What Are You Reading?

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GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
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Cambridge, Ohio
hands in the airrr.......
like you just don't carrrrrreeee....
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skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
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Finished The Magnolia Story the other day. A little hokey, but cute. I'm always drawn to these books about entrepreneurs - rags to riches stories. Sadly, it seems as though their ideas of "rags" is vastly different than my own. Most come from upper middle class, which I wouldn't consider poor. The last book like this I read #GIRLBOSS was the same. Just because you choose to hitchhike across the country when you're 20 and shop in thrift stores, doesn't make you homeless.

I'm about 3/4 of the way through Edge by Jeffery Deaver. It's not grabbing me, I just want it to be over. Then I can start The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. My reserved copy finally showed up at the library. They had to bring it in from some podunk town because the local library's copy had been ruined. So happy they offer this service! :)
EXACTLY THIS. Wild, Eat, Pray, Love--same thing. I found both boring as hell, because being well-off enough to go 'find yourself' is a foreign concept to me. My people just have to suck it up and move on with life--no space for navel gazing and wellness travel (lol).
 

Kurben

The Fool on the Hill
Apr 12, 2014
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is it me not knowing or is there, compared to books about WWII, very few about the Vietnam War? I do not mean books about real experiences but novels. The only one i remember right now is Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. Isthat impression correct or wrong? If correct what could the reason be? Not as glorious as WWII? Something else?
 

morgan

Well-Known Member
Jul 11, 2010
29,353
104,579
North Dakota
is it me not knowing or is there, compared to books about WWII, very few about the Vietnam War? I do not mean books about real experiences but novels. The only one i remember right now is Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. Isthat impression correct or wrong? If correct what could the reason be? Not as glorious as WWII? Something else?
Have you read Koko by Peter Straub? The main characters are Vietnam vets. It's part of the Blue Rose Trilogy - The other two books are Mystery and The Throat. I didn't read the last two, so am not sure how focused they are on Vietnam.
 

Spideyman

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Jul 10, 2006
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Just north of Duma Key
is it me not knowing or is there, compared to books about WWII, very few about the Vietnam War? I do not mean books about real experiences but novels. The only one i remember right now is Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. Isthat impression correct or wrong? If correct what could the reason be? Not as glorious as WWII? Something else?
Kurben here is a link to some books. I've read "The Things They Carry". Hard era for me to read about. Lost so many friends.
 

Kingunlucky

Well-Known Member
Aug 20, 2016
368
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is it me not knowing or is there, compared to books about WWII, very few about the Vietnam War? I do not mean books about real experiences but novels. The only one i remember right now is Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. Isthat impression correct or wrong? If correct what could the reason be? Not as glorious as WWII? Something else?

I think you'll find, pretty much, World War 2 fiction and nonfiction dwarfs all others war and military type coverage.
 

Haunted

This is my favorite place
Mar 26, 2008
17,059
29,421
The woods are lovely dark and deep
Went to pick up my reserved books and saw this on the new books display: Very Important Corpses by Simon R. Green; evidently this part of a series. Head fellow has been called to Loch Ness and of his rented car he says "a death trap on four mismatched tyres, with frankly suspicious mileage on the clock and far more character than was good for it; ...the accelerator liked to stick, the brakes only responded to brute force, and you had to catch the gears by surprise." ..."the best you could say about the car was that it wasn't actually trying to crash; it just encouraged you to drive in such a way that some kind of disaster was inevitable." Hoot!
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
92,168
USA
is it me not knowing or is there, compared to books about WWII, very few about the Vietnam War? I do not mean books about real experiences but novels. The only one i remember right now is Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. Isthat impression correct or wrong? If correct what could the reason be? Not as glorious as WWII? Something else?
Not enough time has passed for objectivity (or for those who actually participated to accept 'novelization'). And there is that glory thing, too. America 'lost' (as if anyone wins in war). We don't like to remember that can happen.
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
92,168
USA
Kurben here is a link to some books. I've read "The Things They Carry". Hard era for me to read about. Lost so many friends.
Quite a few of these are non fiction or memoirs. There are novels, but not nearly as many as WWII novels. My personal favorite is The Man in the Box--I read it as a jr high school kid, and it was sobering. Not sure if it's even in print any more.
 

grin willard

"Keep the change, you filthy animal!"
Feb 21, 2017
1,144
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Have you read Koko by Peter Straub? The main characters are Vietnam vets. It's part of the Blue Rose Trilogy - The other two books are Mystery and The Throat. I didn't read the last two, so am not sure how focused they are on Vietnam.

morgan, neither Mystery or The Throat are focused on Vietnam very much. But there is a bit. Koko is the best of the three books. But at the same time, Mystery & The Throat are both really good and well worth reading! Lot's of good stuff in both of them. Straub is quite effective when he gets going. Read 'GHOST STORY'!!! If you have not. Really a brilliant novel. Koko is probably the 2nd best thing he's done. To me, it was more of a stand-alone. I don't see the three books as a trilogy.
 
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Holly Gibney

Well-Known Member
Aug 2, 2016
153
783
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Finished The Magnolia Story the other day. A little hokey, but cute. I'm always drawn to these books about entrepreneurs - rags to riches stories. Sadly, it seems as though their ideas of "rags" is vastly different than my own. Most come from upper middle class, which I wouldn't consider poor. The last book like this I read #GIRLBOSS was the same. Just because you choose to hitchhike across the country when you're 20 and shop in thrift stores, doesn't make you homeless.

I'm about 3/4 of the way through Edge by Jeffery Deaver. It's not grabbing me, I just want it to be over. Then I can start The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. My reserved copy finally showed up at the library. They had to bring it in from some podunk town because the local library's copy had been ruined. So happy they offer this service! :)

EXACTLY THIS. Wild, Eat, Pray, Love--same thing. I found both boring as hell, because being well-off enough to go 'find yourself' is a foreign concept to me. My people just have to suck it up and move on with life--no space for navel gazing and wellness travel (lol).

Heehee - your comments reminded me of David Foster Wallace's hilarious review of Tracy Austin's autobiography. She talks about growing up poor just because talking about growing up poor seems to be what is expected of you in a celebrity memoir, then immediately forgets about it and mentions that each of the 4 or 5 children in her family were given their own cars on their sixteenth birthday, and she bought her mother a Rolex and an ankle-length fur coat while she was still at school... :D
He doesn't spare her at all, but the whole thing is written with an affectionate eye-roll rather than any real scorn, as though he was trying to stop a young cousin from making such a fool of themselves. Very, very funny, and surprisingly sweet.


And Morgan - The Handmaid's Tale is fantastic! I hope you enjoy it!
 

Holly Gibney

Well-Known Member
Aug 2, 2016
153
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Well, ahem... After posting the video above and remembering how great it was, I watched it again and found that he doesn't mention the Rolex, the fur coat or the thing about the cars at all! :) Those must all be details I have remembered from reading it myself. Sorry, ladies and gentlemen - my mistake.
But the good news - it is still every bit as funny as I remembered, and well worth watching. :)
 

grin willard

"Keep the change, you filthy animal!"
Feb 21, 2017
1,144
6,024
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Well, ahem... After posting the video above and remembering how great it was, I watched it again and found that he doesn't mention the Rolex, the fur coat or the thing about the cars at all! :) Those must all be details I have remembered from reading it myself. Sorry, ladies and gentlemen - my mistake.
But the good news - it is still every bit as funny as I remembered, and well worth watching. :)

Thanks 4 that Holly -- now Tracy Austin broke my heart too! :a11: The 80's hair ... it's like kryptonite! Hopefully I can find the book on Ebay. Tracy certainly suffered 'poverty-lite', but as a tennis fan since boyhood I see that the sport can be a cruel mistress. When Federer won the Australian Open in January after years of no grand slams, I lit up Facebook like a man insane! I got like, two 'likes". :( If Tiger had won another Masters my idiot friends would have been freaking out.

wds.gif
 
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Holly Gibney

Well-Known Member
Aug 2, 2016
153
783
46
I'm glad you enjoyed it, Grin! Sport can certainly be a cruel mistress, and Tracy's own misfortunes in her career were almost on the level of a Greek tragedy; a real "if you made it up, it would be unbelievable" situation. This was partly what made her book so infuriating for Foster Wallace. There is an incredible story behind Tracy Austin's life in sport, and her autobiography should have been extraordinary; instead, it was 300 pages of the very blandest PR pabulum, devoid of reflection or emotion or indeed any content worthy of the name.

Still, you might enjoy the pictures. :)
 

Kurben

The Fool on the Hill
Apr 12, 2014
9,682
65,192
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sweden
I feel like i have awakened from a bad dream..... I suddenly realized that it has been days, perhaps even a week, since i read a single line in a book. Then late last night i read Strip Poker by Oates (a very unsettling story about 4 18 year old guys and a 14 year old girl alone in a cabin) and realised what i missed. I think i must have been depressed or something, it is simply not me not to read for so long a period. Today i started The Breaker by Minette Walters. She is usually reliable but we'll see.
 
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