Reading Is Sexy: Books Part III

[corianderstem]

^^
I thought that book was very good. His son Nic also wrote a book that's his version of events, although it wasn't nearly as good. Maybe I'd feel differently if I'd read his book first.

 

[martha]

The Hopi Villages: The Ancient Province of Tusayan by Major J. W. Powell.

This short little book served its purpose well, and now it's finished. Next is the U2 issue of Rolling Stone, After that, I don't know.

 

[u2popmofo]

Were kachina dolls discussed, Martha?

 

[martha]

No. No they weren't.

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

I need to read something not related to law.

Picking up the new Rolling Stone and Love Is A Mixed Tape today at lunch.

 

[onebloodonelife]

I need to read something not related to law.

Picking up the new Rolling Stone and Love Is A Mixed Tape today at lunch.

Love is a Mix Tape is a touching memoir; I really enjoyed it.

 

[corianderstem]

Ditto that. One of my favorite books I read that year.

 

[Carek1230]

Just received my copy of Beautiful Boy by David Sheff from Amazon and am halfway through it with a box of kleenex in my lap.

 

[martha]

Hmmm. Done, for all intents and purposes, with Rolling Stone. I'm having unusual urges to read novels lately, so I think I'll read an Anita Brookner that I haven't read yet: Friends and Family. Anita Brookner, like the accursed Henry James, can take a single sentence and wind it into an entire paragraph, and an entire page. Unlike Henry James, however, she writes interesting books and makes me long for London. One minor problem, though; I do find many of her protagonists to be a little on the timid side, and sometimes I feel the urge to yell at them to take more control of their own lives, dammit.

 

[corianderstem]

Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster

So far nothing she's written has lived up to her first book Bitter Is the New Black, but Jen still amuses me, even if she's a little annoying sometimes, too.

 

[beegee]

Do you read her blog?

 

[corianderstem]

No - at one point I'm sure I'd heard about it, but I forgot about it completely. Maybe I'll check it out.

 

[trinx]

Mahabharata.

I love Indian literature.

 

[Pearl]

Just finished "The Winner Stands Alone" by Paulo Coelho. It was pretty good. I was disappointed in the ending, but the more I think about it, the more I see how the ending fits the story.

Coelho takes a look at what drives many people these days - which is, fame and fortune. The book is about 24 hours at the Cannes Film Festival, with all its glitz and glamour. There are several characters in the book, all whom are intertwined at one point, and all whom will do anything to get what they want. Coelho makes you wonder, how far would you go to get what you want in life? Really, just how far?

4/5 stars.

Now, onto "The Shack" by William Paul Young.

 

[Carek1230]

 

[corianderstem]

Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult

I don't care if people criticize her writing, or her style, or the fact that her books (aside from plot) are all so similar, I am completely enthralled with her books and will devour them in two or three sittings.

This one is about a family with a young daughter who has the "brittle bone" disease and a lawsuit that tears them apart. The ending made me roll my eyes a little, but didn't make me want to hurl the book across the room like the ending of My Sister's Keeper.

Not as good as The Tenth Circle or Nineteen Minutes, but better than Change of Heart.

Keep pumpin' 'em out, Jodi!

 

[adamswildhoney]

Finally finished Three Cups of Tea a little while go and now getting close to finishing American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson.

 

[Carek1230]

Ooohhhhh I loved Three Cups of Tea! Let us know how Craig's new book is. I didn't buy it, it's on my Amazon Wish List as a gift idea

I've been flipping through a book I just received the other day...a quick, fun easy entertaining read with great graphics and illustrations:

 

[Saracene]

The ending made me roll my eyes a little, but didn't make me want to hurl the book across the room like the ending of My Sister's Keeper

I really enjoyed Handle with Care but I hated the ending. Strangely enough the ending of My Sister's Keeper didn't provoke the same reaction.

Despite the fact that I'm sick to death of the Twilight movie mania, I decided to give the book a go when my sister offered it to me. It's not a well-written book to put it mildly, and I quickly got fed up with Bella sighing how beautiful, perfect and god-like Edward is every two pages Still, I thought it was enjoyable in a silly melodramatic way.

 

[anitram]

Strength in What Remains - Tracy Kidder.

Excellent, heartbreaking book to read. True story of a Tutsi man who escaped from Burundi and came to NYC. He was homeless, living abandoned tenements and then Central Park, and eventually ended up going to Columbia and Dartmouth for medical school. The book tells you a bit about his life in Burundi as a child in the 70s, a bit about his harrowing escape and the genocide in Rwanda, a bit about his life in Manhattan, and then a good bit about him returning back to central Africa in 2006 for the first time in about a dozen years.

 

[adamswildhoney]

Despite the fact that I'm sick to death of the Twilight movie mania, I decided to give the book a go when my sister offered it to me. It's not a well-written book to put it mildly, and I quickly got fed up with Bella sighing how beautiful, perfect and god-like Edward is every two pages Still, I thought it was enjoyable in a silly melodramatic way.

I thought the same thing, it's just fluff reading. "fluff" is reading that doesn't take much thought and is just fun to read when I haven't found someting I really want to read.

 

[corianderstem]

Something Blue by Emily Giffin

I needed something really mindless, so I picked up the follow-up to Something Borrowed, a book in which I found most of the characters to be horrible people.

This one focuses on the worst of them, and attempts to make her likable. They failed. What a stupid book. Glad I only paid $1 for it at Half Price Books!

 

[Angela Harlem]

I bought and read in 2 sittings, The murder of King Tut by James Patterson and Martin Dugard. Now, this book has to be the strangest concoction I've ever read. It's set in 3 eras, the era of Tut, the 1920's when Howard Carter finally found the tomb, and current day with James Patterson exercising some literary wankers cramp where he spouts on about his 'femme fatal wife', his joy at the opportunity to write about the death of Tut, and Alex Cross (a character in many of his novels, novels that I don't happen to read. Ever). The relationship of this to the death of Tut? Well, that's another mystery. I've got no idea why he needs conversations with his publisher and his ogling at his wife to segue among descriptions of his home office and golf games at equally pretentious name dropping private courses. He speaks of how he and this Martin Dugard researched Carter's notes and other things to reach the 'really likely conclusion' that Tut was murdered, not dead by mere freak chariot accident. It's not really 'proved' in the story, and the ancient Egypt sections of the book are written as pure literary fiction. Overall, it could have been a truly fantastic book on what is known and what Carter found, or equally, a fantastic fictional story based on some known truths. I thought it was neither, and a poor attempt to be god only knows what, really. I did devour it though, and am hugely interested in all things ancient Egyptian. I guess it is what you get when you cross a ham writer with textbook topics.

 

[BonosSaint]

^ God, I enjoyed that review. And while I was considering reading the book--for free-- sounds like even free is too high a cost for my time. You would make a great book reviewer. I may never read the books, but I sure would read the reviews.

 

[martha]

Friends and Family

Finished this this morning, because when you wake up at three, wtf else will you do whilst the husband sleeps?

Today I'll finish Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days. After that, I'm not sure.

 

[beegee]

You read the Wimpy Kid books.

That's awesome.

 

[Carek1230]

Just picked up Addict in the Family by Beverly Conyers

 

[Pearl]

I bought and read in 2 sittings, The murder of King Tut by James Patterson and Martin Dugard. Now, this book has to be the strangest concoction I've ever read. It's set in 3 eras, the era of Tut, the 1920's when Howard Carter finally found the tomb, and current day with James Patterson exercising some literary wankers cramp where he spouts on about his 'femme fatal wife', his joy at the opportunity to write about the death of Tut, and Alex Cross (a character in many of his novels, novels that I don't happen to read. Ever). The relationship of this to the death of Tut? Well, that's another mystery. I've got no idea why he needs conversations with his publisher and his ogling at his wife to segue among descriptions of his home office and golf games at equally pretentious name dropping private courses. He speaks of how he and this Martin Dugard researched Carter's notes and other things to reach the 'really likely conclusion' that Tut was murdered, not dead by mere freak chariot accident. It's not really 'proved' in the story, and the ancient Egypt sections of the book are written as pure literary fiction. Overall, it could have been a truly fantastic book on what is known and what Carter found, or equally, a fantastic fictional story based on some known truths. I thought it was neither, and a poor attempt to be god only knows what, really. I did devour it though, and am hugely interested in all things ancient Egyptian. I guess it is what you get when you cross a ham writer with textbook topics.

I was thinking of getting this book for my Mom (who loves mysteries) for Christmas. I guess I'll get her something else.

 

[martha]

You read the Wimpy Kid books.

That's awesome.

I them.

 

[Zoobaby14]

I got Song of an Innocent Bystander by Ian Bone today. Looks good.