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Book thread.

RightinNYC said:
Yes, because it's only poor minorities who have these types of failing schools. All white students go to Stuyvesant or prep schools, obviously. There are plenty of majority-white states that are at the bottom of educational ranking as well.
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That's the fine white land o'Mississippi for ya.

What happened to talking about books, by the way?
 
I just finished reading Catch-22. It was the best book I have ever read.
 
talloulou said:
I still haven't read Specials which I think is the third and last book.
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Specials was the last book. It wasn't so great, and the ending seemed random and sub-optimal to me.

There's also a fourth book, loosely connected to the series, called Extras. I haven't been able to get it aat my library yet, but the excerpt I read was interesting.
 
missypea said:
Why? What made it the best?
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I think the fact that I can relate to it was a big part of it for me. Yossarian being completely helpless before all the levels of military bureacracy. The humor was also a big part of it for me.

"I'm going to slit your throat in your sleep!"
"Why?"
"Why not?"
 
RightOfCenter said:
I think the fact that I can relate to it was a big part of it for me. Yossarian being completely helpless before all the levels of military bureacracy. The humor was also a big part of it for me.

"I'm going to slit your throat in your sleep!"
"Why?"
"Why not?"
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"Flies in your eyes!"
"What flies?"
"You can't see them?"
"No."
"Must be the flies in your eyes."

"You were on the plane. You're dead."
"I'm right here!"
"Well, you're dead, so that's rather strange."

A beautiful match of the sarcastic and the serious, it makes me laugh and nearly cry every time I get through it.
 
Edify_Always_In_All_Ways said:
"Flies in your eyes!"
"What flies?"
"You can't see them?"
"No."
"Must be the flies in your eyes."

"You were on the plane. You're dead."
"I'm right here!"
"Well, you're dead, so that's rather strange."

A beautiful match of the sarcastic and the serious, it makes me laugh and nearly cry every time I get through it.
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Reading it made me frustrated with the idiocies of bureacracy and want to shout, but all Yossarian does is accept it and try and finish his missions.
 
I finished Starship Troopers , by Robert A. Heinlein, three weeks ago. I really like this book. Actually, from what I've read, even if you don't think you'll like it because it does suggest things like a government made up of and voted for exclusively by veterans, you still may enjoy reading it just to get angry with it. (If you do think you'll get angry with it, I must suggest however borrowing it or buying it at discount, otherwise you may be mad at yourself later for paying full price for a book you don't agree with.)

There's really not a lot of action in the book but a lot of discriptions of life as a fighter in the book's space military and a couple of philosophical/debatable questions. I haven't seen the movie but from the previews and what I've read and heard about it, it's more like a farce of the book. It is a political novel and could be boring if you're expecting more.

I think it's kinda cool too that the author wrote in a week.
 
I'm going to spend a couple of weeks on the beach in Florida very soon (spending my tax stimulus check!). I'd especially like to read something similar to some old favorites like Michener's Centennial, Kantor's Spirit Lake, but not as massive as Lockeridge's Raintree County or Mitchell's Gone With the Wind; a novel on the American Frontier. Historical accuracy is not important but some allusion to fact would make it more interesting to me but not required. One other thing: I'd like for it to be a book that I could recommend to others; that suggests the quality of book I'm looking for.

Thanks in advance,

...
 
Reading Cormac McCarthy's Border trilogy at the moment on the fiction side. On the fact side we have Satalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore. I'm enjoying it thus far although having to check back to the name page to remember who is who gets annoying (I'm crap with names) and 'The Absence of Peace: Understand the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, which I find to be a very good little book.
 
I just finished "Islands" by Ann Rivers Siddons. It was really good! That author will take you on vacation without leaving the house. I'm getting ready to start " White Oleander". My sister says that's a good read. We'll see :)
 
Pitwolfy said:
I just finished "Islands" by Ann Rivers Siddons. It was really good! That author will take you on vacation without leaving the house. I'm getting ready to start " White Oleander". My sister says that's a good read. We'll see :)
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I've read both; I sometimes read Siddons for brain candy.
Oleander is impressive. I believe it's a first novel, too.
What's the author's name, Fisch? Janet Fische? Something like that.
It's really good.
 
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There are certain books which people have to read before they die; these are those books...

1984 - George Orwell.

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury.

One of Shakespeare’s plays.

All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Remarque.

The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas.

Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Lord of the Flies - William Golding.

The Crucible - Arthur Miller.

Siddhartha - Herman Hesse.

A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle.
 
I'm confused, what's the differences among all the book threads?
 
This thread isn't specifically to promote books currently being read, but to just list all varieties of favorite books and what not. Or so I understood it. With that said, I have to highly recommend Practical Ethics by Peter Singer, The Political Economy of Participatory Economics by Robin Hahnel and Michael Albert, and Birthrights by Richard Farson, three books that could probably represent the majority of my worldview in conjunction.
 
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