What's everybody reading?

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dws1982
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Re: What's everybody reading?

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dws1982 wrote: I'm reading Tom O'Neill's Chaos: Charles Manson, The CIA, and the Secret History of the 60's...I feel like it's going to end up somewhere very stupid when it gets into the CIA stuff (there's a chapter called "Mind Control" or something).
It most definitely did, and it did so in a way that really undermined what I liked about the first half. O'Neill emphasizes many times that he spent years working on this story, which was supposed to be a Premiere magazine piece for so long that Premiere folded long before he finished writing it. But by the end you get the feeling that it took so long, not because he was uncovering any bombshell information (he isn't) but because he was waiting on some people to die so he could throw out some accusations free of charge, so to speak. If Bugliosi were still alive, I would bet serious money that we wouldn't have this book yet, and if Manson were, I doubt we would either. As someone with ADHD, I know what it's like to begin searching out one topic and then have another barely-related one overtake that one, and then fall down another rabbit hole and another, and that really does feel like O'Neill has fallen into that trap here. The idea of Manson never being violated on parole leads to an exploration of Manson's time, after he was released from prison, in San Francisco, which leads him to an exploration of Manson's parole officer and some of his associates, which leads to a very long chapter about the CIA's MKULTRA program, which might be good material for a book, but has no business being in this book. Eventually he just starts spitballing, throwing whatever he can against the wall, including a suicide but maybe murder of some guy in a motel that involves some Manson associate making a pubic hair vest (seriously). Poking holes in Bugliosi's case is easy enough to do at the magazine-article length, or in a blog post; you can also suggest that there is a lot more to the Manson family than what we were told by Bugliosi (who became the main recorder of this story, very much by his own choice) in a much shorter format than this. If you're going to come out with a 500+ page book dismantling the case, you better have something definitive, something concrete. O'Neill says outright that he not only doesn't know and doesn't even have a real theory as to why the Manson murders took place, it's his least favorite question. That's a hell of a thing to admit after I've invested 15+ hours into this audiobook and it's entering what seems like the home stretch.

If you want to know about the problems in Bugliosi's case, you can find all of the information that O'Neill presents here, and more, at various places online. Bugliosi went with a motive that was easy, that made Manson and his family look like "others" from the desert who appeared like ghosts in houses in LA, murdered everyone inside, and disappeared like ghosts back into the desert. The fact that Manson was better-connected than anyone cared to admit to rich and powerful people in LA was something that no one investigating or prosecuting that case wanted to acknowledge. His only real connections, from all I've read, involved drug dealing and pimping his female followers out to industry people (Wilson, Melcher, etc.), and there is definitely the question of why Manson, who was openly in violation of federal parole, was never called to account for it. All of that information, and more is available for free, or without burning an Audible credit. I made this mistake so you don't have to.
dws1982
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Re: What's everybody reading?

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danfrank wrote:Tee, let us know how you like Angle of Repose. It’s among my very favorite books. Stegner’s writing is just so gorgeous.
Under-appreciated writer in my opinion, at least in terms of no one much talking about him now. I know he was more appreciated in real time.

I'm reading Tom O'Neill's Chaos: Charles Manson, The CIA, and the Secret History of the 60's, which I actually am listening to on Audible (I cashed in all of my credits and cancelled my account before they charged me again). I almost stopped and returned the book because I thought it was by THAT Tom O'Neill, but once I discovered it wasn't I kept going. I feel like it's going to end up somewhere very stupid when it gets into the CIA stuff (there's a chapter called "Mind Control" or something) but, while definitely very clear about Manson's--and his followers'--guilt, the first half thoroughly dismantles Bugliosi's case, the Helter Skelter motive that he sold, his reputation as anything other than a publicity-seeking grifter who probably should've been disbarred for prosecutorial misconduct related to the case. The only thing he got right was the perpetrators, and it seems clear that Bugliosi knew that the true facts of the case were very different from the case he presented to the jury, and to the public. It seemed necessary at the time to portray Manson as some freak who sent his followers to go murder some people more or less at random (based on houses that he had tangential connections to) but Manson was much more connected than people wanted admit at the time. (His connections to Dennis Wilson and Terry Melcher aren't a secret, but he knew Melcher much better than Melcher ever admitted and Bugliosi hid evidence that Melcher visited Manson multiple times after the murders, and with Wilson was much more than just a chance encounter or two that it's commonly sold as.) I think it's all headed to an unsatisfying conclusion where O'Neill will not give any real thesis as to why these crimes took place. I don't know that I've worked it out myself, although I lean towards a botched drug deal in the case of the Tate murders. That was almost definitely the motive behind the Hinman murder a few weeks before, and there's a good deal of evidence that Voytech Frykowski (partnered with Jay Sebring and bankrolled by Abigail Folger) was trying to position himself as a supplier to to the rich and powerful of LA. (Tate was probably just collateral damage, because they weren't going to leave a living witness.) The LaBianca murders are a little more difficult to explain. It's either, they were basically unlucky enough to have been living next door someone who Manson once had dealings with, or you have to get a little outlandish. (Most of those outlandish things involve Rosemary LaBianca's daughter Suzan, who had some connections--maybe very tangential, or even completely coincidental--to the Manson family.)

Also read Laurence Wright's The Looming Tower over Covid, as well as The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11. I was prompted to do this by the 20th Anniversary (although anniversary feels like the wrong word to use) of 9/11 and especially the fact that I had some students (all born post 9/11 of course) who were laughing about their history teacher's 9/11 lesson. I did some research into it, found a video on YouTube of a 911 call from the South Tower in the last three or so minutes just before the collapse and I played that in class (giving the students a chance to not watch, of course). I also spent some of the weekend reading Legacy.com's 9/11 memorial site, which sections everyone based on where they were on 9/11--WTC, Pentagon, Planes, etc.--and it's just overwhelming. The WTC section in particular is just page after page after page of names and pictures and stories of everyone who died that day, and it really gives you not just an idea of who they might have been but also, by highlighting mundane things about their everyday lives, it really does hit home how the victims of 9/11 were normal people like me and you. It's something I'll definitely look through next year on 9/11.
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Re: What's everybody reading?

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Sabin wrote:
flipp525 wrote
Check out my new book, Better Davis and Other Stories. It came out September 15, 2021.
Oh wow! Congratulations!
Thank you!!!
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Sabin
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Re: What's everybody reading?

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flipp525 wrote
Check out my new book, Better Davis and Other Stories. It came out September 15, 2021.
Oh wow! Congratulations!
"How's the despair?"
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Re: What's everybody reading?

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Greg wrote:Flipp, from what I read in the blurbs on your book's Amazon page, it appears all the story takes place before your time. I presume this means everything you drew upon came from research and not personal experience?
I was born in 1978 so I was actually around for most of the “action” in the book although I was but a small child. But, yes, you’re correct that a lot of research went into the stories. I do have my own memories of the early ‘80s though from which I was able to draw.
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."

-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
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Re: What's everybody reading?

Post by Mister Tee »

Okri wrote:a) If you haven't read the Bad Art Friend Article in the NY Times, I'd definitely recommend it. Fascinating
In case you haven't seen it, some followup from The New Yorker:

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-tu ... riend-saga
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Re: What's everybody reading?

Post by Greg »

Flipp, from what I read in the blurbs on your book's Amazon page, it appears all the story takes place before your time. I presume this means everything you drew upon came from research and not personal experience?
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Re: What's everybody reading?

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Tee, let us know how you like Angle of Repose. It’s among my very favorite books. Stegner’s writing is just so gorgeous.

Flipp, congratulations on your new book. You are quite the prolific writer with three books published.

A few of the novels I’ve read lately have been J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace (quite the impressive writer, a pretty great book with uncomfortable themes), Viet Than Nguyen’s The Sympathizer (doesn’t live up to its hype), Mieko Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs (fascinating look at the state of womanhood in modern Japan), and Bryan Washington’s Memorial. This last, by a very young writer, is my favorite of these four. Without explicitly being so, it’s the best novel about intersectionality that I’ve read. Definitely a writer to keep an eye on.
Mister Tee
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Re: What's everybody reading?

Post by Mister Tee »

To address a few things posted in recent days:

flipp, big congratulations on the book!

okri: the Bad Art Friend article is long but well worth reading. It has a weird kind of balance to it, in the sense that I pretty much wouldn't want to know either of the protagonists (some of the hangers-on don't come off real well, either).

Reza: the Mike NIchols bio is quite terrific. Harris makes a strong case for Nichols' influence being far greater than generally assumed -- that he, in effect, brought method acting into genres (most specifically, the boulevard comedy) which otherwise would still be stuck in early 20th century George Abbott mode.

As for the thread's main topic, I've been a pretty crappy reader of late -- so focused on finishing a play of my own that I haven't the energy to delve into anything serious. I did purchase Stegner's Angle of Repose, and will treat myself to that once the play's final i's are dotted.
Reza
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Re: What's everybody reading?

Post by Reza »

Enjoyed reading the new biography of Mike Nichols by Mark Harris and Woody Allen's memoir "Apropos of Nothing".
flipp525
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Re: What's everybody reading?

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Thanks!
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."

-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
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Re: What's everybody reading?

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flipp525 wrote:Check out my new book, Better Davis and Other Stories. It came out September 15, 2021.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/19419601 ... 705&sr=8-3
Congratulations on the new book.
flipp525
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Re: What's everybody reading?

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Check out my new book, Better Davis and Other Stories. It came out September 15, 2021.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/19419601 ... 705&sr=8-3
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."

-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Okri
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Re: What's everybody reading?

Post by Okri »

a) If you haven't read the Bad Art Friend Article in the NY Times, I'd definitely recommend it. Fascinating

b) Currently reading Daniel Mason's "A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth" which was a Pulitzer finalist. It's solid so far, but I'm reminded of one of my favourite short story collections ("Servants of the Map") which doesn't serve it.
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Re: What's everybody reading?

Post by gunnar »

I recently decided to read all of Isaac Asimov's fiction that I hadn't previously read.

This meant reading four science fiction novels:

The End of Eternity (excellent)
The Ugly Little Boy (pretty good)
Nemesis (very good)
Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain (pretty bad)

200 or so science fiction/fantasy short stories from various collections

one mystery novel: A Whiff of Death (pretty good)

Six Black Widowers collections and one Union Club collection plus various uncollected short stories from those series.

I still have 10 Union Club mystery stories to track down. Six of them are in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and I'll track those down eventually. The other four are in 1983 issues of Gallery Magazine which I have no plans to purchase. I'm hoping I'll run across somebody eventually who will take photos of the stories for me.

---------

Apart from Asimov, I also have been reading L.E. Modesitt's Recluce series and read Project Hail Mary from Andy Weir plus a variety of other science fiction and fantasy novels.
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