I'm starting this thread separate from the message board because I am somewhat compulsive. I just like things where I can find them, I hope that's O.K. PhoenixTerran.

Took this to the Doctor's office and actually made quite a good start on it after 1 hour and 45 minutes waiting for the doctor to get to me! The Earth Shook, the Sky Burned by William Bronson. It's about the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. Lots and lots of pictures with interesting and informative text.

One of my ancestors died in San Jose during that quake. She was visiting a relative to help her recover from a sickness. I'm working on the history of our family, so trying to read things apropos.

Just finished Geisha by Liza Crihfield Dalby. What a fascinating book!

After having read the novel Memoirs of a Geisha, Geisha provided a warm education into the world of geisha. It was an especially interesting book because the author was the only non-Japanese to ever have become a geisha. She spoke about her experience, which she did in the course of writing her thesis, with such a great understanding and love of the Japanese and geisha cultures.

Highly recommended for those who love other cultures or who have a slight knowledge of geisha and would like more.

I'm just finishing up John Julius Norwich's A History of Venice, a detailed account of the Republic's 1,000 years, and have just begun Raymond Sokolow's Why We Eat What We Eat, about the gastronomical cross-fertilization of Old and New World foods.

I'm working my way through Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World by Nicholas Ostler. I say working because I keep getting sidetracked by the footnotes and heading off to the internet to look up the etymology of one word or another.

And thanks, lilithcat. Why We Eat What We Eat has just been added to my TBR list.

I've added Why We Eat to my TBR too!

I'm reading London in the Nineteenth Century by Jerry White. It's one of my pet subjects.

I've been reading Guns, Germs, and Steel for roughly the past two years now. I'm enjoying it, but I'm barely a third of the way through, as its pretty rough going, and I'm in college, so I've got a lot of other work. I also started the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich a few days ago, and am really enjoying it. In my opinion, this should be required reading for anyone even remotely interested in WWII history.

#2 - Wasn't Liza C. Dalby, the author of Geisha, a consultant for the movie, Memoirs of a Geisha? I think her book sounds very interesting.

#3 - Does Why We Eat What We Eat have recipes and such? I have often wondered about this when cooking. I cook food from many different cultures and many of them use about 5-6 common ingredients and combinations, it's just what they do with them and what they add to them that makes it unique to their culture. I'm going to keep my eyes open for this as well.

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Wasn't Liza C. Dalby, the author of Geisha, a consultant for the movie, Memoirs of a Geisha? I think her book sounds very interesting.

Yes, she was. I didn't appreciate the movie Memoirs of a Geisha when I saw it because I already knew the story. Now that I've read Dalby's book, I wouldn't mind seeing it again because there would be lots of different things I'd look for!

Message edited by its author, Feb 28, 2007, 8:34pm.

> 8

#3
No, it doesn't have recipes. But it's definitely worth reading, nonetheless!

Current non-fiction read, and it has been slow going, like Child_of_light with his/her book, is Crusaders in the Courts by Jack Greenburg, started for Black History Month, but spilling over. Long and detailed insiders story of some of the landmark civil rights cases. We are not there yet, but we have indeed come a long way.

Message edited by its author, Mar 2, 2007, 8:31pm.

I've just started in on Quran and woman : rereading the sacred text from a woman's perspective, by Amina Wadud. Very interesting thus far, albeit rather slow going. It's a book of Qur'anic exegesis, not a book of nursery rhymes, so the writing style is not quite so, ahem, approachable, especially when riding on a noisy bus or train where concentration is difficult. Still, I've been looking forward to reading it and am finding it fairly interesting so far.

I'm been reading Wrapped in Rainbows a lyrical biography of Zora Neale Hurston by Valerie Boyd; Black Markets by Michele Goodwin on the organ-allocation crisis in the U.S.; and I've been busily touting my own (warning: shameles self-promotion ahead) Medical Apartheid.

Today found and began reading New Lives for Old by Margaret Mead dealing with the cultural transformation of the Manus Islanders between 1928 and 1953. Mead first studied the Manus while they were still culturally in the Stone Age, then returned after WWII to find them vastly changed. The book caught my eye because I recently came across a Papuan (New Guinea) picture board from the Middle Sepik River area- sort of like a book carved in wood, or at least a short story. Loved the picture board and bought it. Hope I'll love the book as well!

drharriet!
Your book sounds excellent! I have been waiting a long time to read a book focusing on this subject. I could never understand why I had never seen one until this one that you have just pointed out to us. I am very glad that you shamelesslessly promoted it otherwise I might not have ever found it. :)
I remember in 1972 I met a man from the US that came to Vancouver and he was a reporter of some kind back in the States. He had a lot of newspaper clippings about the syphilis testing on black Americans. I had never heard of it and was outraged that this could happen. He let me have the original clippings as proof to show other people. I was only 14 then and was honoured to be the holder of such information that was so important and so shocking. I held onto those clippings for most of my life until finally I lost them in a move many years later. I never found out what happened with the hearings or the people involved in that hateful crime against humanity. Most people here have never heard of this and I still tell them it happened! I am going to order your book and find out more finally!. It's been a long wait to find out. I'm almost 50 now! LOL
Thank you very much for writing this important book.

Technically, I'm reading fiction "right now", but earlier this week, I finished two interesting nonfiction books: Passionate Nomad which is a biography of Freya Stark; and The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth which examines the relationship between prosperity and morality.

jhheart, have you read The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead? Certainly makes you read her books in a new light.

furdog

Message edited by its author, Mar 4, 2007, 4:29pm.

I'm currently reading Hershey by Michael D'Antonio. It's a bit slow moving at the start, but I'm hoping it will improve.

I've also just bought Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America by John M. Barry. I may give up on Hershey for now, and read this one instead.

furdog

What Terrorists Want by Louise Richardson. A great read about how we got where we are and what can be be done about it!

Message edited by its author, Mar 5, 2007, 2:30am.

Last night I finished Peter Mancall's Hakluyt's Promise, which I found a really excellent biography of Richard Hakluyt (a major English promoter of American colonization among other things) as well as a very good overview of English intellectual and printing history in the late Elizabethan era. As I said in my review, it's not often that I would declare a book one of my "best of the year" in March, but this one deserves it.

I just finished Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat, which was very provocative, though I found his thinking simplistic at times. Now I'm picking up Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma, although I also have The Colony by John Tayman going.

I couldn't stay away from non-fiction for long. I've just started Days that Changed the World by Hywell Williams. It's a look at 50 days that shaped history. It's interesting, but a bit like reading the encyclopedia -- short overviews of events and nothing linking them together.

I am reading "Pompeii: The Living City" by Alex Butterworth and Ray Laurence. I am about 100 pages into it and it can be slow in spots, but in general it is very interesting and well researched. The authors have taken the liberty of interspersing their research with fictional anecdotes based on factual information found at the excavation site to demonstrate what life in Pompeii was like.

Message edited by its author, Mar 6, 2007, 11:05am.

I have a couple things going right now (you know - one for the bus, one for the nightstand, one for the bathroom....): The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan - fascinating history of the Dustbowl; also Planetwalker by John Francis.

Message edited by its author, Mar 6, 2007, 1:58pm.

City Dharma is excellent! "spiritual" without beating you over the head.

Warring Souls by Roxanne Varzi. Excellent so far.

Thank you so much, Bookaddict: music to an author's ears, as you know! I apologize for taking so long to reply but between a horrible cold and a rigorous tour I've been exhausted and a bit disorganized lately.

furdog: I have not read The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead. The title sounds interesting- does it accuse her of outright falsehood? Somewhere in the dim recesses of an ancient memory, there is a vague recollection of reading a book review about her methodology. It might have been a review of this very book.

i am reading "the scientist, the madman, the thief and their lightbulb" (seems to be in lt as The search for free energy) and enjoying it.

It's actually very good science journalism, even though it has the quirky subject about the inventors and scientists of alernate energy systems that the mainstream didn't believe. Fascinating bits on science at the edge of the mainstream, and the relationship between science, invention, government, business etc.

Just started A Walk Along the Wall by Hunter Davies - story of the author's trek from one end of Hadrian's Wall to the other (east to west). I really like the writing style, and already looking forward to reading some of Davies' other travel books.

Hey I read Empires of the Word last month. I didn't quite finish it as I lost interest around 20 pages from the end. Overall though I found it fairly interesting.

SqueakyChu, are you born in the year of the mouse? (mice go chuchu in japanese) -- liza's newest is out: East Wind Melts the Ice. It's a beauty. She brings japan -- and china, for it follows the chinese mini-seasons -- home to her garden, and the book design and printingis so fine you would not believe it is a university press.

I've finished Wadud's book and moved on now to a book I received for my recent birthday. It's a delightful humor/history combination, written by Will Cuppy some decades back, titled The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody. The writing style and brand of humor are (vaguely) reminiscent of Dave Barry and his "George Washington Slept Here" parody of U.S. history. It's wonderful---I haven't laughed my way through such a fun book in ages. :-)

Abraham: a Journey to the Heart of Three Religions. It's great reading. I'll have a clearer opinion of it when I do some fact-checking.

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No, I missed being born in the year of the mouse by three months. My screen name is from a hamster I once owned. I named it Squeaky, but my daughter named it Squeakychu, informing me that "chu" means mouse-like in Japanese.

The Civil War: The War of the Three Kingdoms 1638-1660 by Trevor Royle.

I'm supposed to be mailing this to a friend, but I made the mistake of reading just a bit from the front of it, I'm hooked, but I'll send it tomorrow, I promise!

Seven Grass Huts, a memoir from the late 30's of a woman's experience with her husband, an engineer, in South America. It is interesting and fun to read.

Peppers by Amal Naj.

This is a great little book all about chile peppers. I love growing different varieties in my garden as well as eating them. I'm halfway through this book, and it has already answered some of my most pressing questions about hot peppers. (Example -- Why do peppers on the same plant have different degrees of "hotness"? Answer -- Because the degree of heat in each pod is determined by what side of the plant the pods are on. The ones exposed to more sun become hotter.)

Fascinating stuff!

SqueakyChu - I like the sound of the Peppers book.

I finished Seven Grass Huts, it was a very good book, I recommend it if you find it anywhere. I wrote a small review on it if you want to know more.

I just finished Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths. It was a pretty quick read exploring Abraham in Islam, Christianity and Judaism, and whether he is a unifying or dividing figure. I really liked it. There are a few intriguing books suggestions in the back, too.

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is good, all right, but it is nowhere close to Richard Evans' 3 volume history of which only the first two have been published.

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Are you a BookCrosser? If so (or if you'd like to be), I can mail my book (free) to you when I'm finished reading it. Just let me know.

Message edited by its author, Mar 16, 2007, 2:18pm.

I haven't finished Peppers yet, but I just got hold of a book called Blue Blood...about the life of a NYC policeman. The writing is what makes it interesting. It turns out that this cop was a Harvard graduate!

I had to start reading this book right away as well. :-)

Message edited by its author, Mar 17, 2007, 12:00pm.

I'm reading a book on one of my favourite subjects i.e. London. The book is The Subterranean Railway -How the London Underground Was Built and How it Changed the City Forever by Christian Wolmar. London was the first city to have an underground railway network and the effects on the city's growth were far-reaching.

I am in the middle of AC/DC: The Savage Tale of the First Stardards War by Tom McNichol. It is the story of the fierce rivalry between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse (and by association, Nikola Tesla) as they each fought to bring a standard electrical system to the US.

Message edited by its author, Mar 19, 2007, 2:21am.

i'm just starting The Assassins' Gate by George Packer about America's history and current actions in Iraq. I will probably read along with it Jawbreaker by Gary Berntsen about our hunt for Osama bin Laden and how we came so close, so many times, to capturing/killing him, but were stopped by our own bureaucratic politics.

Just about to start Intelligence and Human Rights in the Era of Global Terrorism for a book club on public policy issues.

One of the best books I've ever read, and the best of the non-fiction, is Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. Oooo it's so good. It follows 2 men through the Chicago World's Fair: one is a hugely successful architect in charge of the venture, and one is one of the first (and probably creepiest) serial killers. LUVVVV

Currently I'm reading The Attractor Factor by Joe Vitale. It is a book on the law of attraction. I've been concentrating on Finances and the law of attraction for a few weeks now.

With Amercans Past and Present by J. J. Jusserand. However, so far it has only discussed a Frenchman. :)

Cuppy's hilarious book finished quickly, and I'm now making my way through another book by Amina Wadud, Inside the Gender Jihad: Women's Reform in Islam. Like her other book I just finished reading, this one is very interesting but has a very difficult writing style. It's wrestling alligators in a molasses swamp. Or maybe it's just me.

My book discussion group has a short theme of African memoirs coming up. I just finished A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah , which relates the horrors of Sierra Leone's civil war...graphic violence but written in lyrical prose. It reads like a novel.

Before that I read Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller, a memoir of growing up as part of a family of English Settlers in Rhodesia. This one goes on my all time favorites list.

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight was a book I really enojoyed, too. The image of a six year old girl taking apart and cleaning a rifle will stay with me forever!

>52: AccidentalLibrarian, I added Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier to my TBR pile after seeing the author interviewed on TV. I'm glad to hear the positive report!

>52, 53: I really enjoyed Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight also.

I've just started reading 31 Songs by Nick Hornby.

Hornby says "Songs are what I listen to, almost to the exclusion of everything elese. I don't listen to classical music or jazz very often, and when people ask me what music I like, I find it very difficult to reply, because they usually want names of people, and I can only give them song titles".

Nearly a year after buying it, I'm finally reading November of the Soul: The Enigma of Suicide by George Howe Colt. It's deeply absorbing -- Colt writes with real respect and compassion, and the book includes sections on he history of suicide, adolescent suicide, prevention, and and survivors, among others. It's a very intense read, so I may pick up a novel, or perhaps some lighter nonfiction, for leavening.

Like #7, I'm also a college student so I doubt I'll get to finish The Devil in the White City... by Erik Larson until the summer but that's the current nonfiction I'm working on, one that's not required for class.

Have just started Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday and I must admit that it is really quite a struggle which has surprised me somewhat. I knew that it wasn't exactly going to be overly favourable towards Mao but I am surprised quite how negative it is towards him. To such an extent that I am beginning to wonder whether I am reading a biography at all and not an out and out polemic and character assassination. Not sure whether I will finish it but I must admit that I am learning a lot about a time and place that I knew very little about.

Started Bold spirit : Helga Estby's forgotten walk across Victorian America by Linda Lawrence Hunt. Not so much a travelogue as a discussion of the status of (immigrant) women at that time. Reads fairly well.

I'm reading The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby:
It's a collection of fourteen instalments of Nick Hornby's celebrated monthly column "Stuff I've Been Reading" from the Believer magazine.

I like his honesty.

Accidental Librarian, I too am on a binge of African memoirs. I read A Long Way Gone last week and feel there is something fishy about it. I also read Dave Eggers' What is the What, which is a novel based on one of the "lost boys" of Sudan and it rang more true to me. It was definitely better written, but then it's by a prizewinning, gifted, best-selling author, with Western sensibilities, so that may be the real difference. But if you think A Long Way Gone is Lyrical, you really should read What is the What. Martha Huntley

Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw

This is a newer biography. 800 pages. I'm only on page 90, but so far it is interesting.

I just finished up The Liars' Club: A Memoir by Mary Karr. I've been on a memoir kick for the past few months. This one was well-written, but I believe I'm about burnt-out on the whole genre of shockingly bad childhoods written about in a funny way.

The best of these seem to be Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes , I've enjoyed reading them all including Running With Scissors, The Glass Castle and so many others...but it's time for me to move on.

So on that note, I ordered Why We Eat What We Eat: How Columbus Changed the Way the World Eats (thanks for the reccomendation lilithcat!) as well as Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America by John M. Barry. I can't wait to get started.

I also just finished The Liars' Club and did find it one of the better "bad childhood" memoirs. I did like her writing style and by the end, I found myself really caring about her and wondering how she made it through, so I picked up the sequel, "Cherry," her coming-of-age memoir, from Paperbackswap.

I like memoirs but find that I have to mix them up with other things or there is that "burn-out" factor. However, one other memoir I really found compelling was Jesus Land by Julia Scheeres. Her parents sent her and her brother to a religious "reform school" in the Dominican Republican, and her experience there was quite shocking. Apparently there is an online support group for "survivors" of this particular school.

I just started Thread Across the Ocean by John Steele Gordon, which is about the laying of the Transatlantic Cable. I actually bought it for my husband, who has been fascinated with this story since he was a little boy. He polished it off in a few days and said it was a very compelling read. (He hardly ever reads at that clip).

I recently finished The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan. A very interesting book about the relationship between plants and people.

I am reading The Code Book by Simon Singh. A mixture of history, math and engineering.

Finishing up The Isles by Norman Davies, on audio as read by Andrew Sachs. History of the United Kingdom, focusing on the relationship between England and the three other components, rather than (the usual) historical milestones as such. A tad dry for me, although the narrator does his best to keep the tone light.

Leebot, Thanks for the recommendation of Jesus Land. You're the second person to mention in so many days, so when I come back around to reading memoirs again, I'll definitely have to check it out.

Yesterday I finished reading Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America. I really enjoyed it. It covered a lot of history--much more than just the flood.

Just starting Why The Religious Right Is Wrong on the separation of church and state.

I recently read War and peace so I am following up with Moscow 1812 by Adam Zamoyski. I am also reading Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. Richard Hofstadter is one of my favorite authors and even though it was published in 1964 the ideas are still current. I like to keep three or four books going at once and my third is A Stillness at Appomattox the final volume in Bruce Catton's trilogy on the Army of the Potomac. He is an excellent author and the Civil War has become one of my favorite topics in recent years.

leebot, I also found both memoirs you mentioned really fine. Mary Karr, author of Liar's Club, is also a poet occasionally published in The New Yorker.

Another memoir I really love is Rain or Shine by Cyra McFadden. Her father, Cyrus McFadden, was a very famous rodeo announcer, and her family, like the families of the other two, was deeply dysfunctional. But she writes so well about it all.

I also recommend The Glass Castle, another deeply dysfunctional, very unusual family. Another very fine writer too.

Just starting North Face of Soho by Clive James I've read his earlier autobiographies taking him up to the time he left Australia and starting to make his way in the U.K. This continues his life story, with his usual wit and intelligence.

Message edited by its author, Apr 4, 2007, 5:14pm.

I read The Code Book last year and really learned a lot.

I'm reading The World is Flat for a book club. It's easy to read and really brings globalization down to a personal level.

I just finished Love my Rifle More than You. It's a female's perspective on being active duty in the Army. It was a really good read.

I'm slowly making my way through 'The God Delusion' - good bedtime reading when you just want to dip in for a few pages. Gave me a scare when someone I really respect was very shocked when she heard I was reading it and finding much of it thought-provoking.

I'm just finishing "How Doctor's Think" by Jerome Groopman. It's about Doctor's thought processes when diagnosing patients. Very informative. Next I'm reading "Talking Right" bu Geoffrey Nunberg.

I've finally finished the Wadud book and am now into Love and War in Afghanistan, by Alexander Klaits and Gulchin Gulmamadova-Klaits. It's a collection of personal narratives from Afghani people (including Turkmen, Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras.) Deeply moving book that actually brings me to tears at times, but fascinating and well worth reading---at least so far.

I just started Monster of God. For some reason, I thought it was exclusively about Tigers, but it's not. The author has a very colorful writing style.

Have just started What Good Are the Arts? by John Carey.

Two Degrees West - story of trekking the entire length of England (fairly strictly) along the 2-Degree Meridian.

> 81: Seajack, I'd forgotten all about Two Degrees West! I read that about 6 years ago, shortly after relocating from the US to the UK. I think I heard about it on a BBC radio programme. I enjoyed it quite a lot and it helped me appreciate the English countryside I lived in all the more as well.

I'm reading Imperial Life in the Emerald City and I'm really hooked. I know I'm hooked because I'm reading it even in my 'crossword' slot. Just wonder how different all this (Iraq situation) could have been with a little more forethought and humility.

PossMan: Yes, I'm very much looking forward to reading Imperial Life In The Emerald City, having seen the author interviewed on at least one occasion and having read various reviews. In the interim I'm absorbed in Babylon By Bus, another account of life within and without the Green Zone but from the perspective of two young Americans who traveled to Iraq on a lark and ended up finding volunteer positions within the Coalition Provision Authority that enabled them to study the multi-layered situation from a unique, zany, and frequently bacchanalian perspective. The authors have been featured on C-Span's Book TV.

Message edited by its author, Apr 14, 2007, 11:51am.

Just finished A Thread Across the Ocean about the laying of the Transatlantic Cable. What a treat of a read -- and quite the story!

Now I've started Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush by Eric Boehlert.

Just finished James Wolcott's Attack Poodles And Other Media Mutants: The Looting Of The News In A Time Of Terror, a tragi-comic, scathing critique of right-wing media in the U.S.

Finishing up Route 66 A.D. (a/k/a Pagan Holiday) by Tony Perrottet. Author and his pregnant (now-wife) travel routes that were considered prime vacation destinations for First Century Romans. Very funny, without ever coming close to Over-The-Top. Mr. Perrottet was a classics scholar at university in Australia; it's quite well researched.

I"m reading The Man Who Ate Everything. Just started it, but it's a fun look at food phobias and cravings.

I finally finished up Empires of the Word and have moved on to A Short History of Byzantium (via audiobook), Kingdoms of the Celts (in pdf format), and in old fashioned book form The Mother Tongue.

I started reading A Woman Scorned: Acquaintance Rape on Trial. I found it perusing a junk shop this morning. Sanday proposes to trace the cultural roots of both Faustian sexual excess and Puritan restraint. She hypothsizes that the two schools of thought are clashing to create a environment ripe for abuse. It's an interesting read.

Three Roads to Quantum Gravity by Lee Smolin. Talk about tough going... Even the simplified version is almost incomprehensible. Interesting, though, if only to keep track of what real physics is like these days!

Message edited by its author, Apr 24, 2007, 12:10pm.

Just finished The White Nile by Alan Moorehead about the exploration of central Africa. Also Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David von Drehle about the turn of the century progressive labor movement.

I am starting God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible by Adam Nicolson

I read God's Secretaries. Let me know what you think. Bible writing is quite a dangerous business, as you'll see!

Nearly finished with A Long Way Gone. Beginning in May I am participating in a reading challenge, to read 5 non-fiction books between May & September (essentially 1 per month).

My first one for that challenge will be Bookseller of Kabul.

LynnB : Enjoying God's Secretaries so far. Quite a cast of characters. I have God's Bestseller on my to read list as well.

I have been looking for a good book about how the various books of the bible were selected. Any recommendations ?

I am reading: Longitudes and Attitudes; Exploring the World After September 11 by Thomas L. Friedman. It is a compilation of his columns in the NYT immediately before and after 9/11. I purchased this just after it came out in 2002, but never got around to reading it. It is possibly even more intersting of a read now, a few years later. Interesting to see what has gone on since then, what he was correct on, and other things that never played out. Now I want to read his current articles.

Also reading A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. Which I am not sure should count as non-fiction, as it has come out that his story is much embellished, and many facts have been changed. It is, however, very compelling reading, and seems to get inside the mind and horrors of a recovering addict, even if it is not very factual.

Not just for fun, but for usefull info, and lifestyle change, am reading Toxic Relief; Restore Health and Energy through fasting and detoxification by Don Colbert, M.D. Author is very good at explaining inner workings of the body, cancer cells, free radicals, etc, in a very simple and understandable way. It is very well put together, with why's and how's explained, along with juice fasting recipes.

I guess that is all for now. Have challenged myself to read 23 non-fiction books before reading any more fiction. Kind of like eating your fruit and veggies, something you really enjoy, but tend to neglect.

I'm reading fiction at this very moment, but I recently finished This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland, a combination travel memoir and history of several Inuit-led exploratory missions across Greenland's polar ice cap. The opening chapters are a little shaky but I'm glad I pressed on because the book was tremendously informative about modern-day and past Inuit culture.

Just finished Two Degrees West, and started Dream of a Thousand Lives by Karen Connelly - a memoir of a Candian woman's time in rural Thailand.

burgett77: No, I don't know of any books off-hand that talk about how different books of the bible were selected; nor of what kinds of choices were made in translating the bible into english. I was hoping God's Secretaries would have had more of that.

I have, however, read The Professor and the Madman about how the Oxforf English Disctionary was made and that was fascinating.

LynnB : I liked The Professor and the Madman Simon Winchester also wrote The Meaning of Everything about the creation of the Oxford dictionary. I would like to read that one as well.

I'm currently reading Independent Nation: How Centrism Can Change American Politics which I saw plugged on the Daily Show a few years ago and just finally got around to reading.

I'm also reading No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs, but I haven't gotten very far into it.

I've just started College Girls by Lynn Peril, a very light-hearted and pro-woman history of high education for women.

Message edited by its author, May 2, 2007, 8:40am.

Just finished Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush by Eric Boehlert. Oy vay! What a read! Although I was already aware of a lot of the information, the author makes media study a specialty, and really tied it all together with lots of supporting statistics. I'd get so disgusted with the media at times I'd feel like throwing the book across the room.

Now I'm starting Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez, which is the May selection for my neighborhood book club. I've thoroughly enjoyed Bookseller of Kabul and other books about these cultures.

Message edited by its author, Apr 30, 2007, 4:16pm.

I just finished Joan Didion's Year of Magical Thinking, which is one of the most powerful books I've read recently.

I'm also reading Perfect Heresy by Stephen O'Shea, a history of the (successful) efforts to erradicate the Cathars. I recently finished Labyrinth, a novel in which the crusade against the Cathars figures, and that sparked my interest.

(Edited to correct the touchstones)

Message edited by its author, Apr 30, 2007, 4:36pm.

Listening to Goodbye to a River by John Graves - story of his c. 1960 trip down the Upper Brazos before the area was to be altered significantly by several dams.

Anything by Simon Winchester is great! Have you read Krakatoa? Also, he reads his own books for audio, and he is wonderful. I've read and listened to THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN, THE MEANING OF EVERYTHING and KRAKATOA. I have THE MAP THAT CHANGED THE WORLD and the one on the San Francisco earthquake coming up.

But right now I am just starting AN ALPHABETICAL LIFE by Wendy Werris. I heard her speak at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books yesterday, and was sufficiently intrigued to buy her literary memoir. It looks great!

Anything by Simon Winchester? I recently read his book on Korea, and found it rather biased.

Wendy Werris' book was great - highly recommended.

>96: lisalouhoo

After you finish Toxic Relief Restore Health and Energy, but before undertaking any of the recommended fasting regimes, you might want to check out Starvation Heights by Gregg Olsen.

Don't want to overdo - you have to maintain your strength so you can read all those books. :)

Today I started A Naturalist and Other Beasts by George B. Schaller, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society. Schaller is a field biologist and this collects some of his writings from the last 50 or so years. It is a relaxing, fun book to read.

Finished the text, but am still studying the remarkable sketches in Baghdad Journal: An Artist In Occupied Iraq, documenting the early years of the ill-fated American invasion.

Message edited by its author, May 3, 2007, 11:57am.

I'm most of the way through reading Victoria Finlay's Color: A Natural History of the Palette. It's an odd choice for me - I tend to go for biography or more-or-less straight-up history.

My last book was Lynn Sherr's Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words. It isn't really a biography, and it isn't really a collected writings, but sorta a hybrid of the two. Let me tell you, the Susan B. Anthony is not what you'd expect from all the stiff photos of her!

Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots and Leaves and R. L. Trask's Mind the Gaffe! are basically always out, if for no other reason that they're good for a laugh about what can go wrong in print.

No idea what's gonna be next, though it might be some fiction. I have two of Dickens's doorstops to read, one of which is a favorite of the person who gave both books to me. Then again, I may pull some of my hardcover doorstops out of the moving boxes in the living room.

Edit: My local bookstore has a copy of Peter Ackroyd's The Life of Thomas More. Any opinions of it would be welcome.

Edited (again) to fix those dang touchstones.

Message edited by its author, Jun 18, 2007, 3:12pm.

I'm currently reading American Gulag: Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons.

I have lately been intently reading Science and Music and Google's PageRank and Beyond: The Science of Search Engine Rankings.

One book I've been browsing a lot at the bookstore is A New Kind of Science.

I'm moving back and forth between The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and Nemesis: The Last Days Of The American Republic by Chalmers Johnson, both requiring considerable thought and reflection.

Juggling Last Dance in Havana, along with some fiction.

I also loved the Worst Hard Time. Have you read any other good depression-era books? The ones I have run across talk too much about Roosevelt's "alphabet" programs and not the people affected.

Last night, I started The Bookseller of Kabul. Not far along yet, but it's quite interesting.

The Restless Sleep by Stacy Horn - story of the NYPD's cold case squad.

Right now I am reading SICK: THe Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis and the People Who Pay the Price BY: Jonathan Cohn

Was traveling last week, and polished off The Father of Forensics in a single day (lots of airplane & airport waiting time). Absolutely riveting, focusing on Sir Bernard Spilsbury's most famous cases. Because of his professionalism and attention to detail, he was able to elevate the science of forensics to a new level of acceptance.

Language in Danger by Andrew Dalby - scholarly, though approachable, story of how the world's "minor" languages have dwindled, if not disappeared altogether.

I just started reading "Give It Up: My Year of Learning to Live Better with Less by Mary Carlomagno." Why, you ask? Well, I seem to have been an unconscious collector for nearly 20-years. I have so much stuff that my stuff has stuff. Not only do I find the title to be promising in practical advice, but I also find it extremely spiritually uplifting in a strange sort of way.

Message edited by its author, May 14, 2007, 5:33pm.

Inventing Home: Emigration, Gender, and the Middle Class in Lebanon, 1870-1920 and Colonial Citizens: Republican Rights, Paternal Privilege, and Gender in French Syria and Lebanon. I also need to finish reading two books (also on Lebanon) that are partially read - Civil and Uncivil Violence in Lebanon: A History of the Internationalization of Communal Conflict and A House of Many Mansions. Once I finish these I really want to take a break from Lebanon and read something lighter for a change.

Message edited by its author, May 24, 2007, 5:46pm.

fannyprice: Can you tell us more about your scholastic focus on Lebanon?

Hah, yeah, I guess that list does really make me look obsessive. Two of the works are actually for a class on gender and the Middle East that I am taking right now. The third is leftover from a class on religious and civil wars that I took (I confess I didn't have time to read it all) and the final one has a lot of interesting material on nationalism in the Middle East, particularly of the Lebanese Christian variety (and how it contrasts to the sort of broader, pan-Syrian or pan-Arabist nationalism). I started that one a while ago too and have not finished it up yet. I hadn't really planned a Lebanon reading session, but I guess it is a timely coincidence, with what is going on over there right now.

I'm reading The Sharpeville Six about a famous South African trial.

I'm in the middle ofBorn fighting - how the Scots-Irish shaped America by James Webb. He begins with a brief history of the Celts in Europe, then on the British isles & mostly on America. He is sympathetic to Andrew Jackson & to the rank & file of the Confederate army who had never owned slaves, didn't believe in slavery, but refused to let a bunch of strangers from the North tell them how to run their lives. My mother's family is from Kentucky & yes, I believe he captures the culture very well.

I've just finished Hard News by Seth Mnookin (great name), which was a fascinating and well drawn portrayal of life at the New York Times before, during and after the scandal when journalist Jayson Blair was discovered to have just been making stuff up.

I'm also reading For God, Country and Coca-Cola by Mark Pendergrast which is, as far as I can tell, a pretty fair history of Coke. Because Coke has been such a part of American life for so long, it's also a bit of a history of ordinary life in America too.

I just finished Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay. Part art history, part travel with a little chemistry and geology thrown in. Thanks for the tip AnnaClaire (message 111).

Message edited by its author, May 25, 2007, 3:26pm.

I have just started Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss I like her style and approach.

>108:oregonobsessionz

Thank You for the recommendation, I'll have to take a look at Starvation Heights. Don't worry, there is no risk of my overdoing it; I like food a little bit to much. Besides which I don't have a very extreme or dedicated pesonality.

I just finished Skin by Nina Jablonski, and I wanted to put in a plug for it. She looks at skin from every angle: biological, evolutionary, cultural. It's a winner, especially as we are entering into summer. Makes you think about the importance of sweat and sunscreen!

For God, Country and Coca-Cola was one of my favourite books. Not only a history of Coke, and of America, but some great management and marketing lessons can be gleaned as well.

Eats Shoots and Leaves was hilarious -- and, as a fan of punctuation, kind of sad.

I loved Eats, Shoots & Leaves too. Also loved R. L. Trask's Mind the Gaffe!, which has plenty of funny examples of its own of what can go wrong withe language.

I'm in the middle of The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade that Gave the World Impressionism, which seems to need the full title to come up correctly.

Candyfreak on audio. Maybe it's the narrator, but I'm having trouble maintaining much interest.

I just finished Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss and thought it was terrific! Lots of fun and informative about punctuation.Today I read The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell I think that his theories are worth looking at by anyone dealing with change in an organization.

Message edited by its author, May 28, 2007, 3:36pm.

I really enjoyed Eats Shoots and Leaves. I've just ordered The Fight for English: How the Pundits Ate, Shot and Left by David Crystal and am looking forward to this opposing view on the importance of good grammar and punctuation.

I started Nelson Mandela's A Long Walk to Freedom last night. At 625 pages, this one is quite a chunkster, but ~60 pages in I'm finding it pretty interesting.

I'm nearly halfway through Barbara Kingsolver's latest, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, about her family's experiment with living off the land and local food sources for a year. Her engaging style is ever present in this book. She is very informative -- full of interesting and fun facts about different food items -- and I am getting quite an education about food production. Although my husband and I try to be environmentally aware and responsible, and we also try to eat healthfully and stay away from pre-packaged convenience foods, I appreciate looking at this subject in a new light and I know I will be making some changes in how we eat. There are even recipes in the book (and on her website).

I'm just starting The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.

Life Happens: and other unavoidable truths by Connie Schultz - interesting series of essays.

Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.

Trolley Car Treasury -- it's not my typical thing, but my husband and I are trying this summer to read books recommended by each other that we wouldn't normally read. I'm not into transportation so much, but Frank Rowsome's style and captions are very funny.

Recently finished Karen Armstrong's A Short History of Myth. Didn't like it at all per my review. Am now listening to A History of the English Language by Michael D. C. Drout and loving every second of it.

Message edited by its author, May 30, 2007, 12:38pm.

>torontoc

Have you read Blink yet? It's Malcolm Gladwell's most recent paperback. It's a bit partchy but utterly fascinating in parts.

The Tipping Point (weird, when I mis-spelled Tipping Point the Touchstone found the right book, when I corrected my typing it chose a different book entirely) is in my TBR pile.

>JustAGirl
I have Blink in my TBR pile. I'm going to recommend The Tipping Point to friends who volunteer for charitable organizations!

Fiasco: The American Military Misadventure in Iraq by Thomas Ricks

@fleela: I'm suprised about your review of Karen Armstrong's work. I admit I haven't read it, but I have read three other works of hers and none of them had much Christian prosleytising in them.

Message edited by its author, May 30, 2007, 6:44pm.

>147 Maybe I'm over-sensitive to such matters, but I really did almost put it away without finishing it.

I see that we've both read Armstrong's A History of God. Did that strike you similarly? (I probably should have checked for a review.)

That's on my TBR list but I hope to get to it soon.

Ok, I haven't read it in a while. There was one insight in it I liked very much, the orthopraxys for orthodoxy approach (which probably isn't new with Armstrong, but was new for me). Perhaps, I'll pick up this new work by Armstrong.

I am reading The Last Duel by Eric Jager. I love this book ! It is the true story of trial by combat in 14th century France. The plot is straight out of the movies. Beautiful lady accuses evil knight of heinous crime. Her husband defends her honor in combat.

Message edited by its author, May 31, 2007, 9:01am.

I'm addicted to the local charity shops ;) A couple of them have strong non fiction sections and can be a good place to get old textbooks and biographies.

I found Governing London : recreating the metropolitan community by Ben Pimlott for £2 in hardback! I'm about to start reading that - I like random politics books :)

In the same shop I found London: The Biography
by Peter Ackroyd for £5 in hardback (£25 new). Second hand books will be the death of me..

Ooh, London: The Biography is fabulous! I bought it not long after I'd been living in London for about a year and just loved it.

I'm reading Nelson Mandela's autobiography, A Long Walk to Freedom. I am not quite halfway through it, and am pleasantly surprised how hooked I am on this book. It's an amazing story of country boy turned freedom fighter and my admiration for him goes up with every page.

Recently finished Fiasco: The American Military Adventure In Iraq by Thomas Ricks and Nemesis: The Last Days Of The American Republic by Chalmers Johnson. Mr. Johnson was recently interviewed about this, his most recent book, on C-Span's Book TV.

Nemesis was the Greek goddess of retribution and vengeance, the punisher of pride and hubris, fools and hypocrites - more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemesis_(mythology)

#158 tropics: what did you think of Fiasco?

I'm currently reading Powerdown by Richard Heinberg, includes a historical look at world energy consumption and the current crisis; hopefully he'll get into some strategies for the future. It's a good read.

Also reading Called to Question: a Spiritual Memoir by Joan Chittister and After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path by Jack Kornfield (I'm a multi-book reader, have different books lying in wait in different locations for different situations.)

>156: One of all-time favourite non-fiction books. What a great way of writing about London.

Currently reading Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore for a book group. Great one.

I've read Karen Anderson's The Spiral Staircase about her spiritual search--and had thought she had long ago lost her Christian beliefs. Perhaps the staircase has spiraled around once more? I have her books on Islam and Mohammed in my tbr pile.

I'm currently reading Return of the Rishi by Deepak Chopra. It's his autobiographical account of how he turned from western medicine to India's ancient Ayurvedic healing.

teelgeel--can you see that I am also interested in autobiographies of the spiritual quest? **grin** I'll have to do further checking into the two you mention.

I just finished reading Irvin Yalom's Love's Executioner. I escaped from college without taking any psychology classes and his existentialist viewpoint that life is motivated by the fear of death is new to me. I was also dismayed by his attitude toward his obese patient and his ignorance of her struggles. All in all, he is no one I would care to see in therapy, no matter how well regarded his books are!

Hi all,

I am reading Nous n'avons jamais été modernes (We were never modern - touchstone is not working in English) by Bruno Latour. It's interesting but maddeningly frustrating. I wonder if anyone here has read this book?

I would probably understand it better if I had studied sociology, but I still think that Latour should concentrate less on style and more on clarity. I love it when a fiction book leaves shadowy areas that the reader has to fill in, but in a non-fiction book it just defeats the purpose, don't you think?

P.S.: This is strange, now touchstone is not working at all... last week it picked up the French title.

Tintin and the secrets of literature by Tom McCarthy. I don't normally read non-fiction, but I read about this in the weekend paper and it reminded me how much I loved the Tintin books when I was young-er. Naturally it's making me want to re-read them all over again !

*Edit to amend title to "secret-s of literature", even though this is incorrect

Message edited by its author, Jun 4, 2007, 10:06am.

#162 streamsong: Called to Question is fantastic. Chittister is a brilliant thinker and wonderful writer. I've seen her interviewed on Bill Moyers a time or two. This book really questions not her faith but how she can square her values - Christian values overall - with the way the Catholic church treats women, among many other things. She is a Benedictine sister - and has a very broad world view.

Also take a look at The Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd. She's had quite a journey, from daughter/wife of southern Baptist ministers to goddess spirituality.

Jack Kornfield is a Buddhist meditation teacher and also a wonderful writer, makes it all very accessible and enjoyable. Also highly recommend A Path with Heart by him.

Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Michael Oren.

I'm Proud of You, its about the friendship that the author had with Mister Rogers in the late '90's up to his death in '03. I'm finding the book to be a fascinating and emotional read. I grew up watching the Neighborhood, and consider Fred Rogers one of my greatest heroes and teachers, so its been amazing to discover that he really was the same man on screen as he was off.

#164 wonderlake

Do you have music by The Thompson Twins playing in the background?

I just started Evolution for Everyone.

Just started Silent Thunder: In the Presence of Elephants by Katy Payne. Fascinating study of elephant communication by an acoustic biologist and her discovery that elephants communicate on an infrasonic level.

To See Every Bird on Earth by Dan Koeppel. I hadn't realized when I started it that it would be so long on family memoir, and short on actual birding stuff.

Done with Made In America, which was ok, and A History of the English Language, which was simply amazing. Now listening to Bart D. Ehrman's Lost Christianities: Christian Scriptures and the Battles over Authentication.

I like Bart Ehrman's writing. He used to be a literal fundamentalist, until he found a couple of questionable translations. I've listened to Misquoting Jesus and Truth and Fiction in the Da Vinci Code (although I've not read DVC itself).

I really like Ehrman too. This is the second of his lectures I've heard. The first one I listened to was The Historical Jesus.

Just about finished with Finding George Orwell in Burma by Emma Larkin - she follows his footsteps there, as well as compares colonial life to that in present-day Myanmar.
Just started Reading the Decades by John Sutherland. Author analyses top books in the U.K. 1945 - 2000.

The Shia Revival by Vali Nasr

The Valleys of the Assassins by Freya Stark After reading a biography of Ms. Stark, I really wanted to read some of her own writing. So far, the book is wonderfully written with a hint of irony that I really enjoy.

Psychology of Intelligence Analysis which will be helpful in my job as I lead a team of negotiators.

last night started The Worst Hard Time by timothy egan

Just finished Lost mountain by Erik Reece. It's about how coal mine operators in Appalachia are bulldozing the tops off of mountains (including trees, wild-life, everything) in order to get to the coal seams that used to be mined by shafts but it's so much cheaper to just rip the mountains apart & use the left-over rocks to fill in the valleys & the run-off to pollute the rivers & streams . I mean, we need our cheap energy, right, & who cares about the people of Appalachia anyways, they're just a bunch of hillbillies (and my relatives.)

#178 bettyjo: I hope you enjoy TWHT - I thought it was so well done. I'll be starting his book about the Pacific NW -- The Good Rain -- soon. From dry to drenched!

Thanks teelgee...I will let you know.

I'm close to finishing A Mencken Chrestomathy by H. L. Mencken.

Just finished Thermopylae by Ernle Bradford. Excellent short work on the battle and the immediate consequences for Greece and Persia.

Right now I'm reading The omnivore's dilemma : a natural history of four meals by Michael Pollan

I"m reading Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma. Would you believe Disney wasn't exactly accurate?

Message edited by its author, Jun 18, 2007, 3:55pm.

I started The Good Rain by Timothy Egan today. Love it so far. But I just got notice that Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle has arrived at the library on my hold shelf. So I'll probably set aside Good Rain after I pick up the BK book from the library -- I've been so looking forward to that one! Took the library forever to process it (she said, drumming her fingers).

Yesterday I finished Silent Thunder: in the Presence of Elephants. Interesting book. Fascinating animals.

> 180, 186

Tim Egan is one of my favorite authors, but I went the other way. I loved The Good Rain - a real Pacific Northwest classic - and also liked Lasso the Wind, so of course I had to have The Worst Hard Time when that came out. If you enjoyed The Worst Hard Time, you might want to read Bad Land: An American Romance by Jonathan Raban (this is nonfiction in spite of the title).

Over the weekend I bought 40 Days and 40 Nights: Darwin, Intelligent Design, God, OxyContin, and Other Oddities on Trial in Pennsylvania by Matthew Chapman. Obviously this one is about the Intelligent Design trial in Dover PA. It was such an entertaining read that I tore through it in one day, ignoring the 6 books that were already in my "currently reading" pile.

The book is more balanced than you might expect from the title. Chapman, a descendant of Charles Darwin, reports the weaknesses of the testimony on both sides. He actually feels sympathy for players on both sides of the trial, and avoids demonizing the school board members and "expert" witnesses on the ID side. Well, mostly - he did trash one witness, but she seemed to richly deserve it.

I'm reading The American Plague by Molly Caldwell Crosby. Great story about the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878.

Currently working my way through Mark Twain: A Life by Ron Powers. Mark Twain has always been one of my favorite authors and I discovered this on the "Sale" shelf at Powell's Bookstore in Portland, Oregon

I finished A Mencken Chrestomathy! Hooray.

I am going to start Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman.

I'm currently rereading Time Traveler: a Scientist's Personal Mission To Make Time Travel a Reality by Ronald L. Mallett. Mallet's book reads like good, suspenseful and humorous fiction that is also excellent nonfiction when he describes his life's journey and his obsession that propelled him to try to achieve the near impossible feat of time travel. As I was reading, I felt as if I was sharing a very long and engaging lunch with a fun, down to earth and articulate professor who was relating a spellbinding, remarkable, true personal and scientific tale in terms that made it easy to understand his awesome vision.

Plato's Republic; a biography interesting and refreshingly non-hero worshipy study of Plato's Republic. My one complaint is it's too sketchy. I would have been happy with a little more meat on it. Simon Blackburn is a careful, elegant writer, who obviously went through great pains to keep this book non-technical and conversational.

Print: The Wind in My Wheels by Josie Dew and Worse than Watergate by John W. Dean

Message edited by its author, Jul 1, 2007, 8:17pm.

At the moment, I'm taking turns between Magnum. 50 Years at the Frontline of History, The Bewildered Herd and New Media in the Muslim World.

I just finished Political Discourses in African Thought by Pieter Boele van Hensbroek and am resuming The Fate of Africa by Martin Meredith.

This afternoon I started reading Lucky, a memoir by Alice Sebold that begins with her being raped as a college freshman. Harrowing. But I am hooked.

I am now on State of Denial by Bob Woodward, the 3rd. book in his Bush at War series. He seems to dig a little deeper in this book, going into more details. Woodward so far maintains his objectivity, but now, in the middle of the book, the strain is beginning to show. As we the readers already know what happens I'm curious to see how he keeps it, or using the title of the book as an example, maybe it slips a bit. At any rate, a hard book to write, as unseen future events will change attitudes towards any conclusion reached today. So Woodward sticks to "just the facts" & it will be interesting to see how the current crop of Iraq war literature will eventurally be judged.

Currently reading Who Killed Jesus? by John Dominic Crossan. Quite interesting so far, but I feel it is only one side of a many sided story. I'll be looking for Father Raymond E. Brown's book The Death Of The Messiah: From Gethsemane To The Grave - A Commentary On The Passion Narratives In The Four Gospels once I'm done.

Just finishing The Good Rain and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - enjoyed both of them immensely. I'll be starting Al Gore's Assault on Reason this week.

Just started Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

>200: Seajack, I'll be very interested to hear what you think of Infidel. I watched a television interview, and then listened to an NPR interview, of the author and found her story fascinating.

Read Erik Larson's "Isaac's Storm," which tells the story of the 1900 Galvaston hurricane which demolished the famous resort city. Politics, ambition, pride, and ignorance led to the greatest natural distaster to hit the U.S. in the 20th century. It does surpass the SF earthquake
I read it about a year before Katrina, and remember telling my husband that if there was even a hint of a hurricane coming our way (we live on Cape Cod), we were out of here. Katrina proved my point; Larson made me understand how devastating these storms can be and how we have to be responsible for ourselves.

I found Infidel a very interesting and well-written book, supporting its main premise that European government programs to subsidize (parallel) Moslem societies has severely limited integration, leading to social problems seen today.

>203: Seajack, thanks for the opinion! *adds to tbr*

I'm reading Al Gore's The Assault on Reason. He is brilliant; the book is well researched, very accessible, a strong indictment of the Bush admin. A bit repetitive in places, but overall a very good read. Highly recommend.

I just finished reading three - A Mind Apart by Susanne Antonetta while the topic is significant & the topic of genetic engineering & the possible ramifications for society with the eradication of conditions that are considered "undesirable". (i.e. bipolar, autism, etc) - it is a sluggish, difficult & often unorganized read.

look me in the eye: asperger's syndrome by john elder robison was an interesting read - undiagnosed til the age of 40, he had spent most of his life labled a "social deviant", as a result of his blurting non sequitors, constantly taking things apart, & digging holes to bury his brother in... He found comfort with machines --b/c of his inability to communicate appropriately - he was at home with mechanical company. Which lead to incredible jobs with Milton (building toys) and guitars for the rock group KISS & Pink Floyd.
A very good read!

Switching Time by Dr.Richard Baer Karen Overhill called a crisis hotline certain that she was insane - after 18 years of intensive therapy with Dr. Baer, she integrated 17 very different alters. This is a fascinating read. Detailed, heart wrenching, thought provoking - there's no hard to grasp medical-jargon.
Awesome read.