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Finished Anna Karenina. It was my first introduction to Tolstoy. I really enjoyed all the characters, and the rambling on various social and governmental issues during conversations providing multiple sides of the arguments. The ending felt rushed. This was a 900 page book, how does that happen? I also finished Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte. Really enjoyed this as well. A girl is coming of age, and wants to help her family by taking a job as a governess. She is basically a baby sitter for the more wealthy people while trying to supplement their education. It is a challenge to say the least, as most children are spoiled brats.
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Jul 16, 2013 20:08
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The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Didn't really care for it much. Not sure why this is considered a great. I understand that it was turn of the century and new inventions left and right, but there really wasn't anything really special to it all. I may have missed the point of it. Edit: Doing more research on this, I guess that was the entire point of it. That even rich people were nothing special. Eghhhg. Philthy fucked around with this message at 06:12 on Jul 24, 2013 |
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Jul 24, 2013 06:01
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If you'd like to PM me your take on it, feel free. I'd rather get something out of a book rather than nothing.
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Jul 24, 2013 15:02
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From that era, I would give the nod to the pulp fantasy horror legends (Howard, Lovecraft), that appeared to have the same amount of failure at the time. I may have been a bit spoiled by reading volumes of Lovecraft's letters that contained much of the same goings on. Wealth, poverty, politics, war. It's all there. I will also be checking out that link provided, thanks. Edit: Read that fantastic thread. The chapter breakdowns were really well done, and I got a lot more out of it now. I can probably reread it again without any baggage. I feel depressed knowing my schooling didn't have us read anything beyond Poe shorts. Philthy fucked around with this message at 22:31 on Jul 24, 2013 |
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Jul 24, 2013 21:15
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I think he was upset of some one specifically spoilering the tone of second book that he clearly said he was halfway through. It was a dick thing to do.
Philthy fucked around with this message at 02:41 on Jul 28, 2013 |
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Jul 28, 2013 02:36
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Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Really good read. Can't wait to dig into more of his books!
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Aug 19, 2013 06:34
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ace8989 posted:If you're up for a long read from Dostoyevsky, I'd recommend The Brothers Karamazov. It took me a while to get through, but it was worth the time. I think this was the next one I was going to go with, it seems to be up there on recommendations for him. Length really doesn't bother me so long as it remains interesting. I noticed in what little Russian lit I've read that they tend to wrap political and social issues into discussions between characters(Is there a name for this?) which I really enjoy for the most part.
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Aug 19, 2013 14:58
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Brave New World. They tried forcing us to read this in high school to become one with society; I resisted. I wanted to think on my own. Whoops. I missed out on a pretty drat good book.
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Nov 25, 2013 05:57
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The Corner by David Simon & Ed Burns I finished this a few weeks ago. This book is still haunting my thoughts. It follows about a dozen or so people in Baltimore, Maryland for a year living in a ghetto during the early 90s where the only jobs available are selling drugs, or stealing stuff to buy the drugs. Heroin and coke rule everyone who lives here. You see how successful people rise and fall to the drugs, you see people who know better become addicted, and you get to see how many of these people never had a chance to begin with. Families and gangs are followed around, dealing on the corners are detailed, arrests made, time served. Spending time in jail is often looked at as a time to rest, to regain stamina from all the drugging, not as punishment. All the people in the book are real, and you really start feeling for all of them. Upset that they have to live through this. Excited when they make strides to better themselves, and angry and pissed when they fall down and do something stupid. I've never read a book where you feel so attached to someones struggles. I watched the six part HBO series after I finished the book and it did a pretty good job, and they even show the people who are in the book. You can look online after you are done to see what has happened with all the people in the book, and you get another punch in the gut. I think about all these people every so often, like a lost relative. It just hurts to think that this happens. 
Philthy fucked around with this message at 00:54 on Jan 18, 2014 |
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Jan 17, 2014 19:36
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Inside the Crips: Life Inside L.A.'s Most Notorious Gang by Colton Simpson and Ann Pearlman. This is the life story of Colton "Lil Cee Loc" Simpson, and his time in the Crips. The first quarter of the book starts out with him as a young kid being abandoned in a Blood neighborhood wearing all blue clothes with his little brother. The writing is pretty bad here, and you can tell it's probably Colton doing the writing entirely himself with little to no editor tidying it up at all. I was almost ready to put the book down after the first 50 pages because it talks about him doing jewelry heists at age 12-14 and getting $200k, buying 5 cars, and shooting people left and right. It's a bit over the top for me to handle for someone this young. Then he begins what will be a life in juvenile detention and jail terms. This is where the book suddenly changes, the writing becomes more detailed, more interesting, and really grabs your attention. This is the meat of the book until the end. You learn what is happening within the prison system, how notes are passed, how people watch each other, know when something is up, the brutality by the Mexicans, the white supremacists, the security guards, and the rival black gangs. The hyperbole presented in the beginning fades quite a bit, you see how Crips educate each other over black leaders and history, how some years all the black people work together to keep themselves safe, only to have a disagreement over something stupid start a full on war for another year. He spends time in the same block as Monster Kody and crosses paths. He also grew up with Ice-T, and eventually he opens some doors and gives him opportunities when he gets out. He spends almost 16 years in prison, almost all of it defending himself and his closest allies. His current situation is pretty depressing, and the last few recently added chapters go over it. This book was used as evidence against him by the state of California and they want to lock him up 25 to life as a third strike offender. It's not as good as Monster, The Corner, or Gang Leader for a Day. But it is still worthwhile to read, if not for the in depth view of the prison system in California and how the gangs within operate. The fact that Colton wrote a lot of this is probably why it isn't as good as the others, but also why it is worthwhile. You take what you can get on these subjects.
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Jan 31, 2014 16:11
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The Metamorphosis and The Judgment by Franz Kafka These were two incredibly short stories, from an author I had never read before. I found them a struggle to get through even though they could be read in a single sitting. It took about four sittings. I'm fine with absurdist, weird writing, but this was just too tame I guess? I'll be moving on to another book and saving the rest of the short stories for another day. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood.
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Feb 7, 2014 06:59
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Mafia Prince: Inside America's Most Violent Crime Family and the Bloody Fall of La Cosa Nostra I strayed from my usual urban decay books to this mafia book. I saw it sitting on a table in B&N and casually looked it over, flipped through it, read a page, and it came off as really interesting. It starts off sort of heavy handed, and the amount of "STONE COLD KILLER" is overused in the first 10 or so pages. So much so I was going to write it all off, but I think they just didn't know where to start and revised the beginning a few times. Once you get beyond that, you're taken through the 70s, 80s, and 90s by a guy who was taken into the mafia in his early teens by his stone cold killer uncle, and quickly moved into the inner trusted ring because of family blood. Phil Leonetti would eventually become underboss, and acting boss of the Philly side of La Cosa Nostra (The collective of mafia groups working together). You will run into literally every big name mafia person in the past thirty years, they all knew each other, they all worked with each other, and they all kill each other. At the time, Phil Leonetti was the highest ranking mafia member to flip to the FBI. He has been a part of dozens of murders, he describes many of them in great detail, he describes every detail about the mob, how they make money, how they rub each others backs, and how they stab them. I couldn't put the book down. What I particularly liked was the author worked side by side with Phil Leonetti, and much of the book is direct quotes from Phil's mouth to the pages of the book, italicized. You learn about his uncle who becomes acting boss, and how everything works through the New York commission of mafia bosses. How some guys thought just killing a boss of a certain area will entitle them to their area. Without New York's position/consent, you have no claim, and will be murdered. Quite a few people found this out the hard way. Again, all in brutal detail. It was a great read once I got past the early stumbles, and the current version tells how Phil Leonetti is still in hiding with the witness protection program as of early 2014. It's current. Philthy fucked around with this message at 05:57 on Jun 10, 2014 |
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Jun 8, 2014 17:56
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Ready Player One It reminded me of a young adult version of Snowcrash, if that's possible. It's basically 80s game and movie nostalgia rolled into a 90s cyberpunk book. It wasn't half bad, and I liked the finale. I'm looking forward to being angry at the movie when it doesn't include half the cool poo poo like Gundams, Monty Python, and James Brown is Dead because they didn't want to gently caress around with licensing.
Philthy fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Sep 8, 2016 |
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Sep 8, 2016 17:58
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The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Ugh. It's like that crazy couple you know of who constantly break up and get back together 20 times and you're like "What the gently caress" for 600 pages.
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Aug 14, 2019 06:24
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Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie My first mystery book. It was enjoyable, a bit confusing because I wasn't aware of the process Detective Hercule Poirot uses. Some fun twists and turns, false directions and all that. Easy light reading, and perfect for a flight or something to read on vacation. I picked it up because I ran across a kickstarter where they were offering different bound editions of this particular book and I wondered why someone might be willing to pay hundreds. I'm not so sure I would hold it in that high of a regard, but it was very enjoyable regardless. I am reading Murder on the Orient Express right now, and I see the "hook" to her books now, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it moreso now that I get the style. They're a lot of fun.
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Aug 21, 2019 19:52
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Excellent! That list will come in handy.
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Aug 21, 2019 20:20
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Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie Loved this. I can see why this has been made into several movies and is held in such high regard. Again, a very quick and easy read. Really can't say much without spoiling anything other than she provides a great backdrop/atmosphere for a murder mystery. Now I move on to rereading Dune. It's been almost 25 years. Edit: I just watched the 2017 movie, and had to turn it off near the end it was so bad. They changed the story so much that it no longer made any sense. I'm surprised Depp stayed on to film this instead of walking away. Trash. I'll try the 1974 version tomorrow, it appears that one is widely loved. At least that one is free on Prime. Edit: 1974 movie was fantastic! Why would they even bother remaking this after a star studded cast that couldn't ever be topped, and a movie that not only was faithful to the original story, that it also improved upon it! 5 stars! Easily! Philthy fucked around with this message at 23:42 on Aug 25, 2019 |
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Aug 22, 2019 18:11
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Dune by Frank Herbert As mentioned a page or two back I was rereading this. Just finished it, and it was still fantastic from start to finish. There really wasn't any downtime throughout. It starts strong, and throws you right into the mix. Plots within plots is the endless theme here and it delivers. I never read beyond the first book. I'm not certain why. So I am now halfway through Dune Messiah and I'm enjoying this one quite a bit as well. If I don't burn out from all the sand in my hair, shoes, and clothes I'll take the forums advice of going four books in before moving on. I've never watched Godfather 3 before of the same sort of advice and I feel pretty confident the world at large agrees with it.
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Sep 1, 2019 23:51
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Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert This book went a totally different direction than I was expecting. It was claustrophobic in every aspect. It had me captured all the way until the ending again. I am having a difficult time trying to decide if it was as good as the first or not because I really enjoyed the direction he went with, yet it wasn't what I had envisioned. I think that puts it as a yes? Philthy fucked around with this message at 04:45 on Sep 3, 2019 |
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Sep 3, 2019 04:43
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hahayup posted:I just finished Dune earlier today and I have to say, I did not enjoy it. I just couldn't get into it, right from the start. The writing style just didn't grab me, the characters I couldn't connect to, the pacing was off. Sounds like from your other post Dune Messiah is quite a bit different. Would you recommend someone who didn't really enjoy the first one to read the second? If you're not feeling connected to the world building that was done, then probably not. It's an extension of the Muad'Dib mythos mostly with a lot of internalizing from Paul's perspective. Can't really say too much about it without giving away anything. On the plus side, it's a short read if you still don't dig it.
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Sep 9, 2019 01:35
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Children of Dune by Frank Herbert This book was a good amalgamation of the first two books. While the story advances much like the first book, the internal dialogues are much like the second. I really enjoyed the story that was told, and couldn't help but draw similarities between Lynch and Herbert. The eccentric styles of their crafts are very similar. When you begin asking yourself how many drugs they took, or if you didn't take enough you get into that territory. I also see the same criticisms for both. On to God Emperor. Philthy fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Sep 15, 2019 |
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Sep 15, 2019 17:53
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God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert Meh. It's the second book again. I may may read the final two, but not anytime soon. I felt this was disappointing and unnecessary. The first three books is what I really enjoyed. Philthy fucked around with this message at 04:39 on Sep 25, 2019 |
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Sep 25, 2019 04:34
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Perdido Street Station - China Miéville This was a pretty decent book. A new and interesting world. One inhabited by birdmen, cactus men, humans, insectoid people, little frogthings, and more. A large sprawling city with its own cliques and underground. The story told was interesting and the characters likable enough to keep my attention. I feel like this was longer than it should have been, but I am hard-pressed to think about what could have been removed. It wasn't too overly wordy, and I think the backgrounds of the characters and the build-up were all necessary. Enjoyable.
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Oct 24, 2019 19:25
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All Systems Red - The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells This book was alright. It is a very quick read, and I couldn't help but think that this short channeled Roy Batty, Marvin The Paranoid Android, and Molly Millions into one character for a short security detail. It wasn't anything beyond what a decent Warhammer 40k book provides, but it was entertaining regardless. I'll move on to book 2 and see where we end up.
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Nov 6, 2019 02:58
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Artificial Condition - The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells Book two. I really enjoyed this one. We get a few new characters, and a new mission. Interactions between two specific characters kind of made this book a slam dunk. There is decent world building taking place, and I like where it's going. I don't want to give much away, but the android population is it's own living breathing world in addition to the living world. I'm starting to get a Neuromancer(Spawl) / Snow Crash vibe here. It's still pulpy, but that's growing on me. These would make really cool animated shorts for Love, Death & Robots. On to book three. Philthy fucked around with this message at 06:41 on Nov 10, 2019 |
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Nov 10, 2019 06:24
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Rogue Protocol - The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells Book three. This book reminded me of the first, but a little better. There is an overreaching arc going on taking place between missions. Not nearly as much character development or world-building as the second book. This story focused on the main arc with a secondary mission. I like where it ended, and I immediately downloaded book 4 and I'm working through that now. Ultimately, this series is pretty good. It really reminds me back to reading something like the Neuromancer Spawl series back in the day. But - I will say paying $10-17 per book is absolutely ridiculous. All four should be combined into a single $8 book at best. That is my only real complaint. It's a good read, but the cost is way way out of line for this material by a wide margin. Maybe I'm just being old fashioned and I should be willing to pay $10-17 per 120 pages in todays indie(?) market. I don't know. I do like people being compensated fairly for their works, and maybe this is helping that. I don't really know. It should be totally unrelated to the work, but when it's skewed this much you can't help but comment on it.
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Nov 13, 2019 20:26
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quantumfoam posted:That has been the number 1 major complaint everyone has voiced about the Murderbot series. Macmillian (the book publisher) is price-gouging like mad on the Murderbot novelettes. I do see the fifth book is up for preorder and it's an honest to god 350 page book for $14 Kindle / $21 hardcover. More inline I guess.
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Nov 14, 2019 06:59
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Exit Strategy - The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells Book 4. This was enjoyable. The story arcs continue and there was more world building and character growth. I really enjoy this universe and I finished this wanting more. I am really anticipating book 5 in May 2020. So after reading all four, I think book one was Wells getting a feel for Murderbot, and by book 2 she knew where to go and did so with the following three books. Thumbs up to this series.
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Nov 18, 2019 04:19
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We Are Legion by Dennis E. Taylor Book 1 of the Bobiverse series. After finishing the Murderbot series I wanted something along the same lines. I liked the AI-driven character with human instincts, the upgrades, the interaction between normal humans, etc. After some googling, I saw a lot of people suggesting the Bobiverse books for people in the same situation. I wasn't let down. I thoroughly enjoyed this first book. I went in not knowing what to expect. All I knew was the main character, Bob, is a wealthy tech nerd who somehow becomes an android(-ish). This book goes into so many places it's hard to describe without spoiling anything. I guess the easiest way to describe it is to imagine someone wrote a book about a 4x space game and put it into writing. This book feels like a goon wrote it. You'll come across lots of pop culture references and memes that have been beaten to death being beaten to death even more. It keeps a humorous tone throughout. At times I was wondering how great this book might be if it was just simply hard scifi without the humor and I'm not sure I could handle that. I also can't handle the main character sometimes. It's like being on SA too long, it wears thin, but is usually refreshing the next day. It's kinda like that. Sort of. I really did enjoy the book. It's light reading, and amusing. It has technology advances, battles, more tech advances, more battles, exploration, alien worlds, dead worlds, prime directives, and more. It has so much it's a lot to take in. I'm digging into book two of three. Leave your thinking cap at home, Bob will do all the thinking for you. Philthy fucked around with this message at 21:16 on Nov 28, 2019 |
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Nov 23, 2019 18:50
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Flaggy posted:I read all three of these books. They are so much fun. Yeah! I can say that so far of having maybe being halfway into book 2, the author has toned down the annoying bits, and turned up the more interesting bits. The retro scifi geek humor is still there, it's just taking more of a back seat as the seriousness intensifies. Seems to be a reoccurring theme lately with a series of books I've been reading. It's really great stuff, regardless! Philthy fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Nov 25, 2019 |
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Nov 25, 2019 19:05
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For We Are Many by Dennis E. Taylor Book two of the Bobiverse series. Barring some significant misstep in the third book, this series is going to be one of my favorites of scifi. This book had everything I've been wanting lately. Yes, it's light reading. But the sheer amount of what is being presented is blowing my mind. The humor was dialed down, and the world-building and character development dialed up to ten. It was the perfect mix that kept me reading long past when I should have been asleep. Exploration, empathy for alien races, war, engineering new technology, multiple plot-lines, some finishing, some just starting. The author made one huge rear end scifi sandbox and you can tell he's having a blast being god with it. Literally. So much fun. Jumping into book three!
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Nov 28, 2019 21:12
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All These Worlds by Dennis E. Taylor Book three, the final book in the Bobiverse. Fantastic series. It didn't disappoint. This one took a far more serious tone, and dialed down the humor even more. A whole lot of character development, and a LOT(LOT) of loose ends taken care of. A few weren't, and I think there is another side book on the way judging from the author's blog. I'll devour it the day it releases. I would definitely say if the whole android/human thing from the Murderbot series hooked you, this series is right up your alley. Philthy fucked around with this message at 01:39 on Dec 2, 2019 |
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Dec 2, 2019 01:14
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A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway I visited Paris almost 10 years ago and had a fantastic time. I wanted to read something involving Paris as the centerpiece of sorts. I was wandering the aisles of Half Price books and found this book on display. I paged through it and found it was about Paris. Something like this doesn't happen too often, so I bought it having no idea. Overall the book was a good read. It is a collection of encounters of Hemingway's early life living in Paris as a starving artist with his wife and kid. Many of the encounters involve him sitting in a cafe having drinks while trying to get writing done. He had a group of author friends who would later be more well known who appear throughout the book. The main being F. Scott Fitzgerald, having just published The Great Gatsby with very poor sales. He takes Hemingway on adventures in and around Paris as they both battle stress and typically curing it by simply drinking more. Hemingway seemed to be a very frank person and was very blunt to people's faces about his dislikes, so it made for a pretty interesting read simply because of the reactions to what would normally be casual small talk. It does come across as disjointed in places, but having looked into this book more, it was published posthumously (It's right on the back of the book which I barely glanced at). He originally kept notebooks of his experiences in Paris at the time knowing he would be writing this book later on in life. However, the notebooks somehow got misplaced in a trunk and stored in the basement of a hotel he stayed at. Some 30 years later he returned to Paris and stayed at the same hotel when the management let him know they had a trunk of his. After recovering the notebooks he set out writing this book. He had several drafts done and then apparently killed himself before it was ever fully completed. With the history behind it, I think it gives this book a bit more life. I haven't read anything by Hemingway that I can remember, but I'll likely put something else of his on my todo list.
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Dec 5, 2019 19:28
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The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway Having misplaced the next book I wanted to read, I came across this book in a box in my basement. I guess this is why the name Hemingway seemed familiar to me. I remember buying it years ago when I randomly picked books off the shelves of well known authors and piled them away for moments like this I guess. I nearly read it all during my lunch break at work. It's a short book. I think I understand a bit why Hemingway was held in high regard now. His writing style is very easy to digest while keeping something that might otherwise be boring, very interesting. Old Man and the Sea is more about the themes rather than a straight up story. Hemingway knew going into this he was writing more than an old man fishing, it was his vehicle to deliver a handful of interesting ideas. For me, I saw how being old has such an effect on you, and that no matter how strong you are, you probably should accept help when it is offered rather than being stubborn. Reading up on other explanations most other people see other ideas that I also agree with but never really hit me while reading. This is definitely a book for a classroom discussion that I think could go on forever (And likely has looking at some posts). Overall a good, quick read.
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Dec 7, 2019 19:24
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Moby Dick by Herman Melville [Copied from BotM thread] I absolutely loved the story portion, which I felt like maybe 30% of the book. The other 70% felt like Encyclopedia Whale. Which was very interesting at first (So much so I was sitting in Wikipedia going over it all), but lost me when it felt like Melville obsessed over every little bit of whale and never stopped writing. Skeleton? Heads? Skin? Brain? Intestines? I could be entirely off, and maybe it was really 70/30 just because content that doesn't interest you seems to drag. I do admit I'm terrible at allegories and most likely much of this content went right over my head. (Even reading an annotated version) Those last 30 or so chapters were amazing, however. It really saved me from feeling bad about reading this. I'm glad I stuck with it and finished it. Maybe I'll revisit it again a few years from now.
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Dec 25, 2019 23:39
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Giger by H.R. Giger Got this for Christmas. I was really into Giger about 30 years ago, and I have a lot of his portfolios that I used to hang all over my walls. (Looking back, I'm not sure how my parents let me do this.) I wouldn't do this today, but I still enjoy his unique aesthetic. It's a short book, about 100 pages or so, filled with art on every page, but also an autobiography. He writes about growing up and various influences he had, girlfriends, and other life adventures. You get to see the direction his art went from smaller displays to eventually being hired on designing props for movies. He writes about other artists he was friends with and a few encounters. It's a perfect mix for a quick read and some fantastic art to look at. Nothing boring here, it's all interesting.
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Dec 27, 2019 19:22
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Foundation by Isaac Asimov This was a great book to end the decade with. However, it kind of spoils a lot of scifi I've enjoyed before it. Consisting of five short stories that link together spanning a hundred or so years, it tells the story of seeing the future of the Galactic Empire falling. There is so much Dune here, and the opening story is totally Imperium of Mankind's Terra from Warhammer 40k which eventually leads into Adeptus Mechanicus themes throughout. You have machines that are maintained by priests whose religion is science. You have visions into the future and trying to pick the right paths so humanity doesn't spend 30,000 years in darkness. You have personal shields that make guns useless. So much in such a tiny book. This was written in 1942! Yeah, I knew he influenced scifi, but this is kind of ridiculous. As much as I liked Dune, it's kind of heart breaking to know almost all of it was written already 20 plus years prior. It was a very cool read. Not much action, but a whole lot of politicking with smooth moves left and right. Philthy fucked around with this message at 04:07 on Jan 1, 2020 |
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Jan 1, 2020 03:57
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Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontė I found book this buried in a box of my moms stuff that had been given to me. She was born and raised in England, and took me to see my relatives a few times back in the 80s. During one of those trips I got to see the house the Brontė sisters grew up in. Charlotte Brontė was my mothers favorite author, and I found a pile of Brontė books packed away and even a pamphlet from the tour of the house we had done. Jane Eyre was the most worn of the bunch, so I simply opened it to read the first page and I couldn't put it down. I'm still processing much of it, but for a book that was written in the mid-1800s this is pretty powerful for a woman to endure and resist men, religion, and "society" the way Jane does. While it had some eye brow raising moments, it was a fantastic book overall.
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Jan 8, 2020 06:37
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The Art of God of War by a lot of artists My wife got me this for Christmas since God of War on the PS4 was one of my favorite games in a long, long time. I never cared for the previous God of War games (I suck at them), but this latest game had such a fantastic story and the artistic style and vistas presented still has my jaw sitting on the floor. I devoured this game from start to finish when it was released. The last time I had done this was Bloodborne a few years prior. Anyways, the book itself is about as any other art book, it's quite thick, 230 or so pages just filled to the brim of concept art for the game. There is some commentary on decisions made, but it's not much. It's 99% art, which I guess makes sense. I love all the art, even the concept art sketches are fantastic to look at. I would have loved more commentary, but it's a top-notch product regardless.
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Jan 9, 2020 19:58
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sleez posted:High-Risers: Cabrini-Green and the Fate of American Public Housing by Ben Austen. To add to this, you can check out Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh. Sudhir befriends a bunch of gang members who control the Cabrini-Green complexes (and surrounding area). He dives into the poverty, how members helped each other, and had many interactions with the families there. It's been a few years since I read it but really enjoyed it. It has a Wire feel to it in a lot of ways in that you get to really know both sides of the equation.
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Jan 15, 2020 17:34
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