What Are You Reading ?

[SteveO]

I didn't like his classic Ulysses much either, Music Head ! I couldn't finish it, too tedious, too much detail and too long!

[Music Head]

I didn't like his classic Ulysses much either, Music Head ! I couldn't finish it, too tedious, too much detail and too long!

I have that sitting on my shelf and have never read it
probably never will now

[SteveO]

Oh give it a go pal! You may like it!

[Music Head]

Charles Krauthammer - Things That Matter - 2013



A Christmas gift from a neighbor. Not something I would have bought myself. Krauthammer is a Fox News analyst and syndicated writer for various publications. Leans to the conservative side of course (Fox news) and I certainly don't have issues with that. I read/listen to both sides. My problem with the book is that it is a collection of his editorial writings over the past 30 years or so. A lot of writings, most only 2 or 3 pages long. Covers a broad range of topics. Mostly political, some not. I do watch him occasionally and agree with him most of the time. Writings of just a few pages are not nearly long enough to put a point across on something like terrorism. Interesting but I never could get into the short opinion pieces.

Grade - C

next up - The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

[Music Head]

Jodi Picoult - The Storyteller - 2013



Was afraid this would be to girly (romance) for me, but it wasn't until the end. Story of a young woman who works as a baker. Grief counseling sessions lead her to an acquaintance with a 90 year old man who asks her to kill him. Turns out he was an SS guard in Germany in WWII. His wife had recently died, he wanted to join her and
had a little guilt hanging over him. The twist comes when the woman finds out her grandmother was in the same concentration camp and was a witness to much of the
brutality. About half of the book is the grandmother telling her story of survival. The best part for me. The subject fascinates me. Just how that could happen. all the
questions. The old man gets his wish, the young woman meets her love interest in the man that helps her tie the loose ends, and they live happily ever after.Although
this is a work of fiction, the treatment of the jews during the grandmothers story seems pretty accurate.

Grade - B

next up - The Holocaust by Martin Gilbert

[Music Head]

The ultimate horror story. 800+ pages of shock and awe. I've read many accounts but this is the most detailed. A bit repetitious after the first few hundred pages is my only complaint. Not much about the war itself, just the treatment of the Jews before the war started and in the concentration camps. I can never understand how humans could have either done this or allowed it to be done to them. I would not have lasted 5 minutes but would have been shot early as I'm sure thousands were.

Grade - B

next up - Don't Stop The Carnival by Herman Wouk

[Jerome]

The ultimate horror story. 800+ pages of shock and awe. I've read many accounts but this is the most detailed. A bit repetitious after the first few hundred pages is my only complaint. Not much about the war itself, just the treatment of the Jews before the war started and in the concentration camps. I can never understand how humans could have either done this or allowed it to be done to them. I would not have lasted 5 minutes but would have been shot early as I'm sure thousands were.

Grade - B

next up - Don't Stop The Carnival by Herman Wouk

Amazing how people go for fake horror stories (for enjoyment no less) but the most blood-curdling one is actually factual. Agree with you MH - cannot understand how this was allowed to happen. So much for Nationalist pride - this is what it leads to. Was in the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam and it is really weird to be standing in the same place she once called her home. Keeps you thinking for days afterwards.

[CRAZY-HORSE]

Jerome and MH....

watch the movie "boy in the striped pyjamas"...its not based on fact as far as im aware, its based on the holocaust from the point of view of a young German boy(son of a camp komandant) and a young jewish boy in the camp, the innocence of youth,the brutality of the Nazi's and probably the about the saddest movie i have ever seen...

it is without a doubt in the top five movies i have ever seen.

[CRAZY-HORSE]

also, i visited Dachau(concentration camp) in Germany in 1984...horrific place that still haunts me to this day.

the smell of death still lingers there, the silence of it all, the 'showers', the photo's taken by the 'allies' when they arrived there...and humanity still hasnt learned from those mistakes!

[SteveO]

Interesting comments! That is why the world has to be on guard for the little Hitlers!!!!