Book RecommendationsLoaded Gun Theory ramblingshttp://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/list/book.htmlCharlie Wilson's War, A Long Way Down, and The House of Sand and FogYes, I have THREE books to recommend.  It is amazing how much reading you can get done with you spend 8 hours a day with a baby attached to your boob and not much else to do other than read or watch tv.  So these are the books I've read in the last 3 and a half weeks:

Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile:  My father has been recommending this book to me for months now, saying it is the wildest, most amazing story.  And it's all true.  I got it for Christmas and was finally able to read it once Stella was born.  It is the story of Charlie Wilson, a US Congressman from East Texas who basically single-handedly gets the US neck deep into the Afghanistan-Soviet War of the 80's.  It is fascinating.  I feel like I can't even explain it well enough to do it justice, you'll just have to read it for yourself.  It's full of colorful characters, ranging from a River Oaks' socialite who becomes obsessed with the plight of the Afghani mujadeen and becomes an "Unofficial Ambassador" for the Pakistani president, to a middle-aged Fort Worth Belly Dancer, who dances for the Pakanstani president, at a gathering where the mere prescence of women is banned, much less the sexually suggestive gyrations of one that is nearly nude.  Really, go see it, before Tom Hanks turns it into a movie and ruins it (really it's his next after The DaVinci Code!)

A Long WAy Down by Nick Hornby:  The story of 4 people who converge on a famous suicide location in London on New Year's Eve, and forge an unlikely friendship.  The story is told from the perspective of each of the 4, alternating chapters, and it's very interesting and engrossing.  You'll find yourself really feeling their plight, despite the fact that most of them are completely assholes.  Great book that doesn't choose easy answers or easy endings.  Very realistic about life. 

The House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus:  Wow, this is one of the most amazing, best books I have ever read.  It is a train wreck of passionate, misguided people who come together because of their mutual desire for a single house in the California hills.  What their selfishness and obsession leads them to do is horrifying.  The story is also told from each one's point of view, alternating chapters, and it's hard to find a protagonist, or a villian.  Will keep you turning pages to the end, even as a sick feeling rises in your stomach. 

Now the question is just:  what do I read next?! 

]]>http://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/listpost/book/Charlie_Wilsons_War_A_Long_Way_Down_and_The_House_of_Sand_and_Fog.htmlJulie Recommends2006-04-21 18:12:52http://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/comment/book/Charlie_Wilsons_War_A_Long_Way_Down_and_The_House_of_Sand_and_Fog.htmlhttp://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/commentRss/book/Charlie_Wilsons_War_A_Long_Way_Down_and_The_House_of_Sand_and_Fog.xml0Stranger than Fictionhttp://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/listpost/book/Stranger_than_Fiction.htmlJulie Recommends2005-04-20 09:37:21http://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/comment/book/Stranger_than_Fiction.htmlhttp://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/commentRss/book/Stranger_than_Fiction.xml0A Confederacy of DuncesBy John Kennedy Toole.  This is a bizarre, epic comedy of a novel, led by the most disgusting protagonist you will ever hate.  Ignatius G. Reilly is hugely fat, belches, farts, lives with his mother at 32 and refuses to do anything but stay in his room all day and masterbate and write grand pronouncements.  Oh, and he regularly goes to the movies to yell at the screen about the "revolting abortions" that pass for cinema, while eating 3 or 4 popcorns and drinking one of his beloved Mr. Nuts.  The novel follows the misadventures that befall Ignatius when he is forced by his mother to get a job.  The setting is New Orleans and there is a crazy cast of characters that the novel manages to keep track of.  This novel was an incredibly fast read, the pages just turn themselves as you are continuously flabbergasted at the actions of everyone involved.  Apparently it was supposed to be made into a movie with Will Farrell, but plans were put on hold.   I can certainly see why.  If you had to watch this drama unfold on screen, much of it would be like a Farrelly Brother's gross-out fest.  But as a novel, your imagination can run wild setting up the scenes.  I highly recommend this book, it is original, funny and features some of the most unique and original characters in literature.  Plus, it has a tragic story associated with it.  John Kennedy Toole wrote the novel in the early 60's and then committed suicide in 1969 at the age of 32.  His mother found the manuscript and went through years of trying to get it published because it was so fantastic.  No one believed her, I mean, what mother wouldn't say their dead son's work was fantastic.  Luckily, someone finally read it, realized its genius and now we can all enjoy this Pulitzer Prize Winning work. 

]]>http://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/listpost/book/A_Confederacy_of_Dunces.htmlJulie Recommends2005-03-24 14:39:56http://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/comment/book/A_Confederacy_of_Dunces.htmlhttp://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/commentRss/book/A_Confederacy_of_Dunces.xml2Mother Nightby Kurt Vonnegut.  What goes on in the mind of a person who is known only to himself and one or two other people in the entire world, one of whom is the President?  Told in the first person by our "hero" Howard Campbell, he recounts his life as an American living in Germany, and his rise to prestige during WWII as one of the greatest Nazi propagandizers ever.  All this serves merely as his cover while he works as a spy for the Allies.  His cover is so complete, his Nazi act is so convincing, and his true actions are known to so very few people that he finds himself hunted as a war criminal during peacetime and revered by an oddball band of anti-semite activists.  All the while, Campbell keeps the truth to himself, seeming to enjoy the chaos that his wartime theatrics is creating around him.  I don't know much about Kurt Vonnegut's own mental state, but I will say that of any of the authors I read regularly (ie, more than one of their books), he is the one who I would say could tell such a schizophrenic tale from the first person omniscient with such excellent humor.  Highly recommended. 

]]>http://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/listpost/book/Mother_Night.htmlTravis Would Like You To Read2005-01-05 22:58:16http://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/comment/book/Mother_Night.htmlhttp://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/commentRss/book/Mother_Night.xml0Ender's GameThe Eternal Footman, which simply was not going to be enough to get me all the way through the flight back to Austin.  I'd been thinking about this book since I read in one of Brandon's posts that this was one of his favorite all-time sci-fi books, and since he's read more sci-fi than I ever will, I figured it was a worthy recommendation.  And oh was it ever.  I'll just say straight out, I loved this book.  I read about half of it on the plane on the way back.  Once home, I had my nose in it every free second I got.  If we were going to the store and Ashley needed to go to the bathroom real quick before leaving, I made sure to sneak in a few sentences.  I thought about it a lot while driving.  In short, this book became something of a mini obsession.  So what happens is: it's the future, which is sort of a given.  Aliens have attacked Earth twice already, nearly wiping us out like the vermin we are.  To prepare for the dreaded third invasion, the government develops a program to breed and groom military geniuses, the ultimate result of which is Ender, a sweet kid with a killer's instinct who simply does not lose, ever.  I hesitate to say "this is great sci-fi" since I don't read very much sci-fi, but I will say that this is an intense and jarring read.  Not to mention the fact that even though you can sometimes detect the book's cold-war era feel, what with numerous mentions of difficult relations with Mother Russia, the themes it brings up (and there are many) are still relevant and will be until aliens actually do come and wipe us out...and now that I think about it, it'll be relevant after that too.  Read this book.  Then we talk.  ]]>http://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/listpost/book/Enders_Game.htmlTravis Would Like You To Read2004-09-06 19:46:04http://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/comment/book/Enders_Game.htmlhttp://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/commentRss/book/Enders_Game.xml0