what gets me about the Jungle is that everyone seems only to focus an the meat packing industry and they believe that's what the book is about. The true focus on the book was about imigrant Lithuanians who worked in the industry. Nobody seemed to focus on this aspect and what they went through.
The living conditions were horiffic at best. It was an interesting read for sure. That's why I want to get the other two books and I think he did one on industry as well.
The Jungle was misunderstood right from the start. Lewis was writing about the abysmal conditions of life for immigrants. But, since he used the meat-packing industry as a backdrop, the reading public was horrified by that aspect of the book and demanded new standards, fearing for their own health if they continued to eat such contaminated meat. Lews was later quoted as saying, "I was aiming for the heart, but somehow managed to hit them in the stomach."
Merry Andrew wrote:Stilly, that book jacket comes out a little indistinct on my monitor screen. Could you supply the name of the author please? It sounds like something I'd be interested in reading.
Gold Dust and Gunsmoke: Tales of Gold Rush Outlaws, Gunfighters, Lawmen, and Vigilantes
John Boessenecker
ISBN: 0-471-31973-2
Hardcover
384 pages
March 1999
US $30.00
You might like to also go for:
Badge and Buckshot : Lawlessness in Old California
John Boessenecker
ISBN: 0-8061-2510-1
Paperback
352 pages
8.59" x 5.45" x 1.04"
57 b&w illus., 2 maps
Published: 1993
Thank you, Mr. S. I'll look up both.
Aantekeningen uit het Ondergrondse (Notes from the Underground), by Fjodor Dostojewski.
Amigo wrote:Is it just me or are things looking more and more like 'Brave New World'. Maybe I'm just getting old.
I'd say we're getting closer to
Handmaids Tale myself:(
Just finished "The Almond" by Nedjma, a pseudonym.
It's supposed to be about "the sexual awakening of a Muslim woman"
OK, once you get past the part that this was supposedly written by a Muslim Woman (don't know if I believe that) and over the mild surprise that she enjoyed a very free sex life......I'd have to say this was one of the most boring books I have ever read.
If you're planning on reading it, don't bother.
How many times can one read the word c*nt (god I HATE that word) and "wet vagina" and penis beofe getting sick of the whole thing.
It wasn't even that erotic, I kept wishing the woman would go get some paper towels to wipe herself down. WAY too much bodily fluid going on.
Yeah, yeah, I suppose there was supposed to be some kind of message in there....but the writing was confusing, disjointed and basically made me wonder "does this woman have anything else in her life"
Anyone read this book? What did y'all think.....just wondering, I mean, to each his own and all.
At times, it reminded me of Anne Rice's "sleeping beauty" another book I'm ashamed to say I read. Actually, tried to read, by the middle of the book, I was so repulsed I couldn't stand it any longer, and put it asise.
The only reason I finished the Almond was that it was so short, about 300 quick read pages. Unfortunately, that is about 280 pages too long.
Yeah, I might pass on that one Chai Tea.
Littlek- The Yoshimoto was really refreshing and surprising. I recommend her work easily.
Now I'm on to Contact by Carl Sagan. I recently saw the movie for the first time and knew I had to read the book. I'm only a third into it, but I am completely in love with it already.
Shazzer wrote:Yeah, I might pass on that one Chai Tea.
Littlek- The Yoshimoto was really refreshing and surprising. I recommend her work easily.
Now I'm on to Contact by Carl Sagan. I recently saw the movie for the first time and knew I had to read the book. I'm only a third into it, but I am completely in love with it already.
The book in 10^6 times better.
I took it with me on a college tour of NC--figured at some point during the 13 hour (one-way) bus trip I'd get tired reading it and fall asleep.
I didn't. It was that good!
Even when I got home I had 200+ pages left to finish.
I'm reading Meera Nair's VIDEO, a compilation of her short stories.
The stories are distinct as days pass from my reading them. Excellent.
hmmmm... I never did read Contact!
I started the Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (Douglas Adams) because Be Sweet (Blount, Jr) and Neither Here Nor There (Bryson) weren't enough.....
I am half through Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking." I have always loved her and wondered why I had not read anything of hers in the New York Review of Books and elsewhere. I read the excerpts of her book in the NYTimes Mag and knew. This is a book about grief and mourning that everyone should read. Its depressing....but she lost both her husband and daughter in a short period of time. She expresses what others can't.
I did read Sagan's Contact many years ago when it was a just-published best-seller. Sadly, very little of it has stayed me. I barely remember it, beyond the title.
I did read Sagan's Contact many years ago when it was a just-published best-seller. Sadly, very little of it has stayed with me. I barely remember it now, beyond the title.
I've read reveiws of Didion's book, but not the book, Vietnamnurse. I've always rather liked her and her work.
I'm now doing a rather interesting book on CD called "The Consciousness Plague".
Reminds me a bit of "Da Vinci Code".
I'm reading Dr. Zhivago right now, but I would recommend A million Little Pieces by James Frey...it's a great book.
The Black Rood, by Stephen R. Lawhead. Second book in a trilogy that I'm flying through. Entertaining, light reading, a bit of religion and crusades-related history thrown in for spice.
I needed a break from the more serious stuff I've been reading lately.
We're In Trouble by Christopher Coake.
I think he writes very well, and am enjoying this collection of short stories.
However, it's not for someone who's feeling emotional right now, its stories deal with the worst things that you can think will happen in your life.
I've always thought the hardest thing to write must be the short story, as I ususally think the endings are very poor....
Not so here, does not tie things up in a neat little package, but so far each story and made me look off and ponder for a while.
