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akujunkanSo here are the five books I read two weeks ago.
1) Chain Of Command – Seymour Hersh
Seymour Hersh is an investigative reporter who made a name for himself by breaking the story of the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War. The 21st century found him breaking another similar story: the Abu Ghraib scandal. Chain Of Command is a collection of his magazine and newspaper pieces spanning 9/11 to the Iraq War, mid-2005. Unfortunately, Hersh's work reads better in its original format; the stories lack important contextual moorings which would have been immediately obvious to anyone reading them contemporaneously, but which are no longer so due to the passage of time. Furthermore, Hersh only bothered to do the minimum amount of editing when compiling his disparate articles into full length book format, and the narrative is subsequently choppy and oftentimes shallow as a result. Hersh's work is nevertheless important reading for anyone hoping to get some sense of what was going on during this time period, but I'd recommend reading it in the magazines and newspapers in which it was originally published if you don't already have a good working knowledge of these events.
2) The Neverending Story – Michael Ende
This is one of those fantasy novels I never got around to reading as a child, and one which I probably would have enjoyed a lot more had I encountered it a few decades earlier. The story itself is imaginative and quite tense in places, but I was still able to predict where it was going, it suffers from the standard "boys are heroes and doers/girls are passive inspirers or evil seductresses" gender role rut, and its fantasy world was not quite my ideal fantasy world. Still, there is a lot of striking imagery to be had in this book, and it is a good deal better than much of the YA fantasy literature being published today.
3) Jesus Is Not A Republican – Jim Wallis, ed.
This is an absolutely phenomenal book. It should be required reading for everyone, especially if they claim to be Christian. The essays in this book are collectively the most solid, precise, and lucidly argued writing I have come across in quite some time, and more importantly, I unfailingly support their message of tolerance and charity towards others. Read this book.
4) Lud-In-The-Mist – Hope Mirrlees
And so I moved on from some of the most outstanding nonfiction writing I've recently encountered to this outstanding piece of fiction. As a foray into English faerie (as distinct from its Scottish and Irish counterparts), Lud-In-The-Mist is only rivaled by the much longer Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. If that description alone weren't enough to entice you, it's also a startlingly good piece of social commentary, and intriguing mystery story, besides. The characters are fully developed, and the setting is atmospheric; the world well defined and constructed. Lud-In-The-Mist is an excellent piece of writing. Read this book.
5) Cobain – Rolling Stone Magazine
I continued my Nirvana reading kick with this anthology of reviews, interviews, and post-suicide reporting culled from the pages of Rolling Stone magazine. I found myself left with three predominant reactions to the text: 1) Rolling Stone was a much better (and thus relevant) magazine a decade ago when it still occasionally contained music journalism, 2) Nirvana had a massive impact on both the commercial music scene and my individual life, and 3) I had a rotten adolescence, memories of which reading this book brought right back up. Cobain is definitely worth reading for anyone who wants to understand the early- to mid-nineties music scene or what any scene was like pre-Internet, when MTV and print media ruled.
SBS: I never made a proper count for this week, but I believe the number was hovering somewhere around 120 books.
That will be all.
1) Chain Of Command – Seymour Hersh
Seymour Hersh is an investigative reporter who made a name for himself by breaking the story of the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War. The 21st century found him breaking another similar story: the Abu Ghraib scandal. Chain Of Command is a collection of his magazine and newspaper pieces spanning 9/11 to the Iraq War, mid-2005. Unfortunately, Hersh's work reads better in its original format; the stories lack important contextual moorings which would have been immediately obvious to anyone reading them contemporaneously, but which are no longer so due to the passage of time. Furthermore, Hersh only bothered to do the minimum amount of editing when compiling his disparate articles into full length book format, and the narrative is subsequently choppy and oftentimes shallow as a result. Hersh's work is nevertheless important reading for anyone hoping to get some sense of what was going on during this time period, but I'd recommend reading it in the magazines and newspapers in which it was originally published if you don't already have a good working knowledge of these events.
2) The Neverending Story – Michael Ende
This is one of those fantasy novels I never got around to reading as a child, and one which I probably would have enjoyed a lot more had I encountered it a few decades earlier. The story itself is imaginative and quite tense in places, but I was still able to predict where it was going, it suffers from the standard "boys are heroes and doers/girls are passive inspirers or evil seductresses" gender role rut, and its fantasy world was not quite my ideal fantasy world. Still, there is a lot of striking imagery to be had in this book, and it is a good deal better than much of the YA fantasy literature being published today.
3) Jesus Is Not A Republican – Jim Wallis, ed.
This is an absolutely phenomenal book. It should be required reading for everyone, especially if they claim to be Christian. The essays in this book are collectively the most solid, precise, and lucidly argued writing I have come across in quite some time, and more importantly, I unfailingly support their message of tolerance and charity towards others. Read this book.
4) Lud-In-The-Mist – Hope Mirrlees
And so I moved on from some of the most outstanding nonfiction writing I've recently encountered to this outstanding piece of fiction. As a foray into English faerie (as distinct from its Scottish and Irish counterparts), Lud-In-The-Mist is only rivaled by the much longer Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. If that description alone weren't enough to entice you, it's also a startlingly good piece of social commentary, and intriguing mystery story, besides. The characters are fully developed, and the setting is atmospheric; the world well defined and constructed. Lud-In-The-Mist is an excellent piece of writing. Read this book.
5) Cobain – Rolling Stone Magazine
I continued my Nirvana reading kick with this anthology of reviews, interviews, and post-suicide reporting culled from the pages of Rolling Stone magazine. I found myself left with three predominant reactions to the text: 1) Rolling Stone was a much better (and thus relevant) magazine a decade ago when it still occasionally contained music journalism, 2) Nirvana had a massive impact on both the commercial music scene and my individual life, and 3) I had a rotten adolescence, memories of which reading this book brought right back up. Cobain is definitely worth reading for anyone who wants to understand the early- to mid-nineties music scene or what any scene was like pre-Internet, when MTV and print media ruled.
SBS: I never made a proper count for this week, but I believe the number was hovering somewhere around 120 books.
That will be all.
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no subject
on 2007-06-08 04:25 pm (UTC)just what i needed to feel better ^__^ thanks!
what caught my attention the most is your review for Cobain, particularly this part "Cobain is definitely worth reading for anyone who wants to understand the early- to mid-nineties music scene or what any scene was like pre-Internet, when MTV and print media ruled", as i had experienced that myself before moving here when i got into college.
no subject
on 2007-06-13 02:03 pm (UTC)It's interesting about that--I really don't think people younger than us are going to *get* how isolated life was if you lived anywhere but a big city before the Internet became widespread.