kimcatch22 Posted January 29, 2008 Share Posted January 29, 2008 I don't remember exactly, although I know I still have the magazine somewhere. His talk, which I believe used portions of the same story, was about how something can be "true", but that doesn't necessarily mean that it actually happened. I still have snippets of it in my head, I can picture exactly what I was picturing 20 years ago, as he was describing scenes from his childhood, and from Vietnam. I thought he was amazing.That's essentially the same speech he's still giving, but these days he's much cockier about it. How he's a storyteller and there are story-truths and happening-truths (stuff straight out of his book.) And he absolutely refuses to elaborate on the happening-truths at all, I guess to prove his point, but really it just comes off as being very stuck on his own ego. Still doesn't deter from how amazing TTTC is, though. Link to post Share on other sites
la* Posted January 29, 2008 Share Posted January 29, 2008 How I love to see the Now Reading thread get so much action! (confidential to M. Christine and Dreamin' Judy: Thanks for lurking! ) I wholeheartedly second the recommendation for The Things they Carried (one of my favorite books ever) and the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (read it a few weeks ago and am still reveling in its absolute beauty) I'm reading this. It's one of those "truth is stranger than fiction" books: Link to post Share on other sites
kimcatch22 Posted January 29, 2008 Share Posted January 29, 2008 Will be reading this as soon as it arrives in the mail: He's such a badass!! Link to post Share on other sites
Sir Stewart Posted January 29, 2008 Share Posted January 29, 2008 About halfway through this - Perrotta likes to take commonly accepted prejudices and turn them inside out. In this case (so far), it's prejudice against Christian fundamentalists. As always, well done. Link to post Share on other sites
the carlos Posted January 29, 2008 Share Posted January 29, 2008 About halfway through this - Perrotta likes to take commonly accepted prejudices and turn them inside out. In this case (so far), it's prejudice against Christian fundamentalists. As always, well done.I'm excited to read this one. Link to post Share on other sites
Lammycat Posted January 29, 2008 Share Posted January 29, 2008 About halfway through this - Perrotta likes to take commonly accepted prejudices and turn them inside out. In this case (so far), it's prejudice against Christian fundamentalists. As always, well done.I considered picking this up at the library last weekend but it lost out to another book. Maybe down the road. Link to post Share on other sites
gogo Posted January 29, 2008 Author Share Posted January 29, 2008 A couple years ago someone here recommended A Secret History and I read it twice in a row. I just started this one yesterday and am loving it as much, if not more, than her previous book. I'm probably just a sucker for offbeat coming of age stories, but the best fiction I've read in the past year have all been in line with this theme...Lethem's Fortress of Solitude, Atwood's Cats Eye and now this one.I loved A Secret History, and I think I own this one, but have never read it. I guess I'd better bump it up to the top of the list. Also, I can no longer hold out against the tide, I'm adding the Rob Sheffield thing to the list, too. Link to post Share on other sites
kimcatch22 Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 That's my favorite book EVER. (Technically it's two short stories, but ya know.) I've read it more times than I can count. My now reading: Link to post Share on other sites
Sir Stewart Posted February 18, 2008 Share Posted February 18, 2008 A sweeping critique of each Prince release, including the personal, financial, & social circumstances that accompanied them. Insightful and entertaining (the 200+ pages fly by), but littered with so many factual errors, I found it hard to trust in the stuff that could otherwise be enlightening (for one example he has Live Aid taking place in 1984 and USA for Africa a year later - with those kinds of missteps, how am I supposed to believe him when he says Warner Bros, not Prince, shelved The Black Album). Link to post Share on other sites
aricandover Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 soon: Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Speed Racer Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 Have not read the first one mentioned, by O'Brien. I just finished reading this, right after Steal This Book (paid 60% too much at a Border's going out of business sale), and I've just started Stanley Karnow's Vietnam. Seriously, O'Brien will knock your socks off. After you read that, read his book Lake of the Woods (or cabin by the lake or some odd thing like that...). But The Things They Carried? Read it in a day, and the next day turned to page 1 and read it again. So compelling. Link to post Share on other sites
Lammycat Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 Seriously, O'Brien will knock your socks off. After you read that, read his book Lake of the Woods (or cabin by the lake or some odd thing like that...). But The Things They Carried? Read it in a day, and the next day turned to page 1 and read it again. So compelling.I'll pick up The Things They Carried on Saturday. I just finished this on recommendation from Donna. I thought it started off slow and drab (the writing, despite the content) but I really kind of connected with it about half-way through and came to quite like her style by the end: Currently reading this. Certainly not a challenging or even provocative read and a bunch of the stories have been told elsewhere and better: I'm still waiting on Amazon to ship HST's last book. The shiiping date was originally Fe. 5. I assume it's not out yet. Link to post Share on other sites
kimcatch22 Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 Stanley Karnow's Vietnam.This may be the most comprehensive history of the war I've ever read. Well-written, too. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Speed Racer Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 This may be the most comprehensive history of the war I've ever read. Well-written, too. I know! Such a page turner. I bought it (rather ambitiously) in high school, and could never make it through. I did that with a ton of books in high school, back when I had disposable income . Excellent choice: now that I can't afford to go out, I've found that I have a great bookshelf! Link to post Share on other sites
kimcatch22 Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 I know! Such a page turner. I bought it (rather ambitiously) in high school, and could never make it through. I did that with a ton of books in high school, back when I had disposable income . Excellent choice: now that I can't afford to go out, I've found that I have a great bookshelf! Nice! I worked in a bookstore in high school and was always doing that, too. Now I work in a library... Have you read Philip Caputo's A Rumor of War? It's one of my favorites about Vietnam. Link to post Share on other sites
Lammycat Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 Have you read Philip Caputo's A Rumor of War? It's one of my favorites about Vietnam.I read this in college for a History class based around the Viet Nam "conflict" right around the time Platoon first came out. Well written and the best account of the war I've read. Link to post Share on other sites
kimcatch22 Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 I read this in college for a History class based around the Viet Nam "conflict" right around the time Platoon first came out. Well written and the best account of the war I've read.Definitely among the best. And a unique perspective since he went in with the first wave -- I feel like most of what I've read otherwise (except We Were Soldiers) is 1968 and later. It was assigned reading in my Vietnam WAR class, too. Caputo went to Loyola. This reminds me, Michael Herr's Dispatches reads like a grunt memoir but he was actually an embedded reporter. It's really good, too, although I spent the first 1/3 of the book questioning if I was misinformed about him being a reporter because the style is so convincing. Link to post Share on other sites
explodo Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 Suffering through this right now. Not very far, but the whole thing seems so corny and overblown. I can retell the story in three sentences: I'm scared. I know.The man pushed the cart down the road. I will admit that there have been some beautiful sentences/paragraphs, but I don't care at all about either character. Man, just die already. We get it. You're sick. Boy, stop complaining. For this way of life being the only thing you've ever know, you sure do seem pretty bewildered by everything. Link to post Share on other sites
Reni Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 I'm scared. I know.The man pushed the cart down the road. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Speed Racer Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 I'm scared. I know.The man pushed the cart down the road. Let me know when you do the Bible on audiobook, because I will be first in line. Have you read Philip Caputo's A Rumor of War? It's one of my favorites about Vietnam. No, but I'll queue it up next. Thanks! Link to post Share on other sites
Good Old Neon Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 Suffering through this right now. Not very far, but the whole thing seems so corny and overblown. I can retell the story in three sentences: I'm scared. I know.The man pushed the cart down the road. I will admit that there have been some beautiful sentences/paragraphs, but I don't care at all about either character. Man, just die already. We get it. You're sick. Boy, stop complaining. For this way of life being the only thing you've ever know, you sure do seem pretty bewildered by everything. Hmmmm Link to post Share on other sites
Hodie Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 and I've just started Stanley Karnow's Vietnam. That is indeed a really great book, but the book I love most about the war in Vietnam (even more than Tim O'Brien's stuff!) is "Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides" by Christian Appy. It's a collection of interviews with pretty much every type of person involved with the war. It's not just the soldiers and policy makers on each side, but people like the flight attendants who worked on the commercial flights that carried young draftees to the war (and back home again when they made it), vietnamese poets and novelists, the people who risked their lives to maintain the Ho Chi Minh trail, and dozens more. It's huge, but incredibly readable, and it means a lot to me that all those voices have been recorded. Link to post Share on other sites
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