BS: Read any good books lately?

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: quokka
Date: 23 Jul 08 - 12:44 PM

Also just re-read Paulo Coelho's 'The Alchemist'. This is one book I can read over and over, although if you haven't guessed by now I'm a wee bit of a bookworm...I haunt libraries and second-hand bookshops. Rarely buy a 'brand-new' book - I figure there's so much to read, so little time, plus I can usually get it from the library if it's newish. I read fiction, biographies, oh heck I think this topic needs a new thread! Fave authors, perhaps...ooh I just remembered, I absolutely LOVE Jonathon Livingston Seagull. I guess I'd better stop before I get too carried away...
Cheers,
Quokka

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: irishenglish
Date: 23 Jul 08 - 12:05 PM

Been catching up on Paul Auster-Oracle Night, Travels In The Scriptorum. Currently reading Michael Palin's Diaries 1969-1979, The Python Years. Very good read for anyone interested in Python.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: SharonA
Date: 23 Jul 08 - 11:35 AM

"Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why" by Bart D. Ehrman.

This is a kind of a beginner's book for people who are interested in the ways that New Testament manuscripts were altered and modified, intentionally and unintentionally, by copyists and translators before the invention of the printing press (and the interpretations of those different versions up to the present day). It's written in a much simpler style than many other scholarly works on the subject of early-Christian research and exegesis (including other books by the same author).

As with most works of this type, Ehrman has a bias in his interpretation of the available data, but Ehrman makes his opinions quite clear and explains in his introduction the unexpected path his own belief has taken that has led him to form those opinions. He was "saved" during the evangelical push of the early '70s and attended the ultra-evangelical Moody and Wheaton colleges, but his research and even his education caused him to question and finally to reject the fundamentalist agenda.

If you too have come to the realization that not every word in the Bible is literally true, if you wonder whether the Gnostics were really so heretical after all, if you're not ready to slog through a tiny-fonted tome by Elaine Pagels or Bruce Metzger, then try this book!

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 23 Jul 08 - 10:21 AM

I loved Nuala O'Faolins Book Are You Somebody and so bought her novel My Dream of You. I have not read it yet and in fact I'd forgotten I owned it. Thanks for the mention of it, I will start it tonight.
Have recently read The Towers of Trebizond by Rose McCaulay. Just grand and one of the best opening lines of any novel ever.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Gulliver
Date: 23 Jul 08 - 09:57 AM

Reading Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything". Excellent!

Don

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,Quokka
Date: 23 Jul 08 - 08:57 AM

Yes, Nuala is Sean O'Faolin's daughter.
Cheers,
Quokka

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 23 Jul 08 - 08:12 AM

"Being from Oz I may have missed a vital piece of context and I'm trying to avoid any sense of disparagement;"


                      It's funny how I just assumed everyone would know the context of being in prison in America. It's all about racial identity, so this fellow is segregated into a small group of Native Americans. There are far more Mexicans, Blacks, and Neo-Nazi Whites. If there are Asians, I don't think they distinguish between Chinese and Koreans, or whatever, but they have to be a member of a group to survive.
                      In any event, untill he gets out, he'll be wrapped up in whatever it means to be Native American.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 23 Jul 08 - 08:03 AM

"Nuala O Faolin's"


               Is that Sean O'Faolin's daughter?

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: quokka
Date: 23 Jul 08 - 05:27 AM

Oh and also Felicity Kendal's autobiography 'White Cargo'. Fascinating read. What a life she's had!

Cheers,
Quokka

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: quokka
Date: 23 Jul 08 - 03:25 AM

I've read Nuala O Faolin's 'Are You Somebody?' which was very good.
Just finished 'Unstrung Heroes'by Franz Lidz - hilarious. Mudcateers who enjoy puns will love this memoir.
Recently re-read Joan Baez 'And a Voice to Sing With' and Woody Guthrie's 'Bound for Glory'. Pure gold!
I've usually got three or four different books on the go, depending on what I'm in the mood for.
Am right in the middle of a Richard Thompson biography called 'Strange Affair' by Patrick Humphries. It's pretty good.
Nearly forgot! Yesterday I read 'Lady Sings the Blues' !!! Wow. This is a re-release with CD attached. It is well worth a look.

Cheers,
Quokka

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Jul 08 - 01:52 AM

That is so true, Rowan. I have found some wonderful reads just by perusing this thread, as you know.:-)

Just finished Nuala O'Faolain's "My Dream of You". Quite good, esp. with the true life divorce case from 1849 which is included, some of its duocuments verbatim. Some of her descriptions of Ireland are breathtakinginly, achingly beautiful.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Rowan
Date: 23 Jul 08 - 12:41 AM

He's in his mid-fifties, he's a Native American--West Coast--and he's led a really tough life.
                      What should I send him?

Being from Oz I may have missed a vital piece of context and I'm trying to avoid any sense of disparagement; are you requesting a preferred or limited set of topics for your friend?

If variety is what you're looking for, a quick scan through the thread should give you a host of recommendations with only the occasional critical comment. If your friend likes reading but has a limited ability/vocabulary/etc I suspect you could still pull out quite a few suitable books from the ones listed in the thread.

Best of luck!

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 23 Jul 08 - 12:03 AM

Kat - Thank you so much!

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Jul 08 - 11:31 PM

Anything by Sherman Alexie. Here's his site: Click. I esp. liked Indian Killer and Smoke Signals. The latter was made into an excellent movie.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 22 Jul 08 - 11:11 PM

Great! I'm not trying to get the guy killed!

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: bobad
Date: 22 Jul 08 - 10:35 PM

Here's one that might come in handy "How To Break Out Of Prison"

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 22 Jul 08 - 10:01 PM

A friend of my son's is in prison for holding up a gas station. It was a Texaco gas station, so who could blame him. I don't think he has much formal education, but he seems to read pretty well. He likes to have me send him books. I have to have them sent directly for Amazon.com or Barnes&Noble, or etc., or the guards think there's something in the book and take them apart to investigate, ruining the books.
                      He's in his mid-fifties, he's a Native American--West Coast--and he's led a really tough life.
                      What should I send him?

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Skivee
Date: 22 Jul 08 - 03:02 AM

Neal Stephenson's Crytonomicon. It's not some crappy book about priests bringing the dead back to life.
It's a well written, multi timeline, 1,000 page sci-fi brick. It stretches across the globe, from WWII to a near future where people and industries are building towards more into an intensely more digital life.
A hefty amount of cryptograpghic and ramdomness theory is thrown in as narrative. At one point one of our heroes is bicycling in the Pine Barrens with Alan Turing. He notices that Turning chain pops off periodically. There's a 4 page discussion on the calculus behind the chain popping of. It's backed up by numerous complex formulas. Along the way, you learn stuff about random things that aren't. This should have made me want to stab my eyes out with my reading light, but it was totally engrossing.
Code theory and calulus as entertainment reading !! Who knew?

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Joe_F
Date: 21 Jul 08 - 09:01 PM

_The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil_ (Random House, 2007) by Philip Zimbardo, who recruited a bunch of nice Stanford undergraduates, put them in a fake jail, randomly assigned some to be guards and the rest to be prisoners, and watched them degenerate into cruelty & despair, dragging him along with them. Eventually his girlfriend, horrified after a tour, induced him to call a halt.

Power corrupts the powerful and the powerless.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 21 Jul 08 - 11:19 AM

I see that Guest bflat has mentioned Eckhart Tolle. I have tried reading his books but I find them infuriating. I must be missing something..it seems he has latched on to the art of the obvious..or perhaps I am looking for more than he is offering. I know that millions are enthralled..but he leaves me.........puzzled.
I have just finished The Uses and Abuses of History by Margaret MacMillan. very thought provoking read.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 21 Jul 08 - 07:35 AM

biLL, i recently read Water for Elephants - i really liked it.

The Book Thief was WONDERFUL - but prepare to cry. A lot.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,Volgadon
Date: 21 Jul 08 - 02:39 AM

Sabatini's Historical Nights Entertainment. Some of the stories are a little innacurate, but they are really fun to read. I only have volume two and in it everyone seems to die, almost as bad as trad ballads.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 20 Jul 08 - 10:56 PM

I'm most of the way through The Road To McCarthy, by Pete McCarthy. It's a shame he died before writing a third book.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Alice
Date: 20 Jul 08 - 10:08 PM

Just finished The House Without A Key, by Earl Derr Biggers, the first Charlie Chan mystery. Then started an Ellery Queen, The Roman Hat Mystery.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 20 Jul 08 - 09:21 PM

"Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Jul 08 - 08:16 PM

Thanks, Rowan!

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Rowan
Date: 20 Jul 08 - 08:12 PM

Can't find the reference, now, but to whomever recommended (one of our Australian members, if i remember rightly) Alexander McCall Smith's "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency," thank you! Have just finished it and found it to be delightful! I am now off to see if anyone on bookswap has the next one in the series.

Mea culpa, kat; glad you liked it. The same standard is maintained through all of the series.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Jul 08 - 07:58 PM

Can't find the reference, now, but to whomever recommended (one of our Australian members, if i remember rightly) Alexander McCall Smith's "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency," thank you! Have just finished it and found it to be delightful! I am now off to see if anyone on bookswap has the next one in the series.

Also, just finished The Illuminator which was really good, though I would have preferred a different ending. Really well worth the read, though.

Also, enjoyed a couple of James Doss books; he does for the Southern Ute Indians, what Tony Hillerman did for the Navajo and Hopi, ala mysteries. Good reads!

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Acorn4
Date: 12 Jun 08 - 09:01 AM

"The Rise and Fall of Merry England" by Ronald Hutton -OUP 1994.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Lowden Jameswright
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 10:09 AM

"The State We're In" - a great insight into the wasted Thatcher/Tory years by Will Hutton

"Robinson Crusoe" - always worth a re-visit now and again.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 09:43 AM

I just wrapped up the last 100 pages (I read the rest of the book, too!) this morning of Kitty Kelley's "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty".

Compelling reading; explains a lot.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 02:10 AM

Wow, Mick!
Now I know how Alison feels.

Thanks.

Seamus

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 12:36 AM

The Ponga Jim Mayo stories by Louie Lamour are great to read over and over again. Pure noir action dramas---each and every one!

Art

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 09:48 PM

dulcimer42 - I listed my first batch of books at the swap site and have ordered my first two in exchange. Couldn't have been easier! Thanks, again.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Peace
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 08:22 PM

I am presently reading a collection of short stories by Skookum Maguire entitled "Invasion of the Bible Thumpers." It is wonderful writing and very entertaining reading by an accomplished author named . I will provide the how and where to get it info tomorrow when I have the book in hand.

"SHORT STORY - FICTION

WINNER:

Invasion of the Bible Thumpers, by Skookum Maguire (iUniverse)"

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Big Mick
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 04:59 PM

Your life should not end until you have read

Clean Cabbage in the Bucket

and Other Tales from the Irish Music Trenches

By Frank Emerson

Seamus Kennedy

Robbie O'Connell
Harry O'Donoghue
Dennis O'Rourke

Edited by Dennis O'Rourke

Especially if you are a musician, but fans will love it as well.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 04:38 PM

I'm a sucker for submarine warfare stories, so I just finished "Send Down A Dove" by Charles MacHardy about a British submarine and her crew in the waning days of WWII.

An excellent read, it was recommended to me by Tom Lewis, chanty singer and writer extraordinaire, who also happens to be an ex-RN submariner.

Seamus

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Becca72
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 04:26 PM

I finished Cradle And All by James Patterson a short while ago and LOVED it.

Now I'm reading Widow's Walk by Robert B. Parker. You just can't go wrong with a Spenser novel.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 03:25 PM

Among the several I've read recently, I really enjoyed Fannie Flagg's Standing in the Rainbow and think every American baby boomer should read it.

Also Randy Lee Eickhoff's novel about Wild Bill Hickok, And Not To Yield. Made me want to read a lot more non-fiction about him.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 29 May 08 - 02:27 AM

just reading a sight for sore eyes by Ruth Rendell.

i sometimes feel she sees everybody not earning a hundred grand a year as halfway to being an unfathomable inarticualte psychopath.

maybe she's got a point.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 May 08 - 10:47 PM

Donuel, I'd love to see that one!

Just finished a re-read of Louis L'Amour's Walking Drum. Still just as excellent as the first time, twenty years ago or so. And, now, with the internet, I can look up some of the intriguing places of which he wrote and learn so much more.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Donuel
Date: 28 May 08 - 09:21 PM

I did a graphic poster "Bible Thumper"

It was a Bible with the Disney character Thumper giving it a thump with his hind foot.

In the background other bunnies were doing what bunnies do.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 28 May 08 - 09:10 PM

"Invasion Of The Bible Thumpers," by Skookum Maguire

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: dulcimer42
Date: 28 May 08 - 07:14 PM

"The Shack" by William P. Young.   A MUST READ!!

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Becca72
Date: 09 May 08 - 09:25 AM

I'm most of the way through "Violets are Blue" by James Patterson. It's one of his detective Alex Cross books and he never fails to entertain. This one's got vampires in it, too so it's right up my alley! :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Mr Red
Date: 09 May 08 - 09:07 AM

go to bed with a good book........









or a friend who's read one.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 09 May 08 - 08:59 AM

I have just finished reading Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. It got glowing reviews and I was urged by my book reading friends to reaf it as it is considered a twentieth century classic. I would bwe very interested to know what others think. I thought it was a very flawed and unrewarding book. Am I missing something ? It cannot compare, IMO, with Joseph Boydens book Three Day Road, when it come to WW1 stories. Any thoughts ?

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Rowan
Date: 05 May 08 - 06:19 PM

Ms. Proulx "Accordion Crimes" IMHO is a great read.

When I read it I found it interesting as narrative but redolent of 'decay' rather than of 'life'. I was amused, however, by her confusion of graphics wherein she included a concertina (a Jeffries as I recall) among all the various versions of accordions and melodions.

Accordion Crimes was my first exposure to her writing and it didn't inspire me to explore her further. Perhaps that is a pity.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 May 08 - 12:48 AM

Rant on:

A lot of folks in Wyoming don't like her stuff. I tried, I really tried, based on Mudcatters' recommendations. I recently had a copy of her Wyoming stories, read them aloud to my Rog, as much as he could stand. We are both very open-minded and like to share good stories. He made me stop, each time I tried to read one of her stories, because he couldn't stand it. We both detest her writing. I think one of the reasons is, Rog nailed this one, she does not love Wyoming. When she writes of it, she portrays an ugliness, a negative side which she sees and none of its beauty. She is a user, a usurper, and imo a lousy writer. I would put my descriptive writing about Wyoming up against hers any day and feel confident folks would prefer mine. Rant off

Just read Sabbathday River by Jean Hanff Korelitz. Also had a great, good time reading Kinsella's Undomestic Goddess. What a hoot!

I am reading a Gemma James mystery right now, by Crombie.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 04 May 08 - 02:20 PM

Ms. Proulx "Accordion Crimes" IMHO is a great read. I've had to cherry pick the main points from books about the British Suffragette Movement for my college work recently but right now it's time to relax with Spenser (Robert B. Parker not Edmund) and Widow's Walk. Read a couple of books about the late Linda Smith's life and work not long ago. She's sadly missed.