The Surgeon's Tale by Cat Rambo and Jeff VanderMeer

In a world where magic is fading and science begun to ascend, a young surgeon in medical school experiences an obsession so forbidden that its realization will change him forever. "She looked as if she were asleep, still with that slight smile, floating on the thick sargassum, glowing from the emerald tincture that would keep the small crabs and other scavengers from her. She looked otherworldly and beautiful." Sometimes life is not enough. Also including five more stories of dark wonder from Rambo and VanderMeer, from "The Dead Girl's Wedding March" to "The Farmer's Cat." Enter a world of rat suitors, severed arms, and Fungi Et Fruits de Mer, served up with prose both appetizing and uncanny. Dark fantasy has never been quite so decadent . . .(amazon.com)

The author Cat Rambo is someone I know in RL.

Reading a book online that I read in paperback a few weeks ago.

It's about a woman in a polygamist group that fights with her entire might to get the hell out of there.
It's called Escape.

I loved that book!

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Carolyn-Jessop/dp/0767927575/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376333242&sr=8-1&keywords=escape"]Escape: Carolyn Jessop, Laura Palmer: 9780767927574: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]

oh my goodness. Me too. Little did I know that all of that really existed. I mean to an extent I knew of things here and there but that is beyond disturbing. :) glad you enjoyed it too

Memoirs Recently Ordered (only started reading the first one...like it so far)
 

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Clean-A-Memoir-ebook/dp/B00B77UDXO/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1376337146&sr=1-1&keywords=coming+clean"]Coming Clean: A Memoir: Kimberly Rae Miller[/ame]


Both Blurbs Taken From Amazon:

Kim Miller is an immaculately put-together woman with a great career, a loving boyfriend, and a tidy apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. You would never guess that Kim grew up behind the closed doors of her family’s idyllic Long Island house, navigating between teetering stacks of aging newspapers, broken computers, and boxes upon boxes of unused junk festering in every room—the product of her father’s painful and unending struggle with hoarding.
In this moving coming-of-age story, Kim brings to life her rat-infested home, her childhood consumed by concealing her father’s shameful secret from friends, and the emotional burden that ultimately led to an attempt to take her own life. And in beautiful prose, Miller sheds light on her complicated yet loving relationship with her parents that has thrived in spite of the odds.

Coming Clean is a story about recognizing where we come from and the relationships that define us—and about finding peace in the homes we make for ourselves.

-----------
The Chronology of Water: A Memoir Paperback
by Lidia Yuknavitch


This is not your mother’s memoir. In The Chronology of Water, Lidia Yuknavitch expertly moves the reader through issues of gender, sexuality, violence, and the family from the point of view of a lifelong swimmer turned artist. In writing that explores the nature of memoir itself, her story traces the effect of extreme grief on a young woman’s developing sexuality that some define as untraditional because of her attraction to both men and women. Her emergence as a writer evolves at the same time and takes the narrator on a journey of addiction, self-destruction, and ultimately survival that finally comes in the shape of love and motherhood.

The 40 day Prosperity program :)

Destiny of the Republic by Candice Miller
President Garfield spent $150 on his Presidential campaign. It's an amazing account of his presidency.

The Language of Flowers
In spite of the plot holes big enough to drive a Mac truck through, I loved the characters.

The Perfume Collector
It's a great realistic fiction about classic perfumes.

The Cuckoo's Calling
I almost gave up on the stereotypical characters, but they're intentional. I loved the kitten stationary. Very Dolores Umbridge.

CLR via C# 4th edition 2012 by Jeff Richter

I am very familiar with parts of it but decided today to study/read one chapter a day at work ... I believe it will be beneficial. It is some 900 pages of pure geek.

I stuck with book 1 of 'Song of Fire and Ice: Game of Thrones' - based upon feedback from a few of you and now I am totally addicted. I'm currently at 65% of book 3 'A Storm of Swords'; I've just passed the "red wedding" scene. :|

Definitely worth the time investment, thanks for all the great feedback! :)

wow, will hafta check that one out.

"buried (a bone secrets novel)", by kendra elliot

""let's explore diabetes with owls", david sedaris

Affliction by Laura K. Hamilton (the Anita Blake series)
Excellent series ( I think this is book 21 or so) SS (f) got me hooked on them:seeingstars:

Tried out:

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Holy-Cow-An-Indian-Adventure/dp/0767915747/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376621390&sr=8-1&keywords=holy+cow"]Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure: Sarah Macdonald: 9780767915748: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]

but I just couldn't get into it. I stopped the book towards the beginning. I love travel writing but I found her sense of humor to be condescending or something. Some others on Amazon felt the same way.

Oh, I forgot. I knew I was reading a good book! I'm also reading:

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Roseannearchy-Dispatches-Farm-Roseanne-Barr/dp/B00509COIW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376622556&sr=8-1&keywords=Rosannearchy"]Amazon.com: Roseannearchy: Dispatches from the Nut Farm: Roseanne Barr: Books[/ame]

I didn't expect to like this book but I'm loving it! It's a memoir by Rosanne Barr that focuses a lot on:

-her experience growing up as a fat child
-her many years as part of a lesbian feminist collective (even though she's straight, she has a lesbian sister- and they are politically aligned)
-her fierce feminism and living outside the box

It has some very interesting and moving stories and also is very funny! I tend to prefer reading books on feminist theory by lesbians but Rosanne really holds her own. Surprisingly enjoyable read.

smiling my way through
 

Kurt Vonnegut

Look At The Birdie

A text book on surgical nursing. I love any book related to the medical field

That looks really good, I may have to get a copy when the price comes down a bit.

I've just started reading ' The unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry'. It's different to what I usually read as I'm a non fiction person mainly. So far it's enjoyable.

[ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Unlikely-Pilgrimage-Harold-Fry/dp/0552778095/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376654018&sr=8-1&keywords=the+unlikely+pilgrimage+of+harold+fry "]The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry: Amazon.co.uk: Rachel Joyce: Books[/ame]

just began this one, but really like it so far.
 

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Paint-Black-Novel-Janet-Fitch/dp/0316067148/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376976972&sr=1-2"]Paint it Black--Janet Fitch[/ame]


blurb from Amazon:

Josie Tyrell, art model, runaway, and denizen of LA's rock scene finds a chance at real love with Michael Faraday, a Harvard dropout and son of a renowned pianist. But when she receives a call from the coroner, asking her to identify her lover's body, her bright dreams all turn to black.

As Josie struggles to understand Michael's death and to hold onto the world they shared, she is both attracted to and repelled by his pianist mother, Meredith, who blames Josie for her son's torment. Soon the two women are drawn into a twisted relationship that reflects equal parts distrust and blind need.

With the luxurious prose and fever pitch intensity that are her hallmarks, Janet Fitch weaves a spellbinding tale of love, betrayal, and the possibility of transcendence.


"Lushly written, dramatically plotted. . . Fitch's Los Angeles is so real it breathes." -Atlantic Monthly

Crackpot Palace by Jeffrey Ford

From the Back Cover


From the unparalleled imagination of award-winning author Jeffrey Ford come twenty short stories (one, "The Wish Head," written expressly for this collection) that boldly redefine the world. Crackpot Palace is a sumptuous feast of the unexpected—an unforgettable journey that will carry readers to amazing places, though at times the locales may seem strangely familiar, almost like home. Whether he's tracking ghostly events on the border of New Jersey's mysterious Pine Barrens or following a well-equipped automaton general into battle, giving a welcome infusion of new blood to the hoary vampire trope or exposing the truth about what really went down on Dr. Moreau's Island of Lost Souls, Jeffrey Ford has opened a door into a dark and fantastic realm where dream and memory become one.

I'm actually reading two books, because SOMEONE stole my book while camping...

Animal Farm by George Orwell. I THINK this was required reading in high school...but I don't remember reading it.

Animal Farm is an allegorical and dystopian novel by George Orwell, published in England on 17 August 1945. According to Orwell, the book reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalin era in the Soviet Union.[1] Orwell, a democratic socialist,[2] was a critic of Joseph Stalin and hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism, especially after his experiences with the NKVD and the Spanish Civil War.[3] The Soviet Union, he believed, had become a brutal dictatorship, built upon a cult of personality and enforced by a reign of terror. In a letter to Yvonne Davet, Orwell described Animal Farm as a satirical tale against Stalin "une conte satirique contre Stalin",[4] and in his essay "Why I Write" (1946), he wrote that Animal Farm was the first book in which he had tried, with full consciousness of what he was doing, "to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole".

and for my new selection whilest I wait for this one back I am reading,

The Reluctant Saint: St. Francis of Assisi by Donald Spoto

Acclaimed biographer Donald Spoto strips away the legends from the life of Francis of Assisi to reveal the true story of a man who has too often been obscured by pious iconography. Drawing on unprecedented access to unexplored archives, plus Francis's own letters, Spoto places Francis within the context of the multifaceted ecclesiastical, political, and social forces of medieval Italy, casting new light on Francis and showing how his emphasis on charity as the heart of the Gospel's message helped him pioneer a new social movement. This nuanced portrait reveals the multifaceted character of a man who can genuinely be said to have changed the course of history.