<p>Ugh, Charlotte Simmons! There were lots of individual scenes or bits in the book that I loved – the paragraph on “F*** Patois” is a complete classic – but on the whole I thought it was over-hysterical and mostly unconnected to reality. Plus, there was a pretense that what was being described was some sort of universal condition, except 80% of the book seemed really specific to Duke and its quite unique combination of qualities.</p>
<p>I’m currently reading The First Desire by Nancy Reisman, who is a professor at the University of Michigan (just to keep this college related!). It’s a beautifully written novel about a family living in Buffalo, NY in the first half of the 20th century. Wonderful character development and a story that engages the reader right from the start. Am enjoying it very much.</p>
<p>Also, in the past month, I’ve read a series of very interesting mysteries by John Dunning, starting with Booked to Die. The main character is an ex-cop who is now a ‘bookman’, a collector and seller of rare books. The author is also a ‘bookman’ so there is a lot of very interesting detail about the book world, in addition to the excellent story in each book.</p>
<p>My Christmas list rarely has much on it except for a long list of books. This year is no exception, and it seems to grow daily as I hear, or read, about new books coming out. I’m at #10 and counting! Am also asking for a new hardcover edition of the Tales of the City series by Armistead Maupin. Have read all of them but have also loaned them out to too many people over the years and didn’t get all of them back, and I’d love to read them all again.</p>
<p>I also disliked “Charlotte Simmons” but I did enjoy “Prep.” One of my favorites, though, is “The Red Tent” which you’ve probably already read for your book club.</p>
<p>Recently “The Goal” by Eliyahu Goldratt. Not such a good novel, but a great book on business strategy.</p>
<p>Last week I read “Godforsaken Sea” by Derek Lundy – above average sea story about the Vendee Globe around-the-world-solo-nonstop sailboat race. Amazing story about seriously strange people in an incredibly dangerous event. I also read “Eight Men and a Duck” about planning-deficient strangers on an expedition from Chile to Easter Island on a reed boat. I’d recommend “Godforsaken Sea,” but you could just get the Duck book at the library.</p>
<p>I’m down to staring at my bookcase of “to read” books right now and I’m having trouble getting inspired. Maybe I will finally get all the way through “Moby Dick.” Of course, I haven’t read “Catch-22” in about 10 years, so it might be time to visit with Yossarian and company again.</p>
<p>“Phantoms in the Brain” by Ramachandran. It’s a very readable book describing some of the mysteries of the brain.</p>
<p>I love your description of Outlander. I found it very hard to put down even if it was a bodice ripper. Unfortunately I enjoyed each book in the series less than the one before it.</p>
<p>Talk about being somewhat embarassed about an audiobook I listened to Skinny Dip by Carl Hiassan in the car with my then 16 yo son. I thought he was reading his own book until he started chortling at all the right moments. The book is a great car read by the way - but it does have a couple of raunch bits. (Plot begins with our heroine being pushed overboard on an anniversary cruise by her husband - unfortunately for him he didn’t know she was an excellent swimmer. The book is about her trying to figure out why he did it, and getting her revenge.)</p>
<p>Lots of great ideas - with the exception of yours parent2noles, er, I don’t think I’m going to be delving into that particular title any time too soon! With the exception of Charlotte Simmons and The Red Tent we haven’t read any of these yet. Here’s a contribution of mine from an earlier thread on books appropriate for vacation reading - I was gearing my suggestions toward that, but still included a lot of my then favorites.</p>
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<p>I just finished rereading Pride and Prejudice, which only improves with age.</p>
<p>Now I’m starting Stan Waterman’s Sea Salt, which is the memoirs of an 83 year old man who loves the ocean and all its creatures and has spent most of his life filming marine life. (His documentary Blue Water White Death (1971) led somewhat directly to Peter Benchley’s Jaws (1974).) I met Waterman last month and found his stories enthralling and his book is more of the same.</p>
<p>I am also rereading Jean Donaldson’s excellent book on dog training, Culture Clash, as I deal with my new puppy, who is now five months old. Her current favorite recreation is to chew up a wad of toilet paper and then spit it out. Ick.</p>
<p>Speaking of Jane Austen, I’m currently reading *Miss Jane Fairfax *by Joan Aiken. It’s Emma with more backstory and focussed on Miss Jane. Rather fun.</p>
<p>roshke, I am crushed. 
</p>
<p>Nerds everywhere will cry themselves to sleep tonight knowing that the latest and greatest book on file system forensics has been dismissed without even a cursory read by the denizens of the cc.</p>
<p>Highlights and kudos: “This is the foundation book for file system analysis. Brian Carrier has done what needed to be done in the field.”</p>
<p>Plus - <em>this is exciting</em> 
“The Definitive Guide to File System Analysis: Key Concepts and Hands-on Techniques”</p>
<p>More…</p>
<p>Direct vs. BIOS access, dead vs. live acquisition, identifying hidden data in the HPA, analyzing DOS, NTFS, HFS+ and GPT partitions, BSD disk labels, Sun Volume Table concepts…</p>
<p>I mean this book is one that you cannot put down - even to sleep! </p>
<p>:) (lol)</p>
<p>Latetoschool: House of Leaves??? Are you kidding??? It’s a great book, but it’s also extremely demanding. (Danielewski’s newest novel is a finalist for the National Book Award.)</p>
<p>Mathmom: I second Baxter’s The Feast of Love, although it might not have a strong enough plot for the usual book club.</p>
<p>Roshke: You could do Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close as a companion to Krauss’s book, since the two are husband and wife. There are some sly references in each to the other’s work - and both books are excellent. Have you done The Time Traveler’s Wife yet? That seems to be a popular book club choice. Kirin Desai just won the Man Booker Prize for The Inheritance of Loss; I haven’t read it yet, although I will soon.</p>
<p><the amalgamation=“” polka,by=“” stephen=“” wright.=“”></the></p>
<p>Yes, drb! Great choice.</p>
<p>I read “Glass Castles” recently, and loved it, except that I kept wanting to reach through the pages to throttle those parents.</p>
<p>extremely loud and incredibly close by jonathan safran foer. so so so good</p>
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Which end?? <em>lol</em> :D</p>
<p>I read nearly all of that book, and my reaction to it was similar to yours. As I progressed through the book, I found the format more and more irritating. Someday I’ll try to go back and read that last little bit…</p>
<p>I’m currently reading The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards. It’s engaging, but I’ll have to see what happens at the end before I decide whether or not I truly like the novel.</p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p>Memory Keeper’s Daughter is my book group’s next choice. Comes after the Mendelsohn book.</p>
<p>Momwaitingfornew, I really liked the Time Traveler’s Wife. We just Netflixed The Lake House, which was similar in theme - about two people who realized they are living in two different time periods (two years apart). Speaking of Jane Austen (my favorite author), it’s influenced by “Persuasion”, as is the novel “Jane Austen in Scarsdale” (about college admissions!). </p>
<p>So many great ideas on this thread!</p>
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<p>Having never done so, I went into a Jane Austen thing last year, and read P&P, S&S, and another title that temporarily slips my age-advantaged brane. I admired them more than liked them, actually. I can see how ground-breaking they were 200 years ago, but compared to modern fiction they don’t cover much ground. I felt guilty…</p>
<p>A few years ago I also reread Pride and Prejudice and loved it. I then had to read all of her books. Unfortunately, she never got a chance to write too many of them. I then switched to Anthony Trollope’s 6 books in his Barsetshire Chronicles. I had never read them before, but I enjoyed them very much (except for the first). </p>
<p>I just finished reading “Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood,” by Marjane Satrapi. Has anyone heard of it? I have no idea how I got the name of it, but it is a graphic novel a/k/a a comic book novel. I didn’t know what to expect really, although the customer reviews on Amazon were overwhelmingly good. I read it and thought it was excellent. </p>
<p>The author writes about (and simply, but cleverly illustrates ) her life in Iran from the age of 10, with the Islamic revolution of 1979 until she was 14 when the Iran-Iraq war was going on and her parents sent her to Europe for safety. She really captures the child’s view of a scary world around her. I recommend it. ANd of course, it is a quick read.:)</p>
<p>My friends have insisted that I now read something by Fannie Flagg as I haven’t read any of her books. So I am about to start Fried Green Tomatoes. </p>
<p>Don’t have anything on my list after that.</p>
<p>I’ll have to look for Culture Clash. I have a 6 month old Bearded Collie, and they are fondly called, “Bouncing Beardies” for a reason. As she gets bigger, her habit of jumping up to say, “hello” isn’t so cute anymore. And the barking, and the ripping up all sorts of paper and the …</p>
<p>I reread Pride and Prejudice a few years ago and loved it. Then I was compelled to read her other books. Sadly, she didn’t live long enough to write more. I then turned to Anthony Trollope who I hadn’t read before. I read the 6 books of his Barsetshire Chronicles, and except for the first (which is short), I enjoyed them very much. Would recommend them.</p>
<p>My friends have now insisted that I read Fannie Flagg as I haven’t read anything by her before. So I’m about to start Fried Green Tomatoes. (I didn’t see the film.) After that, I don’t have anything on my list, so this discussion is timely for me.</p>