June 2011 reads

Really, no thread for this yet?

I'm reading The Story of England (no touchstone???) by Michael Wood, looking at England's history as it played out in one village, and Nine Wartime Lives which is about Mass Observation and WWII and is fascinating. Also How I Wrote My First Novel which is an e-book of slightly more limited interest...

I was fortunate to get an e-book ARC of Karl Marlantes's What It is Like to Go to War, and started it last night. It is not going to be an easy read for me, and is a very serious topic, but so far, I'm really liking it. It takes me a lot longer to read nonfiction than it does fiction though -- takes more concentration from my scattered little brainwaves.

Last night, I started Boozehound (On the Trail of the Rare, the Obscure, and the Overrated in Spirits) -- one of those where I was skeptical of the glowing reviews until I actually began reading and was hooked almost immediately.

I'm starting my ER book, A Matter of Conscience by Sherry Lee Hoppe

I finished The Red Queen which is an interesting presentation of the roll of sex in evolution, and the evolution of sex. It provided much food for thought, but towards the end, it seemed schools of thought were flippantly tossed on the trash heap rather than more thoughtfully analyzed.

I finished Karl Marlantes's book What It is Like to Go to War and was very impressed. It isn't going to be published until September, but I do recommend it. It was a much quicker read than I was expecting, and very powerful. Just my opinion, of course.

I just finished a wonderful book: Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. I highly recommend it.

I'm a big nonfiction fan. Just finished In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Eric Larson and was disappointed. I loved two of his other titles though.

thanks LyzzyBee for starting the thread. What are some favorite nonfiction titles? Anyone?

Started Tony Perottet's The Sinner's Grand Tour: A Journey Through the Historical Underbelly of Europe - I'm a fan of his writing, and it's an interesting premise.

I’m reading Ideas That Matter by A. C. Grayling, also The Oxford Handbook of Bioethics edited by Bonnie Steinbock and A History of Rome by M. Cary and H. H. Scullard.

#9
I just finished The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes. It’s a tremendous book about science investigation and discovery in the late 18th and early 19th century, revealing as well the poetic and romantic aspirations of those early scientists.

I'm starting Cleopatra: a life by Stacy Schiff just as soon as I pick it up from the library. I've heard mixed reviews, so I'm not sure what to expect.

jfetting, my book club will be reading that next year. Hope it's good!

For those who may be interested, Erik Larson will be discussing his book In the Garden of Beasts on BookTV. The dates and times, copied from http://booktv.org, are:

Sunday, June 12th at 11pm (ET)
Sunday, June 19th at 10:45am (ET)

Started Innocents Abroad yesterday. This is a book which is listed on both the fiction and non-fiction shelves of the library and, in reading it, that's exactly what we're getting -- a little non-fiction mixed with a little fiction, especially satire.

I'm also still reading At Dawn We Slept which, I'm sure, I'll still be reading well through July and into August. I'm only just 1/4 through after reading for weeks (but, when one reads 3-5 books at a time, one has to expect that in a 700+ page history book).

I just finished Stan Musial. My sense is that the book did the best it could with a difficult subject. It gave a good picture of the man and the times. The problem was that Stan Musial was a public man with very little private man available, even to himself. So it seemed anyway. Vecsey tried very hard to find more depth to him but could only get tiny glimpses. That said, his grace, congeniality, and humor came through clearly. A man of another era.

Just finished The Sisters of Sinai, an entertaining account of two Scotch sisters search for ancient biblical manuscripts. Starting Freedom for the Thought That We Hate by Anthony Lewis.

I've enjoyed The Sisters of Sinai also. I'm now reading Day of Honey by Annia Ciezadlo. It's about her marriage to a Lebanese Shiite Muslim (from New York) and their stay in the Middle East after 9/11. And it's about FOOD, wonderful FOOD! She's a very good writer.

I am adding The sisters of Sinai to my wishlist which gets longer by the day! Thanks to all LT members for enriching my reading.

This month I finished:
The story of utopias by Lewis Mumford
The mindbody prescription : healing the body, healing the pain by John E. Sarno

I am now reading my LTER book:
American College of Sports Medicine complete guide to fitness & health edited by Barbara Bushman

Just embarking on the superb Israeli historian Tom Segev's 1967: Israel, the War, and the Year that Transformed the Middle East. Just flicking through it at the start, it looks every bit as good as his excellent pre-1948 history One Palestine Complete which I highly recommend for anyone looking for an objective analysis of the period of turmoil in Palestine under British rule (1918-1948).

I finished Erik Larson's In the Garden of Beasts this morning, and really enjoyed reading it. I knew nothing of Ambassador Dodd's service in Germany during Hitler's rise, so I was both entertained and educated.

I know that some other people have been disappointed with the book in light of the author's earlier works. I haven't yet read those so I have no basis for comparison, but I a glad I read this one.

I'm just starting Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg.

I thoroughly enjoyed Running the Books, LynnB, but some of my online friends who read mostly nonfiction and whose tastes are generally like mine didn't care for it. I'll be curious to see what you think once you've finished it

I'm reading Alice Waters and Chez Panisse, about how Waters formed her attitude about cooking that led to her opening the famous restaurant.

I'm about halfway through Twenty-Five Books that Shaped America - although I'm not keen on reading most of the actual entries, I like the author's style in describing them.

I finished Running the Books this morning and found it "ok", not great. The writing is disjointed and I found myself sometimes confused as to the sequence of events. Also, I lost track of who some of the characters were. On the bright side, there were some unique insights. There are so many books written by or from the perspective of inmates, guards, lawyers and (somewhat less often) by social workers. A young librarian's voice adds another perspective to issues of cirme and punishment and getting along in society.

Just finished himmler

Started With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa
and cromwell

Just finished American Caesar, Douglas MacArthur, 1880-1964 by William Manchester

My review of it here: http://www.librarything.com/work/38899/reviews/66508061

Do not know what I am reading next.

Bill Masom

Oh no! I've just realised I'm still reading the same books I started the thread with! I have added Laxdaela Saga to the How I wrote book on the Kindle, but that's just when I'm commuting. Must get on with the other two. The unfortunate casualty when I started my own business has been my own reading :(

Hi Group - Is it customary in this group to double post if you are also posting on the What Are You Reading this Week group? If so:

Just finished Making the Connection Between Brain and Behavior Coping with Parkinson's Disease by Joseph H. Friedman. One of my favorite Parkinson's books so far. My mom has Parkinson's and I can't wait for her to read this. She continually feels guilty because she thinks she should be handling it better and I hope this book will help. She handles it VERY well, but this book examines the connections between Parkinson's and feelings of guilt, depression, anxiety, indecisivessness (can't decide how to spell that!) and brain issues. That is, does PD itsel fcause the guilt and depression, or are they a reaction to dealing with the physical symptoms. Great book and I hope it will be helpful for many. If you or someone you care about has Parkinson's, check it out. oh wait wait! Especially intersting - it addresses the fact that some people with PD who have been lifelong readers, like my mom, no longer enjoy reading - such a big loss at a time when she can rarely get out. - some associated problems effecting reading - tremors, difficulty turning pages, difficulty staying awake, soft speech that makes it hard to discuss your reading with others (there are book groups where she is living). Now THAT hurts!

30 mkboylan --

I sometimes post here and audiobooks for non-fictions that I'm listening to at the time. My dad has Parkinsons, and on bad days it's nearly impossible for him to communicate much at all. He does read quite a bit as he loves history and memoir/autobiography. I don't think he feels so much guilty,as frustrated often.

I just finished A planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer published in 2011.
The book is a short 100 pages that is an easy read but touches on a lot of facts that I was unaware of since I have been out of school a good while. A good historical timeline of our discovery of viral facts is woven into the chapters which are each about particular types of viruses. No graphs or tabular tables just scanning electron microscope photos to introduce each chapter.

I also posted this in the Science LT {see link} section and there someone pointed out that Zimmer is an LT author.
http://www.librarything.com/topic/78548

29: Oh no! I've just realised I'm still reading the same books I started the thread with! :-) Been there.

32: Oooh, A Planet of Viruses leapt over the wishlist and went straight to the shopping cart.

I'm reading My Heart is Africa: A Flying Adventure by Scott Griffin. It tells of his time in Africa, working for a medical NGO and exploring in his Cessna 180.

I'm currently reading Introduction to Ecological Genomics by Nico van Straalen and Dick Roelofs. It's for an exam I have later this week and the two authors are my professors, which makes it all very interesting. The book is fairly readable, for people with enough background in genetics anyway.

Sam, mentioned on your exam that I went out and bought 2 copies of the book, in case I wear one out reading it repeatedly. ;-) Maybe a bonus point for that.

BTW is what J. Craig Venter is doing, sailing around the world taking water samples and analyzing the genes in the soup, considered "ecological genomics"?

36> I'll do that, can't hurt :D

About J. Craig Venter: yes and no. No in the sense that just inventarizing (sp?) the genes (and sometimes the organisms) in his water samples are not ecology. Yes in the sense that what he's doing will enable ecologists to ask and perhaps answer questions that are ecological in nature.

Like with most things in biology, it's not so much what you do as which question you're asking and how you answer it that determines which field you're working in. A simple example of this:

I want to know how a population of fruitflies (D. melanogaster) reacts to extreme heat. This question in and of itself is fairly ecological. But how I answer it can change a lot:

1. I try to see which genes are expressed differently between a control population and a population exposed to extreme heat --> ecological genomics
2. I examine which proteins are active in the cells of the exposed population and not in the control population --> molecular biology
3. I look at which behavioral changes the exposed population exhibits --> behavioral ecology
4. I try to determine which mechanisms are responsible for their ability to sustain themselves (or not sustain themselves) as a population when under extreme heat and where in the evolution those traits could have come from --> evolutionary ecology

So as you can see, different ways of looking at the same problem can lead you into wildy varying fields. (And I didn't even give all the examples I could come up with.)

But, while some parts of J. Craig Venter's work can be called ecological genomics, I don't think there's a biologist working in that field that actually would. :D

Just finished Woman in the Mists by Farley Mowat

Review here: http://www.librarything.com/work/238444/reviews/9134081

Not sure what is next.

Bill Masom

Just finished Boswell's Presumptuous Task: The Making of the Life of Dr. Johnson by Adam Sisman

Review here

Having recently finished Lewis Ayres' Nicaea and Its Legacy: An Approach to Fourth-Century Trinitarian Theology, I'm currently reading: (1) View of the Trinity by Ethan Smith, (2) Fundamentalism and Evangelicals by Harriet A. Harris, (3) Systematic Theology, Vol. 1: Ethics by James William McClendon Jr., and (4) The Story of Christianity, Vol. 2: The Reformation to the Present Day by Justo L. Gonzalez.

I just read (twice in a row) Just Kids by Patti Smith, a loving portrait of her relationship with a very young and surprisingly contradictory Robert Mapplethorpe and their development as artists.

The Circus Fire: A True Story of an American Tragedy by Stewart O'Nan. About the fire in Hartford back in 1944 that killed 167 people.

I'm about to start Zeitoun by Dave Eggers.

I've not been online much this month, and hope that this late post doesn't get lost.

I read the ten star, "elevated to my top 5 books ever" Abortion: the clash of Absolutes by Laurence Tribe. As a constitutional scholar, Tribe covers the abortion debate from a legal and historical perspective with near impartiality. (You can tell he is pro-choice, but he absolutely pokes holes in the logic of that side, as well.) In fact, his central premise is that both sides are arguing "absolutes". There are logical and philosophical holes with each, and in order to move forward as a country, we need to accept that there must be compromise.

Also, I devoured in 3 days, Columbine. A very good, 9 star book about the school shootings. It alternates in time between the perpetrators back story, their parents, other students backstory, etc, and the time post-shooting. It is not gossipy in the least, in fact it blasts many of the myths as untrue. (Misty Bernall, and the "trench coat mafia", both of which rang untrue to me at the time.

PokPok

44> Abortion: the clash of absolutes is now definitely on my TBR list. It's a subject that every woman should know about, I think, but impartial (or as impartial as one ever gets) books are virtually non-existent. So this is a rare find that I'll definitely read!

43 - I so enjoyed zeitun - wonderful book!

44 and 45 - good point on the clash of absolutes. There was a brief period of time when some pro-choice people and some pro-life people were working together to create a world with free birth.control and free or cheap health care and childcare instead of fighting each other. anyone remember that group? I don't know what happened to them. I loved the idea - the third choice that is always available and better than the other choices. That idea is presented beautifully in the book The Magic of Conflict.

I read (but not this month) both Zeitoun and Columbine and thought both were excellent books. Both are about very disturbing subjects and both handled, IMHO, very well.

I'm reading The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth by Alexandra Robbins. It seems that high school hasn't changed all that much in the past 47 years. It also seems that no one really loved high school, even those you were sure were having the best times of their lives. It's comforting to know that those on the fringe end up being the most contented and successful as adults but that doesn't make those four years any less a circle of hell.