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

[vejas]

Wow, Chris, that's great that you can read so much in that time.
I wanted to let you know, Chris, that I was downloading back 
issues of Slate and Style for my reading pleasure, and yesterday 
I read your story "The Braillist." It was one of my favorites, if 
not my favorite.  Keep up the good work.  By the way, I also like 
spicy, and two Christmases ago received Dave's Insanity Sauce.  
But my parents said the warning label had something about how 
people with back/heart problems it could hurt their systems, 
which
scared me and I think I threw it out right then.  I would not 
ever have thought of that brownie idea, but Lenny, Dylan and 
Oscar really deserved it, and their reaction was quite funny.
Happy New Year,
Vejas

 ----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Kuell" <ckuell at comcast.net
To: <stylist at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Sun, 1 Jan 2012 20:06:43 -0500
Subject: [stylist] what I've been reading...

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.


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