Posted
by Joel Mathis
August 9, 2007 at 6:09 p.m.
What I've been reading lately
Here's what I've been reading lately:![][1]["A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam" by Neil Sheehan:][2] A military man of my acquaintance suggested I'd do myself a great favor as a journalist by reading up, a lot, on American military history. John Paul Vann was an Army officer who early on suggested that the Vietnam war, as the United States was fighting it, was unwinnable - too much reliance on overwhelming military might and not enough on creating good political conditions in the South. Over time, though, his obsession with the war allowed him to overlook its shortcomings; he died in Vietnam, in a plane crash, as the conflict wound down. This is a long book that only drags when Sheehan takes an extended detour into Vann's formative years, but otherwise sheds a light on patterns that seem to repeat themselves throughout our history.["The Sportswriter" by Richard Ford:][3] I read this on the recommendation of a friend who said that Ford gave the most sympathetic picture she'd ever read of white male suburban living. It's certainly empathetic; Ford, writing in the first person, lets us see Frank Bascombe (the sportswriter) as he sees himself - ready to embrace mediocrity in career and relationships because seeking more than that would require giving more effort. It's devastating - and, for me at least, a painful read. There are two other books in the Frank Bascombe trilogy; this one made Time's "Top 100 list," and another won the Pulitzer Prize. However well-written it may be -- and it's extremely well-written -- I'm not sure I can subject myself to another volume.["The Russian Debutante's Handbook," by Gary Shteyngart:][4] This, on the other hand, is my kind of book: The story of a twentysomething Russian Jewish slacker in the early 1990s - a man who emigrated with his parents in the 1970s. He heads back to the recently dissolved Soviet Union to escape trouble, only to find himself running a Ponzi scheme for Russian mobsters in an effort to shake down shallow American expatriates. Raucously, entertainingly written. Two thumbs up.Whatchoo been reading? [1]: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/07/A_Bright_And_Shining_Lie.JPG/200px-A_Bright_And_Shining_Lie.JPG [2]: http://www.amazon.com/Bright-Shining-Lie-America-Vietnam/dp/0679724141 [3]: http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_sportswriter,00.html [4]: http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Debutantes-Handbook-Gary-Shteyngart/dp/1573229881
and 6 others
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El_Borak (Bill Hoyt) says…
'A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier,' by Joseph Plumb Martin. Actually one of the funniest books I've read in a while, but man did it ever make me hungry.
'The Minutemen and Their World,' by Robert A. Gross. Ever have one of those stories that's going along great and just dies? I actually have about a half chapter and the epilogue left which I refuse to read until it's conclusively shown to contain information that will be on a test.
'Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia," by Woody Holton. Just started it, but it looks promising, mostly because the book's previous owner apparently suffered from multiple personalities, more than one of which had a penchant for writing in the margins.
'A People's History of the American Revolution" (Raphael), 'The Glorious Cause' (Middlekauff), and 'Washington's Crossing' (Fischer) all wait in the wings...
TheEleventhStephanie (anonymous) says…
Middlesex, and not just because Oprah told me to.
clayhill70 (anonymous) says…
Joel, If you enjoyed A Bright and Shining Lie, you'd probably find A War Without Windows by Bruce Jones worth your time.
Currently reading The Creature From Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin.
leslie (Leslie vonHolten) says…
No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July. Short stories; love it so far.
Next up: The Rest of Her Life by Lawrence's own Laura Moriarty. The KCStar--a stalwart supporter of local writers--has been raving about it.
emawkc (anonymous) says…
I dove into Cormac McCarthy's The Border Trilogy. Finished All The Pretty Horses (excellent), about 20 pages left in The Crossing (not as good as the first book, in my opinion).
Cities of the Plain is on deck, and I must read No Country For Old Men before the movie comes out in November (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzRTuj...).
bwoodard (Bill Woodard) says…
Finally reading Franzen's The Corrections. And for pure summer fun (and a very fast read--got it yesterday and I'm halfway through), I just picked up Matt Ruff's Bad Monkeys.
EricW (Eric Weslander) says…
"Blasphemy," by Alan Dershowitz: "How the religious right is hijacking our Declaration of Independence."
Dershowitz picks apart claims that the founding fathers intended the U.S. to be a Christian state. The book includes many excerpts from Thomas Jefferson's correspondence that document his apparent deist belief in a "watchmaker" God, his critiques of Christian doctrine, and his urgings that people make their own, independent inquiries into the existence of God.
One great Jefferson quote: "Your own reason is the only oracle given you by Heaven, and you are answerable, not for the rightness, but the uprightness of the decision."
MyName (anonymous) says…
>"The Russian Debutante's Handbook," by Gary Shteyngart
Wewt! Finally someone else has read this book! That means there's at least 2 active copies that exist in Lawrence! As long as you keep your copy at a safe distance, we should be good. You can't have that much oddball humor in one place before it reaches a critical mass and explodes! Better warn the people at Borders about this....
monkeywrench (Tim vonHolten) says…
"not wanted on the voyage," by timothy findley. it's a very odd telling of the noah myth. very well written, and highly imaginative, it gives a very different perspective of what life would have been like in the early years after creation. i just finished and then ran out to find more findley books. i'm just starting "pilgrim," about a man who can't die.
godjilla (Jill Ensley) says…
No one's gonna see this, but....
King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild, There Is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene, and Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracey Kidder. All HIGHLY recommended.
All non-fiction. The Hochschild book is about King Leopold II's (Belgium) pillaging and murder in the Congo, as well as America's and Britain's blind eye, the Greene book is an honest and real portrait of one woman's mission to save AIDS oprhans in Ethiopia, the Kidder book is about one doctor's obsession with ending TB/AIDS in the poorer sections of the world, and how possible it really is. You know, in a nutshell.