now.  Read The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass and found it pretty dissappointing.  Had previously readThe Flounder and found it far superior to Tin Drum despite the Nobel Prize having been awarded for the latter.  I suppose it is a stab at portraying the tortured German soul, a la 99 Luftbaloons,  through historical allegory and perhaps succeeds at that but I didn't find it very compelling.  Read Under the Volcano by Malcom Lowry last spring and absolutely loved it.  Notes from the Underground was predictably excellent as all Dostoevsky is.  Jared Diamond's the third Chimpanzee was very interesting but I get the feeling a lot of it is a little dated, having been published in 1992, with all the recent advances and discoveries in anthropology/genetics/evolutionary science/etc.  The Great Derrangement, by Matt Taibbi is a quick and good read, as much for entertainment value as for its premise about radicalization through selective hearing.  That's all that comes to mind right now.

[grovester]

Finally finished "Underworld" by Don Delillo, another word buster ala "Infinite Jest".  I like parts of it, it's pretty non-linear, but overall was a bit disappointed.  Like Gretz, I think its release date, 97, leaves some of it dated.

Am now reading "Blood's a Rover" by James Ellroy, the latest in his "American Tabloid" triptych.  Curious to see if I can get in to it again after 9 years.  Thouroughly enjoyed the first two, noirish quasi-fictional american history from the 40's forward.

[warwickland]

http://usc.collegepostings.com/photos/0 ... 4724_t.jpg

I have been re-reading Natures Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. Its absolute porn for an urban, geographic, and environmental history fanatic. Epic. Actually I've re-read it and I just flip open random pages when on the pot.

[NDTeve]

http://www.amazon.com/Race-Desegregatio ... 1593320396

Anybody ever read this?

Race, Law and the Desegregation of Public Schools - uses KC as a case study. Have it on my Amazon Wish List but a little nerdier than my usual..

[NDTeve]

Definitely want to check out Infinite Jest and Nature's Metropolis...both sound compelling.

[KCMax]

"Nudge" by Cass Sunstein

and "The Big Book of Basketball" by Bill Simmons

[drumatix]

Definitely want to check out Infinite Jest and Nature's Metropolis...both sound compelling.

I've loved almost everything I've read from David Foster Wallace, but Infinite Jest is tough reading. That being said... I'm just finishing Infinite Jest and dig it, although reading it feels a bit like work to me.

Also reading "A Deeper Blue" about the life & music of Townes Van Zandt, which is a great read if you like his music, and a small stack of Carlos Casteneda books -- a friend couldn't believe that I'd never read any. They're far more interesting and frightening than I thought they'd be.

[Gretz]

I've loved almost everything I've read from David Foster Wallace, but Infinite Jest is tough reading. That being said... I'm just finishing Infinite Jest and dig it, although reading it feels a bit like work to me.

I know what you mean about it being "work" to read.  Very dense, verbose prose.  I definitely noticed feeling smarter and more articulate when reading for an hour or two a day for the couple of months it took me to get through it and for months afterwards, as well.  What did you think of The Broom of the System?  Haven't read it yet, but it's on my list.  Critics seem to kind of brush it off as a decent first effort while heaping praise on Infinite Jest, so wonder how good it is.

I hear his last, incomplete novel is supposed to be published sometime.  There was an excerpt in the New Yorker that I caught a few months back.  It's supposedly about boredom and centers around a group of IRS employees.  I'm not sure how far along it was when he offed himself but it sounded like there was enough there to make for a decent read and the sample they provided was excellent.  That issue has an excellent sprawling article about DFW and his life and death as well.  Def worth checking out:

The fiction sample:
http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/featur ... on_wallace

The bio article:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009 ... a_fact_max

Lots of other goodies on the New Yorker website that I'm seeing now including a couple of other excerpts from the new book "the Pale King" which appears to be about a 600 page manuscript.

[loftguy]

Just read McCarthy's "The Road".  Made the mistake of opening it at bedtime, to just read a few pages.  Spare and bleak, but a riviting read.  Gretz, your observation of Cormac is apt.  No bbq for me, for a while.

Also recently finished "The Shipping News"  by Annie Proulx (1993).  A unique bit of fiction that pops into my consciousness frequently.

For you architects, urban planners,  and also mystery types, I recommend Erik Larson's "The Devil in the White City".  It's packed with historical research about the development and execution of the 1893 Chicago Worlds Fair (ever wonder why the architecture in that town is so amazing?), blended with the parallel story of a serial killer.  It's my impression that many on this forum would find this interesting.

[drumatix]

I know what you mean about it being "work" to read.  Very dense, verbose prose.  I definitely noticed feeling smarter and more articulate when reading for an hour or two a day for the couple of months it took me to get through it and for months afterwards, as well.  What did you think of The Broom of the System? 

You know, I never did read Broom, but did read a few of the short stories/essay compilations (Brief Interviews, Oblivion, Girl With Curious Hair, A Supposedly Fun Thing, and Consider the Lobster), so maybe his novels are just inherently denser & trickier. He really loves playing with language, which makes for wonderful reading. Don't know how I forgot all about Broom... maybe it had something to do with getting through the thousand pages of Infinite Jest...

[jdubwaldo]

Trying to lighten it up here a little....  I'm reading Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang.  Chelsea Handler = outrageous + hilarious for any ladies here.  She makes me laugh so hard I cry.  I like her show, love her books.  We were on vacation and the mister even read part of "Are you there vodka it's me Chelsea" and he never reads, he gets enough at work.  My job is stressful enough, I try to keep my reading is as easy and leisurely as possible. 

I'm really interested in a couple things I've written down here though about KC's evolution (I don't have the names in front of me).  I started on the Mafia and the Machine, but it is taking me awhile to get through.  By the time I actually have a little time to read, this requires too much focus and mental capacity for me most of the time, unfortunately.

[shinatoo]

Just finished Babbit by Sinclar Lewis. Like it's pre-depression era brother "You Can't Go Home Again" it is eerily relevant to our current times. The portrait of the Good Citizens' League reminded me of the Tea Party.

The first half almost made me put it down as it stunk of Lewis' whiny, sarcastic, emo kid-ism, but I'm glad I finished it.

Not near as well written as You Can't Go Home Again, but much more concise. I give it a three out of five.

[shinatoo]

Just Finished "The Little Prince" by Antoine De Saint-Exupery, and it was beautiful. "Anything essential is invisible to the eyes."

[shinatoo]

Just finished "The Jungle". Read it with my son for his Social Studies class. It was a little heady for a freshman so I was trying to help him understand it better. One of the most rewarding things I have done with my son. Plus it was so much better to read as an adult. Class stopped reading before the major Socialist manifesto at the end. I suppose that wouldn't go over well out here in the suburbs, but it was really so tame. But seriously, stop trying to protect my kids from thinking independently.

By the way. It was nothing like the "The Jungle Book." Disney really did a major rewrite for the movie. But I can see the Mogwi/Jurgis parallel.

[KCMax]

"Traffic" by Tom Vanderbilt, and "The Black Swan" by Nassim Taleb.

Traffic is a look at how automobile traffic shapes our culture, what it says about us, ways we can improve it. Some chapters are pretty dry while others are really fascinating, especially if you're an urban planning dork.

Black Swan is more of a philosophical book written by a hedge fund manager about the blind spot of unexpectedness we never seem to realize. Taleb has supposedly made his fortune on market crashes. His writing style is a bit too cutesy, but you get a good nugget of truth now and then even though I think his overall point is a bit too simplistic.