What are you reading?

[Spirit Dancer]

Fever Dream
by Douglas Preston

[nycfem]

Can you tell I'm doing some catching up on this thread which took me awhile to find?

I don't know if I've mentioned to you before but I also love Susanna Kaysen's memoir as an adult: "The Camera My Mother Gave Me." Excellent!!!

Originally Posted by daisygrrl

I'm re-reading a few right now, including:

*Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen. The memoir is different from the film, which are brilliant in their own rights. This book also makes a great gift.

*Gracefully Insane: Life and Death Inside America's Premier Mental Hospital by Alex Beam is a wonderful investigation into McLean, the mental institution where notables--such as Sylvia Plath, James Taylor, & Susanna Kaysen--visited for treatment. The discussion on (and interviews concerning) 1960s youth culture at McLean is particularly insightful.

[nycfem]

I loved Lucy Grealy's book and also truly adored the non-fiction book that Lucy's best friend, Ann Patchett, wrote about their relationship: "Truth and Beauty: A Friendship." Unexpectedly wonderful!

Originally Posted by daisygrrl

selections from Lucy Grealy's Autobiography of a Face--an excellent read & really wonderful to discuss with others

Alice Walker's “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self”--a lovely short piece where Walker discusses her childhood trauma and how it shaped her identity

[MissItalianDiva]

Texts from a handsome sarcastic ass....

[Gemme]

A bunch of books on altered art.

[nycfem]

I felt the same way about Gender Outlaw and also love her book: "Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks & Other Outlaws"

Originally Posted by daisygrrl

Currently skimming Kate Bornstein's Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, & the Rest of Us for quotes. If you haven't read it, it's worth the time!

Here's an excerpt...

I write when nothing else will bring me peace, when I burn, when I find myself asking and answering the same questions over and over…I write in bottom space. I open up to you, I cut myself, I show you my fantasies, I get a kick out of that—oh, yeah. I perform in top space. I cover myself with my character and take you where you never dreamed you could go. Yes. My ancestors did this. My instrument is not my pen or my typewriter, not my lover’s Macintosh, not my cast of characters, not my body on stage. No, my instrument is my audience and oh how I love to play you.

Damn, she's brilliant--and that red hair when I saw her perform....

[imadiva]

The Hour I First Believed by Walley Lamb

[Miss Scarlett]

"The Royals" by Kitty Kelley

[daisygrrl]

Originally Posted by nycfembbw

Can you tell I'm doing some catching up on this thread which took me awhile to find?

I don't know if I've mentioned to you before but I also love Susanna Kaysen's memoir as an adult: "The Camera My Mother Gave Me." Excellent!!!

I haven't read that yet, but I'm glad to hear that it's a worthwhile read (I've heard little, but negative about it--but figured the topic, not the text, was the reason).

Did you know that the title came from a a Buñuel movie, Viridiana; however, Kaysen remembered the quote wrong (it was the camera my father gave me). The scene is quite interesting--a parody of the Last Supper, some argue: at a drunken family reunion, a girl lifts her dress and to "take the picture."

Source 1; source 2

Originally Posted by nycfembbw

I loved Lucy Grealy's book and also truly adored the non-fiction book that Lucy's best friend, Ann Patchett, wrote about their relationship: "Truth and Beauty: A Friendship." Unexpectedly wonderful!

Ya know, I had mixed feelings about that one; but, generally, it was difficult for me to read. I felt, at some points, Patchet was exploiting Grealy or exaggerating...or something [I can't quite put my finger on it]. I've been in a couple of academic programs for creative writing, and I gotta tell anyone who hasn't that it's an odd environment. Suddenly, you have people who are in their twenties, thirties, forties, and up acting like they are jaded adolescents; for some reason, the drama is sky-high, jealousy is rampant, and there's even crying in workshop (not writing-related reasons)! So, I kinda wonder what Patchet's motives in writing were...(just sayin'). Luckily, I was able to meet Grealy during a writing workshop; gosh, she was gone way too soon.

Originally Posted by nycfembbw

I felt the same way about Gender Outlaw and also love her book: "Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks & Other Outlaws"

Ooh, I love that one too! I think it's an awesome book to gift to others, as well

Originally Posted by imadiva

The Hour I First Believed by Walley Lamb

I enjoy Lamb's writing style, but I haven't read that one. I really love Couldn't Keep It to Myself: Wally Lamb and the Women of York Correctional Institution (Testimonies from our Imprisoned Sisters).

Happy Readin', Ya'll!

[Sachita]

I probably posted this but I just finished it. "Women Food & God" by Geneen Roth. It doesn't normally take me so long to finish a book. I'm busy, its true but I found myself going back, reading, putting down and reflecting. This book brought tears to my eyes and it very well may change my life.

I don't diet any more. I am learning to listen to my body and understand why I want things. Learning to be kind to my body and heal.

Great book I will read again and again

[Rufusboi]

I'm currently reading Keep the Grave Green by Deborah Crombie. The story and characters feel like an Elizabeth George knock off. George writes the Inspector Lynley mysteries. So far a good story but Elizabeth George is much better and more entertaining. Rufus

[Semantics]

I just finished [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Under-Saturns-Shadow-Wounding-Psychology/dp/0919123643"]Under Saturn's Shadow: The Wounding and Healing of Men[/ame] by James Hollis.

Just started [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Dragon-Tattoo-Stieg-Larsson/dp/1847242537"]The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo[/ame] by Stieg Larrson. I was ready for some fiction.

[Softly]

The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac

then I plan on reading The Host by Stephine Meyer.

[Kobi]

Innocent by Scot Turow....sequel to Presumed Innocent.

[cara]

I'm in the middle of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Good book. Took a few chapters to get into it, but it's an easy book to pick up on my bus ride to/from work.

[cane]

Originally Posted by cara

I'm in the middle of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Good book. Took a few chapters to get into it, but it's an easy book to pick up on my bus ride to/from work.

It's an ok book...the film was ok too, Don't know if you have the film in the US, or if they are making a new version for you guys...

[cane]

BTW, I'm reading 'Pride and Prejudice' by the ever so awsome Jane Austen...simply love her, and love the language...

[Kate09]

I have a habit of reading certain books over and over. I love the familiarity i find in them. I learn the stories so well...but i never fail to see a new angle.
some of those faves are..

While Oleander; Janet Fitch
"Loneliness is the human condition. Cultivate it.The way it tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow. Never expect to outgrow loneliness. Never hope to find people who will understand you, someone to fill that space...If you expect to find people who will understand you, you will grow murderous with disappointment. The best you'll ever do is to understand yourself, know what it is that you want, and not let the cattle stand in your way"

She's come undone; Wally Lamb

Eat, Pray, Love; Elizabeth Gilbert

Memoirs of a Geisha; Arthur Golden

Wicked; Gregory Macguire

I am reading one of these books at all times, as well as whatever newbies I have in my little hands. I love books. They've never truly let me down.

[Martina]

Just finished Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. About building schools in Pakistan. Amazing story. Both hopeful and sad.

[torchiegirl]

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
Lincoln's Ladies by H. Donald Winkler and Frank J. Williams
The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel: A Novel by Maureen Lindley