Book of the Month - Merged

I'm about half way through already and I read slowly, this seems to be a pretty short book.

The book is incredibly short. Read it in 2 hours at work. That said, it's really great and if you think it's a soap opera lifetime movie thing, you're wrong. In fact, it's a pretty amazing piece for those of us in the low 30's. Since it was written in 98 and set in 92 you can see all the foreshadowing and callbacks Perrotta is using with clear eyes.

Yeah I finished it last week on the day I was saying how short it was. Really, really short. It's the 7th so no need for spoilers of the content.

I liked it, I think I liked the ambiguous ending of the book better than I liked the ambiguous ending of the movie. It has been a while since I have seen the movie, so I don't really remember a lot of details. Like, I don't remember Tammy being that fleshed out. The ending of her arc was pretty much perfect. I don't really get the 92 symbolism but I don't know much about the election so I guess I wouldn't. This was much better than The Leftovers, I thought, although I could definitely tell they were by the same author.

I think we may go with Grim's sports theme idea for next month, seems like a topic that can be varied and focused at the same time.

Ordered this today. Hopefully will finish it this weekend.

chaos_sl said:

All those issues aside, I can see this making a good series for HBO. Imagine this done Six Feet Under style with flashbacks to before the rapture and after to juxtapose the societal mood change that happens. It could be good in that format. And with a better writer.

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Posting here, as I don't want to spoil the show for people. You were pretty much right on the money with the flashbacks, they are definitely using them in the tv show.

What worries me about the tv show is they seem to be adding some mystical angle to the thing. The dad having visions, his father saying they are sending someone to help him, the dogs going crazy. Was any of that in the book? I don't remember that stuff.

The dogs thing was in the book, I haven't seen the show yet so I am not sure about the other stuff though. I can't remember any visions or anything like that.

Read it last night. The parts that were in the movie didn't come off as funny as there, but everything post controversy where it varies a lot and you get so much insight in to who the characters really are was outstanding. At the end of the movie you don't really care about the characters, so much more of it was played for laughs. Plus it's not like they can really get in the characters heads like the book. By the end of the book you don't really dislike any of them or view them as these sort of caricatures. Each one of them is explained and you can sympathize with them completely. I get that it wouldn't work on screen, but I absolutely loved how it was handled in the book. Everything felt a lot more hopeful and I kind of wanted everyone to succeed going forward. Kind of bummed Mr. M didn't go back to talk to Lisa at the ice cream place though.

2 days left until the poll for August goes up. Did anyone else read it?

I liked it and I am thinking of looking into this guy's other work.

Yea, it's better than the movie by far.

If you like that theme, About a Boy is also a book, but the movie adaptation is quite good. A lot of that guy's material has been made into film.

Theme: Sports stories. I tried to pick sports stories that seemed interesting and varied while staying on the theme.

Poll runs for 7 days, reading begins on August 1st.

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Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and a Dream by H.G. Bissinger



Return once again to the timeless account of the Permian Panthers of Odessa--the winningest high-school football team in Texas history. Odessa is not known to be a town big on dreams, but the Panthers help keep the hopes and dreams of this small, dusty town going. Socially and racially divided, its fragile economy follows the treacherous boom-bust path of the oil business. In bad times, the unemployment rate barrels out of control; in good times, its murder rate skyrockets. But every Friday night from September to December, when the Permian High School Panthers play football, this West Texas town becomes a place where dreams can come true. With frankness and compassion, H. G. Bissinger chronicles a season in the life of Odessa and shows how single-minded devotion to the team shapes the community and inspires--and sometimes shatters--the teenagers who wear the Panthers' uniforms.

The Damned Utd: A Novel by David Peace



This is the hugely acclaimed novel of '70s football and the turmoil of the game's most charismatic and controversial manager, from the bestselling author of GB84 and Red or Dead. In 1974 the brilliant and controversial Brian Clough made perhaps his most eccentric decision: he accepted the position of Leeds United manager. A successor to Don Revie, his bitter adversary, Clough was to last just 44 days. In one of the most acclaimed British novels of recent years - subsequently made into a film starring Michael Sheen - David Peace takes us into the mind and thoughts of Ol' Big 'Ead himself, and brings vividly to life one of football's most complex and fascinating characters.

Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby



Nick Hornby has been a soccer fan since the moment he was conceived. Fever Pitch is his tribute to a lifelong obsession. Part autobiography, part comedy, part incisive analysis of insanity, Hornby's award-winning memoir captures the fever pitch of fandom?its agony and ecstasy, its community, its defining role in thousands of young men's coming of age stories. Fever Pitch is one for the home team. But above all, it is one for everyone who knows what it really means to have a losing season.

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis



"I wrote this book because I fell in love with a story. The story concerned a small group of undervalued professional baseball players and executives, many of whom had been rejected as unfit for the big leagues, who had turned themselves into one of the most successful franchises in Major League Baseball. But the idea for the book came well before I had good reason to write it?before I had a story to fall in love with. It began, really, with an innocent question: how did one of the poorest teams in baseball, the Oakland Athletics, win so many games?"

With these words Michael Lewis launches us into the funniest, smartest, and most contrarian book since, well, since Liar's Poker. Moneyball is a quest for something as elusive as the Holy Grail, something that money apparently can't buy: the secret of success in baseball. The logical places to look would be the front offices of major league teams, and the dugouts, perhaps even in the minds of the players themselves. Lewis mines all these possibilities?his intimate and original portraits of big league ballplayers are alone worth the price of admission?but the real jackpot is a cache of numbers?numbers!?collected over the years by a strange brotherhood of amateur baseball enthusiasts: software engineers, statisticians, Wall Street analysts, lawyers and physics professors.

Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series by Eliot Asinof



The headlines proclaimed the 1919 fix of the World Series and attempted cover-up as "the most gigantic sporting swindle in the history of America!" First published in 1963, Eight Men Out has become a timeless classic. Eliot Asinof has reconstructed the entire scene-by-scene story of the fantastic scandal in which eight Chicago White Sox players arranged with the nation's leading gamblers to throw the Series in Cincinnati. Mr. Asinof vividly describes the tense meetings, the hitches in the conniving, the actual plays in which the Series was thrown, the Grand Jury indictment, and the famous 1921 trial. Moving behind the scenes, he perceptively examines the motives and backgrounds of the players and the conditions that made the improbable fix all too possible. Here, too, is a graphic picture of the American underworld that managed the fix, the deeply shocked newspapermen who uncovered the story, and the war-exhausted nation that turned with relief and pride to the Series, only to be rocked by the scandal. Far more than a superbly told baseball story, this is a compelling slice of American history in the aftermath of World War I and at the cusp of the Roaring Twenties.

Next month I want to do new releases (probably meaning released in 2014) and then the following another theme then a month of runner ups. Keep the suggestions for themes coming please.

About 24 hours left on the poll. I haven't looked for the books online yet but I am sure they are out there. I will try when I get home tonight.

As always, please give feedback (good or bad) about the books, theme choice, whatever.

Well, as far as feedback, I think you have done a great job picking themes and books. Unfortunately, I seem to have a different taste than what is winning each month, so it is tempting me to just read a book you selected, just not the winner.

Theme was my suggestion and I still have zero interest in any of these books=P Maybe I'll finally read this book and pretend it was a choice=P

The Ones Who Hit the Hardest: The Steelers, the Cowboys, the '70s, and the Fight for America's Soul by Chad Millman - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

I'm not really a sports guy anymore so I tried to pick a wide variety. The Damned Utd was really my pick just because I loved the movie, but I decided not to vote in any of these except as maybe a tie breaker.

But from the synopsis, all of the books seem good and get good reviews. The book that is winning is actually the one I was least interested in, but I like Boardwalk Empire a lot so I will give it a shot.

Do you get a lot of splinters up there on your cross?

Alright ladies, you're both pretty.

The vote is tied up so if you have any interest at all and haven't voted, please do. I don't want to have to tie break it.

Poll closes in three hours and it is still tied. My last bit of encouragement here.