OS Book Club Pt II

[Money99]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Does anyone have any good western recommendations?

I LOVE westerns so I'll try to give you some of my favourites.

Read In the Rogue Blood by James Carlos Blake.
Very violent, gritty and somewhat disturbing story about 2 brothers that cut out and make their mark in the old west.

The Sister Brothers is also a great western.
Most western's are about revenge, but this one is definitely different.
Again, two brothers are the main characters, but they're guns for hire and they're sent on a very unusual mission.
But it's their adventures and experiences along the way that make the story very interesting. As are the conflicting personalities of the two brothers.

I'm also a giant fan of Lonesome Dove as well as the sequel Streets of Loredo (possibly my favourite western book of all time.

The Virgil Hitch and Cole Everett books are also great, IMO.
You've probably heard of the movie "Appaloosa".
That's book #1 of the series, by Robert B. Parker.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/297478.Appaloosa?from_search=true&search_version=service

My brain is actually having trouble recalling other great western's I've read.
I guess I'm just excited that someone else enjoys the genre. Some days I feel like I'm an 80YO living in a young man's body, haha.

*On a side note, James Carlos Blake is one of my favourite writers.
The Killings of Stanely Ketchel is one of my favourites of all time.
It's a fictitious look at the non-fictional life of former Middleweight Champ, Stanley Ketchel - who died at the hands of a jealous common-law husband.
Some might remember him as the man who nearly upset the applecart when he went against an agreed upon fix when fighting Jack Johnson for the heavyweight crown.
I believe most of the stories in the book are based on fact, but Blake fills in the holes with some exaggerated fiction.
If you enjoy Blake's style, I believe you'll love this novel as well.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Thanks, Money. I started up Lord of the Rings last week while on vacation. I'm hoping I can keep the momentum going.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I finished up The Man in the High Castle this weekend. It was my first Phillip K. Dick novel and I really enjoyed it. I thought the change in diction between the characters was a subtle, but exceptionally done technique to distinguish between the German leaning characters and the Japanese. The reversal of roles I suppose is the real attention seeker, but the struggles of the people are still very much the same - racism, in-fighting, mistrusting allies, etc. Very good book.

Immediately after that I started up A Scanner Darkly. I'm only about 50 pages in, but so far this book is shaping up to be an instant favorite of mine. The premise is interesting and the characters are all great thus far.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

A Scanner Darkly was phenomenal and I was right in my assumption that it would end up being one of my favorite books.

It eases the read into the complex themes of duality and self-destruction at the hands of addiction and drug abuse while encompassing a much grander scope as the story progresses. It is at times funny and quirky, but that atmosphere is quickly swept aside for dark, murky heartbreak.

If Inherent Vice is one end of the stoner genre then A Scanner Darkly is the other end of spectrum. Where Inherent Vice is goofy and nonchalant, A Scanner Darkly is murky and paranoid.


My intention is to finally read Lord of the Rings completely this time, but Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country has caught my interest. Considering its subject matter I may give myself a break with some fantasy adventure, though.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

A little bit of a bump.

What's everybody been reading over the holidays?

This year we started a new tradition and will giving each other a book on Christmas Eve and spend the evening reading. The book I was given was J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy which is a memoir about a family's history moving from Kentucky to Middletown, Ohio.

I cannot recommend this book enough. It is a fascinating look into a class and culture that rarely gets any light shed on them.

[PhilliesFan13]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II



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[dickey1331]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I'm currently reading the Stand by Stephen King


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[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I last read the books before book 7 came out and never actually ended up reading book 7.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I used to read a ton as a kid and just decided to start doing it again. The real books that got me back into reading were strangely the Chelsea Handler books, I got into a routine watching Chelsea Lately every night with my girlfriend freshmen year in college and for some reason that's where I ended up lol. The first book I picked up last year was Jalen Rose's autobiography, it was a decent read, nothing spectacular but a good book to get me back into reading for fun (I was named after him if you're wondering why his book in particular) .

After that I went on a biography binge, Steve Jobs, Joe Torre, Mike Tyson, Derek Jeter and some books on the inner workings of pro sports (Game of Shadows, Bloodsport, The Game) and I somehow pivoted from these to reading FDR. That book was almost 800 pages and reading it on the Kindle app on my phone was awesome but very time consuming and it's kind of made me get into reading more about history.

I got Why we Can't Wait by MLK, read through that and it lit a fire in me I guess. I started Where Do We Go From Here last week and finished it and now I'm going on a black history binge. Souls of Black Folk, Autobiography of Malcolm X, Why the Caged bird Sings, books that I probably should've read before but didn't care enough to sit down and read. It's cut into my gaming time a lot but I definitely appreciate the things I'm learning and being made aware of. I do want to get into more contemporary stuff eventually, but there's so much I feel I've missed and have to catch up on it'll be a little while.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I have some contemporary titles that might relate to your current fire that I've been wanting to check out myself:

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
The Beautiful Struggle: A Memoir by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

The New Jim Crow is for sure on the list after seeing 13th, appreciate the recs. I've read a lot of Coates' Atlantic articles, somehow never knew he had written books. Definitely adding those to the list, dude can write.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

What is 13th?

I have Between the World and Me coming today along with We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I'm hoping to have them read by the end of the month after a couple Harry Potter books.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

It's a Netflix documentary by Ava Duvernay (Selma) and Michele Alexander is in it, walking us through history from the moment of the 13th amendment to where we are today and showing the different ways that the ideology has been kept alive. It's dope, and has some cool things like a recent speech overlaying a clip of old time events, it's interesting for sure.

[War Eagle!]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I used to read a ton as a kid and just decided to start doing it again. The real books that got me back into reading were strangely the Chelsea Handler books, I got into a routine watching Chelsea Lately every night with my girlfriend freshmen year in college and for some reason that's where I ended up lol. The first book I picked up last year was Jalen Rose's autobiography, it was a decent read, nothing spectacular but a good book to get me back into reading for fun (I was named after him if you're wondering why his book in particular) .

After that I went on a biography binge, Steve Jobs, Joe Torre, Mike Tyson, Derek Jeter and some books on the inner workings of pro sports (Game of Shadows, Bloodsport, The Game) and I somehow pivoted from these to reading FDR. That book was almost 800 pages and reading it on the Kindle app on my phone was awesome but very time consuming and it's kind of made me get into reading more about history.

I got Why we Can't Wait by MLK, read through that and it lit a fire in me I guess. I started Where Do We Go From Here last week and finished it and now I'm going on a black history binge. Souls of Black Folk, Autobiography of Malcolm X, Why the Caged bird Sings, books that I probably should've read before but didn't care enough to sit down and read. It's cut into my gaming time a lot but I definitely appreciate the things I'm learning and being made aware of. I do want to get into more contemporary stuff eventually, but there's so much I feel I've missed and have to catch up on it'll be a little while.

Check out the miseducation of the negro by Carter G. Woodson while you're at it.

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[TripleCrown9]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I've developed quite the backlog of books for some reason. Here's the ones I can remember.

Spoiler

And here's the ones I have managed to finish.

Spoiler