What are you reading?

Just finished A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Housseini. The guy is a good storyteller.

PH

quote:

Originally posted by PurpleHaze:
Just finished A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Housseini. The guy is a good storyteller.

PH

This time he writes about women in Afghanistan... right?

Yes. An interesting look at the culture by way of a gripping story. Fast read.

PH

While on vacation I finally finished up "The Fabric of the Cosmos" by Brian Greene. I agree with others. Brian has a great way of taking a difficult subject and explaining it in layman's terms through visuals. Recommended.

Zinfandel, A History of a Grape and its Wine by Charles L. Sullivan.

I opened exactly 2 bottles of Zin in the last 12 months and found this to be a lot of fun. If you're a Zin lover, this book is a must read.

PH

Hungry Ghosts, Mao's Secret Famine, by Jasper Becker.

Tuscany and Its Wines, Hugh Johnson.

Any guess what I'm drinking today?

I'm plowing through a Hugh Johnson book now, too (A Life Uncorked). I enjoy his writing a lot.

Also half-way through:
---A Hedonist in the Cellar: Adventures in Wine by Jay Mcinerney

---Guests of the Ayatollah: The Iran Hostage Crisis: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam by Mark Bowden

---Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence

House of Mondavi

Just started it, but so far its a pretty good read.

Just finished reading The Rum Diary by Hunter Thompson. Easily my favorite H.T. book.

Currently I am reading Ask and It Is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks. But to continue on this spiritual quest I have embarked on this summer, I want to start reading this book called Nine Ways to Cross a River, by Akiko Busch. It was featured in More magazine last month, and it looks so interesting. I guess the author, having crossed various rivers, meditates on the many ways tough crossings strengthen us. Deep. I love it.

Metamorphoses
by William G. Anlyan

Recently completed:

Paul Shirley - Can I Keep My Jersey - Life of a Vagobond Basketball . . .

Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury - as part of my masochistic Faulkner retrospective.

Next up Light in August

The newspaper. Just can't get into reading off a damn computer screen for too long.

PH

Bush Country - John Podhoretz. Finished

Robert Novak "Price of Darkness". 1/2 way through. For a political junkie like myself, a fabulous read. Great inside dope covering over 40 years.

Funniest part of the book is actually a picture caption. Dan Quayle signing a photo to Novak writing "To Bob Novack" - misspelling his name. Novak writes under the photo: "....validating that he was not first in his class in spelling". Couldn't he just ask someone how to spell the #1 syndicated columnist in the country how he spells his name before giving him a personalized photo?...while VP. How lazy.


I supported Quayle and agree with most of his values, but I have to admit 20 years later maybe the media wasn't so hard on him

The Coming Collapse of China by Gordon Chang.

Hunter, I see the Prince of Darkness quite a bit in DC. He drives a Corvette. Pretty cool.

Kitchen Confidential - Bourdain

Nasty Bits is next

James Baker - Work Hard, Study and Keep Out of Politics

Black Swan by Nassim Taleb

liking it better than fooled by randomness.

LOTR, for about the fifth time. Just about to finish Fellowship. . .

Just finished

The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien

Tom Peters "Essential Leadership"

"Wonderful Tonight" by Pattie Boyd (aka Layla) light, fluff reading on a plane!

KarenT
www.jeanedwardscellars.com

Caesar - Christian Meier

Just picked up an autobiography of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. entitled, The Salad Days. Pretty good so far.

Champagne, by Kladstrup.

Just finished Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert. Attraversiamo. I already speak Spanish (poorly), and had been planning to next study French. But, I think Ms. Gilbert has swayed me toward Italian…

Can’t decide which of these three to begin next:

• Bridge of Sighs, Richard Russo. Empire Falls is on my top ten fav list, so I hesitate b/c my expectations may be too high…
  
• One Drop, Bliss Broyard
  
• The Bad Girl, Mario Vargas Llosa

Reagan Diaries - By Ronald Reagan of course...

"Peace through strength"
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall"

The Siege of Mecca by Yaroslav Trofimov.

Amazing story of a well buried incident that was critical in the ascent of radical Islam and Wahabbism in Sauda Arabia and a precursor to many of the woes we face in that region right now. Amazing stuff.

PH

The Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition by Ed Regis. It was about future technology/science/medicine in regards to cryogenics, nanotechnology, etc. It was a very interesting read and opened up some interesting thinking and discussions (chapter on downloading a persons entire memories into a computer data bank)
If you like to read a lot and get bored with the regular day to day type of reads I would suggest, otherwise its a little heavy at times with jargon and required some deep thought and re-reads due to the technical nature.

The Seceret Life of Bees, almost finished.
And Le livre du voyage by Bernard Weber. Love it! He is one of my favorite authors with Amelie Nothomb.

5 O'clock lightning - Harvey Frommer

About the 1927 New York Yankees.

Just finished The Pillars of the the Earth, which Oprah announced was her newest Book Club book. 900+pages in paperback.
Exciting story about a 12th century stonemason in rural England, his desire to construct a cathedral, and the monks around him.

quote:

Originally posted by irwin:
Just finished The Pillars of the the Earth, which Oprah announced was her newest Book Club book. 900+pages in paperback.
Exciting story about a 12th century stonemason in rural England, his desire to construct a cathedral, and the monks around him.

Irwin, thumbs up or down?

Also, I do not see the Oprah sheep having the attention span for a 900 page book.

Still with LOTR, a few pages every few days. About halfway through Two Towers. Good stuff, just too busy to read much, except on airplanes.

wine+art
Two thumbs up.
Actually an exciting book.

Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield, a historical novel about the Battle of Thermopylae.

The Blue Nowhere by Jeffery Deaver this book I think was an attempt at a computer based sci-fi thriller of sorts. When i started reading I thought I was going to be let down but it took a very good turn, I wound up enjoying it and was pleasantly caught off guard.

Just finished "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. An Oprah bookclub book that my sister-in-law lent to me.

Now starting "Rewriting History" by Dick Morris. The first chapter provided information for not wanting to vote for Hillary in '08.

Become a Better You - Joel Osteen

Tough read considering I'm near perfect as is

But it is an enjoyable and very positive book. Not for atheists though.