What are you reading?

[nycfem]

Thanks for the descriptions, Katzchen. Could you talk more about what Lethal Passage is about?

Originally Posted by Kätzchen

I thought I would leave a brief book report tonight about two of the books I am reading by Erik Larson. For those of you who eschew reading non-fiction accounts because sometimes NF accounts are often thought of as dry reading material, I want to assure you that the books I have read by Erik Larson are anything but dry or boring.

I just finished "Isaac's Storm" - I have never lived through a hurricane, but I have experienced other storms (snow storms and once upon a time ago, a tornado). I thought the exculpatory account of the 'storm of the century' that hit Galveston, TX back in 1900 was exceptionally well written. The account read like a novel but what intrigued me the most was, just like in "The Devil of White City" (the account of tragedy that transpired during the first World's Fair in Chicago - late 1880s era), Larson tells the story about Isaac Cline - a weather man working for the US Weather Bureau - and chronicles the beginning of how storms of this magnitude were forecast and also includes a wealth of personal narrative as culled from telegrams, letters and accounts from survivors so that one can begin to understand how far science has come, since the days of early technological advances of the late 19th century.

After finishing "Isaac's Storm", I am now breaking into another Larson book called, "Lethal Passage" - which was first published back in 1994.

Even though this account is nearly 2 decades old, I am reading it because I witnessed the accidental death of my cousin, Donnie: who inadvertantly pulled the trigger on a hunting rifle, as he was looking curiously down the barrel of the gun, and died instantly. That's a day in my life that I will never forget, either. My dad and his brothers like to hunt for wild game - mostly on special occassion for meals at Thanksgiving or Christmas. My dad didn't have a handgun in the house but a rather expensive collection of Weatherby's (same for all his brothers, my uncles).

SoOoOoo, the reason I am reading an account like this now is to take down some of my own baggage about guns and re-examine it under the scope of how Larson depicts gun issues with the way he uses a scholarly application of data, interviews, field notes, etc and see if there is any more work to do, personally, as I re-examine my own issues with guns.

[Kätzchen]

Originally Posted by nycfembbw

Thanks for the descriptions, Katzchen. Could you talk more about what Lethal Passage is about?

I just began this book tonight but will excerpt the passage on the back of the book:

This devastating book begins with an account of a crime that is by now almost commonplace: On December 16th, 1988, sixteen year old Nicholas Elliot walked into his Virginia high school with a Cobray M-11/9 and several hundred rounds of ammunition tucked into his backpack. By day's end, he has killed one teacher and severely wounded another.

In Lethal Passage Erik Larson shows us how a disturbed teenager was able to buy a weapon advertised as "the gun that made the 80s roar." In so doing, he not only illustrates America's gun culture - its manufacturers, dealers, buffs, and propagandists - but also offers concrete solutions to our national epidemic of death by firearm. The result of the book that can - and should - save lives, and that has already become an essential text in the gun-control debate.

I'm only on page 42, but Larson gives the audience a vivid description of Elliot in that he is a young black teenager who was acutely bullied at school (of religious affiliation) and my heart went out to Elliot and his mother - the caretaker and head of household of their own little family. Larson has also laid the groundwork, thus far, for how invasive and pervasive gun culture is within the fabric of American life. It's a short read (240 pages long) but it also comes with an extensive list of references at the back of the book, too.

[Greco]

"The Holographic Universe"
by Michael Talbot

mind-blowing

Greco

[SelfMadeMan]

'Stripped: Inside the Lives of Exotic Dancers' by Bernadette Barton, for an Independent Studies class I'm doing for my Women & Gender Studies minor. VERY interesting read!

[Talon]

Decisive Warfare: A Study In Military Theory
By Bretnor Reginald

[Massive]

A History Of British Serial Killing - David Wilson
For once, it's not about the serial killers, this book is written about the victims of serial killers and how we can go about identifying and preventing more killings from occurring!
Fascinating so far.