What are we Reading 2022 split from 2021

[ashie62]

I thoroughly enjoyed Kathy Valentine's "ALL I EVER WANTED"

A terrific story about the Go Go's and the years and influences that brought her to the band.

The chapters about her teenage years were equally rewarding. Nothing not to like here.

[Fman99]

About 80-90% of what I read is historical and non fictional and I will tell you, within that subset of books, that this one was particularly compelling and well written. The best writers turn these stories into page turners!

[Willets Point]

Reading a fun memoir.

[The Hot Corner]

About 80-90% of what I read is historical and non fictional and I will tell you, within that subset of books, that this one was particularly compelling and well written. The best writers turn these stories into page turners!

I too, read predominantly nonfiction. I will have to check this one out.

[ashie62]

Non fiction here also. I will give a shot. Thanks.

[ashie62]

It was written a long time ago but I read Jane Leavy's "Koufax."

I got a good sense of the social fabric of America during the 50's and mid 60's.

Simple things like did people prefer Sealtest or Carvel ice cream.

Although Sandy did not sit for an interview with the author I felt a good sense of what made him tick.

I did not expect anti-semitism to be such a major theme, if not the primary theme of the book.

It's a quick read B

Taking the above reco on the arctic exploration. I love that stuff. Kinda like "Into thin Air" about Everest.

The level to which they stir up all they have to survive.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

About 80-90% of what I read is historical and non fictional and I will tell you, within that subset of books, that this one was particularly compelling and well written. The best writers turn these stories into page turners!

I too, read predominantly nonfiction. I will have to check this one out.

Hey I ran out of stuff to read on my vacation and destroyed this book. Especially good if you're ignorant about the details of this episode like me, even if you happened to research 1884 and see Greeley in the headlines a million times like me. Keep coming with good nonfiction plzz

[Frayed Knot]

At the first mention of the above book -- Labyrinth of Ice -- I was immediately reminded of one I read maybe a half dozen years ago: Kingdom of Ice.
And now that I've read Labyrinth I know that not only was the subject matter similar but the exploration in 'Kingdom', which took place only a year or
so earlier, was mentioned multiple times in 'Labyrinth' to the point where some of the participants were common to both.

So for those who liked Labyrinth I'd recommend Kingdom as a great companion piece (I'm about to re-read it myself) and for those looking for
narrative non-fiction I'd highly recommend just about anything from Hampton Sides, author of not only Kingdom but books on aspects of WWII,
Korean War, the American west, the manhunt of MLK's killer, and more. If this guy were to write my obituary I'd look forward to reading it.

[DocTee]

Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Unmaking of American Empire. JM Katz

If you like history, foreign policy, and personal travelogue, written by a phenomenal journalist, this is it. Really exceptional book covering a lot of things (Boxer Rebellion, Tampico Incident, Haiti Incursion) about which most people know little.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Thanks Doc, will look for it.

I'm reading the new Ken Caminitti bio which has been well reviewed but imo so far is slow getting going. I feel like I've been reading for weeks and he just made his MLB debut, a little too much play by play from college and the minors. You know how it ends, and there's barely been a word about steroids yet. Very well researched yet seemed not to have left anything out... yet. Will give you an update.

Rob Neyer's bio with Dale Scott-- the gay mlb umpire who wasn't a sketchy guy irl like Pallone--was enjoyable but a lot less gay than I would have thought 😉. Scott is a good storyteller.

[whippoorwill]

Got this book while on vacation.

Johnny Lunchbucket I know you have an interest in
Delaware and there’s a little story in here called the
(Your last name) Heirs
Apparently the fortune ran into the millions!

[whippoorwill]

Btw the way, while googling the story, I see you are descended from Adam and Eve, and
King Charlemagne

[Frayed Knot]

That story was a 19th century version of the Nigerian Prince internet scam.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I'm reading the new Ken Caminitti bio which has been well reviewed but imo so far is slow getting going. I feel like I've been reading for weeks and he just made his MLB debut, a little too much play by play from college and the minors. You know how it ends, and there's barely been a word about steroids yet. Very well researched yet seemed not to have left anything out... yet. Will give you an update.

It took me way too long to get through the Caminiti bio which I felt was almost overreported (really under-edited because it was well researched but a bit tedious also). Plus I didn't find myself as sympathetic to the subject as the author because I felt I could feel how hard a case he was trying to make that everyone admired Caminitti and took pity on him. On occasion, it almost felt as though it was just a matter of interviewing hundreds of people who wouldn't speak ill of the dead, but I don't really believe that. It does make a case for not overlooking his role as baseball's first believable steroid truther.

So what you've got is a story about a drug-addicted athlete who was widely admired, and important, yet also tragic, which should have been juicy. Only it gets lost in too much detail, and a storyteller rooting too hard for his subject.

As I may have mentioned elsewhere moved right onto RICKEY which I can already tell is a challenge for writer Howard Bryant who has to do it mostly in his own words and his own approach, but those are both good so far.

[whippoorwill]

That story was a 19th century version of the Nigerian Prince internet scam.

Yeah but wouldn’t it have been great? (Your Name Too,right?)

[Frayed Knot]

The scam, if I recall the story correctly, was that the land that became Wilmington DE had been taken from that family without compensation and this lawsuit was
launched (well after the fact and wholly without merit) to get money "owed" to descendants plus a century or two of interest. That gave incentive for anyone who
had that last name -- because of course everyone with the same name is related -- to be part of the suit and all they had to do was make a contribution to the legal
team bringing the suit ... and you can easily see how that was going to end up. IIRC the first attempt at the scam petered out only to resurface years later looking
for a whole new band of suckers.

There actually were Springers in that area as far back as the late 1600s. Several brothers from a German/Swedish clan wound up there as present day Delaware
was a certer of Swedish immigration to the new world for a time. My grandfather, who was obsessed with this kind of stuff, looked into whether there was a
connection to us, going as far as writing to various government agencies in Stockholm, in those pre-internet days, asking for information on the original family.
Our leading acorn, Lawrence, also arrived on these shores right around that same time and his name was sometimes given as the more Germanic-sounding
Lorenz with an attempt to claim that he was a half-brother to the Delaware settlers. But he wandered ashore in present day Rhode Island and, while there's
no definitive proof either way, was mostly likely of British origin and quite unrelated to the Delaware settlers.
And, btw, I've seen a photocopy of his 1701 will and he spelled it Lawrence. Judging by the rest of the will either he, or whoever he was dictating it to, didn't
know how to spell very much else but he at least got the name correct.

[whippoorwill]

Aw I love the part about your grandfather! I guess you can’t blame all these people for hoping it was true!

The King Charlemagne part would have been kinda cool too…

[Frayed Knot]

The King Charlemagne part would have been kinda cool too…

That part is likely hogwash too.
Turns out that there are -- wait for it -- questionable lines of lineage stemming from royal families!! So even the ones who think they are descendants of
Charlemagne probably aren't descendants of Charlemagne. I mean, some folks are but probably a small fraction of those who've heard they are.

Ancestry.com and others like it are great research tools for some -- an aunt on the other side of the family went whole hog into that and found second cousins
she never knew or knew about because only some of her grandmother's (12?) siblings immigrated from Belfast circa 1900 -- but there's also a ton of stuff in
there that's either speculation or just plain bullshit (or both) and those mistakes, known or innocent, get copied from tree to tree which tends to give them an
added appearance of accepted fact rather than what they really are which is oft-repeated rumor.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Little known fake historical fact: his friends sometimes called him "Lar" or after a few beers, "Springadinga"

Little known true historical fact: the distant relatives my aunt found in Belfast, look totally like everyone on that side of the family

[whippoorwill]

Speaking of wrong information…my mom says her dad swore he wasn’t related to a guy with the same last name on the other side of town, but the family record proves they were brothers

So going by my grandfather’s statement, it would change the whole family tree.

I guess there some bad blood there!

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

Not quite as advertised, but this was a fun read if you like "Bull Durham," and I do.

I read an interview with Shelton where he said he couldn't watch the movie for 10 years because of how difficult it was to make, and the battles with and over actors and other difficulties.

Honestly, it didn't seem like the battles were that bad. There was one exec who kept pushing for Anthony Michael Hall instead of Robbins.* But the rest seemed didn't seem exceptionally difficult.

But it's a fun peek about how movies are made and some of the decisions that went into this one, including scenes that were cut for various reasons.

It did generate a catch phrase that we started using in the office before I even finished the book, "a lie within industry standards."

*Thank you, Edgy!

[Edgy MD]

I can work with Anthony-Michael Hall as Nuke, but he seems like he'd be all wrong for Crash. He would have been like 19, no?

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

I can work with Anthony-Michael Hall as Nuke, but he seems like he'd be all wrong for Crash. He would have been like 19, no?

You are correct! I meant to type Nuke.

[Frayed Knot]

So if that were the case, would Susan Sarandon then have not married A. M. Hall instead of not marrying Tim Robbins?

[metsmarathon]

we should have a running database of books that everybody's read, with starred ratings. i'm not volunteering to do this, by the way.

i just read this book.

The First Conspiracy, by Brad Meltzer

do not read this book. it is probably the book that i hate the most, ever. even more than the one baby board book that had a rainbow with the colors out of order, and no blue. it is awful. zero stars.

it's got maybe, MAYBE fifty pages of actual story and information. the rest of it reads as a breathless history channel pseudoscience bullshit clickbait show where they're hunting for sasquatch's collection of alien artifacts hidden in a pocket dimension accessible only by sprinkling unicorn blood onto the sacrificial altar at the center of el dorado.

it's so desperate to keep your attention that, at every chapter, it reminds you why you're reading the book. as if you've forgotten since the last time you turned a page. and it's so utterly lacking in confidence that the audience is actually interested in the story, that it has to drop spoilery cliffhanger bullshit at the end of each chapter. of which there are 85. a good 50% of the book or more is reminding you why you're wasting your time reading this book, with another 25% hoping to convince you to keep reading. i'm overly generous in claiming that 25% of the book is actual story.

it probably could have been an essay. maybe a long magazine article.

or it could have been a hell of a lot better book if it actually included ancillary details, like why this one thing is important, what this one person who was just introduced also did, something. anything. to add context, aside from constantly reminding us, the reader, who is presumably an american over the age of seven, that the conspiracy - which is to kill george washington - which the book frequently treats as a shocking revelation despite being in the subtitle of the damned book - would be ruinous and disastrous to the success of the revolution, with unknowable consequences should it be successful.

it doesn't delve into what that potential outcome could look like, of course.

in fact, it barely scratches the surface of what happened as a result of the conspiracy, nor, really too much information related to the investigation into it. and it wraps up remarkably fast with little follow-on.

i don't truly believe the author believed that the story he was telling was one worth reading all the way through, or he didn't trust the reader to be interested in a more contextually complete story. maybe it's meant to be read on your daily bus ride, for those times when you've already solved today's wordle (with hints from the internet, because, damn, who even knows that many words?!). who knows.

all that really happened as a result from this book is my wife telling me, 'i told you you'd hate it' (she'd read it before, and also hated it. and warned me. but i foolishly picked it up anyway, i think forgetting her recommendation), as well as me wanting to pick up and reread the far, far, far superior 1776 which has so much more detail and information and history that this pathetic rag. i forget if it even mentions this escapade. now that was a good revolutionary war book.