Right now Ive got Advanced Tournament, A Brave New World, and To the Ends of the Earth all pretty good so far.

Busto, that's it, and it's well worth reading. Not along the lines of what you mentioned but a wonderful novel set during the Holocaust is Lisa Goldtein's The Red Magician, a fantasy Holocaust novel if you can believe it. It's also quite short.

I can believe it! I'll take a look at it if for nothing other than inspiration. My next novel is set during the Holocaust and has some fantasy elements. First part centers on concentration camps so I need to do some heavy research. Historical fiction is what my imagination seems determined to come up with, but I have to do it right or people quickly come pounding on my door to tell me what I got wrong. Not the lol stuff no one agrees about, really obvious stuff like, "Uhhh, you do realize Nixon was not President in 1972, right?"

I went to Borders to look around, but while there were many WWII books with prominent sections on concentration camps, in general I could not find anything devoted to concentration camps as a singular subject. I think I recall a book from years ago that dealt primarily with Auschwitz, though. Maybe I can find it at the library.

reading Ted Bell's latest Alex Hawke adventure, Tsar. I like the Hawke books, he's like James Bond mixed with Dirk Pitt. Good summer reading.

Hmmm.

Then you might also wnt to check out Jane Yolen's Briar Rose, Sleeping Beauty retold (sort of) in a Holocaust setting.

**** I mean 1962 lol, clearly he was president in 1972.

Yup, thanks for the suggestions JC.

Ah, yes, I remember it well (in my best Maurice Chevalier voice).

Anyone read or watched "The Wave?" Book about a teacher who reenacts the power of rhetoric and Hitler and stuff by "making" his students do things to become members of The Wave.

Apparently the book was pretty interesting and they made a documentary in the 80s that was a ...simulation type thing of it. Or something.

Anyway, anyone familiar? I'm pretty interested in it.

Just listened to the audiobook of "Blaze" by King.

I thought it was interesting and well done (as I think most of the stuff he wrote before the 90's).

I found the story a little uncomfotable, but maybe you were suppose to be conflicted.

Also reading "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay". About 140 pages in and it seems to be getting more interesting.

Also grabbed two more audiobooks form the library. Freakonomics and The Survivor by Palahniuk.

Ken

thought this was amusing...

lol. That is pretty good, Dom. It's almost too easy to make fun of Twilight at this point.

Now: The Origin of Wealth by Eric Beinhocker

Next: Some book on excel modeling exercises, then Conjectures and Refutations by Karl Popper

Meh there's some immensely reflective object at the bottom of that picture. I can't see anything.

I read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz over the weekend and I enjoyed it a lot. It won the Pulitzer last year.

I'm expecting Kavalier and Clay and Shantaram to arrive tomorrow, will probably start with K&C. There is a thread in EDF about the best books of the last ten years which has some good recommendations.

I just started The Code Book by Simon Singh which seems pretty interesting so far. Has anyone else read it?

No, but I have read Fermat's Last Enigma by him which I liked. I want to read this because I like cryptography, and remember going to some convocation at school where someone was discussing this book.

So, I read The Wave by Todd Strasser today. It's a really short book, but I liked the punch it packs. The novel fictionalizes the events that happened at a Palo Alto high school in 1969 where the teacher basically resimulated the rise of the Third Reich. He starts by talking to them about discipline. The next day he talks about community. Finally he talks about action. Each day, he runs them through drills to reinforce all of this. Events follow that show it may have gotten slightly out of hand.

Of course, this novel doesn't necessarily bring anything unexpected. As on might expect, things go sour and it's incredibly disappointing. That's to be expected though, I think. The interesting thing isn't what happens as a result of him creating this simulation, but rather how easily he goes about it. Such simple steps turn into something that gets a little crazy.

I'd highly recommend this to anyone. It's a really quick read so there's really nothing to lose from this. I assume that it will be less impactful for anyone who is cultured or grasps even elementary history. That said, it's the type of thing that I think I'll look to incorporate into my English classes at some point down the road.

Read it a while back; thought it was totally fascinating, though it must have been maybe four years since I read it. For some reason I found the very start (about the history of cryptography, basic cyphers, early advanced attempts etc) and the very end (quantum cryptography etc) to be the most interesting bits; segments about Enigma and other middle-book whatnot interested me less, though maybe that was because I knew the most about those already...
Great book, anyway.

Saw the movie, it was decent.

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

2008 version or the on from the 80s that was like 40 minutes? I actually found the 40 minute thing from the 80s pretty dull.

Huzzah, half.com!

Just purchased:

What We Knew

Theory and Practice of Hell

The Nazi Doctors

The Years of Extermination

I was torn between The Years of Extermination and The Holocaust. Both are acclaimed histories, but I gotta admit not knowing anything else the cover design on Years of Extermination won me over.

Hmmm now I might have to look this up, the one I saw was like feature length, but I really dont think it was as recent as 2008...was thinking more like 1998 or something?

Nope, looked it up, it must have been the 1981 version because it definitely had Bruce Davison in it. Wow, didnt seem that old/short.