What book are you reading?

[LindavG]

"God is Dead - Secularization in the West" by Steve Bruce (I'm writing a paper on this topic).

[netwit]

Originally Posted by LookinForMayberry

No need to apologize -- I just couldn't tell for sure. (I'm not very good with subtleties.) I will definitely read it, after this recommend. Thanks!


I was thinking I'd read "Anil's Ghost," but after reading Wikipedia's write up on it, I don't think so now. I did read his "The English Patient" and absolutely LOVED it.

BTW -- I am retracting what I said about Adam's "Mercy Among the Children." Adams still has some quirky lines, but the character Sydney has such a keen perception of what motivates peoples' mean-spirited acts that I am now compelled to read more, just to know this character better.

Meanwhile, class studies and homework are seriously cutting into my reading time!

I don't remember what I thought when I started the book - whether I thought it was hard to get into or quirky or anything like that. I read it when it first came out and having read his other books, I think Mercy Among the Children is his most accessible.

What I remember is thinking, after I finished, that it was one of the greatest books I had ever read. I felt the author had astonishing insight into the human condition. And in spite of the mean-spiritedness, at the end, mercy shone through. It elevated human suffering to a heroic state. I was blown away. Speechless. My sisters-in-law read it, as did my sisters. My husband's sisters are both avid readers and they felt as I did. My sisters are not readers the way I am, and they were blown away by it, as was my mother.

The other book that made an impact on me in this way was Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie McDonald (although her writing style is more straight-forward, if I recall correctly), and The Kite Runner.

[netwit]

In between other stuff, I just finished reading Ian Frazier's Great Plains. I had started on his On the Rez but he kept making reference to The Great Plains and people he had met when he was writing that book, so I figured I might as well start from the beginning instead of working my way backwards.

It was an interesting book, and having made road trips across the prairies and the plains, I found his descriptions of the land and the overwhelming sky, very true.

Interesting factoid for me, as a Mennonite - I didn't know it was the Russian Mennonites who introduced hard wheat to N. America.

[phonelady61]

okay could not get through Rush Home Road made me cry too much .. I dont do books that make me cry all through three chapters . Now Im reading Maybe a miracle br brian something . I will come back later and let everyone know .

[C2ShiningC]

I just finished "Parrot and Olivier" that was recommended on this thread. For those that have read it, if you ever want to re-read it, get the audiobook!! This is one of the very best audiobook narrations I have heard, and I listen to a lot of them. It is read by one person named Humphrey Bower, and you would swear it is two people portraying Olivier and Parrot - his Olivier, especially, is truly delightful.

I really enjoyed this book, and think Peter Carey is a wonderful writer - there were so many passages I wanted to write down and share (too much trouble though). He is really funny, and paints a wonderful visual landscape.

I'm now listening to "Shades of Grey" - no, not "50 Shades of Grey" - this is by Jasper Fforde. I started his "Eyre Affair" a while ago and couldn't get into it (but plan to try again), but this has started out well, and once again it is a great narrator, John Lee, so I am hopeful.

Everybody keep on posting, you have been my main source of book selections for a while now.

[Jess5]

Just Kids, and Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

[SWRoots]

I just finished reading The Turquoise Ledge a memoir by Leslie Marmon Silko. I loved it. It was a library book, but am ordering a copy of my own so I can re-read it. I read this after Gardens in the Dunes, a novel by Silko. There are several themes in this novel, one of which is how Native American lives were impacted after losing their lands and way of life, contrasts in frames of reference, differences in gardens and use of plants. She tends to be a complex writer, so she's never an easy read. But she writes with such beauty. I just love her.

Now, am reading Denis Johnson's Train Dreams. Started it last night, will finish it this morning. It's only 116 pp. Love reading Johnson. This novella feels a bit Faulkneresk to me, that manly man tone I remember from, what was it, Old Man, maybe, about the Mississippi flooding? Been a long since I read that. I love Denis Johnson...

[Praline]

The Spice Necklace

[Ketabcha]

Yesterday I finished The Year We Disappeared by Cylin and John Busby.

It is nonfiction. Cylin is the daughter of John. John was a police officer on Cape Cod in the 70s and was brutally shot several times in the face by a mafia type character. The bad guy had ties to the police department and the movers and shakers in the town. John survived and he and his family lived in terror for a couple of years before finally removing themselves from the area. It was not a witness protection move but a move the family came up with to a new location.

We are told the story by both daughter and father. It's very well written, sad/happy, disturbing/soothing, full of both love and hate. I particularly like the end of the book where the reader is told what happened to the many people in the book.

It's a good book.

[RiverBird]

Currently reading "This is How" by Augusten Burroughs. Definitely a book for the open-minded (for the close-minded too ). Good writer.

Also the collection of poems "The Wild Braid" by the late great poet Stanley Kunitz, twice a U.S. Poet Laureate.