June, 2015: what are you reading now?

Kicking Ass in Canadian Politics by Warren Kinsella. A bit dated, perhaps, but timely with the federal election looming.

Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble. Oh, look, Marilyn Johnson is an LT author.

I just finished The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. Highly recommended to anyone interested in a little bit of human and corporate psychology surrounding habit formation.

My current reading includes The Price of Inequality by Joseph Stiglitz, The Sword of Persia by Michael Axworthy, Ostkrieg by Stephen Fritz, and The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers by Richard McGregor.

>2 2wonderY: I thoroughly enjoyed Lives in Ruins. I hope it works as well for you.

Rolling my eyes during the chapter on Jean Auel, but otherwise having fun. I think many people have a secret desire to go on an archeological dig.

I am reading Romantic Outlaws: the Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and her Daughter, Mary Shelley. One reviewer was less than enthusiastic, but I am enjoying it so far. Poor things.

I've just started Our Times: The United States 1900-1925 - Part IV, The War Begins 1909-1914 by Mark Sullivan (touchstones not working for this book). Sullivan was a journalist and, evidently, hob-nobber with presidents and other big wigs. In 1930, he began publishing a 6-volume series on the social/political history of the U.S. from, as the title suggests, 1900 through 1925. Somewhere along the line I picked up the fourth volume of this set. Given the title, I guess I assumed it was a history of World War One. This volume begins on June 28, 1914, the day Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated. Sullivan describes the normal day in America, with Americans completely oblivious to the fact that this assassination in such a far away and alien land would lead to events that would irrevocably change life in American, and across Europe (at the very least). The book has lots of artwork, photos and political cartoons. The whole thing looks like an interesting portrait of America, one full century ago, now.

I just finished Curse of the Narrows, which I highly recommend, and now I am onto The Illustrious Dead, about a typhus epidemic during the Napoleonic Wars. I am loving it so far.

I'm still reading the books by Fritz and Axworthy and I've started The End of Normal: The Great Crisis and the Future of Growth by James K. Galbraith and The Test: Why Our Schools are Obsessed with Standardized Testing--But You Don't Have to Be by Anya Kamenetz.

I'm reading Things a Woman Wants to Know: An Edwardian Housewife's Guide to Life

Things a Woman Wants to Know

that one?

yes, that one. Thank you!

I'm also reading Projection: Encounters with my Runaway Mother, a memoir by Priscila Uppal

I'm reading The Joy of x by Steven Strogatz, a series of short essays about math aimed at non-math people. I'm enjoying it so far.

>14 SylviaC: Since your book only covers "from one to infinity" you can finish up with Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea. ;)

I've finished One summer: America 1927 on audio, narrated by the author. Just started Not my father's son, also on audio, also narrated by the author.

>15 2wonderY: I want to read that!

The Slanted Door cookbook by Charles Phan. I have a thing for reading cookbooks.

Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

>18 eo206:

Warmth of Other Suns is truly stunning. I hope you enjoy it.

I'm reading Up Ghost River: A Chief's Journey Through the Turbulent Waters of Native History by Edmund Metatawabin.

I'm reading The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman

Having finished that, I'm on to We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie;as well as A Crazy Canadian Public Servant Eh by Paul Poutine

I am now reading The Power Broker by Robert Caro, To the Gates of Stalingrad by David Glantz and Jonathan House, and Double Entry: How the Merchants of Venice Created Modern Finance by Jane Gleeson-White. Also still working on the Galbraith and Kamenetz books.

I finished the LTER book, Life on the Edge: The Coming Age of Quantum Biology. It is an utterly fascinating look at the role of quantum mechanics in the processes of life. It is tackling an immense challenge in trying to present this to the lay audience. With a background in chemistry, however, I could follow and was astonished at what had been figured out in the past 20 years or so. I was impressed with how current the book was describing some experiments published just last year.

I wasn't finishing much so I switched to one book at a time, and they were improvement books.. but having 20 million ways I can improve my life all at once proved counter-productive and resulted in less change rather than more. So now I am studying one self-help book at my own pace and then picking up a filler book for general reading. I have a list of about 12 books I can read while I work on the current DIY self-help title.

Self-help, House and Home: The 8-minute organizer by Regina Leeds
Filler Book: This Book is Overdue! How librarians and cybrarians can save us all! by Marilyn Johnson

I really like the 8-minute organizer more than Regina Leeds' earlier, One Year to an Organized Life because she seems to have learned a lot more about the people she is helping, and makes less negative assumptions about her audience, and is thus less abrasive than its earlier cousin.

I see from an earlier comment that I am not the only one who is reading Marilyn Johnson books. I have to admit that this is my first one, but I enjoy her spunky, witty commentary and am enjoying it immensely.

I finished Curse of the Narrows and followed it up with The Illustrious Dead. I found The Illustrious Dead (about the typhus epidemic during Napoleon's Russian invasion) to be a little dry despite its exciting title and subject matter. I just started The Black Count, which I like so far and which seems as though it will keep my attention. It's about Alexandre Dumas' father, who was a half black general in France at a time when you wouldn't expect him to find success.

I finished Put me back on my bike in an unlikely run of 3 non-fiction books in June.

I finally finished Our Times: The United States 1900-1925 - Part IV, The War Begins 1909-1914 by Mark Sullivan (touchstones not working for this book). In 1930, journalist Mark Sullivan published a 6-volume history of the United States from 1900 through 1925. This, obviously, is the 4th volume. Sullivan was a confidante of Theodore Roosevelt and seems to have known Howard Taft, as well. So the final chapters of this volume, dealing with the end of Roosevelt's presidency, his strong friendship with Taft, and the events that brought about the end of that friendship and ultimate emnity, make the most detailed and interesting reading in the volume.

Otherwise, there are some interesting parts and some tedious sections. The profiles of Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie are both very interesting, at first, but both drag on too long. The sections about changes in fashion, dance and music styles drone on to very little interest, indeed. Sullivan's casual racism comes through most strongly in the section about music, especially about ragtime, and his description of the evolution of jazz into a mainstream music is just flat out wrong. I'm glad I read this, but there are other books on the period, I'm sure, more focused and enjoyable over all.

Just starting A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity by Nicholas Kristof,

I am reading I Ching. It is very intriguing!

Finally got out from under my rock and finished Argo. Fascinating annd what a surprise, much, much better than the movie.

I'm reading The human, the orchid, and the octopus : exploring and conserving our natural world by Jacques Cousteau. What I've read so far is his interesting take on risk/benefit analysis and developing safety precautions and procedures for unique situations. His ideas are illustrated with his thrilling adventures as a spy during the war and as a pioneer undersea explorer. As exciting as the book is, it will probably take a couple of weeks to finish it because I have some borrowed books that I need to finish first.

Just picked up on the cheap a bunch of editions of Best American Essays. What do folks here have to say about these?

I've started The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789. This is the newest book by Joseph Ellis, who also wrote Founding Brothers, among other works