What book are you currently reading?

[monrein]

Just about to start "Let the Great World Spin" by Colum McCann.  Know nothing about it but my neighbour who lent it to me thought I'd like it.

[Riki]

I think I'll stick to my YA books...

Cariad, I pretty much failed Grade 12 English, which was the only class I needed to graduate high school, because of that foolish book.  I wasn't able to keep up in discussions in class, and I utterly failed the exam. The only thing we read in that class that I did well with was Shakespeare, but I think it's because I was the only one who understood it.  I still love Shakespeare

Riki, sometimes an author's "masterpiece" is too pretentious by half!

I most certainly hope not, considering that I'm somewhere in the middle of my first draft of my masterpiece.. *LOL*

[cariad]

I think I'll stick to my YA books...

Cariad, I pretty much failed Grade 12 English, which was the only class I needed to graduate high school, because of that foolish book.  I wasn't able to keep up in discussions in class, and I utterly failed the exam. The only thing we read in that class that I did well with was Shakespeare, but I think it's because I was the only one who understood it.  I still love Shakespeare

Of course you should read whatever you like! If you love Shakespeare, then obviously you can keep up with complex and challenging writing, but that does not mean you are obligated to fill your days with Proust and Milton. I am feeling sleepy just mentioning Paradise Lost....

Oh yes, One Hundred Years of Solitude was magical, and I enjoyed Love in the Time of Cholera. 

Wasn't it, though? I read One Hundred Years of Solitude in my early twenties, then quickly followed that with Chronicle of a Death Foretold (nowhere near as special) and I just finished Love and Other Demons right before my transplant, or maybe right after, I don't recall. I have so far not got round to Love in the Time of Cholera, and once Oprah put her hands on it, I decided I did not want to look like one of her followers. No offense meant to her or her fans, my parents live in the same town as she does and she is known for being smart, gracious, and of course, generous.

As another middle-aged white lady (by some people's definition of lady!) I know what you mean. I did relate to the moment when one of the main characters was surprised that she was not welcomed into the black community. I remember having those same feelings as a kid, although it would have been toward Latinos. The German woman that I felt so close to was our housekeeper, we were never allowed to call her a 'maid', we actually sharply differentiated. Housekeepers were trusted friends, maids were just people you hired to do a job that did not require a lot of thought. We had many maids come into our lives, only one true housekeeper. Never separate bathrooms, though, and most of our maids were Latinas who had a tendency to disappear with no warning when I guess immigration would find them. I once offered to drive our maid home because I saw her walking along the side of the road (she would never let my mother drive her to the bus stop, and we lived in an area with no pavements, only horse trails or the side of the road). I did not feel worried going in to the urban, immigrant neighbourhood, but I think she might have been embarrassed for any of us to see her home? Her kids, boys and girls, all shared one bedroom, with only twin bunk beds. The place looked fine, but I do remember thinking "so this is poverty". My parents paid very well and I don't think they ever fired anyone, even when they would call in frequently over car trouble or whatever, but California is a harsh economic climate and I imagine it was nearly impossible for them to get ahead. My parents did catch one couple stealing (beers from the fridge) and sacked them. I thought that was a nice detail in The Help, that stealing was really the worst offense. My mother was also weird about her fruit trees - she was constantly offering fruits/avocados to the maid and the gardeners, but if they took it themselves, she would call them on it. Don't think they let anyone go over that, though.

Have not read The Thirteenth Tale, but sounds like one I should check out!

[MooseMom]

I was living in the UK when Love in the Time of Cholera was released in its English translation.  I was working up in the City and on my lunchbreak, I wandered over to the bookstore, and there in the window was a sign saying, "If you do not love this book, bring it back and we will give you a refund."  So, I took the bait, and I was glad I did.

I don't think I've ever seen a full episode of Oprah.

Shortly after I was born, my mother went back to work as a bank officer.  I was the only kid I knew whose mother worked outside the home, but it seemed perfectly natural to me.  We had a black housekeeper named Willie who would come in every morning, take me to school and stay until one of my parents got home.  She did this until I was 13 and my mom stopped working.  Even then, Willie would come in maybe once a week.  So, she was an integral part of my family, and my family was part of hers.  She was at my wedding.  I would sometimes go to her house (I remember she had a very big bed).  My son came to know her as "grandma Willie."  And since my mom was from Mississippi, I tried to see some parallels between my life and that of Skeeter, but there weren't any.  We didn't have a housekeeper because we were rich white folk and that's what rich white folk did.  We had a housekeeper because we were middle class folk where both parents were ahead of their time and worked outside the home.  And there was never any of this business of "separate facilities"...that really shocked me as I read The Help.  I wish I had been older and therefore more curious about Willie's own life, but as far as very young MooseMom was concerned, she was family and I had no real concept that she had a separate life, just as I really didn't understand that my parents could possibly have a separate, private life that didn't center around ME!

After I married and moved away to the UK, I would come back to Texas and would bring my son, and Willie would come out to visit us.  I don't know where she is now.  Like so many other people in my life, she seems to have disappeared, although to many of those same people, I've disappeared, too.

[Annig83]

Started reading "Buckalnd's Complete Book of WitchCraft", for just general interest and curiosity...wondering if I will stumble upon a spell for curing ESRD 

[Riki]

Started reading "Buckalnd's Complete Book of WitchCraft", for just general interest and curiosity...wondering if I will stumble upon a spell for curing ESRD 

Sounds like a Hogwart's text book. *L*  Would love to hear if you find a spell to cure kidney failure, also.. if you find something that regenerates retinas, I'd be eternally grateful..

I started Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire yesterday.  I stayed up late last night, just to finish the chapter on the Quidditch World Cup.

[cariad]

I am enjoying the Henrietta Lacks book. For someone who has worked in human subjects research and hopes to continue to do so, it is great information, a fabulous how-not-to. Her writing style is plain, but she's a journalist so that seems true to the story and her history. I don't like when she seems to take on the Lacks family dialect in her own writing, or projects thoughts onto people, but that only happens in bits. It does sound like a really difficult story to properly investigate, but that is characteristic of any modern social science - all the best subjects are sick to death of being hounded for interviews and information.

[MooseMom]

I like medical stories in general, so The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was interesting to me. 

I'm sorry, but I just couldn't get through The Pale King.  I have so many books that I want to read that I just cannot bring myself to waste time on something I don't enjoy.  Maybe if I were 30 years younger and didn't have an incurable disease, I'd have plowed through it and then congratulated myself at the end, but nope, not gonna do it.  So I've started the "Song of Ice and Fire" books and hope to get through all five of them by the time "Game of Thrones" returns to HBO in the spring.

[jbeany]

Started reading "Buckalnd's Complete Book of WitchCraft", for just general interest and curiosity...wondering if I will stumble upon a spell for curing ESRD 

I had a friend in college who was studying criminal justice, with the intent to go on to the police academy.  For those without the historical context, this was the very late 80's, not many years after all the popularity of the urban legend nonsense about the supposed rash of Satan worshipers who liked to do human and animal sacrifices.  Somewhere along the line, the college cj texts began to include sections about "witchcraft" and the spells practitioners used, on the theory that cops should be able to identify the trappings.  I was at his apartment, and when he ended up in a long, involved phone call, I started reading that particular text.  (I never did find anything that explained to the students that Wiccans and Pagans aren't Satanists, but that's another issue.)  So, here was the "spell" the text listed that the witches supposedly used to protect themselves from enemies - with the idea that the cops could then recognize witchcraft at work when they found the remains of the spell.

Obtain a sealed container, such as a large metal coffee can.  Fill the can with as many sharp objects as you can fit in it - nails, knives, razor blades, broken glass, etc.  Mark the names of your enemies on the outside of the container.  Fill the rest of the container with your own bodily fluid, usually urine, although a blood sacrifice, even in a small amount in combination with the urine can strengthen the spell. Bury the container, with ceremony, in the most remote location available, to protect it from being disturbed. The spell will last as long as the container remains undisturbed.


Think it will work if we write ESRD on the can instead?  Pity the peeing part is going to be so hard for so many of us to manage!   

[Rerun]

I finished "Larry's Kidney" by Daniel Asa Rose.  It is a must read.  Hilarious description of Dan and his cousin Larry who to go to China to get Larry a kidney.  It is a true story and has many truths in it that you will find endearing to a kidney patient. 

I got it on my NookColor or I would share it. 

http://www.amazon.com/Larrys-Kidney-Mail-Order-Skirting-Transplant--/dp/B002QGSWNI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313611141&sr=8-1

[cariad]

I checked it out, Rerun, and it does look extremely interesting. No LendMe for the NookColor? I only ask because I have one as well, although right now I am so overloaded with library books that I want to get through those before committing to anything new.

We are on holiday next week and I shall be taking a load of books with me. We will be in the middle of f***all, but there will be activities all day for the kids, so perhaps I will get some reading done. I have Born To Run (I have heard that man at least twice on NPR) and The Trouble with Testosterone, Maus' The Gift for preliminary PhD reading, plus a few other anthro selections.

[Rerun]

I just bought (on my NookColor) Born to Ride about Casey Tibbs.

The NookColor is just too easy. 
I wrote to Daniel Rose the author of "Larry's Kidney" and he wrote me back.  WOW can you believe it.  He seems like a super nice guy who understands the problem with Organ Donation first hand in The United States.

[Cordelia]

I just bought a copy of a book called, "Sorrow's Reward" It's a book about dialysis patients. I can't wait to read it. I just got it delivered today so I hope to start reading it soon!   

[Rerun]

Let us know how you like it.

                   

[jbeany]

Yet another Aunt Dimity mystery.  13? 14? I don't know; the series is endless and cute and fluffy, but sometimes I don't want to think too hard when I'm reading!

[del]

I'm reading Daniele Steele - The House on Hope Street.

[Cordelia]

Thanks, Rerun, I will   

[Riki]

I've just started the 6th book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  I'm only in the first 10 chapters, and I'm finding it a bit slow to start compared to the other 5 that I've read

[Poppylicious]

I've reverted to reading a simply Terry Pratchett (The Bromeliad) and it's a highly entertaining romp in a world of little people.  It makes me wish my imagination was such that I could create such lovely little worlds. 

I've just started the 6th book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  I'm only in the first 10 chapters, and I'm finding it a bit slow to start compared to the other 5 that I've read

Sorry Riki, you've probably already said, but I assume you haven't seen the films?!  I haven't read any of the books for a long time, but I always found them very hard to read.  My relationship with them was very a much a Love/Hate affair.  I hated to love them and loved to hate them, for many reasons.  However, I was up early to open the door to the post lady when she brought me my Deathly Hallows book and did sit on the stairs for over an hour reading it; I couldn't go online until I'd finished (two days, I think) because I was so scared of seeing spoilers!  *sigh*

[Riki]

I've seen all but the last movie, but I found them a bit confusing too.  I think that's because of the dvd player I was using.  It's a portable, and I think there's a problem with the contrast on it, because whenever there was a dark scene, it looked like the screen was turned off

[CebuShan]

I am currently rereading "The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey. I just love the Pern series!
I am anxiously awaiting the newest Janet Evanovich book in the Stephanie Plum series, "Explosive Eighteen" due out November 22nd.
I like to read just about anything except Harlequin-type romances and westerns. Just never could get into them.

[Cordelia]

Well, that book I read, "Sorrow's Reward" was pretty depressing. And, it was actually a bunch of poems about people's experiences in their units. To me, it was just depressing, how it was written. I wouldn't recommend it for reading really.        Just my opinion

[Bajanne]

I am currently reading absolutely nothing!  However, I just bought on Amazon "The Help"  which I read about 2 years ago.  I plant to read it again before I go and see the movie.

[Riki]

I bought the last Harry Potter book tonight.  Even though my nephew's mom let me borrow her copy (which I actually bought for her when she was pregnant with her second oldest. She had appendicitis while she was pregnant, and spent a lot of time in the hospital), it was water damaged and had a little bit of mold on it.  I couldn't bring myself to even touch it, let alone sit and read it.  I'm saving the book now, cuz I'm going to be spending the day by myself at my dad's on Thursday, waiting for the cable guy. *L*   I'll need something to do.  He doesn't have anything there.

[jbeany]

I am currently rereading "The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey. I just love the Pern series!
I am anxiously awaiting the newest Janet Evanovich book in the Stephanie Plum series, "Explosive Eighteen" due out November 22nd.
I like to read just about anything except Harlequin-type romances and westerns. Just never could get into them.

Pern rules!  I want my own pet "fire-lizard".  Have you read any of the Pern books by her son, Todd?  I like her stuff better, but his aren't bad.

School started this week.  I'm reading 2011 Michigan State Court rules at the moment.  Yee-haw.