American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, 1880-1964
A fantastic read, gives you some insight into the goings on of MacArthur.
ProbAbly pick up his memoirs next if I can find them with relative ease.
What was the last book you read?
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Cyrus Tegyr
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Re: What was the last book you read?
The black market was a way of getting around government controls. It was a way of enabling the free market to work. It was a way of opening up, enabling people. - Milton Friedman
Re: What was the last book you read?
I recently read Hollywood Babylon. It's a classic dirt-digging book "without any redeeming qualities". I'm not sure if I would actually recommend this book to anyone, but uh... I suppose it's quite interesting in the sense that when you read about all these sordid actors and their scandalous affairs you realize that the Hays code and the overall moral panic concerning the American film industry was not only about what happened in the movies but what took place in the backstage. Light and entertaining.
Re: What was the last book you read?
More bumps!
I just finished Eiji Yoshikawa's Musashi.
I'd say it was the most enjoyable historical fiction novel I've read so far. Not the best, the most enjoyable. Musashi is just such a nonchalant badass that you can't help but to enjoy his travels and undertakings. There were so many awesome did-dis-dude-just-did-dis" moments which made me nod in approval like aw yiss. Okay, some plotlines were somewhat predictable and Musashi seemed to get betrayed at least a dozen times in the course of the book, but I don't even care, watching him wiggle away from all the sticky situations was great.
I really like Feudal Japan as a setting for a story like this. Samurai schools struggling for fame, strict honor code, volatile political situation, cool mysterious monks, wandering ronins searching for fortune... It's like... I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was. To learn the sword is my real test, bushido is my cause. I will travel across the land, searching far and wide... but you know, with fewer pokemans and more beheadings.
The larger-than-life love subplot made me puke butterflies and rainbows but it felt kind of appropriate for a romanticized hero saga like this. And besides, it was hilarious to witness a tough-ass samurai, content to die in a battle, being all awkward and struggle with the girl issue and mostly run away from it all. I mean shit, girls are pretty scary so I can't really hold it against him.
The one thing that bothered me was how all the characters always kept bumping into each other at most opportune or inopportune moments, and everyone seemed to be related to one another somehow. It's Japan though, and who really knows what's been going on in there and how likely miraculous coincidences are.
Oh and the ending is the shit.
I just finished Eiji Yoshikawa's Musashi.
I'd say it was the most enjoyable historical fiction novel I've read so far. Not the best, the most enjoyable. Musashi is just such a nonchalant badass that you can't help but to enjoy his travels and undertakings. There were so many awesome did-dis-dude-just-did-dis" moments which made me nod in approval like aw yiss. Okay, some plotlines were somewhat predictable and Musashi seemed to get betrayed at least a dozen times in the course of the book, but I don't even care, watching him wiggle away from all the sticky situations was great.
I really like Feudal Japan as a setting for a story like this. Samurai schools struggling for fame, strict honor code, volatile political situation, cool mysterious monks, wandering ronins searching for fortune... It's like... I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was. To learn the sword is my real test, bushido is my cause. I will travel across the land, searching far and wide... but you know, with fewer pokemans and more beheadings.
The larger-than-life love subplot made me puke butterflies and rainbows but it felt kind of appropriate for a romanticized hero saga like this. And besides, it was hilarious to witness a tough-ass samurai, content to die in a battle, being all awkward and struggle with the girl issue and mostly run away from it all. I mean shit, girls are pretty scary so I can't really hold it against him.
The one thing that bothered me was how all the characters always kept bumping into each other at most opportune or inopportune moments, and everyone seemed to be related to one another somehow. It's Japan though, and who really knows what's been going on in there and how likely miraculous coincidences are.
Oh and the ending is the shit.
I read Romain Sardou's Forgive us our sins.
It was a pretty chilling historical mystery novel about a creepy village and its secrets. Pretty fast paced. Verging on rather apocalyptic events and yet, miraculously, retaining credibility. I only cringed once when the author (or the translator? - I didn't read this in French) casually referred to the entirely fictional Necronomicon when describing certain eerie grimoires. It felt really out of place, but other than that I was so immersed and pleasantly spooked that I couldn't put the book down. Read it in one night. The book is partly based on a true story. The mixture of actual historical evidence and imaginative fiction was quite riveting.
It was a pretty chilling historical mystery novel about a creepy village and its secrets. Pretty fast paced. Verging on rather apocalyptic events and yet, miraculously, retaining credibility. I only cringed once when the author (or the translator? - I didn't read this in French) casually referred to the entirely fictional Necronomicon when describing certain eerie grimoires. It felt really out of place, but other than that I was so immersed and pleasantly spooked that I couldn't put the book down. Read it in one night. The book is partly based on a true story. The mixture of actual historical evidence and imaginative fiction was quite riveting.
Re: What was the last book you read?
The Reconnection by Eric Pearl.
