General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I need everyone's help again with a book list. This one is Top 5 books you've read. [View all]jmowreader
(50,555 posts)First is the somber stuff
A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan. If you want to understand the debacle that was Vietnam, read this.
Slow Burn by Orrin DeForest. If you want to understand the debacles that were Iraq and Afghanistan, read this book about Vietnam.
It Can't Happen Here.
The Jungle.
Brave New World
Now for some fun:
I really liked Tales of the Jazz Age by Fitzgerald. It's a collection of short stories, one of which is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Wind in the Willows is a cute book. You've got to disregard the thought "how are unemployed animals paying for all this?" because you start to imagine mole porn and water rat drug rings...
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a gripping tale of survival against insurmountable odds, namely the need to do $300 worth of drugs (in a time when drugs were reasonably priced) in one weekend and live to tell the tale. "Your Honor, I would like to direct the court's attention to Prosecution Exhibits A thru N, an incredible collection of narcotics the state lab testifies are sufficient to kill an entire platoon of United States Marines." His tale of the District Attorney's collection was better: he was in a room with three hundred narcs none of whom could tell he was stoned.
The Road to Wellville by Coraghessian Boyle serves two functions: it's both a fictionalized account of the Battle Creek Sanitarium (if you go to Battle Creek, which I have about six times, you can see the building John Harvey Kellogg built, as he chose the top of a low hill as his location.) and a story of struggle against authority. People paid huge money to go for a cure in a place that required giving up meat, coffee, food with flavor, sex, tobacco and alcohol then spent all their spare time trying to do all the shit Kellogg didn't want you doing anyway. Also discussed some of the more entertaining crackpot theories of the day, such as therapeutic female masturbation...which, incidentally, does work: three to six orgasms a day will keep the doctor wondering why your health is getting so much better.
And because we need five...The Untouchables by Eliot Ness is a great true crime book. Kevin Costner should be beaten severely for the movie he made, which was good but was nothing like the real story.