July '09

What are you reading? At present I'm reading The Inner Sanctum by Mark Guidi. The story behind Celtic FC's title win in 1997-98. It is a football book or soccer our North American cousins call it.

Lost Languages:The Enigma of The World's Undeciphered Scripts

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (still)

and a Star Wars novel and two thrillers. Gotta have variety....

Diet for a New America by John Robbins is my current read. It tells more about the animal food industry than you want to know. And, yes, I've already read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

I'm hoping to read Simplexity before the end of July . Its currently #5 on my TBR pile .

Still plugging my way through Le Goff's Medieval World, but I've also started Beowulf.

I want to get to Hanawalt's Growing Up in Medieval London soon though.

I'm continuing on with Early India. I'm not far into it, but as chores fall away I should be able to pick up the pace. It is not footnoted, and the author makes some broad statements of fact that it might be nice to have references for, but it is readable, and I pretty much trust her.

Robert

I am starting Henry VIII: The King and His Court by Alison Weir.

I was bad and didn't get to a NF in June. I hope to do better in July.

I'm still reading The Great Unravelling by Paul Krugman. It's good, but I read about 6 pages at a time, which isn't a bad thing given his tendency to repeat the main messages...

Have also nearly finished Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs by Jeremy Mercer. It's a memoir about his stint at Shakespeare & Co. in Paris, and very enjoyable. (hmmm... does that count as nonfiction I wonder? I guess so.)

#3 Squeaky, I'm going to look out for that one. Thanks.

Simultaneously reading Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home by David Shipley and Only Words by Catherine McKinnon. Still plugging through Team of Rivals through no fault of Doris Kearns Goodwin--it's a darn good read, but June got hectic with book club reads. So many books so little time!

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Cushla, if you're into "food" reads, check this thread.

Thanks...am off to read it slowly!

I'm reading Stasiland now, by Anna Funder. It's a gut-wrenching book about East Germany. The author is a bit too present in the story for my liking (do I really need to know about every drinking session?), but it's still very good. It won the Samuel Johnson prize a few years ago.

I'm reading The Mental Floss History of the World: An Irreverent Romp through Civilization's Best Bits. So far, I don't think it's as good as the other Mental Floss books I've read, but I'm only 1/4 through.

I'm reading "The Pirates Laffite: The Treacherous World of the Corsairs of the Gulf," "Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery," "Myths, Illusions & Peace: Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East" and "Medieval Scandinavia: From Conversion to Reformation circa 800-1500." Finally have a quiet day to spend reading. Joy joy.

I'm about 50 pages into Arctic Grail: The Quest for the Northwest Passage and the North Pole and am loving it. Berton's able to really make the explorers come alive!

I'm on an East Germany kick - finished Stasiland. I recommend it if you're interested in what happened in East Germany after WW2 and lay awake for ages thinking about it, but some aspects of the book really irritated me. It felt like the author was trying too hard to be hip and cool in places. There were some extremely disturbing stories of families who'd been under surveillance by the Stasi.

I've just started The File by Timothy Garton-Ash, also set in East Germany. He gets access to his Stasi file after re-unification. So far it's excellent, and there is a clear reason why he is a central part of the story.

I'm reading Buyology: Truth and Lies about why we Buy by Martin Lindstrom. Neuromarketing is the basis for the book, and if the author is right, the future of marketing.

I'm currently reading Donald McRae's the Last Trials of Clarence Darrow. I'm finding it rather irritating, because it's one of those non-fiction books written by someone who obviously would prefer to be writing a novel.

I've recently started Peter Hopkirk's The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia, about the espionage and jockeying for power and influence that took place, mainly between Imperial Britain and Tsarist Russia. Engrossing, but not a quick read.

I'm reading Everybody was so Young, a biography of Gerald and Sara Murphy, friends of artists and writers of the Lost Generation. It gets more amazing as I go along.

Aneurin Bevan by Michael Foot was amazing and that reminds me I should copy my review over to here! Well-written, detailed and very readable. Can't wait to find vol 2 now to take me from 1945 onwards!

I've started Madame Du Barry: The Wages of Beauty by Joan Haslip. Waiting on my TBR pile is a biography of her rival, Marie Antoinette.

I'm reading Margaret Fuller: An American Romantic Life, Vol. II, The Public Years, Angels and Ages: A Short Book about Darwin, Lincoln and Modern Life and War is a Force That Gives us Meaning

anyone read Wildflower: An Extraordinary Life and Untimely Death in Africa ? Sounds enticing but I'll have to see if the local lib will order.

and does anyone have a desk copy of
Strength in What Remains to loan??

Started Animal, Vegetable, Miracle this weekend. I'm only a few pages in, but I'm hooked!

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Enjoy the book. You may also like to read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan afterward -if you've not already read it.

I'm still sort of working on The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam, by Sydney H. Griffith, but had put it aside for awhile. I'm now in the final third of Whores in History: Prostitution in Western Society, by Nickie Roberts.

#27, SqueakyChu, The Omnivore's Dilemma is on my wishlist/TBR pile!

Paulo Quaglio's Television Dialogue The sitcom Friends vs. natural conversation which is one for the corpus linguistics expert but I found an interesting read. Will add to my read but not owned group in a min...

I got a good start on Persian Fire last night. The writing is seductive and feels authoritative, but I wonder whether the book is comprehensive.

Robert

Finished The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad who lived for a certain amount of time close with the Kan family and portraied the daily life of this family soon after the flight of the Taliban. The book , written in a literaly form , has not a broad view on the Afghan culture, because the Kan’s or better kan’s clan, are well off compared to the majority of the other clans and families in general.
At first the author meet a remarkably liberated Afghan man, whose name was Sultan whom parents sent him to school so to allow him to achieve a good culture. He was an ardent bibliophile who love books and modern ideas; spent time in jail for anti-Islamic behavior, and despised Taliban who burned his books. He used also derid the burkas as a symbol of his beloved country’s backwardeness and oppression. But at home he was quite different , femal were little more that slaves, they couldn’t express any wish or sentiment, in short he was a tyrant toward everyone, in his family his words were laws; he committed every one , his younger brothers and sons have to work in his bookshop or stall, selling bbooks and postcards twelve hours a day seven days a week.

Now just started Birth of the Chess Queen a History by Marilyn Yalom, who examines the development of this piece , since when the game was invented , India and Persia there was not such a piece, in her place there was an advisor’s king called “vizier” once that the game was brought to the Europe through the Arab invasion in the southern Europe in the eight century, the vizier was replaced by the Queen. At first it was not a powerful piece like is nowadays, but its power follows the ascent of female sovereigns in Europe . So the book is also a fascinating history of medieval courts and internal struggles for power. At least so blurb claims

I'm reading What is History? by E. H. Carr

Reading Seeds Of Change: Five Plants That Transformed Mankind by Henry Hobhouse.

Plants discussed are quinine (treatment for malaria), sugar, tea, cotton, and the potato. The book is a fascinating, illuminating approach to history.

I'm reading The Popes of Avignon: A Century in Exile by Edwin Mullins for a book club discussion in September. I'm reading it aloud with my husband on our daily commute, so it will take us a while.

On my own, I'm reading Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II by Robert Kurson

I suggest you watch the film Lives of Others to immerse yourself in Stasi activities.

The Omnivore's Dilemma is really good. Pollan's other food book In defense of food is also worth checking out. A quick read -- very entertaining and interesting.

Right now I'm loving Eiffel's Tower: And the World's Fair Where Buffalo Bill Beguiled Paris, the Artists Quarreled, and Thomas Edison Became a Count by Jill Jonnes.

>35 LynnB:: LynnB- A friend lent me Shadow Divers awhile ago! Let me know what you think, it might inspire me to pick it up a little sooner!

The commentary portion of the Chickering translation of Beowulf. I think that counts as non fiction. It's wonderfully detailed and thorough, explaining so much about the poem.

While the poem counts as fiction, the commentary does not IMHO.

Reading The Innocent Man by John Grisham. 130 pages in and finding it quite good and a change from his novels. What do others think about this book?

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The Innocent Man was an excellent book! My husband recommended this book to me although he knows that I won't read Grisham's lawyer novels. The story is outrageous. It was a book that touched my heart and saddened me deeply. This was my review of that book.

I'd given up on John Grisham's novels a while ago, finding the plots just too unbelievable. After reading The Innocent Man, though, I wonder if my assumption was wrong. I enjoyed the story very much.

I've just started Julie And Julia . Hoping to be finished before the movie comes out .

really enjoyed in the sanctuary of outcasts by neil white....set in carville, LA

Reading Dear Bill which is the memoirs of Bill Deedes, who was a Daily Telegraph correspondent/editor in chief and a Conservative politician. He served in Parliament from the 1950s so it's interesting to get another viewpoint on the political happenings.

I'm enjoying my forays into 20th century politics greatly. I've decided I'll read all sides except I can't bring myself to read Thatcher's memoirs!!

I having an enjoyable time reading The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. I had this one for a while and had to stop reading because of a time constraint. This bio is shaping up to be one of the best. Has anyone read this and other bio's TR? How does this work compare?

I started The Migraine Brain by Carolyn Bernstein last night. Very interesting and informative. I don't know yet if any of her ideas will work for me, but I'm hopeful.

Just finished Fiction and the Figures of Life by William H. Gass I was very impressed with his writing. Also finished Black Sea which has inspired me to plan a trip to the Crimea, etc.

> 46: stevetempo- I have read quite a few presidential bios and The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt is one of my favorites. The 2nd volume Theodore Rex was good also, just not as fascinating.

I've just finished up a wonderful book called How to read Beauvoir, part of a series of "How to Read..." books. This really put Beauvoir's philosophy
in current context (published in 2006) and liberated Beauvoir from Sartre's version of existentialism. I'm presently reading and about to finish up Andrea Freud Loewenstein's book Loathsome Jews and Engulfing Women: Metaphors of Projection in the Works of .... And, of course, I am still plowing through Team of Rivals. I need to read some novels as an antidote!

Just finished Collapse which I found extremely well written, measured, and fair. I'm a little afraid that his cautious optimism is a bit too optimistic but necessary for the world to have even a chance.

>49 msf59: Thanks. I have Theodore Rex and I would like to get to it this year. I also have Mornings on Horseback which I will probably read after this. I think I shall cap it off with a visit to Sagamore Hill on Long Island (I still have family there) later in the summer. I haven't been in many years and my readings should make my visit very vivid.

When I finished a novel last night I picked up and read a chunk of Art and Physics. It may be that physicians should not be allowed to speculate outside of their specialty, but I will keep with it for awhile.

Robert

I just started Corpse: Nature, Forensics, and the Struggle to Pinpoint Time of Death by Jessica Snyder Sachs. It's a bit dry but the information is interesting.

Started Every Book Its Reader by Nicholas Basbanes last night. Looks very promising. It may even inspire me to tackle War and Peace.

The Botany Of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View Of The World by Michael Pollan.

Read the troubling section about fungicide-herbicide-pesticide-soaked agribusiness potato production before sitting down to your next helping of mashed/fried/baked.

I'm finishing up Elsewhere, U.S.A. by Dalton Conley. (Subtitle on cover: How We Got from the Company Man, Family Dinners, and the Affluent Society to the Home Office, Blackberry Moms, and Economic Anxiety.) It made for quick, light reading over the past few days while I was sick.

I'm still on my Dear Bill (dinner time read as it stays open on the table) also Nella Last's Peace (bed and relax read as it's a nice paperback) and The Sea On Our Left (2nd hand travel book so handbag read). Not usual for me to be reading 3 non-fic at a time, but they are all so very different that it's OK!

Going to start In the Valley of the Kings: Howard Carter and the Mystery of King Tutankhamun's Tomb by Daniel Meyerson to night. Looks really interesting!

I am just starting Arthur Schopenhauer's Essays and Aphorisms which I skimmed through in college and really enjoyed.

Desert Of Death by Leo Docherty. A soldiers memoir about his time in Afghanistan.

On my son's recommendation, I'm reading Marilyn Manson's autobiography, Long Hard Road out of Hell. He hardly ever reads, so I want to encourage him.....

I'm reading a book by Robertson Davies called The Merry Heart: Reflections on Reading, Writing, and the World of Books. It's a collection of his speeches and essays on this topic. I've also put Happy Alchemy on reserve. That one's a similar collection but on music, theatre, and the arts.

I finished Art and Physics the other night. It seems to me full of bad thinking. I can heartily recommend that nobody bother with it.

So last night rather than read fiction I picked up, almost by accident, The Jesuit and the Skull and read two thirds of it. It is fun, but there is not enough about Teilhard's thinking or reflections for it to be really engaging and informative. So far, for example, it merely mentions the omega point without saying enough about it for a reader to understand it.

Robert

I started Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free Charles P. Pierce. Another eye-opener from an excellent writer. Funny and horrifying!

I am currently enjoying The Valley of the Assassins and Other Persian Travels by Freya Stark. Published in 1934, it is a chronicle of travels through what was soon to become Iran.
Some great prose.

I am reading Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Maistream by Leonard Zeskind. The author clearly is very knowledgeable and writes in an engaging way. The topic is very interesting to me, but this thing is a doorstop. I am unlikely to finish it before it is due back to the library. I'll probably read for a while and if it is engaging enough, get it out again another time.

Edited for spelling error

I finished The Jesuit and the Skull last night. I will keep it in mind that I want to read The Phenomenon of Man again, but it won't likely happen soon.

Then I read most of Pascal's Wager. The book is fairly lightweight, but towards the end it puts the wager in a new perspective for me that I think is important for me. The wager is not a failed rational argument; the wager is a, get this, bet.

Robert

When I finished Pascal's Wager, which by the way is good enough to read, last night rather than return to the fiction on hand, Peyton Place, I picked up Flatterland by Ian Stewart. I need an easy introduction to various geometries; this book may be too easy -- we'll see.

Robert

I just enjoyed Hurricane of Independence: The Untold Story of the Deadly Storm at the Deciding Moment of the American Revolution. An interesting look at events of Sept 1775 on the eastern coast of North America in light of the Hurricane that that came up the coast at that time.

I'm starting Mornings on Horseback today...B-)

>52 stevetempo:

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt is one of the absolutely *best* books I've ever read. Unfortunately, I didn't care for Theodore Rex as much.

If you don't want to wait another 20 years for Edmund Morris to finish the cycle (with TR's post-presidency life), try Patricia O'Toole's When Trumpets Call: I very much liked that one.

>71 webgeekstress: Thanks for that recommendation...got it on the old radar screen. I'm going to try Theodore Rex in another book read or two.

It's interesting did your know TR went blind in his left eye...from what I remember he was sparing (Boxing) in the White House. The public at the time never knew about it. TR breaks the mold for classification.

I loved my visit last week at Sagamore Hill. I got there early and walked the almost empty grounds before the first tour at 10. The tour guide was well informed (intern I imagine) and she did a great job.