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

"Where Are They Buried? How Did They Die? A Guide for Tombstone Tourists of the South" by Tod Benoit. Scored this one for 50 cents off the clearance rack at Books-A-Million today. I'm the one dragging RJ around old cemeteries we encounter on our travels...
 
I just finished a book series (6 books) which I thoroughly enjoyed but wish there were more books in the series. Am delving into another where there are 4 or 5. I try to space them out by one per week. It's like getting a much-awaited book. I sometimes have to stop mid-book so I don't finish too soon
 
'Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer' by Seth Grahame-Smith

A fun read all the way around. I look forward to the movie.
 
While the World Watched by Carolyn Maull McKinstry. This is a first had account of the Birmingham church bombing that killed the 4 young girls in 1963. I knew the bombing had occurred but didn't know the specifics. Very interesting so far with lots of great excerpts from MLK jr's speeches.
 
"The Odyssey of KP2: An Orphan Seal, a Marine Biologist, and the Fight to Save a Species" by Terrie M. Williams. So far, a good read.

Dandy, the cute little guy on the cover of this book just might make you give up the bunnies! :D
 
Zoning Goddess said:
"The Odyssey of KP2: An Orphan Seal, a Marine Biologist, and the Fight to Save a Species" by Terrie M. Williams. So far, a good read.

Dandy, the cute little guy on the cover of this book just might make you give up the bunnies! :D
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Ended up being a very good book, I learned a lot about sea mammals, and it's a quick read. Two thumbs up!
 
Zoning Goddess said:
"The Odyssey of KP2: An Orphan Seal, a Marine Biologist, and the Fight to Save a Species" by Terrie M. Williams. So far, a good read.

Dandy, the cute little guy on the cover of this book just might make you give up the bunnies! :D
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Oooh, sounds good! I'll have to check it out. Did you read it on your Kindle?
 
dandy_warhol said:
Oooh, sounds good! I'll have to check it out. Did you read it on your Kindle?
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Nah, I got the hardcover in case RJ wants to read it. Probably won't since the subject is so cute. And the battery on my kindle seems to have died. And I spilled a glass of wine into my laptop Sunday. I'm a mess technologically. Typing now on a tiny netbook in Naples.
 
Just finished Jacqueline Sheehan's "Picture This"; a widow is confronted by a teenager claiming to be the widow's dead husband's daughter. Novel. A good read. Now reading Clive Cussler's "The Jungle" fomulaic, as always, but a fun story.
 
Zoning Goddess said:
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.
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Now reading "Milk Glass Moon", the third in Trigiani's Big Stone Gap novels set in NC. The librarians recommended the series after I told them how much I enjoyed "The Shoemaker's Wife".
 
This month's issue of Smithsonian and the article on Thomas Jefferson the slaveowner. It is a very well researched article on Jefferson, who discovered that he yielded a four percent annual profit from the propagation of his slaves and the work of young slave boys in his nail factory. The profit from his nail factory paid for the household budget, so he could entertain his guests lavishly, supplied by a dumbwaiter that connected to the kitchen where some of his slaves worked.

Also reading I Will Fight No More Forever, the story of the flight of the Nez Perce and Chief Joseph. It is a very good book. My only criticsm is this is a true story about the great flight of the non-treaty Nez Perce across Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, yet there isn't a map showing the path taken by the tribe and the soldiers. That I had to get off the Internet.
 
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Just finished Leonard Wibberly's cold war classic "The Mouse That Roared"

Currently reading "The Hunger Games"

Next up: Clive Cussler's 'The Jungle'
 
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.

I usually read nonfiction books, but I throw in an easy-to-read fiction book every now and then to give my mind a vacation.
 
I'm jealous. School's back in and my wife works at night so I'm the homework guy around our house. I'm not reading much for myself lately but I've heard a whole bunch of Junie B Jones books read to me in halting voices and read "Ricky Ricotta's Giant Mouse Robot" out loud about a billion times lately. Somebody kill me.
 
ursus said:
I'm jealous. School's back in and my wife works at night so I'm the homework guy around our house. I'm not reading much for myself lately but I've heard a whole bunch of Junie B Jones books read to me in halting voices and read "Ricky Ricotta's Giant Mouse Robot" out loud about a billion times lately. Somebody kill me.
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I feel your pain, dude. There was a time when I could practically recite Horton Hatches The Egg from memory. That and Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.

Reading Rama II as my son's bedtime story.
 
otterpop said:
I feel your pain, dude. There was a time when I could practically recite Horton Hatches The Egg from memory. That and Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.
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I have a great video of my son at age 4, "reading" Mike Mulligan to me. If he didn't every word down pat, he came pretty darn close.

Me, now reading Southern Living's "Big Book of Slow Cooking".
 
"Rules of Civility" by Amor Towles. Novel, set in late '30's in NYC, a secretary and her friend begin interacting with the affluent in Manhattan. A good read.
 
btrage said:
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.

I usually read nonfiction books, but I throw in an easy-to-read fiction book every now and then to give my mind a vacation.
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I hear you. It feels at times like you almost have to apologize for reading something like Clive Cussler, Dan Brown, or especially young adult fiction like Harry Potter or Hunger Games.

I read some books that many would consider intellectually dense, but see nothing wrong whatsoever with reading for the purposes of entertainment or escape. Balance is the key, and eating an occasional Big Mac or reading the occasional Clive Cussler book never killed anyone.
 
Maister said:
I hear you. It feels at times like you almost have to apologize for reading something like Clive Cussler, Dan Brown, or especially young adult fiction like Harry Potter or Hunger Games.
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In your honor, I picked up a Clive Cussler at the library today: "The Tombs", Fargo series. I've been reading Cussler for 30 years and I don't care if anyone doesn't consider it deep enough. I just can't get into his Isaac Bell series, though.
 
Just finished Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. Interesting book, to say the least. It took me a while to figure out what was going on but once I did it was hard to put down.


Reading Elza's Kitchen by Marc Fitten. Meh.
 
Downloaded John Grisham's new book yesterday on the kindle to read on the plane home today, but I was a wee bit hungover to absorb anything convoluted, so I'll start it tomorrow.
 
Checked out J.K. Rowling's new book from the library: The Casual Vacancy. Will start that tonight.

Have to admit, haven't been reading much. I'm crocheting several Christmas presents, and started early this year. I don't want to do what I did a couple of years ago - stay up way too late many nights trying to get gifts done.
 
I am reading Insomnia, by Stephen King. Which is appropriate since I'm experiencing a particularly bad bout of insomnia. It is not really scary, so it is not a cause. Just a coincidence. I'd never read Stephen King before. It is a good read. I might read another one of his books in the future.

I also checked out a couple books on insomnia. This not sleeping enough gets old fast and insomnia is no stranger to my life.
 
Lisa Lutz's "Trail of the Spellmans". It's the 5th in a series about an odd family of P.I.s. and they're all hilarious. I figured I'd better get the bag of library books out of the way before starting the new John Grisham.
 
I'm almost done with the 5th book in the Game of Thrones universe. I'm sad that I have to wait for the next installment. Overall I have been very impressed, I haven't been this emotionally attached to a fantasy series in many years. I listen to the audiobook in the car, then read the paper version at home just to get to the next chapter. There's slow spots, inevitable in a ~5,000 page book, but they are heavily outweighed by some seriously shocking, touching, or hilarious moments.

The HBO series is also excellent, but just a little different. I think it is made much better by knowing the books, there is a ton of excellent backstory and context that is necessarily left out in the shorter TV scripts (and some excellent shortcuts to show as much as possible in the visual medium). Like the LOTR movies, I think the TV series is the best that can be expected of converting one art to another. I hope they keep the quality high and I can't wait to see certain things put on the screen.
 
I just finished American Canopy by Eric Rutkow. It's about how we fucked this continent for its tree canopy. Some good land use discussions, too. One thing missing is how the northern California timber barons ruined the north coast redwood forests with the pinnacle being the assclown Maxxam Company. :-{ :-@
 
Starting "The Trouble with City Planning - What New Orleans Can Teach Us" by Kristina Ford. Got to slip in a planning book once in a while.
 
Jeanne Ray's "Calling Invisible Women". It's a novel. I've mentioned before how you hit middle-age, and suddenly seem invisible to younger people, sales clerks, etc. This book is narrated by a doctor's wife who actually becomes physically invisible. So far it's hilarious.
 
Sitting by the pool this afternoon I started Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich. :h: Funny stuff and an easy, entertaining read.
 
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 now reading Colonel Roosevelt, the 3rd book in Morris' trilogy.

So far not as interesting as the first 2 books. It chronicles the last days of Roosevelt's life, including his split from the Republican party.
 
Alex Haley - Roots It's been many years since I saw the mini-series and I don't think that I ever read the book. All the dialect makes it a difficult read.
 
Finishing up 'The Hobbit' (maybe the 8th time I've read it)
next up: Bryan Sykes' controversial ''DNA USA"
 
Maister said:
Finishing up 'The Hobbit' (maybe the 8th time I've read it)
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Also re-reading it for the nth time. Can't see how it can be made into a film trilogy without boring people to death with either excruciating detail or special effects.
 
I am reading to my son "The Garden of Rama," the third in the Rama series. Also reading "Kennedy's Gold," a good-ole-fashioned oater about a stagecoach beset by marauding Apaches.
 
Has anybody seen or read

Nature Wars: The Incredible Story of How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards into Battlegrounds
by Jim Sterba

sounds interesting.
 
ofos said:
Also re-reading it for the nth time. Can't see how it can be made into a film trilogy without boring people to death with either excruciating detail or special effects.
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Me,either, it's such a quick read, much shorter than the other 3 books.

I've started "City of Dark Magic" by Magnus Flyte, after reading a bunch of good reviews.
 
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