All the Pretty Horses

This is definitely not a book I would have picked up my own, and I may have given up on it before 100 pages if I wasn’t reading it for a class. As Shuttsie knows, the western is not my favorite genre, thus my reluctance to read Lonesome Dove despite her best efforts for the past ten years or so, although you could argue that ATPH is not really a western. The story follows John Grady Cole, sixteen, and his friend Rawlins as they travel to Mexico to work on a ranch. The beginning of the book is filled with long stretches of the weather and the landscape and endless searches for water. It picks up once the boys meet another boy, Jimmy Blevins, who ends up getting them in trouble later on in the story. The boys find work on a ranch in Mexico where John Grady falls in love with the rancher’s daughter, never a good sign. There are some beautiful passages in McCarthy’s writing once you get past the lack of punctuation.

War Letters

Hello from Sunday afternoon. I know we're all gearing up for the Bears showdown tonight but since we have a few hours to kill lets talk reading.

This selection is for all the military and U.S. history buffs out there. It is a collection of correspondence from American soldiers, usually letters home, stretching from the Civil War through Bosnia. Each of the letters are prefaced by a short introduction which provides historical and personal context regarding the soldier and his deployment. The letters range from inspiring to wholly depressing, I much like any account of war I suppose. But I guess why I find this reading so essential is that provides a human perspective to the great forces of war and history.

This was published in 2001, shortly before our most recent military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. But its doubtful in the age of email that correspondence is crafted and preserved in such a way to make this book possible. I suppose "War Letters" is also a history of how we used to communicate.

An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England

I'd like to think I picked this book up because of a great review I read, but really, it was the title that made me take it home. I read a lot of good reviews but a good title or a good book cover will push that book to the top every time. Arbitrary, I know. The arsonist in question is Sam Pulsifer, a self-described bumbler, who accidentally sets fire to the Emily Dickinson house, burning it to the ground and killing two people inside. He is sent to prison and released after ten years. He marries a nice woman and moves to the suburbs, but neglects to tell her about his past. When the son of the couple killed in the Dickinson fire shows up on his doorstep to confront him, Pulsifer's bumbling past catches up with him. Then, more famous writers' homes are set on fire and Sam must find out who is behind the fires before he is blamed. I found the book to be very funny and I enjoyed all the commentary on stories and literature and their importance in our lives.

Why I'm like this

This book is a collection of essays following Kaplan from childhood to her own experiences as a mother. She is quite funny and covers a number of different topics, from her summer camp experiences to her struggles as an actor/waitress to putting her grandmother, who was suffering from Alzheimer's into a nursing home. Towards the end of the book, where she began writing about her struggles with infertility, the book became a little more clunky, but still a very worthwhile and entertaining read.

Studs Lonigan

Hello kids,
As way of introduction my name is Mike. I've been a reader of this fine blog from its inception and Shuttsie was kind enough to ask me for a humble weekly contribution. So here we go.

We'll start with one of my all-time favorites, the Studs Lonigan trilogy. James Farrell (1904-1979) is one of many Chicago authors who is now all but forgotten from the modern consciousness. If this town was true to its history and its artists Farrell would be taught in every high school in the city. But his stuff can be a little tough to swallow so to not be controversial the kids get John Knowles instead.

Anyway the Lonigan books are the signature works of Farrell's career. They describe the childhood of the character Studs Lonigan, an Irish-American youth on the south side of Chicago over a 14 year period ending during the Great Depression. Studs is such a sympathetic character to me probably because he reminds me of many kids I knew growing up. Sadly he reminds me of myself as a teenager as well. Farrell has the inner monologue of messed up teenager down pat. Its also a look at a city in a much different point in its history. I agree wholeheartedly with the review posted on Amazon regarding some of books' disturbing content. However its this content that gives the books and its characters such sad authenticity. So anyway give it a look if you have any interest in Chicago social history. It is fiction, but it is set in Farrell's neighborhood and populated by characters drawn from his own childhood. If you really like it you can move on to Farrell's five "Danny O'Neil" novels, set in the same time and place but based on his own life.

The Tightwad Gazette

As a rule, I like to save money. However, I am not quite as intense about it as Amy Dacyczyn, the author/editor of the three volumes of the Tightwad Gazette. These books are a font of cheap ideas- essentially three collections of a newsletter sent out over a period of years. They include recipes, articles on such topics as tightwad valentines ( a cherry pie with a heart cut in it, a coupon for a massage), as well as calculations as to how much money things like energy saving light bulbs will save over the course of decade. There are some crazy ideas (magazine holders from cereal boxes) but learning how much per ounce soda (or pop as we say in the mid- west) is from the movie theater, a restaurant, the grocery store and versus good old water is quite an eye opener. Also, the author's viewpoint about "spending for the sake of spending" is a good reminder for anyone. Fun and helpful, even if you don't adopt all her ideas.

The Atrocity Archives

I love this book. :D The Atrocity Archives collection combines Lovecraftian Horror with Len Deighton style cold war style spy thrillers, and has a pinch of Dilbert thrown in for good measure. The books centers on Bob Howard, a lowly computer nerd working for The Laundry, the super-secret British agency that deals with paranormal, demonic, and various otherworldly threats. Though his job primarily entails keeping the office computers up and running, Howard made the mistake of expressing an interest in field duty. Because magic and summoning in this world is all very mathematical, scientific and regimented, Howard's unique skillset and nerd cred make him uniquely qualified for certain tasks, and he finds himself thrown into increasingly dangerous missions involving possessed terrorists, necromantic Nazi holdovers from World War II, and world devouring monsters. This is on top of the peril he faces from his evil, soul sucking, pointy-haired supervisor at The Laundry. Luckily our protagonist is up for the challenge.

The main story from the Atrocity Archives collection, the The Concrete Jungle, is available online under the creative commons licence. I'm about to finish The Jennifer Morgue, the sequel to The Atrocity Archives. It's has more of an Ian Flemming/James Bond flavor, and is also quite good. Stross also has another Lovecraftian style Cold War story online called A Colder War , though this story takes place in a different universe and is written in a different style. Amusingly, Ollie North makes an appearance here.