What are you reading?

Last night I finished The Cincinnati Subway by Allen J. Singer. It's the story of the ill-fated, never-completed subway line in Cincy that was built in the early 1920s.   

What Hath God Wrought, a history of the United States from 1815 to 1848.

You think we are at each others' throats and divided now? It was MUCH worse then.

I just finished A Killing in Comics by Max Allan Collins.  It's a murder mystery set in the world of 1940's comic book publishing. Collins wrote the graphic novel A Road to Perdition, which was made into the Tom Hanks/Jude Law movie of a few years back.

I really liked the book, but Collins' way of naming characters got on my nerves. A lot of the characters are based on real figures, like the creators of Superman and Batman, but Collins got a little cute in disguising their names. Batman creator Bob Kane became Batwing creator Rod Krane. Batman writer Bill Finger becomes Batwing writer Will Hander. That's my only beef with the book, that the names were just a little too cutesy-poo.

Last night I started A Lion Named Christian. You may have seen the Youtube clip of two men being reunited with the lion they raised as a cub. It's a great clip, and this book tells the story of how the authors came to raise the lion. I really like it so far, but it's crazy how easily these guys, who had no wild animal-raising backgrounds or knowledge were able to obtain the cub. They bought it at Harrod's!

Bob,

I went to High School with Allen.  I am not to proud of the fact that I once smashed peas in his chemistry book.  His research for the subway book was interesting and the access he got to the current tunnels was amazing.


He is currently working on a project about the beverly hills country club (precursor to the beverly hills supper club that caught fire and killed so many)

I have been going through my old school books

Hiroshima
The Pearl
The Lord of the Flies
My Brother Sam is Dead
Huck Finn
Tom Sawyer
Of Mice and Men
Johnny Got His Gun
All Quiet on the Western Front
Puddin Head Wilson
Catcher in the Rye

and many others

It has been a few weeks of light reading and good memories

Finished George Pelecanos' A Firing Offense. I've read some of his other books, which I loved, but this one was a slow starter for me. It seemed to take a while for the plot to really get moving. Loved all the little details he puts into his work, like mentions of what music his characters are listening to, but definitely weaker than his other books that I've checked out.

I'm about 300 pages into Stephen King's Under the Dome. Really enjoying it so far. I think it's his strongest since Bag of Bones.

Just picked up U is for Undertow.

Can't wait to start it.

Sue Grafton books are great - always a good read.  Wonder what she'll name the next book with a V??

I'm just beginning Paul McCartney: A Life - by Peter Ames Carlin.

Currently I am not reading anything but I read this book strange piece of paradise before really it is Powerful and fast paced, this is the electrifying account of Jentz's investigation into the mystery of her near murder. A startling profile of a psychopath, and a moving record of a brave inner journey, this unforgettable work is certain to be one of the most talked about books of the year.

 I  am reading 2 cookbooks, one by Julia Child and the other by Pat Conroy. Also reading 2 books by Dorothea Benton Frank, now I want to go to the beach and/or to Charleston.

improviser


I'm about 300 pages into Stephen King's Under the Dome. Really enjoying it so far. I think it's his strongest since Bag of Bones.

Is this his new 1000-plus-page book?  I was given a copy for Christmas but haven't opened it yet, which should be obvious since I can't even remember the title.
 
My brother gave me "The Hemi in the Barn" Christmas Eve and I finished it before the sun came up Christmas morning.  It's a compilation of true stories about the discoveries of rare cars in unusual places and is pretty good, although sometimes the money angle is emphasized a little too much.
 
Brad

the butcher by Phillip Carlo

Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864) by Jules Verne.

I'm about half way through the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society -

Speechpeach - I thoroughly enjoyed that Pat Conry cookbook you mentioned - part autobiography with some great recipes thrown in - his mother in law's pound cake is unbelievable - Last time I made it - my sister in law asked for Cool Whip topping because she was "watching her weight" - I know I'm bad, but didn't have the heart to tell her it had something like a pound of butter and a dozen eggs in it.            

Right now I have started one of my Christmas/Chanukkah gifts that my boyfriend gave me, "Phillies Confidential", co-written by Gary "Sarge" Matthews and Scott Lauber.

I just finished Tom Clancy's "The Teeth of the Tiger". It was OK, but seemed to rehash a LOT of his previous "John Ryan" series.

Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrook. A bestseller that follows the Pilgrims from England to Holland to Massachusetts up through King Philips war. IMO, a 4.5 out of 5.

The Last Centurion, a pot boiler by John Ringo who pumps out over 3 books a year. It is a story of the near future where global cooling and a killer flu combine to make things very bad for the USA. A terrible female president makes things worse.  IMO 3 out of 5

Dearfolk,
   I just finished "How To Tame A Wild Bore" by Kathy Grizzard Schmook (found an autographed hardback with nice dust jacket in a thrift store for a buck!). She was Lewis Grizzard's third ex-wife.
   Now am reading, when my hands are warm enough to hold the book and/or to turn the pages, a reprint of the 24 original Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir A. Conan Doyle. It has all the original Sidney Paget illustrations, as were in the original Strand Magazine issues.
   We've got good thrift stores around here, if a buyer is diligent -- and lucky!
      Off-Secondhandedly, Ort. Carlton in Still-Too-Cold Athens, Georgia.

BelleReve,

Do we share a brain? The book you mentioned is the next one on my list of books to be read.  Yes, I plan to make the aforementioned pound cake.  A friend gave me a few slices of one she had made containing cream cheese that was really good but a bit sweet for my taste.  I will have to reciprocate after I make the butter laden one.

The Ear in the Wall (1916) by Arthur B. Reeve.

Hollywood Moon-Joseph Wambaugh, one of my favorite Authors, book was not one of his best

I just finished probably the most anti-roadfood book ever published in The China Study: Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-Term Health by T. Colin Campbell, PhD. The premise of the book is the American western diet is responsible for high rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. It leaves no room for roadfood as mostly presented here.

Now I am reading Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., MD. His proven cure is a nutrition-based diet consisting of less than 10% fat. The only way to achieve that is a plant-based diet. Interesting to say the least and of course would also eliminate all the roadfood as we popularly know it.

Just started Edward Rutherfurd's NEW YORK ,great multi-generational novel about a great city..very accurate with the history...You'll learn a lot!
 

Just finished "While I was Away" by Sue Miller, who wrote The Good Mother. Very good, both of them.

I agree about Thrift Stores. I have found a couple of autographed Eudora Welty books at the Salvation Army Store.

Brad_Olson

improviser


I'm about 300 pages into Stephen King's Under the Dome. Really enjoying it so far. I think it's his strongest since Bag of Bones.

Is this his new 1000-plus-page book?  I was given a copy for Christmas but haven't opened it yet, which should be obvious since I can't even remember the title.
 
My brother gave me "The Hemi in the Barn" Christmas Eve and I finished it before the sun came up Christmas morning.  It's a compilation of true stories about the discoveries of rare cars in unusual places and is pretty good, although sometimes the money angle is emphasized a little too much.
 
Brad

Yeah, it's the new one. "Hemi" sounds good, I'll have to check that out.

leethebard


Just started Edward Rutherfurd's NEW YORK ,great multi-generational novel about a great city..very accurate with the history...You'll learn a lot!
 

Wow!! I didn't even know it was out!!! I've read some of his books several times. I know what my next read will be. THANKS!

I'm currently reading "Science Fiction Serials" by Roy Kinnard, who used to work at my then-favorite comic book shop back in the late '70s. By the way, Donald, did Allen Singer retaliate by putting anything nasty in your chemistry book? 

Speechpeach - we really must have been separated at birth - I've read all of Dorothea Benton Frank's books - liked Shem's Creek a lot (if you haven't read it) and there are recipes in the back.

Let me see if I can channel this - our next book will be.... Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet 

Just finished Sue Grafton's "U is For Undertow". it is hard to keep a character fresh after 21 books but Ms. Grafton has done so with her fictional P. I. Kinsey Milhone. I I look forward to the final 5 books in the saga and applaud this very fun read which adds a little bit more to the Kinsey file.

The best read I've had in a while is "Massacred for Gold" by Gregory Nokes. Mr. Nokes is a former Portland Oregonian reporter and editor who launched his own investigation into a reported mass murder of  more than 30 Chinese miners  alongside a creek emptying into the Snake River on the Oregon side of Hells Canyon. It had been an open secret in Oregon's Wallowa County for a long time and Mr. Nokes' investigation revealed how the cover-up worked and comes as close as anyone could have to finding out what happened. it is like an episode of "Cold Case Files" except there is no satisfying arrest at the end. It is a crackerjack story and a great read about a corner of Oregon history that deserved to be illumined.

I've been listening to Roy Blount, Jr.'s "Long Time Leaving: Dispatches from Up South," a collection of his pieces. I really like it. I also enjoyed his book on language, "Alphabet Juice: The Energies, Gists, and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinations Thereof; Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips, and Secret Parts, ... With Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory." I had to quote the whole title, because it's so great.

mr chips


The best read I've had in a while is "Massacred for Gold" by Gregory Nokes. Mr. Nokes is a former Portland Oregonian reporter and editor who launched his own investigation into a reported mass murder of  more than 30 Chinese miners  alongside a creek emptying into the Snake River on the Oregon side of Hells Canyon. It had been an open secret in Oregon's Wallowa County for a long time and Mr. Nokes' investigation revealed how the cover-up worked and comes as close as anyone could have to finding out what happened. it is like an episode of "Cold Case Files" except there is no satisfying arrest at the end. It is a crackerjack story and a great read about a corner of Oregon history that deserved to be illumined.

This sounds like an amazing book and an incident I did not know about.
I'm reading a similarly amazing book called, Myths of the Cherokees by James Mooney.   Mooney lived in Cherokee, NC for over a year in 1887-1888 and (in a nutshell) was able to gather most of the Cherokke myths, most of their medicine techniques, formulas, songs, etc.  How he did that and all the info itself is amazing spellbinding reading.

Both Massacre in Gold and Myths of the Cherokees sound great, I'll have to track them down.

I'm halfway through, and really loving 'When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present' by Gail Collins, and it's a really well-researched, first-person, funny, fascinating tour of how women's roles and opportunities have changed in the last fifty years.  I think every woman born since 1960 should read it.

I finished reading "The Lovely Bones" by a woman author whose name I cannot remember.  It was a great book wherein the main character and teller of the story is a 14 year old girl whose been murdered.  Sound intriguing.  it was a gripping story and hard to put down.
t just came out as a movie by the same name a week ago and I have not seen it yet and may not get around to it.  The reviews I've read have been more negative than positive.
Anyone read the book, or seen the movie?  Comments?

Just got "The Honor of Spies", the latest in WEB Griffin's Argentine OSS saga. I'll report on it here when I finish it.
 
****** Edit*****
 
It was a cold, rainy day here in Louisville, so I settled in and worked my way thru this latest addition to the Argentine OSS WWll series by WEB Griffin (and his son). Not bad reading. It did go into a lot more 'detail' than the previous step in the series. The plot does get stretched a bit when it includes references to about every major event in the 'politics of the war'...V-Weapons, Howard Hughes, Manhattan Project and related spy-stuff, Hitler Assassination and several other items that probably weren't historically accurate for an OSS project in Argentina.  We'll see how Peron and Evita get hooked up in the next volume. I still like his Brotherhood of War  and The Corps series better than this one. Maybe he will go back and fill in some of the blank years in both of those series!

Just finished 3 good ones:

Tears in the Darkness: I can't recommend this one highly enough. It is an account of the Bataan Death March, told through the eyes of Ben Steele, a survivor. Even if you've read a dozen books on this topic, it doesn't matter. Read this one. Non fiction.

Killing Pablo: The hunt for and killing of Pablo Escobar. By Mark Bowden, the author of Blackhawk Down, and told in the same flat, matter-of-fact style that gave the earlier work such power. Bowden lets the reader draw the conclusions in this ugly, but powerful, story.

The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothey Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith and Andrew Weil Killed the 50s and Ushered in a New Age foir America: Pretty interesting, well written, well researched, and informative. If you're old enough to have been a hippie, you'll like this.

I wish I could read as fast, and as much as you do, Mosca.  Sounds like some really good books. 
I like fiction and non-fiction, but find as I get older I prefer non-fiction.  Most of it if it were written as a fiction you'd say "that could never happen."  I find that reality sometimes is more incredible than if it were written as a pure story.

Oh heck, I just finished 10 days of recovery from surgery. I'm already into Signing Their Lives Away: The Fame and Misfortune of the Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence by Denise Kiernan; an interesting "casual" read, 56 short chapters. It's available as a $2 bargain book lots of places, if you see it you should pick it up.

Upon hearing of the death of Robert B Parker last week -  I reread his novel Stone Cold - one in his series of Jesse Stone books.  He also wrote all of the Spenser and Sunny Randall novels but I really liked his Jesse Stone character - CBS has made several movies with Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone - all very entertaining. 

I am almost finished rereading the Aubrey - Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian for perhaps the last time and have also read as much of his other work as is readily available.  Have also read several of the parallel books such as the cookbook by Grossman and Thomas, Lobscouse and Spottted Dog,  with recreated 19th century recipes of foods mentioned in the Aubrey - Maturin series.
 
Have also read most of the "Inspector Chen" series by Qui Xiaolong.  Inspector Chen is a fictional supervising detective in the Shanghai PD and the series are police procedural novels in that setting.  Qui is a Shanghai native who did not return, at least permanently,  to China after Tianamen.  These books by Qui give many insights into life in the PRC, including food -   I keep GOOGLING the names of the food items that Chen eats during the course of his  investigations.

Had not heard about Mr. Parker's death. This saddens me. I loved the Spenser(with an S like the poet) character and I feel as if I lost a friend. Thank you for the hours of reading pleasure, Mr Parker.

mr chips


Had not heard about Mr. Parker's death. This saddens me. I loved the Spenser(with an S like the poet) character and I feel as if I lost a friend. Thank you for the hours of reading pleasure, Mr Parker.

I enjoy both the Spenser & Stone novels. It will be interesting to see if he had any or how many novels he had finished but unpublished at the time of his death.

improviser


I've been listening to Roy Blount, Jr.'s "Long Time Leaving: Dispatches from Up South," a collection of his pieces. I really like it. I also enjoyed his book on language, "Alphabet Juice: The Energies, Gists, and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinations Thereof; Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips, and Secret Parts, ... With Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory." I had to quote the whole title, because it's so great.

 
I loved "Long Time Leaving." I am just starting "Alphabet Juice," and it's just terrific.
 
Just finished Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" and "Cornbread Nation 3: Taste of the Mountain South." Still working through Annette Gordon-Reid's "The Hemingses of Monticello."

cavandre

mr chips


Had not heard about Mr. Parker's death. This saddens me. I loved the Spenser(with an S like the poet) character and I feel as if I lost a friend. Thank you for the hours of reading pleasure, Mr Parker.

I enjoy both the Spenser & Stone novels. It will be interesting to see if he had any or how many novels he had finished but unpublished at the time of his death.

 
The Boston papers reported that there were "several" books in the pipeline, including probably more than one Spenser novel.
 
I like all his stuff. Every year I stock up on crime novels before we leave for the beach. I make a big deal out of which one I'll read first, but really, there's no contest; I always start with the latest Spenser.
 
I was so saddened when I heard he'd died. One of the finest writers ever. Authors Robert Crais and Dennis Lehane were both quoted extensively in the obituary.

I like food so I read roadfood.com.  I like to read and I found this thread.  I am in the process of going through all thirty pages but I have noticed several who like the WEB Griffin books including mayor al who posted recently. 
 
Anyone interested in Griffin's precursors might try to find books by John W. Thomason including Fix Bayonets and Salt Winds and Gobi Dust.  Thomason (1894 - 1944) was a Marine officer who wrote about the Corps in World War I and various actions before and  between the wars.  Just about anything by him is worth reading.  His biography of J E B Stuart is perhaps the most sympathertic ever written.
 
I think I first read some of his books as a kid, but that was sixty years ago and Thomason's books are not often seen in libraries any more.  Be prepared to request through the ILL (Inter Library Loan) service if you are interested.  A 1st of Salt Winds (with DJ) was on one of the bid boards this morning with a $150.00 starting point.

OKC,
Thanks for the tip on John Thomason and his military writings. I'll chase down some of his stuff and check it out.
AL

This is a request for roadfood readers to keep an eye open for a topic I will try to describe.  We have thirty pages of posts over several years from roadfooders who are readers here.  I wish I had gotten this note in years ago.  Who knows what I (we) might have learned.
 
In the CHILI thread, there is a heading about Shanghai Jimmy, a Great American, who served in the US Army, operated businesses in Shanghai during the twenties and thirties, and who once fed a a Christmas dinner to a POW camp full of the US Marines who had been captured on Wake Island.  In part because of that action he was himself interned by the Japanese.  After World War II he lost his business interests when the communists took over and finished his days in Dallas selling chili in several small hole in the wall operations.
 
I think it was in 1954 his chili parlour was rated one of the best new restaurants in the country by Esquire magazine.
 
I have contributed to the post mentioned above and to other message boards and so has the colleague known to us as PapaJoe8.  There was a time when I tended not to believe the Shanghai Jimmy history briefly mentioned above.   That was before he was honored by the POW association and so on.  But then, I found a reference to him in a book about life in China between the World Wars.   Later some one (possibly PapaJoe8) mentioned another reference, perhaps in one of the WEB Griffin books. 
 
Specifically, it said that "Jimmy's Kitchen" which he operated in Shanghai had the best American style coffee in China.  Other businesses he had included a fancy night club named the Mandarin.  He also had a radio station in China once.   I believe that there is still a "Jimmy's Kitchen" in Shanghai.
 
My request then is this.  I hope that the adminstrator will let this message stay.   After all, we are talking about someone who had a big reputation among North Texas chili heads.  Should any of you read a book with a reference to Shanghai Jimmy,  Jimmy's Kitchen, or the Mandarin in old Shanghai, please put a note on this message board.  Thanks in advance. 

On 12-16-08 redoubtable Ort. Carlton made a nice post about Ralph Dennis (1931 - 1988) whose Hardman series never received the attention it deserved.  I can only second his remarks.  Had he lived longer and written more in the Hardman series his opus in an Atlanta setting might be as well remembered as John D. MacDonal's Travis McGee series in Fort Lauderdale.  He is worth seeking out today as an example of  an original non-traditional PI.  During his lifetime stories circulated about Dennis hanging at the bar in Manuel's in Atlanta, "living on the margin" as he put it.  Anyone who might think to find an example of the Hardman series should be forewarned that they are little rougher than MacDonald, but less so than Jame Lee Burke.
 
I had a complete set of the paperback originals once.  If I still had them, I might be rereading like the guru in Athens.
 
http://www.thrillingdetective.com/hardman.html 
 
http://www.allanguthrie.co.uk/pages/noir_zine/articles/hardboiled_atlanta.php

Earl of Sandwich


I finished reading "The Lovely Bones" by a woman author whose name I cannot remember.  It was a great book wherein the main character and teller of the story is a 14 year old girl whose been murdered.  Sound intriguing.  it was a gripping story and hard to put down.
t just came out as a movie by the same name a week ago and I have not seen it yet and may not get around to it.  The reviews I've read have been more negative than positive.
Anyone read the book, or seen the movie?  Comments?

Earl, 'The Lovely Bones' is by Alice Sebold and I read it about five Christmases ago in Minnesota while I was laid up with a concussion, so I personally associate that book with my head injury.  ;)  It's really so unusual and perfect that I wasn't sure how it would get adapted, so I'm probably not going to see the movie (I did this with 'Adaptation' too--loved the book so much I skipped the movie), although I'm sure Peter Jackson is as good as you can do to try to put it on film.  If you're unfamiliar, an early movie by him, 'Heavenly Creatures' featured a true life crime with a fantastical element that he did very well.

Nancy, thanks for filling out the infol on Lovely Bones.  I did not realize it had been ourt that long.  I just heard about it from a singer/songwriter named Angela Easterling who did a song called "Field of Sorrow" which is a killer song ( pardon the pun) but which she wrote after reading the book.

I cannot believe that I read & liked the books, but I have enjoyed Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series & also her science fiction book, The Host.
 
I have never been a fan of vampire books,i.e. Anne Rice, but my daughter recommended the Stephanie Meyer books to me.  The books are additictive & I am in the process of re-reading the Twillight series.
 
It is interesting to here so many people(not all women) admit to reading & enjoying the books.  I am a 62 year old grandmother &  my fellow readers range from 70 year olds down to my teenage grandaughter.  At work, all the "girls" in our department have passed aroung the books.  One day when we were discussing the books, a male 30ish co-worker admitted to reading & liking the books.  He now is a part of our frequent Twilight discussions.
 
Stephanie Meyer has captured that 1st tiem in love- aching, can't think of anything else, kissing until your lips fall off-that most of us have experienced.  
 
I confess I love the books. 
 

 I'm almost done Re-re-re reading the Emmigrant series by Vilhelm Moberg. I first read the series when I was about 11, and I deemed it "Little House" for grown-ups...A bit too much Religious stuff, but still one of my very faves.   Dawn

baileysoriginal


Upon hearing of the death of Robert B Parker last week -  I reread his novel Stone Cold - one in his series of Jesse Stone books.  He also wrote all of the Spenser and Sunny Randall novels but I really liked his Jesse Stone character - CBS has made several movies with Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone - all very entertaining. 

I had hoped we would have him with us for many more years - I will miss him as much as John D. MacDonald - two of my favorite authors of all time.

Ah yes, Travis McGee and all those "Color titles...I miss MacDonald, so much!!

MacDonald was the only author I took with me to Vietnam in 1967 - he got me through some lonely times there.

I received "Under the Dome" from hubby for Christmas. Just started reading this very long and heavy novel about two weeks ago. It is 1079 pages long!
I love anything Stephen King and this has got to be one of his longest for sure.
It is about a town in New England which was suddenly covered with a dome. You could not see it until you hit it. And that folks, is not a pretty picture. But pure Stephen King!
I am trying to read 2-3 chapter per night or how long it takes before the weight of it makes my fingers numb.... I read in bed and that is not always a good thing.
It is a really good story and the townspeople seem like folks you know. Stephen even put a map of the town with all the streets and places so you become even more involved in the town and its people as they strive to find out what it is, where it came from, and how they will get out.
 
 

Just finished reading "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown. Like all his other books, I enjoyed it but the ending seemed rather heavy handed. Kind of made me wish he would have stopped about 20-30 pgs short of where he left it.

Next book is "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho which was given to me by a friend.

The Spy (1821) by James Fennimore Cooper.