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*

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.

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music
 

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]

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

Such interesting stories!

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.

i like it
 

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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.

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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.

and also:
 

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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.

A book called "Life after life."

I loved it!

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

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/The-Sex-Lives-Cannibals-Equatorial/dp/0767915305/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393298194&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Sex+Lives+of+Cannibals"]The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific: J. Maarten Troost: 9780767915304: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]

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

This :)

If you liked "FREAKONOMICS"....
 

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!!

If you enjoyed Strayed's book Wild....
 

Some Nerve : Lessons Learned While Becoming Brave

By Patty Chang Anker

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

Just started "Ozark Magic and Folklore" by Vance Randolph

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.

Reading
 

I am reading Innocence by Dean Koontz:)

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

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.

Still struggling through "The Celestine Prophecy."

Freakonomics :)

As an introvert, just started reading and finding it very interesting. Review from Amazon
 

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."

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.

Remember Me by Syd Parker
 

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

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


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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!

Reading
 

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 :)

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Shadow of the Wind
~ Carlos Ruiz Zafón

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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.

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:

Definitely not light reading...yet quite facinating.
 

info
 

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

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

Greco

Making Money-Terry Pratchett

His work is just a hoot.