What are you reading in 2011? [Archive]

AmeliaJane

12-31-10, 8:07pm

This was one of my favorite threads in the old forums and I got some great ideas from it. One of my projects for 2011 is to read more after a year of having less time for it than I would like so bring it on!

I'll start--right now I am reading Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell--a recommendation I got from librarian/book recommender Nancy Pearl's blog. It's a dark comedy about a young ex-hitman for the Mob who is trying to go straight when his past catches up to him. I am really enjoying it--by chance it came right after "The Godfather" which has no literary merit whatsoever but boy is it a pageturner--so that has been an interesting contrast.

Bootsie

12-31-10, 9:29pm

I am currently reading The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu. It's the story of an immigrant man from Ethiopia and the life he establishes in Washington DC, and I just love the way the author writes. It's a simply-told story, rather slow moving, but beautiful in its simplicity. I'm savoring it.

In another thread I mentioned that I'm about to being reading the Bible cover to cover as part of a 90-day challenge. There are sections of the Bible I've never read, and while reading the entire book so quickly has its downfalls, I'm eager to begin.

kevinw1

12-31-10, 10:18pm

Best Xmas book this year was Carol Deppe's "The Resilient Gardener". I find myself skimming a lot of most general gardening books nowadays, but this one has lots of meat even for the experienced gardener, lots of Aha! moments.

earthshepherd

12-31-10, 10:57pm

I am enjoying Laurie King's Sherlock Holmes spinoffs, the Mary Russell books at the moment.

loosechickens

1-1-11, 3:01pm

Right now, I'm reading 97 Orchard which is a study of five immigrant families in one tenement building in NY in the late 1800's and early 1900's, understanding immigrant life of that period for a number of different ethnic groups as the author follows German, Irish, Jewish, Italian, etc. families, their food, jobs, ways of keeping house, etc., against the larger subject of immigration during that time. Extremely interesting book and lots of great food ideas.

I'm getting ready to read Slow Death by Rubber Duck, where two environmental scientists experiment on themselves with ingesting and using various household things and testing their blood, etc., before and after.......very scary stuff.....so far I've just leafed through the book, but already gleaned a quick formula for quickly deciding if various plastic products contain dangerous chemicals, etc. by the recycling number on the bottom. The little ditty goes:

5, 4, 1 and 2......all the rest are bad for you.......

After that, it's going to be Euphemania, a study of use of euphemisms in the past and present and how we as societies keep from communicating directly any uncomfortable subjects, and choose euphemisms instead......has great reviews, but haven't even looked at that one, just downloaded it onto my Kindle for later. Because the other two are library books and have to be returned by Jan. 12th.

Aspen

1-2-11, 11:27am

pinkytoe

1-2-11, 2:23pm

I am reading Radical Homemaker and Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller. Both make a good argument for the coming necessity of local economies.

AmeliaJane

1-2-11, 3:20pm

I'm also reading the Fiddler in the Subway, which is a collection of feature writing by Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post, who has two Pulitzer Prizes. I couldn't quite justify buying it since most of it is available online in the Post archives, but I am enjoying it from the library. Weingarten also writes a humor column which I think people love or hate...he is a self-admitted ultraliberal smartass...but somehow in his longer features he is able to really step out of the way and create these amazingly skillful portraits of people and places. Warning--the story for which he won the second Pulitzer is about parents who leave their children in hot cars...and is very disturbing so not everyone may want to read it (and it is clearly marked in the book so it can be avoided.) But the first Pulitzer was for one of my favorite newspaper stories ever (from which the title of the book comes), about what happened when world-class violinist Joshua Bell played for free in the DC subway.

JaneV2.0

1-2-11, 8:20pm

Sad Eyed Lady

1-2-11, 9:24pm

The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard.

Greg44

1-2-11, 9:42pm

Still, still reading Thomas Jefferson a life by Willard Randall -- a thick book and I am a slow reader. I find his life very interesting.

madgeylou

1-3-11, 6:50am

Right now, I'm reading 97 Orchard which is a study of five immigrant families in one tenement building in NY in the late 1800's and early 1900's, understanding immigrant life of that period for a number of different ethnic groups as the author follows German, Irish, Jewish, Italian, etc. families, their food, jobs, ways of keeping house, etc., against the larger subject of immigration during that time. Extremely interesting book and lots of great food ideas.

hey loosechix, have you ever been to the lower east side tenement museum in nyc? it's fascinating -- an old tenement building restored to its former tenemant-ness. super cool to run your hand along the bannister and realize that thousands of immigrants have done the exact same thing!

right now i'm reading tim ferriss's "the four hour body." really fun read, though some parts are not that interesting to me. i got "a thousand splendid suns" from my future mother-in-law for christmas and may dive into that on the plane home. i also have a new biography of cleopatra in the queue.

Demrbee

1-4-11, 11:30am

Griftopia by Matt Taibbi.

I also just finished American Wife and I hated it.

AustinKat

1-4-11, 6:33pm

I'm currently reading "Never Done: A History of American Housework" by Susan Strasser. After reading about what people used to have to deal with, I will never complain about housecleaning again. :0

Next up is "At Home: A Short History of Private Life" by Bill Bryson. I seem to be on a domesticity binge lately.

I also have "The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer" by Siddhartha Mukherjee, but it's rather dense and daunting...

Yppej

1-5-11, 6:26am

"Wide as the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired". I was shocked at how many people were burned at the stake for owning Bibles.

earthshepherd

1-5-11, 6:47am

Still, still reading Thomas Jefferson a life by Willard Randall -- a thick book and I am a slow reader. I find his life very interesting.

That sounds good. I am fascinated by Thomas Jefferson also. My sister and I are planning yet another pilgrimage to Monticello this coming summer! We've been there several times. We love to see the gardens, in particular.

goldensmom

1-5-11, 7:40am

Okay, here's a couple of page turners for you, "A History of the Medieval Church" by Margaret Deanesly and "The Story of Christianity" by Justo Gonzalez which includes tons of political history. The Thomas Jefferson book sounds so good I'm going to weave that into my winter reading. I loved Monticello, especially the narrow, hidden stairways. Jefferson's opinion was that stairways are wasted space.

flowerseverywhere

1-5-11, 8:05am

Just finished "Blue Lattitudes" about Captain cook - a modern day writer visited many of his ports. It was the same story we have heard over and over. Native people living in peace with the land and each other. Explorers showing up bringing disease. Followed by missionaries trying to convert them and give up their beliefs.

Decided to read as many books as I could this year from the top 100 books of all time on goodreads.com
listening to "to kill a mockingbird". I forgot how great this book is.

Reading " The end of Faith: religion, terror and the future of reason." It isn't a fast read but very interesting. Much about the history of religious beliefs, the various wars that have been fought and what is going on now with the suicide bombers. Lots of explantions as to the persecution of Jews, Christians and various other religions. I was especially fascinated at how the suicide bombers and their families interpret their holy book to direct them to what they do and the rewards they will meet.

next in line, "No one would listen" written by someone who tried to blow the whistle on Madoff.
Mr Toppit

and on CD Catching Fire, number two in the hunger games series.

earthshepherd

1-5-11, 8:23am

Also reading books by John Robbins on factory farming. Yuck! Very sad, and life-changing. His writings have not only changed the way I eat, but also what I buy and where I shop.

madgeylou

1-5-11, 9:27am

i finished "a thousand splendid suns" on a long plane journey -- it was really great. such a page turner and so sad. i was totally crying on the plane, but wasn't that embarrassed because a middle-aged guy next to me was laughing his head off at "bride wars."

i got the little house cookbook for christmas and have been looking through that as well. it's such a great read!

Florence

1-5-11, 10:03pm

I just finished listening to the audio CD of Isabel Allende"s Ines of My Soul. It was excellent!! Historical fiction at its best.

AmeliaJane

1-6-11, 9:06am

Currently dipping into three books--a reread of "Anne of Green Gables"--loved the book for its plot and characters as a kid--now enjoying LM Montgomery's craft as a writer. What deft descriptions of scenes and characters! Although, strangely I am finding Anne's theatrical personality a little hard to take this time.

Also, Karen Armstrong's "Short History of Islam" which I have been wanting to read for awhile, and also "Marsbound" by Joe Haldeman, which I got on digital from the library and am surprising myself by liking quite a bit. He does a fairly good job of narrating from the POV of a 19 yo girl (although she feels a little younger) who joins a colony on Mars. This being hard science fiction, there is a lot more description of the mechanics of space elevator, ship, etc than perhaps a real 19 yo girl with a limited interest in science would actually give, but on the other hand I am enjoying the descriptions of how they eat, sleep, entertain themselves, etc.

DonkaDoo

1-6-11, 2:30pm

Currently reading:

The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

Sad Eyed Lady

1-11-11, 10:17pm

Now reading "Eat Pray Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert.

iris lily

1-11-11, 11:49pm

Mendal's Dwarf by Simon Mawer and The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue. Both novels.

I'm still trying to wade through to the finish of my British chic lit novel I don't know how she does it by alison Pearson, and I DO like, it, but I'm losing steam. It's comic, so I don't know that I really care what happens after I've squeezed a few laughs from it.

I flipped through a new book about Civil War sites in the state of Missouri and I liked it but can't think of the title. It is arranged in sort of half day car trips and it groups several sites of note into one trip. Missouri had some battles and some interesting involvement in that war. I've been watching PBS' programs on Ulysses Grant and Abraham Lincoln this week, and a really like the fact that I live in the midst of all of that history.

The state where I grew up, Iowa, was far away from Civil war action or really anything very interesting.

Yppej

1-12-11, 12:45pm

This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor and some others that aren't memorable enough to mention yet. If they grow on me I'll bring them up.

libby

1-12-11, 2:10pm

I just finished Sophies Key. It is one of the best books I've read in a long time. I also just finished Emotional Vampires. Also a good book.

Greg44

1-12-11, 6:40pm

That sounds good. I am fascinated by Thomas Jefferson also. My sister and I are planning yet another pilgrimage to Monticello this coming summer! We've been there several times. We love to see the gardens, in particular.

I would love to travel to that area and see the sights. My wife and I probably have enough airline miles to make the trip -- reading about his plans for the gardens the massive plantings, etc I found very interesting. Knowing some of the history behind the historical places before you visit really adds to the experience.

iris lily

1-12-11, 10:26pm

hey jep is that one any good?

redfox

1-12-11, 11:01pm

I just started The River, a history of AIDS. At over 1000 pages, it's a big heavy tome that calls out for an e-reader. It's interesting so far, but given my short attention span, I'll probably have to buy a copy to avoid an impressive fine.

I'd like to recommend And the Band Played On as an incredible book about the early AIDS epidemic. Journalist Randy Shilts wrote it, and it reads like a thriller. Very heavy as well, and a brilliant description of what public health professionals do when they are at the top of their game.

Anne Lee

1-13-11, 1:52pm

I'm enjoying free books via my Kindle. I finished Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart (highly recommended) and am reading Cranford by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. Cranford was hard to get into at first because the books starts abruptly; it took me a while to figure out who the narrator is. The only thing that kept me going through the first chapter or so was the fact that I'd seen the BBC production on Masterpiece so I knew it was Mary Smith.

I am enjoying the glimpses of Victorian England written from a contemporary rather than historical perspective. The same was true for Letters... only there the setting is 1914 Wyoming.

Since I'm basically curious about how people live (I'm the one that likes to see inside people's houses when they leave the curtains open at night) I love getting a sense of the daily life of people, even if it is somewhat "cleaned up" for public consumption.

bke

1-14-11, 11:42am

I've been reading Stop Acting Rich by Thomas J Stanley who is one of the authors of The Millionaire Next Door. I love all the statistics of how real millionares live: $30, 000 toyotas, $400 suits, $15 haircuts, etc.

Dh and I catch alot of crap because we don't live more indulgently. Here we are business owners and we drive 12 yr old cars, no cell phones, no caller id. In fact we're so tight that ds doesn't have a game boy or and ipod. I thought one little guy was gonna try turn us in for child abuse for that one-lol.

The book does alot to reinerate the fact that if you want to be financially secure you make due with practical low-cost goods and don't try to out-sparkle those around you.

treehugger

1-14-11, 12:06pm

Laurel

1-14-11, 5:01pm

I keep reaching for and rereading The Bag Lady Papers by Alexandra Penney. I read it last year and just really enjoy her voice-in-writing.

This weekend I plan to crack open 1 of 2 Aimee Bender stories - either The Girl in the Flammable Skirt OR Willful Creatures.

Yppej

1-15-11, 1:37pm

Still reading The Common Secret which I do find interesting, Iris Lily, and also finished In the Beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis by Karen Armstrong. I am going through the religion, social science, and applied technology sections of the library and there's quite a bit of chaff with the wheat.

iris lily

1-15-11, 2:15pm

I just finished The Autobiography of Henry VIII, with notes by his Fool, Will Somers, by Margaret George and I loved it. Like a reviewer said, "A whale of a book about a whale of king." Fascinating from start to very long finish.

I am now (finally) reading The Help, which I feel like I am the last person in the country to read. Took forever to get it from my library's hold list.

yes, you ARE the last person to read it! ha ha, just kidding.

We discussed it around the brunch table on Christmas Day. One of our friends had been on a long cruise on The Queen Mary with an international clientele. The Help was the book read by the ship's book club. She said it was interesting to get persepctives from people from England who had never had the culture of slavery in thier own coountry as well as the perspective of people from South Africa where it could be said that race problems are deeper and are certainly more recent than here.

Another one of our friends sniffed and said "well, it's not really well written is it?"

But I liked The Help as an engaging fast read with good characters and fabulous plot upturn at the end.

Yppej

1-15-11, 5:42pm

I haven't read The Help Yet - you're not the last person! Almost finished with NBC medical editor Nancy Snyderman's Medical Myths That Can Kill You. I have a three-day weekend so plenty of time to read.

Tammy

1-15-11, 7:01pm

I'm reading "The Finishing School" by Gail Godwin this week.

fidgiegirl

1-15-11, 8:42pm

I just finished listening to the audio CD of Isabel Allende"s Ines of My Soul. It was excellent!! Historical fiction at its best.

I have this novel out from the library, but in Spanish. However, I had forgotten just how much more effort it takes me to read in Spanish, so I might go for the translation. I need to work on my language skills, though . . . you have inspired me to pick it up again!

fidgiegirl

1-15-11, 8:51pm

Sooooo many awesome suggestions!!!

I read Devotion by Dani Shapiro over Christmas and into January. It is about her search for a religious home. Much more complex than that, but very interesting. I related well to it because she kind of took the parts of different spiritual traditions that had meaning for her, like she was really into yoga and meditation while at the same time exploring her Jewish history and reconciling her Orthodox upbringing with her non-practicing adult life. I really liked it.

Next up are several bread books from the library (per the recommendations on the bread book thread), some IBS books (ooh! ;) ), debating whether to read the Spanish language novels I have out from the library or send 'em back, and then also have out The Kite Runner from the bookshelf upstairs.

I also thought it would be a cool project to read all the Newbery Medal winners. I am a teacher and feel my knowledge of children's literature is not what it could be. Here's a link: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberywinners/medalwinners.cfm

I have a list of books over at Goodreads if you want to see them. Have ones that I have read, want to read, etc. I like keeping track, am just that way. :)

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2598454

Polliwog

1-15-11, 11:05pm

Beach Music by Pat Conroy.

Anne Lee

1-15-11, 11:07pm

I just finished reading an old book on my Kindle called Understood Betsy. If you have a young girl (roughly grade 4 - 6) in your life who is showing SL tendencies, get her this book to read. Set in 1916 (and written about that time), Elizabeth Ann goes to live with the dreaded Putney, Vermont cousins where she blossoms from a frightened, cosseted thin waif to a confident, sturdy girl.

The book is available via Gutenberg so no fancy pants e-reader necessary.

ApatheticNoMore

1-17-11, 2:26am

Well I'm reading a lot of frankly crazy stuff, mind blowing and probably just crazy, so I don't think I will go into that right now. :)

But ok here's what I'm reading that's not completely crazy:
Don't Miss Your Life by Joe Robinson.
It's about better enjoying leisure time with active leisure (hobbies, experiences, etc.) from an advocate of more leisure time. A bit in the simple living vein.

Sad Eyed Lady

1-17-11, 9:59am

Beach Music by Pat Conroy.

I love Pat Conroy's books. I remember enjoying Beach Music, but then again I like most things I've read by Pat Conroy.

pinkytoe

1-17-11, 10:59am

Getting More which is about negotiating skills whether dealing with a 4 year old or your boss.

winterberry

1-17-11, 7:05pm

Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey. Historical fiction. It's good.

janharker

1-18-11, 10:13pm

I'm just about finished with As Always, Julia. Letters between Julia Child and friend/promoter from the beginning until after the cookbook was published. Very interesting to be able to get into Child's brain. Also insightful regarding the US politics of the time: McCarthy, Eisenhower, etc.

Rogar

1-20-11, 11:08pm

My current read is The Tenth Parallel by Eliza Grizwold. It is a documentary style book about the geographical dividing line between Christianity and Islam in Africa. For non-fiction I'd give it a four out of five stars and as documentaries go is lively and easy to read. It give somes good insights into why some divisions of the Muslim faith resent western Christianity. And visa versa.

A couple of months ago I read a book called Four Fish by Paul Greenburg. It takes four ocean fish species that are popular in the global diet and describes the decline and sometime revival of our large ocean fish. For anyone interested in how our food habits are changing the environment, I would consider it a must read companion for the Michael Pollan books. As a follow up I'm reading, The End of the Line which is simlar, but not quite as well written.

I'm waiting for my number to come up at the library for Unbroken:A WWII Story of Survival, but in the mean time my light entertainment is a Tony Hillerman mystery.

katieb12

1-21-11, 7:18am

Just about finished with "Farewell to Manzanar" (Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston), a true story about Japanese internment. Jeanne was 7 years old when her family was relocated. Decided to read this after we went to see the play "Snow Falling on Cedars" and I became curious about the period and the events. VERY good, very readable.

Yppej

1-22-11, 10:39am

"The Doctor Wore Petticoats: Women Physicians of the Old West".

JaneV2.0

1-22-11, 11:01pm

"Well I'm reading a lot of frankly crazy stuff, mind blowing and probably just crazy, so I don't think I will go into that right now."

Tease! Can we get a hint?:devil:

I'm reading Seduced by Madness about the Susan Polk murder case. Then I'll go back to The River, about the evolution of AIDS.

ljevtich

1-23-11, 1:40am

Reading a few things: For Fun: Nevada Barr's Firestorm, nonfiction: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver, and for work: The Passionate Fact, Storytelling in Natural History & Cultural Interpretation, by Susan Strauss.

I have been reading AVM for a while, just started Firestorm and will finish by Monday, and reading bits and pieces from the Passionate.

iris lily

1-23-11, 11:49am

I just finished "Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology" by Eric Brende. It was quite interesting and enjoyable. Mr. Brende and his new wife move to an area with a Mennonite population for 18 months and embrace that lifestyle, right down to a homebirth for their first child. I do recommend it.

Evey time someone mentions Eric's book I am compelled to say: He lives a few blocks away from me in St. Louis. I see him regularly. He and his family live in the city now. They pretty much homeschool and live simply in the city (hey, isn't there a book with that title? :D) Their eldest child is a teen by now.

Crystal

1-23-11, 12:12pm

Given the state of world economies and politics today, I want to re-read Asimov's entire Foundation series this year. I want to refresh my memory of Harry Seldon's science of predicting the future of societies and events. I often wonder if anyone is experimenting with these ideas in real life today. If I remember correctly, Harry was doing it for the betterment of the human race. Maybe I'd just like to think that some of our great and not-so-great thinkers have the well being of humanity in mind as they spin their policies. Too often, it seems that our rhetoric and policies and deeply-held beliefs have, as their ultimate goals, personal wealth or power or sometimes personal survival. If we were to imagine the unfoldment down through history of each idea we think of as "right", what is the likely outcome? So, for instance (just picking one at random), what if we downsized government to the bare minimum necessary? How would that spin out next year, five years from now, 25 years, 100 years, 200? If we were to (in an extremely unlikely scenario) suddenly "turn our swords into plowshares" and stop all wars, perhaps turning our military into a kind of peace corps that does helping projects here in the U.S. and around the world? What would that look like going forward over time? And etc. I can ponder this for literally hours, taking each plank from each political and religious and simple living platform and extrapolating the likely outcomes over time. Some are devastating. Some are wonderful. Most are just kind of naive and poorly thought out. (Of course, none of us ever thinks that applies to our favorite hobby horses! :~) ) Anyway, I want to review the entire Foundation series since it's been so long that the stories will seem fresh. I remember just enough to intrigue me. I want to see if I can again draw some parallels with today and our likely future, given the ever-twisting plot intricacies and turns in our real world of mass events. Are we short sighted in our personal convictions of correctness or will history eventually vindicate our every little belief and staunchly-advocated idea?

Anne Lee

1-23-11, 4:24pm

Letters from an Elk Hunt by Elinore Pruit Stewart. This if a followup to Letters of a Woman Homesteader. I'm also dabbling in young adult fiction from early in the last century. While the moralism can be a little heavy handed, in general I find it a lot more positive and inspirational than today's young adult literature which is quite dark.

ApatheticNoMore

1-29-11, 6:20pm

"Well I'm reading a lot of frankly crazy stuff, mind blowing and probably just crazy, so I don't think I will go into that right now."

Tease! Can we get a hint?:devil:

Ok, I was following one Wilheim Reich down the rabbit hole. He was such a smart guy really, such flashes of brilliant social insight, that pretty soon you're following him further and further down the rabbit hole: from psychology, to muscular armoring, to sexuality, to social commentary, to believing in orgone energy and cloud busters! Now if you'll excuse me I need to go sit in my orgone accumulator. :cool:

JaneV2.0

1-30-11, 12:39am

Somebody wrote a book about that years ago: Orson Bean's
Me and the Orgone. I didn't read it, so I have no idea what he had to say. But I do love a good rabbit hole!

AmeliaJane

1-30-11, 11:07am

Glo

1-31-11, 2:42am

Just finished The Help. Funny and very sad.

razz

1-31-11, 9:42am

Gardenarian

1-31-11, 3:58pm

"Radical Homemakers" - kind of preaching to the choir, but I picked up a some interesting things. It was great to read something scholarly about simple living.

"Solar" by Ian McEwan - I'm about 1/2 way through and enjoying it very much. It is about an aging physicist, his many wives and romances, climate change, the general idiocy of things. Cynical but fun.

"Lark Rise to Candleford" - many people had recommended this video series to me, but i thought I'd read the book first. Absolutely wonderful portrayal of English country life as the industrial revolution starts taking hold. Now I'm ready to watch the movie!

"Making the gods work for you : the astrological language of the psyche" by Caroline W. Casey - I'm not generally an astrology fan, but I love listening to Casey's witty and intriguing radio show. The book talks about, not only what astrology is, but the way astrological metaphors and meaning influence our lives. Casey is a semiologist as well as astrologer and a very smart woman indeed.

"Botany in a day : the patterns method of plant identification" by Thomas J. Elpel - well, not really in a day. Maybe in a month I'll have a start and then, it's a lifetime of learning. I'm taking a horticulture course and this seemed like the most accessible book. I wish I'd learned all this stuff a whole lot earlier! I'm also using it with my homeschooling dd. It's a good introduction. I think.

"Crooked letter, crooked letter" by Tom Franklin - says it's a thriller, but this is a very literary novel, excellent in so many ways. Highly recommended!

DonkaDoo

2-2-11, 3:45pm

Killing Floor - Lee Child

Lainey

2-4-11, 9:26pm

"Mennonite in a Little Black Dress" by Rhoda Janzen. subtitled 'a memoir of going home' Rhoda got divorced after 15 yrs of marriage when her husband ran off with a man he met on gay.com. She then gets into a car accident the same week. Decides to return to her Mennonite but very tolerant parents to heal. Witty, insightful, fun, sad, all kinds of interesting.

iris lily

2-5-11, 12:22am

Anne Lee

2-5-11, 11:34pm

I'm reading People of the Mist by H. Rider Haggard.

Quite a yarn.

AmeliaJane

2-6-11, 9:04am

I just reread "Crocodile on the Sandbank" by Elizabeth Peters (read it years ago, and then never went on with the rest of the series, so I'm trying again) and the characters reference the H. Rider Haggard books several times!

ljevtich

2-6-11, 11:44am

The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall - an uplifting and interesting book that can be read in ~ 2 hours. Only 156 pages. Just amazing and interesting. Really makes you think.

ApatheticNoMore

2-6-11, 12:48pm

Ah H. Rider Haggard., read some of that for a class once. A bit cheesy, but page turning for sure.

softweave

2-6-11, 1:20pm

I recently read "Mindsight" by Dan Siegel on applying neuroscience to personal transformation. Truly inspiring. Another good recent read was "How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming". The astronomer Mike Brown chronicles events that led to Pluto being downgraded from being categorized as a planet.

Yppej

2-6-11, 3:21pm

"Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists" and "Fresh Blood: The New American Immigrants" and some others that haven't impressed me yet.

lhamo

2-9-11, 5:24am

Just finished "At Home" by Bill Bryson, a history of the house and domesticity that is arranged by rooms of the house (kitchen, parlor, etc). I really, really enjoyed it...it is an area that I know quite a bit about already and I learned more, plus his prose style is entertaining. I looked it up on Amazon and it got mixed reviews...basically, Bryson uses the very general organization of the book as an opportunity to go off on whatever tangents he thinks are interesting. I like that, because you never know where you end up, but people who were trying to use the book as a focused way to learn more about the subject seemed to be frustrated.

I've got this lined up on my Kindle as the next book I'm going to start, after I finish reading my current one (Real Food by Nina Planck). I heard an interview with him on NPR, and I really enjoyed it. I would love to write books like this -- my brain kind of works in the way you describe his writing, going off on crazy tangents all the time, so I think I will enjoy it.

lhamo

Gardenarian

2-9-11, 5:56pm

"Portobello" by Ruth Rendell. Pretty gloomy so far.

I finally got "The Resilient Gardener" from the library and it looks great.

"Birdology" which was recommended by a friend, but is not quite my thing. I was hoping it would cover birds in the wild.

"Eight Cousins" by Louisa May Alcott. DD and I are reading this together, and enjoying the lessons that cousin Rose, age 13, is learning throughout the book. It is like a primer in transcendentalism. Very fun and wholesome stuff.

CatsNK

2-10-11, 9:04am

I just finished The Witch of Hebron by James Kunstler. I loved the first and this one didn't disappoint. I just started The Long Emergency, also by Kunstler.

I suppose I've gotten annoying since reading these books - I've become very fond of saying, "Well, in the world made by hand these things won't matter anymore." LOL.

SoSimple

2-13-11, 9:02pm

I just finished Getting More (http://www.amazon.com/Getting-More-Negotiate-Achieve-ebook/dp/B003F3PKSQ/ref=pd_ys_iyr_img), which someone else mentioned on this thread. Fantastic book and very timely for me as I've been struggling with some difficult situations / people at work. I had quite a few "aha!" moments reading it and can't wait to put a good chunk of it into practice. Much of it I already knew at some level, but there's nothing like having it all laid out for you in a clear, logical fashion for you to take it from vague theory to practical application.

Gee, I sound like an ad. But it really is one of the better non-fiction books I've read in a while - it was recommended to me by a friend, colleague and mentor who had just finished reading it herself.

lhamo

2-13-11, 11:57pm

KayLR

2-14-11, 1:49pm

Just finished "The Day the world came to town" by Jim Fedede about how the Gander, Newfoundland community of 6000 people responded when all the (38?) airplanes were grounded at 9/11 and almost doubling their population in a day. It is quite inspiring to read about such harmony and respect in both directions.

Boy, that sounds interesting....it's going on my list.

pinkytoe

2-14-11, 2:03pm

Finally finished Getting More and Farm City. Now reading Food not Lawns.
I am fascinated by the urban homesteading movement so am looking for any and all good books on that topic.

mira

2-15-11, 3:07pm

I just finished The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. It's beautifully written, witty and very insightful into various aspects of everyday life. I really enjoyed it :)

Tomorrow on the way to work I'll start Sin noticias de Gurb (No Word from Gurb) by Eduardo Mendoza

AmeliaJane

2-21-11, 12:58am

Just finished "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. I didn't think I'd like it--I don't have very good luck with hugely popular books, for some reason--but it sucked me in and I read the whole thing in one afternoon/evening...can't remember how long it's been since I gobbled down a book that fast. Upon reflection, I had problems with the ending, but it certainly was a very readable book.

Also in the midst of reading "Emma" by installments from the DailyLit website, as well as "The Master of Ballantrae" by Robert Louis Stevenson. Liking both of those a lot--knew the plot to Emma very well from the various movie versions, and the Master of Ballantrae not at all.

Also...something I'm reading, but not a book...the Disunion Blog on the New York Times. It's a day-by-day recounting of the Civil War, starting with Lincoln's election in November 1860. Mostly political/military history, but also social history, biography, geography, anecdotes. Right now the slow run-up to the war is just excruciating...I had not thought through before that everyone saw the war coming, but no one knew that it was certain.

iris lily

2-21-11, 10:04am

flowerseverywhere

2-21-11, 12:11pm

Just finished:

"The confession" by Grisham. What a great book about the death penalty and Texas.

"Cutting for Stone" set in Ethopia. Incredibly interesting well written book.

The Hunger Games trilogy, pretty good young adult science fiction.

Just picked up "the warmth of other suns" about the migration of African Americans from the South and "One Hundred Years of Solitude" as recommended by my favorite librarian.

Merski

2-21-11, 1:16pm

Radical Homemakers
finished the book recommended here about living with less technology
the Town that food saved

AmeliaJane

2-21-11, 7:20pm

It was one of the sadnesses of my reading year that I could not get into Elegance of the Hedgehog. Everything I'd heard about it lead me to believe I'd like it. While I may try it again some day, I think that a 2nd time around will not help.

I tried Life of Pii three times and could not get past the first few pages. Yes these are two entirely different books, but both had an offbeat appeal and were very popular.

This week I a tryin NEwbery award books fromt he library bcause I need shorter books and I can't find any adult books that are not dense or overblown in size.

A couple of years ago I found out about the Printz Award, which is basically the Newbery for Young Adult literature. They have recognized some great books, which I often turn to when I am looking for tight plotting and a quick pace.

Gardenarian

2-23-11, 6:56pm

The "Shadowmarch" series by Tad Williams. This is good, solid fantasy. I'm enjoying it. Much more humor and interesting characterization than you find in most fantasy.

Read the "Maximum Ride" series (James Patterson) because dd was reading it and thought it was so great. It's full of action, but I think a little silly for anyone over 15.

"The Winter Ghosts" by Kate Mosse. Interesting book about a man who lost his brother in WWI and his supernatural experiences in the French countryside.

"Ancient ways : reclaiming pagan traditions" written by Pauline Campanelli - a bit scattered, but this is an interesting book for anyone interested in the old religion.

"The art of non-conformity : set your own rules, live the life you want, and change the world" by Chris Guillebeau. Well, with that title I had high hopes for this book, but there is really only one word to express how bad this is - it sucks.

"The shadow woman" by Åke Edwardson - a fairly interesting mystery set in Sweden.

"The Janus stone" by Elly Griffiths - another mystery. Her first novel was quite good; this one did not measure up.

Polliwog

2-24-11, 2:30am

flowerseverywhere, I just finished reading "Cutting for Stone" also. I so loved it - what a great read. I didn't totally understand the title until I read an interview with the author. You may already know this, but he said that part of the Hippocratic Oath is that "I will not cut for stone" which comes from ancient times when many children and people died of kidney stones, and there were "professionals" who would use very crude methods to cut out the stones. Very interesting.

Demrbee

2-25-11, 3:50pm

Sh*t My Dad Says. It is the funniest book I've ever read.

Merski

2-28-11, 7:38pm

Just finished reading Stockett's The Help and couldn't put it down. Transported me to 1960's Mississippi...somewhere I've never been but lived through the 60's up North. Loved it!

pinkytoe

3-1-11, 12:42pm

Reading 12 x 12 which is a book about an idealistic young man who escapes to a one-room house in the woods for a time. Lots of interesting thoughts about life and simplicity - how the "under-developed" people of the word are often happier than ball-busting Americans.

Simplemind

3-1-11, 10:15pm

Just finished Menonnite in a little black dress. Loved her style.

Merski

3-2-11, 6:50am

Alice Hoffman's The Red Garden

bke

3-2-11, 9:07am

Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand. Nice summery read to combat the cold weather. I don't read much fiction but I'm enjoying this one alot.

Lainey

3-6-11, 2:19pm

"Stalking Irish Madness - Searching for the Roots of My Family's Schizophrenia" by Patrick Tracey. Non-fiction. The author's great-great grandmother, grandmother, uncle and two sisters had/have schizophrenia. It is statistically true that if you have ancestors from western Ireland you are slightly more likely to get this disease.
Unfortunately, that is my heritage and we too had and have family members with schizophrenia. Compelling reading.

seekingsimplicity

3-6-11, 4:11pm

I just finished The Dirty Life: On farming, food and Love by Kristin Kimball. Really enjoyed it.

Merski

3-7-11, 8:48am

Lainey, I have read the book Saints, Scholars and Schizophrenia about mental illness in Ireland. My ancestors were from Kerry who are purportedly a cross between madmen and poets so the saying goes. Does sound like stereotyping to me. I remember how the book said in the old days it was tolerated to be "odd". You may want to read this book as well. I hope I haven't offended....

Lainey

3-7-11, 7:50pm

No offense at all, Merski. I'll look into that book as well. Thanks for mentioning it.

Gardenarian

3-14-11, 6:11pm

"Discovery of Witches" by Deborah Harkeness. Well, this novel had about 200 pages of pretty good writing in it. Unfortunately, the book is 600 pages long, and the other 400 pages are absolute nonsense. And, before you get too far into it, you should know that this is just Part One - apparently a series is in the works. This is "Twilight" for grownups, sort of. Not recommended.

"Far Cry" by John Harvey. I have a weakness for British crime novels, and this is very good example of that genre. There is nothing wrong with the book except that I have read too many similar ones (about abducting children.) Harvey is an excellent writer; compared to Harkness he is genius.

"Manga for the beginner : everything you need to know to get started right away!" by Christopher Hart.
If you are interested in learning how to draw Manga style, this is the book to start with. I got this for my daughter but we have both been having a lot of fun with it.

I also wanted to mention that after reading "Larkrise to Candleford" I got the video series from the library. The video is nothing at all like the book, which is a sort of anthropological memoir. The video is okay, but I was very disappointed after having read the book!

nswef

3-14-11, 8:56pm

Just finished "The Day the world came to town" by Jim Fedede about how the Gander, Newfoundland community of 6000 people responded when all the (38?) airplanes were grounded at 9/11 and almost doubling their population in a day. It is quite inspiring to read about such harmony and respect in both directions.

I LOVED this book. The one part where the New Jersey or New York man tried to cross a street and his reaction to people stopping for him just made me laugh. The rest was nicely written, too.

nswef

3-14-11, 9:00pm

It was one of the sadnesses of my reading year that I could not get into Elegance of the Hedgehog. Everything I'd heard about it lead me to believe I'd like it. While I may try it again some day, I think that a 2nd time around will not help.

I tried Life of Pii three times and could not get past the first few pages. Yes these are two entirely different books, but both had an offbeat appeal and were very popular.

This week I a tryin NEwbery award books fromt he library bcause I need shorter books and I can't find any adult books that are not dense or overblown in size.

I will often go to the young adult or children's section to rest my mind. The endings are usually good! My book club just read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins- very dark, futuristic Young Adult novel. I HAD to read part 2 and 3 because I enjoyed 1 so much and had to know what happened.

Stella

3-15-11, 2:18pm

Right now I'm reading Lament by Maggie Stiefvater.

Gardenarian

3-16-11, 3:57pm

:cool: The World Beneath by Cate Kennedy. I *love* this book!

Here is a review from Booklist: Rich and Sandy endlessly relive the high point of their lives when they were part of a successful environmental protest movement some 25 years ago. But things have not gone well for them since. Rich left the marriage after the birth of their daughter and has been on the run ever since, finally acknowledging that the decades have gone by with not much to show for them. Hapless Sandy has struggled to make a living fashioning handmade jewelry and attempting to sell it at crafts fairs. Their teenage daughter, Sophie, has morphed from a happy toddler into a sullen goth with a serious eating disorder. Then Rich proposes that he and Sophie take a wilderness hike in Tasmania as a way of reconnecting. While Sandy spends the week at a retreat attempting to get in touch with her inner goddess, Rich and Sophie find themselves in the outback severely unprepared for the arduous climb and inclement weather. In elegant, fluidly written prose, Kennedy not only delivers scathing portraits of the ineffectual adults and the times that shaped them but also makes the epic wilderness another vividly rendered character in the story. A gripping debut.

JaneV2.0

3-21-11, 7:10pm

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot. The subtitle reads "Doctors took her cells without asking. Those cells never died. They launched a medical revolution and a multimillion-dollar industry. More than twenty years later, her children found out. Their lives would never be the same."

I remember seeing mention of Mrs. Lacks and her cell line many years ago, so I was eager to read this book. It promises to be a meaty read.

Rosemary

3-21-11, 9:37pm

Tiam

3-21-11, 10:25pm

I've been reading Newbery Award winners this year, when I need a break from my usual diet of the nonfiction books that I review.
This week I read two I had never read as a child, and both were excellent: Island of the Blue Dolphins and Bridge to Terabithia.

DD and I are currently reading the first Harry Potter book together. It is fantastically fun to read aloud. We recently finished Little Town on the Prairie. I enjoyed the later books in the Little House series far more than the early ones.

I read HP's to my son till he grew older and started reading them without me. Kind of sad, I liked to read them to him. I think he started doing that around the 4th book.

I read Little House books too. By far their favorite was Farmer Boy. I think because it was much funnier and they liked that.

iris lily

3-22-11, 9:13am

I just started The River, a history of AIDS. At over 1000 pages, it's a big heavy tome that calls out for an e-reader. It's interesting so far, but given my short attention span, I'll probably have to buy a copy to avoid an impressive fine.

I've got The Wisdom of WHores, bureaucrats, brothels and the business of Aids by Elizabeth Pisani but I cannot get into it. It keep opening it at random places and reading, but nothing grabs me, other than the title, of course.

Yppej

3-22-11, 9:31am

"Breaking the Rock" about an escape from Alcatraz and "All God's Children: Inside the Dark and Violent World of Street Families" (young homeless).

Lainey

3-23-11, 8:47pm

"Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven" by Susan Jane Gilman. A memoir of her trip to China with her college friend in the mid 1980s, when most of rural China had rarely even seen a Westerner.

Laurel

3-27-11, 11:14am

Gave up on A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. Moving on to Ruth Rendell's 13 Steps Down.

Simplemind

3-27-11, 2:10pm

The Prince of Frogtown by Rick Bragg. I love his style.

Merski

3-29-11, 7:01pm

Let the Right One in...thought I'd try something literally out of my comfort zone!

Yppej

3-30-11, 6:31am

Shirley Chisholm's "Unbought and Unbossed". The biographical part about her fighting the political machines is interesting, but then she veers off into rhetoric at the end that is not only tiresome but dated by now.

"My Life in the Middle Ages: A Survivor's Tale" by James Atlas. He's surviving things like loss of a parent, dreams of greater career success, etc.

iris lily

3-30-11, 10:25am

Let the Right One in...thought I'd try something literally out of my comfort zone!

I'll be interested in your thoughts about it. I've not read the book, saw both films and was very much attached to the Swedish version.

larknm

3-31-11, 10:19am

The Daily Coyote by Shreve Stockton about her raising a coyote, also The Warmth of Other Suns about African American migration from south to north

Merski

4-2-11, 11:53am

iris lily

4-2-11, 12:12pm

Iris-I liked the book but there were parts I quite didn't understand. Especially the ending! Will watch the swedish film and see if I can figure it out. Will need to watch it very early in the day so as not to have nightmares!

The American film was good, very good, it was just a remake of the Swedish film.

If you positively hate subtitles, watch the American version. I don't know how the book ends but I know some details of it based on IMDB discussions. The gender of the vampire child is not revealed in the American version and is only (confusingly) flashed in the Swedish version.

Merski

4-2-11, 4:35pm

The book had way more substance and character development than the movie. My movie wasn't subtitled, it was dubbed in English. Either way, I'm sure the translation and simplification would have lost some of the spirit of the book. The movie ending big event wasn't the same and there were two characters either cut out or greatly diminished. I'm surprised the movie didn't scare me much because it was 2 p.m. and also I kinda knew where it was going. More sweetness seemed to come out in the movie. Read the book and learn about the ambiguous gender reason!

iris lily

4-2-11, 8:42pm

AmeliaJane

4-2-11, 10:06pm

Just read "Gone" by Michael Grant, YA sci fi about what happens in a small California town when everyone over 15 disappears. The setup was more interesting than the resolution but it kept my attention and I zipped right through it.

Sad Eyed Lady

4-3-11, 11:24pm

Just finished a rather disturbing book by Alicia Gaspar De Alba called "Desert Blood", a fiction book but based on the true Juarez murders of over 350 girls and women.

JaneV2.0

4-19-11, 8:02pm

I have a Spanish language book on the Juarez murders around here somewhere. The whole maquiladora phenomenon is disturbing to me, even without the bloodbath that followed it. As I recall, one high-level suspect was jailed, but the mystery was never really solved.

I'm in the middle of an old favorite I first read in the seventies--John Keel's The Mothman Prophecies. It's an entertaining (non-fiction) ramble through woo-woo land, as Keel wryly recounts witness encounters with winged, red-eyed night stalkers, strange foreign-looking men in black who ask way too many questions, and bloodlessly disemboweled animals. This kind of stuff is catnip to me; I love a whiff of whatever lies beyond the nearest brane, so I'm reading slowly and savoring the possibilities.

pcooley

4-19-11, 11:17pm

I am reading The Party's Over by Robert Heinrich, A Little Book of the Shadow by Robert Bly, Molloy by Samuel Beckett, The Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler, The Great Good Place by Oldenberg, A Place in Space by Gary Snyder and Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne. Some of those I've read before. I'm trying to take notes for the book I'm working on.

Lainey

4-21-11, 12:01am

"The Blessing" by Gregory Orr. A memoir of his life from a young child in the 1950s to about age 23 or so. When he was 12 he accidentally shot and killed his brother while hunting. Of course that forms a huge part of his personality, but he writes so wonderfully (he's a published poet) about his inner life and his family that you're compelled to finish reading it.

Gardenarian

4-21-11, 3:10pm

I've been reading some YA fiction -
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. 5 stars! This is a lovely book about an oddly wonderful homeschooled teenager who tries to fit in at high school.
Andromeda Klein by Frank Portman. Very well written and engaging, but lacking in focus and resolution. About a high school girl who is deeply involved in the occult.
The Homeschool Liberation League by Lucy Frank. This is a great book to read if you are thinking about homeschooling your teen. It is a novel, but shows the benefits and drawback to homeschooling very nicely.

And some adult fiction -
The Third Angel and The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman - both excellent books. I forgot about Hoffman for a while; she really is a terrific writer.
The passage : a novel by Justin Cronin. " A security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment that only six-year-old orphan ... can stop." Really, really long. Kind of trashy, not my thing.

Simple living stuff -
The only 127 things you need : a guide to life's essentials by Donna Wilkinson. The title is deceiving - I thought this would tell me what I really needed, for example: a 12" cast iron skillet, 10 pairs of socks, 2 towels per person - that sort of thing. NO. It was a really useless book (to me.)

Real simple : 869 new uses for old things - I didn't find anything useful in this one either. oh well!

mybodymyself

4-22-11, 5:42pm

As for me haven't been doing that much reading lately. Found that I hardly read any more as well. Have to say do have times like this and others don't. Guess it depends on the book itself as well.

To the End of the Land, David Grossman and Jessica Cohen (Translator)

The Lost Girls: Three Friends. Four Continents.: One Unconventional Detour Around the World, Jennifer Baggett, Holly C. Corbett, Amanda Pressner.

Finished reading Mountain of Crumbs: A Memoir, Elena Gorokhova a week ago. It was worth read. Especially, since found I learned more about the former Soviet Union then what I already knew about before reading your memoir. Can't wait to read more of Ms Gorokhova's life and/or her mothers life now.

A Father's Love: One Man's Unrelenting Battle to Bring His Abducted Son Home, David Goldman.

Yppej

4-23-11, 12:42pm

"Sleeping with the Mayor" about a group of homeless people who camp out at City Hall Park during the days when Ed Koch was mayor of New York.
"The Breaking Point: How Female Midlife Crisis is Transforming Today's Women" and oh boy am I ready for a midlife crisis - I have the boring job and other symptoms that make a person susceptible.
"The Last Gift of Time: Life Beyond Sixty", well-written essays by Carolyn Heilbrun, part of the same sociology by age section of the library I've been going through as the book above.
Some cookbooks which aren't that impressive.

domestic goddess

4-23-11, 2:13pm

The Help by Kathryn Stockett, set in the early 1960's in Mississippi about the relationships between Black maids and their employeers.
Just started a book by Fr. Richard Rohr, called Simplicity: The Freedom of Letting Go. Still on the introduction; allergies are making it difficult for me to read right now.
Have The Gift of Years by Sr. Joan Chittister, which I haven't started yet. Once we get past this allergy season, or I find something that really works, I plan to really get some reading done. But right now, it's like trying to read underwater.

ETA: Well, I guess I am about the last person in the country to read The Help. Oh well, I rarely read things from the best seller list, at least not when they are new. But I did enjoy it. Quick read.

I love these reading threads. Have seen several that sound really interesting. Since I am going to be spending a week at home, I think I'll go pick up a few to take with me.

Lainey

4-25-11, 11:17pm

I think this one's been mentioned before, but I finished "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time" by Mark Haddon.
A novel narrated in the first person by the main character, a 15 yr old autistic boy. A relatively easy read, but very clever and insightful on the autistic mind and behaviors.

AmeliaJane

4-26-11, 7:32am

Well, in the "finally" category, I am reading "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell which came out 11 years ago, on why ideas spread virally. I gather there is some debate about some of his conclusions, but an interesting read nonetheless...

domestic goddess

4-27-11, 11:39pm

I am getting deeper into Simplicity: The Freedom of Letting Go by Richard Rohr. There are some things in this book that I really needed to read. I love it when a book I wanted to read is even more meaningful to me than I thought it would be. Since I really can't do much of anything right now, it is a really good time to read.

Maxamillion

4-29-11, 1:24am

I recently tried reading A Discovery of Witches. I ended up skimming through the last half and just couldn't finish it.

I'm re-reading Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix. There's a few parts of it I usually end up skimming through. I love the HP books, I just wish the last four (and especially five and seven) had had some more editing done. The writing in the first three is really tight and flows smoothly. Towards the end of number seven, some of the sentences are just painful to read.

I just finished Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich. A funny light read.

larknm

5-4-11, 12:48pm

Amish Grace--about how the Amish forgive, amazingly better than almost anyone else. Has broken through a wall in my mind.

mybodymyself

5-4-11, 2:37pm

A Father's Love: One Man's Unrelenting Battle to Bring His Abducted Son Home, David Goldman.
WOW what a memoir this was and thank you, Mr. Goldman for writing about your deal to get Sean back home.

Gardenarian

5-9-11, 6:04pm

Just finished "Freedom" by Jonathan Franzen. It's a really, really, long book. Full of interesting ideas, but I got kind of depressed while reading it. I think Franzen's a great writer; just not sure why I feel so empty after reading this.
Maybe I'm just reading too much.

pony mom

5-23-11, 11:33pm

Took a trip to a Unique Thrift store today and found a copy of Little House on the Prairie, which I haven't read since I was about eight years old (over 35 years ago). Finished the first chapter, and it's not familiar to me at all. I know I loved it and reread it many times all those years ago, but it seems brandy new to me now.

I'm going to stalk the library for a copy of Maeve Binchy's latest--her stories just suck me right in.

Bastelmutti

5-23-11, 11:53pm

Currently reading Boneshaker by Cherie Priest & interested in other steampunk suggestions if anyone has any.
Still trying to finish The End of Wall Street for my non-fiction book & have a thick German tome on the German foreign service during the 3rd Reich staring at me from the shelf. Also would like to read In the Garden of Beasts about the first US embassador to Hitler's Germany.

pinkytoe

5-24-11, 9:51am

Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Fiskar - a rather rambling philosophical book about his choice to live a simple life and retire very young
How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman - yes I read cookbooks at night before bed

Gizmo

5-24-11, 11:49am

Currently reading Boneshaker by Cherie Priest & interested in other steampunk suggestions if anyone has any.

Nice. I'm about halfway through "Boneshaker". My manager at my last temp job gave me a B&N gift cert, and I used it to get "The Curious Affair of Spring Heeled Jack". It was a really good steampunk book.

Gizmo

5-24-11, 12:06pm

Mostly been reading upcoming authors on Smashwords - Renee Adam's "The Three Irks" and "Mommy, where do baby Unicorns come from?"

As far as major authors, working on "Boneshaker" by Cherie Priest. Just finished "City of Fallen Angels" by Cassandra Clare. Clare's books are YA, but they are amazing.

Florence

5-30-11, 3:54pm

I love books about the homefront in England during and just after World War II. Nella Last's War and Nella Last's Peace were edited from her wartime and post war journals. I found them just fascinating. The days following the declaration of war, the blitz, the bone weary days of making do, the uncertainty of everrything.

Simpler at Fifty

6-4-11, 12:50pm

Just started reading The Noticer by Andy Andrews. It is a very easy ready. Very powerful.

Lainey

6-4-11, 12:52pm

Adding my name to the many others who have enjoyed "The Help" a story of African-American domestic help in Mississippi in the early 1960s. Am looking forward to the movie coming out.

jennipurrr

6-4-11, 6:43pm

Adding my name to the many others who have enjoyed "The Help" a story of African-American domestic help in Mississippi in the early 1960s. Am looking forward to the movie coming out.

Just finished The Help also. I enjoyed it, but I felt like it didn't quite live up to all the hype...the quote from a review on the front says "one of the most important pieces of fiction since To Kill A Mockingbird", so that was a really tall order! I was also reading at the beach, and it seemed like every other person on the beach was reading it also...as Southerner in a fairly chi chi Northerner filled destination (Turks and Caicos), I couldn't help but wonder their thoughts and judgement on the book, compared to the actual reality of sitting on a Caribbean island beach being served drinks with umbrellas by the descendents of slaves who live in shantys. Maybe that's just my Southern defensiveness kicking in...I did really like the book though and found it very meaningful!

Finally read The Four Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. I found a lot of hype in it, especially the virtual assistant stuff, but also some very practical suggestions for working "smarter." It was worth reading. DH thought it was pure BS before he read it but after reading it he had the nerve to ask to work one day at home (which he never would have had the nerve to do before) and his request was approved!

Also knocked out Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer by Warren St. John (DH's main read for the week). I do not appreciate college football, which apparently puts me in a smaller minority than atheists in my AL town, but I really enjoyed this book! It was very easy to read and I really liked his writing style. I only began it out of sheer boredom sitting in the airport but kept reading all the way through. It follows the author as he immerses himself in the lifestyle of people who have RV's and follow the University of Alabama football team.

bke

6-5-11, 9:26pm

Pinkytoe-

Is the ERE book worth the purchase price? I can't seem to get it through the library and am very interested in reading it. I'd love to hear more of your thoughts about the book.

SoSimple

6-5-11, 10:27pm

Just finished The Dispossessed by Ursula LeGuin. An oldie but goodie. I've ready several of her short stories over the years, but this was the first time I read one of her novels. Fascinating book.

San Onofre Guy

6-6-11, 6:11pm

I'm currently reading Inside WikiLeaks, My Time With Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website by Daniel Domscheit-Berg.

This is a fascinating insight into Wikileaks and how it got going. Since I first heard about Assange and then saw him on Stephen Colbert I have been fascinated with him. He is one strange, brilliant, arrogant, egotistical, selfish bastard! He would likely take that description as a compliment. He is in fact odder than I originally thought. I think what Assange and others did for the world by posting stuff on Wikileaks is one of the best things to occur in modern times.

What the few moneymen in the world have done to the rest of us peons is appalling.

FREE BRADLEY MANNING!!!

iris lily

8-12-11, 12:04am

Please Look After Mom

(from a review) “A woman's disappearance in the Seoul subway causes fissures among her family, in this novel by South Korean writer Kyung-sook Shin…“gazes moodily backward and inward. It offers reflective meditations on motherhood and a ruminative quest to confront mysteries more abstract than figuring out where she went.”

I liked the insight into Korean family and culture.

Unplanned : the dramatic true story of a former Planned Parenthood leader's eye-opening journey across the life line by Abby Johnson.

I like learning how people change. This one is nice in that the author is very kind and compassionate to all parties she writes about including those on the "other"side, even before she changed sides on the abortion topic! It's pretty interesting. It would be hard to see how anyone could find fault with her, but I suppose there always will be those who can.

Tiam

8-12-11, 12:32am

Just finished The Help also. I enjoyed it, but I felt like it didn't quite live up to all the hype...the quote from a review on the front says "one of the most important pieces of fiction since To Kill A Mockingbird", so that was a really tall order! I was also reading at the beach, and it seemed like every other person on the beach was reading it also...as Southerner in a fairly chi chi Northerner filled destination (Turks and Caicos), I couldn't help but wonder their thoughts and judgement on the book, compared to the actual reality of sitting on a Caribbean island beach being served drinks with umbrellas by the descendents of slaves who live in shantys. Maybe that's just my Southern defensiveness kicking in...I did really like the book though and found it very meaningful!

.

Oh, how I hate it when it anything is compared to a classic or iconic piece of work. It's a dead set up for disappointment. I like the Help. No, it's no To Kill a Mockingbird, nor Fried Green Tomatoes, or Gone with the wind. But it was good. I saw the movie. It was 'good' also. I've read it's critics decry it for being full of stereo types. But, sometimes when I see that kind of criticism I have to ask, is that because those things do really exist? Just because they existed doesn't make them the norm. It's nice not to entirely avoid them just in order to avoid the stereotype, and rather bring depth to them.

Tiam

8-12-11, 12:34am

iris lily

8-12-11, 12:34am

Look, The Help was a breezy enjoyable read but it's not deep and it's not memorable. It's fun and that's all. In my book it's on a par with Water for Elephants.

Florence

8-12-11, 7:58am

I just finished In Siberia by Colin Thubron. Not an easy read considering the history of Siberia and the pollution of the land but worth the effort to get a feel for the people of Siberia.
Just started The Greater Journey by David McCullough. So far so good.

AmeliaJane

8-12-11, 9:15am

Just finished Emma by Jane Austen which I had never read despite having seen several film adaptations. I read it in installments with the free website http://dailylit.com which I have recommended here before. They will send you short segments of books, mostly classics, daily or several times a week. It's great for classics that seem too challenging to take on at once. I tend to be a speed reader, so I have found it gets me to slow down and think about what I'm reading.

Also just read a children's book on Ramadan--I think it was one of Nancy Pearl's books where she mentioned if you are trying to learn about something new and complex, a great place to start is kid's nonfiction because it will help you get the vocabulary, names, basic events etc. straight in your mind before you take on a more complicated adult text.

Just finished "Peeps" by Scott Westerfeld which is one of the creepiest and also most original vampire books I have read, and manages to stay away from a lot of the cliches of paranormal fiction. Currently working on Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell which is a book I bought off a clearance shelf years ago and haven't gotten around to. I'm trying the "chapter a night" approach and I am enjoying it. And also The Groucho Letters which is a selection of Groucho Marx's correspondence. His exchanges with TS Eliot are just charming...

iris lily

8-12-11, 10:37am

Agree with Nancy Pearl's advice to try a children's book about a new subject. Children's writers are very good about distilling the essence of information. I brought home an arm full of library books from the kid's section on botany when I needed to brush up on plant physiology for my lily judging class. It was all of the science I needed. Well, that and having DH around to quiz me helped.

KayLR

8-12-11, 1:11pm

Am reading "Strength in What Remains," Tracy Kidder. I think I got the recommendation from someone here on the site, thank you.

Before that I read "Left to Tell," by Immacule'e Iliabigaza (sp).

These are both true accounts from survivors of Rwandan/Burundian holocaust. I highly recommend both.

pony mom

8-13-11, 9:42pm

I just finished the latest Maeve Binchy, "Minding Frankie". Her books are always an easy, light read, sometimes serious but always a pleasure.

Florence

8-21-11, 10:51am

Historical fiction at its best transports one to a different time and place. There you see the sights, hear the sounds, and feel the emotions of that time and place. That is what happens when you turn the first page of Lucy by Ellen Feldman. You listen in as Lucy Mercer tells you how she came to 1733 N Street to be the social secretary to the wife of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. You understand how she and Franklin Delano Roosevelt came to love each other and just how deep and enduring that love was. In telling their story, you are transported to Washington, D.C. when Woodrow Wilson declared war on Germany, you are with the women in the canteen as the troop trains arrive and depart, you are at home in Aiken, S.C. when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and at Warm Springs, Georgia when Franklin dies. As much as we are who we are, Lucy, Franklin, and Eleanor are just who they are, each person treated with respect and compassion.

iris lily

8-21-11, 12:15pm

I"m on a kick of new books about chefs. Will list titles when I have time to look them up. They are all about chefs in training, some attending Culinary Institute of America, some apprenticing in chi chi restaurants, etc. This is interesting because I don't normally read food writing, I don't peruse the foodie publications. I am reading for the biography element in these books, their life stories.

iris lily

8-21-11, 12:21pm

Florence

8-22-11, 2:02pm

All through the Night by Grace Livingston Hill. While you wouldn’t want a steady diet of sugary lightness, once in a while a dose of GLH is just right. You know the plot and how it turns out before the book begins which is just why you are reading it.

Float On

8-22-11, 2:35pm

I ran out of non-fiction books in my house so snuck into my 14 year old's room to see what was on his shelf. Picked out "The Art of Racing in the Rain". I don't usually like Fiction and yet this is my 2nd Fiction book in as many months (read The Help last month) thinking I'd read a chapter and fall asleep I read almost the whole book. The dog 'Enzo' is telling the story on the eve of his death.

iris lily

8-22-11, 4:40pm

If I can get one person turned on to this book, I'll be happy: The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis.

It's a novel about a chess savant, a young girl who has extraordinary talent at the game. It is fascinating.

I read it in the 1980's and it was gripping. It went out of print, and but came back into print a few years ago.

Relaly, try this one--a fast, absorbing read.

goldensmom

8-22-11, 8:47pm

'A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska: The Story of Hannah Breece". True story about a 45 year old woman who went to Alaska in 1904 to teach in the wilderness villages. Got it at a library bag sale because I liked the cover and now I like the book.

KayLR

8-22-11, 10:38pm

Now reading Malcolm Gladwell's "What the Dog Saw."

Edit: DH picked it up and started reading it, so I started another book, "My Abandonment," by Peter Rock. About a man and his 13-yr old daughter who lived unobserved in a forest park in Portland for quite some time. It is based on a true story.

fidgiegirl

8-22-11, 10:41pm

Oh, I am working my way through the Anne of Green Gables series I loved so well as a girl, plus some more LM Montgomery. She really can paint a picture. Enjoying them very much. Hoping to read some of her other series, too.

Florence

8-23-11, 5:14pm

Just started State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. Her book, Bel Canto, is one of my all time favorites so I am really looking forward to this one.

treehugger

8-23-11, 5:27pm

The Bread Bible, by Rose Levy Berenbaum, the new Sunset Cookbook, and also an anthology of food writing from the now defunct Gourmet Magazine. Yeah, I'm in a food phase. :)

Kara

IshbelRobertson

8-23-11, 5:28pm

Jerusalem by Simon Sebag Montifiore.

rosarugosa

8-23-11, 6:51pm

Florence: Patchett is one of my favorites too. I'm excited to hear she has a new book out.
Has anyone read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao? I keep plugging away at it, but it keeps making me sleepy.

JaneV2.0

8-23-11, 7:30pm

"About a man and his 13-yr old daughter who lived unobserved in a forest park in Portland for quite some time. It is based on a true story. "

I was just wondering the other day about those two...

iris lily

8-23-11, 7:34pm

"About a man and his 13-yr old daughter who lived unobserved in a forest park in Portland for quite some time. It is based on a true story. "

I was just wondering the other day about those two...

oh I read that book! I'd forgotten about it until your post. It was very good!

loosechickens

9-2-11, 3:43pm

I'm deep into Idiot America......a very funny, yet sobering look at how we have somehow come to glorify ignorance in this country......

http://www.amazon.com/Idiot-America-Stupidity-Became-Virtue/dp/0767926153/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1314992193&sr=1-1

"The three Great Premises of Idiot America:
· Any theory is valid if it sells books, soaks up ratings, or otherwise moves units
· Anything can be true if someone says it loudly enough
· Fact is that which enough people believe. Truth is determined by how fervently they believe it

With his trademark wit and insight, veteran journalist Charles Pierce delivers a gut-wrenching, side-splitting lament about the glorification of ignorance in the United States.

Pierce asks how a country founded on intellectual curiosity has somehow deteriorated into a nation of simpletons more apt to vote for an American Idol contestant than a presidential candidate. But his thunderous denunciation is also a secret call to action, as he hopes that somehow, being intelligent will stop being a stigma, and that pinheads will once again be pitied, not celebrated. Erudite and razor-sharp, Idiot America is at once an invigorating history lesson, a cutting cultural critique, and a bullish appeal to our smarter selves. "

Between this and my self imposed internet rationing this month (with a timer), I haven't been around much, but I'm sure getting a lot more reading and other things done. My goodness, what a time suck the internet is.....since I've started setting the timer for a limited time online, it feels like I have a WHOLE lot more time......and I've been using some of it to read this book.

happystuff

9-3-11, 7:48am

Way back towards the beginning of this thread, I posted that I was reading The Tibetan Book on Living and Dying. I'm almost done! Have one listtle section left. Wonderful book and definitely one I will be reading more than once. Some parts made my brain hurt - LOL. But definitely one of those books I'm so glad I started and continued to the end.

KayLR

9-3-11, 11:35am

Am now reading, "Rafa," the autiobiography by Rafael Nadal, the pro tennis player for those of you unfamiliar.

Kevin

9-3-11, 11:44am

As usual I'm trying to read too many things at once:

'Small is Beautiful - Economics as if people mattered' by E.F. Schumacher. A collection of essays, dated now in some respects, but still completely relevant to our current predicament in many ways. The chapter on Buddhist economics is virtually worth the purchase price on its own.

'Prosperity without Growth - Economics for a finite planet' by Tim Jackson. The basic premise is that you can't have unlimited economic growth, which is the model on which western capitalism is based, on a planet with finite resources. We need a new definition of prosperity, and a new way of measuring success. Rings many of the same bells as Schumacher. Tim Jackson gave a TED Talk covering some of these ideas last October:

http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_jackson_s_economic_reality_check.html

Resurgence magazine - at the heart of earth, art and spirit. Edited by Satish Kumar, this bi-monthly magazine is part house journal of the green movement, part poetry and art review. Fritz Schumacher wrote for Resurgence back in the 1960s and it continues to promote many of his ideas.

Bread Matters - The state of modern bread and the definitive guide to baking your own, by Andrew Whitley. A detailed analysis of the Chorleywood industrial baking process, how it was a good thing for industrial bakers but not so great for the consumer, and how to bake good bread at home.

Kevin

Kestrel

9-3-11, 12:21pm

I just started "The Great Hunger" about the Irish famine 1846-49 ... written in 1962 by Cecil Woodham-Smith. (Books used to be printed in much smaller type than now, and lines more cramped together, so this is a lot packed into a paperback book.)
"The Irish famine of 1846-49 took such a toll in human misery and wholesale death that an entire people faced extinction. England's celebrated historian tells the near-incredible story of one of the great human disasters of modern times."

DonkaDoo

9-21-11, 5:02pm

In 2011 I have read so far:

* Hunger Games Trilogy
* Game of Thrones book one and now book 2
* Several Sookie Stackhouse books

EarthSky

9-21-11, 6:37pm

William Powers, Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid & Beyond the American Dream, 2010.

DarkStar

9-21-11, 6:55pm

William Powers, Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid & Beyond the American Dream, 2010.

I just finished that. Really good book. It helped me in thinking through some future plans.

Lainey

9-21-11, 8:20pm

"The Mighty Queens of Freeville" by Amy Dickinson. Amy was selected to replace Ann Landers, so she's the author of the syndicated column "Ask Amy." This is her memoir which includes her life in the tiny upstate town of Freeville NY. Wonderful writer, witty and self-deprecating at the same time.

JaneV2.0

9-21-11, 9:05pm

Why We Get Fat, by Gary Taubes, which might be subtitled "Everything you know is wrong." Recommended reading for those who struggle with their weight, people contemptuous of those who struggle with their weight, and anyone who wonders how frank lies and misinformation can solidify over time into dogma.

Rogar

9-21-11, 10:33pm

I'm well into 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus, by Charles Mann. Mann is provides excellent view of the of the new world shortly after it was discovered and then settled, both from a human and natural history perspecitve. He also links it to the start of globalization and how it has this affected world history. I was fascinated by his earlier book, 1491. From my standpoint, 1493 is a slight notch less of a good read, but still quite good.

EarthSky

9-22-11, 9:40am

DarkStar - Twelve by Twelve is doing the same for me, DarkStar. I'm about 2/3 of the way through. Lots to think about. And also some beautiful writing :)

razz

9-22-11, 8:34pm

The Next Decade by George Friedman founder of Stratfor.
Sleeping with Schubert which is just for fun.
Several mysteries by Charles Todd written from the perspective of the First World War

Florence

9-23-11, 3:38pm

The Greater Journey by David McCullough
Haiti after the Earthquake by Paul Farmer
Tall Cedars Homestead by Carrie Bender

razz, I just put a request in to the library for Charles Todd's A Test of Wills; I have never read anything by this author and am really looking forward to it.

Tiam

9-25-11, 10:19pm

Finally finished Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and found the main characters have seeped in, and now I'm on the third and final book.

redfox

9-26-11, 11:54am

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana. Amazing.

Merski

10-1-11, 2:47pm

Sarah's Key am enjoying it (as much as one can enjoy a book about the holocaust in France ...no insult intended) This will be a movie I'm sure of it!

EarthSky

10-1-11, 6:22pm

Finished Twelve by Twelve. :)

Re-reading Choosing Simplicity: Real People Finding Peace and Fulfillment in a Complex World by Linda Breen Pierce.

Also reading Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons by Frederick Buechner.

Love to hear what others are reading, and your reviews!

nswef

10-2-11, 12:20pm

I loved The Art of Racing in the Rain. Our book club read it and even us cat lovers loved it!

iris lily

10-2-11, 3:43pm

Sarah's Key am enjoying it (as much as one can enjoy a book about the holocaust in France ...no insult intended) This will be a movie I'm sure of it!

The movie is playing here in my town.

I deliberately skipped over the book the first time because I'm done with Holocaust things, but I keep hearing about it, so I might read the book after all. But will not see the film.

AmeliaJane

10-2-11, 4:18pm

For work: "At Home" by Bill Bryson and "A History of the World in Six Glasses" by Tom Standage. Both fall in the "surprising backstories of everyday things" genre and both were very fun and readable.

Merski

10-3-11, 7:47am

Iris I can't believe it's already a movie!

iris lily

10-3-11, 7:55am

Iris I can't believe it's already a movie!

yep, it stars Kristin Scott Thomas.

DonkaDoo

10-4-11, 5:48pm

I actually just picked up Omnivore's Dilemma and it is fascinating especially to a cornfed Iowan born and bred.

razz

10-4-11, 8:31pm

Enjoying a few of the murder mysteries by Peter Robinson.http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_9?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=peter+robinson+inspector+banks&sprefix=Peter+Rob I love a mystery writer who does not focus on the gore but the intelligence instead.

iris lily

10-4-11, 9:02pm

Reading books about New Orleans since we are going there on vacation.

AmeliaJane

10-4-11, 11:57pm

Greg44

10-5-11, 12:14am

Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease, Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr. M.D. Very interesting read

Kevin

10-5-11, 6:13am

"Midnight Riot" by Ben Aaronovitch--a mystery about a black constable in London who ends up as a wizard's apprentice. Hard to explain, fun to read. Also "Ex-Libris" by Anne Fadiman, which is a book of essays on reading--I liked it a lot.

Hmm, I wonder if you might enjoy the Bryant & May mysteries, by Christopher Fowler. Arthur Bryant and John May are detectives in the Peculiar Crimes Unit in London and the stories cover their extraordinary careers from 1940 to the present day.

Full of twists and turns, humour and eccentricity and written by an author with a deep love for London, so the city is almost as much of a character as the detectives themselves. Full Dark House is the one to begin with, because it describes the start of the Bryant & May partnership during the Blitz in 1940, switching between that time and the present day.

Kevin

Aqua Blue

10-5-11, 10:12am

I took the book back to the library already, but it was something like The Blue Zone of happiness. It was a good read. Sorta gave me a glimpse of what it would be like if everyone practiced Your Money or your Life stuff.

Laurel

10-8-11, 11:22am

the night circus by erin morgenstern.

Acorn

10-8-11, 11:46am

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
The Paris Wife, Paula McLain

iris lily

10-8-11, 6:00pm

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
The Paris Wife, Paula McLain

We saw Midnight in Paris last week and it the Hemingway character was hilarious, but then, he is easy to parody. Reminds me why I don't read Hemingway.

frugalone

10-9-11, 1:10am

Lainey

10-9-11, 10:19am

Just finished "Emergency Room: Lives Saved and Lost: Doctors Tell Their Stories" edited by Dan Sachs M.D. Stories vary from poignant to shocking. Will give you a real insiders view of emergency rooms.

Acorn

10-9-11, 10:57am

Iris Lily I want to see that movie. I agree, Hemingway's persona is an easy one to caricature. I do like his spare concise writing though, it's of a very different place and time.

iris lily

10-9-11, 11:33am

I've been on a Penelope Lively kick. Just finished "Consequences" and "Making it Up," after reading "Spiderweb." Now I'm reading "Family Album." I'm a real Anglophile so I love her work as well as Joanna Trollope's. And Margot Livesey's.

I like J Trollope and love some of Margot Livesey's works. I met Livesey when she was here in town some years ago when one of the local literary societies awarded her their annual prize for Eva Moves the Furniture. I loved that book. Penelope Lively is someone I read decades ago but haven't pick up a book by here in years. I much prefer UK fiction to American, too.

Florence

10-9-11, 12:20pm

That Used to Be Us by Thomas Friedman. Thomas Friedman hits all the right points in listing our national problems—Energy, Education, Debt, Jobs. He accurately describes the problem, gives a history of the problems, tells why it is a problem. And then he discusses solutions for the problem—which is the problem with the book. You see, Tom, if human nature were as good as it would take us to be to implement these solutions, we wouldn’t be in the frigging mess we’re in in the first place. If you are an optimist, Wow, you’re going to be bowled over by the terrific solutions to all these national problems. If you are a crabby pessimist like me, well, it just isn’t going to happen. And that is a real shame.

AmeliaJane

10-9-11, 12:53pm

Hmm, I wonder if you might enjoy the Bryant & May mysteries, by Christopher Fowler. Arthur Bryant and John May are detectives in the Peculiar Crimes Unit in London and the stories cover their extraordinary careers from 1940 to the present day.

Those sound really interesting. I will definitely check them out! As for me, still rereading the first part of the Stephanie Plum series. They are not great literature (and I expect I will have had enough soon since the characters don't change much from book to book) but fun comfort reads. Definitely the book form of a favorite sitcom that rests the brain... Also, I just read "The Guinea Pig Diaries" by AJ Jacobs who is sort of a specialist in the "Do something weird and write a book about it" genre. Previous books were about reading the Encyclopedia Britannica and trying to live literally as the Bible specifies. This one is a book of essays about a lot of smaller experiments, but was very fun to read.

Lainey

10-21-11, 10:42pm

"The Best Day The Worst Day" by Donald Hall, about his much younger wife Jane Kenyon and her terminal illness. They were both poets, and it opens with her funeral and then bounces back and forth between her diagnosis and their life together. Very valuable for someone who has a family member or friend facing a terminal illness because of the very honest descriptions of what's that like for both people.

"This Land is Their Land" - a collection of essays by the wonderful Barbara Ehrenreich.

JaneV2.0

10-21-11, 11:22pm

Wheat Belly, by William Davis, MD. Dr. Davis lays out the case that wheat--modern wheat, particularly--is anything but the "heart-healthy whole grain" marketers would have you believe. He cites case histories of patients whose ailments--from GERD to arthritis to heart failure--responded favorably to the diet changes he recommends. He even throws in a few recipes. This won't be life-changing information to anyone already following paleo or other low-carbohydrate plans, but he fills in some blanks in the history of grain consumption and the genetics of new versus older strains of triticum.

iris lily

10-21-11, 11:57pm

Boy Alone by K Greenfeld about his severely autistic brother, Noah. Some of you may remember the books about Noah written by his father A Boy Called Noah and A Place fo Noah, etc.

JaneV2.0

10-22-11, 12:42am

I do remember those books, Iris Lily. It should be interesting to read "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey would say.

Merski

10-23-11, 7:32am

Dead until Dark series by Charlaine Harris...well it is drawing near to halloween!

iris lily

10-23-11, 9:14am

I do remember those books, Iris Lily. It should be interesting to read "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey would say.

If you read it, come back here and tell me your view of it. There was a point where I kept trying not to throw it against the wall. You may react differently to that piece.

DonkaDoo

10-24-11, 1:58pm

A Clash of Kings
- George R R Martin

Acorn

10-24-11, 3:33pm

The Marriage Plot, Jeffrey Eugenides

puglogic

10-25-11, 8:13pm

I'm re-reading "The Book of Awesome" by Neil Pasricha, and reading its sequel. Very feel-good stuff when I don't feel really good! (it's a compilation of things from his web site, http://1000awesomethings.com )

frugalone

10-25-11, 8:39pm

Just finished "Pittsburgh Noir," edited by Kathleen George. Great stuff!

nswef

10-30-11, 2:58pm

iris lily

10-30-11, 6:02pm

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Horrifying true report of Johns Hopkins, Henrietta's cancerous cervix, uninformed use of cells that changed the worls and one reporter's search for the person behind it all.

I keep wanting to read that. I think I've had it home at least once from the library. Maybe this winter...

nswef

10-31-11, 1:48pm

Iris Lily ,it reads like fiction so I enjoyed it. Normally I get bored with non fiction.

iris lily

11-10-11, 9:27am

I just finished The Language of FLowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh about a young woman who, although socially awkward due to a sad life in the foster care system, uses her knowledge of flower gift meanings to change her life.

Am reading The Thirteenth Tale recommended by rosebud and I really like it (setting so far is Yorkshire, and I'm game for most thing set there.)

DonkaDoo

11-15-11, 11:07am

The Lincoln Lawyer - Michael Connelly

Florence

11-15-11, 11:08am

Good Evening, Mrs. Craven by Mollie Panter-Downes. This book is a collection of short stories written by MPD in England during WWII and published in the New Yorker magazine from 1939 to 1945. While the setting for the stories is quite dated, the characters are not. In fact, you probably know some of them (or their counterparts) today. There’s Mrs. Ramsay who meets an old beau for lunch and determines that she made the better choice with Mr. Ramsay. But then there is Mrs. Craven who wonders how she will know if her lover is killed or wounded in battle since wives and families are notified...and she is neither. There’s Frances who shares her home with Margaret and is envious of Margaret’s baby, George. Opposite her is Mrs. Craig who is almost unable to contain her joy when her guests leave. The characters are so clearly drawn that you are bound to recognize several. The stories are such delights that I found myself saving one each day until after dinner to read for dessert.

catherine

11-15-11, 11:15am

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Very interesting, and sure doesn't read very whitewashed as you might expect from an authorized biography. You see Steve warts and all. I imagine Steve was actually proud of most of his warts--and reported regret about the others.

Florence

11-15-11, 12:15pm

Weston

11-15-11, 3:59pm

Just finished Operation Mincemeat. About 2/3 of the way through Rogue Island. Both of them excellent.

Best book I read this year was The Lock Artist.

Florence

11-16-11, 5:41pm

Amish Values by Suzanne Woods Fisher. I'll never be Amish but there is much to admire in the way they live their lives in accordance with their values.

loosechickens

11-19-11, 12:08am

O.K. Florence, you convinced me.......I read something about Good Evening, Mrs. Craven somewhere, recently, then after seeing your post here, right to Amazon I went, since it wasn't available through the library.....it's winging it's way to me from some bookseller in NY as we speak......sounds like a great book.....thanks.

iris lily

11-19-11, 12:18am

Florence

11-22-11, 12:03pm

Loose, You should have let me know and I would have mailed it to you.

Florence

11-22-11, 12:04pm

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. Biographies are usually more interesting to me about the person’s early life and my interest tends to wane as they pass into adulthood. However, this book was so well written and so interesting all the way through that I couldn’t put it down. I am so conflicted about Steve Jobs—I want to say what an egomaniac he was and how mean he was and that just because you are a genius, you really aren’t the center of the universe. But I have a hard time saying those critical things because…I am writing this on my i-pad. Would anyone else have revolutionized communication the way he did? I doubt it. Could he have been other than what and how he was. No way. He really was special.

Cypress

11-28-11, 10:54am

Illumination in the Flatwoods by Joe Hutto. A naturalist and animal behavior specialist who raised two clutches of wild turkeys somewhere in Florida. He set up an incubator and hatched the eggs, imprinted with the chicks and spent the greater part of an entire year as their "mother".

DonkaDoo

11-28-11, 12:55pm

A Storm of Swords - GRRM

iris lily

11-28-11, 1:33pm

fathermothergod: My Journey Out of Christian Science by Lucia Greenhouse.
The author's mother died 25 years ago from untreated cancer. This is an interesting portrayal of conflicting family cultures, denial, religious fervor, and how children are caught in the middle of drama like this.

While the parents in this tale remind me a little of Jeanette's Walls nutjob parental unit in Glass Castle, this isn't the fascinating book that Walls wrote. But still, it is interesting.

My college roomate, from a family of Christian Science practicioners, claimed that her mother cured hersefl of cancer.

I like reading about dysfunctional family units. I don't know why that is. Well, rainbows and unicrons aren't that interesting, are they?

The End of Normal: A Wife’s Anguish, a Widow’s New Life by Stephanie Madoff Mack. The daughter in law of Bernie Madoff gives insight into Bernie's family life and talks about her own life with Madoff's son, Mark who comitted suicide on the 1 year anniversary of his father's arrest.

Now here's some dysfunction!

rosebud

11-28-11, 2:16pm

the night circus by erin morgenstern.

How is it? I found the first chapter intriguing.

Florence

11-29-11, 5:07pm

Florence

11-29-11, 5:09pm

I just started The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsen. I'm probably the only person in the western world who hasn't read it. So far so good.

Florence

12-10-11, 2:16pm

The End of Normal by Stephanie Madoff Mack. I've had a fascination with the Madoff saga from the first news reports. The people fascinated me. So wealthy by all appearances and leading charmed lives until one day it is all gone. And worse than that, you find that your loved family member is a cold-blooded criminal, a real sociopath. How on earth do you carry on with daily life? Stephanie Madoff Mack answers that sometimes you can't. She chronicles her life from the time she met and fell in love with Mark Madoff, eldest son of Bernie and Ruth Madoff, through their courtship, marriage, and birth of their daughter and son. She describes the stunned response as Bernie confesses to his two sons, Mark and Andy, that he has stolen the life savings of thousands of people, many of them relatives and close friends. For two years, Mark and Stephanie tried to pick up the pieces and build a new life and each time they thought that hey were going to get past the shame and rebuild they lives, something would happen to throw them back into the pit of shame and depression. In the end, Mark couldn't bear the pain and committed suicide. One question that was finally answered in my own mind was that Bernie's wife, sons, brother, and family really had no idea that he was anything but the loving husband, father, and grandfather and gifted businessman that they thought he was. It really was an epic tragedy.

iris lily

12-10-11, 2:18pm

"The End of Normal: A Wife’s Anguish, a Widow’s New Life by Stephanie Madoff Mack. The daughter in law of Bernie Madoff gives insight into Bernie's family life and talks about her own life with Madoff's son, Mark who comitted suicide on the 1 year anniversary of his father's arrest.

Now here's some dysfunction! "

Iris Lily, is it good? I've been wanting to read it.

yes, I liked it well enough. I didn't pay attention to the family of Bernie Madoff but this book shows how his sons were out of the Madoff fund and had their own financial world, and the boys immediately turned in their father the moment they got news of his shennanigans (Madoff wanted to disburse cash to family, friends, and employees before he was arrested and his sons stopped that.)

"MAck" is the new name that Stephanie took, legally, to get away from the family taint.

edited to add: oh I see that you read it!

The Storyteller

12-10-11, 7:27pm

A Storm of Swords - GRRM

Best of the series so far.

Tiam

12-10-11, 8:29pm

I've kind of given up on Stephen King. I liked his old stuff up to about the Stand then I kind of burned on him. But his latest 11/22/63 is getting good reviews and I might try him again.

DuraMater

12-10-11, 9:46pm

I'm reading the Steve Jobs bio too (on my ipad of course!). Also have "We Took to the Woods" going by Louise Dickinson Rich -- enjoyable writer! (in paperback format on this one).

AmeliaJane

12-11-11, 9:59am

I just read "Acceptance" by David L. Marcus, about a guidance counselor on Long Island in his last year of work. It's kind of a weird pick for me--twenty years away from college applications myself, and no kids--but it was incredibly readable. Marcus is a journalist and did a great job of bringing all the kids and school staff to life. It's definitely a narrow slice of the high school population--just the kids who are college-bound--but I wish everyone who had a kid coming up on college could read it. I learned several interesting things, including the fact that admissions officers are reluctant to separate twins who apply to the same school...so one twin's slightly better application can buoy both.

The Storyteller

12-12-11, 12:55pm

I'm less impressed with the Steve Jobs bio (both the writing and the person) than others seem to be. It was a page turner, mainly because of his interesting life and my passion for the history of tech stuff, but I found huge holes and unanswered questions. For instance, much was made about his religion's influence on his viewpoints and approach to business, but very little about what he actually believed and why. Had the author actually taken the time to research this, he may have found the answer to the mystery of Jobs's "reality distortion field". Same thing with his apparent minimalist and simple living approach to life in general. What, exactly, was his philosophy?

And I just don't buy Steve's excuse for his obnoxious treatment of others, which the author apparently buys into. There are plenty of genius who aren't complete a*******. That was just an excuse for behaving badly. And I have a huge problem with how the author seems to think Jobs did more for the computing public than Bill Gates. Jobs in fact hurt more than helped. Jobs cheated the world out of the best OS in the world (until Linux recently became more user friendly) with his exclusionary practices. Had he approached it differently, we would all be saying "Bill who?"

pinkytoe

12-12-11, 2:12pm

This thread has gotten so long that I can't recall if I already added this one but do recommend:
Watchmen's Rattle about how all dying civilizations go through similar phases before they become extinct (so far, our current one is going down the same road). Although it wasn't the best written book, I enjoyed thinking about the premise, especially how we might be able to save our civilization by utilizing our brains in an underutilized way - insight.

HappyHiker

12-16-11, 8:50pm

Gosh, I rather hope someone will read me in 2012. My debut novel, Falling Through Time, is recently published on Amazon as an e-book. It's the story of a woman from our time who accidentally ends up 70 years in the future...and she's not too happy to be there...until...

The price of the book is just $.99--not bad for hours of entertainment...

Anyhow, I'd love to hear your opinion if you read it. I think the story might have a strong appeal to we who love simple living as it's a tale of a future green, eco-future of simple living.

iris lily

12-16-11, 10:43pm

I just started The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsen. I'm probably the only person in the western world who hasn't read it. So far so good.

naw, I won't be reading it, so you are not the last.

I just returned Good Evening MRs. Craven to the library. It was decent. I did not love it, but I liked it. All of those displaced Londoners going to the country was an interesting situation.

Florence

12-20-11, 4:52pm

Boomerang by Michael Lewis. There are many varieties of travelogues—some focus on the architecture of an area, others on the local cuisine, still others the flora or fauna of a natural area. Michael Lewis in this book takes a tour of some of the countries where there has been a recent financial implosion—Iceland, Greece, Ireland, Germany, and yes, California. It isn’t an in depth examination of the economies of these places; it’s more a look at the culture of the people and the circumstances of a freewheeling banking system that couldn’t bring itself to say “No” to even the most hair-brained financial scheme. A good, light read on a really complicated subject.

Lainey

12-20-11, 5:46pm

"The Camino" by Shirley MacLaine. She walked the 500 mile trek in northern Spain used by pilgrims for over 1,000 years. It ends at a cathedral, but walkers of many backgrounds do it for many different reasons, not only because they are devout Catholics. Shirley is a believer in reincarnation, and she has visions of herself on this same pilgrimage hundreds of years ago.

Interesting book, and a related movie if anyone's interested is "The Way" starring Martin Sheen doing the same walk.

Lainey

12-27-11, 6:36pm

"The Checklist Manifesto" by surgeon Atul Gawande. Describes the use of checklists in aviation and in construction for many years, vs. the slow and recent introduction of checklist use in medicine. Seems simplistic but is very well-written and lots of interesting examples. Gawande did a pilot project at hospitals world-wide with help of WHO, and standardized checklists were an amazing aid in better medical outcomes.

Also finished "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin. The title makes it sound shallow, but it's her interesting take on how to have a better life with small steps in thinking and behavior. She's a former attorney/current full-time writer, so has wonderful writing including lots of historical quotes and anecdotes. Her daily blog is www.happiness-project.com.