Need some new ideas: What are you reading right now?

[Witchy_Dem]

I picked up some really bad fiction and need to remove the bad taste in my mouth...suggestions?

[taterguy]

1. Some Christopher Buckley novel about the Supreme Court

Alas, I'm too lazy to walk upstairs and see what the title is

[Taverner]

2. 33 1/3 David Bowie Low

[tanngrisnir3]

3. The compilation of The Chronicles of Amber, by Zelazny.

Very detailed and complex, given that it's ten books compiled into one, giganto-mongo one.

[Midlodemocrat]

4. My combat plan to annihilate taterguy. Everything else is unimportant.

[Witchy_Dem]

5. Does it have illustrations?

[Midlodemocrat]

7. I'll get back to you. rug is my attorney. I need to check with him.

[HopeHoops]

6. The DU Lounge

[leeroysphitz]

8. Building Harlequin's Moon by Larry Niven.

Good story.

[Witchy_Dem]

9. Thank you!

[Duer 157099]

10. Anything by Bill Bryson. n/t

[Witchy_Dem]

12. Thank you. :o)

[Flaxbee]

11. Just picked up "The Queen Jade" in a local used book store ...

never read anything by this author, but a review intrigued me:

Murray has fashioned a good old-fashioned lost-treasure tale fleshed out with plenty of action, intrigue, and romance. After her intrepid archaeologist mother disappears in the Guatemalan jungle during an epic hurricane, meek bookstore-owner Lola Sanchez is determined to find and rescue her with the ironic--if able--assistance of one of Juana Sanchez's most detested professorial rivals. Of course, Lola and Erik soon discover that Juana was hot on the trail of an archaeological grand prize: the legendary Queen Jade, a rare blue jade stone said to possess mystical powers. As they traipse through mountains and jungles, passions flare, family secrets are revealed, and danger lurks along every obscure footpath. In the finest tradition of adventure yarns, the would be lovers succumb to their ever smoldering attraction to one another, and the treasure is located, though it is not at all what it first appeared to be. A rip roaring page turner that concludes with a satisfying twist.


Could be bad fiction, but I'm in an escapist mood to get away from my stressful life, and this seemed to fit the bill.

What do you like to read? The last nonfiction I read and really enjoyed was "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. I really like her fiction, too -- try "Prodigal Summer" or "The Bean Trees" or even "Animal Dreams"

Do you like mysteries?

[Witchy_Dem]

14. I have read Kingsolver. Poisonwood Bible?

I don't mind fiction but boring fiction sucks, which is where I am right now.

I'll read almost anything. Mysteries I have read, I've gone through a bunch of Hillerman. I reread Toni Morrison, Tom Robbins, Zora Neal Hurston, Joseph Campbell, Gore Vidal, Richard Adams, Kay McGrath, Isabel Hickey, Diane Stein, Lynn Andrews, plus many more. I love fiction. I also read biographies.

Because I love movies as well I'll usually switch out books with movies like Jane Austen or Shakespeare.

My problem right now is new authors or newly published books. I have no idea what's new out there that's worth reading.

[Flaxbee]

17. Try Arturo Perez Reverte

-- he has some interesting and off-the-wall mysteries.

As for humor, try the Southern Sisters mysteries - I was dubious when I picked up the first one, but they are very funny and well-written.

As for Kingsolver, her others are not as intense as The Poisonwood Bible - not fluff, but not so involved.

I'm sort of at a loss, too - need to find a few new good authors to read.

What biographies have you liked? I enjoy them, too, but somehow never end up choosing them when I get books -- any suggestions are appreciated!

[Witchy_Dem]

20. Have read and recommend a couple of biographies -

Gore Vidal's Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson, and The Life of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir for right now. I have to peruse my library for more.

Poisonwood was pretty intense. I appreciate recommending more of her works.

A friend suggested Terry Pratchett. Are you familiar?

[Withywindle]

24. Sir Terry Pratchett (he is one now!)

My favorite comfort writer and palate cleanser. He's a satirical fantasist, and if you've read a lot of SF/F, his affectionate but brilliant skewerings of every trope of the genre --as well as real-world tropes, check out "Jingo" if you want to laugh at stupid white people and their colonialist Middle-Eastern wars in a fantasy setting--are just delightful. I also think he writes better women characters than almost any other living male writer, including a whole bunch of literary award-winners; he doesn't get nearly enough credit for that.

The Discworld series is made up of standalone books, so you can pick one at random if you like. (His early ones aren't the best - he needed a little while to get really warmed up.) Night Watch, Jingo, Thief of Time, Small Gods are my favorites (I haven't read them all yet, caveat). Or if you've had enough of End Times religious freaks, then I highly recommend 'Good Omens', his collaboration with Neil Gaiman, which isn't a Discworld book, it's set it our world (more or less).

If you want a good biography, I am really enjoying 'The World of Gerard Mercator' by Andrew Taylor. The wonderful, terrible Renaissance and Age of Empire, when mapmaking was political, occult, dangerous, full of fateful portents and crazy people.

[applegrove]

13. Drink: A cultural history of alcohol. Pretty good if you like such histories.

[Witchy_Dem]

15. Right on. Thanks!

[Deja Q]

16. Does a technical book regarding Ubuntu Linux 8.10 count?

[Witchy_Dem]

21. Um, no?

But thanks anyway :P

[Aristus]

18. Today I read "Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau. Great read.

It only took me about 45 minutes to read it. Some things in there are very relevant to today. And he speaks with a masterful voice...

[Witchy_Dem]

22. Ewww haven't read for years, good to get back to it. Thanks!

[crimsonblue]

19. "The Teapot Dome Scandal" by Laton McCartney

The book is about the teapot dome scandal (obviously) and the Warren G Harding administration. I'm about 1/3 through it, and it is very fascinating; in fact, it's the best bathroom reading material I've ever had.

[Witchy_Dem]

23. Ok, I'll add that to the list. Thanks.

[Adsos Letter]

25. "Politics, Religion, and the English Civil War"

...it can only increase your misery...

[Onceuponalife]

26. The Watchmen graphic novel

of course.

I think it's brilliant.

[enigmatic]

27. "The Music Of Chance"- Paul Auster

The film version is inferior, but the the novel is brilliant, and very thought provoking. I'm on my second read; a friend gave it to me about 15 years ago and I read it in one long, snowy night:

[mvd]

28. Not sure it's your kind, but I'm reading New Moon in the Twilight series

I still don't think it is written well, but it has a nice escapist quality to it like American Idol. There's some good suspense, and characters that are like a trainwreck you have to see.

And I have a new crush from the movie: Ashley Greene.

[underpants]

29. "The Gamble" by Thomas Ricks

how "the surge" came into being (guess who wasn't for it) and saved the war in Iraq from near complete fail (in 2005)

[Turbineguy]

30. Re-reading

William W. Bathie

Fundamentals of Gas Turbines.

Second Edition.

It's not fiction (I hope).

I don't really recommend it.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

31. Phil Rickman's The Smile of a Ghost

part of a series of maybe-maybe not supernatural mysteries set along the Welsh border. I was particularly interested in this volume because it takes place in Ludlow, a Shropshire town that I visited in 2006 and liked very much.

[kentauros]

32. Only my own work.

Nothing published. I am considering rewriting the beginning as posted online to exise certain elements.

And I'm off to eat and do more editing :D

[YankeyMCC]

33. Working my way through "The Grand Tour" Series of novels

by Ben Bova: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Tour_(novel_series)

Currently on "Moonrise" that and "Moonwar" will finish it up for me, I kinda started in the middle worked to the end then started from the beginning - by the chronological order suggested by the author.

So far the later stuff is the more enjoyable, although even the earlier stuff was fun in it's way. Jupiter and Titan are definite stand outs. The "Asteroid War" stories were also very well done I think, good characters, good portrayal of what a war in space might be like in terms of how it would affect the combatants and civilians in the way and in terms of the technology.

[jane_pippin]

34. Little Bee by Chris Cleave. It's a great book.

It's fantastic. It's fiction, just came out and it's about a Nigerian refugee who has just been released from a immigrant intake/detention center in England. She's making her way to find the only people in the country she knows, a couple she met on the beach in Nigeria in very difficult circumstances. Her story intertwines with the Englishwoman and they both have to make really heartbreaking decisions. But, But! while it is a depressing subject, the character of Little Bee (the refugee girl) is so amazing, beautiful and even hilarious at times that it isn't just a long hard slog through a difficult subject. The author said in a Q. & A. that he wants to write about big issues like globalization and immigration and the way to do that is to take a huge subject and focus it on one person to make these messy issues real. He did an amazing job. I never laugh out loud or cry when I read books and this one made me do both. It's SO good. Well worth buying and if you see that he's touring in your town go see him.

[Catshrink]

35. The Feynman Lectures

Who knew Physics could be so much fun!

[Witchy_Dem]

36. Thank you everyone! =)