What books have you been reading?

[RetroLounge]

Over the past 2-3 weeks I've read or have been reading:

Different Hours by Stephen Dunn

When or Where by Anita Shreve

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Poetry Magazine - March 2007

Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch

Say When by Elizabeth Berg

One Hidden Stuff - Barbara Ras

Actual Air - David Berman

The Pilot's Wife - Anita Shreve

RL

[WritingIsMyReligion]

1. I haven't read a new book, not for school, in ages.

It's all music of late.

[Chan790]

2. Lately...nothing.

I know that's bad for a writer but lately I've been brushing up for my CFRE by reading past issues of Philanthropy and practice test booklets. I've been managing to cram in some Collected Works of E.A. Poe. and I read A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, but that hardly counts because it was for work and not for pleasure.

[GenDem]

4. Did you like 'A Long Way Gone'?

Iv'e been thinking about ordering it.

[Chan790]

14. Yes.

It's really really graphic though. Don't read it before bed or after meals. Also, it made one of coworkers (a former Marine) cry. Consider yourself warned.

He writes from a very matter of fact place, very-amoral. This is a retelling of his experiences, laid out in horrifying fashion, to tell the world of what he did and saw. There is no redemption or regret in this book. (He has both but it doesn't show in the book. It comes through in his interviews) I don't know if he's just still too traumatized about it or if in his work speaking on the behalf of other children soldiers (which despite not being mentioned contributes to this book extensively) he's been been urged to stick to facts and let those facts stand for themselves. It a good book, but a disturbing one. There are rapes, drug-use and thrill-killings.

I thought about donating copies to my local high schools and public libraries but I have some concerns it'd get buried in a back-room or behind-the-counter over content.

[ghostsofgiants]

3. School books.

x(

[terrya]

5. "Then We Came to the End" by Joshua Ferris

A wonderful first novel I checked out at the library.

Next up: "Heyday" by Kurt Andersen.

[jane_pippin]

29. What do you like about that book?

I read it, but I hated it. However, I know a few other people who read it too and loved it. And now here you are, another person with good taste who likes it. So that makes me think I completely missed something, or at the very least ought to read it again and give it another chance.

School me.

[devilgrrl]

6. Night of the Locusts by Nathaniel West

The Magus by John Fowles

:shrug:

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. I am finally reading the Chronicles of Narnia. Also "Arugula Nation"

and a book on being prophetic by Walt Brueggemann, but I can't remember the name of it.

[mitchum]

8. "The Grizzly Maze" Nick Jans...

"Selling God" R. Laurence Moore
some Bruce Lee biography from 1973 (forget the author's name)
reread "The Demon" Hubert Selby
reread "Ladies Man" Richard Price

[bicentennial_baby]

9. Er....

Elementary Statistics Using Excel
Macroeconomics
Microeconomics
History of Economic Thought

:cry: Skool sux...

:hi:

[MissHoneychurch]

10. Let's see

Wintersmith - Terry Pratchett
http://www.amazon.com/Wintersmith-Terry-Pratchett/dp/0060890312/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-9861325-2154355?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173545856&sr=1-1

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka
http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Tractors-Ukrainian/dp/0143036742/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-9861325-2154355?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173545887&sr=1-1

The City of Dreaming Books - Walter Moers
http://www.amazon.com/City-Dreaming-Books-Walter-Moers/dp/0099490579/ref=sr_1_3/104-9861325-2154355?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173545668&sr=8-3

at the moment
Ishi's Brain - Orin Starn
http://www.amazon.com/Ishis-Brain-Search-Americas-Indian/dp/0393326985/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-9861325-2154355?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173545749&sr=1-1

[jane_pippin]

11. I'm reading one I think you'd like a lot.

It's new and it's called Finn. The author, Jon Clinch, imagines what Huck Finn's father's life was like, how he died, terrible things he did, etc. based on clues Twain left in the book. It's very good, and it's pretty dark, and very well written. He's got a very slow, deliberate style, but not so slow that it's annoying--it's very modern while also keeping a classic feel and it's perfect for the kind of story he's telling. Keep it in mind.

[mitchum]

12. Wow, thanks for the heads up on the book

Pap Finn is one of the great monsters of literature.
What a wonderful idea

[jane_pippin]

20. Yeah. And the author doesn't shy

away from showing how monstrous he can be, but at the same time there's a weird sort of humanity that almost--but not quite--makes you feel bad for Finn.

I'm generally not one to recommend that people go out and buy new hardcovers--usually you're better off getting it from the library or waiting for paperback if you really want to own it--but this is one that I think people might want to have a nice copy of if they have money for book buying. The first chapter is (or was at least) on the author's website http://www.jonclinch.com (It has an intro with sound, so be warned.) Click on 'the book' and check it out if you have some time. My friend sent me the link and that's how I got hooked on it.

[asthmaticeog]

13. ...

"The Exploits and opinions of Dr. Faustroll, Pataphysician" by Alfred Jarry

"Zero" by Charles Seife

"Blood and Volts" by Th. Metzger (no relation to the white power dude)



Art books I've been looking at/referencing lately (can't really say I've been "reading" them):

"Yoko Ono: Yes"

"Henry Darger: Disasters of War"

"Ryan McGinness: vocabularytest"

"David Wojnarowicz: Brush Fires in the Social Landscape"



And I just bought Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion" yesterday.

[Mrs Robeson]

15. Well..lets see..in the last 2 weeks...

Art and Soul by Pam Grout
Knitting Sutra by Susan Lydon
The Best Man to Die by Ruth Rendell
Eyes of Prey by John Sandford
Point of Origin by P Cornwell and Master of the Moor by Ruth Rendell currently

[BarenakedLady]

16. The past few weeks I've read...

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore

Eye Contact by Cammie McGovern

working on Lisey's Story by Stephen King

[RetroLounge]

22. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

How did you like it?

I'm about 50 pages in and I am fascinated with both the story and the style of writing.

RL

[BarenakedLady]

24. I enjoyed it very much.

My mom got it for me for Christmas on the recommendation of her good friend. It was a very easy read and kept me interested throughout the whole story.

:hi:

[GenDem]

26. I loved 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time'

I've had two students with Asperger's and I could actually hear them in the narrator. I thought the author did a fabulous job creating this very believable character.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

17. 'A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers'

by Xiaolu Guo which I really loved. It's the very funny, sometimes moving and incredibly well observed story of the year the narrator spent in London studying English.

Glorious Deception by Jim Steinmeyer which is a biography of the American magician William Robinson who crafted an act as a Chinese man called Chung Ling Soo and died onstage performing the bullet catch trick. Interesting, but not a patch on the author's "Hiding The Elephant".

I'm also picking at an SJ Perelman collection and John Hodgeman's "The Areas of My Expertise".

[graywarrior]

18. I'm proofing and editing books 24/7

Stuff you guys will be reading by next year, no doubt.

[Left Is Write]

19. I'm reading Ann Rule's "Last Dance, Last Chance" and also "Eats Shoots And Leaves"

[Drum]

21. ...

The New Complete Manual of Sailing by Steve Sleight

and about to begin

An Anthropolgist on Mars by Oliver Sacks

[fudge stripe cookays]

23. Just finished "A Storm in Flanders" - Winston Groom

about the Flanders salient in WWI. Really educated me much more about what the battlefields were like in that era. I was researching several of the vets in our family who were in WWI. The descriptions of Passchendaele were horrific.

Now working on "Betrayal" which is about the exposure of Kurt Waldheim from the UN Secretary General to war criminal. It's absolutely fascinating how he got away with it for 38 years. Turns out lots of people knew, but kept it quiet for political or espionage purposes.

[qwertyMike]

25. White House

Don DeLillo

and once a year read all of Steinbeck and John LeCarre

Also Jane Austen

[Ariana Celeste]

27. Codependent No More:

How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself

by Melody Beattie

I highly recommend it to anyone who is struggling with Codependency or knows someone who is. It's been a great help to me and was good for my mom, too.

[MassLiberal]

28. reading for my dissertation only

All Edith Wharton, all the time.

[mnhtnbb]

30. Just finished Sidney Poitier's "Measure of a Man" and Obama's

"The Audacity of Hope"

Before that, Grisham's "The Innocent Man" ; David Ray Griffin's "The New Pearl Harbor"; Kristen Breitweiser's "Wake-Up Call"; Augusten Burroughs' "Running with Scissors"

I've had a real run of non-fiction reads recently. Time for some fun with a novel.

[LSK]

31. ok

Fiasco - Thomas Ricks
Confessions of a Street Addict - Jim Cramer
Plot Against America - Phillip Roth

[Hand]

32. Just finished "The Illustrated Samuel Pepys"

Pretty darn interesting--Pepys was a 17th century British bureaucrat (contemporary of Shakespeare et al.), a very busy time in that nation's history--restoration of the monarchy, a series of minor naval wars with the Dutch, a plague outbreak in London followed by the Great Fire a year or so later. He writes about all of it in his shorthand diary (ran to 16 volumes originally), along with his own daily routine.

He was also something of a serial adulterer, which makes for some spicy passages (as well as some periodic domestic upheavals). Worth a read--I especially liked the part where he said basically, "Saw Hamlet last night at the Globe. It sucked!" :rofl:

[edbermac]

33. The Wit and Wisdom of Ann Coulter

300 blank pages - makes a handy diary. :rofl:

[thefool_wa]

34. Animal Farm

you can't go wrong with Orwell.