TBB Book Recommendation Superstation !!

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > TBB Book Recommendation Superstation !!

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

I really like jail/prison nonfiction-- and I'd really like some recommendations. Two books I recently read were The Hot House: Life inside Leavenworth Prison, and Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing. Both were really interesting books, one was a journalist who interviewed guards/inmates. The other was a journalist who couldn't get access so he became a prison guard for a year. There is a lot of true crime pulp out there that doesn't really interest me, I prefer these books that are more of the 'big picture'.

EDIT- for people scrolling through, I still haven't gotten any recommendations. If you have any, please share!

Juanito fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Jun 10, 2009

# ¿ Jun 4, 2009 16:40

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 04:57

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

Lee Harvey Oswald posted:

Does anyone know of any books that describe in detail the structure of the Mafia? I've never quite understood how it worked, and am interested in a book that highlights the different levels (e.g. capos, etc.) and the roles they play.

I read this many years ago, so I can't remember real well, but I seem to recall The Valachi Papers by Peter Maas being pretty interesting.

From Amazon:

quote:

The First Inside Account of the Mafia
In the 1960s a disgruntled soldier in New York's Genovese Crime Family decided to spill his guts. His name was Joseph Valachi. Daring to break the Mob's code of silence for the first time, Valachi detailed the organization of organized crimefrom the capos, or bosses, of every Family, to the hit men who "clipped" rivals and turncoats. With a phenomenal memory for names, dates, addresses, phone numbers -- and where the bodies were buried -- Joe Valachi provided the chilling facts that led to the arrest and conviction of America's major crime figures.

The rest is history.

He had a bounty put on him, and he had to be carefully protected in jail.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2009 00:14

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

Precise posted:

Anyone have any suggestions for good fiction that involves hackers? And not written by Gibson or Stevenson, both of whom I've already read.

Wyrm by Mark Fabi. This recommendation is for a book that I read a number of years ago. But basically there is a worm that is getting into everything. I seem to remember that the main character was able to interact with the worm via a mud. This is from Amazon:

quote:

The year is 1999. Michael Arcangelo's business is detecting and eliminating viruses, worms, and other computer-nasties from corporate files and operating systems. While attempting to cleanse a cutting-edge chess-playing program, he encounters a worm-- ``Wyrm''--that not only eats other viruses, but reconfigures other programs for greater speed and efficiency! He also meets Al Meade (she's in the same line of business), and the two strike immediate sparks. Further investigation shows that flexible Wyrm might well be intelligent and even self-aware. Problem? Well, the ubiquitous Wyrm has reorganized the entire computer net as a single massively parallel processor; worse, it's apparently planning a millennial apocalypse in which it will not only kill itself but take with it most of the human race by firing off nuclear missiles! The only way to attack Wyrm is through a vast virtual-reality role-playing game designed by computer genius Roger Dworkin--and Roger turns up dead. . . . Will any of this make sense to non-nerds? Let's just say that it helps if you can decode sentences like ``And the frobnule gives us full wizard privileges,'' and if you know your MUDs from your MOOs. A huge, ambitious roller-coaster of a debut, overstuffed with computer hackese, that tries--not always successfully--to meld the latest speculations in artificial intelligence with computer games, Monty Python, mythology, Lewis Carroll, and whatnot. Grab those wizard privileges and beware of hostile frobnules.

I read the book a long time, and I keep meaning to get a copy of it to read again.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2009 21:13

Juanito: Jan 20, 2004; I wasn't paying attention
to what you just said.

Can you repeat yourself
in a more interesting way?; Hell Gem

Wiggles Von Huggins posted:

I am looking for a good book on survival knowledge that is also an interesting read.

I recently read Games Criminals Play: How You Can Profit by Knowing Them. It is mostly for people who work in the jail system, but I think it was a useful read. It shows how convicts slowly and carefully will try to manipulate people. 5 star rating on Amazon with 44 reviews.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2010 17:00

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > TBB Book Recommendation Superstation !!