What book are you currently reading?

[Gerald Lively]

Idiot America by Charles P. Pierce

[willowtreewren]

Idiot America by Charles P. Pierce

Oooh....good one, Gerald. We did that for a book club selection recently!

I'm taking a box of books to the used book store this weekend. I'll have an up-date after that.

Aleta

[cariad]

I just finished this book by some big-deal community organizer from the middle part of the last century. Saul somebody or other. A great read, too bad the title escapes me....

Back to The Cleanest Race.

[cariad]

I finished The Cleanest Race. Boy, is this world hosed!

I am depressed now and worse yet, I have no book that I really want to read next.

[willowtreewren]

I've been reading "Irrationally Rational" for today's book club. Not finished. Sigh.

[glitter]

Tomatoland by Barry Eastbrook

I will probaly never buy a supermarket tomato again....I had no idea what they go through

[CebuShan]

I just started The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke. Love Dave Robicheaux!

[galvo]

Me too , CS. I haven't read that one yet. I'm enjoying Karin Slaughter's 'fallen', a good who-done-it.

[cariad]

Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight. I needed a break from the North Korean cold, and now I'm all moody for the African sunshine.

I told the kids I want to sell everything and move to Australia and they sounded very hopeful about that possibility. Safer and more plausible than Africa, and perhaps we could visit.

[Joe]

Just started Vince Flynn's Kill Shot. Starting well...

[MooseMom]

Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight. I needed a break from the North Korean cold, and now I'm all moody for the African sunshine.

I've read that.  What do you think of it?  I think the author has a new book out that focuses more on her mother's life.

[cariad]

Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight. I needed a break from the North Korean cold, and now I'm all moody for the African sunshine.

I've read that.  What do you think of it?  I think the author has a new book out that focuses more on her mother's life.

Yeah, I noticed when I was purchasing it that a second book was mentioned.

I am almost through with it as I have been so very ill that all I've had the energy to do is lie in bed. I am enjoying it very much. It is one of those books that I have always meant to read, and in fact I have read the first few pages many times in book shops. I would have preferred to save the cash and get it out of the library, but they did not have the electronic copy of it and if they did have the hard copy, I did not have the energy to go collect it these past few days.

It's bringing up lots of memories for me, good and bad. She had a remarkable childhood, no doubt about that, and it's made me glad that Gwyn and I decided not to try to move to Africa. Her writing style is charming, though it does wear in places, primarily (for me, anyhow) the overuse of hyphenated adjectives. It's a minor complaint, the story is so powerful that it carries it through.

The part about feeling like there is a dark cloud hanging over them particularly resonated with me. I love the way she says such simple things like "we were all malarial" that just stop me cold, because that is a nightmare disease that can last a lifetime, yet it was just part of life for her I reckon. I love the dialect, of course, and can especially relate to her feelings of personal responsibility for tragedy and that dread as she anticipates being "in trouble forever". I don't know that I could read her second book any time soon, but will certainly check it out at some point. Her tragically daft mother is the most interesting character in the book, so it was a wise choice to write more about her. I thought the section where they go to the dam with the young visitor Richard was brilliant, and her mother says 'isn't this nice' and the narrator wants everyone to take special note of what a normal thing that was to say. It is so relate-able even if you don't have a similar life experience.

There is another book that I actually always associate in my mind with this one, though they have no relation other than being on display together once. It is called There Are No Children Here about the Chicago projects. Well, there was a time I would have read such a book, but today, having looked a bit more into that book, I just could not take it. I suppose I even feel a bit guilty for that. Reading about two little boys, for all intents and purposes the same age as my kids, and how they live in fear, neglect, despair, and violence is just not upon the cards right now. Being set in Africa allows me to keep Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight at a certain emotional remove. My memory is too good at times, and once I read a book about kids in the projects, the horrible bits will stay with me forever, I know this with certainty.

[Riki]

I just finished reading the Hunger Games trilogy.  I read all three books in a week.  I'd say that's a new record for me. *L*  Anyone who's into YA books like me, and wants to read these books, be forwarned- for the last few chapters of the last book, you're gonna need a kleenex.  I think I went through a few.

[jdwills83]

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

[billybags]

Remember me by Lesley Pearce  I am really enjoying this. My husband is also reading it.

[cariad]

Don't Sleep, There are Snakes about a remote tribe in the Amazon.

I've heard it was interesting but should have been much better. Not very far into it yet, so am reserving judgment.

[willowtreewren]

Each Little Bird that Sings.

It is actually a book for kids, but I'm reading it as a preview for my class. Oh, what a sweet little tome. I'm surely enjoying.

[Rerun]

Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly was very interesting.  The Civil War was so bloody.  My Grandmother's uncle was in the Civil War for the North but was a prisoner in the South.  He hated Lincoln because Lincoln quit the prisoner exchange program and left him there to starve to death.  Obviously he didn't starve to death and came out west. 

[Poppylicious]

I just finished reading the Hunger Games trilogy.  I read all three books in a week.  I'd say that's a new record for me. *L*  Anyone who's into YA books like me, and wants to read these books, be forwarned- for the last few chapters of the last book, you're gonna need a kleenex.  I think I went through a few.

I've just started reading the first book and am unable to put it down.  Okay, that's not strictly true, but I am loving it.  The problem I have is that I don't like reading books I love because I get through them so fast and then they're gone and I can't read them anymore and I become so very sad ... *sigh* 

 

[chook]

Poppy, I can relate to that. I hate the end of a great book or series - I so live with the characters that I get glum and lonesome when the book finishes, just for a time.
I'm reading "The Painted Man" by Peter V Brett. I thought it was a ghost/horror story but it's fantasy and I'm really enjoying it. I know I'll have that glum feeling when I finish it I so admire the writers that create these wonderful tales for me to read!

[mitchymitch]

a song of ice and fire series by George RR Martin. EPIC

[Poppylicious]

I have about twenty pages of the final Hunger Games book to read and then I shall be very sad to wave it goodbye.  However, I have Battle Royale on hold with the library because Blokey keeps going on about how The Hunger Games isn't an original idea and Battle Royale is supposed to be oodles better.  We shall see. 

[galvo]

I am cackling my way through Rupert Everett's autobiography - "Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins".

[Rerun]

I just downloaded to my Nook "The Imortal Life of Henrietta Lacks"  (2010)

"Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance."

[CebuShan]

Just started "The Seven Symphonies" It's very good so far.