Readers and Reading discussion

This is the place to put your lists of books read in June

I read Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg
and I'm finishing Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner an AR.

My June reads (not a big month for me, we were on the road a bit and had a 4-year-old for a few days):

Hot Six -- by Janet Evanovich. I took this off the shelf because my daughter has discovered this series and asked if I had any to give her. I've read several in this series over the years, and they really are funny.

Like Water for Chocolate -- by Laura Esquivel. This was interesting, not great. Utilized magical realism.

Twice Dead -- by Paul Bishop. Good police procedural featuring a female LAPD homicide detective heading a squad searching for a serial killer. I'm trying to get to some of the books that have been sitting on the shelves for a long time, but I still want to read them. This one was well done.

The Friday Night Knitting Club -- by Kate Jacobs. This is for our July book group discussion. Pretty good, but I was disappointed with the ending. It seemed to be put together in a rush, and it was not logical to me.

Goldengrove - Francine Prose. Disappointing story of a teenage girl who, when her older sister dies, develops a relationship with the dead sister's boyfriend that you sense is going to end badly. This wasn't a long book, but it was too long for me. There was some nice writing here, but not enough to compensate for a story I just didn't care much about. C

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, A History - Lewis Buzbee. I absolutely loved this little book! It's about books and bookstores and being a bookseller and reading and enjoying bookstores and the past and future of the book business. I'm not sure if a non-bookseller would like it as much as I did, but I think that anyone who loves to read, who remember ordering books from the Weekly Reader or Scholastic Books and waiting impatiently for them to arrive, would enjoy it. One tongue-in-cheek suggestion that Buzbee makes is that there should be compulsory National Retail Service for everyone in the country, thereby assuring that, having worked in retail, they would become better retail customers in the future. Hear, hear! A

The Help - Kathryn Stockett. In Jackson, MS in the early 1960s, a young college graduate, troubled by the way her Junior League friends treat their housekeepers, begins collecting stories from these black woman of what it's like to work in the homes of white families who entrust their children to them but won't let them use the family bathroom. The maids tell their stories at some risk to their own safety but their stories are compelling and Skeeter's plan is to publish them anonymously. I felt like there was a bit of stereotyping in the parts of the book about the Junior Leaguers, but the voices of "The Help" seemed genuine. A-

For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder that Shocked Jazz Age Chicago - Simon Baatz. The story of Leopold and Loeb and what was, in the 1920s, the "Crime of the Century." I thought the first 200 pages of this book were fascinating, learning about the two men and the crime itself. The second part of the book, concerning the trial, was way too detailed and I found it tedious. Baatz clearly did a lot of research, but I think he could have edited some of it out. As I was reading abut Leopold and Loeb I found myself thinking about the similarities between them and Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.......also well-educated, intelligent, from good families and completely amoral murderers. I give the first 200 pages here an A and the second 200 pages a C. Averages out to a B.

The Well, and the Mine - Gin Phillips. This fairly short book was a slow read for me. Set in rural Alabama in 1931 it starts out with the mystery of who threw a dead baby in the Moore family's well, but after that it just becomes a kind of set piece on being poor in the South during the Great Depression. All the characters were upstanding, decent, hardworking and honest but I still didn't like them that much, and no comments, please, about the possibility that I just can't relate to such good people! My F2F group members like this one a lot more than I did. B-

Butcher's Crossing - John Williams. Williams is the author of "Stoner" - one of my all-time favorite books and since he only wrote 3 novels, I thought I should try at least one of his others. This one is about a young man who leaves Harvard in the 1870s, to head west, full of idealism, to discover his authentic self. He joins up with a buffalo hunter and travels to Colorado with him and a motley crew of what I felt like were sort of cartoonish characters. Although I'll always love John Williams and William Stoner, I don't think that Westerns are my genre. There's really good writing in this book. Just not a subject I cared much about. B

4579 An Easy Burden The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America, by Andrew Young (read 3 Jun 2009) The author was born in New Orleans on Mar 12, 1932. This book was first published in 1998 and is an autobiography for the time up to 1972, when Young was elected to Congress--the first black elected to Congress from Georgia since Reconstruction. Most to the book deals with the Civil Rights Movement, in which Young was a top aide to Martin Luther King. The account of Young's early life--he was a Congregational minister up to the early 1960's--is of much interest. His account of the years in the 1960's went over pretty familiar territory--I read David Garrow's Bearing the Cross 16 Jan 1989, and Branch Taylor's trilogy on the Civil Rights Movement on 15 Dec 1994, 31 Jan 1999, and 23 Feb 2006--but Young tells the story from the inside--he is quite diplomatic, but one can see the tensions within the Movement. And his account of the last days of King in Memphis is highly dramatic. The time after King's death is covered only till 1972 when Young was elected to Congress, Much of the book tells a dramatic story and was good reading.

4580 France and the French A Modern History, by Rod Kedward (read 8 Jun 2009) This is a history of France from 1900 to the present day. It is very erudite, and spends a lot of time on matters which I don't think interesting because they involve such esoteric things. But there is a lot of interesting stuff in this book of over 700 pages--as one knows there has to be since it covers World War I, the Feb 6, 1934 riot, the Popular Front of 1936, the 1940 debacle, Vichy, DeGaulle, Algeria, DeGaulle's Presidency, and in much detail the events from 1968 up to 2005. Much of what is discussed I heard about but never in a connected-up way. But I would have enjoyed this book more if it was more narrative history, rather than so much analysis and abstract delving into the French psyche.
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4581 The Lost City of Z A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, by David Grann (read 11 Jun 2009) This is a 2009 book telling of Percy Fawcett, who did much exploring in the Amazon area, and in 1925 disappeared there, with his son and a friend of his son's. Many have sought, without success, to find out what happened to the three men. This book says the event has been of high interest ever since 1925. The author even went to the Amazon himself recently. The book skips about in alternate chapters, telling of Fawcett's life and the time since. I decided I would not want to explore the Amazon now. and certainly not in 1925. The book had its moments, but sometimes I did not think it too interesting.

4582 Two to Six, by James P. Cornelio (read 12 Jun 2009) This is a self-published book, telling of the author's experience when he was arrested for a sex crime. It is full of foul language but tells an interesting story about his legal trouble. For over 20 years he had a promiscuous amoral life, even though he received some Catholic education. He was a fairly successful New York lawyer, but lived a hedonistic life cruising in New York sin-filled places. I could not sympathizes with the author, because his behavior was so amoral and that he could do things so bound to be distressful to his mother, sister, and brothers turned me off.

4583 Angler The Cheney Vice Presidency, by Barton Gellman (read 15 Jun 2009) This is a 2008 book by an investigative reporter which studies Cheney's time as vice-president. It is a devastating indictment of the inordinate power Cheney exercised over a naive George Bush, especially in Bush's first term. Cheney was largely responsible for the invasion of Iraq, which Dick Armey, erstwhile Republican leader in the House, said was "very likely the biggest foreign policy blunder of modern times." The book is kind of disjointed, skipping around from issue to issue but full of interesting information carefully gathered and well-sourced. Chapter 12, entitled "U-turn on Constitution Avenue," recounts the visit to Attorney-General Ashcroft in the hospital and is a rivetingly exciting account, which almost devastated Bush's administration early in 2004--and would have if
Cheney had had his way--Bush woke up and stepped back just in time. This is a fascinating book and any student of the Bush Administration will find it eye-opening and great to read. One can be glad Cheney is now just a carping critic removed from power to do harm to his country.

4584 The Greatest Day in History How, on the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month, the First World War Finally Came to an End, by Nicholas Best (read 17 Jun 2009) On 24 Nov 1985 I read Stanley Weintraub's A Stillness Heard Round the World, and on 26 Jan 2005 I read Winston Groom's a Storm in Flanders and on 5 Sep 2005 I read Joseph Persico's Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day. Eleventh Hour, so I suppose there was no good reason to read this book--but I did. It is not as good as the aforementioned books, but it tells of the days from Nov 4,1918 through 11 Nov 1918. It is mainly made up of parts of memoirs and biographies which tell of those days, and quite a bit is of high interest--though I was disappointed there was no follow-up, telling what happened after Nov 11 to the various people mentioned. Some of the description of celebrations on Nov 11, 1918 was over-inclusive. The book does no analyzing--leaving it to the reader. All in all, good reading even though it is much better told in the books I read previously.

4585 Under A Flaming Sky The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894, by Daniel James Brown (read 19 Jun 2009) I had not heretofore heard of this fearsome fire. This book is by a great-grandson of one of the 436 (or more) people who died in that fire, which occurred Sept 1, 1894 . It was gruesome to read of the horrors the people went through, but the book is fairly well put together. But the Epilogue tells of the author's visit to Hinckley, Minn. in 2004 and that is very well done. There really wasn't much the people could do to save themselves, since they had no idea the fire would be so fierce. All of Pine County, Minn., was devastated , though the 1871 fire in Wisconsin killed more people.

4586 Judgment Days Lyndon Baines Johnson Martin Luther King Jr., and the Laws That Changed America, by Nick Kotz (read 22 Jun 2009) This tells the story of the events leading to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting rights bill, the 1965 Civil Rights Act, and the 1968 Housing bill. It concentrates on what LBJ and Martin Luther King did, and the book is well researched and tells the story well--and those laws indeed changed America. The time after King's death is told very hurriedly but well, and I liked the author's telling how changed the South was in this century from the 1960's. It is an inspiring and exciting story and the book tells it very well

4587 Dawn's Early Light, by Elswyth Thane (read 25 Jun 2009) I never heard of this author till now, but when I learned she was born in Iowa and though she has been dead over 20 years her books remain in print, I thought I should read something by her. This book was fist published in 1943 and is the first of a series. She is a decidedly light novelist, and the first part of the book, dwelling on characters in Williamsburg, Va. in 1774 and 1775 in a very women's fictiony way I thought a chore to read. But the time goes on and eventually the hero, Julian (fresh from England in 1774), joins the American Army, and the book becomes much more interesting as the story tells of the war and characters in the Revolution. The scenes of Tibby's heroic efforts to be with Julian I I found very touching and moving. So the book turned out a lot better than I expected. Her historical research is said to be very good, and the book ends with the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781 and everybody very happy. Decidedly, a pleasant book to read.

4588 Thunder Below! The USS Barb Revolutionizes Submarine Warfare in World War II, by Eugene B. Fluckey, Rear Admiral, USN (Ret.) (read 28 Jun 2009) This is an account of the patrols by the U.S. submarine Barb from 21 May 1944 to 2 Aug 1945, and the telling of them by the captain of the sub is often full of high drama. There is lots of submarine language which would have been more enjoyable if I had served on a submarine, but some of the exploits narrated are as fearsome and as dramatic as a Tom Clancy or Alistair MacLean novel and are all true. Fluckey comes off as a superior person as well as an exemplary ship captain. He was an eager beaver and took lots of chances but no man was killed or wounded on any of his patrols and his record in the Barb is outstanding and he received the Congressional Medal of Honor even though he thought only dead men should get that Medal. This is an exceptionally riveting book and tells the story of a great submarine career very well. Especially interesting is that he sent a group of his men ashore on a Japanese Home Island to blow up a train--the only Americans to land on the Japanese homeland in World War II, do damage, and leave.

Lots of good stuff read this month.

My F2F group members like this one a lot more than I did. B-

>

Connie, I read this book earlier this year. For me it was special as my mother was born and raised in the town the story is set in. I kept expecting to read the names of my grandparents.

In June I read:

Hot Six by Janet Evanovich
Dakota Home by Debbie Macomber
Dewey: The Library Cat by Vicki Myron
The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis
Ordinary Life by Elizabeth Berg
The Girl With No Shadow by Joanne Harris

A lot of books for me in one month.

"The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, A History - Lewis Buzbee. I absolutely loved this little book! It's about books and bookstores and being a bookseller and reading and enjoying bookstores and the past and future of the book business."

Hooray! I'm scheduled to read this for another group in the fall. I'm pleased to hear you liked it.

Sherry

A Country Called Home by Kim Barnes 4/5

This somewhat difficult-to-read novel was a very sad story, but beautifully rendered. Loving writing about Idaho...its wilderness and one of its small town.

I just finished this book. You know when I sit down mid-day and read it is a book I like! Although "like" may not be the correct word for such a sad and dark story. And gritty would be another good descriptor.

I had put off finishing the book until late afternoon because I was afraid of how it was going to end. But the author managed a sensitive and meaningful ending --- without neatly tying up all the ends into a package. We feel the characters' sorrows but do not wallow in them.

My only complaint is that the characters could have been more well-developed - I did not really feel that I "knew" them or their motivations...except that all were searching.

The Associate by John Grisham 2/5

Disappointing. I wish I had liked this book more, as I had looked forward to it for so long. There was so little "meat" to this novel...and the ending was just a fizzle with no bang, no rationale. Even the character development, usually a strong point for Grisham, was lacking. I also thought there were many logical problems in this book, things that just made no sense.

Fortunately, Grisham's ability to "spin a yarn" pulled me in and kept me reading, but it was not the usual page-turning experience I have with his books.

The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman 5/5

After reading a fantastic book (an ARC of Conroy's upcoming South of Broad), I found it hard to believe that I was lucky enough to read another great one right away. I always anxiously await Alice Hoffman's books and this one was well worth the wait.

In "The Story Sisters", the author is back to her old form: less strangeness and more storytelling, similar to the stories and their complex characters that she presented in "Turtle Moon" and "Seventh Heaven". The writing is so beautiful, lush, and magical, with such powerful imagery. It took me about 40 pages to just give myself over to the story and not try to figure out the fantasy life (Arnelle) that the three sisters wove. That was my least favorite part of the book). After that, I was totally captivated and could not put the book down. This story of the redemptive power of love and family bonds was just wonderful.

Highly recommended!!

South of Broad by Pat Conroy 6/5 !!!!!

A M A Z I N G

Worth the many years of waiting. I cannot wait to re-read this so I can savor even more the language, the story, the atmosphere. WOW!

Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg 2/5

I was not enthralled with this book. In fact, I pretty much skimmed the final third. Not much about it appealed to me. The best part was the writing class and its characters. I would have liked to have seen that part expanded. Helen and her daughter were not people I would have any interest in knowing in real life.

DID NOT FINISH

Literacy and Longing in LA
Confessions of Prep School Mommy Handler
In Hovering Flight

Schmerguls wrote: "4584 The Greatest Day in History How, on the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month, the First World War Finally Came to an End, by Nicholas Best (read 17 Jun 2009) On 24 Nov 198..."

Now I really liked the Well and Mine; I found the characters interesting and didn't look at the book as a mystery (which I don'y particualrly care for). Alas, there is no room for a sequel since author told what they were doing later. I just ordered Story Sisters and Conroy's new one (preordered)and can't wait to start (Amazon GC YAY).

Her historical research is said to be very good, and the book ends with the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781 and everybody very happy. Decidedly, a pleasant book to read.

When we were in Halifax, Canada recently, I was stunned when the guide casually identified a huge statue as Cornwallis! Who would have a statue of Cornwallis, I thought, he was the enemy! Then I remembered I was in Canada, where he is a hero. A surprising new perspective for me :)

My reads for June

The Girls from Ames Jeffrey Zaslow
Rewriting Monday Jodi Thomas
Harbor Lights Sherryl Woods
The Beach House Jane Green
Sarah's Promise Leisha Kelly
Married in Seattle Debbie Maccomber
Wedding Belles Haywood Smith
Vision in White Nora Roberts

I loved the girls from Ames and The Beach House. I have already fnished a book this month. Bull Island by Dorothea Benton Frank.

Seven of my high school girlfriends and I get together for a few days every fall. We decided that this year we are going to read "The Girls from Ames" and talk about it when we are together.

We have had a lot of "stuff" happen in our lives. Four of the gals have been widowed, all at fairly young ages, and all were sudden deaths, not illnesses. Two have had cancer (one just diagnosed with breast cancer, one whose lung cancer is in remission). Three of the gals have not had children. Two have been married three times. We are separated by many miles, from CA to France with the rest of us somewhere on the east coast.

So our discussion of the book should be interesting. It is so wonderful to have friends who remember my grandparents, who knew my mother, who can reminisce about so many things.

JoAnn said Seven of my high school girlfriends and I get together for a few days every fall. We decided that this year we are going to read "The Girls from Ames" and talk about it when we are together.

I've always thought this would be such fun. We moved several times when I was young, so I don't have friends from my childhood or high school years. My oldest friends are college, and I've lost touch with most of them. I envy you the bond you share with these women. Have a great time!

Kate

My books for June were

The Shape of Water
Aunt Dimity Vampire Hunter
The Hot Flash Club

I didn't read much this month, and what I did read, I don't remember because I had to clean out our bedroom to have a new floor put in, consequently I got rid of all of my non-keeper books in the alley behind our house, my recycling center. I know I started The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly but didn't like it. I read the last page and was so put off by the denoument (sp?) that I didn't read another word. What I do remember is

The autobiography of Shirley Jackson, which title I don't remember. Knowing Jackson's feelings about Vermont, I was surprised so little of the problems she had there surfacing in the book. Instead it's a rather prosaic account of being a wife and mother, one that we can mostly relate to. No mention is made of her writing or her life as a renowned author.
The writing is good, but I feel a lot of what was really interesting in her life was left out.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson - I was truly amazed at the power of Jackson's writing in this book, compared to the autobiography. This is the power I would like to have seen turned on her life. A good little story, beautifully written.

Death and Restoration by Iain Pears - I like this series because of the art history lessons embedded in the stories. I always learn something new. If you're not familiar with it, the series concerns an English art dealer living in Rome with his girlfriend who works for the Art Theft Squad of the Italian police. The characters are good, the mystery OK and the background wonderful.

Now I'm reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, a mystery set in Sweden, very nicely written, although a bit prosaic occasionally as far as character development goes, i.e., good guys are really good and bad guys are really awful, but a nice, dense novel set in that interesting, snow bound, far North country that is Sweden.

Bunny, how much of the Brass Verdict did you read before you skipped to the last page?

Is this something you often do?

How were you able to determine that the denouement did not "fit" with the rest of the story?

I loved the book, but have no specific recall of the ending!

I'd read about 10 pages, and I always read the last page of every book I read. It's such an irritation to me that I can't do that with my own life! Once I discovered who the bad guy was, it was so boring I didn't even want to go there. Of course, if I'm enthralled with a book from the beginning, even a bad ending can't put me off, but this wasn't one of them. Can't put spoilers in here because we can all see the whole post, so suffice it to say that I don't believe nor am even interested in the culprit in this case. I think that scenario has been way overdone.

And I knew there was an "e" in denouement, darn it. I did love The Lincoln Lawyer.

How's the poison ivy? All gone, including the physical part, I hope.

Bunny, I am still itching. It is making me nuts. I will go 2 days with no itching and then it itches like crazy. I may return to the doctor this week.

While spoilers do not really bother me, especially in movies, I do not think I would want to read the last page of a book first. I guess I am more interested in the journey than I am in who the culprit is or how much he has been used.

You missed a surprising piece of Harry's background by not finishing this book!

Is there a way to click to get to the first unread? In the old days we could do that so easily.

Gone are the days when I used to read 7 or 8 books a month. My reads for June are only two.

Beach Trip by Cathy Holton -- I'm always in search of a female bonding book that was as good as Saving Graces by Patricia Gaffney or Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik. The cover of this book and the inside jacket description gave me hope that this might be the one. Well, it wasn't. Four college roommates meet up twenty years later for a week long vacation. What the author doesn't understand is that to make the book a success, the reader must like the characters. I couldn't stand any of them!!! "6"

Trust No One by Greg Hurwitz -- Oh the power of "Twitter". I have Joe Finder as one of the people I follow and he highly recommended this book more than once. Since Finder is one of my favorite authors, I rushed right out and bought it. What Finder should have said was, "Hey, this guy is a friend of mine and I'm trying to push this book for him." The scenario was preposterous. The book had its moments of a good read but nothing great. When I got to the Acknowledgment section at the end, guess who the author thanked for his help. Yep!! Joe Finder.

I am, however, reading a fabulous book right now, Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese, so I know at least one of my July reads is going to be a winner. I thought it was Sherry who had recommended this to me but I see it's just on her list for June so it must have been someone else and now I'm thinking it might have been Connie. In any event, whoever it was, thank you.

That is very disappointing to hear about Joe Finder.

I said something to him about it!!!!

Nancy (Hrdcovers) wrote: "I said something to him about it!!!!"

you go, girl Let us know what his reply is.

All he said was, "sorry Nancy that you didn't like it."

Nancy (Hrdcovers) wrote: "All he said was, "sorry Nancy that you didn't like it.""

How do you spell "cop-out"?

Nancy (Hrdcovers) wrote: "Gone are the days when I used to read 7 or 8 books a month. My reads for June are only two.

Beach Trip by Cathy Holton -- I'm always in search of a female bonding book that was as good as Savin..."

I guess I'm the contrarian in this group but I don't believe likable characters is the key to a successful book. I don't need to like the characters but I do need them to be interesting.

Peg

Bunny wrote: "I didn't read much this month, and what I did read, I don't remember because I had to clean out our bedroom to have a new floor put in, consequently I got rid of all of my non-keeper books in the a..."

Peg wrote: "Nancy (Hrdcovers) wrote: "Gone are the days when I used to read 7 or 8 books a month. My reads for June are only two.

Beach Trip by Cathy Holton -- I'm always in search of a female bonding book..."

I don't always have to like the characters but, in a female bonding book, I feel I need to. I need to be bonding with them as they're bonding with each other. I can't do that with characters I don't like.

Nancy (Hrdcovers) wrote: "I don't always have to like the characters but, in a female bonding book, I feel I need to. I need to be bonding with them as they're bonding with each other. I can't do that with characters I don't like. ."

Excellent point.

I remember feeling this "bonding" experience in an early book of Elizabeth Berg's, Talk Before Sleep. It would not have been possible if the characters had been unlikable. In other books, like The Reserve, Serena, The Darling.....all of the female main characters were unlikable.... but this did not spoil the book because their "unlikableness" contributed to the plot.

That was what I meant by my comment about not needing to like the characters. However, Nancy, if you are reading a story that you want to make you feel good, then, yes, liking the characters is key.

Peg....You're exactly right. When I read a book like that, it's a feel good book to me...a vacation kind of book.

JoAnn/QuAppelle wrote: "Nancy (Hrdcovers) wrote: "I don't always have to like the characters but, in a female bonding book, I feel I need to. I need to be bonding with them as they're bonding with each other. I can't do t..."

If the characters in a book are unlikeable, then either the plot or the concept had better be fascinating to give me a motivation to continue reading.

Shomeret

Shomeret wrote: "JoAnn/QuAppelle wrote: "Nancy (Hrdcovers) wrote: "I don't always have to like the characters but, in a female bonding book, I feel I need to. I need to be bonding with them as they're bonding with ..."


I remember reading a book many years ago by Barbara Vine, The Blood Doctor, and I couldn't stand any of the characters in the book. Yet I found it fascinating and it ended up being a favorite of mine.

Some place there is, I suppose, a place for commenting on authors who die and who I have read something by. Robert McNamara has died. When I read his book this was my comment thereon:

3000 In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, by Robert S. McNamara with Brian VanDeMark (read 9 Aug 1997) I found this a fascinating read. I think he makes his points very well. What I don't know is that he would have done anything different if he did it over again (without the benefit of hindsight). It is easy to say we should have pulled out in 1965 knowing what has happened, but it is difficult to say wise men would have done so in 1965 knowing what they knew then. I think McNamara is a smart man and much of what he says in this book makes lots of sense.

Schmerguls, on the news this morning, for the two seconds not about M. Jackson, they mentioned the many negative articles in the press about McNamara upon his passing.

One article cited was by NY Times writer Bob Herbert.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/opi...

I think it would be a good idea to have a "authors who have passed away" thread. Anyone can start a thread. The moderator doesn't have to do it. You just can't start a Folder.

Alias Reader wrote: "Schmerguls, on the news this morning, for the two seconds not about M. Jackson, they mentioned the many negative articles in the press about McNamara upon his passing.

One article cited was by NYTimes writer Bob Herbert.."

I think this column was a disgrace...on the day of the man's death to write about him in this way was in such poor taste.

In my opinion, the only way the "obscenity of war" will ever penetrate the American psyche is by bringing back the draft. Perhaps that would wake people up to this horror.

JoAnn/QuAppelle wrote: "Alias Reader wrote: "Schmerguls, on the news this morning, for the two seconds not about M. Jackson, they mentioned the many negative articles in the press about McNamara upon his passing.

One a..."

In my opinion, the only way the "obscenity of war" will ever penetrate the American psyche is by bringing back the draft. Perhaps that would wake people up to this horror.<<



And if they ever did bring this back, with the equality of women now, they would also have to draft 18 year old girls. It would never fly.

Nancy...just saying.....not recommending.

While I thought, at the time, that McNamara's hindsight into the war was better late than never, this quote from the LA Times this morning made me realize I don't know much about it at all, "McNamara's loyalty was to his bosses and not the truth. He lied to them. He had people under him lying. He did it with Kennedy and he did it with Johnson and it was only when he was impaled with the failure of the war that he didn't know what to do," David Halberstam, author of "The Best and The Brightest".

I think I would have said "impaled upon" not "impaled with", don't you?

message 35: by Schmerguls ---
Some place there is, I suppose, a place for commenting on authors who die and who I have read something by. Robert McNamara has died. When I read his book this was my comment thereon:
3000 In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam,
---------------------

FYI
On C-SPAN Book TV

Robert McNamara, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam
Robert McNamara, secretary of defense during the Johnson and Kennedy administrations, appeared on "Booknotes" in 1995 to discuss his book. According to Mr. McNamara, U.S. policy was based on a "domino" theory in which the loss of Vietnam would initiate a collapse of nations, which could include the United States. In the book, he identified eleven reasons for the outcome in Vietnam and six stages at which the U.S. withdrawal was possible. Mr. McNamara chronicled the measures enacted by government leaders and why he believes, in retrospect, that their decisions were wrong. This "Booknotes" is a two hour program.
Robert McNamara died on July 6, 2009.

(Saturday 6 PM ET)

(I suppose this does not belong here, but I don't know where it belongs. It does discuss reading done partly in June)

>>Q: What's the worst classic to take to the beach?
A: Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust. I read all 3,300 pages twice on the beach, but it takes forever, and it requires such a level of concentration. If you have time and if you're doing nothing else, then it's the best book to read on the beach. But if you're living a normal life and only have a few hours — you've got to mind your kids so they don't get pulled in the undertow — that's exactly the wrong book to read on the beach.<<

It DOES take forever. I started Remembrance of Things Past on about 28 April 1955, and completed it on 7 August 1955. Was I ever glad to get to the last page! (I had no kids at the time, so I did not have to mind any kids...)

I finished Edith Wharton's four novellas, an edition titled Madame De Treymes and Three Novellas. This followed the success of House of Mirth; there is a sense of piano exercises to these novellas. That is, each one sets up a moral conflict, and Mrs. Wharton plays a masterful series of variations on the possibilities that each conflict creates, building up to the characters' chosen resolutions. Each novella had a serious flaw in its plotting, I have to say; that required a greater suspension of disbelief than I would have liked, but the rest of the books more than made up for that, for me, a Wharton fan. "Madame de Treymes" involves an American woman with the wonderful name of Fanny Frisbee, who has married a Frenchman, with unhappy results (sound familiar, Innocence fans?) but who may be rescued from her misery by an old American boyfriend who is determined to marry her himself. Extricating her from the French society is not quite as simple as the nice, direct Americans expect it should be, however. Another, "Sanctuary," is a fascinating story of conflicts of ethics, class, gender, and authorship, involving a woman and her husband, and then much later that same woman and her son, a rising young architect. The last of the group, "The Brunner Sisters," has Mrs. Wharton trying her hand at lower-class dialect, which is one of the novella's flaws. Yet her understanding of the characters remains as profound and powerful as, well, anything. Even flawed Wharton is better than 95% of the stuff out there, in my opinion.

I'm currently making my way through the Cunliffe book we discussed in another thread. Europe Between the Oceans 9000 BC to AD 1000 It is full of fascinating details, but one aspect that has interested me is the play of climate upon the shifting populations since the end of the last Ice Age. There is one particular chart of the temperature ranges from the late stages of the Ice Age, about 20,000 BC, to the current day. The benefits the human race derived from the warming -- and it warmed well beyond what we are experiencing today, according to this chart -- were far-reaching and remarkable, and it is impossible to look at the historical perspective in this chart, and the extremely small range of variations over the last 7,000-8,000 years, and not reflect on the possibility that we have gotten ourselves unnecessarily worked up over global warming fears. Another little factoid -- in some of the ancient burial areas in Europe, over 40% of the skeletons of men, women and children show fatally traumatic injuries to the skulls..... warfare was a constant threat. Other groupings show "only" 20%, Cunliffe notes. The adaptability and the obvious progress of our species over this period come through loud and clear, yet the similarities between us and the ancients are always present underneath this narrative, also. I'm enjoying it.

Michael wrote The benefits the human race derived from the warming -- and it warmed well beyond what we are experiencing today, according to this chart -- were far-reaching and remarkable, and it is impossible to look at the historical perspective in this chart, and the extremely small range of variations over the last 7,000-8,000 years, and not reflect on the possibility that we have gotten ourselves unnecessarily worked up over global warming fears.

I must have read an excerpt from this book, or a synopsis, or something based on the same research, a while back, because I have drawn the same conclusions. And the warming also waxes and wanes. To hear some people talk, you would think this "global warming" has never happened before in the history of the planet.

Schmerguls wrote: "(I suppose this does not belong here, but I don't know where it belongs. It does discuss reading done partly in June)

>>Q: What's the worst classic to take to the beach?
A: Remembrance of Thin..."

I'm ashamed to say I only got through 2/3rds of Rememberance of Things Past, although I thought it was amazing. It provided me one of the few transcendental moments I've had in literature (the other two moments were provided by the monologue at the end of Ulysses and Tintern Abbey by Wordsworth) for which I'm forever grateful. I still have a full set of the books, but so far I've resisted beginning again.