What Are You Reading Now?

DDD

Well-Known Member
I've got a cup of HMJ :)happy: isn't that what we all used to call it? and whose kid named it? I can't remember!) and The Associate by Grisham. I also have Sum by Eagleman which I'm not sure I'll enjoy. It is "a captivating collection of vignettes that portray possible afterlives..". We'll see if it captiates me, lol. For husband I have The Gamble by Thomas Ricks which is a history of Petraeus & the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008. I think that will be his cup of tea.

I just finished The Leisure Seekers and highly recommend it for those who are middleaged plus. It's a novel about an elderly couple who take a final roadtrip together. For me it was delightful reading but, lol, I am nearly as old as they and can appreciate it.

So, what are you guys reading? DDD
 
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totoro

Mom? What's a difficult child?
Just finished "19 Minutes" by Jodi Picoult

I am now reading, "The Hour I first Believed" by Wally Lamb
Both very good...
Funny I had no intentions of reading Columbine or Columbine related books, but they both have this theme.

Oh in between "19 Minutes" I read an incredible book about Mental Illness.

It was called "Hurry down Sunshine" by Micheal Greenberg
It is his factual story of his 15 yo daughter's spiral downward and Hospitalization in NYC.
Greenberg is a columnist and writer for many different publications and did a wonderful job with this short book.
He writes beautifully and captures how this quick event changed an entire family but eventually drew them closer.
 

Abbey

Spork Queen
I'm in a self pity mode so I've slowly be rereading The Portable Nietzschie. It's making my brain spin. It's only 692 pages long.

I still have the book list that I made a year or so ago from the board. If you send me a summary I'll add it to the list. Just email me.

Abbey
 

ScentofCedar

New Member
American Wife ~ Sittenfeld (Just finished this one today. I thoroughly enjoyed it.)

People Who Walk in Darkness ~ Kaminsky (Starting this one now. Mystery, I think.)

Self Esteem ~ McKay/Fanning (This is my gazillionth time reading this book. The best of its kind, I think.)

Greater Trumps ~ Charles Williams (An oldie but goodie. This is my favorite author ~ most of his books are out of print now, if I'm not mistaken. I read him again and again.)

Tampa Burn ~ Randy Wayne Wright Local author ~ very, very good!

Barbara
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
Just finished "Salem Falls" and "Perfect Match" by Jodi Picoult, "A Sterling Affair" by Susan Palmquist (e-book), and am working on "Eyes of Stone" by Tara Nina (e-book). In between these, I'm reading "Adults on the Autism Spectrum Leave the Nest", which Fran recommended.
 

muttmeister

Well-Known Member
In the last couple of weeks I've finished Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevsky), The Broken Window (the latest Lincoln Rhyme mystery by Jeffery Deaver, Spider Mountain by P.T. Deutermann, and The Nightmare Years 1930-1940 by William L. Shirer. The last one was really interesting as he was a correspondent in Germany as the Nazis were coming to power. What he had to say at the beginning of the book about Afghanistan at that period was interesting too.
Our book club is reading 19 Minutes by Jodi Picoult for this month but I haven't started it yet.
I was at the library today and brought home Visions of Sugarplums by Janet Evanovich, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, The Robe by Lloyd Douglas, The Charlemagne Pursuit by Steve Berry, Arctic Drift by Clive Cussler (the latest Dirk Pitt novel), and The Natural Shade Garden by Ken Druse which is supposed to help me with planting my new bed on the north side of my house. Between doing spring cleaning, working in the yard, and reading, I keep pretty busy. LOL
 

mstang67chic

Going Green
Funny you should start this thread as I've been to two book stores in the last two days. Store one, I purchased (don't mind me....I'm on a bit of a paranormal bend these days) book two of a hilarious series....Road Trip of the Living Dead by Mark Henry, Island of the Blue Dolphins (for husband's niece) and the latest in a YA series that I love Seraph of Sorrow by MaryJanice Davidson and her husband Anthony Alongi. Some of you Minnesotians may recognize them as they live there and MJ writes grown up stuff too.

Yesterday I discovered my new Heaven! LOL A new Half Price Books store opened and I got Real Vampires Have Curves by Gerry Bartlett, Mensa Murders by Lee Martin and the Dictionary of Phrase and Fable for reference when I succumb to my writing bug. That store is awesome! I bought those three books PLUS I paid for my brother's choice....the ENTIRE box set of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and spent a whopping.....


ready for this?



TWENTY THREE dollars!!!!

Their book marks list other stores in Indiana but I've never heard of it. I'm not sure if it's just a regional thing but if you have one near you....check it out. Books are cheap and you can sell your used books also! Nothing like an easy way to feed your habit!!!

They also had movies (DVD and VHS) as well as cd's, cassettes and TONS of vinyl! I think I'm going to have to get a turntable.
 
I read The Associate (Grisham) a couple weeks ago, and just finished his The Final Juror. I am currently reading Circle of Friends (Maeve Binchy) and have loved every one of her books so far!
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
Hubby surprised me with a trip to Borders (one of my very favorite places) today! I got "Rhett Butler's People", what his family might have been like if he'd been a real person (does that even makes sense?), "Before Green Gables", similar, just regarding Anne Shirley, "A Bend in the Road" by Nicholas Sparks, and because so many of you have mentioned them, "The Glass Castle", "She's Come Undone", and "The Hour I First Believed".

I also have three e-books waiting for review.
 

Marguerite

Active Member
I like the sound of the Anne Shirley book, I read just about everything written by L M Montgomery. I have an early copy of "Further Chronicles of Avonlea" which I think might be a 1st edition, although it's in rough shape, having been eaten a bit by worms. I often use it in writing classes as a wonderful example of efficnet writing, good characterisation being shown, not told.

I'm currently working my way through a book you won't have heard of. "Razor" by Larry Writer is te story of central Sydney's underworld in the 1920s and 1930s, the two women primarily who were competitors in the prostitution and sly grog industries, whose hired thugs were involved in some nasty fights often using cutthroat razors. The suburb of Darlinghurst became colloqially known as "Razorhurst". difficult child 3's school, the correspondence one which we occasionally have to go and visit in person (two trips there this week, two last week) is right in the middle of it, Woolloomooloo. If you can picture Kings Cross as an eagle perched on the clifftop, Woolloomooloo is tucked into a shore cave just below the cliff. Kings Cross is THE place to go for seedy nightlife, it's loaded with strip joints, nightclubs etc. Think a smaller, seedier version of Vegas. Definitely a place for tourists to visit by day - it's actually quite safe by day. But by night, do not let a woman walk the streets alone there, unless she's carrying a large anvil inside her handbag. If we're travelling to difficult child 3's school by train, we get off in Kings Cross. It's quite a pretty walk.
Woolloomooloo is rough in some places, peaceful and safe in others. A few houses one way or another can make the difference. You just have to have your internal radar switched on. It's definitely working class, the battlers' suburb. We walk past groups of junkies doing deals, huddles of homeless people in shapeless rags. They generally leave us alone as long as we keep moving. They don't want too much attention. There is a cop shop handy, anyway.

It's been fascinating to read this interesting stuff from Sydney history. The reason it was two women who ruled the mobs, was because there was a loophole in the law. It was illegal for a man to earn money from the earnings of prostitutes, but it wasn't illegal for a woman to do so. The two women, Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh, made a lot of money form drugs also. Drugs, women, grog. We had a minni-prohibition in Sydney at the time, alcohol was not permitted to be served after 6 pm, but Kate Leigh especially ran a number of places ("sly grog shops") which supplied after-hours drinkers and she invested in police pay-offs as well. She could afford to buy good stuff from the breweries, so got regular, higher class clientele. She also populated her sly grog shops with prostitutes (as well as being "on the game" herself) so there was money to be made at every turn. But laws were changed, firearms became very tightly licenced in 1927 and anyone caught with an unlicenced firearm got an automatic prison sentence, so crooks began carrying razors instead. They quickly found that a very sharp razor was more terrifying than a gun, especially to people who relied on their looks for their income.

And where did a lot of the overflow of these crooks live? Woolloomooloo!

A fascinating book.

Marg
 
I've just begun reading "A Boy Named Shel" , which is a biography of Shel Silverstein - who is one of my favorite children's books authors : "The Giving Tree", "Where the Sidewalk Ends". easy child loved those books. Shel was quite the original quirky guy - but what a creative guy!

Here's my stack that I'm taking back to the library today: "Glorious One-Pot Meals", "Gardens, An Essay On the Human Condition", "The First Women Architects", and "Gardens of Historic Charleston". Spring is in the air here, and I spent most of the day in the my garden yesterday!

So many of you have mentioned "19 Minutes", I have requested from the library. It sounds like a winner!

Valerie
 
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DDD

Well-Known Member
I agree, Valerie. It makes me want to load up the car with books, grab a credit card and go somewhere near the beach and just read, read, and read, ;) DDD
 

trinityroyal

Well-Known Member
Ooooh! Some great ideas here. I'm going to print out this thread.

I just finished re-reading Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. Also, Secrets of the Baby Whisperer.
I am on the last chapter of Sacred Bull, a book about office politics and how not to get swept into it.
Just started re-reading The Scarlet Pimpernel. husband and I watched the movie with Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon recently, which got me yearning to read the book.
I've just ordered Shakedown, by Ezra Levant, and can't wait for it to arrive.
I have a stack of books by my bedside, just waiting. husband and I each received a pile of books for Christmas, so we've been reading and swapping them. Included in the pile are
Scat by Carl Hiassen
A bunch of Lee Child thrillers featuring Jack Reacher
The Holy Thief, one of the Brother Cadfael mysteries
One of Debbie Macomber's Angel books. (Didn't get around to reading it at Christmas, my usual tradition, so I'm catching up now)
Children, Youth and Adults with Asperger Syndrome, by Kevin Stoddart. Been meaning to read this for years. I've had the opportunity to work with Dr. Stoddart and he's brilliant. This is the book they use in the Autism Support curriculum at our local university.

Trinity
 

totoro

Mom? What's a difficult child?
I am reading this wonderful thing called "What are you reading now"
by: DDD
On: A Watercooler
 

'Chelle

Active Member
Right now I'm reading His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. Have had the book on the shelf for quite a while and finally started last night. Next on the shelf at home waiting is The Appeal by John Grisham. Just finished reading Bones by Jonathon Kellerman and Wrath of A Mad God by Raymond Feist. Before that I went through one of my periods of reading gratuitous romance with a bunch of Sherrilyn Kenyon Dark Hunter/Dream Hunter novels

DDD - that's my fantasy life. A beach, quiet, and all the books I can read
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
I finished "Before Green Gables" last night. I really enjoyed it. The author did a great job explaining Anne's early life, and I could see how she became the Anne in the first book.

Now I need to go paint the bathroom.
 

Marg's Man

Member
Textbooks. The worst part of college has been the lack of time to read for pleasure.


ALWAYS make time to read for pleasure, even it's just the funny pages in the paper. Reading is THE greatest pleasure. How else can you travel from Ancient Egypt to the literal end of Time and Space - while riding the train/bus. I know it's a drag having to read set works and technical journals but I always read a little for pleasure every day, even it is in bed before I pass out from exhaustion.

I have just finished re-reading a couple of Michael Crichton books, The Terminal Man and The Andromeda Strain. Although they are marketed as science fiction I find them more interesting as essays on scientific ethics.
I'll probably start on a historical novel next - I'm still debating with myself whether it will be Nigel Tranter's Bruce Trilogy (about Robert the Bruce) or Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series. Or I must just pick up another Terry Pratchett - he's Marg's favourite author but I can't split him away from about six or seven others who are very high in my list.

Marg's Man
 

'Chelle

Active Member
Marg's Mann - love Michael Crichton books. State of Fear and Next have become my favorites. Very thought provoking. Does make you take a closer look on scientific ethics, and to question everything that's said and not just be accepting of what you're told.
 
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