Section 2: Look! We Took Crooked Brook! Orchard Road Turnoff - Summit Wood Drive, 1.4 miles May 12, 2007 Note: This page and “section” is a bit ridiculous, however, the trail description is accurate. This was written in 2007, so please forgive me. If you want to start at the beginning of the trail, go the … [Read more...]
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Metacomet Trail: Section 1
Section 1: An Inauspicious Beginning Berlin Turnpike-Orchard Road Turnoff, 1.8 miles, Berlin April 29, 2007 Note: This page and “section” is a bit ridiculous, however, the trail description is accurate. This was written in 2007, so please forgive me. If you want to start at the beginning, go the Metacomet Intro … [Read more...]
World Cup Tour 2006
I was able to fulfill a dream in 2004 by going to France to see the Tour de France. Another wish is to see the World Cup in all its insanity at some point in my life. Short of that, I was fascinated by a series of online articles in Salon back in 2002 in which the intrepid reporter attempted to watch World Cup games … [Read more...]
ML64. The Catcher in the Rye
If a Body Meet a Body, Give Them This Book Modern Library # 64 1945, J.D. Salinger [I write CT Beer Reviews too. They aren't typical beer reviews at all - like this one in particular which, if you're reading this page, you may enjoy a little bit.] I begin this review with a plea: If you haven’t read this book … [Read more...]
ML52. Portnoy’s Complaint
Oy Vey! Modern Library # 52 1967, Philip Roth This may perhaps be the most difficult Top 100 Book Review I'll ever do. Not because I loved it so much I can't find the words and not because I hated it either. No... it's because "Portnoy's Compaint" is so downright dirty and sex-filled that I wouldn't know how to … [Read more...]
ML45. The Sun Also Rises
Great Book. No Bull. Modern Library # 45 1926, Ernest Hemingway I love Ernest Hemingway. There, I said it. Anti-Semite, racist, mysoginist, drunkard, jerk... On and on the epithets go - but I'm judging the man's work, not his personality. I'm reading my Hemingway "up;" from the shorter stuff like "Snows of … [Read more...]
ML36. All the King’s Men
The Sin of Politics Modern Library #36 1946, Robert Penn Warren I picked up this book in a flight of fancy that said, "Read this book quickly in early September and then I will go out and enjoy the surely Oscar-worthy movie version starring Jude Law, Sean Penn, Anthony Hopkins, and Kate Winslet that premiers … [Read more...]
ML33. Sister Carrie
How Sista Got Her Groove Back Modern Library # 33 1900, Theodore Dreiser First, a mildly entertaining personal story about this book. Back in 2005, before our kids and other such grown-up nonsense, my wife Hoang and I used to go on fun little vacations. One such trip took us to South Beach. And yes, it surely … [Read more...]
ML31. Animal Farm
Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss Modern Library # 31 1946, George Orwell I know... "Animal Farm?! The little novella about talking animals that we all read in 7th grade?" Yes, that's right. Even if I had read it prior - and I hadn't - the rules of the Top 100 game that Hoang and I are playing dictate … [Read more...]
ML28. Tender is the Night
Don't Be a Dicole* Modern Library # 28 1934, F. Scott Fitzgerald *Dicole: Pronoun, the cutesy made up name used in the novel for the "perfect" married couple, Dick and Nicole Diver Yes, it's true... F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a Top 100 novel other than "The Great Gatsby," and the main characters really do … [Read more...]