OS Book Club Pt II

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

When the aliens drop by to harvest the remains of this planet long after we're extinct, the flow chart of our accomplishments will look like this:

Fire - - -> The wheel - - - > Electricity - - - >Bomb strong enough to destroy ourselves--->The personal computer - - - > The Kindle

I'm going to finish Goblet by the end of this week or die trying. It feels like I've never finished a book it's been so long lol. Also I'm def cheating and counting the Old Testament and New Testament as separate books on goodreads. I'm owed the double dip.

[mattlanta]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

In the spirit of Halloween, I'm going to start reading Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. I called my local library to check its availability and also checked my online libraries and it looks like none of them have this in stock. I've downloaded the sample to my Kindle and will probably just end up buying it after I breeze through that. It's only $8, but the grad student in me is always looking to save money in any way, shape, or form... I considered eBay, but I didn't want it to get here right before Halloween lol.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Worst case, Google Calibre (converts ebook files to different formats), and throw on your pegleg if you know what you're doing (ebooks >>>>> paper books). Then just buy the paper copy later.

I'm making good progress in Goblet. After I finish this, I'm gonna try to power through The Haunting of Hill House in a couple days then do C&P before Michelle Obama's book comes out Nov 13. Hopefully I can do all this with enough time to squeeze in Vengeance.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Been a while so I'll try to be quick with these:

Imago by Octavia Butler

Spoiler

Last in the Xenogenesis Trilogy, follows one of Lilith's children and it's twin that are becoming the first construct ooloi. It's hard to get too far into it without spoiling the other books as there's people that stick around and consistent threads but like everything I've read from her so far, it's great. Deals a lot with what it means to be human and how a species above that is more advanced than ours would view us and try to deal with us. Going to add more Octavia Butler books to the slate for sure, Parable of the Sower being one that's been recommended to me recently.

Spoiler

"There were times when I envied Humans their ability to shut off their sight by closing their eyes, shut off their understanding by some conscious act of denial that was beyond me."

“You want to be what you are. That’s healthy and right for you. What we do about it is our decision, our responsibility. Not yours.”

"Lo ate the wood. It was not intelligent enough to reason with—would not be for perhaps a hundred years. But it was self-aware. It knew what was part of it and what wasn’t. I was part of it—one of its many parts. It would not have me with it, yet so distant from it, separated by so much dead matter. It preferred whatever pain I gave it to the unnatural itch of apparent rejection."

"If I lied to her, she would learn the truth eventually, and I did not think she would forgive me for the lies. Would she forgive me for the truth?"

Murder Rap: The Untold Story of the Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur Murder Investigations by Greg Kading

Spoiler

The documentary based on it covered it pretty well so I'll just copy what I said about it from there. Filled in a few details, but I'd say someone who just saw the documentary has 95% of the information, maybe 100 and I could've just missed it on video.

I'd heard a ton of theories growing up but never did any digging to see what I could find. The killers weren't really important to me, the milk is already out of the bottle so to speak, but the details were interesting.

The most interesting part to me is the reason the investigation happened: they didn't care who killed them really. The popular theory at one point was that a dirty LAPD cop with affiliation to the Bloods had killed Biggie, so Biggie's mom sued the LAPD for his potential life earnings, up to $400 mil, and then they had a reason to find the actual killer... Or at least to clear their own names.

Long story short, they find this dude who used to run with the Southside Crips and hang out with Diddy back in the day. They use charges in a completely unrelated drug case to get him to cooperate. They ask him if they had anything to do with killing Biggie, he said "that one wasn't us". They said well which one was... Dude tells the story of how Suge had Puff shook and Diddy out out a million dollar hit on both Tupac and Suge Knight (the... funny isn't the word, but funny part was the detective asks Keffe D (the Crip) who came up with the number and dude said "oh that was definitely Puff, we would've killed him for 50 grand"). The details basically amount to Occam's Razor. The night Pac got killed he had jumped a dude who was a Crip, and Keffe's nephew. They were going to kill Pac anyway, and said "**** it, might as well do it tonight", so while he didn't really bring death on himself as some may think, he expedited it. After that, Suge had his right hand man take Biggie out. Both shooters are dead. To verify the details of Biggie's murder, the cops, as they put it, put on a ruse (lied) by fabricating evidence that was signed by the dead shooter as if he had already implicated the other person (Suge Knight's girl). The hit for Biggie was 25 grand. The chick gave the shooter 12 and kept 13 for herself.

It hit me listening that these happened 6 months apart. I don't think I ever realized that. I was 2 when Pac died, 3 for the GOAT, so I was just in the stroller listening to Wu-Tang oblivious at the time. Trying to imagine what it would be like if like, Drake and Kendrick were killed within half a year of each other. I can't even think it man, and neither of them are close to on that level (of importance). Wild, gotta read the book.

Also, once they found this out, they (the LAPD) dropped the investigation because their name had been cleared. No one was charged and the department told the public they had no new information on the case.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Spoiler

Great book but you definitely feel the length. I got bogged down for a while and ended up pushing through most of it in like 8 days but it is noticeably longer than the previous books. In some ways, I don't mind it as there's a lot going on and it doesn't ALL feel superflous. Ron is just terrible in this. Hermione is the best of the main 3 but the real MVP is clearly Dobby. Hermione gets points in her becoming woke enough at 14 to fight for house elf rights, but my guy is out here getting paid and wearing clothes. I really just never was affected in any way by Cedric's death, never cared that much about him. Harry is really teen Gohan at this point, getting everything done. Going toe to toe with the dark lord, imagine being a death eater and having to constantly tend to this guy after getting slapped around by a teenager. Rowling did do a great job of building him up and giving him a Vader vibe, and killing Cedric does more for that than anything. Just goes, oh he's in the way, off him. I feel like aside from just the general crafting of the universe she does some great atmospheric writing with dark figures, between the dementors and Voldemort, she does ominous well. Sirius is still the GOAT, and Snape continues his reign as cartoon villain. I couldn't care less how this dude plans to redeem himself, it's just comical at this point. I'll cheer when he dies.

Spoiler

"“Listen, I knew Bertha Jorkins,” said Sirius grimly. “She was at Hogwarts when I was, a few years above your dad and me. And she was an idiot. Very nosy, but no brains, none at all. It’s not a good combination, Harry."

"“No, I’m fine,” said Harry, wondering why he kept telling people this, and wondering whether he had ever been less fine." I feel you Harry.

"“Robe me,” said the high, cold voice from behind the steam, and Wormtail, sobbing and moaning, still cradling his mutilated arm, scrambled to pick up the black robes from the ground, got to his feet, reached up, and pulled them one-handed over his master’s head. The thin man stepped out of the cauldron, staring at Harry . . . and Harry stared back into the face that had haunted his nightmares for three years. Whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was flat as a snake’s with slits for nostrils . . . Lord Voldemort had risen again." Chilling.

"Time is short, and unless the few of us who know the truth stand united, there is no hope for any of us."

"He had no memory of ever being hugged like this, as though by a mother. The full weight of everything he had seen that night seemed to fall in upon him as Mrs. Weasley held him to her."

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle

Spoiler

Picked this up looking for horror books written by black authors, well it was on a bunch of lists and I realized I had already bought it a while ago so I got it. It's ok: it's a novella that flips the premise of one of H.P. Lovecraft's stories, one that he himself admits wasn't one of his best. The Horror of Red Hook, was basically a story manifestation of his fears of a Brooklyn neighborhood "overrun" by immigrants. He didn't like others. I'll get more into him talking about The Haunting of Hill House but Lavalle is a mixed author who tells the story of Black Tom, a guy basically driven to madness after coming into contact with a rich white man and then being harassed by cops who kill his dad. I liked the first half, from Tom's perspective, a lot better than when it flips to the supernatural side from Malone, the detective's perspective, but the best line of the book is from the second half for sure:

"I’ll take Cthulhu over you devils any day."

Some others:

Spoiler

"People who move to New York always make the same mistake. They can’t see the place. This is true of Manhattan, but even the outer boroughs, too, be it Flushing Meadows in Queens or Red Hook in Brooklyn. They come looking for magic, whether evil or good, and nothing will convince them it isn’t here."

"He didn’t look like a wealthy man, but it was the well-off who could afford such a disguise. You had to be rich to risk looking broke."

"Nobody ever thinks of himself as a villain, does he? Even monsters hold high opinions of themselves."

"The more I read, the more I listened, the more sure I became that a great and secret show had been playing throughout my life, throughout all our lives, but the mass of us were too ignorant, or too frightened, to raise our eyes and watch. Because to watch would be to understand the play isn’t being staged for us. To learn we simply do not matter to the players at all."

"Every time I was around them, they acted like I was a monster. So I said goddamnit, I’ll be the worst monster you ever saw!”

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Spoiler

I thought it was pretty much a masterpiece, because it relied so much on atmospheric and environmental terror the first comparison is to Something Wicked but again that's not fair, the way Bradbury paints that carnival is the gold standard. But this is just a notch under that, 4.5 stars probably but have to round on Goodreads. The main mystery for most of the book for me was what's more damaged: the house or Eleanor. Even before she got to Hill House, she's perceptive to the point of exhaustion. She's so self conscious and picking up on every little detail and wonder if it reflects on her in some way, it makes you anxious as a reader. Then the foreboding structure of Hill House comes into play and her descent into insanity really was just so much more pronounced than everyone else. Theo was affected but Nelle was just overtaken. Perfectly written and being inside of the character's head for the ride was only as enjoyable as it was because of the quality of the author behind it. I didn't know she wrote that The Lottery short story they made us read in middle school, it's funny that's always stuck with me and I think this will as well. One of the best examples of turning the setting into a character I've seen, really is a more concise version of The Shining.

I was into it before the book even started because the ebook version that I have is part of a set called the Penguin Horror Classics where Guillermo Del Toro picked 6 books to represent horror and wrote an introduction to them. I've not seen too many of his movies outside of Pacific Rim but he totally turned me on to horror in like 30 pages. I'm on the lookout for sure now.

Spoiler

From GDT's intro:

"To learn what we fear is to learn who we are. Horror defines our boundaries and illuminates our souls."\

"We dislocate, for a moment, the rules of our universe, the laws that bind the rational and diminish the cosmos to our scale. And when the world becomes a vast, unruly place, a place where anything can happen, then—and only then—we allow for miracles and angels, no matter how dark they may be."

"The tragedy of the tale was not dependent on evil. That’s the supreme pain of the novel—tragedy requires no villain." (on Frankenstein, also in the series)

"The haunting is real and everyone within it is alone, trapped in their own minds and circumstances, blind to the plight of the others. This is perhaps one of the most veiled and pervasive horrors in Jackson’s fiction: We are always alone."

"When the certainty of seeing a monstrous thing takes ahold of us and forces us to gaze at the end of a corridor—there, an apparition stands, a thing of supreme horror. And, as we advance toward it—as in HPL’s “The Outsider”—we are overwhelmed by the realization that the putrid flesh, the vacant eyes, the mad stare we see in that lonely figure is nothing but the reflection in a mirror. A dark mirror facing us. May your nightmares be plentiful."

From the actual book:

"I am foolish, she told herself early every summer, I am very foolish; I am grown up now and know the values of things. Nothing is ever really wasted, she believed sensibly, even one’s childhood, and then each year, one summer morning, the warm wind would come down the city street where she walked and she would be touched with the little cold thought: I have let more time go by."

"Don’t do it, Eleanor told the little girl; insist on your cup of stars; once they have trapped you into being like everyone else you will never see your cup of stars again; don’t do it; and the little girl glanced at her, and smiled a little subtle, dimpling, wholly comprehending smile, and shook her head stubbornly at the glass. Brave girl, Eleanor thought; wise, brave girl."

"Everything is worse,” he said, looking at Eleanor, “if you think something is looking at you.”

"I think we are all incredibly silly to stay. I think that an atmosphere like this one can find out the flaws and faults and weaknesses in all of us, and break us apart in a matter of days. We have only one defense, and that is running away. At least it can’t follow us, can it?"

"No, the menace of the supernatural is that it attacks where modern minds are weakest, where we have abandoned our protective armor of superstition and have no substitute defense."

I did end up finding some solid horror picks, I saw some good stuff about My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due and I still want to read Frankenstein but October is over and I can't put off the comrade any longer so...Crime and Punishment here we go. Bible progress: on schedule to hit the New Testament in 7/8 days depending on how I choose to do the transition between them, probably 8, the schedule is weird, they'll have you stopped in the middle of a chapter, makes no sense to me. I also found a New Testament audiobook read by James Earl Jones and I can't think of anything better to use an Audible credit on than that.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Spoiler

Great book but you definitely feel the length. I got bogged down for a while and ended up pushing through most of it in like 8 days but it is noticeably longer than the previous books. In some ways, I don't mind it as there's a lot going on and it doesn't ALL feel superflous. Ron is just terrible in this. Hermione is the best of the main 3 but the real MVP is clearly Dobby. Hermione gets points in her becoming woke enough at 14 to fight for house elf rights, but my guy is out here getting paid and wearing clothes. I really just never was affected in any way by Cedric's death, never cared that much about him. Harry is really teen Gohan at this point, getting everything done. Going toe to toe with the dark lord, imagine being a death eater and having to constantly tend to this guy after getting slapped around by a teenager. Rowling did do a great job of building him up and giving him a Vader vibe, and killing Cedric does more for that than anything. Just goes, oh he's in the way, off him. I feel like aside from just the general crafting of the universe she does some great atmospheric writing with dark figures, between the dementors and Voldemort, she does ominous well. Sirius is still the GOAT, and Snape continues his reign as cartoon villain. I couldn't care less how this dude plans to redeem himself, it's just comical at this point. I'll cheer when he dies.

Spoiler

"“Listen, I knew Bertha Jorkins,” said Sirius grimly. “She was at Hogwarts when I was, a few years above your dad and me. And she was an idiot. Very nosy, but no brains, none at all. It’s not a good combination, Harry."

"“No, I’m fine,” said Harry, wondering why he kept telling people this, and wondering whether he had ever been less fine." I feel you Harry.

"“Robe me,” said the high, cold voice from behind the steam, and Wormtail, sobbing and moaning, still cradling his mutilated arm, scrambled to pick up the black robes from the ground, got to his feet, reached up, and pulled them one-handed over his master’s head. The thin man stepped out of the cauldron, staring at Harry . . . and Harry stared back into the face that had haunted his nightmares for three years. Whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was flat as a snake’s with slits for nostrils . . . Lord Voldemort had risen again." Chilling.

"Time is short, and unless the few of us who know the truth stand united, there is no hope for any of us."

"He had no memory of ever being hugged like this, as though by a mother. The full weight of everything he had seen that night seemed to fall in upon him as Mrs. Weasley held him to her."

The podcast is really making me feel like I need to read these again even though I ran through them last year, but GOF might be my least favorite of the "serious" ones (post-Chamber of Secrets). Compared to the others it's the most bloated and dense as it not only expands the magical universe and lore, but also continues to build upon it's characters and each of their arcs. Some threads are left dangling (SPEW) and Ron's turn as the queen bitch is irredeemable to me.

And yeah. **** Snape. I agree with the contention that he is one of the series' most complex characters by far, but the dude is loathsome. His behavior is largely unforgivable and his pining over a secret teenage crush for the majority of his life is relatively creepy.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Spoiler

I thought it was pretty much a masterpiece, because it relied so much on atmospheric and environmental terror the first comparison is to Something Wicked but again that's not fair, the way Bradbury paints that carnival is the gold standard. But this is just a notch under that, 4.5 stars probably but have to round on Goodreads. The main mystery for most of the book for me was what's more damaged: the house or Eleanor. Even before she got to Hill House, she's perceptive to the point of exhaustion. She's so self conscious and picking up on every little detail and wonder if it reflects on her in some way, it makes you anxious as a reader. Then the foreboding structure of Hill House comes into play and her descent into insanity really was just so much more pronounced than everyone else. Theo was affected but Nelle was just overtaken. Perfectly written and being inside of the character's head for the ride was only as enjoyable as it was because of the quality of the author behind it. I didn't know she wrote that The Lottery short story they made us read in middle school, it's funny that's always stuck with me and I think this will as well. One of the best examples of turning the setting into a character I've seen, really is a more concise version of The Shining.

I was into it before the book even started because the ebook version that I have is part of a set called the Penguin Horror Classics where Guillermo Del Toro picked 6 books to represent horror and wrote an introduction to them. I've not seen too many of his movies outside of Pacific Rim but he totally turned me on to horror in like 30 pages. I'm on the lookout for sure now.

Spoiler

From GDT's intro:

"To learn what we fear is to learn who we are. Horror defines our boundaries and illuminates our souls."\

"We dislocate, for a moment, the rules of our universe, the laws that bind the rational and diminish the cosmos to our scale. And when the world becomes a vast, unruly place, a place where anything can happen, then—and only then—we allow for miracles and angels, no matter how dark they may be."

"The tragedy of the tale was not dependent on evil. That’s the supreme pain of the novel—tragedy requires no villain." (on Frankenstein, also in the series)

"The haunting is real and everyone within it is alone, trapped in their own minds and circumstances, blind to the plight of the others. This is perhaps one of the most veiled and pervasive horrors in Jackson’s fiction: We are always alone."

"When the certainty of seeing a monstrous thing takes ahold of us and forces us to gaze at the end of a corridor—there, an apparition stands, a thing of supreme horror. And, as we advance toward it—as in HPL’s “The Outsider”—we are overwhelmed by the realization that the putrid flesh, the vacant eyes, the mad stare we see in that lonely figure is nothing but the reflection in a mirror. A dark mirror facing us. May your nightmares be plentiful."

From the actual book:

"I am foolish, she told herself early every summer, I am very foolish; I am grown up now and know the values of things. Nothing is ever really wasted, she believed sensibly, even one’s childhood, and then each year, one summer morning, the warm wind would come down the city street where she walked and she would be touched with the little cold thought: I have let more time go by."

"Don’t do it, Eleanor told the little girl; insist on your cup of stars; once they have trapped you into being like everyone else you will never see your cup of stars again; don’t do it; and the little girl glanced at her, and smiled a little subtle, dimpling, wholly comprehending smile, and shook her head stubbornly at the glass. Brave girl, Eleanor thought; wise, brave girl."

"Everything is worse,” he said, looking at Eleanor, “if you think something is looking at you.”

"I think we are all incredibly silly to stay. I think that an atmosphere like this one can find out the flaws and faults and weaknesses in all of us, and break us apart in a matter of days. We have only one defense, and that is running away. At least it can’t follow us, can it?"

"No, the menace of the supernatural is that it attacks where modern minds are weakest, where we have abandoned our protective armor of superstition and have no substitute defense."

I did end up finding some solid horror picks, I saw some good stuff about My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due and I still want to read Frankenstein but October is over and I can't put off the comrade any longer so...Crime and Punishment here we go. Bible progress: on schedule to hit the New Testament in 7/8 days depending on how I choose to do the transition between them, probably 8, the schedule is weird, they'll have you stopped in the middle of a chapter, makes no sense to me. I also found a New Testament audiobook read by James Earl Jones and I can't think of anything better to use an Audible credit on than that.

I'm still thinking about this book and my feelings towards it grow greater because of it. The premise she rests the book's foundation on is such a simple "twist" (basically we are haunted by our own-selves), but it is almost limitless in it's scope and offers a wealth of narrative opportunities.

My expectation of the book was essentially the traditional haunted house and ghost story lore, but I was happy to discover that Jackson went so much further than that. It is truly a rewarding, insightful, and at times terrifying read. The ghosts in the world are scary indeed, but the ghosts in our heads are much worse.

Despite the Netflix series not sharing the same narrative I'm glad they decided to go for the same tone and perspective and that, too, has been a rewarding experience.

re: Guillermo del Toro
I love this guy's films. Even the "okay" ones are rewarding in their own way. Pan's Labyrinth is my favorite of his, but I have not been disappointed in his work or the works he has put his name on.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I struggled rating GoF, I will probably take it down to a 3. It feels disconnected from the others to an extent, like Harry is crossing over in this book from the new wizard years to the "I've got to save the world" years. Unrelated but I almost don't even want to watch the rest of the movies after they cut the entire house elf story out, like wtf. And man it's just long. Order is even longer so I'll have to prep for that. Snape just does too much. He's a great villain character from the perspective of a school kid, but dude making fun of Hermione's teeth? Even the clear Slytherin preference is fine, but he's just so cartoonishly antagonistic.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I struggled rating GoF, I will probably take it down to a 3. It feels disconnected from the others to an extent, like Harry is crossing over in this book from the new wizard years to the "I've got to save the world" years. Unrelated but I almost don't even want to watch the rest of the movies after they cut the entire house elf story out, like wtf. And man it's just long. Order is even longer so I'll have to prep for that. Snape just does too much. He's a great villain character from the perspective of a school kid, but dude making fun of Hermione's teeth? Even the clear Slytherin preference is fine, but he's just so cartoonishly antagonistic.

I think she wrote herself into a corner early on with him whether she or her loyal fans will admit to it or not. It's clear he was meant to be the red herring threat early on. In the first two books he is perfect because his cartoonish behavior is so believable from a child's perspective.

As the series progresses and the tone becomes darker and serious it's hard to take his antics and behavior seriously. It's hard for me as a reader to reconcile his actions and comments early on compared to the roles he's forced into by both Dumbledore and Voldemort. He's supposed to be another tragic character, but I cared little for his tragedy.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

This is a fairly easy, enjoyable read and one that (for better or worse) leans hard on the premise of the title. As one would imagine it's historical fiction written party in a biographical style that is supplemented with excerpts from letters and journals (many of which are from Lincoln's own hand). Smith spices up a looming figure in US History by setting Honest Abe on a quest to rid America of the evils of Vampires. The worst and most evil of them are working in concert with the pro-slavery movement and eventually ally with the Confederacy in an effort to continue slavery as a means of feeding and subjugation of the entire human race.

At points it is fascinating and harrowing. Smith does a fantastic job of blending historical fact and fiction in ways that are compelling both for what's happening on the page and because one wonders where exactly the line begins to blur. Obviously the vampires are not real, but diving into Lincoln's mind from the perspective of his journals is quite fascinating. Lincoln is a looming figure of great importance, sure, but history typically teaches us of a man's actions. Rarely are we rewarded with glimpses into the man himself - his depressions, passions, eloquence, etc. Part of the charm of this novel is tethering an American God to the soil he actually walked across rendering him more of a man than myth.

With that said there's little in the way of character development. Outside of Abraham there's no other character arc as characters exist solely as names in letters. There are some that are more fleshed out than others, but this is a relatively flat book with little to offer beneath the surface. Re-imagining historical events and figures certainly makes for an interesting read, but one that probably won't be revisited like The Haunting of Hill House.

Apparently there is a sequel to this. I'll probably save it for next year because I personally didn't like the ending. I might look into the movie soon, though.

Spoiler

Judge us not equally, Abraham. We may all deserve hell, but some of us deserve it sooner than others.

I fear that a life of death has made me numb to both.

The more precious His gift, the more anxious God for its return.

I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all mean are created free and equal.

I have Frankenstein started as of this morning. I expect it to be a quick read considering it's barely 200 pages. I still want to reread Something Wicked This Way Comes and maybe dive into Dracula, but I'm nearing my fix for horror/Halloween fix so we'll see. I still hope to get to The Mirage and The Prestige before Thanksgiving, but our recent trip to The Biltmore in Asheville has me wanting to check out the Serafina and Black Cloak Series by Robert Beatty. With 8 books left to read to meet my Reading Challenge goal I'm unashamedly leaning on these shorter novels to keep pace.

Does anyone have any good recommendations for Honest Abe?

[JayCutlersCig]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

If you could name 3 books that changed your life, which ones would it be?

American Sniper. I read it a few months after I saw the movie and almost enlisted because of it, but wound up going to college.

With the Old Breed. A true, horrifying account of the Battle of Okinawa. Makes you hate the Japanese until you realize that WWII was seventy years ago. They were savages throughout the war.

Anything by Hemingway. He’s my idol.




Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

What about American Sniper hit you the way it did? I've never seen the movie or read the book but I'm kinda interested just hearing it impacted you in that way.

Side note I just hit goodreads and found out George RR Martin is releasing a book on the history of the Targaryens next month...this dude has to be trolling. How are you releasing side stories from a series you haven't finished at this point in your life? Crazy.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

He's working on the prequel series, too.

Why would he want to end all this cash rolling in? Get it, George.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Finished the Old Testament. Started the New Testament and this James Earl Jones audio book is throwing me off because I go back and forth between wondering what happened to the voice from the Old Testament and mistaking Jesus for Mufasa.

I put down Crime and Punishment... Just not the kinda read I want to do right now in between physics and calculus. It felt like I'd taken another class in Russian names, I'll come back to it either during Winter Break or in between the part time full time transition next year. For now, going to finally get to Vengeful, the sequel to Vicious which I loved. After that, I'll try to get through My Soul to Keep before Becoming next Tuesday.

[JayCutlersCig]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

What about American Sniper hit you the way it did? I've never seen the movie or read the book but I'm kinda interested just hearing it impacted you in that way.

Side note I just hit goodreads and found out George RR Martin is releasing a book on the history of the Targaryens next month...this dude has to be trolling. How are you releasing side stories from a series you haven't finished at this point in your life? Crazy.

Honestly, I’ve been a big supporter of the military (I come from an Army family) all of my life and the power of that story just stuck with me. Even at the cost of relationships, fatherhood, and mental health, he felt obligated to go back 4x. It took God, Country, Family to a whole different level. I’m no Ra-Ra patriot by any means, but it just stuck.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

100 Notable Books of 2018 https://nyti.ms/2Dy9EWc

NY Times put out their 100 books of the year list, need to look over it and see what I need to add to my list.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I didn't get to nearly as many of the 2018 titles as I wanted. Partly because half of them reviewed/rated poorly, but mostly because it's hard to compete with hundreds of years of literature.

I did pick up the new Brandon Sanderson book Skyward. It's a YA title (most likely a series I'm assuming), but after loving Mistborn I'm all over this guy's stuff.

Spensa's world has been under attack for decades. Now pilots are the heroes of what's left of the human race, and becoming one has always been Spensa's dream. Since she was a little girl, she has imagined soaring skyward and proving her bravery. But her fate is intertwined with her father's--a pilot himself who was killed years ago when he abruptly deserted his team, leaving Spensa's chances of attending flight school at slim to none.

No one will let Spensa forget what her father did, yet fate works in mysterious ways. Flight school might be a long shot, but she is determined to fly. And an accidental discovery in a long-forgotten cavern might just provide her with a way to claim the stars.