Read any good books lately?

[skygazer]

I'm reading "Collapse" by Jared Diamond and really enjoying it. And I'm seriously thinking of going to the bookstore today - I feel the need to buy more books. :P

What have you read lately that you'd recommend? :hi:

[electron_blue]

1. Just finished "Let the northern lights erase your name"

last night at midnight. fiction, by Vendela vida. It was supposed to be mindless fun for 20 mins before I fell asleep and ended up keeping me up hours reading, couldn't put it down. Lots of food for thought.

[tigereye]

21. we read that in my book club

it was very interesting, very "flat" writing style. The author has some cool interests as well.


For a short book, it certainly packed a lot in.

[electron_blue]

30. I guess I'm a big fan of the 'flat' writing style.

Did you read any of her other books?

[tigereye]

53. no, I had not heard of her previously

she sounds like a really interesting writer, though.

Do you know of any of her other titles?


:hi:

[electron_blue]

61. here ya go

http://books.google.com/books?as_auth=Vendela+Vida&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=author-navigational&hl=en

Meanwhile, I just started the Northern Lights book again. LOL :b

I'm also interested in reading more about "narrativity" and that other author she discusses in the book - in the ps section, I think.

[kentauros]

26. I'm reading the Narnia series

and just started The Voyage of the Dawn Treader :)

[Midlodemocrat]

2. Just finished 'Change of Heart' by Jodi Piccoult. Pretty good read.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

3. Just finished The Cold Six Thousand by James Ellroy.

It's the sequel to American Tabloid, and extremely violent, even by Ellroy standards.

[PeaceNikki]

4. I just purchased a signed copy of "Fair Game" by Valerie Plame Wilson

I heard her speak last night... she is SOOO intelligent and beautiful.

:loveya:

[femmocrat]

37. I was reading it, but misplaced it!

I found all the retractions annoying. Her personal story was interesting, though.

[ghostsofgiants]

5. "Planet of Slums" by Mike Davis

[DS1]

6. No. Nothing really great.

I read Bait and Switch by Barbara Erenreich. This is about getting a middle-management job anywhere in the US. Problem is, it proved impossible so she didn't have much to write about aside from those horrible 'seminars on job hunting' some people want to sell you.


I read Blind Man's Bluff about "secret" US Sub missions during the Cold War. It was an alright book, nothing really exciting, and too much time spent on how buff and cool the Captains were. I don't care how buff they are, if they're that buff they don't belong in a Sub anyway.

[Shine]

7. I just finished reading the "Raw Shark Texts" by Steven Hall

VERY unusual book. I liked it. Listen to this cool review:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9378352


Now I'm reading Eckhart Tolle's latest: "A New Earth: Discovering Your Life's Purpose". :thumbsup:

[Meiko]

8. Memoirs of a Geisha

I just couldn't put it down, it was a great story and so well written.

[Shine]

11. Hi there, I think you meant to respond to the OP (original poster), not me!

:D
Welcome to DU, btw! :toast:

I read Memoirs of a Geisha in about 3 days. You're right, it was a great read and hard to put down.

:hi:

[OmahaBlueDog]

57. Very good book; very bad movie

Another book from that time frame that was very good, but made a bad movie was David Gutterson's "Snow Falling on Cedars"

[bixente]

60. Yes

I loved this book, it was outstanding. I was in hospital at the time as well and it gave me something to do, really helped maintain my spirits. It was leant to me by a nurse. A beautiful story, and the research involved was mighty impressive considering the writer was a Westerner. You learnt so much too, which I consumed gratefully as I'm very passionate about Japan.

[geardaddy]

9. I'm reading "Bagombo Snuff Box" by Vonnegut

A collection of short stories.

It's pretty good.

[ismnotwasm]

10. Anansi Boys

by Neil Gaiman

Nice, light, modern fantasy/fable. It's a fun read

[skygazer]

12. I LOVE Gaiman

and have all his stuff. Have you read Good Omens? One of my favorites. :hi:

[jobycom]

54. I've been listening to American Gods this week.

Second time through.

[tinymontgomery]

13. The Machiavelli Conspiracy

fiction, but seems like it could hit close to home on how things are going.

[MonkeyFunk]

14. Just finished "World War Z"

by Max Brooks. Lots of fun.

[Brigid]

15. "Charlie Wilson's War."

Now I must see this movie. :)

[bertha katzenengel]

32. the movie was great - not unexpectedly, but

an unexpected treat

i dunno about you but i expect my movies to be moving, or hilarious, or thought-provoking. not to be treats. this one was thought-provoking and a treat. and it made me feel a little sorry for a politician, something i'd've never thought possible (and especially not for the womanizing kind).

[Chan790]

16. Against The Day by Thomas Pynchon

A great book, I never knew a novel about life's quest and mathematics could be so filthy and funny!

[tchunter]

64. pynchon's books are amazing

i was going to recommend gravity's rainbow or the crying of lot 49 for a more brief reading experience.

[cemaphonic]

17. Iain Banks - :Matter"

New Banks is always nice.

[Richard Steele]

18. I finally got around to reading "A Prayer For Owen Meany" the other week...

Yeah, that's how far behind I am on my "must read" list.

Before that, I read "Water For Elephants"- I recommend it highly.

[Flying Dream Blues]

49. Oh, Owen Meany is one of the best books ever. It's on my short list for the desert island. nt

[Richard Steele]

59. It was a good book, to be certain, but one note rang VERY FLAT with me...

Irving's protagonist is an English teacher, telling the tale
of Owen Meany decades after it happened...

And he spends a few pages complaining about his students, every so often;
how they keep failing to see what HE sees in the assigned texts...
and that doesn't have jack shit to do with the rest of the book,
narratively, symbolically, or any way at all.



I think the protagonist's complaints about his sheltered & cloistered
student's failure to appreciate the nuances of the texts he assigned them
are just Irving's thinly-veiled WHINING about people who didn't care for his books.

The VERY HAM-HANDED THEME expressed by "the protagonist's students" was that they
didn't like the books they read because they just didn't UNDERSTAND them.

And isn't that what every egotistical "great author" has always said? That the only
possible reason anyone could DISLIKE his work was because they just
weren't smart enough to UNDERSTAND it?

Other than that, it was a pretty good book.
'Twasn't LITERATURE, not by a long shot...but it was a pretty good novel, as novels go.

[Flying Dream Blues]

62. Well, it was probably 20 years ago that I read it, so I don't remember that part.

But what I do remember is the spark of recognition of a feeling I wasn't aware others felt or even knew about. I was much younger then, so perhaps I remember it with more admiration that it deserves.

Certainly if nothing else, Irving is the stereotypical narcissistic famous author, but I don't hold that against his literary children. ;) And I have to respectfully disagree...I think several of his books qualify as literature, including APFOM.

[nomorenomore08]

19. I'm finally almost finished with 'The Magic Mountain' by Thomas Mann,

after spending over a month on it. It's a huge book, over 700 pages, and the writing is really dense, with a lot of philosophical digressions and such. An incredibly ambitious work, yes, but a masterpiece.

[QMPMom]

20. "The Rebels Of Ireland" by Edward Rutherford. It's a sequel to "The Princes of Ireland".

I'm also reading "Obsession" by Jonathan Kellerman.

Plus, there's the pile of cookbooks I always have nearby.

[tigereye]

22. Just finished The Beautiful THings That Heaven Bears

by Dinaw Mengestu, a novel about African immigration.


It was thought-provoking and had a nice narrative style.


I also liked Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

[YellowRubberDuckie]

23. I'm still going through the Brotherhood of the Sword/The MacAllisters Book Series...

By Kinley MacGregor. Naughty Historical Romance Novels. Nothing like them when you have a job like I do.
Duckie

[PassingFair]

24. Youth In Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp.

Screamingly funny!
I bought this for my teenager at a used bookstore....
I had NO idea it was so wickedly INAPPROPRIATE!
She loaned it to all of her friends, and THEN
gave it to her little sister, who laughed so much
in the back seat of our car on a road trip that I
decided to read it too...
My eighth-grader thought it would be too racy for
me....it WAS! Expect the outrageous, and be ready
to laugh.

It is a trailer-trash version of "The Diaries of Adrian Mole",
if you liked Adrian Mole, you will love Nick Twisp!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_in_Revolt



>snip>Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp is a 1993 epistolary novel by C. D. Payne. The story is told in a picaresque fashion and makes heavy use of black humor and camp. The book contains parts one through three of a six-part series (the three sequential parts were published as three separate books).

[Sugar Smack]

25. Deadly Innocence- about Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.

By Scott Burnside and Alain Cairns. It's pretty good, but I'd likely recommend it on the sort of true crime "bender" I sometimes like to indulge in.

[FloridaJudy]

27. "Heart Shaped Box" by Joe Hill

One of the best-written horror novels (oops! I think we're now supposed to call it "dark fantasy") I've ever read. Intriguing premise: a washed-up death-metal rock star living in virtual seclusion on a farm with his much-younger Goth girlfriend buys a ghost using the "Buy It Now" option in an Internet auction. He gets much, much more than he bargained for.

It's an extremely violent and terrifying book, but oddly optimistic about the ability of people to act decently in horrendous circumstances. I wound up caring deeply about what happens to this unconventional couple, even though I just knew that one of them would get killed before the end.

I'm not going to tell how it ends. You'll have to read it for yourself.

[WannaBeGrumpy]

38. This was an excellent book....

The part about the scribbles for eyes seriously creeped me out....Usually books don't really scare me...but this one gave me that feeling of dread. :scared:

[FloridaJudy]

50. Wasn't the villain

Just about the vilest being you could imagine? He made Hannibal Lector look like a kindly eccentric. I'll bet he voted Republican - he would have loved Abu Ghraib.

The part about the dogs was particularly upsetting. Enough said: I wouldn't want to ruin the plot.

[Fox Mulder]

28. Oh yeah...

I just finished A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin, now I'm on A Storm of Swords by the same author. I cheated and read ahead on what happens in the book and I am saddened. :(

[BlueIris]

29. "The Lost Heart of Asia," by Colin Thubron. nt

[bertha katzenengel]

31. Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

subtitled A Violent Faith (I think; it's in the other room)

About the split-off of Fundamentalist Mormonism from the LDS.

Fundamentalists - Rulon Jeffs, Warren Jeffs, and the church from which Texas just took custody of 400+ children.

[Merrick]

33. "The Teachings of Don Juan..." - Carlos Castaneda

so far I've learned that, should I someday own a deck, there will be a spot on it that sucks the life out of me.

going to have to keep that in mind should the case arise.

[DarkTirade]

34. I'm reading numerous things at once right now.

Reading through a particular series in Ebook format (man I wish I had a laptop or an ebook reader... I much prefer to lie on my bed and read than to sit up straight in a chair and read what's on the screen.), I just finished reading Neuromancer for school, started reading Dune on my own, and I found a book at the library that's the first of a trilogy that I've read the second and third of, so I'm reading that in my spare time to try and figure out what it is I missed when I ready the first and second already. :P

[spindrifter]

35. 13 Moons by Charles Frasier

[femmocrat]

39. Do you like it? I loved that book!

And I'm not usually a reader of fiction.

[WannaBeGrumpy]

36. The Kite Runner....

is amazing.. I love it!

[cynatnite]

41. I almost bought that today...

Maybe I'll go after it this weekend.

[WannaBeGrumpy]

43. I definitely recommend it...

...i really really enjoyed it...It even made me cry (gasp)

[cynatnite]

45. I was hesitant because of what I heard about the movie...

There is a part in it that might hurt to watch and I wasn't sure if I wanted to read it. Do you know what I'm talking about?

[WannaBeGrumpy]

46. yeah...the book is kinda graphic...

...but i think it is a whole lot better than the movie...The movie leaves out soo much!

[cynatnite]

47. I think I'll pass...

I'm a real wuss on those kinds of things.

[WannaBeGrumpy]

48. It's interesting...I really enjoyed it...

but i mean I'm a senior in high school an dit's on our reading list...we even had to sign a permission slip.

[femmocrat]

44. It's definitely on my "summer" reading list.

Is it out in paperback yet? :hi:

[cynatnite]

40. Bart Ehrman's new book 'God's Problem'...

How the Bible fails to answer our most important question-Why we suffer.

An excellent read as are the rest of his books.

[femmocrat]

42. "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein

It's a little tough-going at times, but still holds my interest. It's worth the effort, IMO since I'm learning a lot!

[tammywammy]

51. "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

Excellent book about the Chicago World Fair & a serial killer that was happening at the same time.

[Lavender Brown]

52. I'm reading The Daughter of Time

a classic mystery. So far I like it! :)

[jobycom]

55. "Duma Key," by Stephen King. Better than I remember King being.

I've never been a King basher, but he's not usually on my must-read list, either. He's better than most pop writers--Patterson, Crichton, folk like that.

Duma is pretty good, though. The premise isn't overly original (what is, by this point in Western lit?), and even has many of King's own themes wrapped into it. But the plot development is good, the characters are endearing, and his command of writing has gotten lighter and easier to read.

But this is the first thing I've read in a decade by him. I read "The Shining" and some others I don't remember back in the early 80s, and then I read his fantasy series (can't even remember the name, I just remember some prince who gets saved by napkins). So maybe the book is about par for the course and I just haven't played that course in a while.

Whatever it is, it's a fun read, and long enough that it's not over before is starts.

[OmahaBlueDog]

56. "Dirty" by Megan Hart

...ok, it wasn't that good, but I enjoyed writing the subject line.

Seriously, I just listened to Fredrick Forsyth's "The Dogs of War" (25% setting up an exciting story, 5% actual combat, 70% shopping and banking)

I also listened to "The Last King of Scotland" (which goes on, and on, and on -- and did I mention on)

[Dinger]

58. If You Like Reading About The Wilderness Of Alaska:

Try this, it's excellent. And get his first books too:
"More Readings From One Man's Wilderness," The Journals of Richard Proenneke 1974-1980 (Pub. 2005)
This book kept me up till 2 a.m. last night!
http://www.amazon.com/More-Readings-One-Mans-Wilderness/dp/0160729947

[applegrove]

63. Just finished Late Nights On Air by Elizabeth Hay. Lovely story about

a few people who all work at a radio station in the north of Canada.