OT - Books

[nuwildcat]

I'm about 2/3 through John Wooley's Wes Craven: The man and his nightmares


- fascinating read for anyone who likes Craven or the horror genre in general


- the details surrounding A Nightmare on Elm Street were particularly thorough and I'd imagine the Scream franchise will be given just as exhaustive a treatment when I get to it


btw, here are a few Wes Craven fun facts that may come in handy if you're ever on Jeopardy!


- he was born and raised in Cleveland (O-H!)

- he went to Wheaton College for undergrad and Johns Hopkins for his master's degree


- his 2nd marriage to Mimi ended when she reportedly had an affair with .... Sharon Stone (yep, that Sharon Stone)  ???

[betarhoalphadelta]

- he went to Wheaton College for undergrad and Johns Hopkins for his master's degree

Yeah, that'd cause nightmares lol...

(I grew up in Wheaton)

[Geolion91]

For anyone that enjoys WWII books, these true stories by Adam Makos are pretty good.  I've read both "A Higher Call" and "Devotion"  "Devotion" is really about the Korean War, rather than WWII, but it isn't really about the war, anyway.

http://adammakos.com/books.html

[nuwildcat]

Yeah, that'd cause nightmares lol...

(I grew up in Wheaton)

Craven apparently wasn't crazy about Wheaton either

- along that line, IIRC (from an early chapter) he self-published an anti-religion magazine / pamphlet that was distributed on campus .... which the powers-that-be @ the Christian institution promptly banned 

[CatsbyAZ]

Reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls - an excellent memoir of her nomadic upbringing through ups and downs of Battle Mountain NV, Phoenix AZ, Welch WV, and eventually New York NY. Her parents irresponsibility, especially her Dad's runaway alcoholism, can be unsettling to read; I hear the movie for this book came out this year.

[PSUinNC]

"Discover Your True North", a book on leadership. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

I think I said this on the old board, but if you're into sci-fi, there are two series that I've read recently that are REALLY good.

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson


Both links are book one of their respective trilogies.

[medinabuckeye1]

I recently finished Retreat from Gettysburg by Kent Masterson Brown. 


I thought it was fascinating but I need to insert a warning here.  It is basically a book about logistics and there are a LOT of details in this book.  If you want to know everything there is to know about Lee's Retreat from Gettysburg and Meade's pursuit of same, read this book.  If you want a light introduction to the subject, this book is NOT for you. 


I was mostly interested in Meade's pursuit of Lee's army after the battle because many people, starting with President Lincoln, have criticized Meade for failing to crush or capture Lee's entire army.  This book made clear to me that this is not as valid of a criticism as I once thought.  In fact, Meade had many of the same problems that Lee had.  Mead's army had suffered harrowing losses at Gettysburg and was low on supplies of everything (food, ammunition, shoes, etc).  Additionally, Lee handled the retreat skillfully and made it very difficult for Meade to determine his intentions let alone foil them. 

[847badgerfan]

At least Wheaton is no longer dry...

I'm still reading/cooking my way through  Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child.

I remember that one movie when that chick made it through that book in 2 hours or something. Bitch. I can't cook that fast.

[MrNubbz]

I was mostly interested in Meade's pursuit of Lee's army after the battle because many people, starting with President Lincoln, have criticized Meade for failing to crush or capture Lee's entire army.  This book made clear to me that this is not as valid of a criticism as I once thought.  In fact, Meade had many of the same problems that Lee had.  Mead's army had suffered harrowing losses at Gettysburg and was low on supplies of everything (food, ammunition, shoes, etc).  Additionally, Lee handled the retreat skillfully and made it very difficult for Meade to determine his intentions let alone foil them. 

Exactly Lincoln watched as McClellan/Burnside/Hooker had almost lost the war.Meade was a topographical engineer who agreed with his subordinates that Cemetery Ridge was an ideal spot to dig in.Gettysburg was 3 horrific days not one.Calling his generals out was one thing.Chastising Meade after Gettyburg was one of the very few bonehead moves by Lincoln.It didn't help that the biggest lying A-Hole of them all - Dan Sickles got most of his brigade killed/wounded by ignoring orders.He was a political appointee and no field soldier.After getting his leg blown off he returned to D.C. and started spreading all kinds of falsehoods.How he(Sickles) was a major player in the victory(bullshit)I read that a month earlier he tried claiming his unit killed Stonewall Jackson(total bullshit).Before the war he was acquitted after using temporary insanity as a legal defense for the first time in United States history.He killed his wife's lover as I recall was the son of Francis Scott Key

[MrNubbz]

I just finished - We Who are Alive & Remain:untold stories from the Band Of Brothers.Basically 23 contributions from soldiers who where left out of Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers & the HBO Documentary mini -series.Fairly interesting with different perspectives on war in the ETO in WWII from one of the premier fighting units

[MarqHusker]

As an aside, the Civil War suffers from recency bias in the face of WW II, when it comes to contemporary comprehension.  Nothing can really be done about that, given the advantages WW II has over the Civil War.  The fact that we still have veterans,  not to mention documentation out the wazoo in the form of video, audio and other media.

That isn't to say the Civil War (its history) is w/o its supporters, on the contrary,  it is unbelievable the volume of material which exists which chronicles nearly every conceivable angle of the war.   I just find the war underappreciated in a general sense for how destructive and life altering it was for our country.

[EastAthens]

I would say the South has suffered from losing that war and 75% of Southern wealth until this day.  After Jim Crow was finally, at long last lifted, and the South started using our entire population, instead of using 55% to hold down 45%,  the South started to prosper but we still are low on the numbers we should be high on, like college graduates. and high on numbers we should be  low on, like poverty rates, high school drop-out rates, etc.


Actually it was  not the war that caused this, it was slavery itself. There was no capacity to absorb several million poor, uneducated people into our system.

[847badgerfan]

Anyone ever been to the Carnton house in Franklin?