What are you reading?

Just finished The Girl Who Played With Fire

Finished two books this week. "The Old Ball Game" by Frank Deford is about the complicated baseball partnership between New York Giants manager John McGraw and pitching great Christy Matthewson in the first two decades of the 20th Century. despite seemingly monumental differences in personality and tempermant, the two worked together to create new York's first media- sensation baseball team. I've read biographies of both men so I did not learn a whole lot that was new. Deford synthesized things well and the book was a great read.
     Also finished " A Great Day in Cooperstown" by Jim Reisler, a history of how The Baseball Hall of Fame came to be located in that city and a detailed description about the day of the first inductions into the Hall of Fame. It was a fun read for me.

EVIL...David Baldacci...great read so far

I'm reading some of the Jeeves and Wooster stories by P.G. Wodehouse on my new Amazon Kindle.

I'm anxiously awaiting delivery of Hellhound On His Trail by Hampton Sides - supposedly a very different look at James Earl Ray and the King Assassination.

Finished a book on John Hughes, "You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried" by Susanah Gora. A good exploration about the making of and significance of John Hughes directorial, scriptwriting, and producing career and the movies involved with it.

  I just found a copy of " How to Eat Better for Less Money" By James Beard and Sam Aaron. I have been perusing it off and on for the last couple of days and I find that I use most of their tips already. A lot of the recipes in the book are already in my repertoire.
  I think it is a really good read for a young couple trying to stay on a budget. The book is now out of print and the copy I have is 40 years old. It was a reprint from the original 1954 edition. The information in this book is still relevant today. Good cooking is timeless in my humble opinion.

  David O.

boyardee65


  I just found a copy of " How to Eat Better for Less Money" By James Beard and Sam Aaron. I have been perusing it off and on for the last couple of days and I find that I use most of their tips already. A lot of the recipes in the book are already in my repertoire.
I think it is a really good read for a young couple trying to stay on a budget. The book is now out of print and the copy I have is 40 years old. It was a reprint from the original 1954 edition. The information in this book is still relevant today. Good cooking is timeless in my humble opinion.

David O.

In a similar vein you ought to check out a current book in Jamie Oliver's, Jamie's Food Revolution. It is chock full of recipes using "real" food. They are inexpensive, simple to make and very healthy. We've been working through the recipes for meals and have enjoyed every one of them so far.

Two, currently:

The Greatest Show On Earth: The Evidence For Evolution by Richard Dawkins

The Rise of the Luftwaffe, 1918-1940 by Herbert M. Mason

Two re-reads, something I rarely do:

Seabiscuit, by Laura Hillenbrand, and

World War Z: an Oral History, by Max Brooks.

61 Hours, Lee Child..will Jack Reacher.....????????????

Mosca


Two re-reads, something I rarely do:

Seabiscuit, by Laura Hillenbrand, and

World War Z: an Oral History, by Max Brooks.

I thought World War Z was fantastic, Mosca.

I just finished Calvin Trillin's Tummy Trilogy - American Fried; Alice, Let's Eat; and Third Helpings, all collected in one edition. I love the way Trillin writes about food.

Dan Brown's The Broker.

I'm reading a history of the Korean War.   This war tends to be overlooked as time goes by. 

I'm about two-thirds of the way through the Beekeeper's Apprentice which I need to finish for a book club next week, but  couldn't help starting The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest last night.

 

Started George R. R. Martin's Fevre Dream very early this morning. Loved it so much I finished it this afternoon. It's a vampire story set in the world of riverboats in the 1850's. It's great. Highly recommended.

I have a big omnibus collection of the Mississippi writings of Mark Twain, that I've been meaning to get to for some time. Fevre Dream might just be the spark that gets me started on that one.

But next up I think is The Seven Percent Solution. Sherlock Holmes meets Sigmund Freud!

I'm on the third and last version. of the Swedish novel mentioned earlier................."the Girl who.................."
 Phenomenal!..........and I understand Book 1isnow a movie (with Englishsubtitles).  thertrlogu is woth the read, even though it's hard to keep all the characters straighht
 

Last week, I read The Seven Percent Solution by Nicholas Meyer, which teams up Sherlock Holmes and Sigmund Freud. I liked the book a lot, but in order to jump start the plot, the book claims that the Holmes story "The Final Problem" never happened. That really frustrated me as "The Final Problem" is one of the greatest Sherlock adventures ever written.

Now I'm about 50 pages from finishing Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit. I'm really enjoying it so far.

S**t My Dad Says...absolutely hilarious quick read.

Just finished Everything Changes by Jonathan Topper(love this author) and started A Sudden Country by Karen Fisher. 

Just finished Everything Changes by Jonathan Topper(love this author) and started A Sudden Country by Karen Fisher. 

Two Years Before the Mast by Richard H. Dana Jr.
The diary of his voyage as a merchant seaman on a sailing ship from New England to California in the 1800's.

Finished two books by Charles Peters; a biography of Lyndon Johnson and "Five Days in Philadelphia" a fairly detailed description of the background of the 1940 Republican convention and the Wendell Wilkie presidential campaign. Interesting reads , though peters puts a little more of his personal experiences with these events for my taste.

The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran By Dirk Hayhurst. Excellent read IMO

"Regeneration," by Pat Barker (historical fiction; WWI psychologist figures out PTSD and treats poet Siegfried Sassoon); Maugham's "Theatre" (blurred realities between stage and "real" life); Elizabeth Bowen's "The Last September" (coming of age in between-the-wars Ireland); Wolfert's "The Cooking of Southwest France."

Simple Genius, David Baldacci, good action adventure read.

Just finished Everything Changes by Jonathan Topper(love this author)

BelleReve


Jonathan Tropper's stuff is good - "This Is Where I Leave You" is also a good read.

Just finished Hurricane Punch by Tim Dorsey
Funnier that hell!

Right now I am reading, White Shell Woman by James D. Doss. It is a mystery novel series with Charlie Moon, a Southern Ute indian, as the main character. The Southern Ute Indian Reservation is in Colorado just south of Durango and Pagosa Springs. The site of the mystery is Chimney Rock, a place that I toured last year.

Yankee Stadium by Ray Robinson...well it is Yankee season!!

Right now I'm reading "The Amazin' Mets" by William J. Ryczek. Highly recommended for anyone who'd be interested in a year by year history (with lots of reminiscenses from lesser known players) of the 1960's Mets. A wonderful trip down memory lane for me as a Mets fan since Day One. It's gotten excellent reviews over at Amazon.

What's unusual for me is this is my first ever E-book, sort of. I was on the fence about buying this book since it was $29.95, but I noticed the Kindle price was $9.99. Not wanting to invest in a Kindle for just one book, I opted to download "Kindle for PC" to my laptop, and it's working out very nicely. I'll probably read a few more books this way before summer is over.

Just finished "The Bullpen Gospels"by Dirk Hayhurst. Mr. Hayhurst writes well of the day to day life of a minor league middle reliever who is barely holding on to the dream of a baseball career. The baseball life's myriad ups and downs and his struggles in his own are funny, profane and deeply moving. i don't recall when I have enjoyed a book more. I have a new player to root for and i recommend this book to all who love baseball and even those of you who don't. My thanks to The Traveling Man for bringing this work to my attention.

Seabiscuit--------never got around to reading it.  Saw the movie.
But----best of all, I remember the match race---listened in Noel Rice's backyard to a radio lowered out the window for us kids to listen to.
We were all rooting for Seabiscuit, a favorite of us depression kids.
We went bonkers at the finish.

I just finished Hellhound On His Trail by Hampton Sides .  I had a hard time  putting it down..........fascinating!

I'm reading Dr. Thomas Sowell's Dismantling America, a collection of his essays.

J Man-----I was talking with one of my sons about getting that for me as a Christmas Present.  Sounds like something worth reading. 

Last of the Mohicans (1826) by James Fenimore Cooper
 

I just finished Trail of Crumbs by Kim Sunee. A bit strange, but compelling. She even includes some recipes.

the ancient mariner


J Man-----I was talking with one of my sons about getting that for me as a Christmas Present.  Sounds like something worth reading. 

Anything he writes is worth reading......again.....and again.

Huckleberry Finn...reread it after about 40 years for a class I'm teaching...what a masterpiece!!!

leethebard


Huckleberry Finn...reread it after about 40 years for a class I'm teaching...what a masterpiece!!!

That's a great idea.  I ordered it from Amazon this morning.

I've been reading William Kent Krueger's Cork O'Connor mysteries at the recommendation of roadfooder Davydd. They are set in the Minnesota north country near   the Boundary Waters and Duluth. So far I have finished "Iron Lake", "Boundary Waters", "Purgatory Ridge", "Blood Hollow" and "Mercy Falls" and i have read them in chronological order as Davydd strongly suggested. They have a strong sense of the country, the characters are interesting, the mysteries first rate. Hope other people will find them interesting.

Another masterpiece for the course I'm teaching: The Grapes Of Wrath, Steinbeck sure caught the agony of the "Okies" and the horrors of the depression.  One of my favorite authors!!

Rhoda, a Lifetime in Stories by Ellen Gilchrist. It is a collection of short stories that follow the life of one person, Rhoda Manning if you are familiar with her work. She is one of my favorite authors.

Right now I am read C. J. Box's Below Zero. It is part of the Joe Pickett, game warden series that takes place in Wyoming. This is a series that is an absolute must that you try to read in order because of character development, age chronology and continuity from book to book in order to fully appreciate.
 
Here is the order:
Open Season (2001)
Savage Run (2002)
Winterkill (2003)
Trophy Hunt (2004)
Out of Range (2005)
In Plain Sight (2006)
Free Fire (2007)
Blood Trail (2008)
Below Zero (2009)
Nowhere to Run (2010)
 
I have one to go before I then get antsie and wait and wait and wait for the next one. I'm up to date on Krueger's Cork O'Connor series. I'm up to date on John Sandford's Prey series. I try to time them so I read the paperback edition and know there is another one yet to come. Now I am reading them all in eBooks.

I'm reading the Dictionary of Military History,I'm a Military History nut.

Start reading my next book,preping for my Lit class, Death Of A Salesman,by Arthur Miller......read it many times...looking forward to this note taking session..it's such a great play!

Lee The Bard---in the 80's I was sitting in Chock-ful-o-nuts corner of 54th and Madison in midtown Manhattan.  Two men sat opposite me at the "U" shaped bar.  One was telling the other "I know you got the part----Hoffman loved you"  The
lad he was talking to was John Malkovich who went on to star in the revival of Death of a Salesman with Dustin Hoffman.

Wow...with your permission,I'd like to tell that story to my students...Dustin Hoffman's production is on the cover of our book!

Sure Lee, (Sure Lee you jest, stolen from Airplane)  I don't own it any more, once I put it on Roadfood it was a nation wide news bulletin.  And just for the heck of it. it was in that same Chock-ful-o-nuts, years earlier, and in almost the same seat that Katherine Hepburn sat eating date nut bread with cream cheese and drinking either tea or coffee. 
I nodded to her and she nodded back---we had a nodding acquaintance-ship.
One of my biggest clients had his showroom and office just across the street. 
 
 

Sure Lee, (Sure Lee you jest, stolen from Airplane)  I don't own it any more, once I put it on Roadfood it was a nation wide news bulletin.  And just for the heck of it. it was in that same Chock-ful-o-nuts, years earlier, and in almost the same seat that Katherine Hepburn sat eating date nut bread with cream cheese and drinking either tea or coffee. 
I nodded to her and she nodded back---we had a nodding acquaintance-ship.
One of my biggest clients had his showroom and office just across the street. 
 
 

Sketches by Boz (1837) by Charles Dickens.
 

I'm on about my 30th reading of The Lord of The Rings... haven't read it since before the movies came out almost 10 years ago. It's all in one big volume (it's actually 6 books, it was never a trilogy, it was just easier to print it in paperback that way), and my elbows get tired holding the darn thing up!

The latest book I'm teaching in my AP class:Joseph Heller's war satire, CATCH 22. Great anti war masterpiece....a laugh on every page.

Star Island, Carl Hiaasen...great read!

During my 14th summer I read all the books by SS Van Dyne.
He wrote about Philo Vance, a modern day Sherlock Holmes housed in Manhattan.  So I went back this year and read them all again.  Good stuff. 
 
During that summer I also read Agatha Christie's books starring Hercule Poirot and his little gray cells, and whatever I could find written by Rafael Sabatini----Captain Blood, The Sea Hawks, Scaramouche-----Loved them all and so evidently did Hollywood---------all were big hits on the Golden Screen.  
 
And now I start on Robert Goddard----

I just finished The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll. Set in the mid to late eighties, it is the true story of a computer operator who accidentally stumbles into a computer espionage set up.  Very interesting look at computer security (and lack of same).

chewingthefat


Star Island, Carl Hiaasen...great read!

 
Hiaasen is great. Just read Skinny Dip. Also over the summer read the entire Travis McGee series. Lot of John McDonald influance in Hiaasen.

Sit Ubu, Sit
before that, Marianne Faithfull, An Autobiography
before that, Art Buchwald, Too Soon to Say Goodbye
before that, Ted Kennedy, True Compass
Meanwhile, I wait for the next Ann Rule book.  I always read them in quick time, largely because so many are set in the northwest, my old stomping grounds.

Now reading "Yankee Autumn In Acadiana, The Great Texas Overland Expedition through Southwest Louisiana (October-December 1863" to learn how Gen. Banks again failed to conquer Texas.