What are you reading?

Just finished Final Justice, a police procedural by W.E.B. Griffin that takes place in Philadelphia; the eighth book of the Badge of Honor series.

I'm now working on The Gods Return, by David Drake, the third volume of the Crown of the Isles trilogy.

I've also been leafing through nobu miami THE PARTY COOKBOOK, by Nobu Matsuhisa and Thomas Buckley.  Great photos of fabulous looking dishes with impossible-to-obtain ingredients.  I still like it, I guess because of the local flavors.  Maybe I can dumb-down a recipe or two.

Night and Day by Robert Parker is due out next week, and I'll probably drop everything to read that.  It's the latest Jesse Stone novel.

Just finished Lightning Man, a biography of telegraph inventor Samuel Morse. I learned a lot about his days as a painter which i was only vaguely aware of from an American Art history class. I came away with much less admiration for him as he was a vocal anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic activist. He also wrote a ringing "biblical "defense of slavery as the Civil War broke out. Sometimes it's better not to know as much.

I don't know, mr chips. Maybe it's better that we know about the clay feet of idols. I have been reading a lot about Lincoln lately, and I have had my eyes opened!

I just finished Marley and Me. A must read for anyone who has loved and been loved by a dog. I don't think I will see the movie... usually the movies of books I have loved  are such a let down.

Just finished Cousin Brucie's Doo Wop book on the history of the 50's doo wop sound...great book....and just started Joe Torre's "The Yankee Years" . Fascinating and must reading for any Yankee Fan!!!!!

I'm currently reading "The Worst Hard Time", by Timothy Egan, about the Dust Bowl. 
 
I had no idea how ignorant I was of the Dust Bowl.  I didn't know it was man-made and I didn't know where it was actually geographically situated.  Funny, all these years I thought it was pretty much Oklahoma and Kansas.  Guess I got my ideas all from Hollywood.
 
I've lived in Colorado for most of my life and never knew it reached here.  Although it IS a big state and it was a small corner in the southeast.  Still...
 
The statistics are astounding.  In the light of our precarious national fiscal situation, it's actually pretty topical, in a warning way.
 
And really well-written.  I can't seem to read it fast enough.  And there are some amazing pictures of Black Sunday.

Pwings -
 
I read "The Worst Hard Time" and I agree with all your comments.  It is very well written and certainly timely.  I found it infuriatring most of the time, sad much of the time, and fascinating all of the time.
 
I'm currently reading "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell.  It's about the many unrecognized factors that contribute to the successes of successful people.  It's an interesting read.

I started "Storeys from the Old Hotel," a collection of short stories by Gene Wolfe. I'm really enjoying it so far. 

Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

Ah, Pratchett's our favorite. I'm currently reading his Nation.

The Frontiersman by Alan Eckert
The Hobbit by Tolkien

Gneedles59, how do you like Good Omens? I loved it, and went so far as to cast the movie in my head.

mbrookes


Gneedles59, how do you like Good Omens? I loved it, and went so far as to cast the movie in my head.

I loved the book, this is actually my 2nd time reading it, I red it first a few years ago.  I am a big fan of all of Neil's work, starting with the Sandman comic...

I just finished The Nine, Jeffery Toobin's outstanding book on the Supreme Court. Going to start Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln" next. Or "The Year of Living Biblically." Haven't decided.

FriedClamFanatic


If you like Hiaasen's stuff and the world of whacky Floridians, check out Tim Dorsey

Serge is at it again...I'm in the middle of Dorsey's Nuclear Jellyfish.

Right now I am reading Michael Pollan's, A Place of My Own. It is about his building a small cabin in the back of his yard for writing. Michael Pollan is better known for his food books, In Defense of Food and the Omnivore's Dilemma.

cavandre

FriedClamFanatic


If you like Hiaasen's stuff and the world of whacky Floridians, check out Tim Dorsey

Serge is at it again...I'm in the middle of Dorsey's Nuclear Jellyfish.

Serge is my buddy!  and no, I am not Coleman! (At least not totally)
 
Enjoy!

GNeedles59

mbrookes


Gneedles59, how do you like Good Omens? I loved it, and went so far as to cast the movie in my head.

I loved the book, this is actually my 2nd time reading it, I red it first a few years ago.  I am a big fan of all of Neil's work, starting with the Sandman comic...

Gneedles, have you read "The Graveyard Book," Neil's latest? It's great.

That is next on my hit list, thnx for reminding me :)

I read John T. Edge's "Fried Chicken: An American Story" last night. It left me ravenously hungry for some of the fried chicken from across the country he describes. I really enjoy his work, especially his pieces in Oxford American magazine.

I'm reading David Sedaris "naked."

He just related a quote from his father who insisted every meal be at a nationally known fast food restaurant when traveling ...

"Are you telling me you'd rather sit down at a table and order food you've never tasted before?"

Hello All,
I am re-reading "Gods and Myths of Northern Eurpope,"
by H. R. Ellis Davidson.  She is a wonderful writer.
My mother gave it to me as a Christmas gift in 1990,
and in re-reading it, it is like a new gift from her.
Thanks Mom!!
Take Care,
Fieldthistle

Gregg we have a friend who works in a grocery store that Mr. Sedaris (the dad) and his brother, the Rooster, visit often, and she gives us Sedaris updates.  Apparently they're just a family full of characters.

Nancypalooza


Gregg we have a friend who works in a grocery store that Mr. Sedaris (the dad) and his brother, the Rooster, visit often, and she gives us Sedaris updates.  Apparently they're just a family full of characters.

So your friend can find out if that was a direct quote.

Also currently re-reading "Welcome to the World, Baby Girl" by Fannie Flagg.  Love all her books.

Every book Dick Francis has ever written!

Oh, I think they don't bother Mr. Sedaris a whole lot.  She says he's just an extremely polite, proper old man.  I've read I think probably all of his books and the quote would be in keeping with the character of his father, whether it maps 100 percent onto the actual guy or not.

She did snap this the other day though: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sisterbeer/3280157772/

This thread reminds me of the FB note that is floating around about the 100 books list

I had read 38 of the 100 listed (this list is put together by the BBC)

x = read
+ = love
* = going to read

001 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen - x
002 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien - +
003 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte -
004 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling - +
005 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee – x
006 The Bible - various - x
007 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte - x
008 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell - x
009 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman -
010 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - x
011 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott - x
012 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy -
013 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller -
014 Complete Works of Shakespeare -
015 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier -
016 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien - +
017 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk -
018 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger - x
019 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger -
020 Middlemarch - George Eliot -
021 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell - x
022 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald – x
023 Bleak House - Charles Dickens -
024 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy - x
025 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams -
026 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh -
027 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky -
028 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck - x
029 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - x
030 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame -
031 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy -
032 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens - x
033 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis - x
034 Emma - Jane Austen -
035 Persuasion - Jane Austen -
036 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis - x
037 Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini -
038 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres -
039 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden -
040 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne - x
041 Animal Farm - George Orwell - x
042 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown - x
043 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez -
044 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving -
045 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins -
046 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery - x
047 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy -
048 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood -
049 Lord of the Flies - William Golding - x +
050 Atonement - Ian McEwan -
051 Life of Pi - Yann Martel -
052 Dune - Frank Herbert - x
053 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons -
054 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen -
055 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth -
056 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon -
057 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens - x
058 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley -
059 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon -
060 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez -
061 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck - x
062 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov -
063 The Secret History - Donna Tartt -
064 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold -
065 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - x
066 On The Road - Jack Kerouac –
067 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy -
068 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding -
069 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie -
070 Moby Dick - Herman Melville - x
071 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens - x
072 Dracula - Bram Stoker - x
073 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett -
074 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson -
075 Ulysses - James Joyce -
076 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath -
077 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome -
078 Germinal - Emile Zola -
079 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray -
080 Possession - AS Byatt -
081 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - x
082 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell -
083 The Color Purple - Alice Walker -
084 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro -
085 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert -
086 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry -
087 Charlotte’s Web - EB White - x
088 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom -
089 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - x+
090 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton -
091 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad -
092 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery -
093 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks -
094 Watership Down - Richard Adams -
095 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Toole -
097 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas - x
098 Hamlet - William Shakespeare - x
099 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl - x
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo - x

Hey Don,
 
Since you loved Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, I really do suggest you give "His Dark Materials" a shot.  I discovered them recently in a box in the trunk of my car -- I have no idea when I purchased them, but when I started them, I got hooked fast.
 
They are a curious mixture of fantasy, quantum physics and theology.  I usually hesitate to suggest books to people unless I know their style, but I have an idea these might be up your (diagon)alley. 
 
Katie

Anyone that enjoys Potter or the LOR might want to try Christopher Paolini's dragon rider series (Eragon, Eldest & Brisingr). I've enjoyed all three & am looking forward to the fourth and final chapter of the story.

I finished a biography on the comedian Bill Hicks, "American Scream." A wonderful talent who died way too young (from pancreatic cancer at age 32) just as his career was really beginning to take off.

Now I'm reading "Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper," a biography of one of the two men behind the making of King Kong. I'm really loving it so far. Cooper's life would make for a great movie all its own. Just his World War I exploits would make a great flick.

3/4 thru "The Big Rich" by Bryan Burroughs[Barbarians at the Gate], fabulous book that tracks in interesting detail the start of the Texas oil boom, the men who became fabulously rich, their lifestyles, political influence, and finally their losses, a powerful eye opener....after you read it, you can put nothing past Lyndon Johnson, this book was extensively researched and written in a non judgemental vein.
Try to get your head around this, during WW2, there was a 556 mile pipeline,24 inch pipe, each section weighed 2 tons, built feom Texas to outside of  Philadelphia on budget, in a year. They had to drill thru mountains, under major rivers, and build around major obsticals. In a year????? 67 years ago???? WOW!

After a couple years, I am finally getting around to reading The Nasty Bits, by that hunk, Anthony Bourdain.........
Pretty funny stuff.......

Gee, Tara, why didn't you put in the picture of Tony that you sent to Ann and I?
 

Pwingsx


Gee, Tara, why didn't you put in the picture of Tony that you sent to Ann and I?
 

Ok.. lets see how long it lasts here.....
 

Haaaaaaaaa! 

Nancypalooza


Haaaaaaaaa! 

Guess he's not all that much of a hunk below the throat, eh?.. But he sure does have a HUGE bone!
 

I'm now reading "Team of Rivals: The Political Genuis of Abraham Lincoln" by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Wow. Such an amazing book about Lincoln and his three chief rivals for the nomination and how they all got that way, maneuvered to beat each other, then became committed friends and colleagues. Highly recommended.

"I hope they serve beer in hell," by Max Tucker.  One of the funniest things I have ever read

Currently reading seed catalogs aspiring to a larger garden than I'll ever be able to take care of.

Tara, I gotta admit, I don't like that picture of Tony.  Far, far too skinny for my taste.  I like men with a lot more cushioning.  A lot more.  I even like beer bellies.

I was going to say I like a man with a lot more meat on his bone(s), but thank goodness I was able to restrain myself.

Has anybody read Sophie Kinsella's "Confessions of a Shopaholic?"  The one they just released a movie of?  I've read the whole series and loved them, as pure chick escapism.  But from the trailers I've seen, I have no intention of EVER seeing the movie.  I can see they got it wrong from my first glimpse of Becky Bloomwood.  And the first scene they show never even happened in the book.  So I know I'd hate it.

The Wolfman - Nicholas Pekearo

fattybomatty


"I hope they serve beer in hell," by Max Tucker.  One of the funniest things I have ever read

I read that book, it was pretty damn funny. However it is well documented that Tucker Max is full of it and half of those stories are pure BS, fun read though.

Gneedles,

I figure most are BS, but gotta give him credit for coming up with them.  The only one that isn't BS is that email that he sent out.  I know in the law circle that thing has been infamous for years.

Have you ever read the alphabet of manliness? 

Pwingsx


Tara, I gotta admit, I don't like that picture of Tony.  Far, far too skinny for my taste.  I like men with a lot more cushioning.  A lot more.  I even like beer bellies.

I was going to say I like a man with a lot more meat on his bone(s), but thank goodness I was able to restrain myself.

Has anybody read Sophie Kinsella's "Confessions of a Shopaholic?"  The one they just released a movie of?  I've read the whole series and loved them, as pure chick escapism.  But from the trailers I've seen, I have no intention of EVER seeing the movie.  I can see they got it wrong from my first glimpse of Becky Bloomwood.  And the first scene they show never even happened in the book.  So I know I'd hate it.

Like I said.. he is not a hunk from the neck down, but he sure got a big bone....
 

fattybomatty


Gneedles,

I figure most are BS, but gotta give him credit for coming up with them.  The only one that isn't BS is that email that he sent out.  I know in the law circle that thing has been infamous for years.

Have you ever read the alphabet of manliness? 

Lol, yeah I own that book, that was one that made me bust a gut laughing.

Gneedles,

I believe every man on the planet should have to read Alphabet of Manliness as part of the male education.  haha

Pwingsx


Hey Don,
 
Since you loved Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, I really do suggest you give "His Dark Materials" a shot.  I discovered them recently in a box in the trunk of my car -- I have no idea when I purchased them, but when I started them, I got hooked fast.
 
They are a curious mixture of fantasy, quantum physics and theology.  I usually hesitate to suggest books to people unless I know their style, but I have an idea these might be up your (diagon)alley. 
 
Katie

I missed your suggestions the first go around, so I have added them to my list, I caught grief for mot reading catch-22 so that is my current read.
 

almost through reading nuclear jellyfish- tim dorsey
next up, fool by chris moore.
these two writers keep me sane.

Just finished Gene Wolfe's short story collection, Storeys from the Old Hotel. I really liked most of the stories, though there were a few I didn't get at all.

Right now I'm reading American Sideshow, an encyclopedia of sideshow performers. It's really interesting so far.

xannie_01


almost through reading nuclear jellyfish- tim dorsey
next up, fool by chris moore.
these two writers keep me sane.

WB xannie we missed You!

I have just started reading Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters, by August Ragone. The late Mr. Tsuburaya, who died in 1970, was the special effects genius at Japan's Toho Studios who was responsible for the first sixteen years worth of Toho's science-fiction/monster movies ( Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, and a couple of dozen others ), along with the various Ultraman TV shows from his own Tsuburaya Productions.

CajunKing

xannie_01


almost through reading nuclear jellyfish- tim dorsey
next up, fool by chris moore.
these two writers keep me sane.

WB xannie we missed You!

I second the King's welcome back, xannie. We missed you.

cajun king and improviser,
thank you both for the warm welcome.
i truly appreciate it.
 

i've put aside fool to read
Mrs. Linco;n a life- by catherine clinton
it's about what really happened to her after the assanation.
i recently read The Lincoln's, a story of a marriage.
i try to make sure every other book i read is a history or non fiction.

   Elvis is Dead and I Don't Feel So Good Myself by Lewis Grizzard. I read this about 20 years ago before Lewis died and rescued it from my wife's yard sell stuff for one more go around. A good old Southern boy telling it like it is or then maybe not. All of his books can bring a smile to your face and then some parts of all of them would make you think. His books are an easy read that won't, IMHO, make you feel that you have wasted your time. His ex may still have a grits picker for sell for any of you that may be interested.

I finished two books this weekend: Marc Hartzman's American Sideshow, an encyclopedia of circus performers. I enjoyed this book, it's really interesting to read about some of the Bearded Ladies, Fat Men and Dog-Faced Boys who entertained -and sometimes disturbed - crowds during the heyday of circuses. I also really liked that the author included profiles on those who are working to keep sideshows alive today like Jim Rose and The Enigma (who was once on an episode of The X-Files.)

One thing I didn't like about the book was some of the cheap shots and jokes that Hartzman makes about some of the performers. For a book that makes the (very good) point about circuses being the only way for some "freaks" to make money, these jokes seem out of place.

I also finished Ray Bradbury's "The Illustrated Man" Ray Bradbury is a wonderful short story writer and there are some real gems in this collection. I usually enjoy his novels (and "Something Wicked This Way Comes" is a masterpiece), but his collections are always fantastic.

xannie_01


i've put aside fool to read
Mrs. Linco;n a life- by catherine clinton
it's about what really happened to her after the assanation.
i recently read The Lincoln's, a story of a marriage.
i try to make sure every other book i read is a history or non fiction.

Let me know how this is, Xannie. I loved Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell, and was really interested in the mention in that book of Mrs. Lincoln's life after her husband's death. I'd really like to learn more about Mary Todd Lincoln.  

improvisor,
Mrs. Lincoln is a tragic picture of life during the civil war. She was highly educated, far more so than Abe, extremely intelligent but with a major flaw. She was emotionally a child, depending on her husband for constant approval. 2 of her children died in the white house and she wasn't told of her husbands death for 2 hours after the fact.  She was very much like Hillery Clinton politically and made quite a few enemies. She was given 3 weeks to remove herself from the white house with nothing to live on and was humilaited to the point of attempting to sell off her clothes. she was severly traumatized and hit bottom when her only living son had her committed to an asylum. she exciled herself to a small town in Europe for her remaining years, never taking off her mourning clothes. she was finally given a stipend of $5,000 to live on only after Mrs. U.S.Grant was given one.

xannie_01


almost through reading nuclear jellyfish- tim dorsey
next up, fool by chris moore.
these two writers keep me sane.

Went through Atomic Lobster while sunning the buns in Barbados the last few weeks (BTW- astronomical prices on every food and drink item - except Rum of course, which is cheaper than Coca-Cola! So, a good time was had by all, but the rum punches kept getting in the way of good Roadfood pics!).  Serge at his finest!  And Jim Davenport makes a return appearance!