Author Topic: Rate the last book you read.  (Read 194197 times)

sdedalus

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #910 on: February 20, 2012, 12:38:42 PM »


I bought this in San Francisco when I was there for the film festival two years ago.  As I was leaving the register, a man stopped me and asked if he could look at the book.  I handed it to him and he started writing in it.  When he handed it back, I realized he was the author and had just autographed it for me.  He said that had never happened to him before, someone randomly buying his book right in front of him.  Seemed like a nice guy.

I enjoyed this quite a bit.  It's a fun story with lots of great period detail that creates a believable world without getting too much in the way of the narrative (my favorite is Walter Huston as a vaudeville soft show act) and some real suspense and a surprising thread of sadness throughout.  Interesting to compare it to The Prestige a film about magicians that's almost entirely joyless.  Carter goes to some very dark places as well, but it also captures the, well, magic of performing illusions, giving a much more complete, rounded experience.
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smirnoff

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #911 on: February 20, 2012, 06:33:58 PM »
The Big Short - Michael Lewis

Mouthwatering!

Clovis8

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #912 on: February 20, 2012, 06:36:05 PM »
The Big Short - Michael Lewis

Mouthwatering!

Great book.

Jared

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #913 on: February 20, 2012, 08:58:28 PM »
Something Happened

Good bye American Dream. This book is some dark stuff (mostly humor). Bob Slocum is in middle management at a large corporation, along with a family man with a wife and three kids. He basically spends the whole book talking about his past and his current life in fragments, zooming from one thought to the next in a couple of loosely organized streams of consciousness (some of the chapters are well over 100 pages with no real breaks). Our narrator seems jumps between distrubed, meek, loving, cruel, unfeeling, etc.
I really liked this book, although its a bit difficult to really sum up its plot much more than I have.

smirnoff

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #914 on: February 20, 2012, 10:24:14 PM »
The Puppetmasters- Robert Heinlein

The hilarious bit of true Heinlein, was his fascination with a plot device, that leaves everybody having to wear less and less. He thinks the English would be in denial even in the face of extinction, refusing to take off the "waistcoat old boy". He really is a hippy before hippiedom; probably too much time on campus, but his main character sees public nudity as a step forward, cool man!

Classic :)

philip918

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #915 on: February 23, 2012, 02:52:49 AM »
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman

Epic and awesome. Just top-notch storytelling and frighteningly prescient (well, more timeless, I'm afraid). Hopefully Ridley gets it right.

The Strangers in the House - Georges Simenon

First Simenon. Certainly won't be the last. Great characters and intrigue. Not much of a mystery, but the atmosphere Simenon creates is captivating.

Fatale - Jean-Patrick Manchette

Completely. Bad. Ass. A woman shows up in a small town, plays the wealthy against one another and when they try to double-cross her, she takes them down - hard. I must make this movie.

Sleepless - Charlie Huston

Huston is a hell of a writer. This took a little while to dig its hooks in me, but by the end my room seemed to fill with dust and onion mist, because, whew, it's just so damn sad. Great future noir.

verbALs

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #916 on: February 23, 2012, 08:13:00 AM »
I am reading Starship Troopers, which has a similar feel to The Forever War, although more of a glorification of the values and disciplines of warriors, I think. The other media that comes to mind with these two is Alan Moore's "The Ballad of Halo Jones", which includes some horrific future war pieces. One of my favourite authors, James Crumley's first book was a Viet-era/ From here to Eternity feeling story called "One Count To Cadence", which is poetic and epic like these other stories.
I used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don't do that so much anymore. - Banksy

oldkid

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #917 on: February 23, 2012, 10:23:14 AM »
Verbals: I recommend Podkayne of Mars and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.  Also a great set of short stories which collects his "future history", The Past Through Tomorrow.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman
I love this book.  Second time reading it, it is simply brilliant at characterizing the old gods and putting them in a modern context.  However, it works best as an insight on American culture, providing insight on what constitutes "religion" in America.  Simply brilliant.  Among my all-time favorites.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

verbALs

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #918 on: February 23, 2012, 11:04:04 AM »
I never finished American Gods or that related book of his (blanking). I went through a period of never finishing any book, so nothing against Gaiman of course.

Read Moon is a Harsh Mistress, very good book; I'll bear Podkayne in mind, thanks.
I used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don't do that so much anymore. - Banksy

sdedalus

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #919 on: February 23, 2012, 01:01:02 PM »
I never finished American Gods or that related book of his (blanking).

Anansi Boys, I believe.  Good, but not as good as the first one.
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