So, I Read This Book....

[arwalden]

... but I finished it.

What are you reading right now? Can you make any recommendations? I enjoy non-fiction, historical.

-- Allen

[Rick Myers]

1. Will Pitt's "Sedition"

Wonderful writing.

I just wish the print was larger... This gettin' old stuff sucks!!!

edit: Just ordered Conaston's "Big Lies!"

[WilliamPitt]

22. Thanks!

:)

[deutsey]

2. I'm liking this book

"The Long Detour"

It's a history of the American left. Readable, informative...

http://www.thelongdetour.com/

[JitterbugPerfume]

4. I just finished

Oryx and Crake . It was fantastic, just like Margaret Atwood is always fantastic

Went back to Hilarys book ,and a re read of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues I am about halfway through both

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. Lies and the lying liars who tell them

half way through - absolutely perfect. Anyone who says it's "leftist crap" has idea what the meanings of "truth" and "facts" are.

Also reading "Prague", a book about Budapest, and "The Saucier's Apprentice" (early 1970s book about sauces) and "Sauce", the third edition of the famous book/tome/encyclopedia about sauces, that was originally only French, and now includes Asian and other sauces.

On edit: And also, a People's History of the United States (only about 80 pages in, but phenomenal)

[trof]

5. "Kate Remembered"

Katharine Hepburn

[Rick Myers]

10. Just finished this

Excellent book. I loved Kate...

[Dookus]

6. just finished a coupla good ones:

Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer, about fundamentalist mormons.

Il Gigante, a history of renaissance Florence and the creation of Michelangelo's David.

The Pope's Ceiling - a history of Renaissance Rome and Michaelangelo's painting of the Sistine Chapel.

Cicero, by Anthony Everett - a biography of the great Roman statesman.


All were quite good, but Banner of Heaven was probably the most fun.

[BurtWorm]

18. Cicero!

I forgot to recommend that one. That's a great summary of late-Republic Roman history.

[GumboYaYa]

7. I'm reading "Savage Beauty,"

the biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay. It is awesome. I also just finished "Big Lies" and highly recommend it.

My wife just finished "The DaVinci Code" and she says it is very good.

[Interrobang]

8. I'm currently reading "The Joys of Hebrew" by Lewis Glinert

It's a very good book, a bit of an Orthodox & Sephardic spin (my bias is more towards Conservative & Ashkenazic, but that's personal), but I'm enjoying it a lot. I also just finished "Free: As In Speech and Beer" by Darren Wershler-Henry, which has to be the Best. Computer. Book. Ever. (Any book which makes reference to Ministry, Jello Biafra, Harlan Ellison, Linus Torvalds, Phil Zimmerman, free software, and which quotes Homer Simpson is definitely worth reading!)

[XanaDUer]

9. "Saying Yes"

by Jacob Sullum.

Very interesting defense of drug use and the harm the "war on drugs" is causing.

[The Magistrate]

11. An Excellent Read, Sir

"Treason By The Book" by Jonathan Spence. It is an account of an investigation into sedition in 18th century China, in which, eventually, the Emperor took it upon himself to debate the dissident in a lengthy exchange of letters between them. It is a fascinating thing, including details of an empire-wide hunt for the ultimate source of a rumor and the people who spread it, that proved successful in the main. Mr. Spence is an extraordinary writer, perhaps the best modern commentator of Oriental history.

[EFF BrandyWine]

20. "Treason by the Book" was a spellbinding read...

I read it quite some time ago but I couldn't put it down. Thank you for reminding me. Perhaps I'll read it again.

[Kellanved]

12. Sebastian Haffner

Defying Hitler 1917-1933. EOM

[ikojo]

13. The Betrayal of Work

by B Shulman...it's about how low-wage work undermines all of us. It is not a pick me up that's for sure. Most of the jobs created recently have been low-wage service sector jobs.

It seems the poorer you are the harder you must work for the few pennies you are paid.

[peacefreak]

14. She's Not There--Jenny Boylan

Triangle The Fire that Changed America--Van Drehle
Under the Banner of Heaven also
& just for pure silliness Fluke by Christopher Moore

[Ein]

15. Lenin: The Man Behind the Mask

Ronald W. Clark. Good read.

I'm gonna go select an FDR biography to read sometime this weekend, anyone have a suggestion?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

16. I'm reading "Stirring the Mud" by Barbara Hurd

It reminds me of Annie Dillard's "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek", in a swampy kind of fashion. It's an interesting read...

[BurtWorm]

17. Nonfiction historical books I've read recently that I recommend

The Clinton Wars, by Sidney Blumenthal--excellent fly-on-the-wall view of the Clinton White House in the wild and wacky second term. By a kick-ass Democrat, yet. It's really a must-read. But if you're thinking you've had enough of the Clintons for a while...

The Clash of Fundamentalisms, by Tariq Ali--I'm reading it right now. Superb history of the rise of right-wing fundamentalist Islam from a post-Marxist leftist perspective. Very readable, erudite, urbane and informative. Also hard-hitting about fundamentalist Americanism in the Muslim world.

The Metaphysical Club, by Louis Menand--which I read last summer. I loved the hell out of it while I was reading it, but read it so fast, I can't remember half of it. It's about the history of ideas in America after the Civil War until about 1920, focussing on several scholars who belonged, at one time or another, to an academic salon at Harvard called--well, guess what it was called. Oliver Wendall Holmes. William James. John Dewey. Facinating stuff if you like intellectual history.

Al Franken's book is great too if you're looking for something light and fast.

[devilgrrl]

19. Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith

And Joe Conason's 'Big Lies'

[BurtWorm]

21. Wow! I just read "Deep Water" by Patricia Highsmith

and "Lies and the Lying Liars" by Al Franken!

[RMJ]

23. off topic, but...

is that a early photo of Norma Schearer?

[LosinIt]

24. If you want to try some worthwhile fiction try Sick Puppy by Carl Hiaasen

A lot of his stuff is great, but that one is my favorite.