What Are You Reading

[VintageJess]

I am enjoying the book very much. I am in the military and enjoy reading the history of the military. I have also read Band of Brothers, same author. There is a book, Biggest Brother by Larry Alexander that is a very good read, about Major Dick Winters.

Sticking with the ETO, there is another book I found very good about a National Guard unit from Bedford, Virginia that was part of the first wave in on Omaha Beach, The Bedford Boys: One American Town's Ultimate D-Day Sacrifice by Alex Kershaw. It has alot about the home front in it as well. I read this book during my last rotation to the desert and it moved me, with some other reasons as well, to propose to my girlfriend.

Willi,

Thanks so much for your service and congrats on your engagement. I love Band of Brothers and I agree that the Alexander book was very good. Have you picked up Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters? It came out this past February, and I enjoyed it very much as well. A lot of the same info and stories as in Alexander's book, but still a great read if you like BoB. You might also try To America: Personal Reflections of an Historian by Ambrose. He wrote it as he was dying and it has some very interesting and poignant reflections.

I have been to the town of Bedford, and that is such an amazing story. You might also like Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen, by Greene. It is a wonderfully uplifting homefront story.

Take care,
Jessica

 

[funneman]

Reading..

Thanks to fellow lounger Byrne Sherwood, I've been reading "Hatless Jack"
by Neil Steinberg.

Very intersting.

I'll be offering it up to everyone soon. Keep wtaching.

 

[Willi_Goat]

Willi,

Thanks so much for your service and congrats on your engagement. I love Band of Brothers and I agree that the Alexander book was very good. Have you picked up Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters? It came out this past February, and I enjoyed it very much as well. A lot of the same info and stories as in Alexander's book, but still a great read of you like BOB. You might also try To America: Personal Reflections of an Historian by Ambrose. He wrote it as he was dying and it has some very interesting reflection.
I have been to the town of Bedford, that is such an amazing story. You might also like Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen, by Greene. It is a wonderfully uplifting homefront story.

Take care,
Jessica

And thanks to you. My mom was an Air Force wife, Pop retired about 8 years ago with almost 40 years service, and I saw how hard the job of a military spouse is. Now she has to put up with me going places and helping my fiance and children deal with it.

I had forgotten about Beyond until just recently. I remember seeing something about it late last year. I will check out those you recommended.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

Am currently reading "The New Ettiquette' 1940 version....as well as The Historian by Kostova (which is the most boring book -ever-!)

Other then that I need to add to my list again and procure more reading material.

 

[ortega76]

I admit that I'm reading more novels of late to turn off my brain than to think.

I'm reading Fear Itself by Walter Mosley. It's a mystery set in 1950's Los Angeles, specifically the Watts area. While fast paced, there are a lot of twists, side characters and action. I like that the narrator, Paris Minton, isn't a very action oriented man. He owns a bookstore and does the analytical half of the cases. His partner, Fearless Jones, is the man of action but not prone to acting with thoughts to the consequences.

 

[Caledonia]

The Time Traveller's Wife, and trying very hard to get into Tess of the d'Urbervilles for the second time, but it's not grabbing me. I find the classics, Dickens et al, really difficult to enjoy. Read them yes, appreciate the wordcraft yes, enjoy them, [huh]. Lack of brain power I guess.

 

[carebear]

Lack of brainpower has nothing to do with it. Lack of real relevence to folks living today does.

They are "great literature" but what sort of severe class consciousness exists today (realistically comparable to Hardy's milieu) that we can truly empathize with? Couple that with language that, while beautiful, does sound a bit archaic in meter and usage to a modern, even well-read and -spoken, ear and you can hardly be expected to automatically immerse yourself in the story.

The conflicts that move the story are different, the pacing is different. Criticizing yourself for not "getting" the classics is like criticizing yourself for not "getting" Japanese or Russian literature. It's a whole different world being reflected.

Appreciate the craft sure, but there's no reason you should necessarily expect to be drawn into the story like a contemporary of the author would.

 

[Caledonia]

I feel so much better now.

 

[Mycroft]

I just finished a book on AIDS and orphans in Africa from a Washington Post reporter and The Difference Engine. Both good reads, the former is depressing. I am just starting a new Dirk Pitt novel which are my "fun and light" books, when I do not feel like reading classics, history, and heavy stuff.

 

[mysterygal]

Been hooked on Patricia Cornwell's novels for the last couple of months. I'm on 'From Potters Field' right now.

 

[Rick Blaine]

Broadway Boogie Woogie: Damon Runyon and the Making of New York City Culture

The writer and reporter Damon Runyon captured New York City's colorful lowlifes of the 1920s and '30s so indelibly that his legacy still lives on in American popular culture, traces still can be found everywhere, Runyon's flamboyant street characters, with their aggressive one-line retorts, have shaped people's image of New York City from Tony Soprano ,Andy Sipowicz of "NYPD Blue." from Seinfeld" and "Sex and the City" as well as Woody Allen's,Francis Ford Coppola's & Martin Scorsese's movies.
A capital read, highly recomended.

 

["Doc" Devereux]

Been hooked on Patricia Cornwell's novels for the last couple of months. I'm on 'From Potters Field' right now.

I've enjoyed her Scarpetta books. Having spent time working in a mortuary it's nice to see someone getting it right.

 

[Zach R.]

I just bought Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's today, I've never seen the movie(I know, blasphemy!), but the book looked very interesting and I've heard they toned it down ALOT for the film version anyway.

 

[airfrogusmc]

Just started reading Flags of our Fathers.

 

[jamespowers]

Starting into Shooting Chant by Aimee and David Thulo. That after a few other Ella Clah novels. Gee, I love reading the books out of chronological order. :eusa_doh:

Regards,

J

 

[Lancealot]

I feel that way all the time! There are just so many interesting things to read on the computer.

Right now I'm reading Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe books - very fun reads. The mysteries themselves are alright, but it's the characters of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin that really make the books funny and interesting.

I might have to pick up those I very much enjoy the Nero Wolfe radio shows.

 

[Braxton36]

I always have two or three going at once. Right now: The Sisters - the story of the Mitford sisters by Mary Lovell, just finished All the Presidents' Children by Doug Wead and The Guggenheims by Irwin & Debi Unger (not recommended).

 

[Lancealot]

I am just starting a new Dirk Pitt novel which are my "fun and light" books, when I do not feel like reading classics, history, and heavy stuff.

I enjoy those as well I got hooked on them after watching Sahara.

 

[The Reno Kid]

A Trip to the Orient by Carrie Ainsworth (1922). Subtitled A Voyage on the Steamer Ecuador. I can't remember where I found it but it's a wonderful (if brief) read.

 

[Brooksie]

Currently I am reading "Paula" by Isabel Allende (love this author!). I own way to many books... I have two large rubbermaid containers full and an entire shelf and a half filled with books. I think I am addicted to buying books... because when I shop at the thrift stores I always end up in the book isle! My Mom tells me if I keep on buying books - one day I will just end up being trapped in my house and not be able to get out.LOL!! Can't help it just love em....

Brooksie