Read *The Liar’s Club * and Cherry, by Mary Karr over the weekend, now I am starting Sinner’s Welcome.
I also have recently read The Bourne Identity and I just picked up Supremacy yesterday, but I’m not very far into it yet (got distracted from my reading by the world cup, and back-to-back Superman and Superman II on TV). I’m told by my brother, who I tend to trust in such matters, that Supremacy is not as good as the first book, and Ultimatum is terrible, but I’ve made it one of my goals to get through them to find out for myself.
I’ve also just finished reading Carl Hiaasen’s Basket Case, which is the first of 3 of his books that truly had me laughing out loud. MUCH better than Strip Tease or Skin Deep. I’m on my 5th or 6th book of the past month, since I’m not working, and our moving date is later than we initially anticipated!
I have a dozen or so other books that I borrowed from my brother when I went to visit, so I have a lot of options for the coming weeks!
Just finished Lake Wobegon Days by Garrison Keillor (probably the fifth or sixth time I’ve read it); just started Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett.
The themes are … dissimilar.
Oh man, I had this out from the library and ended up not getting to it. Must try again!
Right now I am reading “A Wedding in December” by Anita Shreve. I liked “The Pilot’s Wife” and “All He Ever Wanted” but I think I am not so impressed by this one.
Next up “Saturday” by Ian McEwen. And I started “Middlesex” but am finishing the more fluffy Shreve first.
Mom and I hit the Brandeis Used Book Sale a couple weeks back and stocked up on Historical Fiction (aka Cerebral Girly Porn) to read and swap.
I’m currently working my way through The Crimson Pearl and the White, by Michael Faber. The first quarter of it had me worried - seemed less like Cerebral Girly Porn and more like Porn-porn, which I’m not so comfortable sharing with my mother. But it seems to have settled down a bit and is thoroughly intriguing.
I’m making my way through Oblivion a collection of stories by David Foster Wallace. For some weird reason the first story is taking me forever to finish, let’s hope the others won’t take as long too.
Ooo, that’s on my pile too.
I’m just about done with This Immortal, which, as I expected, oozes macho Zelazny-ness from every pore. But it’s was okay once we finally established that the main character is a badass sexually irresistable manly man’s manly man, and got on to the plot.
It turns out to be surprisingly timely. The place of humans in Vegan society puts me much in mind of Mexican immigrants in the US, and it’s not a type of SF human/alien dynamic that one sees often.
No idea where I’ll go next. I’ll probably pick up one of the bajillion yet-unread used books that we are supposed to get rid of before we move.
Moby Dick. In Chapter 36, the actual title whale was mentioned for the first time!
Last book before this was Founding Brothers - and the several before were also American Revolution history/biographies. Ben Franklin was the man.
I just finished “Under the Banner of Heaven,” Jon Krakauer’s take on Mormonism. As someone who knows nothing about Mormonism I found it fascinating, if a bit over detailed in spots. My only inclination is to read something a little more favorable to the religion right now.
I am holding out hope for The Husband, but if it is as disappointing as the last few of his books, then that’s it for me! I don’t know if he is turning them out too fast, or what, but his stuff just isn’t what it used to be. 
Andrea Mitchell’s Talking Back. Not exactly blown away by it as it seems to recount her glaring screw-ups as much as anything but it does offer at least some interesting perspective, like on Donald Regan for example.
Moby Dick is a whale? Thanks for spoiling… guess some folks never heard of spoiler tags!
On the subject of founders and Franklin, have you read Walter Isaacson’s biography of Franklin? It’s one of the best- I love his characterization of Franklin as “the founding father who winks at you”. There’s also a really good recent documentary on DVD in which a good actor (Richard Easton) portrays Ben to the discussion of scholars, and of course tis the season to whip out the musical 1776 again (which while a musical is one of the best “pop entertainment” accounts of history ever written and the first place I learned the Declaration was far less virgin birth than its reputation).
Glad to hear you liked this one…I have been waiting for it to come in at the library…looking forward to reading it.
This one sounds like fun…I’m going to check it out!
Right now, I am reading The Good Good Pig by Sy Montgomery, and I am really enjoying it. I haven’t loved a pig so much since Wilbur.
Nope - I read The First American. I’ll do another Ben Franklin biography sometime, but not before I’ve read one on John Adams (the bitterest founding father).
It was The First American that convinced me Franklin was kidding (he is the winking founder, after all) about the turkey being a good symbol (and technically, he argued it as symbol for the Society of the Cincinatti, not for our national bird, and he hated the Society of the Cincinatti).
Here’s a really good documentary on that subject. In Lancaster I remember being told that Rumspringa is when kids go to dances, see a movie, maybe buy a car… but dayumn! When Amish kids go wild it counts. (Apparently if you’re a rave kid in an area with Amish kids an invite to one of their parties is the ultimate grab- drugs, sex and rock’n’roll that make the English kid’s parties pale.)
My library website says that Tom Schactman, author of Rumspringa, is a documentarian who studied rumspringa in the course of working on that film. So I suppose if you liked one you’ll like the other.
I’ve been reading Tanya Huff’s spinoff of her Victory Nelson series. I’ve read Smoke and Shadows and Smoke and Mirrors, and I’m just about to start Smoke and Ashes.
These are about Tony, a minor character from the earlier books. I’m enjoying the setting (he works on the set of a cheesy syndicated TV program being shot in Vancouver). This series is a bit lighter than the original, and pretty funny. I’m going to have to hunt down the rest of Tanya Huff’s books.
I finished **A Wedding in December ** and it was just meh. No more Anita Shreve for me. On to Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, in "prep"aration for The Man of My Dreams.
Since it’s summer, it’s all beach reading for me - even though I’m 30 miles from the nearest shore. Well, right now, I’m working my way through the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton. I already finished the first 2 (Guilty Pleasures, and The Laughing Corpse) , and have started the third, Circus of the Dammed. Hubby bought me the first 6 books in the series, and promised to get me the next 6 when I’m done with them. I guess I have to wait until Winter to start reading serious stuff again.
Olive