What Are You Reading ?

[Gossens]

i am reading a blog on barack obama!!

[Music Head]

Excellent read. This is the last book in a 3 volume set. Wish I could find the first two for the same $5 price that I found this one for. Covers only the last 10 years of the mans life after his presidency. I have read another more complete bio but this tops that one. Amazing life the man had. Two safari's, in Africa and South America. He loved to hunt the big game. One of the most popular american presidents. He messed up though by seeking a third term. After being out of office for four years, he split the republican party by running on a third party ticket in 1912. Probably cost Taft a second term and put the dems in with Wilson. Lost a lot of support of voters and party powers. Tried again in 1916 back in the GOP, but the lustre had worn off. Died in 1919 at the age of 60 still contemplating another run in 1920.

Grade - A

next up - The Loop by Nicholas Evans

[PennyLane]

New book by my favorite author.

[Music Head]

More pop fiction for me. Story is set in Montana, current day, ranchers vs. government wolf program. The ranchers want to protect their cattle, the government wants to save the wolfs. I think the government won because the head rancher dude ends up shooting his son, mistaking him for a wolf. A bunch of love stuff going on in the story also, but the focus is the wolves (for me anyway). The title refers to some contraption invented by a hunter to kill the wolves.

Grade - C

next up: Lyndon Johnson And The American Dream by Dors Kearns Goodwin

[Music Head]

Should have been my cup of tea being a political bio. Doris is a well known historian now, showing up on talk shows now and then. She must have been getting her feet wet with this one. She has since written books on the Kennedy's, the Roosevelt's and most recently Lincoln. Not sure how different those are from this, but too much time is spent psycho-analyzing Johnson in this one. A lot of decisions he made, Ms. Goodwin takes us back to childhood memories that may have triggered his thoughts. Please, give me a break. If not for that it would have been a good book for me. A lot of stuff on Vietnam and civil rights, and we can't forget ending poverty. Glad we got that done.

Grade - C

next up - A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

[mdsujaan]

reading a detective book of Sherlock homes

[Music Head]

Different cover than mine, mine's better. Strange story how this came to be. Author offed himself back in the 70's. His mother finds this manuscript in the attic years later and brings it to a publisher. Only book the guy had. Brilliant. Right out of the Kurt Vonnegut playbook. Strange characters throughout. Not many sane thinking people. Put on your warp hat for this. Life in New Orleans in the 50's. The only way to tell the time period is by what was on tv. A Don Quixote of the French Quarter is how the main character is referred to. One of the best fiction books I have read in awhile.

Grade - A

next up - A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan

[Bellini48]

END OF ETERNITY. Isaac Asimov. And enjoying the plot.

[IvanMC]

I'm reading the riveting The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, by Lovecraft. And enjoying it a lot, though it's not easy to read.

[Music Head]

Pulitzer Prize winner about America's biggest foreign policy blunder. Painful for me to read about the stupidty of my government's decisions. I can laugh at the small stuff, but when it comes to human lives, not a laughing matter. John Paul Vann was one of the first american advisors that went to the country in the early 60's to "help them" resist the communists. We all know how that worked out. John was in the country on and off for about 10 years before his chopper went down in '72 and he was killed. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetary with full military honors. The book is not so much about him as our involvement in that conflict. Title refers to the lies told by the military to the policy makers that kept us there. Specifically that we were winning, when that was never the case. I find it hard to blame the man at the top (Johnson/Nixon), when they are being fed lies from the people at the bottom. George Bush anyone?

Grade - A

next up - Washington D.C. by Gore Vidal