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Book club 📖 What are we reading right now? (Planning related or not)

"The Widower's Tale" by Julia Glass. Enjoyable novel of a family, and their conflicts, in the Boston area. I will be looking for the author's other novels. Luckily, our local library has all of them.
 
I finally got my copy of Night Circus from the library. I still have to read the conclusion, but so far I'd rate it one of the best novels I've read in years. Fantastically colorful and illustrative. Erin Morgenstern can set a scene.
 
As seems to happen a lot, I am reading several books at once. My son's bedtime story is The Fellowship of the Rings.

I am reading Until I Find You, by John Irving. And last night, when I couldn't sleep and I was too damn lazy to go upstairs and get my book, I started reading The Shipping News. So much for my goal this year to read some books that would make be feel better.
 
otterpop said:
As seems to happen a lot, I am reading several books at once. My son's bedtime story is The Fellowship of the Rings.
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Interesting. The trilogy is next on my schedule of books to read. I make it a point to re-read them every couple years or so.
 
I'm currently reading APA Policy guides, APA magazines, the Green book, on-line resoures, and stacks of note cards.
 
Mud Princess said:
I'm reading Richard Louv's The Nature Principle. I believe it was recommended in this thread. Excellent so far.
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Yeah, I thought it was good too but it does start to get repetitive after a while. I'm reading Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold. Don't know how I managed to never read this back in my environmental activist days in the 60's & 70's.
 
1688 A Global History - John Wills

The Russian Debutant's Handbook - Gary Shteyngart

I usually don't read two books at once but they're very different.
 
Joshilyn Jackson's "A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty". I'm a big fan of southern fiction, and I've enjoyed her books in the past. RJ got me this one for my birthday. So far, a 45-y.old grandma thinks her family's cursed every 15 years because she had a daughter at 15, her daughter had a daughter at 15, and now that daughter is 15 and something entirely unexpected has happened.

Next up: Rick Riordan's "The Serpent's Shadow". It's the 3rd in the Kane Chronicles series by the author of the Percy Jackson Olympus series. Another b-day gift.
 
I am reading Elaine Pagel's Revelations: visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelations.

She is quite the biblical scholar and writes in a form understandable and entertains for those who are not all that familiar with these topics.
 
Today I picked up "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter" at the bookstore. Any Cyb reviews? I recently read a couple books in a series about Jane Austen being alive and a vampire, and it referenced Abe and some other historical figures as having been vampire hunters, but they weren't by the same author. Coincidence?:-c
 
Van Reid's "Cordelia Underwood, or the Marvelous Beginnings of the Moosepath League", a quirky novel, rather amusing, set in1896 Maine. I will have to look for the sequels. Very enjoyable. Came out in '99, wonder how I missed it.
 
I am reading the aptly named book, "The Company Town" by Hardy Green. An interesting book talking about the development of cities by a corporation. It covers the often thought of communities like Hersey and Gary, IN as well as many of the coal, textile and mining communities that srung up as well. Its a quick and easy read so far.
 
Donated $25 to Joseph Campbell Foundation and received download of five hours of lectures on Eastern mythology, including lectures on Hinduism, Buddhism, Indian mystical traditions, art. They are broken into segments of a few minutes each but are sequential.

If you like Joe Campbell his lectures are easier than reading his work, but you have to hear them over and over to assimilate. As a result I have picked up Oriental Mythology (of the four volume Masks of God) again.
 
I am just starting to read Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed. Just finished Born to Run by Christopher McDougal. Vyer interesting read - even for a non-runner.

On my ecclectic list:

The Last Chicken in America by Ellen Litman.
Shaghai Girls
Secret Daughter
Stephanie Plum Series by Janet Evanovich.

Looks I found some good ones to add here.
 
I'm reading Fireproof right now. My wife borrowed it from someone 6 months or so ago, so I decided to read it. Before I started reading it, I asked my wife if I thought it would be corny. She said yes.

Now I am not a religious man by any means, but I do find the central tenet of the book to be a very valuable lesson for relationships. That being that you love someone because you make the decision to love them, not becaue of a feeling it gives it, or because you expect anything back.

I don't think that all marriages can be saved by the theme of this book. But I do think it is a humbling idea.

Over the weekend, I finished Theodore Rex, the 2nd in a trilogy by Edmund Morris about the life of Teddy Roosevelt. It doesn't matter what you think of him politically, and how his progressive ideas were contrary to the conservatism of the time, he was/is simply one of the most fascinating Presidents we will ever have.
 
btrage said:
Over the weekend, I finished Theodore Rex, the 2nd in a trilogy by Edmund Morris about the life of Teddy Roosevelt. It doesn't matter what you think of him politically, and how his progressive ideas were contrary to the conservatism of the time, he was/is simply one of the most fascinating Presidents we will ever have.
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I'm reading "The Murder of the Century" by Paul Collins, about a NYC murder in 1897 that involved adultery, abortion, Pulitzer and Hearst, dismemberment...and Teddy Roosevelt's reforms as police commissioner.

I guess it was a huge case back in the day, but I've never heard of it, and probably most people in this day and age haven't, either.
 
Just finished "Iberia" by James Michener. About to start "Sin Killer" by Larry McMurtry. It's the first of four volumes of the Berrybender Narratives and I got them all in hard cover at Half Price Books for $1 each. I don't expect them to be as good as the Lonesome Dove series but at that price...
 
ofos said:
Just finished "Iberia" by James Michener. About to start "Sin Killer" by Larry McMurtry. It's the first of four volumes of the Berrybender Narratives and I got them all in hard cover at Half Price Books for $1 each. I don't expect them to be as good as the Lonesome Dove series but at that price...
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I love McMurtry's fiction. His prose flows. Haven't read the Berrybender series yet, though I have eyed them in the library. I am reading "The Evening Star," the sequel to "Terms of Endearment."

One of his greatest gifts as a writer is making major characters who are not so likable, but are admirable. You don't care for them perhaps but you want to know more about them. Captain Call is one. Aurora Greenway is another.

I still haven't completely forgiven him for killing off Gus, Jake Spoon and Deets. ;) We all want to know a Gus McCrea. We all know a Jake Spoon ("a leaky vessel to put too much hope into") And we all would be better knowing a man like Deets.
 
ofos said:
Just finished "Iberia" by James Michener. ...
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Shoulda called me. I just took all my Micheners, Trevanian, John D McDonald, novels I've hauled around for 30+ years, off to Goodwill. I had every Michener. Four big boxes. I had to do it.

I still can't get rid of all the 1965 to 1975 fantasy and sci-FI. Too close to home.
 
Zoning Goddess said:
Shoulda called me. I just took all my Micheners, Trevanian, John D McDonald, novels I've hauled around for 30+ years, off to Goodwill. I had every Michener. Four big boxes. I had to do it.

I still can't get rid of all the 1965 to 1975 fantasy and sci-FI. Too close to home.
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I think it was the only one that I hadn't read before. As much as I've always enjoyed Michener, his endings always seem to be the weakest part of his works. That goes for both the novels and the travels.
 
"Horse Heaven" by Jane Smiley. It's a novel taking place around the country and overseas about the thoroughbred horse racing world. A big book, lots of quirky characters, I'm assuming at some point they all converge. Maybe not. But a fun read so far.
 
Baseball's Best Short Stories edited by Paul Staudohar. Most are entertaining and amusing but some are written in vernacular that I can't get my simple mind to appreciate. I skip through those stories.
 
ursus said:
How is that? I mean as a written story? Never read it.
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This feller called Alexandre Dumbass wrote himself a book about it, but they's actually four of these guys who hang out together, so I don't rightly unnerstand.
 
Maister said:
This feller called Alexandre Dumbass wrote himself a book about it, but they's actually four of these guys who hang out together, so I don't rightly unnerstand.
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Yeah and that ain't the only thing misleading about the title. They call themselves "Musketeers" but mostly they sword fight. Kind of a bromance. And the guys are as manly as, you know, the French can be. ;)

But seriously, it isn't a bad book. Written 160 or so years ago, the writing tends to be flowery and melodramatic, but it is a ripping yarn.
 
The Pulse

Just finishing this sci-fi tech book about the devastating effect of a massive electromagnetic pulse wave that knock out all electronics. That would be a very quick way to drastically reduce the population of any and all developed nations. It also highlights how incredibly dependent we have become on technology and our lack of preparedness when we can no longer use our computers and smart phones. Well worth reading.
 
Today I read "Night Watch" by Linda Fairstein, one of my favorite authors. I got lucky on this one: i was contemplating downloading it to the kindle, but held off until I went to the library Thursday, and there it was! The protagonist is a special victims prosecutor in NYC.

Yesterday's read: Carolyn Hart's "Death Comes Silently", the latest in the Annie and Max Darling mystery series set in South Carolina.
 
I've been going through the Lisa Gardner books - I really like her - my Mom got me reading her a year ago as I never gravitated towards mystery thriller novels but I really like hers
 
Now: The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz. Nerdy teenage Dominican immigrant and his family. Good so far.

Previously:

Blueprints of the Afterlife - Ryan Boudinot. Some good ideas about a dystopian future but I really hated the way it was written.

Crossbones - Nuruddin Farah. Novel about a journalist in Somalia. Despite the insteresting subject matter I didn't really like the story and would have preferred a non-fiction book about the country's problems.
 
I just started Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (who wrote Seabiscuit) and am really liking it. Its about the Pacific theater in WWII. She's a very compelling writer and it just skips right along.

Just finished Mockingjay, the last in the Hunger Games trilogy. A very quick read. I don't know what to say about the series. I enjoyed it quite a bit on the one hand, but also found it rather disturbing on the other. Especially when I consider it was written by young adults. Pretty depraved stuff in that last one...
 
wahday said:
I just started Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (who wrote Seabiscuit) and am really liking it. Its about the Pacific theater in WWII. She's a very compelling writer and it just skips right along.
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I mostly read fiction,but I read Unbroken last year and, although there were some horrendous scenarios, I thought it was a great book. An interesting factoid: the author rarely leaves her home, so her research was done entirely via internet and phone.
 
Adriana Trigiani's "The Shoemaker's Wife". Two Italian teenagers meet in northern Italy in 1910, and for different reasons, end up in the NYC area. The boy is apprenticed to a shoemaker, the girl works in a clothing factory and lives with the distant relatives from hell. I'm about halfway thru the book, and enjoying it a lot, even though I'm not usually a big fan of historical fiction.
 
ursus said:
How is that? I mean as a written story? Never read it.
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I gotta say, that for being a 160 year old tale it's held up remarkably well. The action just rolls along and Dumas very seldom seems to get bogged down with the laborious descriptions and exposition that's typical of literature from that era.
 
Finished reading the last of the four volumes of the Berrybender Narratives by Larry McMurtry. Next in line is "Redcoats and Rebels: The American Revolution Through British Eyes" by Christopher Hibbert.
 
Joseph Campbell's "Myths to Live By", 1972, gleaned from lectures given at Cooper Union over a number of years.

Most of his life's work in comparative lit organized the major traditions of the planet and showed them to be mostly location bound. Modern communication's rapidity has destroyed boundaries that kept the four main "domains" islolated. The selections in this volume attempt to make sense of a way forward in light of the provincialism that weights the main teachings like a sea anchor.
 
Zpaiss said:
Just finishing this sci-fi tech book about the devastating effect of a massive electromagnetic pulse wave that knock out all electronics. That would be a very quick way to drastically reduce the population of any and all developed nations. It also highlights how incredibly dependent we have become on technology and our lack of preparedness when we can no longer use our computers and smart phones. Well worth reading.
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Another good book in the same line is "One Second After" by William Forstchen. Very sobering stuff on hunger, medicine dependency, and how a small town could come together or fail. An EMP attack would probably not be as damaging to everyday electronics (cars, etc) as One Second After posits (I don't know the solar flares were treated in The Pulse), but damage to the grid would bring a cascading set of failures that would have a big secondary kill.

wahday said:
Just finished Mockingjay, the last in the Hunger Games trilogy. A very quick read. I don't know what to say about the series. I enjoyed it quite a bit on the one hand, but also found it rather disturbing on the other. Especially when I consider it was written by young adults. Pretty depraved stuff in that last one...
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I thought it was a pretty good message, being used by the media and how a revolution, however justified and necessary, often doesn't change much.


Maister said:
I gotta say, that for being a 160 year old tale it's held up remarkably well. The action just rolls along and Dumas very seldom seems to get bogged down with the laborious descriptions and exposition that's typical of literature from that era.
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Over the past couple months I worked through the 43-hour (maybe 47, I forget) unabridged audiobook for The Count of Monte Cristo. A very good reader makes for a great audiobook. I had seen several movie adaptions but had never read the text. At first I was dubious but it really grew on me after a while, there's a lot of fluff but you really start to feel for the characters. He's not fooling about the revenge parts either, much more serious than the 2002 movie for example.

Newest audiobook is the first book of the Game of Thrones series. Liking it a lot. I can see why fantasy readers were very excited to have the series made into the cable show. I haven't seen any of the show so I will save it until I get a couple books under my belt.

In current books I'm starting the Firestar series by Michael Flynn again, it is an excellent story of building a commercial space program and some alien mysteries. Another good single book on the same line is Kings of the High Frontier by Victor Koman. I need to get to the bookstore and find some new stuff, my pile is somewhat low.

On the technical side it is Human Transit by Jarrett Walker. I enjoy his blog at http://www.humantransit.org/ and the book is a good distillation of his thinking.
 
Ben Mezrich's "Sex on the Moon"; it's a true story about a heist of moon rocks about 10 years ago. I read some really good reviews when the book came out last year and finally snagged it at the library. So far, very entertaining.
 
I've never been a comic guy, but about a month ago I bought a used copy of The Watchmen and it was like a part of myself woke up and saw light for the first time. I just finished Crisis on Infinite Earths and have V for Vendetta at home.
 
Reading "The Borderland", by Edwin Shrake. Texas based novel with similarities to Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove." otterpop would probably enjoy it, if he hasn't read it already.
 
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