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Books - What I've Been Reading

In May I posted about the most current bookstack. Four of those five books have been read.


Homicidebook I became a huge fan of The Wire last summer when I finally watched all five seasons on DVD. I got Kurt hooked too and we couldn't get enough. "The Farmer In The Dell" will never be the same. (And I don't think we'll be able to sing it to Sweet Potato without someone saying "Omar comin'!!" at some point.) (Just watch the show if you have no idea what I'm talking about.) I was going to rent "Homicide" as well, but decided to go to the source and read David Simon's book from which both shows were inspired.

Reading about one group of homicide detectives in Baltimore in the late 80's is incredibly fascinating thanks to Simon's writing style. You become so invested in every interview, every crime scene visit, every phone call. There are cases that take days to solve and cases that take months and some that never will be solved. The access and detail that Mr. Simon was privy to is amazing and I couldn't recommend a book more highly. And just go watch The Wire.

ICE-T Ice T spent plenty of time on the streets in LA before his rap career really took off. I knew he was one of the original big time rappers but only really knew him through his work on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. (I never listened to rap, but loved me some hip-hop with Run-DMC.) I was curious and I was not disappointed.

You probably have a lot of assumptions about an Original Gangsta like Ice, but you'll be wrong. He was not an innocent but did you know he spent four years in the army? That he never drank or did drugs? He worked his ass off to create a name for himself in the rap world and was the first west coast rapper to really make it on the east coast. That is a big deal.

Ice will surprise and entertain you and might just open your eyes a bit.

 

TheLonelyPolygamistCover - Amazon The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall is a quirky novel about a man with four wives and something like 28 (can't recall exactly) children. It's odd and sweet and sad and wild. It took me a while to get rolling with it, but once I did, I enjoyed it.

The funny thing is that it is a period piece, taking place in the 70's in Nevada with flashes back to the atomic testing period of the late 50's and 60's. Little did I realize I would be diving right into that with my next book.

 

 

 

 

Area-51-Annie-Jacobsen

I saw Annie Jacobson on The Daily Show talking about her new book of non-fiction, Area 51. Being a fan of pop-culture and someone who "wants to believe" I thought I would check it out. I just finished it last night and was amazed at her final reveal about the Roswell Incident. No spoilers here, but if you are at all curious about that kind of thing, this is a fascinating read. It might get your conspiracy juices flowing because man, the secrets this country keeps!

The book focuses mainly on nuclear testing (mind blowing stories and information about the size of the bombs tested and how close people were to observe, some flying right through the mushroom clouds as part of the testing!) and spy planes.

Area 51 was the place were the development and testing of the U-2 and the A-12 Oxcart (sister aircraft to the SR-71 Blackbird) were handled. And later it was used to test drones and to study MiG fighters that had been captured.

So much about the place is still classified but through interviews and recently declassified documents, Ms. Jacobson tells an amazing story about a place in the Nevada desert that still doesn't officially exist.

 

Reading is fundemental!

 

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