[stylist] what I've been reading...

[Chris Kuell]

A month or so ago it was suggested we write book reviews, but I didn't notice much interest in the group. However, I will share a little about what I've read in the last 6 weeks.



chris



Books read since  November 15:



The Reversal by Michael Connelly  (2010)

The latest in the Harry Bosch series, I think the main purpose of this novel was to make Harry's half-brother, Mickey Haller, a defense attorney, more prominent. It sets up the next Bosch novel, and perhaps a series for the brother? 

 

Sixty-One Hours by Lee Child  (2010)

Perhaps the best of the Jack Reacher novels. It's an action packed adventure about a Mexican drug lord, tons of methamphetamine and a small town police force in South Dakota.

 

The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris (2010)

Ferris's writing is terse and takes a little getting used to, but once you do, you'll be drawn into this gut-wrenching novel about a man's attempt to deal with mental illness. He loses his job, his wife and daughter, but still does the best he can.

 

Working in the Shadows: A Year Doing the Jobs Most American's Won't do by Gabriel Thompson  (2010)

An excellent non-fiction book, the writer goes 'undercover' working in a lettuce field, in a chicken processing plant and at various crappy jobs in NYC, and experiences how immigrants are treated and paid (or often, not).

 

Scorpion in the Sea by P.T.Deutermann   (1992)

A Naval based action-adventure novel, I'll give it a 3 out of 5.

 

In Our Nature: Stories of Wildness edited by Donna Seaman  (2000)

A series of short stories that loosely deal with nature-the great outdoors, our sexual nature, our power struggles, etc.

 

Rogue Warrior: Green Team by Richard Marshenko and John Weissman  (1995)

Marshenko was a navy seal, and is narcissistic enough to write novels based on himself as the baddest bad-ass of them all. What's really interesting about this particular book are his views on Islamic fundamentalists and his predictions of the terrorist havoc they would unleash across the globe.

  

The Good Soldiers by David Finkle  (2009)

This Pulitzer-prize winner spends 14 months with a group of soldiers during the 2007 'surge' in Iraq. Unlike the previous Marshenko novel, where war is glorified, this is bone-chilling, horrible, and real. He describes real men (boys? The age of the average American soldier is 20) being maimed and/or killed in what are essentially useless battles in Iraq. After a year of fighting, trying to rebuild a destroyed city's sewer, power and water systems-Iraqi insurgents blow it all up so they are back at point 0.

 

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger (1961)

A very interesting novella, this originally was published as 2 short stories in the New Yorker in the late 50s. Franny is a disillusioned college girl, and Zooey is her older brother trying to set her straight regarding the 'Jesus prayer'.

   

The Best American Science Writing 2010, edited by Jerome Groopman

These articles, which were primarily medical in nature, were quite fascinating, if a touch dated. I took notes on 2 of the pieces as research information for future stories some day.

 

Rizzo's War by Lou Manfredo  (2009)

A former Brooklyn cop writing a story about. Brooklyn cops. And corruption and walking the fine line of what's right, what's wrong, and what just is.

 

The Trial by Franz Kafka  (1925)

Kafka asked that all of his work be burned after his death, and to be honest, I think I can see why. I know this is a critically acclaimed novel, it's been made into a movie 3 times, but I found it strange, not very interesting, and except for it being a bizarre statement about Prague's judicial system in the early 20th century, I don't much get the point.

 

The Best American Short Stories 2010, edited by Richard Russo

This is a fantastic series, and I thoroughly enjoyed each of the 20 or so stories in this anthology. For the Choice Magazine readers out there, 3 stories in this anthology will be familiar.