What Book Are You Currently Reading And Would You Recommend It?

[Merrick]

Me, I'm reading "The Bridge on the Drina" by Ivo Andric and would recommend it. Won a Nobel Prize in 1961. A series of fictional stories transpiring amidst a historically accurate depiction of a small Bosnian town that conveys the tumultuous history of the Balkans from the time the bridge was built in the 1600s to its destruction during WWI.

What about yours? I'm looking for good ones for my xmas list.

[LostinVA]

1. "Teacher Man" by Frank McCourt -- two thumbs up!

[CarpeDiebold]

2. Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Not your average Beach reading. Recommend it for sure.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

3. I'm (re)reading some classic sci-fi paperbacks right now.

Just finished Sam Delaney's "Nova" and am partway through Alfred Bester's "The Demolished Man". After that I have some vintage Heinlein on tap.

[elshiva]

4. Open Heart, Open Mind by Thomas Keating

Highly recommended if you like books on prayer. Outlines the method of centering prayer in a down
to earth language.

[hickman1937]

5. My son just finished The Princes of Ireland

by Edward Rutherford, and loved it. I'm just rereading Martha Grimes and Lois McMasters Bujold due to financial problems.

[deadparrot]

6. "Robert Kennedy and His Times," by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

If you're into politics, history, and/or the American culture of the 1960s, I'd definitely recommend it. Long, yes, but excellent. :)

[spindrifter]

7. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Zafon

Set in Barcelona, one of my favorite cities. A literary (literally) mystery.

[hfojvt]

8. Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz

So far on page 100, it's pretty good, but not yet great.

[Merrick]

10. My take on Koontz overall

he's pretty formulaic and his sense of humor stinks, but all that said his books are pretty much page turners

[hfojvt]

11. what have you read of his?

He has half a dozen that are fantastic but nothing really in the last 8 years or so that have been that good. So he probably has run out of great ideas. He also seems to be getting more RW as he gets older and richer.

[Merrick]

14. Its been awhile, but

Hideaway, Midnight, Mr. Murder, Strangers, The Bad Place, The Eyes of Darkness, Demon Seed, The Watchers, Shattered... probably some more, but this was over a period of a few years a long time ago, and since his stuff isn't all that substantial as literature goes their memory has sort of evaporated from my mind. I do remember Midnight and Strangers as being pretty good.

[hfojvt]

16. Midnight, The Bad Place, and Watchers

are some of his best. Strangers, Hideaway, and Mr. Murder are also very good. Demon Seed and Shattered were earlier works, and Eyes of Darkness is pretty weak. What do you consider substantial?

[Merrick]

17. Well...

a lot of classic stuff, I'm especially into the Russians - Dostoevsky, Gogol, Bulgakov. Also Hesse, Marquez, Tom Robbins, and Bukowski as well as non-fiction books on politics (Charlie Wilson's war is one I read recently - interesting insight on the clandestine proxy war the CIA waged against the USSR in Afghanistan), Solzhenitsyn's 'Gulag Archipelago', science stuff like Stephen Hawking and Michael Talbot's 'The Holographic Universe', etc.

[hfojvt]

18. All those Russians

but no Tolstoi? Kinda funny that I read Gulag when I was in the 9th grade. Okay I only thought I did. I remember now it was Ivan Denisovitch. Non-fiction stuff doesn't qualify as substantial "literature" does it? Okay, to answer my own question, I guess it does. It fits the 2nd definition, but not the first.
I quickly lost interest in The Brothers Karamazov and did not come close to finishing it. Except for Hesse, I have not read many of the others. Vonnegut did not think Hesse was very substantial, although my parent's minister says that "Sidhartha" changed his life.

[Merrick]

19. Hesse's Steppenwolf is awesome

as are Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions and Slaughter House Five. I also read Cat's Cradle, and although I thought it was a little weak on the whole I loved the part where the lunatic nihilist housesits for him, smears shit all over his walls and hangs his cat with a sign that says "Meow" around its neck.

[hfojvt]

21. Born to be wild, eh?

I am not sure why you love that part. I thought Bokonon was alot funnier. The two you mentioned are perhaps my least favorite of Vonneguts. I prefer Mother Night, Cat's Cradle (which got used as his anthropology dissertation by the U of Chicago), Jailbird, and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.

[Merrick]

22. haven't read all those...

so maybe I'd like them better as well.

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. "Cod", and yes, I recommend it!

Fascinating history and current environmental critique of cod fishing.

[hibbing]

20. single topic books

I love these things. I have read "pasta" "salt" and "gunpowder" a bunch of others. Not sure if you would be interested in this one, but I will be looking for "Cod" at my library. I read one a bit back about people fishing for stripers along the east coast that I found interesting. Not much environmental stuff in it, but I enjoyed.
On the run : an angler's journey down the striper coast. by DiBenedetto, David

[Rabrrrrrr]

49. "Salt" is next on my list of food books. I also loved "Nutmeg"

and "Chocolate", and the number books: the ones on pi, e, phi, i, and zero.

Cool stuff!!

I didn't realize there was a book on the history of pasta!

Nutmeg was especially interesting, since it so involved the whole world and the impact of one spice, one mercantile item, completely refined european and american and south pacific history, government, and boundaries. Amazing, fascinating story.

[swag]

12. "The Intelligent Asset Allocator" by William Bernstein

Bernstein describes the math, the science, and the art behind asset allocation, and discusses the concurrent processes of minimizing investment risk and maximizing investment return.

Shit boring, really, unless you're interested in this kind of shit, which I am, in which case the book is fascinating.

Last novel I read was Veronica by Mary Gaitskill. Veronica is a compelling, multi-level, psychologically intense narrative by one of my favorite contemporary authors. I had waited impatiently for over a decade for another Gaitskill novel. Probably not as blatantly fun as Gaitskill's Two Girls Fat and Thin which contained, among its sub-themes, a powerful and hilarious skewering of the cult of Ayn Rand and associated libertarians, high sexual transgression, and the mundaneity of a middle-American childhood, yet a book with great heft, and powers of engagement. I missed several bus stops while buried in that novel.

Still with Veronica, Gaitskill does better what she had been hitherto unmatched at: mapping the psychological moment - conveying with plain metaphor and direct language the impressions made upon a complex of synapses by environment, thought, recollection.

[DeepModem Mom]

13. Not as serious as most: "The City of Falling Angels."

An interesting visit to Venice, but not nearly as entertaining as Berendt's "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil."

[Elidor]

15. Killing Dragons: the conquest of the Alps

By Fergus Fleming. Pretty good. It starts off slow, but the stuff about Whymper & Tyndall racing to climb the Matterhorn is great. Hard to put down.

[Dangerously Amused]

23. I am currently reading your thread.

Would I recommend it? Well... there's not much of a plot so far, and too many odd characters jumping into the narrarator position. It's a bit too confusing for me. I'll have to give it another chapter or two, and get back to you on a recommendation.

[Merrick]

25. You're weird

[2bfree]

24. The China Report and Willa Cather's O Pioneer.

Both are really good. :)

[HEyHEY]

26. Best of penthouse forum 3

[slybacon9]

31. Did you get to the one by Name and Address withheld?

Good shit.

[6000eliot]

27. War of the Worlds

Yes.

[auntAgonist]

28. Death of Innocents: Sister Helen Prejean.

Very sobering and highly recommended.


aA

[BlueIris]

29. "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell."

And so far, (50 pages in) I'm not getting the hype. The ideas are interesting, the pacing is appropriate and consistent, the characters aren't cliched but--there is no craft within the prose.

[fizzgig]

30. public enemies:

america's greatest crime wave and the birth of the fbi, 1933-34

it's got dillenger, bonnie and clyde, pretty boy floyd, baby face nelson and the barker gang...it also shows what a pr whore j. edgar hoover was. i love it because it relates to my job. i would recommend it to any history buffs, enthusiats, etc.

but then again, i'm a junkie for a good crime story...

damn my job

[slybacon9]

32. The Princess Bride-- for someone you love to watch laugh.

Hysterical. Makes the movie look tame. The guy is a genius. Great for anyone you want to make laugh their ass off.

[slybacon9]

33. Let My People Go Surfing -- For the Business/Outdoor types

The guy who started Patagonia. A stunning human being. HIs life, his philosophy, his business plan, and his ecology. He is my new hero.

[slybacon9]

34. The Soul of the White Ant-- for the Scientist/Existentialists

A study of the great mystery that is the South African Termite. Discovery Channel meets The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying meets Winnie the Pooh.

[slybacon9]

35. Anything by David Sedaris -- for people who understand your sick humor

Naked is my favorite.
Me Talk Pretty One Day after that.

[slybacon9]

36. Doris Salcedo or Anselm Kieffer -- for the contemporary artists

Phaiedon has the best ones.

[slybacon9]

37. Velazquez -- for those who love painters

there is a great one with extreme close ups. Email me if you want the title.

[slybacon9]

38. Country of My Skull -- for the politcal/historians/poets

Anje Krog (sp?) reflects on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. It is without a doubt the most amazing book i have ever read.

[slybacon9]

39. Get Your War On -- For the person who loves politcal cartoons

Laugh till you cry shit.

[slybacon9]

40. God of Small Things. Arundhati Roy. For the poet/romantic

This is the best love story i ever read. It takes a bit to get into, to understand... But once you get the language she has created, the headache dissolves into bliss and amazement. It is phenomenal.

[slybacon9]

41. BTW, I'm not being a snob. I'm just trying to get to 400 POSTS

hahahaha. I'm like 4 away.

[slybacon9]

42. Ben Hogan's 5 Fundementals of Golf... For the Golfer.

Best Golf instruction book ever. And most widely sold sports instructional book ever.

Also... for the dads... Who's Your Caddy by Rick Rielly.

[slybacon9]

43. Winnie the Pooh... the Original Box Set - for reading to your kids.

If you haven't read Pooh in a long time, I highly recommend going back. you'll be surprised at just how brilliant it is. NOT the Disney books. The old skool ones.

[slybacon9]

44. 1000 Album Covers -- great gift. For the age old rocker.

Taschen. Good stuff if you are like me and just salivated over the sleeves.

[Taxloss]

45. "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" by Jane Jacobs

A real classic. As true today as ever.

[obxhead]

46. Gai-Jin... *****

It's third in a series of six.

The entire series is a must read.

[LittleClarkie]

47. Skeloton Man by Tony Hillerman. Eh, not his best

but I would recommend the series of Navajo detective stories as a whole. Very well written for the most part and interesting esp. if you're into Native American culture.

[auburngrad82]

48. A Life in A Year by James R Ebert

Subtitled The American Infantryman in Vietnam. First hand accounts and interviews with the men who lived it. It's amazing how much of it is comparable to Iraq.

[RubyDuby in GA]

50. Our Endangered Values by Jimmy Carter

And I would most definitely recommend it!

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

51. "The Power House" by Susan Trento

It's a biography of Robert Gray, who, after a few years in the Eisenhower Whitehouse, led the Washington branch of Hill & Knowlton. He organized the Reagan inaugral & spend most of the eighties running his own PR/lobbying firm before returning to Hill & Knowlton as chairman where he would lobby the Bush administration on behalf of the Kuwaiti government, for what would become the Gulf War.

I'm about 2/3 through the book and it's starting to get interesting. The first part was somewhat speculative, with Trento trying to connect Gray with several high-profile scandals (the sabotage of the 68 peace talks, Ambassadorships for cash, Koreagate, etc). However I'm now on the Reagan administration & Trento has interviews with some interesting people who shed quite a bit of light on the lobbying process and how it has utterly corrupted Washington politics. I'd recommend it, but withe the caveat - as it's out of print - not to spend too much tracking down a copy.

I picked it up after reading her husband - Joseph Trento - latest book "Prelude to Terror", which is great. It provides a framework for future research into the 70's CIA clampdown, 80's covert ops & "The Safari Club".

[MN ChimpH8R]

52. "To Serve Them All My Days"

by R. F. Delderfield. Lovely novel about a shell-shocked WWI vet who returns to Britain and becomes a teacher at a remote boys' school and finds his life there. Doesn't sound like much but it's a beautifully written chronicle of a life's trials, tribulations, defeats and triumphs. My favorite stand-alone novel, and I am re-reading it for the first time in about ten years.

[ucmike]

53. "Untied" - it was on the DU homepage for a few days

actually, i just read it. it was a good read, and reinforces alot of what i feel about the potential fall of the "american empire". it does a lot towards dispelling the notion that america has some kind of "manifest destiny" towards greatness and suffers from some of the same afflictions as the great, and departed, empires of the past.

the writing style is somewhat quirky, but it was an easy read. the copy i had was a pre-printing copy, so it didn't have a lot of the graphics that ended up in the finished edition, but it was very informative, regardless.

[bikebloke]

54. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby

Better than I thought it would be. At a notorious suicide locale in London four suiciders meet.

Just finished The City of Falling Angels. He spent too much time with the american ex-pats and fund raising. I would have preferred more local colour.

[Greyhound]

55. The Dog Listener, and yes I highly recommend it. n/t

[bif]

56. "The Twenties" by Edmund Wilson

I like it but it's not for everyone.

[peekaloo]

57. "The Areas of My Expertise" by John Hodgman.

The man is warped.

:thumbsup:

[fudge stripe cookays]

58. Just started "Ex Libris" by Ross King,

and it's WONDERFUL so far. My mom brought it up during her Thanksgiving visit and recommended it.

It's all about a bookseller who has a shop on London Bridge in the late 1600s. There's intrigue involved. And there's already been one murder. I'm only maybe 50 pages into it.

He's about to be swept into a huge adventure by a mysterious woman whose father had an impressive library, but their family has fallen on hard times, since Cromwell's soldiers looted and essentially destroyed their home but for the books.

I can't wait to see what happens next!