Following the sage advice of Sartre, I finally tracked down a copy of The Unexpurgated Code by J.P. Donleavy. Upon reading the first page, I instantly burst out laughing.

Hilarious book.

Conor

I finished "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn."



I enjoyed it very much. It is a coming of age and social history written by a poor girl in Brooklyn from 1910-1918. She is very observant about everything and learns to read and loves to write her observations of life and her family in her diary. I learned a lot about Brooklyn and a period of history I knew not much about. The book was first published in 1943; I was a bit surprised at how frankly the book dealt with sex and other mature social issues as seen from the vantage point of a young girl. As always, I was sort of disappointed in the ending. For 95% of the book, we are treated to very specific observations about everything in this girl's life, then towards the end, it speeds up as she matures into an adult and becomes much more general. This happens in lots of books, IMO.

I give it a full 5 clips.



I've just started my 2d Tony Hillerman mystery novel: "The Fallen Man".

So far, so good.

redmanca wrote:

Following the sage advice of Sartre, I finally tracked down a copy of The Unexpurgated Code by J.P. Donleavy. Upon reading the first page, I instantly burst out laughing.

Hilarious book.

Conor

Excellent! Then you were treated to the many wonderful passages that modesty prevented me from posting on the blog.

PaperClip wrote:

I finished "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn."

I enjoyed it very much. It is a coming of age and social history written by a poor girl in Brooklyn from 1910-1918. She is very observant about everything and learns to read and loves to write her observations of life and her family in her diary. I learned a lot about Brooklyn and a period of history I knew not much about. The book was first published in 1943; I was a bit surprised at how frankly the book dealt with sex and other mature social issues as seen from the vantage point of a young girl. As always, I was sort of disappointed in the ending. For 95% of the book, we are treated to very specific observations about everything in this girl's life, then towards the end, it speeds up as she matures into an adult and becomes much more general. This happens in lots of books, IMO.

PC -- it's been 25 years since I read this, remember thinking it was terrific, but don't recall the "frank" material. Would it be suitable for a 13/14-year-old girl?

Sartre wrote:

Excellent! Then you were treated to the many wonderful passages that modesty prevented me from posting on the blog.

Oh yes. I've been having to stop reading it on campus because of all the funny looks I get while cracking up uncontrollably.

Conor

Sartre wrote:

PC -- it's been 25 years since I read this, remember thinking it was terrific, but don't recall the "frank" material. Would it be suitable for a 13/14-year-old girl?

There is discussion of her mother's sister "Aunt Sissy" bedding many men and working in a condom factory and one unfortunate incident where the children who are the subject find some of Sissy's work product and not knowing what it is, inflate it, tie it to a string and fly it outside their apartment window.

Certainly compared to today's average TV commerical, it's not much, but it is there.

I've taken a brief break from my history nonfiction books and fun Flashman books, to delve into the W.E.B. Griffin 'Presidential Agent' series (I'm into the 2nd book now), which centers around a Special Forces Major, who acts as the Executive Assistant to the Sec. of Homeland Security and is often tapped by the President to get special missions done.
They are pretty well written and fun fast reads, a good mix of action, thriller, military, politics, etc. etc.

Just finished The President, The Pope, and The Prime Minister and I've started The Fifty Year Wound. Both are non-fiction works covering different aspects of the Cold War.

Has anyone read the current Andrew Jackson book, American Lion? Recommended?

Scott

Scott,
I will let you know in a few days.

For mystery fans I wholeheartedly recommend the Peculiar Crimes Unit series by Christopher Fowler. Just read four in a row. Great stuff - a little warped but very funny.

mcarthur wrote:

Scott,
I will let you know in a few days.

Not sure where you are, but it looks extremely pleasant.

Enjoy,

Scott

Nice, Mac!

I finished Tony Hillerman's "The Fallen Man" this weekend. Another good mystery set in the 4 corders area of the southwest and involving Navajo tribal police detectives. Well written and pretty spare. A good conclusion and character development for the recurring characters.

I give it 3.5 clips.





I started Scott Smith's "A Simple Plan" - you may remember the movie which was based on the novel - Bill Bob Thornton was very good in it. So far it is a very tightly written suspense novel that is slowly but surely ratching up the tension. The author (it was his first novel) has a good way of promoting the protagonist as an 'everyman' and is trying extremely hard to have the reader step into his shoes and see how he makes the decisions he does (sort of like early Stephen King). I wish (like any book that later became a movie) that I had read this prior to seeing the movie. It's still very good, though.

Smith only has one other novel "The Ruins" which I will certainly look up after I finish this one.

^ By the way -- PC -- my daughter (8th grade) is reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn for a school outside reading project, on my recommendation, and I'm reading it too. Gosh, what a terrific book it is. I love the sociological detail, though obviously the book has a lot more going for it than that. I did read that this was originally written as a memoir and for some reason the publisher requested that the author turn it into a novel.

"Tree" is really a great book.

I finished "A Simple Plan". Excellent psychological thriller in a more subtle way than most mass-market paperback thrillers. Definitely a worth a read. More like Thomas Harris than later Stephen King.

Five clips.



I'm now on to Grisham's "An Innocent Man" - a non-fiction account of a murder in small town Oklahoma, and how the police and detectives railroad an man innocent of the crime for it. I'm about 1/3 the way in. As usual, Grisham is a pretty good story teller, but you can tell that the book is pretty heavily slanted in one way just by reading the cover. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not interested in putting innocents into jail, but Grisham is certainly giving the "NBC" version of the story, as opposed to say the "Fox" version, if you get my meaning.