CSPAM Book club for book matters and also reading!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > CSPAM Book club for book matters and also reading!

Captain_Maclaine: Sep 30, 2001

I suggest Drew Gilpin Faust's This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War because I'm a morbid historian and it's awesome.

Slightly more seriously, it's an engagingly written examination of how the Civil War changed forever America's relationship with death and dying, as well as attendant social and cultural issues like faith in a just afterlife and the importance of body recovery/burial, challenging the Victorian distinction of the "Good Death vs Bad Death." It's a bit shy of 300 pages but isn't a difficult read at all (though given the subject material it does get a bit heavy at times) and all you bastards should go read it.

eonwe posted:

Also - All Quiet on the Western Front

Basically this is a novel set in World War 1 from the perspective of some frontline German soldiers. Though I'm pretty sure 'ONE' by Metallica wasn't written based on this book, its got a lot of the same themes. Shits hosed yall.

"One" is in fact based on Johnny Got His Gun, by Dalton Trumbo. :eng101:

# ¿ Apr 15, 2017 22:59

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 17:58

Captain_Maclaine: Sep 30, 2001

eonwe posted:

that sounds p sweet. i may just...read that now??? i assume i can find it on amazon

It only came out in 2008 and should be pretty easy to find online and elsewhere.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2017 23:02

Captain_Maclaine: Sep 30, 2001

eonwe posted:

Also neat! I didn't look it up, but I just remembered thinking at the time 'ONE' was telling an awfully specific story and had to be based on something. I completely forgot about Johnny Got His Gun

It's good to know all these years as a metalhead have paid off in more than a constant, low-level background ringing!

# ¿ Apr 15, 2017 23:06

Captain_Maclaine: Sep 30, 2001

Epic High Five posted:

I've heard All Quiet is a fantastic and horribly depressing books and I love horribly depressing things. Deffo a good recc

It is both of those things.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2017 23:47

Captain_Maclaine: Sep 30, 2001

Epic High Five posted:

I'm not college educated so no

Everybody I know who has read it has done so for a college course

Yeah, I assign it for my European History survey. Some have read it before, most have not.

Baloogan posted:

maybe Everything was Forever, Until it was No More: The Last Soviet Generation for the tankies

Ooh! The reminds me! The Ghost of the Executed Engineer by Loren Graham is another recommendation of mine. It uses the life (and death, obviously) of engineer Peter Palchinsky as a case study to examine the history of Soviet industrialization and technological progress/policy. Unsurprisingly, it finds more than a few things to criticize, but does so from a pragmatic and scientific perspective rather than an ideological one.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2017 02:59

Captain_Maclaine: Sep 30, 2001

TwoStepBoog posted:

I will argue until the death of myself or this earth that Bluebeard was Vonnegut's best work.

Breakfast of Champions is his best work fight me.

cargo cult posted:

I'm currently finishing up Ghost Wars - https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Wars-H...ords=ghost+wars

it's a real good and really readable history of Afghanistan and CIA/ISIS/Saudi Fuckery from 1979 - 9/10/2001. It kind of loses some momentum after the Russian invasion ends but w/e

Seconded. I used to have a copy until I foolishly lent it to a co-worker who suddenly quit and never returned it, the bastard.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2017 13:54

Captain_Maclaine: Sep 30, 2001

Freaking Crumbum posted:

I would certainly recommend Last Call by Tim Powers if modern day, weird sci-fi is your thing (like Twin Peaks, or the X-Files without aliens).

It's the story of a man whom was raised by a wizard in 1960s Las Vegas and got rescued from his abusive wizard-dad before wizard-dad could completely consume his ego and supplant himself into the protagonist's body. Now an adult, the dude has:

- a dead wife that haunts him as a ghost and may actually be the physical personification of death
- a friend with cancer that believes he can literally create his own luck by mentally processing incredibly complex calculus problems
- a step-sister the protagonist totally wants to bang who is possibly the reincarnation of The Goddess here on Earth
- a step-dad who is also a wizard and casts spells via the medium of playing hands of poker

The central conflict is wizard-dad making a final play to possess the protagonist's body at the world series of poker.

If you're at all familiar with Unknown Armies, this book is the best Unknown Armies fiction ever written that has nothing to do with Unknown Armies.

Lol, well before I got to your last sentence, I was thinking "man, this sounds a lot like UA's postmodern magic."

# ¿ Apr 17, 2017 22:12

Captain_Maclaine: Sep 30, 2001

Ordered my copy, can't wait to read it.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 22:47

Captain_Maclaine: Sep 30, 2001

deadgoon posted:

that sounds really sad idk if i can handle that book

I haven't had a chance to read it yet as my copy hasn't come, but I had the chance to visit post-Soviet Russia very shortly after the breakup of the USSR (1993) and the attitude of people I met there was almost universally one of remarkable hope and optimism, like it was the dawn of a new day and that maybe, just maybe, things were finally starting to get better in Russia.

Oh, if only we all had seen what was coming next.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2017 00:40

Captain_Maclaine: Sep 30, 2001

Sir Tonk posted:

its in the mail

# ¿ Apr 24, 2017 03:18

Captain_Maclaine: Sep 30, 2001

Epic High Five posted:

For the people who have just or have yet to receive the book, is the current deadline okay or would you like to see a 1 week extension?

I still haven't gotten mine so an extra week'd be nice.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2017 21:39

Captain_Maclaine: Sep 30, 2001

Epic High Five posted:

*HEADS UP*

Tomorrow at 9pm eastern the CSPAM book club will be meeting up in the Discord to discuss the book. I'll start the next round of voting the next day.

TOMORROW AT 9

BE THERE

I have an event downtown tomorrow night that may not be over until then and it'll take me a while to get home afterward, so I may not make it. Have fun, all.

# ¿ May 10, 2017 20:40

Captain_Maclaine: Sep 30, 2001

Epic High Five posted:

Good news then, because it's tonight at 9pm, not tomorrow. I may be late so start without me, I'm being tapped to help set up tech stuff for a big event

That'll teach me to not read posts carefully.

# ¿ May 10, 2017 20:44

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 17:58

Captain_Maclaine: Sep 30, 2001

Epic High Five posted:

well as of right now nobody has shown up in the discord so this experiment is likely dead in the cradle

Sorry, I got stuck talking about wedding planning for far longer than I'd hoped. You'd think I'd have known by now these things can get very involved!

# ¿ May 11, 2017 04:45

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > CSPAM Book club for book matters and also reading!