Read any good books lately?

roshke · 11-02-2006, 07:44 PM

It's been awhile since we've talked about books. I'm supposed to come up with several picks for our next book club meeting. Any suggestions? We just read A History of Love by Nicole Krauss which was really great. This month is Jeanette Walls' The Glass Castle - I haven't started that one yet. Thanks.

parent2noles · 11-02-2006, 07:49 PM

File System Forensic Analysis by Brian Carrier?

ldmom06 · 11-02-2006, 08:00 PM

I'm reading The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen and it is pretty good. I really think some of those here who question our involvement in Iraq will appreciate the storyline.

From Publishers Weekly:
It is the autumn of 1918 and a world war and an influenza epidemic rage outside the isolated utopian logging community of Commonwealth, Wash. In an eerily familiar climate of fear, rumor and patriotic hysteria, the town enacts a strict quarantine, posting guards at the only road into town. A weary soldier approaches the gate on foot and refuses to stop. Shots ring out, setting into motion a sequence of events that will bring the town face-to-face with some of the 20th-century's worst horrors. Mullen's ambitious debut is set against a plausibly sketched background, including events such the Everett Massacre (between vigilantes and the IWW), the political repression that accompanied the U.S. entry into WWI and the rise of the Wobblies......

lorelei2702 · 11-02-2006, 08:11 PM

I have it from the library (the Mullen) but have not yet started. It reminded me of "Year of Wonders", the premise of quarantining a community. That was a wonderful book. Have you read it?

momof2inca · 11-02-2006, 08:40 PM

Funniest book I've read this year: "Marley and Me: Adventures with the World's Worst Dog" by John Grogin.

Even if you aren't a dog fan, you will love this book.

ldmom06 · 11-02-2006, 08:47 PM

I've only read a few chapters of the Mullen book, but it is very interesting. My problem is the only time I get to read uninterrupted is when I'm sitting in a car waiting for a kid...so it's fits and starts which drives me crazy. I like to get really absorbed in a book and these days, that's impossible.

And I have read Year of Wonders; it's a book I bought for my daughter. My family are Vickers from Sheffield, so I found the whole storyline about George Vicars (Vickers), the tailor who unwittingly had The Plague delivered to Eyam in a fabric shipment, intriguing. Plus, my d's NHD project was about The Plague. Year of Wonders is a great read.

UCLAri · 11-02-2006, 08:50 PM

Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created its Own Lost Generation by Michael Zielenziger.

But then again, this may not appeal to everyone...

Oh, and Collapse by Jared Diamond was pretty good, if only a big depressing.

mathmom · 11-02-2006, 08:51 PM

For the book club Charles Baxter's The Feast of Love might be interesting. It's a bit literary in the way it is presented and starts with several Rashomon-like chapters where different characters gave their versions of what happened. I thought the book fizzled out a bit at the end, but I liked the beginning enough I'd recommend it anyway.

patient · 11-02-2006, 09:20 PM

Anne Tyler: Digging to America

Sue Miller: The World Below (but dating to 2002 so perhaps it has already been read by the book club)

latetoschool · 11-02-2006, 09:37 PM

House of Leaves, Mark Danielewski. The storyline is very interesting, hard to put down, but at the same time hard to read - I am finding the format irritating. At first it wasn't bad but as I get deeper into the book it's less and less pleasant.

I'd love to know if anyone else has made it all the way through to the end, and if it was worth it...

weenie · 11-02-2006, 09:37 PM

^^^ I also liked Marley and Digging to America.

I'm so far behind...

But I just finished The Devil in the White City. It's a true story about the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and a serial killer that was loose there. Fascinating stuff about the fair - really interesting. And the creepy side story of the murderer - well, it was just so engrossing.

Loved it!

parent2noles · 11-02-2006, 10:00 PM

^^ I have wanted to read that one. I heard about the story for the first time a few months ago. Hard to believe.

zip100 · 11-03-2006, 07:51 AM

I just finished reading "The Ha-Ha" a first novel by David King. This is the best book I've read in a while. I laughed and I cried. Basic story is about a guy rendered mute by a brain injury suffered in Vietnam and what happens to his life when he agrees to take care of the nine year old son of a friend for a short while. Good book to refocus me on appreciating simple things in a world that seems pretty messed up overall. A good break from the political nonfiction and novels set in war torn areas that I seem to have been reading lately.

-Allmusic- · 11-03-2006, 07:55 AM

Just finished "Glass Castles". Am starting "The Lost, A Seach for Six of the Six Million" by Daniel Mendelsohn.

fendrock · 11-03-2006, 08:03 AM

Allmusic, I bought the Mendelsohn book, but haven't started it yet.

I just finished Prisoners, by Jeffrey Goldberg. It is a personal account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Another one which could spark some interesting discussion is Single by Chance, Mothers by Choice, by Rosanna Hertz. Although it is about women who decide to become single mothers (through adoption, anonymous donor, etc.), it raises alot of questions about the role of fathers.