Anybody read a good book lately?

[rjs246]

I thoroughly enjoyed All The Pretty Horses. Thought it was enjoyable and readable throughout. Having said that I haven't been able to get started on The Crossing. Doesn't seem as engaging...

[mussa]

It gets better. I'm not sure if it was the fact that they started slow or if I didn't commit as much time to reading them as I did with Cities of the Plain. I enjoyed all 3

[Diomedes]

Blood Meridian is easily his best.  It's inscrutable, beautiful, horrible.  A master work.

[phattymatty]

if i find a book hard to read and not enjoyable at the same time, i pretty much don't consider it a good book. 

[Diomedes]

That's fair.

Do you ever go back to a book you thought that about?  If so, ever find that in the interim it's become good to you?

[MURP]

i have to agree, Blood Meridian is a tough read, but somehow it is awesome.  Cant say I've read anything else quite like that before.

[Geowhizzer]

Finally finished David McCullough's Truman last weekend.  As are most of McCullough's books, it was a long read (just shy of 1000 pages), but it was well-written and, to a history-oriented person like myself, very interesting.

Truman is a fascinating study in character. The last president to not have received a college education, Truman had multiple jobs before being installed as a county judge by the Pendergast machine of Kansas City (in KC, the position was administrative, not judicial).  From there, Truman would become Senator, Vice President under FDR, and President when Roosevelt died.  He, more than any other single person, helped to shape the post-war world, and perhaps the entire last half of the century.

For those that enjoy a thorough, and sometimes heady, read in American history, I can whole-heartedly recommend this book.

I'm taking a break, though, before diving into John Adams.

[rjs246]

At some point the Benjamin Franklin biography will get read by me... I've been saying that for four years since I bought it.

[Diomedes]

Motherfarger Anna Karenina is long.  Vronsky and Anna just split town together (after her confinement and his attempted suicide).  500 pages down, another 450 to go.

[MDS]

About to finish "the late shift." im a tv dork. if you are too, then you will like it.

[Phanatic]

Finished David McCullough's 1776 and it was a good read. Amazing how close we came to not being a country. The book focuses on Washington and his troubles through the begining of the American Revolution but it really doesn't wrap it up. You get a good view of the people who fought on both sides and the charecters behind the scenes somehwhat but I was left wanting more. I wanted to follow Washington's army and his failures and successes to the end of the war after reading this but it just sort of stops in 1777. Hence the name I guess. Good but now I'm looking to read something to wrap up the war.

[rjs246]

The Plan: Big Ideas for Changes in America, by Rahm Emanuel and Bruce Reed.

So first let me say the Rahm Emanuel looks like every coniving henchman in every political/espionage thriller ever made. He was clearly forged from the molten rock of pure evil. I find the man fascinating. He has a reputation for being unflinchingly partisan which I hate and cutthroat and profane which I love and has twice landed himself positions in the whitehouse because of these traits. So when I saw this book I figured I'd drop the $14 and see what pure unadulterated fascinating evil has to say about how to cure what ails our country.

It turns out that he has some interesting ideas. Some of which are obvious in hindsight (modernizing our country's broadband offerings), many of which are desperately needed (modernizing the healthcare system, modernizing the education system, balancing the budget) and a few of which are absolutely awful (requiring Israeli-like military service, I went back and forth on this originally, and I think it has its merits, but introducing it now would be disastrous and I believe that increasing the incentive to serve our country/communities is a much better option than trying to force patriotism on the population).

The books is INCREDIBLY partisan and should be rewritten without all of the overt haymakers at Republicans. I have no problem taking jabs at a failed President and his failing failure of a cabinet or the minions who surrounded him, but Republicans are not inherently wrong about everything and in fact many of the ideas in this book could be mistaken for being Republican.

Anyway, my obsession with policy-thinking and how it impacts the country continues...

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

This is now on my list.

[rjs246]

Anyone ever read anything by Mario Acevedo?

[Diomedes]

nope