Top 3 books of 2010
I’m just going to copy and paste my top 5 fav’s from last year in no particular order.
The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back by Charles Pellegrino - Wow, where do I even begin with this book. Its basically a look back at the different stories of people that survived the A-bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Crazy crazy stuff, and an amazing read.
The book is very scientific in the first chapter, but its not boring in the slightest. It will describe what happens during an A-bomb explosion in milliseconds and its all fascinating.
I had a lot of preconceptions that were completely wrong. I thought that when these things went off they just wiped everything out. There were actually a lot of survivors, though due to the economic conditions of Japan at the time a lot of people died immediately after. Then there were the people that got sick and died many years later due to cancer from the black rain.
Even after surviving the bomb, many people weren’t allowed to really live. Many people wound up getting sick in years to come, getting very tired, having loss of breath and eventually dying. Due to this a lot of companies didn’t want to hire known bomb survivors. They also generally weren’t allowed to marry for the same reason. Some survivors who never had symptoms, of what would later be referred to as bomb sickness, passed it on to their kids.
In the first 2 chapters its pretty much about the bomb dropping and how it works, and what happened to the people on the ground. This was just AMAZING stuff. While going through it I thought it would make for a really good James Cameron film. It turns out he actually optioned the movie last month. I think he’d be perfect for the job for the special effects needed, and I’m not sure who else could get it right aside from maybe Peter Jackson.
The title of the book comes from some of the survivors that were able to take the last train from Hiroshima. This was a positive and a negative. It was a postive because obviously it got them out of hell. It was a negative for some because it took them to where they wanted to be . . . which was Nagasaki. Apparently the bomb dropped in Hiroshima was considered a dud. It didn’t have anywhere near the power it should have. The one dropped in Nagasaki 3 days later was the real deal.
All in all I highly recommend this book. Go check it out! Here are the first 5 pages of the book printed in the NYT.
5/50
Boardwalk Empire by Nelson Johnson - After seeing the trailers for the upcoming HBO show I had to read the book, and I’m glad I did. Its a really good look at the history of Atlantic City for over 150 years. The TV series I think is just going to cover a small sliver in time while the book covers everything from construction to around where we are now.
Its told in a documentary/history style, and not so much as a novel. There was a TON of things that I didn’t know, and I’m glad I now do. I highly recommend checking it out and I can’t wait to see the series.
29/50
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman - Wow this book was awesome. I didn’t want to stop. Its a good war novel, but it has a lot more to do with the idea of change over time, and how war can screw with your society.
The book follows a man that was born in the 70’s when interstellar war breaks out with an alien race. All battles take place out in space which requires relativistic travel which means the travel to and from is quick for the person in travel, but years pass on earth. This more then anything is what the book is about. The man it follows was in the war from the very begining and went away and came back something like 20-40 years later and a lot changed. He left again to sort of return, and it was several hundred years later. By the time the book ends its past the year 3000 for him and he can finally just live his life.
If you liked books like Enders Game I think this would probably be up your alley.
33/50