What are you reading?

[Medusa]

I just finished "The Eleventh Plague" by Jeff Hirsch. It was supposed to be kinda in the same genre as "Hunger Games" or maybe "Divergent". Needless to say, its a YA novel and it reminded me why I rarely read them. The writing style was fine but I couldn't get into the characters. I just didn't care about them all that much.

Switching gears!

Picked up "The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence" by T.H. Breen.

From the synopsis:
The Marketplace of Revolution offers a boldly innovative interpretation of the mobilization of ordinary Americans on the eve of independence. Breen explores how colonists who came from very different ethnic and religious backgrounds managed to overcome difference and create a common cause capable of galvanizing resistance. In a richly interdisciplinary narrative that weaves insights into a changing material culture with analysis of popular political protests, Breen shows how virtual strangers managed to communicate a sense of trust that effectively united men and women long before they had established a nation of their own.
The Marketplace of Revolution argues that the colonists' shared experience as consumers in a new imperial economy afforded them the cultural resources that they needed to develop a radical strategy of political protest--the consumer boycott. Never before had a mass political movement organized itself around disruption of the marketplace. As Breen demonstrates, often through anecdotes about obscure Americans, communal rituals of shared sacrifice provided an effective means to educate and energize a dispersed populace. The boycott movement--the signature of American resistance--invited colonists traditionally excluded from formal political processes to voice their opinions about liberty and rights within a revolutionary marketplace, an open, raucous public forum that defined itself around subscription lists passed door-to-door, voluntary associations, street protests, destruction of imported British goods, and incendiary newspaper exchanges. Within these exchanges was born a new form of politics in which ordinary man and women--precisely the people most often overlooked in traditional accounts of revolution--experienced an exhilarating surge of empowerment.
Breen recreates an "empire of goods" that transformed everyday life during the mid-eighteenth century. Imported manufactured items flooded into the homes of colonists from New Hampshire to Georgia. The Marketplace of Revolution explains how at a moment of political crisis Americans gave political meaning to the pursuit of happiness and learned how to make goods speak to power."

[PoeticSilence]

I'm trying out a new site (which means I ordered some books) and I thought I'd share it with all of the readers.. check it out. http://www.betterworldbooks.com/


Still reading Herodotus.

[PoeticSilence]

I can't tell if that posted or not, it's not showing up, so if you read, check out this site: http://www.betterworldbooks.com/

[cinnamongrrl]

I am reading,

Confidentiality in Allied Health....

:|


Perfunctory school reading is never the funnest stuff.....

[Nic]

A friend recommended THIS (http://www.nadiabolzweber.com/books/pastrix-the-cranky-beautiful-faith-of-a-sinner-saint) book.

Has anyone read it or know much about Bolz-Weber?

*curious*

Haven't read it. Did read "Salvation on the Small Screen". Liked it a lot. But 24 hours of watching televangelism in the name of research? She's a better person than I!

[cinnamongrrl]

I'm trying out a new site (which means I ordered some books) and I thought I'd share it with all of the readers.. check it out. http://www.betterworldbooks.com/


Still reading Herodotus.

While part of me is super DUPER happy you have gifted us with this site, the practical side of me says I must refrain from book buying until I have a place to put said new books.. I'm good at getting rid of everything else BUT books..it is absolute hell being me...sigh

[Nic]

Been combing through her bookshelves since I've read everything in mine.

Not a poetry fan so I passed over those. Been told I'm not allowed to skip it completely if we're going to be "friends". What I do for love. (rolling up sleeves) She started my sci-fi education a month or so back. Not clear on all the subgenres but I'm enjoying what she has so far. Glad she doesn't go much for the fantasy end of things. Read the typical Tolkien in my 20's but otherwise not really feeling the love when it comes to dragons and orcs. (the recently completed Rowling, excepted) Been switching back and forth between fiction and non-fiction shelves. Will finish (autographed copy!) of Ocean at the End of the Lane tonight. Short read. Wanted to finish it last night but couldn't keep my eyes open. On deck, W.E.B. Dubois biography called Biography of a Race. Been told that William Gibson should be next on my sci-fi agenda. She says I "must read the classics". There are science fiction classics?

[Fancy]

I wasn't sure what I was going to read next...and then....I went to the post office and found I had a package. :) I am now reading...

On the Beaten Path: An Appalachian Pilgrimage by Robert Alden Rubin

It details the travels of a man hiking the Appalachian Trail....

Oh! Have you also read A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson?
I'm just finishing it, and he is also accounting his hike on the AT. However, in true Bryson style, he injects much about the history, current situations, and stories about the AT throughout the book.

I'd be interested to hear what you think about the book you're reading. :)

[Fancy]

The Not So Big Life ~ Sarah Susanka
(making room for what really matters)

Started this book on audio during a car trip and became so engrossed that I had to checkout the hard copy of the book to finish. Susanka has a way of tying back her thoughts to such practical examples (architecture and home design) and it's an inspiring read.

[ONLY]

I am now reading (been few days now) The House Of Thunder by Dean Koontz (another one of my fav authors)

[deathbypoem]

http://www.paperbackswap.com/Secret-Ceremonies-Mormon-Deborah-Laake/book/0688093043/

Interesting read. And, quite frightening.

[Sparkle]

The final few hundred pages of 'Dance with Dragons' book five of the Game of Thrones series. Soon I will join the masses of people waiting (and waiting...and waiting some more) for books six and seven. :|

I might launch in to 'Cloud Atlas' by David Mitchell after this.

[deb_U_taunt]

I am on a Faye Kellerman kick right now.

reading Serpent's Tooth

[Scots_On_The_Rocks]

"How Few Remain" ~ Harry Turtledove
"The Inexplicables" ~ Cherie Priest

[cinnamongrrl]

Oh! Have you also read A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson?
I'm just finishing it, and he is also accounting his hike on the AT. However, in true Bryson style, he injects much about the history, current situations, and stories about the AT throughout the book.

I'd be interested to hear what you think about the book you're reading. :)

I HAVE read that book! Few years back and I have given it to many others to read as well. Bryson is an excellent and descriptive writer. :) His (unofficial) bibliography from that book led me to read several others in fact...

The other book I had been reading, On the Beaten Path, was very good. Stirred my fires some more where hiking the AT is concerned :)

If you like books such as these, you may like a book written by a much loved (by me) naturalist named Bernd Heinrich. The first (and favorite) book I read by him is called A Year in the Maine Woods. He does a Thoreauesque experiment of living MOSTLY in his cabin in Maine.... :)

[Fancy]

I HAVE read that book! Few years back and I have given it to many others to read as well. Bryson is an excellent and descriptive writer. :) His (unofficial) bibliography from that book led me to read several others in fact...

The other book I had been reading, On the Beaten Path, was very good. Stirred my fires some more where hiking the AT is concerned :)

If you like books such as these, you may like a book written by a much loved (by me) naturalist named Bernd Heinrich. The first (and favorite) book I read by him is called A Year in the Maine Woods. He does a Thoreauesque experiment of living MOSTLY in his cabin in Maine.... :)

Thanks for the referral. I'm heading to the library today and will look for Heinrich's works.

Yes, after reading Bryson's book my wanderlust-muse is sparked and now I want to read more and also daydream about hiking the AT. :)

[GeeGina]

Lately, I've become obsessed with Laura Nyro and am reading "Soul Picnic" - which is about her music and her incredibly private, even mysterious life.

[Daktari]

I see references to one of my fave writers, Bill Bryson.

One of my absolute favourites of his is The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid.

It's an autobiographical look at his childhood growing up in 50s America.
As usual it's wryly dry and witty.

[Kätzchen]

The Bride of Lammermoor
(Author: Sir Walter Scott)



http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/w-scott/lammermoor.pdf

[~baby~doll~]

Mayhem at the Marina A Lexi Hyatt Mystery by Carlene Miller

This is book 2 of a series of well written mysteries

[Enchantress]

Firstly 'Spilling Clarence' by Anne Ursu. I'm only up to chapter three at the moment, but I'm looking forward to getting more into this one. Secondly, 'Martin Sloane' by Michael Redhill. Another obscure pick, but I'm enjoying it as well. And then there's the final book in the Sookie Stackhouse series (the books that True Blood is based off), Dead Ever after by Charlaine Harris. This one is on my Nook and I'm savouring every last page. I think I'll be sad when I am through. But then again, maybe I'll just start book one and read them all over again!

There, I officially have a plan. Or, I could read the 17 other books that I have on the shelf. I confess, I'm a book hoarder ...

[Venus007]

Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman

[~baby~doll~]

Just started

https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1185825628l/1609056.jpg

i have read two others in the series and loved them.

[ONLY]

Last night I started "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins, the 2nd book of "The Hunger Games"

[Kenna]

Foxfire....

[Kobi]

The cancer chronicles : unlocking medicine's deepest mystery / George Johnson.

When the woman he loved was diagnosed with a metastatic cancer, science writer George Johnson embarked on a journey to learn everything he could about the disease and the people who dedicate their lives to understanding and combating it. What he discovered is a revolution under way--an explosion of new ideas about what cancer really is and where it comes from. In a provocative and intellectually vibrant exploration, he takes us on an adventure through the history and recent advances of cancer research that will challenge everything you thought you knew about the disease.

[Kätzchen]

I had time today to stop by a local library and while browsing books to read, I came across two books to check out, tonight. I am beginning this one tonight:
Arlen, Alice (2000). She Took To The Woods: A Biography and Selected Writings by Louise Dickenson Rich. Rockport, Maine: Down East Books.
Here's an excerpt from the Introduction to this biography about wilderness writer Louise Dickenson Rich (I read it on my way home tonight by train and I'm already hooked):
"My acquaintence with wilderness writer Louise Dickenson Rich began years ago in the midst of research I was doing for a book on traditional Maine sporting camps. I heard her name and glanced down the "Carry Road" (originally a canoe portage trail) leading to her place by the Rapid River in the Rangely Lakes region of western Maine. I also took note of a log home occupied, I was informed, by Louise's longtime friend and neighbor, Alys Parsons. At that point, though, there were places to go, people and a deadline to meet, so I moved on.

My sporting camp book came out and I started recieving mail from readers. Several petitioned, "Please write a book about Louise Dickenson Rich." A librarian from the Midwest was very specific:
"We Took to the Woods (the 1942 best-seller that launched Rich's career) is still checked out on a regular basis. There has never been a biography written about her and I feel you are the person to do it."

I started to pay attention.

Soon I was stumbling into Louise wherever I went..... " (pp. vii).

Alice then goes on to talk about how she finally won the support of Louise's brother, Ralph, who sent Alice to see his sister, who eventually gave her a bag of notions belonging to Louise. It's going to obviously be a riveting account of LDR's life and times in the wild's of Maine; but to become more intimately aquainted with who LDR is and her style of writing and what she wrote about, years ago, is toward the back of the book, which includes titles, such as: Fogbound, Wish You Were Here, First Monday in March, Written in the Stars, Grandma and the Seagull, The Red Slipper, Can't Find My Apron Strings and more. Then, the reader is treated to unpublished writings belonging to LDR and a conclusion which is followed by an expansive index (appendice).

I'm looking forward to snuggling down with this particular book over the next few nights and into the coming weekend.

ps/ the photo below was taken last night by an photographer who is native to my home state of Oregon: It's rare for us to even witness the Northern Lights in our area, but he took this picture on the high desert, on a lonely road outside of Bend, Oregon. It's already snowing in our 'neck' of the woods (winter is here).

https://scontent-a-pao.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/540310_616752475043918_1418923634_n.jpg

[Bad_boi]

Eragon book 1.

[sis]

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller ...... I found a book group here in Guangzhou that meets once a month! I. Am. So. Excited!

Deb

[PoeticSilence]

Shuntaro Tanikawa: Selected Poems


Editorial Reviews-


From Publishers Weekly

Author of more than 60 books of poetry, Tanikawa is perhaps Japan's most well-known and accomplished living poet, and garnered a 1989 American Book Award for the Floating the River in Melancholy, a fully translated single volume now out of print. This first U.S. selected edition, translated by American ex-pat William Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura (who together edit a Yokohama literary journal), draws from 11 volumes spanning five decades of quotidian-based, wryly self-conscious work. While the surface of Tanikawa's poetry in these translations is practically hyper-literal ("I eat loquats,/ to do which/ I have to peel them;/ to peel them,/ I need hands"), the mind behind them is distinctly concerned with the shapes and inadequacies of meaning, and how it can be produced for an audience larger than one. At times, Tanikawa's awareness of his own practice is startlingly frank: "It is not clear what materials and techniques will go into the writing of this composition called `Starvation', and furthermore I doubt that it will stand as a valid composition." Tanikawa is clearly interested in a poetry that is colloquial at its core (he is the Japanese translator of the late Charles Schulz's Peanuts strip), free of traditional Japanese forms and interested in Western culture, though certainly not derivative of Western poetries. His sense of humor ultimately cuts through the questions of translation and cultural and linguistic differences to display the brooding charm that has won Tanikawa such acclaim: "I feel that I'd like being trapped forever/ but the snare rejects me humourlessly,/ pushing me back to the native milieu of people/ where humour is the only refuge." North American readers will find this a welcome refuge indeed.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc

[Kätzchen]

Was very tired last night when I made my former post above:

It's LDR's son Rufus - not Ralph (Louise and Ralph lived together) - that Alice Arlen, author of the aforementioned book that I am reading, was prompted to visit, in leiu of finding out more about the life of Louise Dickenson Rich (who turns out to be related to Emily Dickenson).

[homoe]

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

[ONLY]

Last night I started "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins, the 2nd book of "The Hunger Games"

Just finished "Catching Fire" now I have started "To Kill A Mockingbird" then probably will read the 3rd book of Hunger Games.

[puddin']

jus' finished "a lion among men" (3rd book in da wicked years series)

gettin' ready to start "the dangerous islands", by ann bridge

[StillettoDoll]

check it out

http://styleforsuccess.com/images/blog/elizabeth_cline_overdressed.jpg

[Kobi]

The baby business : how money, science, and politics drive the commerce of conception / Debora L. Spar.

Debora Spar argues that it is time to acknowledge the commercial truth about reproduction and to establish a standard that governs its transactions. In this fascinating behind-the-scenes account, she combines pioneering research and interviews with the industry’s top reproductive scientists and trailblazers to provide a first glimpse at how the industry works: who the baby-makers are, who makes money, how prices are set, and what defines the clientele. Fascinating stories illustrate the inner workings of market segments--including stem cell research, surrogacy, egg swapping, #147;designer babies,” adoption, and human cloning--as Spar explores the moral and legal challenges that industry players must address.

The first purely commercial look at an industry that deals in humanity’s most intimate issues, this book challenges us to consider the financial promise and ethical perils we’ll face as the baby business moves inevitably forward.

---------------------------
Wonder women : sex, power, and the quest for perfection / Debora L. Spar.


Fifty years after the Equal Pay Act, why are women still living in a man's world?Debora L. Spar spent most of her life avoiding feminism. Raised after the tumult of the '60s, she presumed that the gender war was over; she swore to young women that yes, they could have it all. "We thought we could glide into the new era with babies, board seats, and husbands in tow," she writes. "We were wrong." Spar should know. One of the first women professors at Harvard Business School, she went on to have three children and became the chair of her department. Now she's the president of Barnard College, arguably the most important all-women school in the country, an institution firmly committed to feminism. Wonder Women is Spar's story and the culture's. Armed with reams of new research, she examines how women's lives have-and have not-changed over the past forty years. The challenges confronting women are more complex than ever. They're problems that come inherently and inevitably from being female. Yet they're falling on generations of women who grew up believing that none of these things are supposed to matter now. Wonder Women gives us an important voice in an increasingly heated debate. In this wise, often funny, always human, and smartly conceived book, Spar asks: How far have women really come? And what will it take to get true equality for good?

[~baby~doll~]

All We Know: Three Lives by Lisa Cohen

In my eyes a somewhat sad biography of three women lost in history, Esther Murphy, Mercedes de Acosta, and Madge Garland. All lesbian, all talented. They faded into the setting as less than glossy and memorable.

Follows is a review I liked from Amazon.

Each of these three women have receded in popular memory, and it is exactly this loss of fame which has attracted Lisa Cohen. Esther Murphy lived and conversed with many of the transcendent minds of her time in the first half of the 20th century. She started many a monologue with "all we know" and proceeded to share the extensive research and thought on a particular subject. Her passion was Madame de Maintenant whose biography she never finished. Mercedes de Acosta was the perhaps the prototype fan. She was obsessed with Garbo with whom she had a short affair. But her gift was in the appreciation and promotion of talent as she found it. Finally Madge Garland, a pivotal founder of British Vogue. She was linked with the Bloomsbury group and enmeshed the magazine with their creation as people of fashion and their contributions to the magazine. Huxley once asked her, "Are you dressed like that because you're on Vogue, or are you on Vogue, or are you on Vogue because you're dressed like that?"

This book is one Publisher's Weekly's top 10 books of 2012. In "All We Know", we see a history of modernism as seen by three women who lived at a time that the contributions of women were often considered to be correctly in the unsung category. All three were gay and had their lives judged in that light often to their detriment. All three were touched by alcohol in an era of the great social experiment. Temperance failed to the point that alcohol became key in the lives of public figures. Lisa Cohen shrived to make their lives visible again. This book then, in part, is a philosophical exercise in the examination of the person who left accomplishment rather than fame.

The writing is rich and draws a detailed view of a world of women in the twenties.

Enjoy!

[puddin']

finished "the dangerous islands.

now beginnin' "plan a, plan b, plan c (just in case)", by lois cahall

[Medusa]

LSAT prep manuals.

[Scots_On_The_Rocks]

Still working on "How Few Remain" by Harry Turtledove

Getting Ready to Start on "The Unfinished Tales" and "History of Middle-Earth" by J.R.R. Tolkien

[puddin']

currently readin' "plan a, plan b, pan c" and "the straw hat".

[ProfPacker]

I will definitely read the first book. Commodification of family development is very rarely spoken about. Thanks for the suggestion. Might be interesting for me to use in some of my human behavior and development classes. Looking it up on my kindle now.

[Kobi]

I will definitely read the first book. Commodification of family development is very rarely spoken about. Thanks for the suggestion. Might be interesting for me to use in some of my human behavior and development classes. Looking it up on my kindle now.



Let me know what you think. Children as commodities is not a new concept. We have been doing it in both foreign and domestic adoptions, genetic engineering and in utero modification, sex selective abortions, child sex trafficking, etc.

Is disconcerting to see human beings as an industry to be exploited for significant financial gain. Not surprising, just disconcerting.

[ClassyStud]

Current Primary Read. I usually have a few books going at one time. I am agnostic but keep my mind open to all religions. This is a good book about homelessness.

http://www.blindbeggar.org/img/under_overpass.jpg

[Daktari]

The Secret History, Donna Tartt

Never read Tartt before, picked this one up on kindle because of an piece in the Observer today on the top ten long reads. Her newest one is on order.

[cinnamongrrl]

I just got...(and am only glancing through atm)

No Impact Man:The adventures of a guilty liberal who attempts to save the planet and the discoveries he makes about himself and our way of life in the process.

By Colin Beavan

And that is the entire title!

Colin Beavan is No Impact Man. Dismayed, worried, and angered at worsening global climate conditions, and sorely confused and frustrated about what one individual can do to alleviate—or reverse—such threatening trends, Beavan decided to do something. His choice: to lead a life of no impact for one year. That is, in everyday living his goal was to create no negative impact on the environment. In New York City. And he dragged his Starbucks-addicted wife, one year-old daughter, and trusty dog along for the ride. A no impact transition meant no transportation use that required the power of fossil fuels (subways, taxis, planes, elevators), no takeout food (wasteful containers), no bottled water, no new purchases, no use of disposable items (like razors), and eventually, no electricity. Big things (travel) and little things (cooking) and private things (hygiene) and everything in-between fell into this phased-in project.

Along the way, Beavan blogged about his trials. His book, No Impact Man (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2009), made of recycled paper and produced by a plant powered by biogas, tells the tale—at turns comical, revealing, and emotional—of a family at first hesitant, then fully embracing of this project. It is also peppered with startling, eyebrow-raising statistics on global manufacturing, consumption patterns, and waste production. (The documentary on the project is out now too).

[Soon]

The Interestings: A Novel
(http://www.amazon.com/The-Interestings-Novel-Meg-Wolitzer/dp/1594488398)
Amazon: An Amazon Best Book of the Month, April 2013: This knowing, generous and slyly sly new novel follows a group of teenagers who meet at a summer camp for artsy teens in 1974 and survive as friends through the competitions and realities of growing up. At its heart is Jules (nee Julie, she changes it that first summer to seem more sophisticated) Jacobson, an aspiring comic actress who comes to realize she’s got more creative temperament than talent; her almost boyfriend Ethan Figman, the true genius in the bunch (he’s a cartoonist); musician Jonah Bay, son of a famous Baez-ish folksinger; and the Wolf siblings, Ash and Goodman, attractive and mysterious. How these five circle each other, come together and break apart, makes for plenty of hilarious scenes and plenty of heartbreaking ones, too. A compelling coming of age story about five privileged kids, this is also a pitch-perfect tale about a particular generation and the era that spawned it. --Sara Nelson

[ONLY]

Last night I finished "To Kill A Mockingbird" and started "Orange Is The New Black" Just as I enjoy a variety of music, anywhere from Bee Gees to Three doors down to Lionel Richie to Linkin Park, I have been enjoying a variety of very different books :)

[Kätzchen]

Just to briefly share, tonight:

I have no idea what's up with me lately, but I did not finish the last two books I attempted to read: "Bride of Lammermoor" or Alice Arden's, "She Took To The Woods." I did not enjoy either book.

But I forgot that I subscribed to a reader's list, a "Tip Sheet", supplied to me by: Publisher's Weekly.
I have been browsing reading materials found on two different lists and thought I would leave links for them tonight, in case anyone else might see something interesting to read.

Link no. 1 ~>>> The Big Indie Books of Fall 2013 (http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/new-titles/adult-announcements/article/58841-indie-sleepers-titles-to-watch-fall-2013.html?utm_source=Publishers+Weekly&utm_campaign=5ccdfbbc8b-UA-15906914-1&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0bb2959cbb-5ccdfbbc8b-304774101)

Link no. 2 ~>>> The 20 Best Books in Translation You've Never Read (http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/59274-the-20-best-books-in-translation-you-ve-never-read.html?utm_source=Publishers+Weekly&utm_campaign=5ccdfbbc8b-UA-15906914-1&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0bb2959cbb-5ccdfbbc8b-304774101)

On either link above, a person can find tabs for: News, Authors, Reviews, Best Sellers, International, Opinion, and other items that might be interesting to learn more about.

[Medusa]

UGH! My reading is in a slump this past week!

Finished a rather boring Kaplan LSAT book.

Finished "Dr. Sleep" by Stephen King. It was entertaining but "thin" in places.

Finished "The Souls of Black Folk" by W.E.B. Du Bois. Heavy. Beautiful.

I just cracked "We Are Anonymous: Inside the Hacker World of LulzSec, Anonymous, and the Global Cyber Insurgency" by Parmy Olson.

Also have this one going: "Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State" by Dana Priest

[Martina]

James Lee Burke, Creole Belle

Timothy Ferris, Seeing in the Dark: How Amateur Astronomers are Discovering the Wonders of the Universe

[Greyson]

Intertwined Lives: Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict and Their Circle - Lois W. Banner

[Sparkle]

I've just started "And the Mountains Echoed" by Kahled Hosseini

As with his other books this is an engaging read, from the get-go.

snip/

An unforgettable novel about finding a lost piece of yourself in someone else.

Khaled Hosseini, the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations. In this tale revolving around not just parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most. Following its characters and the ramifications of their lives and choices and loves around the globe—from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek island of Tinos—the story expands gradually outward, becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each turning page.

[Shay McGee]

I am reading This Is How We Grow By Dr. Christina Hibbert

[Cronopia]

Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone By Eric Klinenberg

This is a good read if you live alone if you don't you might fantasize about after.

[PoeticSilence]

So some of you know I changed some of my book habits and have been buying some books used. All my life I've been very snobbish about buying only NEW books. Then I switched to Kindle, so now aside from my approx. thousand books laying around the house and in shelves and piles.. I now have roughly a thousand books on my three different kindles. However, there are some books I refuse to buy on kindle. Art books, childrens books, poetry books (except for Rumi), and cook books, well, also books I might need to carry around with me for some reason or another. Anyways, I got an email from the company I buy my books from, and I'm sharing it.


Hi Ronnie,

We're just checking in to see if you received your order!

Your order number 12537669 included:


The Traveler

The Good Thief: A Novel

Coping with Lymphedema

So Recently Rent a World: New and Selected Poems

If your order hasn't blessed your mailbox just yet, heads are gonna roll in the Mishawaka warehouse! Seriously though, if you haven't received your order or are less than 108.8% satisfied, please be sure to let us know by submitting a ticket. Let us know what we can do to flabbergast you with service.

If you've really got some gumption, there's one other thing you can do to help. Become our fan on Facebook by clicking this link. It's the easiest way to let your friends know that you're part of our movement to fund literacy by buying books. You might also enjoy reading our blog.

Humbly Yours,

Better World Books




Fund literacy, care for the environment, and get a fair price on the books you want.
Better World Books (http://www.BetterWorldBooks.com )

[justkim]

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand LOVED it!!! If you haven't read by all means please do...

I just picked up (finally) A Train In Winter by Caroline Moorehead, I have been looking for this book for sometime now and finally found it in paperback form.

[Greyson]

Occupy Religion: Theology of the Multitude - Joerg Rieger and Kwok Pui-lan


"Occupy religion aims to demystify and debunk religious doctrines and social teachings that provide both religious sanction and justification for economic and social inequality. It critiques religions institutions and structures that silence, discriminate, and marginalize people because of class, race, gender and sexuality, and thus hand the power to the 1 percent. Occupy religion calls religious communities to account and asks them to engage critically in transforming the world to make it just for all and sustainable for the environment."

[Cailin]

Update: Finally finished Memoirs of a Geisha. Took long enough. The movie was awesome, but like all its predecessors, the book is far better.

Currently attempted to read :Tell no one:. And....... I'm bored. But I'll see where it goes.

[Shay McGee]

Jesse James American Outlaw

[puddin']

currently engrossed in "mother earth, father sky" and getting reeled in non-stop.

(to be fair, it is meant fo' a much younger audience than me. yet, i'm intrigued none the less)

(http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1047507.Mother_Earth_Father_Sky)

[Sparkle]

I've just started reading 'The Goldfinch' by Donna Tartt
It's soooooooooo good, completely addictive, I don't want to put it down.

[Venus007]

I am finally reading Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.

I have seen it on the shelves at book stores for years and the cover never appealed to me nor did the synopsis.

Well, I was wrong, it is a really good read. I am looking forward to exploring the other books in the series. I like the clean prose that Orson Scott Card writes in, not too sappy and full of pointless description yet still captures the bare bones of the moment so I am able to see the characters world.

[The JD]

I'm reading two books:

Double Down: Game Change 2012 by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann

Man of War: My Adventures in the World of Historical Reenactment by Charlie Schroeder

I'm far more into the second one.

[Deirdre]

I am waiting for that next great book that drags me in and has me reeling for weeks and months. But for now, I'm filling that gap with various stuff. Currently I am reading an old, old book by Lord Dunsany called "The King of Elfland's Daughter."

[bright_arrow]

The only reading I've been doing lately has been school reading.

The last book I read was Stormcaller, and the sequel to Apocalypse Z (I know there are many out there but I can't remember the name of the author, think he is from Cuba).

I am itching to get into a good, long book. I also read Ender's Game and enjoyed it, was a nice light read!

[StillettoDoll]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51mQKlmr1ZL.jpg

[Fancy]

Four Short Plays by Lanford Wilson
(Days Ahead, The Madness of Lady Bright, This is the Rill Speaking, Say De Kooning)

and

Parfumerie adapted by E.P. Dowdall
(From the Hungarian play Illatszertár by Miklós László)


And...on my reading to do list:
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Mocking Jay by Suzanne Collins

[Greco]

"Running & Being" by George Sheehan, M.D.

This classic finally re-printed...he was a poet
in sensibility and his writing has been missed.


"The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle"
by Haruki Murakami

juicy, juicy, juicy writing.

Greco

[ONLY]

Last night I finished "To Kill A Mockingbird" and started "Orange Is The New Black" Just as I enjoy a variety of music, anywhere from Bee Gees to Three doors down to Lionel Richie to Linkin Park, I have been enjoying a variety of very different books :)

Finished "Orange Is The New Black" couple of weekends ago and have been reading "Dead Until Dark" by Charlaine Harris

[Kätzchen]

James McBride's latest novel: The Good Lord Bird (Aug. 2013).



I was a friend's house recently and saw McBrides' book laying on the coffee table and picked it up, browsing the introductory pages and asked if I could borrow it to read. I don't ordinarily read novels but was his first book (The Color of Water) impressed me deeply, so I wanted to explore his latest book. I'm reading it slowly... not just turning page after page, but more along the lines of filtering the story from my own life's narrative, which is not without bias, but I'm attempting to read it from the authors' perspective, with the idea possibly centering around unspoken, least heard perspective, historical narratives that often are not talked about.

Like in the book Unholy Night (Seth Grahame-Smith, 2012): Another book, novel, a re-telling of an iconic historical event, via a creative intrepretative approach. Which was a very good book.

I'm reading both books (actually).

[BBinNYC]

I posted before that I've been reading a lot of lesbian fiction and wanted to add some titles I'm not sure I listed before:

Letters Never Sent by Sandra Moran
Survived by Her Longtime Companion by Chris Paynter
Miles to Go and Scapegoat, both by Amy Dawson Robertson

BBinNYC

[Shay McGee]

I just finished The Enchanted World... The Book of Christmas. This book seems to cover about every angle of the history behind this holiday. It is amazing how much as sprouted out of that wintry gloom of Scandinavia. I learned that the most common gift in the old days were candles.

[Bad_boi]

Almost done with Chamber of Secrets. Going to move onto The Prizoner of Azkaban soonish.

[Sparkle]

I just read Neil Gaiman's 'The Ocean at the End of the World' - it was great, very compelling, a modern day fairytale... of sorts, in that Gaiman dark and twisty kind of way. I read it in a few hours.

I'm still thinking about Donna Tartt's 'The Goldfinch' which was AMAZING!!!

And now I'm not sure what I'll read next...maybe Donna Tartt's 'Secret History' I haven't read it since I was 23.

[Venus007]

Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

This is the 2nd book in the Ender series. It is very different than Ender's Game in tone and style. I am enjoying it and OSC still has an economy of word that I enjoy.

[Bad_boi]

Woo just started Prisoner of Azkaban.

[Medusa]

I am finally at the end of "I Know This Much is True" by Wally Lamb! I have attempted to read this 3 times and always give up about 4 chapters in. I have about 40 pages left.
It was worth it!

I am also reading "The Great Path of Awakening: The Classic Guide to Lojong, a Tibetan Buddhist Practice for Cultivating the Heart of Compassion".
It's really wonderful and so very calming.

My "bathroom book" is "Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune" by Bill Dedman.
Fascinating so far!!

[puddin']

jus' finished "mother earth, father sky", by sue harrison

am now readin' "sycamore row", by john grisham

and interludes o' "let's explore diabetes with owls", by david sedaris

[tonaderspeisung]

Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident
by Donnie Eichar

In February 1959, a group of nine experienced hikers in the Russian Ural Mountains died mysteriously on an elevation known as Dead Mountain. Eerie aspects of the incident—unexplained violent injuries, signs that they cut open and fled the tent without proper clothing or shoes, a strange final photograph taken by one of the hikers, and elevated levels of radiation found on some of their clothes—have led to decades of speculation over what really happened.


i'm about 2/3 through so i can't give an opinion on the authors final explanation of the incident
but i have found the book to be quite enthralling

[nycfem]

Let us know what you think at the end. Sounds fascinating!

Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident
by Donnie Eichar

In February 1959, a group of nine experienced hikers in the Russian Ural Mountains died mysteriously on an elevation known as Dead Mountain. Eerie aspects of the incident—unexplained violent injuries, signs that they cut open and fled the tent without proper clothing or shoes, a strange final photograph taken by one of the hikers, and elevated levels of radiation found on some of their clothes—have led to decades of speculation over what really happened.


i'm about 2/3 through so i can't give an opinion on the authors final explanation of the incident
but i have found the book to be quite enthralling

[Kätzchen]

I'm finally back from my day, gazelling about the universe, and stopped by my favorite library to check out and bring home a few books, to read during the holidays. I found two at the library and one is on the way: I had to order it on an inter-library loan because not many people ordinarily want to read it, but I do.

Czeslaw Milosz: Legends of Modernity (1996; trans. in 2005), A Treatise On Poetry (begun in the winter of 1955, finished by spring of 1956; published and trans., in 2001), and The Captive Mind (1953; trans: Vintage International; NY, NY: 1990).


Here's an interesting article (LINK (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/sep/30/captive-minds/)), authored by Tony Judt, concerning Milosz' book, The Captive Mind, which appeared in The New York Review of Books (September 30th, 2010 issue).

[Kobi]

The golden notebook / Doris Lessing

I don't ever remember reading this classic.

The Golden Notebook is the story of writer Anna Wulf, the four notebooks in which she records her life, and her attempt to tie them together in a fifth, gold-coloured, notebook. The book intersperses segments of an ostensibly realistic narrative of the lives of Molly and Anna, and their children, ex-husbands and lovers—entitled Free Women—with excerpts from Anna's four notebooks, coloured black (of Anna's experience in Southern Rhodesia, before and during WWII, which inspired her own best-selling novel), red (of her experience as a member of the Communist Party), yellow (an ongoing novel that is being written based on the painful ending of Anna's own love affair), and blue (Anna's personal journal where she records her memories, dreams, and emotional life). Each notebook is returned to four times, interspersed with episodes from Free Women, creating non-chronological, overlapping sections that interact with one another. This post-modern styling, with its space for "play" engaging the characters and readers, is among the most famous features of the book, although Lessing insisted that readers and reviewers pay attention to the serious themes in the novel.

[ClassyStud]

http://fullcirclebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/book-thief.jpeg
Trying to get this done before I see the movie but my reading time is limited. Maybe the movie will stay in the theaters until I am done or Christmas can wait so I can finish. :)

[~baby~doll~]

The Actress (A Rita Farmer Mystery) by Sims, Elizabeth

i read every lesbian mystery/detective book that comes my way.
i read all of Elizabeth Sims Lillian Byrd Mysteries. i was impressed by her framing of Lillian so real and like me flawed. l.
i am hoping Rita Farmer will be as charming as Lillian. This is the first of a series of mysteries. The Extra and On Location follow.

[Fancy]

I am finally at the end of "I Know This Much is True" by Wally Lamb! I have attempted to read this 3 times and always give up about 4 chapters in. I have about 40 pages left.
It was worth it!

I am also reading "The Great Path of Awakening: The Classic Guide to Lojong, a Tibetan Buddhist Practice for Cultivating the Heart of Compassion".
It's really wonderful and so very calming.

My "bathroom book" is "Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune" by Bill Dedman.
Fascinating so far!!

Wally Lamb is my all time favorite author! :) I just received his latest book We Are Water for my bday. I can't wait to have a free second to sit down and read. I'm craving one of those weekends where you can not look at the clock at all and get totally immersed into a book.

[Yew]

I am reading this fasinating article about phantom sensations in people who are transsexual

http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/phantom-genitals-hint-gender-brain/

[The JD]

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh

It's finally out: my favorite blog is now a book! If you're already a fan of the blog Hyperbole and a Half, you'll no doubt recognize most of the content of this book, but will love it all the more. There were a few chapters/posts that I didn't recognize, but I'm not sure if I missed it in the blog or if it's actual new content created just for the book. Either way, it was an unexpected bonus.

Each chapter/post is on different colored pages, which is good when skipping around: it would be hard to distinguish one story from another, just based on the artwork, which looks like a 5 year drew it (which is, of course, part of the blog's brilliance)… so the color-coded chapters are really handy. The placement of art on the page is nice too.

Allie Brosh has launched dozens of hilarious (to me) catch phrases that cause mostly blank looks in those around me when I say them…which is often ("I made food! I'm magical!" "Cake is the only thing that matters." "Can't anyone see how dead these are?" "Clean ALL the things!") Now maybe the rest of the world will catch up and recognize the manic brilliance they've been missing.

http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/327/0/e/clean_all_the_things_by_doublestrand-d4h3v8w.png

[Kobi]

All about love : new visions / Bell Hooks.

Everyone who has witnessed the growth process of a newborn child from the moment of birth on sees clearly that before language is known, before the identity of caretakers is recognized, babies respond to affectionate care. Usually they respond with sounds or looks of pleasure. As they grow older they respond to affectionate care by giving affection, cooing at the sight of a welcomed caretaker. Affection is only one ingredient of love. To truly love we must learn to mix various ingredients-care, affection, recognition, respect, commitment, and trust, as well as honest and open communication. Learning faulty definitions of love when we are quite young makes it difficult to be loving as we grow older. We start out committed to the right path but go in the wrong direction. Most of us learn early on to think of love as a feeling. When we feel deeply drawn to someone, we cathect with them, that is, we invest feelings or emotion in them. That process of investment wherein a loved one becomes important to us is called "cathexis." In his book Peck rightly emphasizes that most of us "confuse cathecting with loving." We all know how often individuals feeling connected to someone through the process of cathecting insist that they love the other person even if they are hurting or neglecting them. Since their feeling is that of cathexis, they insist that what they feel is love.

--------
All About Love offers radical new ways to think about love by showing its interconnectedness in our private and public lives. In eleven concise chapters, hooks explains how our everyday notions of what it means to give and receive love often fail us, and how these ideals are established in early childhood. She offers a rethinking of self-love (without narcissism) that will bring peace and compassion to our personal and professional lives, and asserts the place of love to end struggles between individuals, in communities, and among societies. Moving from the cultural to the intimate, hooks notes the ties between love and loss and challenges the prevailing notion that romantic love is the most important love of all.

Visionary and original, hooks shows how love heals the wounds we bear as individuals and as a nation, for it is the cornerstone of compassion and forgiveness and holds the power to overcome shame.

-----------------

Fascinating reading for a snowy day.

[fatallyblonde]

I'm making my way through James Patterson's Alex Cross series... crime thrillers and some ugly stuff going on so I may have to take a break soon for a good Tilly Bagshawe bonkbuster or some chicklit! I recently downloaded over 1000 books with lesbian themes to my kindle so I guess I should tackle those one of these days XD I saw others mention the Sookie Stackhouse books... I read all 13 of them this year - so much fun!!!

[LoyalWolfsBlade]

In real book form Mo Stars Complete Dark by Stephen King

In Kindle form starting the Deviations Series

[sis]

I'm making my way through "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho ..... slowly, as I need to re-read each piece that I section off to reflect on my life and how it relates to the journey the shepherd is making.

Deb

[Medusa]

Finished only 3 books in December but they were really good. And because of this thread, I am now reading the following:


Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident
by Donnie Eichar

and

James McBride's latest novel: The Good Lord Bird (Aug. 2013)


and my current "fluff" (not necessarily a silly book but something I read on and off in sections) is a vintage Thanatochemistry/Embalming manual. It's a tome at over 500 pages and I skip the mathematical equations for fluid levels but the explanations of restorative art are fascinating.

[Kätzchen]

I too am reading, The Good Lord Bird
(I borrowed it from a friend, recently).


After spending my day out and about, I picked up several books to stash away for reading late at night:

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: The Annotated Frankenstein (2012).
-- Edited by, Susan J. Wolfson and Ronald L. Levao

Written On The Sky: Poems from the Japanese (2009 edition).
--Translated by, Kenneth Rexroth

Dancing Embers (Twisted Spoon Press, Prague: 2002).
-- Poetry and Prose by an ethnic Hungarian poet who resides in Transylvannia, Romania: Sándor Kányádi.

The Poems of Li Ho: 791-817 (Oxford University Press, 1970).
--Chinese poetry by Li Ho translated by, J. D. Frodsham.

[homoe]

House Girl by Tara Conklin~~

[homoe]

Joyland by Stephen King & One Degree of Separation by Karin Kallmarker

[RockOn]

Gone by Jonathan Kellerman ... it is one in his Alex Delaware (AD) series. I love the characters, they are all familiar to me since I've read so many of the AD ones. I have had it awhile now. In real life, Jonathan Kellerman is a child psychologist.

I am a very active person and lately it has been difficult to be still and read - would rather be outside tooling around (woodworking) or indoors assembling a gadgie. My current on going indoor project is making a lamp for the fun of it. I am sure I will give it to someone, don't know who yet, when completed. I think I am finished with it and then get another idea to do something more to it. About a week ago, I found the neatest switch (very unusual looking) on a sale table at Home Depot. It works great and is so cool. I like using my hands to create things.

[~baby~doll~]

Common Murder: A Lindsay Gordon Mystery by Val McDermid

A series about a journalist who turns detective on occasion. This is book two in the series. A good read set in Scotland and England.

[Venus007]

I discovered the Ender series and loved the writing style. I had grand plans to read the whole thing and I was SO excited to have found a new series. Then Orson Scott Card turned out to be a giant homophobic, racist weirdo. I feel dirty that I gave him money for this books with the way he spews vitriol.

Thank goodness I just got "The Wolves of Midwinter" by my dear Anne Rice, it
seems a perfect antidote for that hateful Card. Anne Rice publicly denounced the Catholic church for their antigay foolishness. My kinda girl.

[fatallyblonde]

Yes OSC is terrible person!!

I just downloaded a whole bunch of books about Marilyn Monroe to my Kindle so I am super pleased about that! Will take a break from Alex Cross soon to give them a read!

[JustLovelyJenn]

3 different romance series... at once... teen romance at that... I'm sad...

[Kobi]

Communion : the female search for love / Bell Hooks

Beginning with All about Love (2000), hooks, a courageous, incisive writer whose compassion is backed by vigorous intellectualism, embarked on a provocative, invaluable dissection of the myriad obstacles to love in a society shackled by racism, the subject of Salvation: Black People and Love [BKL F 15 01], and patriarchal assumptions, the focus of this blazing inquiry.

Working from the premise that women of all backgrounds are still made to feel that their worth, or lovableness, is gauged not by inner qualities but by their appearance and how they serve others, especially men, hooks traces the dire effects of society's ongoing devaluation of women as she parses the dynamics of marriage, contrasts the experiences of different generations of women, analyzes women's collusion with patriarchal culture, and assesses feminism's achievements and failures.

Digging deeply into the snarl of sexist habits of thought and being, hooks concludes that women can have true love and autonomy in their lives only if, starting with mothers and daughters, they genuinely support each other in confronting misogyny in all its insidious forms.

[Katniss]

"The Seven Story Mountain" by Thomas Merton.

"Contemplative Prayer" by Thomas Merton

and......

"Pinewood Derby Speed Secrets; Design and Build the Ultimate Car" by David Meade


Katniss~~(Competition and Contemplative topics....it's all about balance!)

[tonaderspeisung]

finally finished
Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident
by Donnie Eichar

overall a pretty good easy read and i was all in all the way through

the author's theory of the hikers last night - chilling

mystery solved to my satisfaction

[~baby~doll~]

Queering Marriage: Challenging Family Formation in the United States (Families in Focus) by: Katrina Kimport

This is a fascinating book on how same sex marriage impacts heterosexual privilege. In certain ways it supports the family values of the past, while building new bridges into a new worldwide cultural expansion. It illustrates how we as gay people have altered the thinking of millions of heterosexual couples. They have understood marriage is more than just a fact of life which is natural and taken for granted. It is to be cherished because we have been fighting for the ability to love and share in marriage. Must read.

[homoe]

Pecan Man by Cassie Dandridge Selleck

It was described in a blurb I read as the Help meets To Kill a Mockingbird

[Redsunflower]

I'm reading 'Envy and Gratitude', a collection of papers by Melanie Klein.

The woman is awesome if not a little bit scary.

[Kobi]

Feminist theory from margin to center / Bell Hooks.

Black women: shaping feminist theory -- Feminism: a movement to end sexist oppression -- Significance of feminist movement -- Sisterhood: political solidarity between women -- Men: comrades in struggle -- Changing perspectives on power -- Rethinking the nature of work -- Educating women: a feminist agenda -- Feminist movement to end violence -- Revolutionary parenting -- Ending female sexual oppression -- Revolution: development through struggle.

[ONLY]

Finished "Orange Is The New Black" couple of weekends ago and have been reading "Dead Until Dark" by Charlaine Harris

Last night I finished "To Kill A Mockingbird" and started "Orange Is The New Black" Just as I enjoy a variety of music, anywhere from Bee Gees to Three doors down to Lionel Richie to Linkin Park, I have been enjoying a variety of very different books :)

Just finished "MockingJay" the 3rd book in the Hunger Games. Was pretty good. Now I think I will look through my books and start up a new read.

[Katniss]

"Art in Science: Selections from Emerging Infectious Disease" by Polyxeni Potter

The journal's highly popular fine-art covers are contextualized with essays that address how the featured art relates to science, and to us all. Through the combined covers and essays, the journal's contents -- topics such as infections, contagions, disease emergence, antimicrobial resistance -- find larger context amid topics such as poverty and war, the hazards of global travel, natural disasters, and human-animal interactions.

[tapu]

The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann (new translation!)


Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior by Leonard Mlodinow


No Respect: Intellectuals and Popular Culture by Andrew Ross

[Medusa]

I read "The Fault in Our Stars" yesterday and this morning and was surprised at the decency of the writing. Loved how the author captured the "otherworld" created with two people in love and two people in love and dying.
A nice, if not heart-jerking read.

John Green seems to be the newest author on my "read everything they've done" list.

"Looking for Alaska" is next. Working at home today and always enjoy a good audiobook while coding. Both sides of the brain engaged! WEE.

[princessbelle]

I am reading the "Fifty Shades" trilogy. I know i am slow on the uptake and it's been around a long time.

But. It's really awesome.

Forever a romantic i am.

[Fancy]

Reading a bunch of mind-bending stuff for a general semantics class.
Although, I'm getting pulled in by the works of Alfred Korzybski.

For fun, I'm still trying to find time to finish We Are Water by Wally Lamb. Each time I get to pick up the book I feel as though I'm starting over.

[Kobi]

The dance of deception : pretending and truth-telling in women's lives / Harriet Goldhor Lerner

Book List Review


While lying is socially taboo, pretending things are other than they are is not only sometimes acceptable but often encouraged and rewarded. Patriarchal culture teaches women to pretend and sometimes deceive, Lerner says, and in her study of the role this dissembling plays in women's lives, she shows how "pretending reflects deep prohibitions, real and imagined, against a more direct and forthright assertion of self." Lerner uses anecdotal examples to illustrate how and why women show the false and hide the real. Her examples and accompanying discussions cover self-deception, protection of others from painful truths, privacy, and family secrets, and each section clearly points out how deception is incorporated into women's lives and how they can learn to purge it from their behavior. She acknowledges that truth telling is not easy, yet her discussion of the many ways women lie and how lying affects them clearly shows the benefits of honesty and makes her prescription appealing. ~--Lindsay Throm

[Soon]

I read "The Fault in Our Stars" yesterday and this morning and was surprised at the decency of the writing. Loved how the author captured the "otherworld" created with two people in love and two people in love and dying.
A nice, if not heart-jerking read.

John Green seems to be the newest author on my "read everything they've done" list.

"Looking for Alaska" is next. Working at home today and always enjoy a good audiobook while coding. Both sides of the brain engaged! WEE.

I taught "The Fault in Our Stars" this semester to a group of Grade 12s. We all loved it!

[puddin']

finished "the goldfinch", by donna tartt mid-week. (tragic story-line, but a decent read)

finished "innocence", by dean koontz this mornin'. (love me some mr. koontz, a good read)

gettin' ready to start "looking for alaska", by john green.

[homoe]

The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel and Bret Witter

Thought I'd check out the book before the movie is released on Feb 7th. If your interested in art, history, or just looking for a very interesting read, I'd suggest this book!

[tantalizingfemme]

I am reverting back to my teenage years and rereading Flowers in the Attic.

[Butterbean]

Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma: The Innate Capacity to Transform Overwhelming Experiences by Peter A. Levine and Ann Frederick

Dr. Levine is just an amazing psychologist. I've also had the pleasure of watching him work with traumatized patients and see the difference he can make.

[JAGG]

" The 5 love languages ". by Gary Chapman

[deathbypoem]

Following Atticus By Tim Ryan

http://www.amazon.com/Following-Atticus-Forty-eight-Extraordinary-Friendship/dp/B00CVDMARU

Seal Team Six *Memoirs of an Elite Navy Seal Sniper*

http://www.amazon.com/SEAL-Team-Six-Memoirs-Sniper-ebook/dp/B004OA63JE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391901477&sr=1-1&keywords=seal+team+six+memoirs+of+an+elite+navy+se al+sniper

[Cronopia]

The Corrections - Johonthan Franzen

Next is "S" by j.j Abrams and Doug Dorst anyone read it? The format is pretty interesting.

[Butterbean]

Psychological Testing, Principles, Applications & Issues.

Kaplan & Saccuzzo


OMG Dry..so very dry

[Medusa]

Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry

[fatallyblonde]

I found a bunch of the old Point Horror young adult series and rereading... haven't read any since I was about 14 I guess... they are so fun! Very quick reads of course, very simple. But nice bit of nostalgia for me.

[ProfPacker]

Can I push the book I am reading written by a friend (pls excuse my name dropping, lol).I have a friend for 39 years who writes. Her most well known work (at least for a certain niche) was Ann Frank Remembered.

She has just published a novel "The Woman Who Brought Matisse Back from the Dead". I am enjoying this instead of reading books for work

[deathbypoem]

Dipping around in my book called

"Cut your grocery bill in half by Americas Cheapest Family"

BRAVO! Amazing read. And some really awesome tips

[o'queery]

Currently soaking up

"The Writings and
Artifacts
Of
Murderers."

By Lustmord Edited by Brian King


( A Bloat Book Publication)

[candy_coated_bitch]

"Talk to Me Like I'm Someone You Love" Nancy Dreyfus

"Resin Alchemy" Susan Lenart Kazner

The 4th Artemis Fowl book, Eoin Colfer

Another relationship called "Couple Skills", can't remember the author

I'm bouncing around a LOT.

[The JD]

I'm reading the Vampire Academy series. I'm fascinated by vampires in pop culture, and how they're becoming less like monsters and more like superheroes. Thanks to Twilight, they even sparkle.

That said, the Vampire Academy series is quite horrid. And I'm on the third book. Clearly, I'm a masochist.

[ONLY]

Last night I finished "The Husband" by Dean Koontz (was okay not as good as his other stuff)

Now I am reading "Crave" by J.R. Ward

[Genesis]

Currently reading:

1) "The Emperor of all Maladies: The Biography of Cancer"
By Siddhartha Mukherjee, M.D.

2) "Forensic Anthropology - 2nd Edition"
By Steven N. Byers

[Kätzchen]

Winter weather has kept me from going to my favorite bookstore or library to check out alternate reading materials, so I am here to say that I am still reading from a couple of books I spoke about last time.

I read "Dancing with Embers" and "Written On the Sky" but was touched more by the former book of poetry than the previous book of poetry.

My interest in the Mary Wollenstonecraft Shelley "The Annotated Frankenstein" bored me to tears, sadly. I think I'll ask a few more questions about works like this, next time I visit the library.

On the other hand, I find the book of poetry (The Poems of Li Ho) rich with dense history not only about Li Ho, but about cultural impacts during the life and times of Li Ho. It's not a very big book of poetry but what makes it hard to just read for leisure is that editor David Hawkes painstakingly provides footnotes about people or places or things or even highly-regarded cultural notions upheld and revered by members of society, back in his lifetime. So, what I'm trying to say is that a person can't just read the poetry for sheer pleasure without reading a commingling of other ideas which, at times, can puncture what seems like a complete picture. So I'm still wading with poetry by Li Ho.

I am wait-listed for a book I placed on hold, weeks ago.
I imagine it will be available some time in March, maybe early April.

[Talon]

Republic Of Outsiders
~The Power Of Amateurs, Dreamers, and Rebels~

By Alissa Quart

[homoe]

Slices of Life by Georgia Beers

(I tend to like any book this author writes)

[homoe]

The Rape of Europa~ Lynn Nicholas

After finishing the Monuments Men I thought I'd give this a try. Very similar but a more detailed account.

[homoe]

I Love You Again~Kate Sweeney

Very cute story about a couple who were together for 18 years and then took a break from each other! Some very funny stuff in this book that most of us can relate to. Check it out

[C0LLETTE]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41PK0N98AAL.jpg

[puddin']

"alison wonderland" ~helen smith (a good, fast read)

gettin' ready to start "oh captain, my captain" ~ katherine v. forrest (i usually have at least 2 reads goin' on at one time)

[~baby~doll~]

High Desert by Katherine V. Forrest
Another in the great Kate Delafield series. i just started it. i can't wait to really get into it. That should be page 2.

[~baby~doll~]

I'm reading the Vampire Academy series. I'm fascinated by vampires in pop culture, and how they're becoming less like monsters and more like superheroes. Thanks to Twilight, they even sparkle.

That said, the Vampire Academy series is quite horrid. And I'm on the third book. Clearly, I'm a masochist.

Try O Captain my Captain by Katherine V. Forrest. This is a short read but excellent.

[fatallyblonde]

I just finished a great juicy bonkbuster A Kept Woman... very fun and salacious.

[sis]

I'm in a race with myself to finish reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho by next Friday which is when the monthly meeting of the Guangzhou Foreign Book Club meets to discuss this book. Actually, I'm thinking that as I started it during late December I should start reading it from the beginning. Its not an easy genre for me to read BUT I'm learning a lot about me and where I'm at in life.

Deb

[Greco]

"An Equal Music" by Vikram Seth

Reading this once again...delectable writing

Greco

[Talon]

"The Lucifer Effect" by Dr. Phillip Zimbardo

[Butterbean]

Life, the Truth, and Being Free by Steve Maraboli

I've been on a waiting list for this book. It's been around awhile but Amazon had run out. It's supposed to arrive late next week. The book ended up interesting me because I've loved/used so many quotes from it.


Anyway, I'm excited!

[Martina]

"An Equal Music" by Vikram Seth

Reading this once again...delectable writing

Greco

I didn't like it. I loved A Suitable Boy. I read that he has written a sequel called A Suitable Girl, I think. Not released yet. He's still editing. I hate it when a writer you like takes years and years to write a book.

I am reading The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements. So far, it's entertaining.

[Hollylane]

The Walking Dead, Vol. 1 (1-6 issues) a graphic novel by Robert Kirkman

Strangely, for me, this is a really good read.

[EmJay]

I haven't opened a book in so long but seeing this thread really makes me want to start a new book. I love reading, it puts me in my own element and relaxes me :) a great way to end my evening too. *wanders over to my bookshelf*

[Butterbean]

I picked this book up after seeing this author interviewed. She's a wonderful storyteller. I've only read one of the stories so far but it is fascinating. I'm going to work on finishing this up.

http://idesweb.bc.edu/baden6/sites/idesweb.bc.edu.baden6/files/images/large/HawardenClemntna-Faderman72.jpg

[Greco]

Yes, I have heard that "A Suitable Girl" is not yet out. As for "An Equal Music" I found the writing, the plot, and of course I "heard" the music throughout this story. His novel "A Suitable Boy" I also liked but not as much.

Now am reading Nikki Giovanni's "Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid"

It is beautiful, sad, and heart-warming for me, and a G_d send.

Greco


=Martina;893037]I didn't like it. I loved A Suitable Boy. I read that he has written a sequel called A Suitable Girl, I think. Not released yet. He's still editing. I hate it when a writer you like takes years and years to write a book.

I am reading The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements. So far, it's entertaining.[/QUOTE]

[Soon]

I picked this book up after seeing this author interviewed. She's a wonderful storyteller. I've only read one of the stories so far but it is fascinating. I'm going to work on finishing this up.

http://idesweb.bc.edu/baden6/sites/idesweb.bc.edu.baden6/files/images/large/HawardenClemntna-Faderman72.jpg

I remember reading this way back when (uni days).

Such interesting stories!

[cinnamongrrl]

I am currently very engaged in Captured by Indians~15 Firsthand Accounts 1750~1870
The entries offer a great deal of insight into the (then) unblemished culture of early Native Americans.
The only downfall; they are original accounts...I can adjust to the vocabulary of the day...but some of the authors were just better writers than others. I muddle through the ones that dont write as well. The stories are still very interesting.

[Soon]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41HcjyrOJyL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-v3-big,TopRight,0,-55_SX278_SY278_PIkin4,BottomRight,1,22_AA300_SH20_ OU01_.jpg

Amazon: Book Description
Publication Date: April 30, 2013
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Emperor’s Children, a masterly new novel: the riveting confession of a woman awakened, transformed and betrayed by a desire for a world beyond her own.

Nora Eldridge, an elementary school teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, long ago compromised her dream to be a successful artist, mother and lover. She has instead become the “woman upstairs,” a reliable friend and neighbor always on the fringe of others’ achievements. Then into her life arrives the glamorous and cosmopolitan Shahids—her new student Reza Shahid, a child who enchants as if from a fairy tale, and his parents: Skandar, a dashing Lebanese professor who has come to Boston for a fellowship at Harvard, and Sirena, an effortlessly alluring Italian artist.

When Reza is attacked by schoolyard bullies, Nora is drawn deep into the complex world of the Shahid family; she finds herself falling in love with them, separately and together. Nora’s happiness explodes her boundaries, and she discovers in herself an unprecedented ferocity—one that puts her beliefs and her sense of self at stake.

Told with urgency, intimacy and piercing emotion, this brilliant novel of passion and artistic fulfillment explores the intensity, thrill—and the devastating cost—of embracing an authentic life.

[sara-bera]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41y4fV4Mu-L.jpg

The short fiction of American literary cult figure Paul Bowles is marked by a unique, delicately spare style, and a dark, rich, exotic mood, by turns chilling, ironic, and wry—possessing a symmetry between beauty and terror that is haunting and ultimately moral. In "Pastor Dowe at Tecaté," a Protestant missionary is sent to a faraway place where his God has no power. In "Call at Corazón," an American husband abandons his alcoholic wife on their honeymoon in a South American jungle. In "Allal," a boy's drug-induced metamorphosis into a deadly serpent leads to his violent death. Here also are some of Bowles's most famous works, including "The Delicate Prey," a grimly satisfying tale of vengeance, and "A Distant Episode," which Tennessee Williams proclaimed "a masterpiece."

Raymond Carver once said that he liked short stories that had "some feeling of threat or sense of menace." He would have loved Bowles's work. These pieces, set mostly in Tangier where Bowles, an American expatriate, lived most of his life and died in 2001 are often bizarre, sadistic, and menacing. In appearance, Bowles was an elegant man, but as a narrator he was remote, pitiless, and unsympathetic, and he dealt harshly with his characters, whether Moroccan or European expatriates. In "The Garden," "Mejdoub," and "Things Gone and Things Still Here," which echo Moroccan legend and folklore, the unrelenting desert is a huge presence. In other stories, like "The Hours After Noon" and "Too Far from Home," Bowles exposes the psychological fragility of the non-African in the North African desert, where Western values are a chimera. Containing 62 stories arranged chronologically and spanning 40 years, this edition is being published as part of the 30th anniversary of Ecco Press, of which Bowles was a cofounder. Essential for larger fiction collections.

[sara-bera]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KXoYsf3VL.jpg

From the Back Cover:
A wildly inventive new collection of stories by Joyce Carol Oates that charts the surprising ways in which the world we think we know can unexpectedly reveal its darker contours

The New York Times has hailed Joyce Carol Oates as "a dangerous writer in the best sense of the word, one who takes risks almost obsessively with energy and relish."Black Dahlia & White Rose, a collection of eleven previously uncollected stories, showcases the keen rewards of Oates's relentless brio and invention. In one beautifully honed story after another, Oates explores the menace that lurks at the edges of and intrudes upon even the seemingly safest of lives—and maps with rare emotional acuity the transformational cost of such intrusions.

Unafraid to venture into no-man's-lands both real and surreal, Oates takes readers deep into dangerous territory,from a maximum-security prison—vividly delineating the heartbreaking and unexpected atmosphere of such an institution—to the inner landscapes of two beautiful and mysteriously doomed young women in 1940s Los Angeles: Elizabeth Short, otherwise known as the Black Dahlia,victim of a long-unsolved and particularly brutal murder,and her roommate Norma Jeane Baker, soon to become Marilyn Monroe. Whether exploring the psychological compulsion of the wife of a well-to-do businessman who is ravished by, and elopes with, a lover who is not what he seems or the uneasily duplicitous relationships between young women and their parents, Black Dahlia & White Rose explores the compelling intertwining of dread and desire,the psychic pull and trauma of domestic life, and resonates at every turn with Oates's mordant humor and her trenchant observation.

[JAGG]

A book called "Life after life."

[Sparkle]

A book called "Life after life."

I loved it!

[nycfem]

I'm reading "The Sex Lives of Cannibals" again. It's such an engrossing travel memoir :)

The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific: J. Maarten Troost: 9780767915304: Amazon.com: Books

[deathbypoem]

http://www.npr.org/books/titles/156927567/the-dog-stars

This :)

[Talon]

"The Why Axis" (Hidden motives and the undiscovered economics of everyday life)

by Uri Gneezy and John A. List

[Medusa]

Just picked up "The Black Arts: A Concise History of Witchcraft, Demonology, Astrology, and Other Mystical Practices Throughout the Ages" by Richard Cavendish

Looks to be pretty interesting so far!!

[Talon]

Some Nerve : Lessons Learned While Becoming Brave

By Patty Chang Anker

[tonaderspeisung]

the callas legacy - the complete guide to her recordings by john ardoin

extremely technical and detailed

im adding listening to at least one piece of music - with the attention to nuance, emotion depth and musical technicalities described in this book - to my bucket list

no doubt

[Medusa]

Just started "Ozark Magic and Folklore" by Vance Randolph

[Aud]

Just picked up "The Black Arts: A Concise History of Witchcraft, Demonology, Astrology, and Other Mystical Practices Throughout the Ages" by Richard Cavendish

Looks to be pretty interesting so far!!

I'm a big fan of Richard Cavendish.

My 'prize' collection is the entire illustrated encyclopedia series of Cavendish's 'Man, Myth & Magic' - it's A-Z on the supernatural/occult, and so chock-full of fascinating info/history, with the most wonderful art & photographs.

[mythy]

I am reading Innocence by Dean Koontz:)

and his Odd Thomas books are cracking also especially with a nice cuppa

[Fancy]

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

No Harry Potter anywhere near this book. Reviewers have called this book dull, but I'll read it anyway. I think I can't expect to keep her on a Harry Potter pedestal and should go into this book not considering her previous fame.

[Daktari]

Sane New World: Taming the Mind - Ruby Wax (going to see her speak on mindfulness and brain science in 3weeks as a result of this book)

The Brain that Changes Itself; Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science - Norman Doidge (the book that inspired Wax to go back to education and get her Masters degree from Oxford)

[anaisninja]

Still struggling through "The Celestine Prophecy."

[deathbypoem]

Freakonomics :)

[*Anya*]

Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking

By Susan Cain.

"At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking, reading to partying; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over brainstorming in teams. Although they are often labeled "quiet," it is to introverts that we owe many of the great contributions to society--from van Gogh’s sunflowers to the invention of the personal computer.

Passionately argued, impressively researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet shows how dramatically we undervalue introverts, and how much we lose in doing so. Taking the reader on a journey from Dale Carnegie’s birthplace to Harvard Business School, from a Tony Robbins seminar to an evangelical megachurch, Susan Cain charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal in the twentieth century and explores its far-reaching effects. She talks to Asian-American students who feel alienated from the brash, backslapping atmosphere of American schools. She questions the dominant values of American business culture, where forced collaboration can stand in the way of innovation, and where the leadership potential of introverts is often overlooked. And she draws on cutting-edge research in psychology and neuroscience to reveal the surprising differences between extroverts and introverts.

Perhaps most inspiring, she introduces us to successful introverts--from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Finally, she offers invaluable advice on everything from how to better negotiate differences in introvert-extrovert relationships to how to empower an introverted child to when it makes sense to be a "pretend extrovert."

[Wrang1er]

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.

[homoe]

Some parts of this book I really enjoyed, other parts not so much~

[StillettoDoll]

I am reading Whole its the follow up book of the China Study


http://www.veggiesandme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Whole-book(pp_w649_h432).jpg

[Corkey]

"Athens" from ancient ideal to modern city "A History"
by Robin Waterfield.

[Medusa]

Just started "Ozark Magic and Folklore" by Vance Randolph


Wanted to report back that this was actually a really good read!!



I just started on "Civility in the Digital Age:How Companies and People Can Triumph over Haters, Trolls, Bullies and Other Jerks"
by Andrea Weckerle

I'm only 20 pages into it but it is a fascinating read so far!

[candy_coated_bitch]

Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking

By Susan Cain.

"At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking, reading to partying; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over brainstorming in teams. Although they are often labeled "quiet," it is to introverts that we owe many of the great contributions to society--from van Gogh’s sunflowers to the invention of the personal computer.

Passionately argued, impressively researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet shows how dramatically we undervalue introverts, and how much we lose in doing so. Taking the reader on a journey from Dale Carnegie’s birthplace to Harvard Business School, from a Tony Robbins seminar to an evangelical megachurch, Susan Cain charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal in the twentieth century and explores its far-reaching effects. She talks to Asian-American students who feel alienated from the brash, backslapping atmosphere of American schools. She questions the dominant values of American business culture, where forced collaboration can stand in the way of innovation, and where the leadership potential of introverts is often overlooked. And she draws on cutting-edge research in psychology and neuroscience to reveal the surprising differences between extroverts and introverts.

Perhaps most inspiring, she introduces us to successful introverts--from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Finally, she offers invaluable advice on everything from how to better negotiate differences in introvert-extrovert relationships to how to empower an introverted child to when it makes sense to be a "pretend extrovert."

Totally just bought this for my kindle! As an extreme introvert, this topic fascinates me to no end. I will report back. :glasses:

[mythy]

Ernie Shuflebottom, guide to playing dominos.

(and how to cheat reet sneaky like)

[cinnamongrrl]

I am beginning.....

The American Transcendentalists: Essential Writings....

this group of great thinkers from the 1800s discussed (and championed) many causes of the day. Things that still affect us....in some form or another....to this day.

environment
civil rights
government
religion

Im eager to get my teeth into it :)

[Sparkle]

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

[Kätzchen]

The Shadow of the Wind
~ Carlos Ruiz Zafón

http://textpublishing.com.au/static/files/assets/991285d7/9781920885854_large_cover.jpg?1393427028


Here is a partial book review, by another reader:

A mystery story, a fairy tale, a love story (actually several love stories), a passion for literature, a treatise on politics, a bawdy tale, with love, hate, courage, intrigue, loss of innocence, humor, cowardice, villainy, cruelty, compassion, regret, murder, incest, redemption, and more. Add to this delicious mixture characters who come alive, and whose thoughts and feelings you will feel deeply. What a great pleasure to discover; an extraordinary first work, one which towers over the endless and repetative volumes which inhabit today's "Best Seller" lists. Read it, and become hypnotized.

[candy_coated_bitch]

Totally just bought this for my kindle! As an extreme introvert, this topic fascinates me to no end. I will report back. :glasses:

I am about 1/3rd of the way through this book and I am SO glad I bought it. I love that the book has a lot of research in it, and also stories and interviews from real people. I think the author treats the subject of what makes introverts tick, and how introverts have underrated strengths well.

I will continue to devour it...

[amiyesiam]

Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking

By Susan Cain.

"At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking, reading to partying; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over brainstorming in teams. Although they are often labeled "quiet," it is to introverts that we owe many of the great contributions to society--from van Gogh’s sunflowers to the invention of the personal computer.

Passionately argued, impressively researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet shows how dramatically we undervalue introverts, and how much we lose in doing so. Taking the reader on a journey from Dale Carnegie’s birthplace to Harvard Business School, from a Tony Robbins seminar to an evangelical megachurch, Susan Cain charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal in the twentieth century and explores its far-reaching effects. She talks to Asian-American students who feel alienated from the brash, backslapping atmosphere of American schools. She questions the dominant values of American business culture, where forced collaboration can stand in the way of innovation, and where the leadership potential of introverts is often overlooked. And she draws on cutting-edge research in psychology and neuroscience to reveal the surprising differences between extroverts and introverts.

Perhaps most inspiring, she introduces us to successful introverts--from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Finally, she offers invaluable advice on everything from how to better negotiate differences in introvert-extrovert relationships to how to empower an introverted child to when it makes sense to be a "pretend extrovert."

most excellent book, she also has a TED talk

[Medusa]

Wanted to report back that this was actually a really good read!!



I just started on "Civility in the Digital Age:How Companies and People Can Triumph over Haters, Trolls, Bullies and Other Jerks"
by Andrea Weckerle

I'm only 20 pages into it but it is a fascinating read so far!

This one turned out to be pretty decent. Definitely some good tips!


I just started "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe" by Fannie Flagg. I read it years ago and, of course, love the movie but I wanted to give this one a reread.
I forgot how charming it was!:blueheels:

[Talon]

The Biology of Transcendence: A blueprint for the human spirit

by Joseph Chilton Pearce

[Greco]

"the sociopath next door"
by Martha Stout, Ph.d.

Chilling to say the least, and vitally important clarifications.
A must read.

Greco

[okieblu]

Making Money-Terry Pratchett

His work is just a hoot.

[okieblu]

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak


I was wondering, is that fiction, or non-fiction?

[The JD]

I'm reading The Unapologetic Fat Girl's Guide to Exercise and Other Incendiary Acts by Hanne Blank.

I just started this book last night, and am digging it so far. This is not a cheerleading book. There are no chants of "rah rah! You can lose that weight!" And thank goodness. Aren't there enough books like that already? There's no guilt tripping here, or promises of how much fun it will be, as if fun exercise is some secret I've somehow missed out on.

What this book does well is to offer the radical idea that fat bodies have just as much right to be in motion as any other body (this sounds like it should be obvious, but the glares I've gotten at the gym and the paltry selection of exercise clothes in my size have told me otherwise). This book offers sample goals that are internally driven, and aren't based on peer-pressure and pack mentality that so often dominates fitness books. Most intriguing of all, exercise is presented as a protest act. As a punk rocker (albeit aging), this idea is incredibly appealing.

And tomorrow, I'm going to buy an activity tracker. So fuck off, society! :mohawk:

[Sparkle]

I was wondering, is that fiction, or non-fiction?

It is historical fiction set in Germany during the later half of WWII (1941-1944), approximately. And it's written in a somewhat unusual style, with an unusual narrator.

I've not yet seen the film adaptation.

Frankly, I can't imagine how they'll portray some parts and I'm not ready to find out just yet because the magic and beauty of the book is still with me.

I'm a read first, watch later purist, in most cases

[willow]

Just started, The Hunger Games Trilogy.

[silkepus]

Ive spent the last two days reading The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall, it's 3 am and I just finished it (and I have to get up in less than 4 hours argh, why did I not put it down)

Either way, I hate it. And I love it. Why! Why did it have to end like that! Why Hall! How could you!

https://24.media.tumblr.com/7f0ba62514ead4f030a264d00f4181e0/tumblr_n1y4unn6hJ1rbt4cto1_500.jpg

Tomorrow is going to be balls. Not only will I be tired I'll be constantly haunted by the ending :readfineprint:

[LaDivina]

I just finished Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy a couple days ago (for the 23421978th time) and am almost done with The Invisible Ring, from the same world.

:stillheart: :stillheart: :stillheart:

[Corkey]

"The Fires of Vesuvius Pompeii Lost and Found"
by Mary Beard.

[cinnamongrrl]

Today I received my long awaited cookbook.... Wildly Affordable Organic.

The author conceived the idea of the book when she accepted a challenge to live and eat well on the amount of money the government gives for food stamp benefits.

She found that its actually possible to eat well on under 5 dollars a day. And enjoy nourishing meals at that. All her tricks and secrets of success are in this wonderful book.... :)

author: Linda Watson

[EnderD_503]

Currently reading Soccer vs the State: Tackling Football and Radical Politics

Just started it, but looks like it's going to be a good read.

[Daktari]

Just finished Tina Fey's autobiography attempt, Bossypants. I recommend you don't bother reading it. I like Tina, love her comedy but her prose is so very pedestrian. :|

Just started the Rosie Project. Just a few pages in I know I'm going to love it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1405912790

[cinnamongrrl]

I just started reading Walden....

I didnt know til I started reading it that this book has inspired world leaders...(Ghandi was mentioned). I have found life altering wisdom...and Im not even that far into it....
Thoreau says things that Ive thought and could never word so eloquently....the greatest of which... that we spend more time doing than just BEING....Im going to make a more concerted effort to just BE.... :)

[deathbypoem]

Currently reading 3 books.

Almost finished with "Stolen Innocence" By Elissa Wall

Still reading:

Secrets from the southern living test kitchens :)

Azar Nafisi: Things I've been silent about


They are super thus far

[Gráinne]

Royal Maladies: Inherited Diseases In The Ruling Houses of Europe. It traces hemophilia (a bleeding disorder) from Queen Victoria through her carrier daughters and into their sons, unfortunately who were heirs to the thrones of Russia and Spain, and close relatives to the German Kaiser. Then it traces porphyria (a metabolic disorder of the blood) from George III of England all the way back to Henry VI, whose bouts of madness led to the Wars of the Roses. The royal lines of Europe were already in bad shape due to marriages of close relatives, and diseases such as these weakened them further just as revolution came.

[cinnamongrrl]

I'm reading John Muir's Wilderness Essays :)

[ONLY]

Half way through "From Dead To Worse" by Charlaine Harris

[deathbypoem]

Winter Tale by Paul Auster

and The Cat who came for Christmas!

[Kelt]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MFhsj3y6L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

"A novel written by a veteran of the war in Iraq, The Yellow Birds is the harrowing story of two young soldiers trying to stay alive."

This is a first novel that has garnered high praise and I can see why. It is also quite understandable that his second book is poetry. I am relishing this, (started yesterday, will finish today) exceptionally well crafted.

:reader:

[Genesis]

http://images.indiebound.com/529/154/9780316154529.jpg

This historical novel is based on Urrea's real great-aunt Teresita, who had healing powers and was acclaimed as a saint. Urrea has researched historical accounts and family records for years to get an accurate story.

[Kobi]

Women are not small men : life-saving strategies for preventing and healing heart disease in women by Nieca Goldberg MD

Until very recently, no book like this could have been written, because all the knowledge, research, and treatments concerning heart disease were based on findings in men. For too many years, the medical establishment was ignorant of women’s unique needs and physiology and looked upon women as simply “small men.”

But women are not small men. It is now understood that our physiology is very different from that of men, especially when it comes to heart disease. Our hearts are proportionately smaller, and when we develop the first signs and symptoms of heart disease, we are usually ten years older than men. Consequently, to be effective, heart disease prevention and treatment programs for women must be different from those for men.

[cinnamongrrl]

I started reading Walking the Appalachian Trail by Larry Luxenberg

Its a compilation of various hikers' experiences while traversing the AT.

Im (mentally) training to hike it someday :)

[deathbypoem]

Currently not reading anything b/c I am anxiously waiting my new books!

One of them is called Saving Cinnamon. Can't wait to get my hands on that one!

Also, Church of Lies. Should be interesting.

[nycfem]

I've been reading the book "You Don't Know Me but you don't like me: Phish, Insane Clown Posse, and my misadventures with two of music's most maligned tribes" by Nathan Rabin

You Don't Know Me but You Don't Like Me: Phish, Insane Clown Posse, and My Misadventures with Two of Music's Most Maligned Tribes: Nathan Rabin: 9781451626889: Amazon.com: Books

I picked it up for the ICP factor (Insane Clown Posse). I always get a kick out of Juggalos (the lifestyle devotees and followers of ICP). I'm not into Phish, so I skipped around and read only the ICP chapters. The book is a non-fiction book where Nathan follows both bands (in person with their other followers) for a few years and writes about it. I loved the ICP chapters as I thought I would. I found him to be such a good writer for those chapters that I decided to even read the Phish chapters. I got through a few but ultimately got too bored due to not being into Phish. I'm glad I read the Phish chapters, though, because he is simply a cool writer. I enjoyed his description of the role of psychadelic drugs in the fanbase of Phish. I liked how in the book he did not observe but fully integrated himself into the experience with both bands (including taking the drugs). Perhaps my favorite thing about the book was the reactions it got me as I held it and read it on my subway commute. It has a neon cover that says in big letters: "You don't know me but you don't like me." I felt like everyone was drawn to reading that cover. It was kind of funny. I do recommend this book. It was informative, interesting, well-written, weird, and very, very funny. The author had a fucked up childhood in a foster care group home, and I think that informs his experience of identifying with other misfits who find a community of band followers that make life meaningful.

[afixer]

Just Walking: The Zen of the A.T.
-James C. Purdy

[Venus007]

"American Gods" Neil Gaiman

[afixer]

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened
by Allie Brosh

[Smiling]

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
Sogyal Rinpoche

I Ching
as translated by Taoist Master Alfred Huang

[RockOn]

Should be in the news section here at BFP but no time for a search ... hopped on for just a few seconds to provide this link.

I am fuming ...


News article:

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/06/08/us/texas-gop-gay-therapy/index.html?c=us&page=0



Reparative therapy???

[Kelt]

I'm checking out an app that seems to be pretty good. It provides summaries of current non-fiction books written by real editors so that you can get a good idea of the salient points of the book or to decide you want more and go ahead and buy it.

I think it would be great for transit commuting or waiting rooms. Knock out a book or two on a commute. I'm trying it on the three day free trial, it is a little pricey to subscribe but there are a variety of levels to choose from.

It's called Blinkist (https://www.blinkist.com/).

[cinnamongrrl]

I'm checking out an app that seems to be pretty good. It provides summaries of current non-fiction books written by real editors so that you can get a good idea of the salient points of the book or to decide you want more and go ahead and buy it.

I think it would be great for transit commuting or waiting rooms. Knock out a book or two on a commute. I'm trying it on the three day free trial, it is a little pricey to subscribe but there are a variety of levels to choose from.

It's called Blinkist (https://www.blinkist.com/).

that sounds awesome... I am a chronic non fiction reader....I will bestow upon you the best compliment Ive ever received. "You're smart like McGyver!!"

[Kelt]

that sounds awesome... I am a chronic non fiction reader....I will bestow upon you the best compliment Ive ever received. "You're smart like McGyver!!"

I've been called a lot of things... But McGyver is probably the best!

I've read two summaries so far (they take 15-20min) and have decided that "The Signal and the Noise" is going to graduate to my pick up at the library and read the whole thing list. Also, "The Power of Full Engagement" looks like a re-hash of a bunch of other books so I'll pass. :glasses:

[nycfem]

How cool. I only read non-fiction and a lot of it so do let us know what you end up thinking!

I'm checking out an app that seems to be pretty good. It provides summaries of current non-fiction books written by real editors so that you can get a good idea of the salient points of the book or to decide you want more and go ahead and buy it.

I think it would be great for transit commuting or waiting rooms. Knock out a book or two on a commute. I'm trying it on the three day free trial, it is a little pricey to subscribe but there are a variety of levels to choose from.

It's called Blinkist (https://www.blinkist.com/).

[Liam]

I just finished reading Mary Roach's Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, and now understand why she has been called America's funniest science writer. Personally, I have now lost any romantic notions about space travel, and I know far more about it than I wish I did. Roach's research goes beyond dilligent, yet her writing is accessible, and entertaining. I laughed out loud so many times, I lost count.

I look forward to reading her other titles - Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife.

[The JD]

I just finished reading Mary Roach's Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, and now understand why she has been called America's funniest science writer. Personally, I have now lost any romantic notions about space travel, and I know far more about it than I wish I did. Roach's research goes beyond dilligent, yet her writing is accessible, and entertaining. I laughed out loud so many times, I lost count.

I look forward to reading her other titles - Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife.

Love love love her. Don't forget Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal!

Stiff remains my favorite- I even taught a class on it a few years back :)

[gotoseagrl]

The Secret Garden

[Happy_Go_Lucky]

http://pixhst.com/avaxhome/4e/63/0026634e_medium.jpeg

[BestButchBoy]

"Uganda Be Kidding Me" - Chelsea Handler

[bright_arrow]

I'm about 80% through Dean Kootz "I.P.O' on my Kindle, an early birthday gift from a friend

[Talon]

Streisand--Her life
by James Spada

I love this book...she has always been such an inspiration to me.

[Cole]

Hard wiring Happiness

Also editing/proofing a friend's book.

[puddin']

jus' finished "police", by jo nesbo

am now re-readin' "i know why the caged bird sings", by maya angelou

[vagina]

Game of Thrones series

[puddin']

"the i.p.o.", by dan koontz and
"the clinic", by cate culpepper

[ProfPacker]

Just downloarded this on my kindle, anyone read it. It is long, looks like it is a commitment for a week or so.

[Talon]

Right now it's....

>Seal Team Six-Memoirs Of An Elite Navy Seal Sniper
by Howard E. Wasdin & Stephen Templin



>The helicopter pulled away. Crap.
There I was, the middle of a war, in the middle of the Red Sea,
on a strange enemy ship by myself. I felt naked.
If this goes really bad--Mother Ocean is right there.
Kick, stroke, and glide.

[puddin']

Just downloarded this on my kindle, anyone read it. It is long, looks like it is a commitment for a week or so.


it was a hard read as it's quite tragic, but good. it took me about a week to read it.

[ProfPacker]

Thanks puddin, I give it a go

[Charmingbutch21]

Sex at Dawn

[AnAwkwardAccident]

Harry Potter

[puddin']

finishin' a re-read, "i know why the caged bird sings", m. angelou

and startin' "19 minutes", j. picoult

[StillettoDoll]

Actually reading three books at the same time

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRmDWU1pSRP2q69xerUzF-27BrHO_mbdQc0A5NgzJfP3FyWSjulxA:images.teamsugar.c om/files/upl2/1/13839/15_2009/2215c6d2da8454e5_my-booky-WEB.jpg http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41l0%2B99FKZL.jpg http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQCZLsIp4a1ofZk2QUvguqb3x2OkOQK3 tKn1jfEZ4zgwy9ltmGUfQ:media.npr.org/assets/bakertaylor/covers/d/drink/9780062241795_custom-0420119fb2fccf263316a59869a82ce1076ca46d-s6-c30.jpg

[Talon]

Gothic Beauty magazine....issue 34.

[puddin']

still readin' "nineteen minutes", jodi picoult (it's a 600 page read!)

almos' finished wit' "the city", dean koontz

[Kätzchen]

In my spare time, lately, I've been slowly enjoying a book that I checked out recently: The Goldfinch.

I am waiting for Erik Larsson's newest book , though. Can hardly wait to read it. It should be available to buy, later this fall.

[MrSunshine]

Recently finished. "Proof of Heaven" . Pretty mind blowing stuff in there.

[BestButchBoy]

"Beautiful Ruins" by Jess Walter

[SimpleAlaskanBoy]

Visit Sunny Chernobyl by Andrew Blackwell.

[ProfPacker]

Well, time to put away leisure reading and start reading and rereading texts for fall...if I sneak in leisure getting ready for school is history, sigh

[cinnamongrrl]

Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts

Firstly.....I didnt even know she was an author. With that said, I really do enjoy her writing. Its vivid and lyrical and flows well. I cant ask for more :)

The book itself is about the women behind the men of the American Revolution. They made many sacrifices and worked for towards the greater good in a day and age where their thoughts and opinions werent entirely valued. There is no lacking of strength and determination in these women. Im only a third of the way in and Im awed and humbled....and eternally grateful.

[aishah]

rereading child of prophecy by juliet marillier (book 3 in her sevenwaters series). also reading for the first time outlander by diana gabaldon.

[traumaqueen]

The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery.

By Sam Kean

I read another book of his a couple years ago, The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements... most excellent!

I've been reading this alongside my neuroscience class this semester, it's been quite fun.

[Medusa]

Just downloarded this on my kindle, anyone read it. It is long, looks like it is a commitment for a week or so.

Curious to know what you thought of this! I finished it a few weeks ago and loved it! Listened to it on audiobook.