Question of the Day | 04/25/2008 12:00 am

What are you reading that you really love?

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Agreed (that Frank is cool…love his reading list).

By Maurine H on 04/26/2008 12:30 am

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Frank: Gosh, here we go again––––I loved Daniel Martin and Alice Munro is such a superb writer and Stryron with whom I got to know through our neighbors, his son Tom and wife. In fact your list would be my list and yes, it goes on and on, doesn’t it?

By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 04/25/2008 5:32 pm

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Phyllis—I’m gobbed smacked: you knew Bill and Rose Styron? Wowwweeeee! And you like Daniel Martin—You are the 1st person I’ve ever talked to that liked it—amazing—most women I’ve talked to about it hated it—too long, why doesn’t he get to the point, etc. Yes it’s a long leisurely book but there’s so much in it—you should see my copy—every page is annotated—just finished reading it again in late March. And Alice—gads but I love Canada and Canadians—such lovely people even if their beer sucks lol When I was in Paris on leave I went to Shakespeare and CO. and this guy ambled up and said: you a soldier? I looked and it was James Jones—lordy I was one happy kid—he signed a book for me and invited me to his apartment on the Ile de Cite. Nice guy with the craziest laugh Ive ever heard. I meet Gloria and the kids too. Lovely man. Kind man to a young kid soldier like he was once upon a time.

By Frank Peterson on 04/25/2008 5:49 pm

Dear gobbed-smacked: My Daniel Martin is also stained and frayed and marked––I think it’s a remarkable book. Now onto the Styrons. Thought you might get a kick out of a little ditty I wrote for Tom and Phoebe’s baby boy on his blessing day: To Thomas Terry Styron On His Blessing Day Thomas Terry very merry Was born on the 9th of February Seemingly pleased to be out in view He looked for all the world brand new But Thomas Terry had been around Upstairs, downstairs, all about town He knew shops, streets and such was his purview Even a vineyard named Martha he knew So see him now on his Blessing Day All decked out to meet the fray He knows, does ole Thomas Terry That life ain’t just a bowl of cherries So we wish him the bestest ever The ties that bind never to sever And as he grows, we’ll cheer him on Hip, hip hooray, little ole Tom.

By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 04/26/2008 8:12 am

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Phyllis, what a lovely gift for his Blessing Day—love that phrase, Phyllis, really love it. Thank for for sharing this—I’m moved thank you.

By Frank Peterson on 04/26/2008 2:54 pm

Phyllis/Frank: Of course you must know that Rose Styron was a major supporter / contributor / architect of the rise of Amnesty International in the United States (along with Joan Baez, Ginetta Sagan, Sally Lilienthal, Prof. Barbara Sproul, Whitney Ellsworth, et al…?

By Mugsy Peabody on 05/02/2008 6:23 pm

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Lena—thank you so much— I should have put two short stories in that list: The Big Two-Hearted River and A Way You’ll Never Be by Hemingway Those two helped a young damaged boy recover from things no boy should ever have to experience let alone see. They got me thru many dark nights at 3 in the morning.

By Frank Peterson on 04/25/2008 4:43 pm

AB, haha, yes. And let’s not forget that other woman who ‘bobbed’ it with a knife in the dark! Over 1000 comments on the NYTimes so far and they’re havin’ trouble keepin’ up. Shameful as to what the Nation’s cities police department’s have become. None of us are safe from the ones we pay to keep us safe!

By The Ole Crone The Ole Crone on 04/25/2008 5:08 pm

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Seems many the cops are now shaved bald, say Sir! Yes Sir! and fire. I donot think civilian police should be former militray. Not since the ‘volunteer’ forces anyway. Hometown young men are best. They care. I recommend for those who like physics and prose, EINSTEIN’S DREAM: by Alan Lightman. Nice book for under the ole appletree or under the glow of lightning bugs!

By The Ole Crone The Ole Crone on 04/25/2008 5:18 pm

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Is anyone writing a book? I’m working on it. Also, where in the heck do you put all those books. Our house is covered with books and I’m not about to toss em, ur even give them away. Books after I read them are like my children; clearly a part of the family; couldn’t part with them. But boy, do they take up space!

By Jenny Oops on 04/25/2008 5:38 pm

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Yes—I’ve read many books on Vietnam and there are only two that are head and shoulders above the rest: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien—my vet hero and writer—and Frances Fitzgerald’s The Fire in the Lake. Tim’s book encompasses stories of the Nam from a grunt’s eye view of the war—and it’s brilliant. Frances’ book is a history of the conflict especially the events leading up to our incursion, Highly recommended. As for mine: I’m 32k words in and still slogging—there are times when I think I need to try and publish yet most of the time it’s just laying my ghosts to rest. Coming to a separate peace.

By Frank Peterson on 04/25/2008 6:00 pm

Frank: “A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam” has been cited as the best book on Vietnam. It is 800 pages and it took me forever, but it lives up to its reputation––it’s a stunning book. The other that I really, really liked was David Halberstam’s “The Best and the Brightest”––––his “War in the Time of Peace” is also great.

By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 04/26/2008 8:22 am

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Phyllis—I’ve read both and they really are magnificent achievements—The Best and The Brightest—yes that war took so many of them away and thinking of that the anger once again comes unbidden. We lost so many of them—there are times when i think that this country of mine is due for a reckoning for the loss of all it’s daughter’s and sons wasted in wars that were not only unnecessary but criminal in their inceptions. God I hated that war so much and all that that entailed and now we have another in the desert and more of The Best and The Brightest are being lost. This is unconscionable.

By Frank Peterson on 04/26/2008 3:02 pm

Frank - The Things They Carried is a favorite of mine as well. It was a hard read for me because my son being on deployment (3 times), but I knew the truth in it. I find it is hard for me to even read mysteries, or things with too much death and murder, while he is over there. We are friends of Faye and Jonathan Kellerman, and they will often send us their new books, and I am always embarrassed that I haven’t read them. They have also sent many of their books to my son in Iraq, with several copies to pass around. But I just can’t read them until he is out of the army. I just can’t. I see many people mention his name, and I am going to email him and let him know that people on this site love his work. You are so enthusiastic about life it is great.

By Frannie Em on 04/26/2008 10:56 pm

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Frances, The Things They Carried is difficult for me to read too—I get so emotionally involved and the remembrances start coming back full force, but I wouldn’t be without it. It’s the guide to my writing and my inspiration. If I’m not prying, has your son been stop:lossed? A third tour? My god you must be totally frightened for him. Frances. I know my mother was scared to death for me. She’d seen her four brothers go to war and her husband, my father, go too and then she watched helplessly as her first born went to war 25 years later. I cannot imagine what went thru her heart and soul that day I left—I saw the tears and felt the hugs and kisses and those I’ll never forget. I hope your son is alright. I’ll think about him often and you too.

By Frank Peterson on 04/27/2008 12:40 pm