Rereading -

A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson

Still as awed and amazed by the astronomical numbers and the surprisingly understandable writing style.

:glasses:

Just finished the fifth Game of Thrones book, A Dance with Dragons. I understand that George R. R. Martin is borrowing the narrative arc of Lord of the Rings, where the Fellowship of the Rings (AKA the children of Winterfell) must be scattered far and wide to fulfill their personal quests before they can be reunited for a single purpose. But whereas Tolkien kept his characters separated for one book, Martin is going on five. And didn't I read that there's at least two more books planned?? I can't figure out what I'm more frustrated by: the near-misses and waylaid quests of books four and five, or the fact that I'll no doubt be reading the sixth book as soon as it's out. Arrgh.

Next up: Cruddy by Lynda Barry!

I am currently reading Inside Hitler's Bunker: The Last Days of the Third Reich by Joachim C. Fest. I think the title is self-explanatory especially if you know anything about the ending of the Holocaust and Hitler's reign of terror.

i absolutely loved where the streets had a name and would recommend it to anyone. abdel-fattah deals with the occupation in a way that's extremely humanizing and very real, though not heavy-handed or overly political. the book is written in the voice of a young girl and it's at a middle school reading level (possibly even younger), although some of the topics can get a bit emotional.

after i finished that i read accidents of nature, a book by harriet mcbryde johnson, who was a disability rights activist and lawyer. it was amazing :) it's a young adult book as well, geared more towards teens, and it deals with issues of disability rights and coming of age as a disabled young person, but is set in the 70s. i could relate a lot to it. she also has a memoir, too late to die young, that's awesome too :)

okay, I admit I'm actually giddy over the upcoming release of the Hunger Games movie. Just ran across this image, can't resist posting.

http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lz...0igdo1_500.jpg

reading "journey from the center to the page" now :)

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_WfUkkzprTK.../000b4547.jpeg
With wisdom for writers at any level and in any genre, nationally known writing and yoga instructor Jeff Davis shows writers how yoga’s principles and practical tools can deepen their writing practice and increase their versatility writers. A grounded guide to the body-mind-imagination connection, this book shows ways for writers to reconnect with their deeper intentions for writing, sustain concentration and confidence when writing, and write with an authentic voice.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...er_to_the_Page

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...SH20_OU01_.jpg

i didn't care for the anti anarchist sentiment that seemed randomly sprinkled throughout but this one is really very interesting

http://photo.goodreads.com/books/132...l/13045369.jpg
sex & disability ed. robert mcruer & anna mollow
The title of this collection of essays, Sex and Disability, unites two terms that the popular imagination often regards as incongruous. The major texts in sexuality studies, including queer theory, rarely mention disability, and foundational texts in disability studies do not discuss sex in much detail. What if "sex" and "disability" were understood as intimately related concepts? And what if disabled people were seen as both subjects and objects of a range of erotic desires and practices? These are among the questions that this collection's contributors engage. From multiple perspectives—including literary analysis, ethnography, and autobiography—they consider how sex and disability come together and how disabled people negotiate sex and sexual identities in ableist and heteronormative culture.

fiction period piece
 

Set in the late 1890's, it is a crime novel.
He did a great job with food descriptors and this tends to draw me in.


http://scooterchronicles.com/wp-cont...2/alienist.gif

Last night, I finished Cruddy by Lynda Barry... I loved Barry's weekly cartoon strip years ago, and her world of quirky adolescents. Cruddy is a novel, but her characters still come off as exaggerated, absurd and cartoonish. And yet it works.

It's also very dark. It has this weird disturbing sociopathic twinge to it, reinforced by the main character (an adolescent girl raised as a boy) referring to her parents as "the mother" and "the father." Well, that, and the trail of carnage and destruction she leaves. If you like your reading to unsettle you, this is the book.

On another note... I just got an iPad. Can anyone recommend their favorite ereader app?

Just started In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard. Her last book, Boys of my Youth, is on my top 10 favorite books list. She's got a knack for capturing the tiniest and often conflicting details of a child's view, that dread feeling of "mom's going to kill me when she finds out" combined with the exhilaration of doing whatever it is that's about to get you in trouble. And she's hilarious. This book looks like it's on the same path- here's the first paragraph:

"We can't believe the house is on fire. It's so embarrassing first of all, and so dangerous second of all. Also, we're supposed to be in charge here, so there's a sense of somebody not doing their job."

Off to read more. :)

"The Alienist": Great read and written by an historian, so many of the venues described in this novel probably did exist! You must read "Angel of Darkness"!

Appetites: Why Women Want

--Carolyn Knapp

Powells' Review (excerpt):

The late Caroline Knapp was not Everywoman, but there were enough women — and men — who felt that her writing spoke directly to them to put her first book, the memoir Drinking: A Love Story, on the bestseller list. Her second book, about the relationship between people and dogs, did nearly as well. Her third, Appetites, published now, a year after she died at 42 from complications arising from lung cancer, may seem like the culmination of her writings just because it is the last one we'll have from her. But the scope of the book, its effort to root out all the ways that women's desires get twisted, thwarted, redirected and obliterated, using her own youthful bout with anorexia as a case in point, suggests that Appetites was a keystone work for her.

It's also a heart-rending one, because despite the manifest intelligence and sensitivity of Knapp's writing — this is quite possibly the smartest and deepest anorexia memoir ever written, and it's also more than just a memoir — she only occasionally manages to grasp the source of the agonies she details so well. It's as if she's trying to describe a yard behind a tall fence, a scene she can only catch glimpses of by jumping as high as she can. There's a flash of the other side here, and again there, but often she's just telling us about the fence. Yet you can't help but think that Knapp almost made it over that barrier, and that if she had been given a few more years she would have arrived in full.

http://www.powells.com/review/2003_05_23.html

"Wicked Autumn" by G.M. Malliet. I so love my cozy mysteries and all the more if they're set in the UK.

What could be more dangerous than cozy village life in the English countryside?

Max Tudor has adapted well to his post as vicar of St. Edwold’s in the idyllic village of Nether Monkslip. The quiet village seems the perfect home for Max, who has fled a harrowing past as an MI5 agent. Now he has found a measure of peace among urban escapees and yoga practitioners, artists and crafters and New Agers. But this new-found serenity is quickly shattered when the highly vocal and unpopular president of the Women’s Institute turns up dead at the Harvest Fayre. The death looks like an accident, but Max’s training as a former agent kicks in, and before long he suspects foul play.

Max has ministered to the community long enough to be familiar with the tangled alliances and animosities among the residents, but this tragedy surprises and confounds him. It is impossible to believe anyone in his lovely village capable of the crime, and yet given the victim, he must acknowledge that almost everyone had probably fantasized about killing Wanda Batton-Smythe.

As the investigation unfolds, Max becomes more intricately involved. Memories he’d rather not revisit are stirred, evoking the demons from the past which led him to Nether Monkslip. In WICKED AUTUMN, G.M. Malliet serves up an irresistible English village—deliciously skewered—a flawed but likeable protagonist, and a brilliantly modern version of the traditional drawing room mystery.

One of The Boston Globe's Best Mysteries of 2011
One of Library Journal's Best Mystery Books of 2011

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ITYKxazuGL...ked-autumn.jpg

According to many, I should be ashamed of myself, but...

The Hunger Games Trilogy.

The_JD recommended it, and I could barely put it down! It's getting its second read-over now (just starting Catching Fire again.)

To give myself a break, I'm rereading Battle Royale (yes, same basic premise, but I read Battle Royale many years ago.)

i actually just finished the hunger games trilogy too
my niece and nephew were hyping it up pretty good but i feel rather indifferent about the series

right now i'm mid way through 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created - Charles C. Mann

the author clumsily tries to distance modern feelings toward some of history's more horrible aspects by using weak academic reasoning but i'm really enjoying it
so much to ponder with this book

i'm rereading the hunger games now with a group of friends on another board :) the first two books are still annoying me for certain reasons but...they're growing on me. i want to see the movie now. (okay, lenny kravitz as cinna is kind of amazing.)

still on the beginning of sex & disability. it's good so far.

i've also been rereading ruthless trust by brennan manning on and off :) it's one of my favorite religious/devotional books.

Darkness Visible ~ A memoir of Madness By William Styron (fitting)

So many great restaurants that are no longer in business. Great illustrations of food and landmarks.

http://www.cookbookery.com/images/me...s5/newford.JPG

"Physics of the future". By Michio Kaku

"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer

I've not seen the film, I'm not sure if I want to see it at all.

The book is very beautiful: the narrator delightfully odd and loveable, the story is terribly sad.

I'm a big fan of Foer's writing; if you've not read anything of his I would recommend "Everything is Illuminated" highly (the film adaptation is quite good too).

I hope I'm doing this right (respond to message)
 

I can relate so well with asperger syndrome...

Sound of a miracle a child's triumpth over autism
 

Life of Pi
Yann Martel

http://media-cache0.pinterest.com/up...a1X6XmCw_c.jpg

How to build one of these. :)

Just finished The Hunger Games Trilogy and now on to Power Down by Ben Coes for my political Science class.

Reading: Life-Saving Health Secrets JJ Despain and Everyday Mexican A Collection of Essential Recipes... I love Mexican food...

Stones from the River ~ Ursula Hegi