Books I bought today

[Ulysses]

The Bounty / Caroline Alexander
Avenger / Frederick Forsyth
Random Family / Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
The Naked Olympics / Tony Perrottet ('cause Zeno said so)
Reefer Madness / Eric Schlosser

[Clarkmeister]

I want someone to read and review Skin City. /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Zeno]

[ QUOTE ]
The Naked Olympics / Tony Perrottet

[/ QUOTE ]

This author has been shown on C-Span-2 (Book notes) giving a very interesting talk about his book. It is well worth watching if you have time. The Olympic games of classical times where much more than just a competition between athletes. Lots of good old fashion debauchery accompanied the festival. But many things were also the same as today.

-Zeno

Edit:

PS. I say, no P.G. Wodehouse or James Thurber? You Cad.

[Ulysses]

[ QUOTE ]
I want someone to read and review Skin City. /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

OK. Just read a blurb. Sounds good. I'm on it.

[Clarkmeister]

Thank you.

[Ulysses]

The Bounty / Caroline Alexander - Just started this.

Avenger / Frederick Forsyth - Great story. Very light reading, but quite entertaining. Wouldn't put it up there w/ Day of the Jackal or any Ludlum books, but a good read.

Random Family / Adrian Nicole LeBlanc - Wow. This is a long non-fiction book about poor people growing up in New York. Gangs, drugs, poverty, teenage pregnancy, etc. Very well-written and highly impactful stuff. It gets a little repetitive towards the end (but perhaps that's the nature of these cyclical problems) but this is some painful stuff that makes you think. In general for social/urban issues reading, I think Jonathon Kozol and Alex Kotlowitz have some great works. I definitely recommend Random Family.

The Naked Olympics / Tony Perrottet ('cause Zeno said so) - What a fun, interesting book. Amazing how much detailed info this guy was able to research about the early Olympics. Great read, not very long. Very well-written.

Reefer Madness / Eric Schlosser - I though Fast Food Nation was great, but this book was not nearly as compelling a read. It's three essays on the underground economy - drugs, migrant workers, and pornography. Maybe it's because I've read a lot on all of those issues before, but I didn't learn a ton. There were some interesting stories in there, but overall I though this was a lot of rehash of not that groundbreaking stuff and the writing was OK, not great.

Clark - I will go to the store this week and pick up Skin City along with some other new stuff.

[cockandbull]

From reading a few of your posts, id suggest checking out something by Will Self.

Laters

Harry

[Fluffington]

It would probably be wise to pick up a dictionary at the same time.

[Clarkmeister]

Bout time.

[Ulysses]

[ QUOTE ]
Bout time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Man, Borders didn't have it! Bastards!

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
The Bounty / Caroline Alexander

[/ QUOTE ]

Just finished it. Turns out Captain Bligh was no Captain Bligh, or at least the one portrayed in the first two movies. Good read, well researched.

[youtalkfunny]

It was good???

I picked up the audio version at the library, and gave up before the end of Disc One. So dry, so much minutia.

I'll give it another try (they don't have much audio on CD to pick from, and my car doesn't have a cassette player).

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
It was good???

I picked up the audio version at the library, and gave up before the end of Disc One. So dry, so much minutia.

I'll give it another try (they don't have much audio on CD to pick from, and my car doesn't have a cassette player).

[/ QUOTE ]

I've never listened to an audio book, and it would seem this one is filled with a bit too much minutia to imagine making it good.

Keep in mind the book follows the career of Bligh of most of the other loyalists, the fate of the mutineers who where never caught, and the trials of those who were caught. A lot of the book gets into the social mores of the day, which is quite interesting (at least to me).

The Patrick O'brien series of historical fiction (e.g., Master and Commander) would probably be a lot more fun.

~ Rick