Now Reading in the Old Year

[jimmyjimmy]

Had no idea Richard Russo had a new novel out until I saw it in a Kitty Hawk bookstore while I was on vacation a couple weeks ago. Just started reading it today.

 

 

That's next in my que.

 

NR:

 

Terrific read.

[gogo]

 

Legs, Billy Phelan's Greatest Game, and Ironweed. I've got these three in one volume, alternating them with some non-fiction. Just finished Legs, moving on to Columbine, then after Billy Phelan's Greatest Game I'll start Deceit and Denial.

 

 

Then back to Ironweed. I like to have a plan.

[Moss]

[Oil Can Boyd]

A completely riveting tale of a New Orleans family during Katrina. It's closer to Eggers work on What is the What (i.e. he's more reporting than writing), but equally wonderful.

Just finished this and really enjoyed it.

[Good Old Neon]

[PopTodd]

Just finished the last Harry Potter book and it's probably my favorite of the series. Definitely the most exciting entry (after a slow beginning to the book).

Although I have a hard time seeing how they're gonna do the movie of this one, as a lot of it goes on inside of Harry's head.

(And that is not a spoiler, in case any of you who have not read it yet are worried.)

[Oil Can Boyd]

 

Really, really liked this book ...

[Azzurri]

 

Really, really liked this book ...

 

that is one beautiful book...so sad. those last pages had me in tears.

[Moss]

Just finished the last Harry Potter book and it's probably my favorite of the series. Definitely the most exciting entry (after a slow beginning to the book).

Although I have a hard time seeing how they're gonna do the movie of this one, as a lot of it goes on inside of Harry's head.

(And that is not a spoiler, in case any of you who have not read it yet are worried.)

 

She did do an impressive job of keeping the level up and ended it very well.

[isadorah]

 

i got this on Sept 11 of last year and heard the author give a talk. Interesting that it took me a year to get to it. So far a well written compelling read.

[The High Heat]

Picked this up tonight:

 

[M. (hristine]

^ I expect my copy to arrive via post today.

[gogo]

Finished those three William Kennedy books. I know Ironweed is supposed to be the masterpiece, but I preferred Billy Phelan's Greatest Game. Will definitely be reading more of his, too. I love a novel that's set in a real place (and Albany is very much a real place in his books), with a bit of history tossed in, plus I love that the characters keep popping up in each other's books. Good stuff.

 

Also finished Columbine. Distressing, in a number of ways.

 

Now:

 

[Guest Runaway Jim]

A Simple Plan

 

Shutter Island

[The High Heat]

A Simple Plan

 

Shutter Island

 

I read Shutter Island a couple of years ago. I've read all of Lehane's books. I didn't feel it was as good as most of his other mysteries, but still - it's Lehane. The movie, starring Leonardo, comes out in February.

[M. (hristine]

I honestly can't remember the last book of fiction I read, but this has been well worth the waiting:

 

This book has been a luminous exploration of the nuances of relationship. So mysterious how, without solving the puzzle, a writer so cleverly gives voice to the hidden chambers of the heart.

 

These lines: The sea was as warm and welcoming as a bath. His feet touched the bottom, and so he let go. will be etched in my mind a long, long time.

 

Now, on to the Krakauer.

[Three dollars and 63 cents]

I bought that Lahiri collection earlier in the summer but still haven't gotten around to reading it. Interpreter of Maladies is one of my favorite books, so I know I'm going to enjoy this, too. I do worry just a little that she may fall into the trap of writing about the same things over and over (since she's explored more or less the same territory in her first three books), but stylistically I think she's one of the best contemporary writers.

 

So far this month I've read

 

 

 

The Beatty novel was strange and thought-provoking but lost my interest in the second half, which was a bit disappointing. I just finished the Boswell collection this morning. There was one excellent story and one that was good, and the rest were okay at best (a few were downright horrible). He used to be one of my favorite writers, but it just seemed like he was trying way too hard in these stories instead of letting things unfold natural. He either packed in too much or barely scratched the surface in most stories.

 

Tonight I'll be starting:

 

I've read excerpts of this before but am looking forward to finally reading the whole thing. She's one of our visiting writers this fall, and I figure I'd better brush up before I have dinner with her next month

[GtrPlyr]

Inspired by the recent Beatles reissues, I pulled this one off the shelf:

 

[crazypoet]

very timely, this one. and a good read as well. too bad it's a small press thing and no one will ever hear about it.

 

 

 

http://unlikelystories.org/blog/content/?p=167

 

 

 

[Good Old Neon]

Picked this up tonight:

 

 

I’m looking forward to this one. If I’ve ever been guilty of judging a book by its cover, it is certainly true in Tillman’s case. Based largely on photos, I had him pegged as a violent meathead, who, following 9/11, just had to get him some. Upon word of his death I thought, “well, there you go sport, you went and got you some.” Ugh – boy was I wrong.

 

The portrait that has since emerged is, to paraphrase a recent New York Times article, of an "...unusually thoughtful, complicated young man, who was pretty much disillusioned by the Army and angrily opposed to the war in Iraq yet turned down a chance to return to pro football because he believed he needed to honor his commitment.” I now feel like a total asshole, and look forward to honoring and understanding his death through Mr. Krakauer talented lens.

[M. (hristine]

Krakauer has drawn me in...

 

I'll report back when I come up for air.

[Sir Stewart]

I’m looking forward to this one. If I’ve ever been guilty of judging a book by its cover, it is certainly true in Tillman’s case. Based largely on photos, I had him pegged as a violent meathead, who, following 9/11, just had to get him some. Upon word of his death I thought, “well, there you go sport, you went and got you some.” Ugh – boy was I wrong.

 

I would like to hear this from Ted Rall.

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

I'm not very intellectual (anymore)

 

 

 

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

I would like to hear this from Ted Rall.

 

 

Don't hold your breath...he's playing the victim

 

Ted Rall Responds to Jon Krakauer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 18, 2009

 

In his new book about Pat Tillman, Jon Krakauer equates me with Ann Coulter and accuses me of "invent[ing]" Tillman's personality in my controversial May 3, 2004 cartoon about him. It's not a lengthy passage, but it is placed in an extremely important place: the end of his Krakauer's foreword. Chapter one starts immediately after this section.

 

I have enjoyed Krakauer's writing in the past, especially his books "Into the Wild" and "Into Thin Air." Now, however, I am forced to question Krakauer's intellectual honesty and integrity as a writer. He uses Coulter and I as political stalking horses (of the "right" and "left") in order to portray himself as a fair-minded moderate (centrist?) whose research led to the "biographical insight" that lets him know "what motivated Pat Tillman":

 

 

Unencumbered by biographical insight, people felt emboldened to invent all manner of personae for Tillman after his passing. Most of these renderings were based on little more than rumor and fantasy. The right-wing harridan Ann Coulter claimed him as an exemplar of Republican political values. The left-wing editorial cartoonist Ted Rall denigrated him in a four-panel comic strip as an "idiot" who joined the Army to "kill Arabs."

 

Neither Coulter nor Rall had any idea what motivated Pat Tillman. Beyond his family and a small circle of close friends, few people did."

 

I drew the cartoon in question after watching Tillman's nationally televised memorial service. The event featured speeches by Republican politicians who already knew that their official account of Tillman's "heroism"—he actually died from "friendly fire"—wasn't true. One such politician, Senator John McCain, said that Tillman offered a "welcome lesson in the true meaning of courage and honor...few of us will ever live a better life." In the manner characteristic of Bush-era jingoism, flags were everywhere. The rhetoric was militaristic: the bravery, heroism and sacrifice of a man who had given up millions of dollars as professional football player in order to fight in the war on terror. No one—not even his family—mentioned what we learned much later about him: that his politics leaned left, that he thought the war against Iraq was illegal, etc.

 

Would I have drawn the same exact cartoon had I known then that Tillman really joined the Army to try to watch his brother's back? Or that he had been shot by a fellow U.S. soldier? Of course not. Every cartoon based on current events would benefit from being able to read into the future. But I still think his decision to join the Army—especially under Bush, who started two unprovoked wars against Afghanistan and Iraq—was idiotic.

 

No one should enlist in the U.S. military. Period.

 

I'm not a pacifist. I would fight to defend the United States from its enemies. But the United States military has not fought against an actual enemy since World War II. Since then, without exception, it has been the tool of aggressive, economically motivated expansionism. Until that changes, every act of "heroism" by an American soldier on a foreign battlefield will be an act committed in the service of a bad cause. There is no ethical basis, not even "watching your brother's back," that can justify that.

 

If anything, Tillman should have known better. He had read Noam Chomsky. He was, by American standards, well read. His decision to join the Army—especially under Bush!—was even more reprehensible than if he had been the dumb brutish jock portrayed in the media in the weeks and months after his death. When you join Bush's army, and now Obama's, you know there's a better than even chance you'll be asked to "kill Arabs." In fact, Tillman first did a tour of duty in Iraq before meeting his end in Afghanistan—which was, back in 2004, "the good war." If you're not interested in killing Arabs (or Pashtuns, or Tajiks, or Hazaras, or Turkomen), there are lots of other jobs…playing football, for example.

 

Krakauer's attempt to posture himself as the moderate, reasonable middle between Ann Coulter and Ted Rall is belied by publicity photos showing him carrying an AK-47 while "patrolling with Afghan Special Forces" (the U.S. puppet army) against indigenous Afghan resistance fighters. So much for journalistic integrity—he literally served with a hated and reviled army of occupation, endangering the real independent journalists who work in war zones.

 

His attempt to equate Coulter and I (I'll leave aside the innate sexism in his referring to her as a "harridan") cleverly omits the fact that Coulter was parroting a tsunami of media propaganda at the time. On the other hand, I was trying—virtually alone—to counter the death cult of American militarism that was trying to use Tillman to lure more to murder and die in Afghanistan and Iraq. There is a difference, and Krakauer knows it.

 

There's also a big difference in what we do and how we do it, as attested by the many conservative readers who've written to say they appreciate my honesty.

 

Finally, for a man who claims to require "biographical insight" to understand a man's motivations, Krakauer chose not to apply those standards to me. I don't know whether he tried to contact Coulter, but he certainly never got in touch with me to ask why I drew the cartoon that I did.

 

In 2001, I filed a piece from the frontlines in northern Afghanistan called "How We Lost the Afghan War." Finally, eight years later, most Americans finally agree that we have no business there. How ironic that I'm being insulted by someone whose actions in Afghanistan directly promote the cynical machinations he claims to deplore.

[Good Old Neon]

I would like to hear this from Ted Rall.

 

I am not familiar with Rall, but after your post, I looked him up - and I see what you mean. However, according to Wikipedia, he has since recanted his original sentiment:

 

Three characters in another strip described Pat Tillman as an "idiot" a "sap" and a "hero" for abandoning his NFL career to enlist in the armed forces. Tillman is depicted saying "Sign me up, as long as I get to kill Arabs." Later, after revelations of Tillman's privately held anti-Iraq-war sentiments became public, Rall wrote that he regretted making such sweeping assumptions about Tillman's motives, describing Tillman as "one hell of an interesting human being."

 

link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Rall