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| jb |
Red, White & Liberal: How Left Is Right & Right Is Wrong
by Alan Colmes |
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| jb |
Liberalism is a Mental Disorder: Savage Solutions (Hardcover)
by Michael Savage |
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| sirmoonie |
Alan Dershowitz ("Dersh") has written some really good books about the workings of the American legal system, in particular, the Constitutional aspects and policies that make up American criminal law. He is Jewish. |
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| jb |
quote:
sirmoonie wrote:
Alan Dershowitz ("Dersh") has written some really good books about the workings of the American legal system, in particular, the Constitutional aspects and policies that make up American criminal law. He is Jewish.
Is he a Zionist, like me???? |
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| sirmoonie |
quote:
jb wrote:
Is he a Zionist, like me????
I think he is. |
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| jb |
quote:
sirmoonie wrote:
I think he is.
He did a nice job on that Sony Von Bulow appeal. |
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| sirmoonie |
Harper Lee - To Kill A Mockingbird
Also, one of the best black American authors is John Edgar Wideman who wrote, among other things, Brothers and Keepers. Hardly anyone has ever heard of him. He is black. |
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| jb |
Gore Vidal. |
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| sirmoonie |
quote:
jb wrote:
He did a nice job on that Sony Von Bulow appeal.
Claus von Bulow. Yes, that was amazing appellate work. He did well for O.J. too, probably the only one on that "Dream Team" who knew what the hell they were doing. |
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| jb |
quote:
sirmoonie wrote:
Claus von Bulow. Yes, that was amazing appellate work. He did well for O.J. too, probably the only one on that "Dream Team" who knew what the hell they were doing.
As a trial lawyer, I was not impressed with Johnny Cochran...that stuff would not work on a mainstream jury down here. I am, however, impressed with Roy Black and Benjamin Brofman(great fucking atty). |
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| sirmoonie |
Another great book is A Hero Ain't Nothing But A Sandwich, by Alice Childress - much of it is written in Ebonics, which is a variant of English, not sure if you need to learn that for your new job. |
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| Egbert |
quote:
sirmoonie wrote:
Another great book is A Hero Ain't Nothing But A Sandwich, by Alice Childress - much of it is written in Ebonics, which is a variant of English, not sure if you need to learn that for your new job.
Outside of Oakland, no. |
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| sirmoonie |
quote:
Egbert wrote:
Outside of Oakland, no.
Harlem, I believe. Ebonics is spoken across the country, its only taught in schools in the Oakland area. |
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| Mahatma Kane Jeeves |
Groucho Marx wrote several hilarious books! |
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| Egbert |
quote:
sirmoonie wrote:
Harlem, I believe. Ebonics is spoken across the country, its only taught in schools in the Oakland area.
I'm down wit dat. |
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| pdog |
Peter Bagges "Hate" comic! American literature at its best!
Buddy Bradley rocks ass!
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| Trey Krimsin |
quote:
GotToRollMe wrote:
I can't believe I forgot Hunter S. Thompson!
Start with "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and take it from there!
I haven't read that yet, but I'd like to read it soon. If you've read it, what did you think of Fear and Loathing '72: On The Campaign Trail? I bought it a while back, but haven't started it yet, since I'm reading 1984 for the third time. |
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| caro |
Lol, that was fast! Thanks a lot everyone -- I'll make an extensive trip to an american library to check them all out.
Nasty, I'm very tempted to read another Philip Roth novel right away, but since everyone says he's been writing the same story in every one of his books, I'm afraid it would dilute the one I just finished.
Moonie, I'll definitely buy some Salinger books. I read Franny and Zooey in french, & found it was great but a little frustrating too, kind of like a long novel squeezed into 2 short stories. The "It's a wise child!" phrase keeps cracking me up, though!
About my new job -- it's mostly translating financial stuff. I have zero experience in that field, but in honour of my newlyfound solvability, I decided that I liked it. In fact it's kind of fun discovering the 1001 weird ways for a bank to make money off of money! |
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| texile |
fitzgerald
steinbeck's short stories
poe
tennessee williams
and than hunter and lester
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| ListenToTheLion |
Don't forget:
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| Dick Bush |
A bunch of Papa's impersonators here:
mms://wmscnn.stream.aol.com.edgestreams.net/cnn/offbeat/2006/07/24/svo.hemingway.contest.reut.ws.wmv#0;1.000;0;0;1:2;2:2 |
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| Ronnie Richards |
Read everything Chandler and Steinbeck wrote, but also:
Don DeLillo - Underworld
Johnatan Frantzen - The Corrections |
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| Ronnie Richards |
quote:
caro wrote:
Since I know for a fact that all RO members have great taste, I thought I might as well ask here...
I recently started a new job where I'm supposed to speak english fluently. My english skills being still a bit shaky (after accidentally using some expressions learnt at RO in front of my boss, I decided that I better upgrade from internet english to business english real fast), I'm gonna try to read plenty of american books in the next months. Anyone got suggestions?
So far, I've only read ultrafamous stuff : Jack Kerouac (nice, but you'd probably have to know the cities&places he mentions in his books to really appreciate it), Burroughs' Naked Lunch (some very cool parts, some stuff that I didn't get at all), John Steinbeck's East of Eden (absolutely great, what a simple & laconic way to scare the shit out of a reader!) Tennessee Williams (too much psychological dissection for me), Paul Auster & Siri Hustvedt, John Updike's The Centaur (I loved that one - an idealist & depressed centaur working as a teacher, making out with Venus in the girls' locker room, wearing stupid wool caps..) Oh, and I just finished I Married a Communist by Philip Roth, which I thought was very cool too.
Why only American novels?
(And not from other English-speaking countries?) |
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| Zulu Fun Mix |
Read Sinclair Lewis, the first American ever to win a Nobel Prize for Literature (1930). Start with *Babbitt* then proceed to *Main Street*. Hysterically funny and critical takes on American culture. Even though the books were written in the 1920s, many of the characters will remind you of people who post on Rocks Off. |
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| corgi37 |
Anne Coulter! |
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| caro |
quote:
Ronnie Richards wrote:
Why only American novels?
(And not from other English-speaking countries?)
There's no real reason, except that I know as good as nothing about american authors, while english books for example are a bit more familiar to me. |
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| Cactus Ed |
Ed Abbey of course. |
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| texile |
quote:
Ronnie Richards wrote:
Read everything Chandler and Steinbeck wrote, but also:
Don DeLillo - Underworld
Johnatan Frantzen - The Corrections
i loved delillo's libra...
got me into the whole kennedy saga. |
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| stonedinaustralia |
as a short trousered youngster i read "tom sawyer" and "huckleberry finn" more times than i can remember - funny to re-read them now as much of the humour and attitude of the works is pitched an adult level
then as a drug addled 17 year old i devoured as much of Hunter Thompson as i could get me hands on - i must have read "vegas" more than a dozen times
in line with those two i would also recommend H.L.Mencken i've not read a lot but what i have is excellent
"Gatsby" is a great novel "american" or otherwise tho other work of fitzgerald i have found less inspiring
Mailer has his moments (imho) - tho for me a lot depends on the subject matter - so i particulalrly like "the fight" (about the Ali/Foreman box out in Kinshasa)
Tom Wolfe's "the right stuff" is another one that warranted more than one read
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| not bound to please |
If you don't mind the Irish - I'd suggest you read Finnegans Wake. Your boss will love you. |
