Beach books (2013 edition)

[OldPhiKap]

Spring travels coming up, time to find some entertaining but not brain-draining reads for the beach and pool. Anyone recently read something great, or looking forward to picking something up?

[Reilly]

Currently reading "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" by Ben Fountain (Carolina '80, Duke Law '83) ... national book award finalist ... very funny and quick moving so far ... recommend ...

Also currently reading a book by Irish novelist Maeve Binchy -- she died last year and her name rang a faint bell but I did not really know her work and the obits said she was so beloved and had an accessible, warm style ... which she does ... she herself described her work as beach reads ...

[Zeke]

Try: 1)Mission to Paris - Alan Furst - WW2 spy novel 2) Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn - crime? novel 3) The Warmth of Other Suns - Isabel Wilkerson - Black migration to the north.
Nu '60

[Bob Green]

I recently enjoyed Bonfire of the Vanities and recommend it if you haven't already read it. John Sandford's Stolen Prey is my current undertaking. All the Lucas Davenport novels are enjoyable IMO. Robert B Parker's Stranger in Paradise is another book I recently enjoyed.

[aimo]

I just started the third book in Kathy Reichs' young adult series. The first is Virals, second is Seizure, now I'm reading Code. I also like her Temperance Brennan series. Not at all like the show Bones as is suggested.

I have also started Margaret Maron's Deborah Knott series, starting with The Bootlegger's Daughter. She is from Johnston County, and this series takes place in various NC locations.

I also read and liked Gone Girl, pretty messed up book.

[killerleft]

I started and restarted a review about this book, which can be classified as a fairy tale for adults. But try as I might, there was very little that I could write that didn't seem like a spoiler in some way. So here's what I came up with:

This is an adult fairy tale. Jack London could have written it were he a fairy tale-believing-type of woman. The book can haunt you in a way that Stephen King could only dream of doing.

Jack and Mabel are a childless couple who move to Alaska in 1920 looking for a fresh start. They find that leaving behind a past that includes the loss of a stillborn child was a fantasy, and the cold, hard life they now lead has driven them to further despair. Then, after a rare light-hearted moment as the year's first snow falls, they build a snowgirl... and things change.

The book was inspired by a Russian folk tale called The Snow Girl, IIRC, and was Ms. Ivey's first novel. It is available on Kindle. I read it months ago and still find myself thinking about it. Currently I have been re-reading a chapter or two at a time in between other titles.

[TruBlu]

I would suggest going to the UNC library and checking out some of their latest additions. If you hurry, you might find one or two that haven't been colored in yet.

[Olympic Fan]

For those who would prefer some meatier fare, the third volume of William Manchester's The Last Lion is out. It was finished by journalist Pail Reid after Manchester's death. I'm just getting started -- before reading this third volume, I went back and re-read the first two. Outstanding popular biography of Winston Churchill.

And it's not out yet, but before we hit the beach this summer, the third volume of Rick Atkinson's Liberation trilogy -- The Guns of Last Light -- will be released in May. The first two volumes (about the US Army in North Africa and the Army in Italy) have been outstanding. This one covers the army in France.

I've also been reading Eric Froner's The Fiery Trial -- The 2011 Pulitzer Prize winner is out in paperback. Fascinating study of the evolution of Abraham Lincoln's view of slavery.

I can also strongly recommend The Pointblank Directive by Douglas Keeney, one of the best books about the air war over Europe that I've ever read.

And it's a little older, but The Shattered Sword -- a major re-evaluation of the events at Midway, based on long-suppressed Japanese sources -- by Jonathan Paschal and Anthony Tully is a must read for any World War II fanatic.

On a slightly different note ... I just finished Glenn Frankel's The Searchers, which explores the reality behind the story that became John Ford's greatest film -- the true story of Cynthia Ann Parker, who was abducted by Comanches at age 9 in 1936, ended up married to her abductor and bearing him three children -- one of whom became the richest and most successful Indian in turn-of-the-century America. It's a quite different story that the Alan Lemay novel that became the John Ford film.

My strongest recommendation ...

[Bob Green]

And it's a little older, but The Shattered Sword -- a major re-evaluation of the events at Midway, based on long-suppressed Japanese sources -- by Jonathan Paschal and Anthony Tully is a must read for any World War II fanatic.

Thanks! This just went to the top of my must locate and read list.

[Olympic Fan]

Thanks! This just went to the top of my must locate and read list.

Bob,

If you are really into this stuff ... have you read John Lundstrum's work?

His "The First Team" is an incredibly detailed (almost flight by flight) account of the naval air war from Pearl Harbor to Midway. He followed up with "The First Team at Guadalcanal" which continued his analysis through that campaign. His latest is a biography of Frank Jack Fletcher titled "Black Shoe Admiral" which attempts to rehabilitate (with mixed success) the much maligned commander of so0 many early war battles in the Pacific.

I would argue that Lundstrum's books (as well as The Shattered Sword") are written for professionals ... I wouldn't recommend them to casual readers.

[brevity]

Spring travels coming up, time to find some entertaining but not brain-draining reads for the beach and pool. Anyone recently read something great, or looking forward to picking something up?

I read a lot of dense non-fiction, so I was going to abstain, but after all this input from the War-Is-Hell crew, I figured anything's fair game.

Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief is a warts-and-all look at L. Ron Hubbard and the religion he founded, first in its near-piratic form and later with the help of lost Hollywood. It's unavoidably critical to Hubbard -- how does one build a legend in the rising age of diligent record keeping? -- but probably more fair than I expected. The narrative is structured around the defection of filmmaker Paul Haggis (Crash), who found it necessary to leave but isn't all that negative about what he left. Before I read this book I had little desire to see last year's movie The Master; now, I can't wait. (P.S. Yes, there's stuff about Cruise and Travolta.)

Behind the Kitchen Door examines the 19th century handling of 21st century cuisine in American restaurants. The author is a community organizer who addresses the needs of the usually unseen, usually minority restaurant workers who lack the leverage to get the work benefits (minimum wage, sick days, advancement) many of us in other industries take for granted. There's some interesting stuff about how tips to servers are shared with others, which is not as fair as you would expect. (Fully salaried employees can get a share, or worse, management takes a skim.) Of greater concern are the confessions of those who handled our food because they were unable to take a day off work and keep their job. (I did not know that Typhoid Mary herself was a food handler.) Given the author's perspective and agenda, it's meant to be biased and eye-opening. There are some progressive efforts, and of course a call for consumer education and involvement. There's a standard supportive quote from advance reviewer (and actor) Danny Glover, but he may as well have said, "I'm getting too old for eating out."

Accelerated is a novel about a fictional private school in NYC that systematically pressures parents to put their elementary schoolers on attention deficit medication. Sort of Big Pharma Prep. Some of it is plausible, which makes it disturbing. The protagonist is a father raising his 3rd grade son by himself, a bit of an outsider to the private school world, and bewildered by the attitude that boys need medication because they are viewed as "defective girls."

So yeah, light reading. I also read some college basketball stuff, but I thought I'd save that discussion for the Main Board in the offseason.

[fuse]

I recently read Swamplandia, swayed by it being a highly acclaimed book by a first time author.

I won't say it was a bad book, but it was not my cup of tea.

[OldPhiKap]

Appreciate all the feedback, lots of good stuff here!

[roywhite]

Thanks! This just went to the top of my must locate and read list.

Bob, have you tried the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child? There are 16 of them, though reading in order is not necessary.

Lots of action, bad guys getting smacked down, and the pages go by quickly. The hero has a military background which you might enjoy.

[moonpie23]

for one that you can't put down...


The Andromeda Strain

[Bob Green]

If you are really into this stuff ... have you read John Lundstrum's work?

I am really into it so I need to checkout Lundstrum.

[Bob Green]

Bob, have you tried the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child?

The challenge I would face reading the Jack Reacher series is getting the mental picture of Tom Cruise out of my mind. Isn't Reacher 6'5" in the books? Cruise is like 5'9".

[roywhite]

The challenge I would face reading the Jack Reacher series is getting the mental picture of Tom Cruise out of my mind. Isn't Reacher 6'5" in the books? Cruise is like 5'9".

Yeah, I thought that was a ridiculous casting choice. To be fair, Cruise did a decent job, and the movie was fairly true to the book.

If you start reading the series, it won't take you much time to appreciate further that the main character being 6'5" and 250# is a major part of his personna. Give one of the Reacher books a try ... bet you can't read just one.

[Tommac]

I've read all of Lee Child's books too. Great series. Even though Tom Cruise doesn't match up physically to Jack Reacher in the books, he did a decent job in the movie. Another great read along a similar topic is the Mitch Rapp series of books by Vince Flynn. I would start with his American Assassin and then go forward.