Read any good books lately?

[sirhcyennek81]

She-Wolves. History of English Queens before Elizabeth I.

Unholy Night. Written by the guy who wrote Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. Not bad to this point.

Hitler & Stalin. History of the 20th century's most brutal dictators.

[No1BroncoFan]

I forgot to mention the "Maze Runner" series by James Dashner. Dystopian future fiction that reads a bit like "The Hunger Games," without the whiny protagonist but with zombie-like "cranks" (disease victims). Fantastic reads.

[broncosteven]

I am wading through The Violin: A Social History of the World's Most Versatile Instrument.

It is interesting but there is a lot of info over the course of about 400 years and you have to at least have a passing knowledge of the history of the violin and it's great makers or heard the names at some point to string it all together.

That said the writer keeps it moving and interesting. Funny that as few as 50 years ago you could buy a Strad, Guarneri, or Amati for about $50k. The collectors are the ones who drove up the prices.

http://www.amazon.com/Violin-Social-...eywords=violin

[Kid A]

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
A hilarious and heartbreaking satire about war, sports and American culture. I know that sounds like a book blurb, but it really is all those things and, for me, lived up to the substantial hype it has gotten. Highly recommend.

CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders
One of the best short story writers in America, he has a new book out that I haven't had a chance to read yet, but this one is a great place to start. Like Halftime Walk this is mostly satire about America, but framed in various strange dystopian future settings. A lot of dark humor and a lot of fun.

The Passage by Justin Cronin
The first in a planned trilogy (book 2 just came out late 2012), it owes a lot to Stephen King: government experiments gone awry, paranormal child, post-apocalyptic society, super human monsters...Cronin mashes a lot together, and some of it works better than other parts. But on the whole, for a 700+ pg book, it's a solid pageturner. And it's written better than your average thriller, though still falls back on some of the genre cliches (e.g. every chapter has to end on a cliffhanger sentence).

I think it would definitely be up the alley of a lot of people here who enjoy post-apocalyptic, sci-fi, fantasy etc. Plus Ridley Scott bought the movie rights, so this is your chance to be the a-hole who complains about its accuracy when it comes out!

[DarkHorse30]

Alice Cooper, Golf Monster - funny bio

[BroncoInferno]

Originally Posted by Kid A

CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders
One of the best short story writers in America, he has a new book out that I haven't had a chance to read yet, but this one is a great place to start. Like Halftime Walk this is mostly satire about America, but framed in various strange dystopian future settings. A lot of dark humor and a lot of fun.

It doesn't get much better than "The 400 Pound CEO."

Originally Posted by George Saunders

Maybe the God we see, the God who calls the daily shots, is merely a subGod. Maybe there's a God above this subGod who's busy for a few Godminutes with something else, and will be right back; and when he gets back will take the subGod by the ear and say: Now look. Look at that fat man. What did he ever do to you? Wasn't he humble enough? Didn't he endure enough abuse for a thousand men? Weren't the simplest tasks hard? Didn't you sense him craving affection? Were you unaware that his days unraveled as one long bad dream? And maybe as the sub- God slinks away, the true God will sweep me up in his arms, saying: My sincere apologies, a mistake has been made. Accept a new birth, as token of my esteem.

And I will emerge again from between the legs of my mother, a slighter and more beautiful baby, destined for a different life, in which I am masterful, sleek as a deer, a winner.

Good to see another Saunders fan out there. Is this the first book Saunders' book you've read? All are highly recommended. The new collection includes some of his best work, though there are one or two clunkers.

[WolfpackGuy]

I'm currently about halfway through Mein Kampf which I found for a few bucks recently.

Very hard read because Hitler jumps from thought to thought in a disorganized manner, and the book seems like a giant run on sentence especially when he talks about himself.

Oddly, in what I've read so far, he made some rather accurate predictions about today's dysfunctional democratic process (at least in this country) and said EXACTLY WHAT HE WOULD DO if he ever got in a position of power.

[IHaveALight]

[Rohirrim]

I'm just finishing up with this:



Lot's of info, but pretty dry. More concerned with the politics than the man.

[Broncomutt]

At the age of 10, I got a copy of the novelization of the movie Alien. Ironically, my parents wouldn't let me watch the movie, but had no problems with me reading it, so I read the movie years before I ever watched it.

The novelization is pretty much a prose version of the screenplay written by Alan Dean Foster (Alien (1979) ISBN 0-446-82977-3). The screenwriter for the movie was Dan O'Bannon. It is just shy of 200 pages long. There are only 2 differences I can remember. The first is a conversation between the female crew members. In the book, Ripley asks Lambert if she's ever slept with Ash, hinting at a fair degree of promiscuity among the crew members.

The second I include because it's possibly the most chilling part of the book, but was never featured in Ridley Scott's epic movie.





Ripley still hadn't moved. Faint shrieks reached her over the 'com. The screams were Lambert's and they faded with merciful speed. Then it was quiet again.

She spoke toward the pickup. "Parker...Lambert?"

She waited for a response, expecting none. Her expectations were fulfilled. The import of the continuing silence took only a moment to settle in.
She was alone. There were probably three living things left on the ship: the alien, Jones, and herself. But she had to be sure.

It meant leaving Jones behind. She didn't want to, but the cat had heard the screams and was meowing frantically. He was making too much noise!

She reached B deck unopposed, her flamethrower held tightly in both hands. The food locker lay just ahead. There was an outside chance the alien had left someone behind, being unable to manuever itself and two bodies through the narrow ducts. A chance that someone might still be alive.

She peered around the jamb of the locker entrance. What remained showed her how the alien had succeeded in squeezing both victims into the airshaft. Then she was running, running. Blindly, a little madly, neither thinking or caring. Walls reached out to stun her and slow her down, but nothing halted her crazed flight. She ran until her lungs hurt. They reminded her of Kane and the creature that had matured inside him, next to his lungs. That in turn reminded her of the alien.

All that thinking brought her back to her senses. Gulping for breath, she slowed and took stock of her surroundings. She'd run the length of the ship. Now she found herself standing alone in the middle of the engine room.

She heard something and stopped breathing. It was repeated, and she let out a cautious sigh. The sound was familiar, the sound was human. It was the sound of weeping.

Still cradling the flamethrower, she walked slowly around the room until the source of the noise lay directly below her. She found she was standing on a companionway cover, a round metal disc. Keeping half her attention on the well-lit chamber surrounding her, she knelt and removed the disc. A ladder descended into the near darkness.

She felt her way down the ladder until she reached solid footing. Then she activated her light bar. She was in a small maintenance chamber. The light picked out plastic crates, rarely used tools. It also fell on bones with shreds of flesh still attached. Her skin crawled as the light moved over fragments of clothing, dried blood, a ruined boot. Bizarre extrusions lined the wall.

A huge cocoon hung from the ceiling, off to her right. It looked like an enclosed, translucent hammock, woven from fine white silky material. It twitched.

Her finger tense on the trigger of the flamethrower, she walked nearer. The beam from her lightbar made the cocoon slightly transparent. There was a body inside...Dallas!

Quite unexpectadly the eyes opened and focused on Ripley. Lips parted, moved to form words. She moved closer, simultaneously fascinated and repelled.

"Kill me," the whisperer pleaded with her.

"What...what did it do to you?"

Dallas tried to speak again, failed. His head turned a little to the right. Ripley swung her light, turned it upward slightly. A second cocoon hung there, different in texture and color from the first. It was smaller and darker, the silk having formed a hard, shining shell. It looked, although Ripley couldn't know it, like the broken, empty urn on the derelict ship.

"That was Brett." Her light turned back to focus on the speaker again.

"I'll get you out of here." She was crying. "We'll crank up the autodoc, get you..."

She broke off, unable to talk. She was remembering Ash's analogy of the spider, the wasp. The live young feeding on the paralyzed body of the spider, growing, the spider aware of what was happening but...

Somehow she managed to shut off that horrid line of thought. Madness lay that way. "What can I do?" she sobbed.

The same agonized whisper. "Kill me."

She stared at him. Mercifully, his eyes had closed. But his lips were trembling, as if he were readying a scream. She didn't think she could stand to hear that scream.

The nozzle of the flamethrower rose and she convulsively depressed the trigger. A molten blast enveloped the cocoon and the thing that had been Dallas. It and he burned without a sound. Then she swung the fire around the lair. The entire compartment burst into flames. She was already scrambling back up the ladder, heat licking at her legs.

[Requiem]

A book on the Aztecs by some anthropologist.

[TerrElway]

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson - the rise of hitler as seen through the eyes of the american ambassador to Germany. Very good.

Empire of the Summer Moon - about Quanah Parker and the rise and fall of the Comanche nation.

BroncoMutt - Alan Dean Foster was my fave author growing up. His books are a fun read.

[mhgaffney]

The Big Bamboozle

by Phillip Marshall, former CIA pilot and Eastern & United pilot of Boeing 727s, 737s, 747s, 757s and 767s

who received a bullet in the head two days before the SuperBowl along with his two kids.

Not to be missed!

[broncosteven]

I just read "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" about the life and times of Warren Zevon written by his ex-wife Crystal on his request, with the provision she put in all the bad stuff.

I knew he was an Alkie but didn't realize how bad he was and how once he quit using he was able to stay on the wagon until he got the death sentence from his Dr's.

I totally love Zevon's music, glad I read this because he was a total **** person for reals.

[broncolife]

My left nut hangs lower than my right.

This book was amazing. This is just another classic book that holds your attention and makes you want to not put it down! Such a good book!!! There are certainly many fabulous characters in this series.There are those to hate (The angry mole), to love (the curly pube), to admire (the right nut), and to despise (the saggy sack and Joff the Dick).Also the army of crabs kicked arse. The list of characters that populate this series is enormous, and it is quite daunting as you begin. As the stories continue to weave together though, it becomes easy to keep track of the characters and become absorbed in their tales. I cried, laughed and vomitted. It was a great book. I cant wait for the movie, I heard it was in 3d.

[McDman]

"The Last Kingdom" by Bernard Cornwell. It's a n historical fiction about the Danish invasion of England. Very good.

[broncosteven]

Originally Posted by sirhcyennek81

She-Wolves. History of English Queens before Elizabeth I.

Is this about Oscar Wilde?

[sirhcyennek81]

Originally Posted by broncosteven

Is this about Oscar Wilde?

Might be. Only read about a 1/4 of it. Covered Eleanor and Matilda.

[R8R H8R]

Originally Posted by broncolife

My left nut hangs lower than my right.

This book was amazing. This is just another classic book that holds your attention and makes you want to not put it down! Such a good book!!! There are certainly many fabulous characters in this series.There are those to hate (The angry mole), to love (the curly pube), to admire (the right nut), and to despise (the saggy sack and Joff the Dick).Also the army of crabs kicked arse. The list of characters that populate this series is enormous, and it is quite daunting as you begin. As the stories continue to weave together though, it becomes easy to keep track of the characters and become absorbed in their tales. I cried, laughed and vomitted. It was a great book. I cant wait for the movie, I heard it was in 3d.

Interesting, but I'm really holding out for the sequel "Why does it hurt when I pee?" I hear it's loosely adapted from an old Frank Zappa song by the same name.

[broncosteven]

Originally Posted by R8R H8R

Interesting, but I'm really holding out for the sequel "Why does it hurt when I pee?" I hear it's loosely adapted from an old Frank Zappa song by the same name.

Willie the Pimp?

[BroncsCheer]

The People's History of the United States - 1492 to Present - Howard Zinn

Should be required reading in order to get registered to vote, IMO

I knew a lot of things were farked up but had no idea really how bad the class separation has been in this country since Day Zero.

[sirhcyennek81]

Originally Posted by BroncsCheer

The People's History of the United States - 1492 to Present - Howard Zinn

Should be required reading in order to get registered to vote, IMO

I knew a lot of things were farked up but had no idea really how bad the class separation has been in this country since Day Zero.

I would suggest reading more than one history of the US for proper perspective. Whatever is the same, is what you need to know and not the author's opinion.

[Swedish Extrovert]

Les Miserables x100

[R8R H8R]

Originally Posted by broncosteven

Willie the Pimp?

No, "Why does it hurt when I pee?" It's from the Joe's Garage album.

[BroncoInferno]

Originally Posted by sirhcyennek81

I would suggest reading more than one history of the US for proper perspective. Whatever is the same, is what you need to know and not the author's opinion.

"History is the lie commonly agreed upon." ~ Voltaire

I don't know if you've actually read Zinn's book, but the purpose was to shed light on the forgotten players in U.S. history (hence "A People's History"). The triumphs of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, et al have been told from nearly every conceivable angle. This is more of a supplementary text about how common people lived.