Hot Fudge Book Club

[Ya Mar]

Seasons in Hell by Mike Schropshire.

The Worst Team in Baseball History 1973-1975 Texas Rangers.

David Clyde? Toby Harrah? Jeff Burroughs (1974 MVP, no?)? Alex Johnson? Jim Fregosi? Jim spencer? Lenny Randle? a young Bill Madlock? Jim Bibby? Steve Foucalt? I could go on, but I won't.

How could that be the worst team in baseball? If I recall, they were the worst team, then hired Billy Martin had a great year, then fired Billy Martin and became shitty again.

Or something like that.

I must pick that up.

[chad sexington]

Right on......throw in some Pete Broberg and a dash Jim Merritt and you're rolling. You can grab it used on Amazon for pretty cheap....you'll love it.

[David Hall]

Nevaeh's mom is about as sympathetic as Mrs. Lamb in Bonfire of the Vanities.

You found Mrs. Lamb to be unsympathetic?

She did want the $$$, but it was Bacon who was pulling those strings.

[Woodwards Friend]

Nevaeh's mom is about as sympathetic as Mrs. Lamb in Bonfire of the Vanities.

You found Mrs. Lamb to be unsympathetic?

She did want the $$$, but it was Bacon who was pulling those strings.

Yes as the novel moved along, it was less about her "honor student" son and more about her payday.

[guest]

I brought a David Sedaris book home from the library yesterday after seeing his name on a New York Times bestsellers list. There are worse ways to pick something to read.

I have heard him reading on This American Life and, honestly, his whispy/lispy voice was funny enough but when faced with the dry words in front of me I thought "this is painful, I can't read this shit" but I persevered and by the second or third story I was hearing it in his voice and it is hilarious. I'm about 70 pages into it now.

[MICHIGAN]

I brought a David Sedaris book home from the library yesterday after seeing his name on a New York Times bestsellers list. There are worse ways to pick something to read.

I have heard him reading on This American Life and, honestly, his whispy/lispy voice was funny enough but when faced with the dry words in front of me I thought "this is painful, I can't read this shit" but I persevered and by the second or third story I was hearing it in his voice and it is hilarious. I'm about 70 pages into it now.

Which are you reading? Some are much funnier than others.

[guest]

I brought a David Sedaris book home from the library yesterday after seeing his name on a New York Times bestsellers list. There are worse ways to pick something to read.

I have heard him reading on This American Life and, honestly, his whispy/lispy voice was funny enough but when faced with the dry words in front of me I thought "this is painful, I can't read this shit" but I persevered and by the second or third story I was hearing it in his voice and it is hilarious. I'm about 70 pages into it now.

Which are you reading? Some are much funnier than others.

It's called When You Are Engulfed in Flames. I heard him on the radio or TV explaining that the title was lifted from a Japanese hotel emergency instruction pamphlet. I think it's fairly recent as far as these things go. DPL doesn't have Me Talk Pretty One Day, which is the only other title I could quote you. Apparently all of his books go to the top of the NYT's list.

I've been reading more since Comcast figured out I don't have an account with them and I guess things are okay at work because they haven't called in panic the last two days. I'll finish this in a couple of days if it continues like this.

[MICHIGAN]

Me Talk Pretty One Day and Dress Your Family In Corduroy are , in my opinion, funnier. Ms. Michigan has When You Are Engulfed In Flames, but I can't muster the desire to read it.

[guest]

Me Talk Pretty One Day and Dress Your Family In Corduroy are , in my opinion, funnier. Ms. Michigan has When You Are Engulfed In Flames, but I can't muster the desire to read it.

DPL has Family in Corduroy. I think I saw Me Talk Pretty listed in a spoken version. I found it interesting that When Engulfed was in the social sciences collection.

[David Hall]

Can't wait to read this one.

[Ya Mar]

Can't wait to read this one.

Please cross-post to "danny or not danny" thread

[David Hall]

Can't wait to read this one.

Please cross-post to "danny or not danny" thread

There's actually a blunt, Holden Caufieldesque sentence hiding in there:

"Its also on the water and its real close to the cape and she really decks the place out."

[Ya Mar]

Can't wait to read this one.

Please cross-post to "danny or not danny" thread

There's actually a blunt, Holden Caufieldesque sentence hiding in there:

"Its also on the water and its real close to the cape and she really decks the place out."

I am sorry I missed that, my eyes went right to this:

now david was not always a teacher he use to work for the government for U.F.O research

[jmy]

The Worst Hard Times: Very informative and readable history of the Dust Bowl. Surprisingly relevant. Settlers given free land to displace Native Americans, settlers plow up prairie and plant wheat, drought kills wheat, top soil blows away, the end. A couple of interesting tidbits are that Germans moved to Russia under Catherine the Great and then moved to Nebraska and thereabouts when Russia started wanting taxes and military service. And FDR had 22 million trees planted in rows from North Dakota to. . . Northern Texas but contour plowing stopped the dirt from blowing away.

Since it's summer, I'm also on a mass-market kick.

The Strain: Vampires. Shades of Salem's Lot, maybe the first vampire book I ever read and, in that sense, this book is awfully creepy at times. Also a bit of I am Legend and House thrown in, so. . . kind of a schlocky re-tread. (As if vampire books aren't schlocky re-treads, but they don't have to be. Cf. Fledgling) Not a bad book, but unpolished and not very finely tuned. The ending is a mess. It's a strange artifact, written by Guillermo del Toro (and some other guy), so it very much seems like a book created out of a storyboard for a movie. The influence of Pan's Labrinth is clear.

Dead Before Dawn: True Blood is one of the top shows in this country? Okay. This is the book on which the show is based. It's alright, kind of amateurish and very, very slow in places. More romantic interest. But it's still enjoyable for a couple hours.

[Woodwards Friend]

I'm about 80 pages into The Human Stain by Philip Roth. It's very good. I read American Pastoral earlier this year. Also very good but one expects that from a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. I think reading my way through the Roth catalogue is my new long-term literary project.