libros

in an effort to stray from my repetitive entries about bikes and vacations, i have decided to contribute some intellect into today's entry. read on and enjoy my own personal book club (look out oprah)...

i am currently plowing through the plot against america by philip roth. in a unique twist of historical fact, roth combines fiction and truth in the era of hitler, charles lindbergh (famous aviator), and fdr. it revolves around the lives of a middle class jewish family in new jersey and how their lives (and the world) dramatically change when lindbergh beats roosevelt in his running for a 3rd term. factually, lindbergh was a strong anti-semite and supporter of germany during the world wars. you can probably get the idea of the direction it heads. roth does a great job in capturing the reader's attention with "what could have been" had the axis powers won world war 2 and anti-semitism spread throughout the world to the extent that it existed in germany at the time. i have about a third of the book left and am excited to see how it finishes. (note: the back of the book has dates and descriptions of factual events in history so the reader can cross-reference fictional events with those that actually happened in the late 1930s and early 1940s)

a must read for those further interested in historical fiction novels, is the devil in the white city by erik larson. one of the best books i have ever read. long and short - during the 1983 world's fair in chicago, the city struggled to pull off a fair to rival that of france's several short years earlier (insert eiffel tower). during the explosion of human traffic and business entrepreneurism, a shockingly intelligent and suave serial killer was running rampant in the city and one of the world's most brilliang architects pushed for the success of the fair with all of his being. an award winning book and an intriguing blend of genius and insane obsession.

for a lighter book about the drive of the human spirit, pick up between a rock and a hard place by aron ralston. a local pittsburgh student (carnegie mellon), he got his arm pinched between a boulder and a rock wall while hiking/climbing alone in utah. while you can debate the level of his intelligence for hiking alone and not telling anybody where he was, or even the basic human instinct to have severed his own arm to free himself(6 days later), his story is amazing. i, personally, disagree with those who categorize him as an idiot who did something (cutting his own arm off with a dull 3 inch folding knife) that anybody else would have done in the same situation. while i am not willing to put him on a pedestal for surviving a situation he could have avoided getting himself into, his story is nonetheless interesting. easy read, crazy dude, good story.

on deck after i finish tpaa, thunderstruck by erik larson and the known world by edward p. jones.

other recommended reads for different tastes:

• john adams by david mccollough
• team of rivals by doris kearns goodwin (i have yet to read)
• maverick's by matt warshaw (my cousin)

do yourself a favor, read something other than cyclingnews.com