Correct me if I'm wrong but is that the Fox Bill O'Reilly? If so, I never thought he'd be your bag MC?

I'm re reading The Carpet People by Terry Pratchett. I'm reliving my childhood. When I turned 16 I got out of fiction but I'm trying to get back into it again - it's hard but it's a good start with this one. I love Pratchett's humour and style of writing.

It is the same Bill O'Reilly. I have a large bag . The book is written from an historical perspective in a fiction style. O'Reilly was a history teacher. I don't watch Fox news or any Political-Commentary type shows; talking heads, white noise.

Joyland by Stephen King


Joyland could be described as a crime novel or detective novel if you like but it's is just as much a coming of age story, a story of a writer looking back at his life, a trip into nostalgia, a screed against the unfairness of this world where children die of cancer while Dick Cheney keeps on going strong, and of course a ghost story. King knows just which buttons to push and he does it so well that you forget that this is fiction. You get totally immersed into his world.

The book jumps around in time but perhaps it's something that happens to us when we get older, as the narrator is.

It's 1973. Devin Jones is a college student, a virgin, who is madly in love with his classmate Wendy Keegan. However what's apparent to the reader immediately but unfortunately doesn't become apparent to Devin until much later is that Wendy has friend-zoned Devin. She doesn't mind messing around with Devin but certainly won't do THAT thing with him. Finally, from afar she dumps him.

Devin's new summer job is at Joyland, a North Carolina independent amusement park/carnival. Joyland is almost defiantly old school carnival. It is not corporate owned. It lacks modern rides and events. In fact it's a struggle each summer for Joyland to stay in the black financially. But Joyland does have loyalty from its workers. Against the odds Devin finds that not only does he like the work but that he's good at it, especially the draining and dangerous task of putting on a dog costume in hot southern summers and entertaining the kids.

But Joyland has secrets. A ride is supposedly haunted. A few Joyland employees have unusual abilities which the thoroughly skeptical Devin can't entirely ignore. But it's when Devin meets Annie and her chronically sick son Mike, that he's inspired to look further into the history of the Joyland ghost as well as a string of murders that have occurred across the southeast. Devin also makes friends with fellow college students and co-workers Erin Cook and Tom Kennedy. Sadly for Devin, the beautiful Erin only has eyes for Tom, but unlike Wendy, Erin is honest.

This is a very good book. There are no gross out scenes in it. Supernatural elements are very muted. I hate to keep going back to this as an example but once again this story reminds me of what I think of as King's masterpiece "The Last Rung On The Ladder". Joyland is not about things that go bump in the night. It's about the darkness in the human heart. Pick this one up. It's just under 300 pages.

A book called ORDINARY HEROES by Scott Turow. A bit of a WWII war story/whodunit mixed with the modern day family wanting to find out the truth of their fathers involvement in the story.

Actually very good.

Sounds like two good recommendations, guys. Thanks!

I needed a break from all the mob books and remembered how I enjoyed the police novels written by Joseph Wambaugh so have obtained a bunch of them and have been reading them between the mob books and they are all easy reads and very entertaining, but I suppose mostly men's interest books

Have you read Wambaugh's Echoes in the Darkness? It dealt with the 1979 murder of teacher, Susan Rinehart, and her two children. Her body was found in the trunk of her car, parked near Harrisburg, PA. A teacher and the principal of the school were charged and convicted of the crimes. A mini-series of the book aired on tv. I know/knew the attorneys and judges involved.

Wambaugh praised the state trooper, Jack Holtz, and the prosecuting attorney, Rick Guida while the defendants, Nicholas Bradfield and Jay Smith were rightfully demonized. As a sidenote, while Smith was convicted and sentenced to death in a trial, separate from Bradfield's, the prosecutor eventually went to prison on drug charges. A few years later in the early 90s, Trooper Holtz was in hot water after he hired a junk man to clean his attic. The junk man found evidence from the Smith trial that was favorable to the defense and he turned it over to the defense attorney even though Smith threatened the junk man.

withholding the evidence was so egregious that the PA Supreme Court vacated the sentence and barred the state from prosecuting him again. Thus, Smith, once on death row, was a free man and the heroic prosecutor and arresting officer, were living in shame.

Another sidenote. It was years from the finding of the dead body to the arrest of the defendants. Wambaugh was working on the story and made repeated communications with Holtz that if he made an arrest with a conviction, he'd get $20,000. This little tidbit disgusted the reviewing court.

I just finished "JFK's Last 100 Days" by Thurston Clarke. I can’t recommend this book more highly. It’s chock-full of details that shed new light on the magic JFK generated, while at the same time offering solid historical perspective on his decisions and decision-making process. More affirmation of the man’s almost surreal charisma: Despite having the second-shortest tenure of any postwar president, JFK is probably the most written-about, and still retains his hold on people’s imaginations.

I just finished "The Outsider" which is the autobiography of tennis great Jimmy Connors. It is fairly interesting, but you had better like tennis. It is a long book but is well written. He was very cocky and arrogant during his tennis days but has mellowed out and seems to have come back down to earth , and become a pretty likeable guy. He admits to always being a momma's boy. She trained him , pushed him, and managed him. He talks openly about his troubles with his Playboy pet of the year wife which he takes full responsibility for causing.

In case anyone was wondering what Patti Connors looks like today.



Back in her Playboy days...

Just got a couple of books by Boston crime author GEORGE V HIGGINS which I am going to read straight away. THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE and THE DIGGERS GAME!!

Yogi. You read a lot. Is that during the night shift?

Yes, I read a lot on night shift in the quiet, wee hours, but I do read a lot in general. Have always been a voracious reader!

30 days since the last post? Hmmmmm, no book reading lately. Well, I just finished "Killing Jesus", by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard. This is the 3rd in their series. I read the other two, "Killing Lincoln" and "Killing Kennedy". They write in an entertaining style. Its not dry history, but more of a fiction style.

"Killing Jesus" like the other two, painted a picture of the times; the culture and most importantly the key people involved in the death of Jesus. The book was NOT a religious book. Very little emphasis on interpreting the words of Jesus as they would later be the basis of Christianity. As a practicing Catholic, I found it gave a greater depth to the history of the Roman Empire and their relationship with the Jews and particularly the leaders of the Jewish communities. From a religious perspective it gave me a deeper understanding of my faith, much like going to Rome and the Vatican. I think a non-Christian, agnostic or atheist would find it interesting and possibly profound from a historical perspective.

MC, you might be interested in Reza Aslan's Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. I haven't read it yet, but I understand it offers a scholarly view of Jesus' life within the social, political, religious context of his environment.

Read a few, just forgot to post. BLACKWATER SOUND by James Hall, a crime caper similar to Carl Hiassen, pretty good. MONEYBALL by Michael Lewis, as in the film. Very good. Also read a couple of sports autobiographies, the best being one about JONAH LOMU, a formidable rugby player from New Zealand.

A very controversial book. I wanted to read it, and borrowed it from friend. I was too busy to read it, gave it back without even a look after a few weeks. I was planning to purchase it, is it worth reading in your opinion? The reviews on it fluctuate wildly.

I haven't read it yet. I probably won't get to it until after the new year.

A SAFE PLACE by Lorenzo Carcaterra. Thoroughly enjoyed this tale of growing up tough in Hells Kitchen. However I did recall that there was some controversy about his best seller SLEEPERS, that there was no record of him ever being in the reform school?? Made me wonder if this book was all it suggests? Still an entertaining read!!

If you're a legal/history buff, a great book to read is called "Closed Chambers: The Rise, Fall, and Future of the Modern Supreme Court" by Edward Lazarus.

Another book I just finished was called "My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir" by former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. AMAZING rags to riches story.

Former US Supreme Court Justice? I know he doesn't add much to the high court, but Clarence is still a member of the Supremes.

I'm reading 'The Crucible' & 'The Scarlett Letter'.

Im currently reading Alex Ferguson's autobiography..

The Scarlet Letter is one of the four greatest novels in American literature. Pay attention to the symbolism and imagery Hawthorne uses, particularly the symbol of Hester's daughter, Pearl, clashing with the Puritan imagery surrounding her. The novel also masterfully interweaves well developed themes of judgment, hypocricy, guilt, redemption, individualism and feminism.

My AP English teacher is going in depth with the book. Luckily I have already seen the 1926 version of the movie, so I have a grasp understanding of what's going on.

The one where he slags everybody off mate??

Good read I bet

Currently reading Rebecca and Jane, a take off of Jane Eyre.

Wolfsangel, by MD Lachlan is a historical fantasy (first in a trilogy?) that combines the origin stories of the German rune and the first werewolf with cyclic battles between Norse gods.

It was a decent read but wavers with characterization throughout. I think it could have been much shorter and had greater impact. It has a pretty interesting twist on whether such terms as "evil" even apply to such beings as the Aesir. Odin in particular maliciously enjoys watching men fight in the same manner as men do with dogs.

wow this thread was started in 2005, damn! Just read American Desperado about Jon Roberts, ex-coke trafficker for Medellin cartel, great book

Gates of Fire is the literary equivalent of the films Saving Private Ryan or Glory in that from the outside looking in it seems to capture not only the horror but also the courage and randomness of combat. Although the style of warfare depicted in Gates of Fire is extinct, war and death remain the same across time and place. I wonder if combat veterans think this book accurately illustrates the experience. The author is a Marine veteran. The book is on the reading list at West Point. Gates of Fire details the Battle of Thermopylae in which 300 Spartans allied with roughly 3-5000 Greeks from other city-states held off a Persian invasion force of at least twenty times their number for seven days before being betrayed, surrounded and annihilated in a last stand. This book is not just about the battle but about the entire Spartan way of life. It does not shrink from the uglier and more brutal aspects of Sparta. The story is told by a brief survivor of the battle, Xeones, who is a Spartan not by birth but via will. Before he dies he attempt to explain the Spartan lifestyle to an incredulous but respectful Emperor Xerxes. This was a very entertaining book that is as much about why and how men are able to fight, kill and die when every instinct tells them to run away as it is about the battle itself. There is a scene before the end that was reminiscent of Glory, in which various men tell each other "It's been an honor" or explain why they decided to come to the fight.