What book are you reading right now?

[mvd]

I'm still reading Grisham's The Last Juror. Note that I have no spiolers here because all of these events are described on the book cover. I'm to the point where the trial is over and witnesses are showing up dead. It's something that a life sentence in this book means ten years or less in prison. Rhoda's murder was a heinous one, too. If given the option between that "life" sentence or death, even I'd be hard-pressed to not vote for the death penalty in this case. The jurors might have been scared of Pagitt revenge, but that's happening anyway. We'll see where Grisham takes this. I like the fact that Grisham reveals stuff about Clanton in 1970 in addition to the main plot. Southern culture is explored, too, as with the "family money" descriptions. We see how integration affects Clanton. The book does have a somewhat slower paced, personal side to it - but it doesn't lag like The Testament. Also, some parts are riveting. Nice combo. Very good book so far. Miss Callie is one of his most interesting characters.

[Snoggera]

1. The Da Vinci Code

Just started, and can't put it down.

[sir_captain]

check out angels and demons

the "prequel" if you will

ithought it was even better

[Snoggera]

10. Thanks! I definitely will. n/t

[Supormom]

12. I agree

I also thought that Angels & Demons was the better of the two novels, but both are outstanding.

[DebJ]

2. "Jeffersons Demons" but its not as good as the one I just finished,

Aaron Burr Conspiracy to Treason.

[AlCzervik]

3. American Dynasty

by Kevin Phillips. I may get the Woodward book but i have read soooo many Bush related books this year i think i might take a vacation from them for awhile.

[DebJ]

7. I've got that one, but haven't read it yet. I too got "Bushed Out" and

had to take a break for awhile. Last week I finished "Jefferson's Lost Cause" and was amazed to see so many similarities with Dubya...
tight election, imperialism, etc. So my break from Bush didn't stray too far, ha!

[brainshrub]

4. War & Peace

And I'm loving it. Great book.

[Snoggera]

13. Anna Karenina

is a good read, and a great story.

War and Peace has a lot of intriguing plot aspects. I hope you make it through to the end!

[xray s]

5. C.S.Lewis "The Great Divorce"

[Snoggera]

17. The Screwtape Letters

was that the same Lewis? There seem to be so many Lewis' in this world..................

[xray s]

23. Same guy

Screwtape Letters was good. Mere Christianity is very good.

[LanternWaste]

20. Lewis is my favorite author

Lewis is my favorite author, both his fiction and his apologetics amaze me in both depth and the "Eureka!" moments I get when I read his work.

[Kathleen04]

6. Reading Richard Clarke's book...

and just finished Tour of Duty.

[mvd]

26. The Richard Clarke book is next on my list

Can't wait! :hi:

[Endangered Specie]

39. Im getting around to that.

[Zorro]

8. Holy Blood, Holy Grail

Great read for ancient historical conspiracy fans.

One of the inspirations for The DaVinci Code.

[democracyindanger]

9. Lies, Inc.

Only the second Dick book I've ever read. I'm at the 3/4 point and I'm utterly confused.

[Parrcrow]

11. Richard Clarke's Against All Enemies

Next on the list is LeCarre's most recent book Absolute Friends.

[ncrainbowgrrl]

21. How did you get your hands on a copy?!

I'm jealous. Bookstores around here are still sold out...

[Parrcrow]

30. Here too, I've moved to a small town in the middle of nowhere

Finally I just bought a copy off of ebay.

[amandae]

33. I'm also reading this book now

It's going slowly because I've still got a lot of reading to do for school, and that takes up most of my reading time. I'm going to tear through that bad boy though as soon as the semester is largely over for me (a week from tomorrow!!).

I've also got Al Franken's "Lies ..." waiting for me when I'm done with Clarke's book. Got both of those books from my kids and hubby for my birthday a couple of weeks ago :)

:hi:

[stopbush]

50. Ditto. Clarke's book. Got it at Target...they had 2 copies left.

[Fenris]

14. Books by Voltaire, Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Verlaine

Selected French things.

[terrya]

15. "American Dynasty" by Kevin Phillips

This book perfectly illustrates how evil and immoral the Bush family and Bush league in general are in reality, and what a shithole they are turning this noble experiment of a country into. This book is making me furious...hopeful that some brave person will take out the Kennebunkport mafia entirely.

[LanternWaste]

16. Citizen Soldier and Dreamcatcher

Citizen Soldier by Steven Ambrose and Dreamcatcher by Stephen King.

As an aside: Read my fist Grisham novel about two months ago (can't remember the title; it concerned a lawyer who embezzeled $90 million from his office, knew he'd be caught sooner or later and made plans to keep the cash hidden until he was free...). Thought it was a pretty good read until the *very last page* and Grisham pulled one of those, "I've got you where I want you" writer tricks and pulled the rug out from underneath me. I hate him now!!!! :evilgrin:

[ncrainbowgrrl]

18. War is a force that gives us meaning

by Chris Hedges

[proud patriot]

19. Thom Hartman's The Edison Gene

ADHD and the gift of the hunter child..

Really inspirational for this parent .

[Imperialism Inc.]

22. Reading 'People's History of the American Revolution' and

listening to the Da Vinci Code on audio book.

[psychopomp]

24. "The Passion of the Western Mind"

For anybody, like me, who needs to get a primer on everything they were supposed to learn in their "Great Books" courses back in school but forgot...or for anybody looking for a great synopsis of the ideas that trace the arc of Western thought.

Really, the best read of books of its type I have ever come across.

Written by Richard Tarnas.

You can order it at the above link for half the price I paid when I picked it up at the Metropolitan Museam of Art's bookshop last year.

[crimson333]

25. right now

DU of course!

[BigMcLargehuge]

27. Big McLargehuge's current McLargelist

Soldiers of the Sun: The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army, Meirion and Susie Harring

Japanese Fairy Tales, Royall Tyler

The Rape pf Nanking: the forgotton holocaust of WW2, Iris Chang

[Mr. McD]

28. Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott

:)

[DS1]

29. Snowcrash, when I have time

[BigMcLargehuge]

31. That was a pretty good read

I didn't like any of Stephenson's other stuff though.

[southerngirlwriter]

32. Right now:

A Language Older Than Words by Derrick Jensen is my serious reading.

Murder on a Girls' Night Out by Anne George is my current light-hearted reading (the book I carry around with me for waiting rooms and read in the bathtub)

The Poisonwood Bible is my current audiobook (I don't own a TV, so I play audiobooks when I need background noise)

Next on the list:

Re-read Vanity Fair by Thackeray

then buy whichever book won the Pulitzer for fiction last week.

[freeforall]

34. The Elegant Universe (non-fiction/physics)

by Brian Greene.

General relativity, quantum mechanics, string theory - interesting book.

[proud patriot]

37. I watched the pbs documentary on this

very fansinating .

[psychopomp]

38. I got about 1/3 of the way through

and put it down. I still have yet to pick it back up, though almost a year has passed. One really has to be in the mood to be able to stay focused for a book so dense.

That being said, it is one of the best books I have read in the last few years!

[Reciprocity]

35. Richard Clarke's book. "Against All Enemies"

I'm about half way through. One thing that jumped off the page ....
<snip>
Our response to two deadly terrorist attacks was an attempt to wipe out al Qaeda leadership, yet it quickly became grist for the right-wing talk radio mill and part of the Get Clinton campaign. That reaction made it more difficult to get approval for follow-up attacks on al Qaeda, such as my later attempts to persuade the Principals to forget about finding bin Laden and just bomb the training camps.

Who knows what might have happened if the Republicans and right wingers had set aside their differences and did what was right for America instead of what was right for their party.

[Neoplatonist]

36. "The Metaphysica" by Ibn Sina, known as "Avicenna" in the Latin West

It's a philosophy book on metaphysics, epistemology, and ontology. Boring and complex speculation, really.

--Air America

[Endangered Specie]

40. The Design of Everyday Things - Donald A Norman

A very fun book to read.

[Kazak]

41. The Sirens of Titan, by Vonnegut...

again.

[St. Jarvitude]

42. The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder

Brilliant piece of work analyzing the idiocies of Bushspeak and the whoreness of the media.

I'm reading it only because I was able to trade Blowback by Chalmers Johnson for Dyslexicon with a frend. An excellent work on the future ramifications of American foreign policy - Johnson isn't afraid to take jabs at Clinton for many of his foreign policy gaffes, something that many so-called 'liberal' writers wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.

[dawn]

43. Interpreter of Maladies.

It's a collection of short stories about Indian immigrants that was published a few years ago. I really like it!

[neverborn]

44. Take Them At Their Words

It's excellent.

[immoderate]

45. Toward a Hydrogen Economy by Jeremy Rivkin

It's awesome.

Do you know where your energy is?

--IMM

[GoddessOfGuinness]

46. Jeff Shaara's "Rise to Rebellion"

It's a well-researched novel about the events leading to the American Revolution. I find it inspirational; and I'm recognizing similarities between life under the despot George III and life under the current one.

[Frangible]

47. Panzer Commander

by Hans Von Luck. I *love* WW2 history. (needless to say, I watch history channel 24/7)

Of course, it's kind of sad when you're reading books about WW2 and making parallels to Iraq and Bush... but ah well, easy comparison to draw.

[Lindsey]

48. I also am reading so many * books (or should I say anti-* books)

I just started "Worse than Watergate" today and so far I'm very impressed - Damn, Dean's a great writer. I have on my coffee table but have yet to have read: "Dude, Where's My Couuntry," "The Bush Dynasty,"The Price of Loyalty," and then some others such as "The Hunting of the President," "The Reinquest Choice," ...and of course I still need to purchase "Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them," I think I need therapy!

[scottcsmith]

49. A whole bunch of books

I've got this stack I'm working through. I tend to read from one or two of the books at a time. Here goes:

Eaten Alive, a book about Italian cannibal/zombie movies.
Miami Blues, by Charles Willeford (fiction).
Big Lies, by Joe Conason.
What Liberal Media? by Eric Alterman.

I also have a book about Christianity that's awaiting my attention, and I need to finish up Jonathan Kellerman's The Murder Book.

[Interrobang]

51. Heh heh heh -- Bookstore had a remainder sale -- 10 for $20!

I made out like a bandit! I got:

The Westray Chronicles: A Case Study in Corporate Crime, edited by Christopher McCormick (a book about a famous Canadian mine disaster, and my "favourite" industrial disaster)

All things Censored, Mumia Abu-Jamal (edited by Noelle Hanrahan) (a book of MAJ's essays)

Cyberselfish: A Critical Romp Through the Terribly Libertarian Culture of High Tech, Paulina Borsook (a lefty's view of the high-tech Randroids, has an absolutely *priceless* excerpt from a review from Reason (Magazine) on the back!)

Neighbours, Jan T. Gross ("The Destruction of the Jewish community in Jedwabne, Poland," Holocaust history)

Pre-Raphaelite Poetry: An Anthology, edited by Paul Negri

Eilat and the Red Sea, Bonechi and Steimatzky (a touristy photo-book with very bad English translations, although the pictures are nice for when I'm fantasizing about sitting on a beach in Israel with my hot friend from Be'er Sheva ;-) )

The Global Resume and CV Guide, Mary Anne Thompson (because I'm still looking for a full-time job, alas)

The Challenger Guide: Job-Hunting Success for Mid-Career Professionals, James E. Challenger (looks like it's got a remarkably low BS level for a book of this sort)

The Machine Embroidery Handbook, DJ Bennet (I'm going to give this away to someone, because I thought it said "Modern Embroidery," because there's a big sticker on the front, and I don't do machine embroidery, but I know lots of people who do!)

The Arthritis Solution for Dogs, Shawn Messonnier (I'm going to give this to my dad -- looks like it's got some granolaish homeopathic/naturopathic bullshit in it, but maybe the diet stuff will help my dad with his dog)

OF THOSE 10, I'm currently reading #s 1, 2, and 6. The first two are quite heavy reading...not exactly the "popcorn movies" of reading matter...

[LividLiberal]

52. Understanding Power, Chomsky

I've just read the first chapter and this is my first Chomsky book.

[BlondieK143]

53. The Vagina Monologues and Dude, Where's My Country?

I'm a little late reading the second one. And the first one, well, I had heard so much about it that I decided I must pick it up.

[LDS Jock]

54. the Work and the Glory series

It is a collection of nine novels, historical fiction, telling of the founding of the Mormon Church. They aren't bad, but probably not too much of interest to anyone not a member of the church. I need some new books or a trip to the library.

[slinkerwink]

55. "Fingersmith"