Current book being read/just finished

[dodint]

Awesome, I'll have to add it to my list.

[Digitalgypsy66]

Next up is Neptune's Inferno, by James Hornfischer, recommended by someone in this very thread. Hornfischer is a great writer, making the naval battles of Guadalcanal leap off the page. Not an easy task. Using the bibliography, I found one of the primary sources - a book by a UPI reporter, published shortly after the war, about the U.S.S. Astoria - titled the Through the Perilous Night: The Astoria's Last Battle." I borrowed it from a nearby library, and it hadn't circulated since 1957.

That's a rare book your local library has. I checked on abebooks.com, and the cheapest copy for sale of Through the Perilous Night has a price of $95, with the most expensive copy going for $225.

If you track down a copy of Japanese Destroyer Captain by Tameichi Hara, you can read about the same battles described by Hornfischer from the Japanese perspective. Hara was in command of IJN Amatsukaze during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. Hara and the Amatsukaze were also participants in the Battle of the Java Sea, which means they were also on the opposing side of the events described early on in Hornfischer's other book Ship of Ghosts.

By local, I meant college research library. Evidently, Japanese Destroyer Captain is available in our system too - and as an e-book, too.

[dodint]

Looking for a travel/road trip book to escape with this weekend. Might as well start with the obvious, Travels with Charley in Search of America by Steinbeck. Depending how it is I might follow up with Steigerwalds take-down of it.

Any other really great books about road tripping? I picture something similar to the movie Due Date, except less slapsticky.

[KennyTheKangaroo]

Travels with Charley was great, and this gentleman has read it a few times.

As far as road trip books go a lot of people like bill bryson. Kenny the kangaroo read one of his travel books and did not care for it. bryson is kind of a jagoff.

[Shyster]

You could go really old-school and read The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain. Twain wheedled his way into a chartered excursion to Europe and the Holy Land by agreeing to send back accounts to be published in U.S. newspapers. The book is the compilation of his reports. Twain's legendary aptitude for snark is apparent from his descriptions of the people he meets and the sights he sees.

[IanMoran]

Authentically, or how white people choose to remember those good old days?

It's just super dense and basically gives an equal amount of attention to every development of the decade from:

The H Bomb Debates, Brown vs Board, The election of Eisenhower, the ascent of Nixon, the development of suburbs, mcdonalds, and franchising. Motels and the spread of the highway system. The growth and power of GM. Television - Milton Berle and Ed Sullivan. The beats. Eli Kazan and Brando's relationship. Just read the elvis passage, and stopped at james dean today.

I'm only like 140 pages in and absolutely loving it.The sections on the h-bomb / MacArthur was great stuff

[Gaucho]

You can never go wrong with Twain.

[dodint]

You could go really old-school and read The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain. Twain wheedled his way into a chartered excursion to Europe and the Holy Land by agreeing to send back accounts to be published in U.S. newspapers. The book is the compilation of his reports. Twain's legendary aptitude for snark is apparent from his descriptions of the people he meets and the sights he sees.

It is quite good. Read it a few years ago. Snarky indeed.

[PghSkins]

"The Mob, the Music and Me" by Tommy James. Pretty cool autobiography, Pittsburgh features prominently as where his career really took off as well as the home of the Shondells.

Dude is somewhat lucky he didn't get capped in the 60s, although he was the cash cow.

[eddysnake]

Anyone read inherent vice?

[Gaucho]

Anyone read inherent vice?

Yes. Recommended.

[Troy Loney]

Anyone read inherent vice?

Yes. Recommended.

[eddysnake]

Anyone read inherent vice?

Yes. Recommended.

Thanks, just grabbed it from the library

[canaan]

"First look at Joaquin Phoenix and Josh Brolin in Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Inherent Vice'" " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[eddysnake]

This book is great, that cast looks impressive, seems like a win-win. Always look forward to a new PTA flick and this one seems different than what he's been doing, should be great

[PensFanInDC]

Starting "When All Hell Breaks Loose" by Les Stroud.

[dodint]

Looking for a travel/road trip book to escape with this weekend. Might as well start with the obvious, Travels with Charley in Search of America by Steinbeck.

Happy to report my weekend was so full of life living that I only read about 40% of this, and that was while riding ferries. Now I'm back and still have some book. Win-Win.

[Troy Loney]

"First look at Joaquin Phoenix and Josh Brolin in Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Inherent Vice'" " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That matches my visual image of bigfoot, but I was picturing a more beach bum looking guy for Doc.

[eddysnake]

"First look at Joaquin Phoenix and Josh Brolin in Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Inherent Vice'" " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That matches my visual image of bigfoot, but I was picturing a more beach bum looking guy for Doc.

I see Benicio Del Toro is playing Sauncho Smilax. That should bring back great memories of Dr. Gonzo

[KennyTheKangaroo]

Looking for a travel/road trip book to escape with this weekend. Might as well start with the obvious, Travels with Charley in Search of America by Steinbeck.

Happy to report my weekend was so full of life living that I only read about 40% of this, and that was while riding ferries. Now I'm back and still have some book. Win-Win.

Any thoughts so far?

[dodint]

I enjoy it a lot. It's almost comforting that he is upset with some of the things that we are upset about now, as if they haven't changed as much as he originally thought. Specifically his dislike of how national TV and radio is erasing local dialects which is something that I thought was a relatively new thing over the last 30 years. Much of his other concerns are issues I've pondered myself so it's interesting to hear it echoed in the past. This is a book I will very likely read again in a decade or so. I'm to the part where he met up with his wife in Michigan so most of the racial disharmony stuff is still ahead of me. I bought the anniversary edition of the book and the forward was unnecessarily long and gave away a lot, boo, shame on Jay Parini there.

It's a charming book.

[KennyTheKangaroo]

Agreed with basically all of your points (except for the aniversary stuff, as the copy that this gentleman owns is not the aniversary edition). One thing in particular that we both observed is that steinbeck does invest some time bemoaning homoginization (is that a word). Of course, at some point or another he does point out that hes just like everyone else in the sense that we all thing the next generation sucks.

This gentleman went to the steinbeck museum in salinas about 5 years ago and saw they have the actual camper he drove in. The thing was baller.

[dodint]

Yeah, it sounds pretty stout. Especially when he is in Maine and packs all those folks in there. I thought it was smaller until we got to that passage.

A museum, you say? Interesting.

[Pucks_and_Pols]

1984 by George Orwell

[Troy Loney]

Read Lord of the Flies for the first time. That went to a way darker place than I thought it would.