I'm working my way through John D. MacDonald's "Travis McGee" series again. As a kid, I read all 21 of them. In my opinion, it's the greatest mystery series ever written. Set in South Florida at the time they were written (the '60s and '70s), the series encapsulates and portends the incessant development in the state of Florida, both pre and post Disney. The subject matter is a bit antiquated, and Travis's macho, manly-man attitude may be off-putting to the post feminist crowd, but it's still wildly entertaining and exceptionally well written. Besides, who wouldn't want to live on a house boat in Fort Lauderdale?

Rant by Chuck Palahniuk

Rant takes the form of a (fictional) oral history of Buster "Rant" Casey, in which an assortment of friends, enemies, admirers, detractors, and relations have their say on this evil character, who may or may not be the most efficient serial killer of our time.

It's in a different format than other books I've read. It's pretty intriguing as all Palahniuk's writings are.

I'm about 1/4th a way through the book and it was worth what I paid already. And I'm a cheapskate.

The Busted Flush was the boat as I recall. Oddly enough MacDonald lived on the Florida west coast in Sarasota.

I should've known you'd remember, DT. The Busted Flush it was, indeed. It was moored in slip F 18 at the Bahia Mar Marina.

How many of Palahniuk's books have you read so far? He is one of my favorite writer's, and I haven't read Rant yet. I love his books so much that I actually started an individual HERE that I've been meaning to post in because of the movie made about his book Choke.

I've read Choke, Fight Club and Lullaby. This RANT sounds pretty good. Maybe it will be my next Palahniuk.

I'm into all these grit lit novels right now.

GAH! Stop talking about Fight Club!

The more you read the weirder it gets.

Maybe I missed something... but why? Fight Club was a really good book, and one of the best movie adaptations. It's worth talking about... No?

1st RULE: You do not talk about FIGHT CLUB.

2nd RULE: You DO NOT talk about FIGHT CLUB.

3rd RULE: If someone says "stop" or goes limp, taps out the fight is over.

4th RULE: Only two guys to a fight.

5th RULE: One fight at a time.

6th RULE: No shirts, no shoes.

7th RULE: Fights will go on as long as they have to.

8th RULE: If this is your first night at FIGHT CLUB, you HAVE to fight.

It's been well over a year since I last read a book, but with this whole A-Rod book coming out this week, the steroids issue in baseball has piqued my interest into reading more about it. What better way to start than with the man himself, Jose Canseco with JUICED: WILD TIMES, RAMPANT 'ROIDS, SMASH HITS, AND HOW BASEBALL GOT BIG



A GREAT book that was very hard to put down. The chapters he devotes to McGwire's and Giambi's steroid use were the best for me. However, this was a rather short book (at 285 pages), basically just giving hightlights about his life. I was hoping for something a little more in-depth. I'm hoping VINDICATED: BIG NAMES, BIG LIARS, AND THE BATTLE TO SAVE BASEBALL is just that. It's 52 pages shorter but the chapters appear to be longer (JUICED had 25 chapters and VINDICATED only has 10).

Canseco's second book, VINDICATED: BIG NAMES, BIG LIARS, AND THE BATTLE TO SAVE BASEBALL, is pretty different than his first. The first seemed too PC and almost "friendly" in a way. He named names in JUICED but it was almost as if he did it nicely. In this book however, his true feelings come out such as his thoughts on A-Rod (before his steroid scandal was revealed just a few months ago) and how he wanted to add Roger Clemens name to his list of users in JUICED but was forbidden by the publisher. All in all, another very interesting read by Jose, however some of the chapters just seemed to be mindless ramblings at times, constantly repeating himself. Although he did offer some great insight into the Congressional hearings and his thoughts on the Mitchell Report. He also brought up a great point that I agree with and believed even before I read this book: that Mitchell protected the Boston Red Sox and Florida Marlin franchises since he at times worked for both as a consultant. Really, think about it. How many Yankee players were named compared to Red Sox? The only Red Sox player I remember hearing was Mo Vaughn who hasn't played for the team in about a decade!

My bad

Does he offer anything, other than conjecture, that Mitchell was protecting certain franchises? George Mitchell is a man of uncommon credibility, principle and integrity, and was widely recognized as the best man for the investigation. His report goes into painstaking and exhaustive detail about how every piece of evidence was obtained. I doubt he would compromise his reputation just to stick it to the Yankees.

He felt since Mitchell used to work for MLB it was a joke that he was doing an "independent" investigation. And again, he made the point that the two teams he personally worked with, the Boston Red Sox and Florida Marlins had either zero or only one name come out in the report. He didn't come right out and say he was trying to "stick" it to the Yankees, but he made the point that it appeared he was trying to minimize the damage to the teams he worked with because how would that look? The investigator worked for two teams who had multiple steroid users on his watch. I don't think so.

Canseco should take note that Mitchell, an Irish catholic, was instrumental in establishing the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland without his background affecting his judgment. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and received an honorary knighthood from the UK.

He is also half Lebanese, but served as a special envoy to the Middle East under Clinton and now Obama, and received praise from the head of the Anti Defamation League for his fairness and judgment.

Keep in mind that Mitchell has served prominently on many boards for many companies and has held numerous positions within public service and that his consultant position for the Red Sox was comparatively insignificant, but spelled out in his report.

His report did not claim to be a complete list of steroid users, but it did represent an exhaustive list of names of players, for whom corroborated and documented evidence from the available sources, including Brian McNamee, linked to the purchase and acquisition of performance enhancing drugs.

I don't doubt that there were Red Sox players, who used steroids, that didn't make the list, just as I believe there were other players from every other team, who weren't found out. But I do not believe that Mitchell withheld information or refused to investigate a trail in order to protect the Red Sox or Marlins. His reputation in higher matters is too valuable to risk over this study.

Great post, Klyd. In my opinion, Mitchell's reputation remains unimpeachable.

Irish, I like you. You're a nice kid and all, but you really gotta let go of the Red Sox hate. It's childish.

I was just quoting Canseco and stating I somewhat agreed with his theory (not that it's true, but that it's possible).

I read "eat pray love" until page 50. I find it half-amusing, half-interesting. Is it worth continuing?

Unless a book is absolutely God awful, I usually see it through to the end.

I just picked up ROAD DOGS, by Elmore Leonard. He's long been one of my favorite novelists---especially in the crime "genre." It's the sequel to OUT OF SIGHT, which was published in '96 and adapted into a GREAT film in '98, starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez. It continues the story of gentleman bank robber Jack Foley, who gets his sentence drastically reduced on a technicality (hey, it's just a book). I've been looking forward to this one for a while, so I'll be starting it after the Met game tonight.

I read the first 3 books in William Kennedy's ALBANY CYCLE. The three novels are BILLY PHELAN'S GREATEST GAME,IRONWEED & VERY OLD BONES.

Very fine novels they are as well. Now i will be looking for the second set of novels in the cycle.

Sounds like a few books I need to read.

If you like reading about someone whining throughout a three-month world tour with no other obligations and 30K to spend willy-nilly. This book keeps getting recommended to me for some reason, I don't understand why people think I would love it. I thought it was an overrated, self-indulgent piece of crap, but if you google it you see I'm in the minority of that opinion.

I'm currently reading Kathy Freston "Expect a Miracle" and its actually helping me with my anxiety/debt/responsibility overhaul problems more than finding lasting love (which is what its supposed to be about). Its a really good book, I just dont have time/energy/wherewithall to meet a lot of new people right now.....Maybe once all these things are taken care of I can reread it for the right reasons.....

I also sort of reading (skimming) Laura Doyle's "The Surrendered Single" and I got her original book "The Surrendered Wife" for my best friend to help her marriage. Its also really helping me with my debt problem! (It wasn't really written for that)

HAM AND RYE by Charles Bukowski.

An absolute classic. Brutal and grim yet fascinating.

got done reading pet sematary last night, and no wonder stephen king was thinking bout not publishing it. grosume at best, and one twist...if you havent seen the movie first that is. i really liked it, and the best character in this (as well as the movie) was jud crandall.

I read The Children of Men by PD James last week. Surprised at how much the film actually improved its story. It was largely disappointingand irritating; too much irrationality (the allegorical premise notwithstanding): it's just a sappy love story disguised as wishy-washy social commentary.

Now: Mantissa by John Fowles. And The Revolution Betrayed and The Transitional Programme by Leon Trotsky.

Rare when a film improves upon a book, but it happens. Case in point: THE GODFATHER.

Sure, it was a runaway bestseller, especially in paperback. But to be honest, it was pulp fiction masquerading as literature. My point is, if the films didn't become such a HUGE part of 20th century pop culture, I doubt the novel would still be in print.

Just read FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS by James Bradley.

Never seen the film yet,but the book is awesome. The bravery and guts of those Marines who stormed Iwo Jima is staggering!

The movie was okay Yogi, nothing memorable.