Tomato Nation Read-Along #18: Poll
Submitted by Sarah D. Bunting on February 13, 2014 – 9:56 PM9 Comments
Andy Warhol / Christie’s
It’s been A YEAR since we all read something together? That’s terrible.
And since it’s the best winter to stay inside since, well, Hoth — let’s do this! Politics, true crime, oral history, rock history, we got a little of everything here.
Poll’s open for a week; vote early and often!
What books would you most like to read along with? Pick up to two (2).
- The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder / Charles Graeber (true crime) (26%, 75 Votes)
- Jerry Orbach, Prince of the City / John Anthony Gilvey (biography) (20%, 57 Votes)
- Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President / Candice Millard (history) (17%, 50 Votes)
- The Bonus Army: An American Epic / Paul Dickson, Thomas B. Allen (history) (11%, 33 Votes)
- What You Want Is In The Limo: On the Road with Led Zeppelin... / Michael Walker (pop culture) (7%, 21 Votes)
- Talk Show / Dick Cavett (memoir) (7%, 20 Votes)
- We Got the Neutron Bomb : The Untold Story of L.A. Punk / Marc Spitz, Brendan Mullen (pop culture) (6%, 18 Votes)
- Double Down: Game Change 2012 / Marc Halperin, John Heilemann (politics) (5%, 15 Votes)
Total Voters: 178
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Tags: books Dick Cavett Steve Rubell The TN Read-Along
I’m mildly disturbed that both my choices involved madness and murder. Must be the full moon or something…
Is medicine-madness-murder some sort of true crime trifecta that I never heard of? Or is it the allure of alliteration? (Sorry.)
ORBAAAACH
@Isn: Nah, those are always the best reads.
Let me just say Destiny of the Republic is really good. Usually President James Garfield is just a punchline, but you get a very good picture of him here, and you realize the wasted potential in his death. Also, I used to know Paul Dickson – he came to the library I used to work at all the time. And he is awesome. Super nice.
Dickson had some kind words for TN on Facebook the other day. He’s also the editor of a baseball dictionary that’s one of my multiple-copies-for-various-rooms books.
Totally casting a not-countable vote for Destiny. I just re read Sarah Vowell’s Assassination Vacation and Garfield really is unjustly forgotten.
Listen. I didn’t vote in time, but I am going to tell you, whether you read a long or not you MUST read Destiny of the Republic. I read 130 books last year and it was the best of the them all. READ IT. (It would make a great read along though. If only so you have someone to say “did you see this part? Isn’t that fascinating? What the heck?” to as you go.)
Destiny of the Republic is AMAZING. Seriously. It’s SO great. It’s such a shame people don’t know much about James Garfield, because he was an interesting guy. And his assassin was wonderfully batshit. The book is fantastic.
For that matter, Millard’s other book, “River of Doubt,” which is about Theodore Roosevelt’s expedition down a remote river in the Amazon, is also awesome. I didn’t like it as much as Destiny of the Republic, but it’s still absolutely worth reading.