food for thought...

* www.udothedishes.com <-peep the blog

I got a decent amount of reading done this summer. The following are some of my selections and a few adjoining footnotes from EJC...

HOMICIDE: A YEAR ON THE KILLING STREETS(1991) by David Simon.

In a word, Simon is thorough. He's the executive producer of Homicide; Life on the Streets and The Wire. As hard as it might be to grasp, this book tops them both. He followed a Baltimore Homicide Unit during 1988 in order to write this book. It reads like a crime novel with Tom Clancy-like depth but, in fact, it is non-fictional. Must read!

AMERICAN PSYCHO(1991) by Bret Easton Ellis

Ellis tries to convey to his audience just how vulgar a life devoted to chasing the proverbial 'Paper' and labels by personifying the mentality with Patrick Bateman. The only thing that can get Bateman's mind off of the Armani suit his colleague is rockin is his indiscriminate bloodlust. One minute he is begrudgingly listening to his girlfriend's tribulations about the right Mikasa crystal set to buy; the next he is picturing how he could feed the cadaver stashed away in his apartment to a rabid street rat. It's an interesting way to convey the absurdity of the fast-money/fast-track life of the stereotypical YUP; but both the violence (surreptitiously gutting a child in the Central Park Zoo) and the materialism (spending pages at a time simply describing the brands and fashions adorning the bourgeious strolling by Bateman outside of Saks 5th Avenue) are beyond overkill.

Read it if you really want to be disturbed; although some people find it humorous, i didn't. Synopsis courteous of the Talking Heads line preceding the first chapter..."And as things fell apart, no one payed much attention."

UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE (1871) by Thomas Hardy

After reading this novela, I was surprised to hear of the dark cynicism that drives his other books. As I read the story - driven by funny-sounding old English village vernacular - I kept thinking of the presience. More than 200 years later, the humanistic conflict in the book is so easy to relate to.

Team Greentree! how amazing is it that this random word/phrase pops up everywhere! i love you guys farealdo!

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS (2007) by Khaled Hosseini

The definition of a summertime page-turner. I for one, had to keep a supply of tissues nearby. Both this and THE KITE RUNNER are amazing books even if the movie is crap.

BALKAN GHOSTS (1999) by Robert Kaplan

A travel book put together from his journeys through the Balkans after the Bosnian War and before the latest conflict in Kosovo (i.e. systemic killing of ethnic Albanians). The contemporary aspect of it has grown a bit outdated; but its definitely worth a gander if you are traveling through this part of the world. But living in Bulgaria, the conclusions he draws of their culture from only being here a handful of days is nothing short of comical.

OK...if you care to hear/discuss further about these books or life or how the redskins are gonna give it to the Kurt Warner-guffaw-led Cardinals; simply hit me up!