What books are the Loungers reading right now?

[LostinVA]

[LostinVA]

1. Me: "Lost in Paradise," about the Pitcairn Island child rape scandal and trial

By Kathy Marks.

VERY interesting, and appalling. Read Dea Birkett's "Serpent in Paradise" first.

[AlCzervik]

2. I'm trying to finish The house of mirth right now and then no more Edit Wharton for awhile.

i just picked up 2 book to bring on vacation-

http://www.amazon.com/Living-Dead-Stephen-King/dp/1597801437

and

http://www.amazon.com/Duma-Key-Novel-Stephen-King/dp/1416552960/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237747421&sr=1-4

I'm sure Edith would approve.

[LostinVA]

5. Edith Wharton, imo, is best read by watching the movie

[Jamastiene]

3. Duma Key

by Stephen King

[RetroLounge]

4. "Unpacking The Boxes"

A memoir of a life in poetry, by Donald Hall...

RL

[tigereye]

12. that sounds interesting!

:hi: RL!

[RetroLounge]

23. Just started it...

So far so good.

:hi:

RL

[WCIL]

6. I just picked up Drood by Dan Simmons

[bicentennial_baby]

7. That's what I'm reading right now

:)

[mitchum]

8. Rereading Cain's Mildred Pierce...

and just finished Richard Price's Lush Life

[Fleshdancer]

9. The Virgin's Lover

It's about Queen Elizabeth and Robert Dudley. Philippa Gregory is a very entertaining writer.

[sniffa]

10. "Last Lion. The Fall And Rise of Ted Kennedy"

Also, "Evidence And Procedures For Boundary Location."

[RevolutionaryActs]

11. I'm re-reading Princess of the Sword by Lynn Kurland.

I love the Nine Kingdoms series. Pure silly fun, but whatever. :P

[ghostsofgiants]

13. Just read Arundhati Roy's "The Cost of Living" again.

I need to invest in some new books.

[Common Sense Party]

14. Gates of Fire...about the battle of Thermopylae n/t

[Are_grits_groceries]

15. "Cutting for Stone" by Abraham Verghese.

This is his first novel. He wrote "My Own Country." It was about his time as a doctor in eastern Tennessee at the onset of the aids epidemic in the '80s. He is a marvelous writer, and the book about Tennessee was one of the most insightful and moving books about the aids crisis.

[pokerfan]

16. Janice Kim's Learn to Play Go: Volume III

[rug]

17. Human Smoke

[skygazer]

32. I just started that one

I'm totally sucked into it.

[jonnyblitz]

18. "Descent into Chaos, the United States and the Failure of

Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia" by Ahmed Rashid to be followed by "Invisible History, Afghanistan's Untold Story" by Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald. I am on an Afghanistan/Pakistan kick.

[Jimbo S]

19. "The Replacements: All Over But The Shouting"

Minneapolis band.

[yellowdogintexas]

20. "The Foreign Correspondent" by Alan Furst. It is good

he has a long list of books, mostly about WWII time period.

[mvd]

21. Eclipse in the Twilight series

The series is a bit of a guilty pleasure.

[kid a]

45. here's a link for you....

song for new moon...

www.myspace.com/needfornewmoon

(its my daughter's campaign site for her song)

[mvd]

52. Cool! I like Hana, too. Thanks.

:hi:

[Lex]

22. "A Thousand Splendid Suns"

by Khaled Hosseini.

If you haven't read it, I give it the highest recommendation possible! It will stay with you, in a good way. A marvelous book. His follow-up to his first novel, "The Kite Runner." It even surpasses that, which was an amazing book itself.

[CreekDog]

24. two (i have poor attention span)

i pretty much only read actual books on the train while commuting.

[LostinVA]

25. I always have two or three books going at one time

[CreekDog]

29. it's not a crime!

:hi:

[Sisaruus]

26. America's Child: A Woman's Journey through the Radical Sixties

by Susan Sherman. But I started a new job two weeks ago and find I'm not reading as much as I should.

[LostinVA]

28. I was looking at that book at the library -- how is it?

[oshyposhy]

27. I have many going, but the 2 that are getting the most time are

Drifting South by Charles Davis and Her Last Death: A Memoir by Susanna Sonnenberg

[Arugula Latte]

30. Just started "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver.

The story of a family from Georgia who goes to the Belgian Congo in 1959 to turn the natives to Jeeebus.

[Lex]

33. that is a great book, but then again

I love, love, love Barbara Kingsolver.

My favorite one by her is "Prodigal Summer." Wonderful.

[Flaxbee]

47. hey, Lex -

Prodigal Summer is my favorite by her, as well. Have you read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle? About her family's year of eating locally? Great book as well.

So, if I read A Thousand Splendid Suns will I want to blow my brains out? I can't handle depressing, sad books right now, and if you liked Prodigal Summer like I did (loved it), I know how to gauge your book reviews... :hi:

[Lex]

60. A Thousand Splendid Suns

had some upsetting passages in it for sure, but not in a gratuitous way. It is a marvelous book, and by the time you read to the end, you will be so glad you read it. It is a classic in the true sense--I sincerely felt like that years from now, it will be on literature "must read" lists for high school or college students.

Yes, I did read "Animal Vegetable Miracle" by Kingsolver. Totally changed the way I buy, consume, and think about food. She's a treasure. Not preachy, just informed and wants to share her journey.

Hope this helps! :hi:

[Flaxbee]

66. thanks, it did help!

I've added A Thousand Splendid Suns to my wish list... will try to pick it up soon. :hi:

Yeah, that's why I like Kingsolver so much, too, aside from her writing skills.... she just tells you what's going on, without being judgmental. She is really interested in educating the reader w/o being pedantic. She's not strident at all. And she is exceptionally funny, too. I thought I would die laughing when she described the din-don sauvages in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

[Arugula Latte]

62. I've got Prodigal Summer waiting on the nightstand.

Just finished "Homeland" -- her short story collection.

She's a great writer.

[Lex]

72. I hope you like it as much as I did!

She also has another collection of short stories that she wrote in and around the time of the First Gulf war, early 1990's. It's called "High Tide in Tuscon." Beautiful. Here's some about it: http://www.kingsolver.com/bookshelf/high_tide_tucson.asp



:hi:

[Arugula Latte]

86. Thanks for the tip!

I'll look for that one, too. :hi:

[Sheltiemama]

65. I loved that book.

[Ivan Sputnik]

31. "All About H. Hatterr"

by G.V. Desani. A very funny book that takes some getting used to. It's set in India and written in dialect.

Back-cover blurbs:

"In all my experience, I have not met with anything quite like it." -- T.S. Eliot
"Highbrow monkeying around, and the impish magic of Desani's phrasing and rhythm an entirely new kind of literary voice." --Salmon Rushdie

[graywarrior]

34. The Night of the Gun by David Carr

[LostinVA]

49. Haruka and I both read that one -- very good

[graywarrior]

55. I like his intro

http://www.nightofthegun.com/carrbook/

[Iggo]

35. The Watchmen.

I've put my Dune prequels on hold while I rush through the book before the movie leaves the theater.

[RiffRandell]

36. No books lately, just mags.

I returned to school last fall and haven't read any books, except for school. I was an avid, but not totally snobby reader, yet laughed my ass off when I read Danielle Steele has another BS. Actually, she's the one probably laughing her ass off.

Just read the Vanity Fair (my fave) with Tina Fey on the cover. Great, but horrible article about the passenger plane/luxury jet collision over the Amazon.

[alarimer]

37. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

Pretty good so far.

I just finished the Wordy Shipmates.

[TZ]

51. I just read that fairly recently.

Its hilarious!:)

[Rhythm]

85. Good Omens is my 'comfort food' book... probably read it a dozen times

I'm one of the weirdos that they mentioned in the intro in the newest re-released hardbacks: i have either loaned out and not retrieved, or simply given away probably 20 copies of it since i first was given a copy in the early 90's, and my own 'reading copy' is so dog-eared that it's a wonder that the binding hasn't finally given up the ghost.

[WCGreen]

38. Ulysses by James Joyce...

Slogging would be a better term

[kid a]

44. i've slogged through that once...Couldn't get through Finnegans Wake

[WCGreen]

70. I got beyond it but it is slow going....

[elshiva]

39. Rereading Websters' First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language

by Mary Daly. Great book. :) Anyone else read it?

[Broken_Hero]

40. Currently, a graphic novel

The Gunslinger Born...its a comic telling of the Dark Tower series, I just picked it up the other day for 7 bucks...I've read the DT series, and the graphic so far(I'm only about 5 pages in) is pretty good, artwork is fantastic as well.

[Droopy]

41. Haunted Heart a biography of Stephen King

[cherish44]

42. Personal Finance for Dummies

yep.

[kid a]

43. "The Concise History of the Russian Revolution" & "The Romanovs"

Going through an obsession with Tzars, Bolsheviks, and Intelligentsia

[Lucian]

46. I'm reading a few different books on Archaeology.

I'm majoring in that subject in the fall. :)

[Kool Kitty]

48. Just finished "World War Z".

Zombies. :scared: And I'm working my way through "The Arrogance of Power", a biography of Nixon. It's nearly as scary as the zombies.

[MissHoneychurch]

50. Resisting Hitler: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra

http://www.amazon.com/Resisting-Hitler-Mildred-Harnack-Orchestra/dp/0195152409/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237811694&sr=8-4

Mildred Harnack (born Mildred Elizabeth Fish, 16 September 1902 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; died 16 February 1943 in Berlin-Plötzensee) was an American-German literary historian, translator, and resistance fighter in Nazi Germany. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mildred_Harnack

[miss_american_pie]

53. The Confessions od Max Tivoli

Just finished Diane Middlebrook's biography of Anne Sexton.

:hi:

[NewJeffCT]

54. I just finished "Evie the Mist Fairy"

with my daughter. I haven't read a book for myself in years, unfortunately.

[PRETZEL]

56. A little more than half way through Bart Gellman's

Angler.

Fantastic book. Much better than Russ Baker's Family of Secrets.

[peacefreak]

57. Pillars of the Earth

why, oh why did I think it was a good idea to start something nearly 1000 pages long. Just build the freaking church, already!

[MadMaddie]

77. I actually started that one back in November

yea...haven't finished it yet. I am determined too though.

Now keep in mind I have probably read 20 books since I started this one. Sigh....

[Flaxbee]

78. I have to admit I found it rather... anticlimactic

I read the whole thing straight through, and, while the premise really was very interesting, I was weary of the book by the end. But determined to finish it.

[Bake]

58. Murder in Mayberry

It's a true story about a murder in Madisonville, KY. Good story, although the writing is not exactly John Grisham quality.

Bake

[Neoma]

59. Failures of the Presidents by Thomas J. Craughwell & M. William Phelps.

[geardaddy]

61. Catch-22

and Bagombo Snuff Box

[MrCoffee]

63. "The Golden Spruce" by John Valliant

If you like Jon Krakauer, check this book out. Really well written and researched account of Grant Hadwin, a logger turned lunatic who cut down a sacred tree in British Columbia.

[Sequoia]

67. That is a super good book !!

I read it on a camping trip. That tree was sure beautiful.

[Sheltiemama]

64. "The Serpent's Tale" by Ariana Franklin

I've just started reading historical fiction.

[Sequoia]

68. Mosquito, by Roma Tearne

A first novel about a 40+ writer, a terriorist young man, and a beautiful teenage painter and the start of the civil war in Sri Lanka. Very, very good !!!

[milord]

69. A Canticle for Leibowitz

Here's a book that is so excellent, so imaginative and so well-written that I find it incredible I've never heard it mentioned anywhere, by anyone. It's called "A Canticle for Leibowitz", by Walter M. Miller, Jr. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Even though it was written several years ago it's worth searching for. I urge you to try and find it.

[MilesColtrane]

80. It's a classic and far from obscure.

It's usually in most "best of" scifi lists, and it's been the subject of significant academic analysis.

I read it 25 or 30 years ago.

[many a good man]

71. Wind-up Bird Chronicle

By Murakami.

[FLyellowdog]

73. Resistance by Daniel Kalla n/t

[Dinger]

74. The Cruelest Miles

About the serum run to Nome in 1925. Excellent, and I hear there will be a movie next year! I love reading about survival in the wilderness type stories.
Big Jack London fan here, always was.:)

[Starbucks Anarchist]

75. Re-reading "Catch-22."

After that, I'll start "Brother Ray," Ray Charles' autobiography.

[geardaddy]

81. I'm reading Catch-22 for the first time

:D

[Starbucks Anarchist]

82. What do you think of it?

[geardaddy]

83. I like it.

I like his writing, but it's a little hard to keep track of all the different characters, since I've been reading it over a long period of time. But still, it's a good book.

[Lavender Brown]

76. Understandable Statistics

:cry:

[MilesColtrane]

79. Just finished: "Inside Improvisation v. 7, Hexatonics"

Now reading: "Postcards from the Edge"

Next up: "Musicophilia"

[Rhythm]

84. "The Politics of Gun Control" - Robert Spitzer

I have a 2000-3000 word paper to write for my PoliSci class, due on April 1st.

[Adsos Letter]

87. Cromwell