<p>I am reading the new David Sedaris book, “When you are engulfed in flames”.<br>
I love to hear what people are reading.</p>
<p>Same as you, actually!</p>
<p>Just finished “Exit Ghost” by Philip Roth.</p>
<p>Read this last summer and am still thinking about it:
The Last Samurai, by Helen DeWitt – no, it has nothing to do with the Tom Cruise movie. It’s a novel about a single mom raising and educating her genius son. (He, it’s just the reading for the CC crowd!)</p>
<p>I recently finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Just started 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Marquez Garcia.</p>
<p>Finally got around to Blood Meridian; am in the middle of it now. A great and glorious trainwreck of a masterpiece. “See the child.” Some child. Like Faulkner dictating the King James version according to Dostoyevsky of a Portrait of Huck pursuing the white whale. Love it.</p>
<p>Next up: The Nightingale’s Song then Final Salute.</p>
<p>Wow, you guys read the heavy hitting stuff! (I’ve got The Road sitting on my TBR pile.) Along with the Sedaris book, I’m reading “Water for elephants” by Sara Gruen. I’ve been promised a great story, well written and sigh! a happy ending. We’ll see. I just finished “Sudden Sea”. Its about the great 1938 hurricane that hit Rhode Island and changed the northeastern sea coastline. Great Book if you like “In to Thin Air” and “The perfect Storm”. But please more books. I love Art books.</p>
<p>Finishing up “The Subtle Knife”, the last part of the His Dark Materials trilogy. Then I will start “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” by Moshin Hamid. Am in the middle of Obama’s “Dreams from my Father”. I have touble just starting one book, finishing, and then starting another. I always seem to get caught reading 2 or more simultaneously. Also using summer travel time to catch up on old issues of The New Yorker.</p>
<p>I’ve recommended this book on CC before, but I think it was on the Tulane thread, however, in light of the recent flooding in Iowa and now Missouri, esplly with the levees breaking, I submit once again “Rising Tide” by John Barry. It’s kind of large, but completely engrossing account of the history and building of the Miss. river levees, the engineers and politicians behind that and the Corps of Engineers, and the 1927 flood. A terrific example of history that reads like fiction. A paperback version is currently on sale for $5 on the bargain book table at Barnes and Noble.</p>
<p>Some great books:
Certain Girls - Jennifer Weiner
The new Jhumpa Lahari book of short stories
Just finished Fat Envelope Frenzy about 5 students in the Class of 2011 trying to get into Harvard.
I have heard wonderful things about Water for Elephants.
Another book that is getting rave reviews is " Gossip of the Startlings", about two girls at boarding school . Kind of a darker “Prep”.
Another good book is “Looking for Alaska” by John Green.</p>
<p>Another great book if “God of Animals” about a 12 year old girl living on a horse ranch.</p>
<p>Water for Elephants was pretty outstanding.</p>
<p>I am reading the new David Sedaris, the new Augusten Burroughs about his abusive father (heavy stuff), “Girls Like Us” - a biography of Joni Mitchell, Carole King and Carly Simon all rolled into one, and the Barbara Walters memoir, all the the same time…my D has to read Freakonomics for her AP Econ/Gov class, so I’ll probably read that too (sounds like I am the last person in the world to do so!)</p>
<p>When We Get to Surf City by Bob Greene. Must read for 50s/60s age group who grew up listening to Jan&Dean, Beach Boys, etc. I love Bob Greene (the writer- not Oprah’s trainer)</p>
<p>Really enjoyed The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster recently. This week I’m reading On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (beautifully, beautifully written!).</p>
<p>I’m reading City of Glass by Paul Auster right now and thoroughly enjoying it. I just cannot get through One Hundred Years of Solitude. I am about two-thirds finished, with starts and stops, and don’t like it but it has gotten so many rave reviews I feel compelled to make myself finish it.</p>
<p>Kind of embarrassing…but I have to admit I was fascinated with “Escape” by Carolyn Jessop. It’s the true story of a woman who escaped from the FLDS cult with her children. It was horrifying but I couldn’t tear myself away. It put a whole new light on the recent Texas seizure of the FLDS children.</p>
<p>Was going to go get started on my new Philip Roth novel, “The War Against America”, but I can’t find it. Too long since I’ve read, I suppose.</p>
<p>Water for Elephants was wonderful. The kind of book that doesn’t make you feel guilty for less reaeable stuff. Just finished The Whistling Season - feel lonely for the wide open spaces…
Please send me some good empty fun from the library this summer!</p>
<p>I have read:
Animal Farm
Slaughter-house Five
The curious incident of the dog in the night-time</p>
<p>Rest of list I created for myself:
The Sex Lives of Cannibals
Finding Darwin’s God
The Monster of Florence
Marley and Me
The Art of Racing in the Rain
Ciao America
La Bella Figura</p>
<p>I started reading “God is Not Great” by Christopher Hitchens and (for counter-balance) “I Don’t Believe in Atheists” by Christopher Hedges. Interesting interpretations on both sides–arguments of Hitchens are directly addressed in Hedges’ book.</p>