Friday Reads! #MilitaryMay

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:19]Hi everyone, welcome to my channel and another Friday reads.

[00:00:27]Man, my uh my allergies are off the chain and have been for a few days.

[00:00:36]Uh sneezing fits like 10 in a row. Uh runny nose.

[00:00:45]And I have a lot to say. Luckily, uh that's why I light the incense to calm me down a little bit. Uh before I do the Friday reads, I I line my books up and start thinking about what I want to say and uh and then roll it and it's all like and then add on my my struggles and uh I know what you're thinking.

[00:01:15]You're thinking, "Did your mother let you leave the house today wearing that And uh the answer is yes. Uh this is how I appear today on on the IRL on the streets.

[00:01:31]And uh I got a few looks and and in that and uh smiles and just in my walking around the neighborhood going to where'd I go today? Well, it doesn't matter.

[00:01:47]Uh, I'm going to uh mention uh a person I've known for a long time in book terms, probably like five years or more. And I rarely talk about it. We didn't read the James Baldwin book this uh February like we have been over the years, but uh Patrice Jones is doing a hashtag military may and it just and we're buddy readading uh Tim O'Brien's the things that they carried. I'm just getting around to buddy to reading it and I've read like half of it. It's superb. I'm going to immediately reread it. It's short stories, but I'm also I I finished Catch 22 group read with uh Likton and Allen and uh we read this in like three installments and uh uh met once a week on on WhatsApp and we have one more meeting to go this Sunday. Um, it started out great and then got better. We We were afraid uh we were all in agreement on on this.

[00:03:09]more about Patrice later, but uh we were all in agreement that it's a satire and it started out very funny, humorous, then it got a little flat, got a little bit Ebidcastello and the subject matter is World War II American Pilots and like a PTSD and the absurdity of war and and there's a lot of death in it, but is the humor satire.

[00:03:42]But then it it got better and it went from flat to and character driven to more what's going on? What is the the main character?

[00:03:53]Well, he's got a funky name. Uh is he going to get out of here? Is it ever going to end? Because one of the uh the jokes in it is Yeah.

[00:04:08]Yerion with a Y.

[00:04:12]Yoserian is his uh name.

[00:04:16]Uh but the uh the commanders keep upping the yeah like first you had to do uh 40 services tours of bombing to you know get sent home. Then it was 50, then 55, then it's one one of the absurdities in this book. Anyway, it got much better.

[00:04:42]Another war book I'm reading is non-fiction Eric Larson's The Demon of Unrest about the Civil War. I like studying on the Civil War and I like going to Civil War memorial sites when I can, every opportunity I can. And I like Eric Larson. So, I'll be finishing this book next week.

[00:05:07]I'm here to say officially that I am a Sally Rooney fan.

[00:05:14]Well, as much as one can be after uh like almost reading the first book from her.

[00:05:23]I've heard she has a or I heard there's a unpopular opinion about her. Some of my friends won't mention any names but don't like her and won't read her. But I like her. She's like Irish and I I like Irish uh novels set in like Dublin or Gway or wherever uh Olter you know Northern Ireland but this is in Dublin and uh about two brothers and there's a relationship. one is a chess master and on the uh I whether they say the autistic side or I don't really know that the terminology for that and the other one's real successful but doesn't it's complicated and then there's love relationships in it I'm uh buddy readading this with uh my friend and commenter extraordinaire Lisa in Boston.

[00:06:29]So, yeah, I like Sally Rooney. I don't know why people don't like her. I mean, I read a lot of hard books and it's nice to read it a nice like pallet cleanser.

[00:06:41]Now, I'd be remiss if I wouldn't mention my friend LinkedIn again where going to buddy read this Peter Watts Blind Sight.

[00:06:51]It's a uh sci-fi classic and I haven't started it yet, but I'm looking forward to reading this. And I I'll get the audio on this, too.

[00:07:03]And I didn't get to Tom Robbins Tibetan Peach Pie, his autobiography for April, people, April, but I will. Uh this book isn't going anywhere.

[00:07:18]Now uh want to mention talk on Patrice a bit more uh because she's been on book as a commenter for years and she's like a one of those are friends that I I know quite a bit about her and her family just from talking to her like on Voxer and that through the years and we we've read a lot of Baldwin.

[00:07:45]Uh this is a great hit, this biography by David Lemine is a a great uh uh bio on Baldwin.

[00:07:58]And we've read other Baldwins uh you know, Go Tell It on the Mountain. We better read Notes of a Naked Sun.

[00:08:09]Excellent. Um, Bill Street is one of my favorite Baldwins.

[00:08:18]So, I know Patrice a little bit and uh she's got her own channel now, Fenison Books. I'll link the channel below and all the people I've mentioned here. Now, I I've been closing these Friday reads with a little uh you'll be the first to know who's going to be on Monday live show this Monday.

[00:08:42]It's Elaine at Cobalt Dragon and I've been buddy readading some Carlos Castanada with her in these past uh couple years and uh we're going on to I think his third which is I forgot and I'm not prepared, but I I'll be buying it from Amazon.

[00:09:09]I uh I noticed a caston video popped up in my my feed today and I uh I should have marked it for watch later because it's like an hour and so long.

[00:09:26]But I think I got to everything.

[00:09:30]It's only May 1st.

[00:09:33]I'll be reading um a horror novel for Horror Mayhem. It's called Revival.

[00:09:40]I forgot who wrote it. Greg uh turned me on to it.

[00:09:46]But that's what I've been reading. Uh let me know what you've been up to uh this week. It this week went fast and now it's a May day. First day of May. my kid brother's birthday.

[00:10:03]So, uh, thought you made it this far.

[00:10:07]Like, subscribe, make a comment. I'll reply back to you.