Finished reading Stephen King’s The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (a gift) and re-reading Robert E. Howard’s Almuric.
Also read Robert McLaughlin’s Pleasure Island. Fascinating stuff, about what was once New England’s Biggest Amusement Park (built by Cornelius Vanderbuilt Wood, the excommunicated genius who built Disneyland and the forgotten Freedomland)
Am now reading John Gribbin’s The Scientists (another gift). And still working my way through The Annotated Huckleberry Finn.
Which film? There are three.
I’m currently reading I Hope They Serve Beer in Hellby Tucker Max. Basically the author is every spoiled douchebag drunken womanizing frat guy I went to college with telling a bunch of his “I got drunk, hooked up with a girl and shit my pants” stories. Some of them are funny in an “I remember when me and my idiot friends used to get drunk and pull that sort of crap” kind of way but they get repetetive. My fear is that every dork under 25 who reads that is going to now go out of his way to be an even bigger drunken tool in life.
I have not read Truman yet, but I did enjoy John Adams and 1776. Plus The Johnstown Flood and The Path Between the Seas, the latter about the building of the Panama Canal; seems there was a connection between those two subjects in that, as I recall, one of the wealthy country-club developers at Johnstown had a hand in helping finance the canal.
Finished Happy For No Reason. This book claims it can teach you to be happy from the inside out.
As I have said in the past, most of the time I expect to be able to take about 10% away and call it good. This was no exception. There were some good exercises and some good good advice was given. As is common with these kinds of books, take out all the anecdotes and you are left with a pretty slim collection of pages. I understand, perhaps it would be too dry without, but I found myself skipping most of them.
Just as a head’s up. I will be starting September’s thread very early this time. I am heading to the UK Saturday night and am not sure when/if I’ll have access to a network. I am guessing I will be still posting, but I’m never sure when I travel.
Have a safe trip, Khadaji. Is it a vacation?
I haven’t picked up a book in days, but I’m listening to When You Are Engulfed In Flames, read by the author, David Sedaris. I had tried reading something of his before and it didn’t hook me, but this is better. The kids don’t mind listening either and agree that he reminds them of Lemony Snicket.
No, it is business. But I do get to see parts of London in the evening and we may go to Bath the first weekend in Sept.
I love Gerritsen. I met her last year – you see that name and you don’t expect a tiny little Asian woman! She was delightful.
I’m reading *Annie’s Ghosts *by Steve Luxenberg, an associate editor at the Washington Post. He learned, upon his mother’s death, that she had had a secret sister who was mentally retarded and schizophrenic, and he decided to do an investigative reporting job on her. Takes him into the mental health system of the 1930s and deep, dark family secrets. Very interesting.
I can’t seem to finish anything lately…
The Darwin Awards 5… dropped dead of boredom
Why We Suck by Dr. Denis Leary… too much Denis Leary
Word Freak… A book about Scrabble players that is too wordy (ironic, ain’t it?)
But I checked out Already Dead by Charlie Huston based on a recommendation in the “Enough With the Vampires!” thread, so let’s hope it’s good.
I finished Mary Roach’s Spook, which I liked, although I agree it wasn’t as good as Stiff. I need to get a copy of *Bonk *now.
I just finished the second book in Robin Hobb’s Liveship trilogy. I’m liking these, but they are very long and slow. I happened to read a review of the first book which threw in a giant spoiler for the whole trilogy. It’s irritating, because it leaves me wondering at which point I would have figured it out on my own. There was a strong hint towards the end of this second book.
Blowing the dust off an old volume I got at a used book sale: last night, I dove into Leon Uris’ Armageddon.
I’m a big Sedaris fan, as readers of these SDMB book threads know, and half the fun is in his delivery. I just finished his audiobook of When You Are Engulfed in Flames and mostly liked it (“Town and Country” was my favorite story), although I think Barrel Fever and Me Talk Pretty One Day are better collections of his stories.
I’ve got some other audiobooks coming first, but I’ll definitely pick up some more Sedaris down the road.
I would love to hear what you thought. I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I would.
Sadly the only book I had time to read this august was City of Thieves by David Benioff. Can’t reccomend this one highly enough, a really fantasic novel.
As mentioned above, I may be away for awhile. Although I do expect to have internet access, I’m starting September’s thread early.
Here is a Link