The Idiot Board Readers Corner - General Discussion

Re: The Idiot Board Book Club

Bing unemployed for the past few weeks, I've had (have) some time on my hands, and I've been watching a lot of the Military Channel which it seems could just as easily be called the Nazi Network. Anyway, all of that spurred my to pick up The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. This is about as detailed (and thus at times tedious) a history of one of the most despicable yet remarkable political movements and its ensuing atrocity as you're apt to find.

Early in the book, the author makes the observation about an event in Hitler's father's life which may have altered the course of history had it not happened. His father, Alois, was a bastard and for many years bore his mother's maiden name, Schickelgruber. It wasn't until Alois was due to inherit some money from another relative and his father needed to appear and attest to Alois' paternity, thereby changing his name, that Alois became Alois Hitler. As the author noted, is doubtful Heil Schickelgruber! Would have instilled the same fervor of the German people.

Great read if you have the time.

 

Re: The Idiot Board Book Club

Everybody needs to hop on The Broken Empire trilogy by Mark Lawrence. It's epic fantasy of a goddamn-near-GRRM quality. It lacks a bit in plot complexity, but makes up for it with a visceral brutality that dwarfs anything in the ASOIAF universe. The protagonist is an absolute motherfucker named Jorg, a prince in a not-so-far-off world who, after witnessing the brutal murder of his mother and brother at the tender age of 9, flees his royal household for a life of rage, murder, and banditry. He's consumed by hatred, and stands as one of the most anti-hero anti-heroes I've ever read. Anti-hero may not even be an appropriate title - he may be a straight up villain. But nonetheless he's the protagonist, and Mark Lawrence puts you inside his head so well that he becomes a fairly empathetic character, and obviously one you find yourself rooting for. It's fucking violent. Innocents get killed. Dogs get killed. The villains, Jorg included, are bad bad bad people. It's almost like if the Judge were the POV character in Blood Meridian, except that you'll find yourself passionately rooting for Jorg, in spite of the atrocities he commits (and there's no shortage). The author brings you into his head brilliantly, and peppers the narrative with bitingly cynical philosophy and incredibly dark humor. Jorg is a bastard, but he's a damn entertaining one, and his "stab-first-when-irritated" mentality somehow manages to be endearing. Anyone that's waiting on the next offering from GRRM should definitely check it out - I tore through the first two books in about a day and a half each. The world is awesome, the characters are great, the action is gripping, and there's not a chance in hell you'll ever see it adapted to film. Read it. Love it.

On a very similar note, The Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington is an aggressively dark, hilarious read. It's late and I'm drunk so I'm not gonna write too much in summary of it, but it relates the adventures of two German brothers, Hegel and Manfred Grossbart, through the magical wilds of 13th (I think?) century Europe. And they are certainly villains. Nothing I can say will even do it justice. It's not a novel for the faint of heart, but an awfully entertaining read if you can stomach two protagonists who can simultaneously consider themselves perfect Christians while murdering and pillaging their way through medieval Europe. I know I haven't done it justice but it's truly very, very entertaining.

 

Re: The Idiot Board Book Club

On this note, try the The Iron Druid Series. They are about a centuries old Druid bonded to the earth who interacts with different god's witches etc that remind me of a watered down Neil Gaiman / American Gods type of lore as the gods derive their power from belief. The last one kind of circled the story but with massive potential. His Irish wolfhound Oberon has some of the best dialog written for a dog I have ever read. Great comic relief.

 

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Has anyone read the book Divergent by Veronica Roth? A friend recommended it to me last night and said since I enjoyed The Hunger Games so much this book would appeal to me. It's in the same vein, fictionalized future city of North America, a government out of control. It's supposed to be young adult. She says it's impossible to put down.

Anyone? I have to give my pick for my book club tonight and I'm between this and Gone Girl.

 

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This is late, but my 14-year-old is a voracious reader and I asked her and she absolutely loved it. She said it is one of her favorites. She wants to be an author someday, and can be very critical of books (the last Maximum Ride book was a great disappointment to her and she can easily go off on a 15 minute dissertation as to why it was so bad), but she loved Divergent.

For what it's worth.

 

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Flashman - George MacDonald Fraser

<a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashman_(novel" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashman_(novel</a>)

Just finished this, was a great little read & will be chewing my way through the whole series no doubt. I found myself cringing at the lead characters behaviour through the whole thing, he is totally unlikable in a strangly endearing way.

I would recommend.

 

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Finally picked up The Forever War off a suggestion on reddit. One of the best science fiction books I've read in years. I grew up reading Heinlein and Haldeman carries the torch adeptly. He even copied the somewhat bitter and offhanded attitude toward sex. Went through it in one night because I couldn't put it down.

 

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Oh! I have read all of the Flashman books, a lot of entertainment. A definite +1.

 

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The Art of Fielding Chad Harbach

The Book of Joe Jonathan Tropper

Best two books I've read in the last year, hands down.

 

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I'm trying to indulge on some of the more recent pop culture essays, however Chuck Klosterman I was not impressed with. His topics had much more potential than anything he actually put to paper.

Is David Sedaris worth reading? If it's full of hubris and him talking about how great he is (even in a tounge and cheek Tucker style) I'll pass.

 

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I have finally trudged through Call of Cthulu and Other Weird Stories. I have never been more disappointed in a 'classic' author. I enjoyed one story of the collected bunch, and it was so heavily influenced by Poe that it didn't even feel like Lovecraft, which is probably why I enjoyed it. I cannot off the top of my head recall any writer using more cumbersome, awkward phrasing. This work is vastly overrated.

3/10

On a related note, my almost mother in law is buying me a Kindle and a gift card for my birthday. While I'm excited that I will save so much physical space, I'm not sure if I can get on board with reading something without the feel of the book in my hands.

 

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The Twelve Children of Paris by Tim Willocks.

This is the sequel (of sorts) to a book called The Religion which was about the Siege of Malta. The only thing they have in common is the main character and his wife. The Religion was the better book, but this one has its moments.

It is set in Paris on August 23, 1572 which is the day of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre when the French King used some half assed religious reasons to cover up the political reasoning to kill every last Huguenot he could get his hands on. It turns out that was quite a few.

It's a fun read, if a little too long. It is also seriously bloody. The story is simply Mattias Tannhauser moving around Paris looking for his pregnant wife and killing people. I lost count somewhere along the line, but he has to personally kill somewhere around 50 people in a 24 hour period.

It's worth picking up, particularly if you have read The Religion, for a beach or airplane read, but regardless of its setting, I'm not sure I'd go so far as to call it historical fiction. But, if violent bloody deaths in large numbers, rapes, twin child whores, and beheadings are your thing, it's worth a read.

 

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Sedaris is excellent reading. Very self-deprecating, so he's nothing like Tucker. "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" is one of my favorites.

 

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I've been reading quite a bit recently.

Ender's Game: Finally got around to this. Alongside Starship Troopers it seems to be the most revered science fiction novel of all time. Well, it is quite entertaining, and I certainly won't deny that, but as far as being brilliant or thought provoking I'm just not seeing it. Both the main plot with Ender and the secondary story line with his siblings was completely absurd. Actually, it was beyond absurd. This is the most far fetched ridiculous novel I've ever read. The author's introduction was basically a long winded rant towards people who have criticized him, and him talking about what a great book he had written. I have to agree with the critics. Good page turner, but way out of touch with reality, and frankly, kind of stupid.

Bartleby: I just didn't see the point to this story. It follows a lawyer who hires an odd young man who loses the desire to do anything or interact in any normal social way with other people. Above all else it was just boring.

Moby Dick: According to a lot of people this is the best American novel ever written. Parts of it I found to be great, and the story itself was pretty interesting. That is, when the story is actually occurring. If you aren't REALLY into whaling and mid nineteenth century whale science this is a tough one to get through. It seemed as if the protagonist rambling about these things composed 70-80% of the novel. It really isn't that long compared to some other stuff I've read, but this novel felt like it took the longest to get through. I think it's a bit overrated. It's more of a glorification of whaling than anything else. Also, when I skimmed around the internet a bit to find out why people thought this book was so amazing it appears that a lot of the interpretations of the novel are either really reaching or outright inserting things that are no where to be found in the book.

Outer Dark: In my opinion this is McCarthy's weakest novel, and in general I think his first three book aren't as good as what came after. I don't think this was bad, but I was having trouble grasping exactly what McCarthy meant to convey to the reader. The scene at the end -

Spoiler

where the man eats the baby. This just felt like unnecessary shock value, whereas the carnage in most of his novels feels justified.

I don't know. Maybe the book went over my head, but I couldn't help but consider this a somewhat weak novel compared to everything else the man has written. Such as...

Suttree: This on the other hand I loved. It has one of the least engaging openings of any book I've ever read, but once you get past it, the book is great. Everything with Harrogate and the part where Suttree and Reese go to New Port was hilarious. Easily one of the funniest novels I've ever read. It seems like there are so few legitimately funny books out there so I can't recommend this one enough. Having now read all of McCarthy's books this is my second favorite after Blood Meridian.

God is not Great, How Religion Poisons Everything: I'm a Hitchens fan and loved watching his debates on youtube. However, I do think at times he gets over the top in his hatred towards religion. Calling the teachings of Jesus evil is quite a stretch, and what this book really is is a bunch of religious people behaving badly. It wasn't so much an argument against religion as much as it was a bunch of historical examples of fanatics acting like assholes. If you really hate religion and want something to sneer at then by all means read it, but I would recommend skipping this one. It seems like a lot of atheism these days is just going after low hanging fruit and insulting people most Christians/Hindus/etc. don't agree with anyway. I'm not sure books like this actually accomplish anything. I would guess there's a few board members who loved this book, but I'm sorry, I just didn't see this as anything other than atheist masturbation, whereas I loved most of Hitchens' other work that I've seen.

Gods and Generals: Decent, but poorly written. I bought this based on my reading of The Killer Angels, which is my favorite historical war novel. This one was written by that author's son and follows the war from the beginning up to the battle of Gettysburg. The best part of the book was seeing how incompetent Union generals were in the first half of the war. However, the writing is sloppy. Chamberlain seems only to be in the book because he was such a popular character in The Killer Angels. He isn't too involved in the first half of the war and his chapters detracted from the story more than anything else. Then, after all the Jackson chapters there are in the book the author condenses the entire valley campaign to one paragraph. Why? It was arguably his greatest military achievement. A lot of the decisions the author made about what to include and what not to include didn't make very much sense. Also, the characterization of Jackson was awful. I believe he was deeply religious. However, I somehow doubt the only thought that ever popped into his head was, 'How can I please god?' I might pick up the third book in the series, but I really wish his father had written all three instead.

Currently reading The Count of Monte Cristo. I'm a little over 300 pages in and so far it's really good.

 

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I'm currently in the middle of The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo, and it is fucking awesome.

This guy helped secure a major victory over Austrians, but he felt like his performance was overlooked in the report made to Napoleon by Napoleon's aide-de-camp. It said that he and his troops stayed back in observation. He was pissed and decided to write the following letter to Napoleon.

This book is full of stuff like that. I can't recommend it enough. This guy led an amazing life. It also serves as a good introduction to French Revolution history (something I knew nothing about).

 

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Anybody looking to get into the Song of Ice and Fire series (Game of Thrones for those unaware) Amazon is currently selling the whole 5 book Kindle version for only $10. You can find it here.

 

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I've recently read Jane Jacob's entire catalog. She's a pretty remarkable writer, and if you're interested in economics without numbers, I can recommend the Nature of Economies. It's short, written as a deep conversation and puts economics as an extension of environmental conditions in perspective. Her books would be a good foundation for an understanding of economic development in a no-bullshit kind of way.

Also, Ha Joon Chang's "Bad Samaritan" is a good read. Like most of the criticisms of development policy, he doesn't really advocate a better solution, but it's a good analysis nonetheless.

To celebrate graduation, I'll be smoking a Cuban and reading "The Dinosaur Heresies" by Robert Bakker.

 

Re: The Idiot Board Book Club

Thank You for Your Service by Dave Finkel

This book follows a group of veterans and their family members dealing with Traumatic Brain Injuries and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder following time spent in Iraq. It holds nothing back. This book will kick your ass from page one. The suicide rate among veterans makes the news occasionally, and this book puts those dry statistics in gut-wrenching perspective.

Finkel does not assuage our need for stories with nice bows and happy endings. The stories he tells in this book are real, ugly, messy, and don't necessarily end well.

For someone who loves books, teaches them, and wishes he could write them, I am terrible at book reviews. So here is a link to the New York Times Review.

I will close by simply saying this is one of the best books I have ever read and may be one of the most important.

95/100