[cannadyke]

Originally Posted by greenthumb1200

Pot Planet by Brian Preston

i really enjoyed Pot Planet. very fun read. he gets into all sorts of interesting situations.

[LAAD]

Mason & Dixon -Thomas Pynchon

[silvercloud]

Currently ,just received book from Amazon ,"The Cuban Connection"(Eduardo Saenz Rovner) > part of 'my biography' is included > one will always be surprised @ the marvel of Google > that is all

[LAAD]

Just picked up fresh new copies of factotum and hollywood, gotta love that Bukowski!

:partysmile:

[Organo]

just finishing up Angels and Demons before im forced to watch Ron Howard butcher it. save for some inconsistencies regarding the history of the supposed "Illuminati", its a pretty decent read. better then The DaVinci Code imo.

[shecky7]

Been soaking up Albert Pike- The Book of the Words. Which you can also read after downloading here.

[funshine314]

randy pausch - the last lecture

[rasta49]

I'm not reading any books right now, and I know this is gonna sound corny but the last book I read was the twilight book... I read series one and two with my daughter.... haahaha

I'm not trippin' and I'm not even gonna lie when I was medicated and reading these books I felt like I was part of the story. i don't even remember the authors name but she really knows how to write and keep your attention...

Any book suggestions... I like books with lessons great writing and interesting reads...

RASTA

[PFB1500]

Originally Posted by BrattonBasher

Liberty and Tyranny, Mark Levin!!!! "#1 Bestseller".

How was the read?

[Kushism_girl]

I just started:



It has me thinking to say the very least.

[RUSH Fan]

Marijuana Horticulture "The Indoor/outdoor Medical Grower's Bible" by Jorge Cervantes **

[jawnroot]

Just finished Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell the other day. Quite a good read. Epic in more ways than one -- not the least of which being 1000+ pages -- but quality. About two magicians vying for power in 19th century England. Sounds corny, I know. Even after I'd bought it, I was wondering if it was gonna be lame. Definitely not though; really unique. Won several prestigious awards, so obviously doing something right. One caveat: it's written in the style/language of a 19th century novel; if you can't get down with archaic prose, you might want to pass on this one.

Am just now starting Gateway by Pohl. This one is shaping up to be another good'n. The novel opens in the near future, as humans discover a hollowed-out asteroid, the inside of which contains hundreds of still-functional star ships left behind by an extinct race. The ships are so advanced that we don't really know how they work, or how to use them. You just go wherever it takes you on the pre-set autopilot, and then come back. Sometimes they find artifacts, technology, etc, and strike it rich, sometimes the ship comes home empty...or worse.

Each chapter alternates between the main character's experience as an up-and-coming prospector (past), and his psychoanalytic sessions to cope with what he experienced on his last mission (present). Really cool stuff. I'm not very deep into it, but it's got me turning pages.

[Skinzy420]

going through Angels & Demons again..I want to refresh before I go to see the movie

[AJM]

Not MMJ related, but I'm currently re-reading 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. After this finishing, I'm going to try and conquer the Spanish version... ugh.

[tonynbudz]

right now i am reading a book called EMERGENCY: THIS BOOK WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE. its about modern day survival skiills

[SoulRebel]

"The Black Hand" by Chris Blatchford, a very haunting, gritty, frightening, yet sad read...


... S R...

[ShiningSkull]

Originally Posted by SoulRebel

"The Black Hand" by Chris Blatchford, a very haunting, gritty, frightening, yet sad read...


... S R...

Wow. Talk about domestic terrorism.

Here's a quick review of ... S R...'s current read from the LATimes:

BOOK REVIEW

'The Black Hand' by Chris Blatchford

'The Bloody Rise and Redemption of "Boxer" Enriquez, a Mexican Mob Killer'
By Miles Corwin
December 15, 2008

He was a 16-year-old inmate doing time at the Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy, Calif., who came up with the idea of forming a Latino "gang of gangs" inside the prison walls. These convicts would put aside Mexican American street gang rivalries, protect themselves from overzealous guards and band together to battle black and white inmates. The year was 1957, the inmate was Luis "Huero Buff" Flores from Hawaiian Gardens and the ragtag clique of about a dozen teenagers he assembled were the first members of the Mexican Mafia. The gang soon metastasized, spreading to institutions throughout California and then the nation.

Six years after the founding of La Eme -- the Spanish pronunciation of the letter M -- Rene "Boxer" Enriquez was born. Enriquez, a heroin addict and prolific stickup man, was sent to prison and soon became enmeshed in the Mexican Mafia. He eventually assumed a leadership role as the gang evolved from a prison mob into a sophisticated criminal operation that muscled in on the drug trade in the Southwest.

Enriquez's story is told by a Fox 11 television reporter, Chris Blatchford, in “The Black Hand: The Bloody Rise and Redemption of ‘Boxer’ Enriquez, a Mexican Mob Killer.” Blatchford is well-suited to tell this story. He has covered crime in Los Angeles for decades and he captures the nuances and nihilism of the prison world.

No inner-city kid

Enriquez's childhood does not fit the Dickensian template one would expect from a sociopathic hit man. He grew up in a predominantly white suburban Cerritos neighborhood, in a home with two parents who had immigrated here from Mexico. His father, an ambitious, hard-working man who eventually owned a custom furniture factory and dabbled in commercial real estate, had his faults, but he clearly cared for his son and despaired deeply when he went astray.

Enriquez quit school in the ninth grade and, along with his older brother, joined a street gang in nearby Artesia. After briefly working for his father, he quit, began slamming heroin and pulling holdups to pay for his habit. He was arrested after one bungled job and was soon tied to a host of others, because of their similar MOs as well as Enriquez's distinctive tattoos. He pleaded guilty to 21 counts of robbery and was sentenced to seven years in state prison. Legs chained, hands cuffed and wearing a red jumpsuit, he was loaded on the "Gray Goose" -- the prison bus -- and locked up at what was then known as Soledad State Prison. He was 18 years old.

Shortly after arriving at Soledad, Enriquez and his cellmate spotted a member of Nuestra Familia (Spanish for "Our Family"), a prison gang from Northern California and a deadly La Eme rival. They beat him on the head with a shaving cream can and robbed him.

A member of the Mexican Mafia sent him a few cigarettes and a note, welcoming him. He liked Enriquez's style. When Enriquez was transferred to another prison, two men approached him on the yard. They told him they wanted him and a young convict named "Puppet" to "do a hit" on "Angel," a Santa Monica gangbanger. They didn't tell him why and he didn't ask.

"Puppet grabbed Angel and Boxer just started stabbing him over and over until the untaped plastic handle slid up to cover the point of the shank and made it no longer effective," Blatchford writes. "That's the only thing that saved Angel's life . . . It was Boxer's first hit. 'It was then I knew I was on the path. I was being looked at [by Eme]. I was honored that I was picked for the mission and exhilarated by the immediate recognition I received on the yard as a 'big homeboy.' "

He continued "putting in work," and was soon made a carnal, or leader. Eventually, he was released from prison but within a few years was sent back for life. He killed a rival carnal who was on a Mexican Mafia hit list and ordered the shooting of a female drug dealer. Enriquez was a shot-caller during many significant events in La Eme's history, such as when leaders in the early 1990s ordered a halt in drive-by shootings against other Latinos, and when they expanded the gang's reach and financial base by "taxing" drug dealers.

Enriquez is such an unsympathetic character, showing no remorse or reflection until the end of the book, that the narrative, despite the many dramatic events, sometimes drags. The writing is rough in spots, and midway through "Black Hand," as Enriquez's story becomes bogged down in a litany of prison shankings and beatings, the reader loses track of the many convicts, their nicknames and their multitudinous beefs against one another. One gangster Blatchford describes was sentenced to life for -- in a phrase that sums up the senselessness and inanity of the violence -- "murdering a murderer who had offended another murderer."

Life on the inside

Blatchford -- who co-wrote "Three Dog Nightmare" with Chuck Negron of the rock band Three Dog Night -- is at his best when chronicling the history of the gang and Enriquez's rise through the ranks. The narrative is interspersed with fascinating prison arcana. He explains how friends of inmates would pound black tar heroin into paper-thin sheets and slip it between sheets of legal documents; or secret balls of heroin in soap and Oreo cookies; or soak children's drawings with methamphetamine. Enriquez, who would fashion syringes out of metal ink cartridges inside ballpoint pens, managed to stay high even when locked up in California's most secure prisons. Blatchford explains how inmates -- making collect calls from prison phones and employing friends on the outside who used three-way conference calls and call forwarding -- could run criminal enterprises from behind bars.

The Mexican Mafia -- like its Italian counterpart -- is better at promulgating the myth of the brotherhood than generating actual loyalty. Enriquez's story reveals that, ultimately, La Eme members have four destinations. The lucky ones die in their cells. The others either get capped on the street, shanked in the yard, or they become snitches. Enriquez was no different. After a decade at Pelican Bay State Prison's secure housing unit, he is now in a witness protection program for cooperating inmates. Enriquez is hidden away at an unnamed prison, somewhere in the United States, to keep him away from the many carnales he testified against.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...0,735930.story

[SpirituallyEnlightened]

last book was in the belly of the beast.

now im reading the bible sporadically. the time calls for it.

[Scullycat]

Originally Posted by Sweettuth

I wanted to find out everyone is reading? I am currently reading The Omnivore's Dilemma. So far it is a pretty interesting book.

I'm reading FIRE by Alan Rodgers. It's a post-apocalypse novel (one of my guilty weaknesses, lol).

[Moph]

I was reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It was so funny, but then again I am an Austen fan.
I then started reading Olympus by Dan Simmons, but I got so stoned I lost the book and cannot find it.

[lovelyganja]

I've been attempting to read House of Leaves for the past few months, but I haven't found the time to get much further. So far it's alright, but I've heard it gets quite intense. I just haven't gotten to that part yet, unfortunately.

[dankushman]

I'm reading this book about this cowboy who grew up in Wyoming.

It's really strange the way i came about it -- one of my friend's parents' friend gave it to them, but they thought it was really bland and gave it to me.

I've always been interested in cowboys and things, so Wild Horse Country in Wyoming has been a pretty good read so far for me.

[emon_man06]

Originally Posted by dankushman

I'm reading this book about this cowboy who grew up in Wyoming.

It's really strange the way i came about it -- one of my friend's parents' friend gave it to them, but they thought it was really bland and gave it to me.

I've always been interested in cowboys and things, so Wild Horse Country in Wyoming has been a pretty good read so far for me.

i REALLY like cowgirls :thumbup:

[VooDoo Chile]

Hey all! Glad to see some fellow readers out there. :thumbup:

I just finshed the Godless Constitution a few days ago. Now I'm reading the New Politics of Pornography. Its an interesting read so far, if you're into First Amendment theory.

[luckysheven]

currently reading ed rosenthals all you marijuana questions answered its great