Summer Reading Thread

[Pruitt]

Been reading a lot lately.

Currently loving this one:

[Giff]

This one is so great.

[Steve of phpBB]

Yup.

It even prompted me to drive through Ouray, Colorado, on our way back from Mesa Verde a couple weeks ago.

[wlu_lax6]

Part way through the new Grisham (have to get this one back from the library to finish), finished the Gladwell (Bomber Mafia), picking up on occasion Blazertanica (Have Rog Bennett book on preorder), and current reading Bruno Chief of Police.

[sancarlos]

Red Mountain Pass between Ouray and Silverton is an awesome drive.

Almost got kicked off the wrestling team after our football team bus (with coaches onboard) drove past a couple of us walking out of a Ouray liquor store with a couple twelve-packs in our arms. What a day that was.

[Giff]

Red Mountain Pass between Ouray and Silverton is an awesome drive.

Almost got kicked off the wrestling team after our football team bus (with coaches onboard) drove past a couple of us walking out of a Ouray liquor store with a couple twelve-packs in our arms. What a day that was.

Same thing happened to me senior year. A buddy of mine and I got MIPs at a football game. Had in-school suspension for a week and then had a week of hell during the pre-season basketball practices. One of those where the guys hung around after practice to see what our punishment was and then respectfully left the gym after seeing what we were in store for.

Fast forward two months and the soccer team sees my buddy smoking a cigarette off campus and reports it. He gets booted from the team and when I went to state his case to the coach, I was quickly rebuffed when he said he about kicked me off for being around it, but they didn't see me doing anything wrong.

[DaveInSeattle]

I started this one last night, and stayed up too late reading (of course, it being close to 90 degrees was a factor):



Nothing weighty, but a fun read so far.

I've also been on a streak of reading the Phillip Kerr "Bernie Gunther" detective books. The mysteries aren't usually that great, but the setting (war era Berlin) makes them interesting.

[Giff]

Nice. Sounds good. I get nearly all my book recommendations from this site and y'all have rarely let me down.

I can't recommend Wanderers enough. It does get a little over the top, but for an apocalyptic novel, it's up there as one of the best, IMO. I heard they're making a TV show and he's writing a sequel.

[wlu_lax6]

Nearly finished


Grisham is out of his depth on this one. I know he is not the great american novelist and wordsmith, but years ago I heard an interview explaining why he did not write about sex (his wife says he does not know how to do it). Well she should have gone and seen him shoot a jump shot. A very intersting premise (enough that I have wanted to finish it) but could have been SOOO much better. Actually think if he worked with John Feinstein as a collab they would have found the right tone, realism, and words to make this a great book.

Next up

read the first chapter and was pretty engaged

and
which showed up at my doorstep yesterday.

Figure my beach reading for next week is in a good spot.

[The Sybian]

I heard a couple comedians talking about this book on their podcasts and gave it go. Audiobook is interesting, as each chapter is read by a different comedian. Novel about an old, washed up road comic that blew his brief brush with fame. Apparently he is an amalgamation of the legend of several road comics only comedians remember. He is a violent ex-con addicted to cocaine and alcohol, and probably sex. Truly a horrible human being, but the writing is so damned good, it's compelling. Cameo appearance of Norm MacDonald was pretty great. Actually, more than a cameo, but as someone who enjoys Norm (not sure its possible to be a Norm "fan"), it was well done.




Enjoyed this book about legendary East Coast shit-hole amusement park Action Park. Written by one of the owner's sons, partially his memoir, partially his account of the history of the park and his father's impulsive decisions. I really enjoyed it, but he probably could have cut out a couple hours worth of stories, it started to get a bit repetitive.

I have a friend who grew up in a neighboring town who was a lifeguard at a resort owned by the book's author, and as the author mentioned, he was forced to recruit lifeguards from other properties to work at the death trap wave pool. They averaged 5 saves an hour and lost a life or two. My friend said he would hide when they asked for volunteers to work at Action Park, but he was roped into it a few times, and he told almost identical stories and said nothing I shared from the book was hyperbole.

[Pruitt]

And sometimes you just need a nasty slice of old time British crime.



Highly recommended if you like that sort of thing.

[sancarlos]

The 1971 film of Get Carter is airing on Turner Classic Movies on July 9th. I've got my DVR set!

[sancarlos]

Just read:


Now starting:

[P.D.X.]

I have that same Hemingway edition. 1950's printing iirc

[DaveInSeattle]

I started this one last night, and stayed up too late reading (of course, it being close to 90 degrees was a factor):



Nothing weighty, but a fun read so far.

Finished this today...and it was really good! Highly recommended!

[DaveInSeattle]

Finished this yesterday...



Second in a series (read the first one a few months ago). Main character is a Game Warden in Maine who gets involved in murder mysteries.

I'm usually not a mystery reader, but I like the setting, and he writes well about the oddities of Maine and the wilderness.

Now on to the 'Defector Reads A Book' selection....'The Talented Mr Ripley'. Seen the movie (of course), but have never read the book.

[govmentchedda]

Listening to the Dune audiobook currently. Enjoying it more than I expected to.

[brian]

Tom Scharpling’s memoir (It Never Ends) has had me laughing out loud at least twice per chapter so far.

[govmentchedda]

I'm a big fan of all things Jon Wurster, but have never really listened to Best Show. Might need to remedy that.

[Rush2112]

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[Pruitt]

This book is blowing me away - like living inside the internet. Funny and disturbing... (read half of it in one sitting)

[rass]

Horrible effort at beach reading the last two weeks. Not sure what happened - I’ve had years where the kids needed to be handheld at the water’s edge where I read more.

Alright x3 (Dazed and Confused history) was great. Quit on this because the fucking print was too small for all but perfect sunlight and I forgot my reading glasses, and switched to Rog Bennett’s book. Has it been mentioned somewhere (not here necessarily) how much young Rog looks like Vanessa Bauer’s Bar Mitzvah boy? Must have been.

*Enjoyed as far as I got in the YR book because I had no idea how intertwined some of those 70s acts were.

[EdRomero]

Horrible effort at beach reading the last two weeks. Not sure what happened - I’ve had years where the kids needed to be handheld at the water’s edge where I read more.

Alright x3 (Dazed and Confused history) was great. Quit on this because the fucking print was too small for all but perfect sunlight and I forgot my reading glasses, and switched to Rog Bennett’s book. Has it been mentioned somewhere (not here necessarily) how much young Rog looks like Vanessa Bauer’s Bar Mitzvah boy? Must have been.

*Enjoyed as far as I got in the YR book because I had no idea how intertwined some of those 70s acts were.

There goes grandpa sancarlos yelling at clouds again.

Just finished Updike's Rabbit, Run. Meh. I really get annoyed by books not broken up into chapters. I suppose it was good but I have no motivation to read anything else by him.

[DaveInSeattle]

I finished 'Talented Mr Ripley', and was decidedly 'meh' about it. It was good...but it certainly didn't make that much of an impression on me. Maybe if I hadn't seen the movie. And it lacked the 'Tommy...how's the peeping?' scene that was in the movie, which was incredibly creepy.

Currently reading this:



from hearing it talked about on the Men In Blazers podcast. Its good...short essays where the author rates on a yelp various aspects of the current world, from the Indy 500 to lawns.

[Steve of phpBB]

Horrible effort at beach reading the last two weeks. Not sure what happened - I’ve had years where the kids needed to be handheld at the water’s edge where I read more.

Alright x3 (Dazed and Confused history) was great. Quit on this because the fucking print was too small for all but perfect sunlight and I forgot my reading glasses, and switched to Rog Bennett’s book. Has it been mentioned somewhere (not here necessarily) how much young Rog looks like Vanessa Bauer’s Bar Mitzvah boy? Must have been.

*Enjoyed as far as I got in the YR book because I had no idea how intertwined some of those 70s acts were.

There goes grandpa sancarlos yelling at clouds again.

Just finished Updike's Rabbit, Run. Meh. I really get annoyed by books not broken up into chapters. I suppose it was good but I have no motivation to read anything else by him.

I read that book a few years ago, while I was on a literature kick.

Do we need spoiler tags for sixty-year-old well-known novels?

[+] spoiler

Because if I had known they were going to have a kid drown, I wouldn't have read the damn book. Life is sad enough already.

[A_B]

It’s pretty bleak.

[brian]

I started this one last night, and stayed up too late reading (of course, it being close to 90 degrees was a factor):



Nothing weighty, but a fun read so far.

Finished this today...and it was really good! Highly recommended!

Read this based on your rec and it was very good, even if I kind of saw where the book was going. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, given the plot. In fact, I think maybe you're supposed to see it coming? I dunno. I've just had some weed so maybe I'm reading too much into the author's intentions.

[EdRomero]

[+] spoiler

the worst part of that was there was a 50 page buildup to it and the entire time I kept thinking, he's not gonna kill off the baby, is he?

[blundercrush]

Finished reading this book recently and I definitely recommend it for the only sort of depressed "How to Be Miserable: 40 Strategies You Already Use". It turns out there are a lot of things in our daily lives, that we absolutely have control over, that make us miserable and might just be so woven in we don't stop to think about it.
https://www.amazon.com/.../B019.../ref= ... e-redirect...
(The book is very specific about how clinical depression is a very real thing and one should seek treatment for it.)