What book are you reading?

[Nicci6Squirrels]

"Let's Discuss Diabetes with Owls" by David Sedaris and, "Yes, Please" by Amy Poehler.

I've also been listening to David Sedaris' audio books- "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and "Barrel Fever." I had already read the books, but it's a different experience hearing them read aloud by the author. (I'm one of those who thought I'd never listen to audio books, so I've surprised myself a little. I don't know what I had against them, honestly.)

[jazzcat22]

Originally Posted by MyScreenName

Me Talk Pretty One Day by Sedaris. Unfunny, boring writer.

I agree---don't understand why people love him so much.

Cautiously optimistic after 20 pages of "Some Luck" by Jane Smiley.

Couldn't get through:

Mermaid---a memoir about a girl born without legs who didn't even realize that she was legless/different until she was 3---but it went downhill from there.

Ugly Girls---a protagonist nicknamed Baby Girl was a deal breaker for me, right off the bat.

Off Course---by Michelle Huneven--=-thought I might get through this---about a graduate student who attempts to find herself while writing her dissertation in the North California mountain home of our parents--has lots of relationships with all sorts of quirky men...but then lost interest.

[Ketabcha]

Originally Posted by Chava61

"Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia" by Ahmed Rashid.

I read it in 2001. It was interesting and well written. The author knows his subjects from first hand experience and he is an interesting fellow.

I also read his book Pakistan: On the Brink last year. Again, a well written and informative book. I have wondered for years what Pakistan has been on the brink of. Well, it's still "on the brink" as far as I'm concerned.

[netwit]

Originally Posted by jazzcat22

Gandalara, thanks. I don't read much electronic stuff, but for free, I can make an exception. So---are you a childfree woman of the 60's in your 60's? That's definitely me!

What's with authors "selling" their books for free on Amazon? Trying to develop a buzz about it and then start to sell it?

I attempted to get through "All My Puny Sorrows" by Miriam Toewes. I think I've read some of her other books. Got rave reviews from critics and authors I like. But maybe I just wasn't ready for another book without quotation marks. Or maybe the genre of Canadian Mennonite sisters whose current problems have nothing to do with being Mennnonite but who are desperately unhappy even though one is a famed concert pianist just isn't for me. One reviewer on Amazon said she didn't love the story (depressing---the nonsuicidal sister trying to deal with the suicidal one) or the characters, but liked the writing. I didn't even like that!

I read that book. I know that family so I never posted my thoughts. I didn't feel qualified to say much about it due to my knowing the back story. Very thinly fictionalized. I didn't like it either but I cried for that reason (that so much was essentially true).

[LillyLillyLilly]

Originally Posted by MyScreenName

Me Talk Pretty One Day by Sedaris. Unfunny, boring writer.

Gotta agree with that. I tried to read a book of his 10 or more years ago (can't remember which one) and it was absolutely yawn-worthy.

[jazzcat22]

Originally Posted by netwit

[/b]

I read that book. I know that family so I never posted my thoughts. I didn't feel qualified to say much about it due to my knowing the back story. Very thinly fictionalized. I didn't like it either but I cried for that reason (that so much was essentially true).

That's very interesting, Netwit. I guess one of my biggest disappointments was that I had expected/hoped to learn more about the Mennonite culture, but with as far as I got, it just seemed to be about two adult sisters who could have been from any religion/culture (except for their names) and who had familial mental illness.

I was an undergrad psych major. Spent most of my career working with psych patients. I don't know why a book about mental illness wouldn't appeal to me. It just seemed too dreary.

[netwit]

Originally Posted by jazzcat22

That's very interesting, Netwit. I guess one of my biggest disappointments was that I had expected/hoped to learn more about the Mennonite culture, but with as far as I got, it just seemed to be about two adult sisters who could have been from any religion/culture (except for their names) and who had familial mental illness.

I was an undergrad psych major. Spent most of my career working with psych patients. I don't know why a book about mental illness wouldn't appeal to me. It just seemed too dreary.

Well, I'm a Mennonite. The Mennonite background Miriam is from isn't the horse-and-buggy Mennonite kind - we are Russian-Mennonites. Her family is exceptionally crazy. Have you read her book, Swing Low? http://www.amazon.ca/Swing-Low-Life-.../dp/0062070169 It is a strange book, in that it is a memoir of her father who committed suicide by throwing himself under a train. But she writes it in his voice. That is what made it strange to me. Kind of creepy. I don't even know why I read it. I suppose because I know the family and part of me keeps hoping for something redeeming in her writing. I just have not found that yet. But I am not an objective reader.

My sister-in-law told me that her book club read All My Puny Sorrows and apparently loved it. And so my SIL said she loved it too. She told me she was "so ashamed of myself." Because she also did not see what the fuss was about. HAHA!

But I don't think that what I've heard called "apostate" literature, will ever tell you about a culture. Usually it seems to me that they are written by people who have many more issues than the culture they were born into.

[ylisa7]

I am reading Room by Emma Donoghue with a pen pal and also I Am Malala for a book club.

[i_love_autumn]

I went way overboard and reserved too many books at once from my library,which is usual for
me! Then I got 4 new adventure games for my Kindle Fire,so of course I'm having to renew books again and have not been able to get to the Kindle freebie that I am excited about~ The Mark Of The Loon (Gen Delacourt Mystery Book 1)by Molly Greene.

I finished and loved the other two romances in the Daddy Dude Ranch trilogy,and the other two about park rangers set in Yosemite National Park by Rebecca Winters,and have several of her other titles here.

Absolutely stuck in warm/fuzzy mode and loving it,so Lisa, although I loved the cowboy romance~ Do You Take This Rebel by Sherryl Woods,I just have not be able to bring myself to try any others of her Sweet Magnolia series after the first one featured the heroine's cheating husband and his pregnant mistress so much and so sympathetically-UGH! Just seems from the synopsis' of the books that they are just too full of drama and turmoil for my tastes.

I really do love trilogies or series with recurring characters,but can't say that I have yet found one that isn't Inspirational or Christian like the ones that I loved,when I was an avid reader of those books.

Beginning with of course the two Harvey Girl trilogies by Tracie Peterson [Desert Roses and the Westward Chronicles] beginning
with ~ Shadows of the Canyon (Desert Roses Book #1) and A Shelter of Hope (Westward Chronicles Book #1)

Aso her 4 book series The Heirs of Montana beginning with ~Land of My Heart (Heirs of Montana Book #1)

The 20 books in The Mule Hollow Matchmaker series by Debra Copton, beginning with ~ The Trouble With Lacy Brown. The longest series yet found,and I loved revisiting Mule Hollow with each new book!

The 6 books of Red River Of The North series by Lauraine Snelling,beginning with ~ An Untamed Land (Red River of the North Book #1)

The 4 books in The Gresham Chronicles by Lawana Blackwell, beginning with ~The Widow of Larkspur Inn (The Gresham Chronicles Book #1)

The 4 books of the Prairie Winds series by Stephanie Grace Whitson, beginning with ~Walks the Fire (A Prairie Winds Novel Book 1)
[the first book is a heartbreaker....but so beautiful!

The 4 book Rose Legacy series by Kristen Heitzmann,beginning with ~ Diamond of the Rockies Book #1)

The fun 4 book Boo series by Renee Gutteridge,beginning with ~ Boo

and the several Amish-themed series that I love,several have over 4 books.

I tried the Mitford series by Jan Karon,but couldn't even finish the first book,just found it totally unengaging,zzzzzzz.


Right now I am reading and enjoying my first Fannie Flagg book~The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion: A Novel

[ylisa7]

Originally Posted by i_love_autumn

I went way overboard and reserved too many books at once from my library,which is usual for
me!


Right now I am reading and enjoying my first Fannie Flagg book~The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion: A Novel

Ha, ha….I always go overboard with my library books. I have 11 books checked out and 10 holds


That was my first Fannie Flagg book also. I hope you like it as much as I did Maybe I shouldn't tell you that I liked it, lol.