<p>Thanks for the recommendation. I have never heard of the book or of Dufresne.</p>
<p>FS,</p>
<p>Could the cultural ignorance be your own? I haven’t seen any Mao shirts, but maybe they’re a reference to Andy Warhol or Don DeLillo. Let’s hope so.</p>
<p>As for books, has anyone read the new George Saunders novella? I haven’t heard much yet, but I’m intrigued.</p>
<p>On the subject of griping about long wait lines for popular books at the library-- please think about it from the author’s point of view! Writers make money only from the first sale of the book. My own recently released novel has made the list of most reserved books at our local library all summer, and while I’m tickled that people seem to be giving it good word of mouth, I wish they’d get impatient enough to just go buy their own copies!</p>
<p>FS, Could the cultural ignorance be your own? I haven’t seen any Mao shirts</p>
<p>SpoonyJ,</p>
<p>Your’s seems to be a version of the well worn argument that states, if I dont remember something, it doesnt exist. I would think this to be the logical–and more mature–extension of the argument that states, when I close my eyes the world cant see me.</p>
<p>It exists:
Chairman Mao Cool T-shirts
<a href=“Zen Shop Buddhism T-shirts & Buddhist Gifts”>http://www.cafepress.com/esangha/505991</a></p>
<p>FS:</p>
<p>You need a dose of post-modern irony. The site you linked is a great example of capitalism making a buck out of anything and everything. It is not an example of Mao adulation but of Mao exploitation, just like Andy Warhol, that true cultural revolutionary and Mao admirer (yeah!). My neighbor has a Buddha statue in her garden. I believe she is a devout Christian.</p>
<p>Marite,</p>
<p>Should we come across some Ironic Cool Hitler t-shirts should we all be as ironically delighted as we are with Cool Mao t-shirts?</p>
<p>Im guessing not.</p>
<p>Almost as unlikely will be the out-of-fashion Cool-Stalin t-shirts. </p>
<p>Mao, it seems, still has something of a constituencyin China and the US. </p>
<p>In either case, I would not be ironically delighted and I would be torn between toleration of irony and condemnation of a mass-murderer. </p>
<p>The Andy Warhol thing is another but different issue.</p>
<p>It probably takes more of an artistic and ironic approach than might be thought comfortable to those who have actual experience with any of the triumvirate of evil. I havent, so I defer.</p>
<p>Re: Buddha,</p>
<p>To the best of my knowledge, the Buddha was not known to have slaughtered and ruined millions of innocents but quite the opposite…</p>
<p>FS:</p>
<p>You misunderstand. Just because somebody wears a Mao T-shirt does not make that person a Mao admirer, just as somebody who has a Buddha in her garden is not, ipso facto, a Buddhist.</p>
<p>Get a grip.</p>
<p>Marite,</p>
<p>I dont suppose the historical amnesia or ignorance of someone who ironically adorns themselves with serene depictions of THE GREATEST KILLERS OF THE 20TH CENTURY (it should be a series) is comparable to your neighbor who adorns/sanctifies her/his garden with the One who reached nirvana sitting in the lotus position under the Boddhi tree (undoubtedly appropriate to a gardens tranquillity): I strongly doubt the irony in the first instance and I am confident it is no part of the second so I fail to understand your analogy as there isnt one.</p>
<p>In post #24, I was addressing spoonyjs contention that such things as Cool Mao t-shirts dont exist, since she, herself, hadnt seen any: evidently not seeing is not the same as not existing.</p>
<p>In Post #25, taking a different approach, while understanding that such shirts exist, you pointed out that I need a dose of post-modern irony to which I replied that I would not have the artistic moral courage to do so; and moreover, Im not so sure that your imagined irony is what motivates the marketing of Cool Chairman Mao t-shirts in any case (though from a macabre point of view I suppose they could be seen as ironic) but Im relatively certain that many of those who buy the iconic shirts of the macabre see themselves more as social-radicals in a political sense than as artistic-ironists in a transcendent sense; which I realize to some will seem like a difference without a distinction–shedding more light on the artists than the political-oddballs.</p>
<p>My mother lived under Khomeini and I can assure you she would not view fun-loving and ironic t-shirts with iconic and serene representations of Khomeini on them as artistic, humane or ironic (and I do not even think Khomeini rises to the level of Mao, Stalin and Hitler). Neither would I. </p>
<p>Others seem to have more of an ‘artistic’ and ‘ironic’ sensibility (notice the ‘postmodern’ in-qoutes) as they recall the civil and uncivil deeds and misdeeds of tyrants, mass-murderers and political icons: To each his own, as they say.</p>
<p>[by the way, I’m not even so sure that even J. F. Lyotard saw “Postmodernism” in a prescriptive sense but rather saw it as merely a descriptive diagnostic analysis]</p>
<p>FS:</p>
<p>The people who wear Mao T-shirts certainly have not lived under Mao. Though I understand that in China, there are lots of people who literally worship Mao (there are plenty of Mao altars and portraits in the homes of ordinary Chinese). But Americans who wear Mao T-shirts have other agendas; the reference they have is probably Warhol rather than the actual historical figure of Mao. You cannot infer their politics from their T-shirts.</p>
<p>Marite,</p>
<p>You have stated my point well.</p>
<p>I read “Devil in the White City” last year. It was just ok. The best thing about it was the description of the world’s fair and all the new innovations that were introduced. There was really very little factual information on the Devil.</p>
<p>The best thing I’ve read lately was Jame Lee Burkes latest mystery. He is still the best pure writer for my money.</p>
<p>I’m anxiously awaiting my package from Amazon containing Terry Pratchett’s newest.</p>
<p>Terry Pratchett had a reading of his newest book at Harvard last Friday. I told S about it, but I don’t know whether he went (I forgot to ask). He’s been told to wait until the paperback version comes out.</p>
<p>In spite of possibly being seen as even more out-of-date than garland 
I would suggest Boyd by Coram (and biographies are not my favorites), and Flyboys. Both are outstanding. I insisted that both my boys read Flyboys, and the reaction was the same–Why can’t they write history books like this?</p>
<p>Enjoyingthis: These are 2 books which I scoped out in the library before buying. Also, I have bought fiction from authors sight unseen, but only after I have read earlier works in the library.</p>
<p>Bandit, I’m a huge JLBurke fan–he’s the best writer of contemporary mystery. Haven’t read the latest but I think it’s almost impossible to top In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead.</p>
<p>Many good suggestions here, thanks everyone.</p>
<p>Ive never been able to get through Burke myself although my H has several lying around. He really enjoyed Devil in the White City and also Bangkok 8 by John Burdett.
I like slower paced books- Bel Canto is a favorite but for mysteries I lean towards writers from or about the UK. Rankin, Hill, Walters, Sayers, Crombie,George, although I do really like the mysteries set in Appalachia by Sharyn McCrumb and a writer who is local or at least he used to be Aaron Elkins whose detective is a forensic anthropologist with a weak stomach</p>
<p>It’s the description with Burke… I have never been to southern Louisiana, but you can feel the heat and humidity as he describes it. You can almost feel the spanish moss brushing your shoulder, and the characters (of every description) are sooooo right.<br>
The Montana novels are pretty close too, because the main characters are transplants, and it is realistic when he describes the interaction with the real natives. It is not “made up”.
That said, some are better than others. Besides “Mist” (above) I really liked Cadillac Jukebox and some of the earlier Robicheaux novels.</p>
<p>I have read a lot of Sayers, and George, but have you read Laurie King (the “apprentice” to Sherlock Holmes) mysteries?</p>
<p>I have read Laurie King and I especially liked her sanfrancisco character.
THe problem I have with some series writers like King is that after a while it is too predictable, I don’t feel like the characters surprise anymore, even though I still might like them very much.
some writers are so prolific and turn out a new book every couple of years or even every year, but I give up on them. but then
some favorite authors have escaped that and aren’t churning out any more because they are dead, like Sayers or one of my favorites, Sarah Caudwell who was a British Barrister who wrote rather formally for a contemporary author but with a great deal of humor, humor is often a nice relief from books that are more gorey than I anticpated.
If you like international atmosphere the novels set in Venice by Donna Leon combined with radio shows by Rick Steves where he is always going on about Italy followed up by Italian cooking on the Savvy Traveler and I am ready to book a flight!</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great suggestions, I will now have to quit my job to read all on my list…Oh wait have to pay for 2 in college, …so many books so little time</p>
<p>My Ss loved Bangkok 8.</p>