What Are You Reading

[Orgetorix]

(riffing on beer commercial)

...AND World War Two. Can your Peace Conference do that?

From the foreword by Richard Holbrooke:

In the headline version of history, the road from the Hall of Mirrors to the German invasion of Poland only twenty years later is usually presented as a straight line. But as MacMillan forcefully demonstrates, this widely accepted view of history distorts the nature of the decisions made in Paris and minimizes the importance of actions taken in the intervening years.

...MacMillan corrects the widely held view that thre reparations payments impose by the victors were so onerous as to have caused the wreck of the German economy that paved the way for Hitler.

Part of the reason I'm reading this book is that I completely, utterly, and totally botched a paper on Hitler's rise to power in a college Western History class. I think I got a C minus or a D. Since I apparently didn't understand the subject then, I thought it would be nice to try and remedy that situation now.

 

[Jay]

I'm reading the latest issue of Weird NJ right now. There is a lot of strange stuff unique to New Jersey. Abandoned amusement parks, cold war missile silos filled with rocks with housing developments sitting on top of them, strange smells, caves, abandoned cars in the woods, Bigfoot sightings, everything. It's... weird.

 

[RedPop4]

Still Cadfael....An Excellent Mystery. Over the last week, I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban all for the very first time.

 

[Harp]

From the foreword by Richard Holbrooke:





Part of the reason I'm reading this book is that I completely, utterly, and totally botched a paper on Hitler's rise to power in a college Western History class. I think I got a C minus or a D. Since I apparently didn't understand the subject then, I thought it would be nice to try and remedy that situation now.

...viel gluck mit dis mein freund.

 

[Orgetorix]

...viel gluck mit dis mein freund.

Danke sch??n.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Und Gesundheit!

.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"The Lindbergh Case," by criminology professor/former FBI agent Jim Fisher -- a definitive study of the Crime of the Century, drawing on the full archive of evidence held by the New Jersey State Archives. An excellent counterweight to the slew of conspiracy-theory books about the case, and proof positive that my ex-brother-in-law's dad, despite his claims and despite his webbed toes, is *not* the Lindbergh Baby.

 

[Nick D]

Finished Hollister and Bennett, now I'm on "Western Europe in the Middle Ages: 300-1475" by Brian Tierney.

 

[Kimberly]

Ti's by Frank McCourt

 

[Harp]

Ti's by Frank McCourt

Ah, there's a good lass!

 

[pretty faythe]

I read a great deal, occasionally some how something with substance finds it way into my arms at the thrift store when I am picking up books. But I must confess usually its dime novel romance. Give me a historic, vampire, warewolf, time travel book any day. If I am in a grind my nails suspence scare me in a pyschotic mental way, I'll find a Koontz or King book to read.

But like I said, occasionally things with substance will find there way in my goody bag. Johnathon Livingston Seagul, The Freat Dialogs of Plato.

I also have a habit of reading a couple books at the same time.

 

[Harp]

My high school Alumni Review, which a nephew has gifted.
Nice to see I'm still the class black sheep-prodigal-rebel. lol

 

[Mike1939]

Just finished reading, Whose Body?, Dorothy L. Sayers first book published in 1923. I really enjoyed it. I may even like her detective Lord Peter Wimsey better than Agatha Christie's, Poirot. Although the jury still out on that one.

 

[Steve]

Kim, by Rudyard Kipling.

What an amazing book.

 

[Midnight Palace]

The last book I finished was "Howard Hughes: The Untold Story", which I thought was fantastic!!! I've started on "Desilu: The story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz" but kind of put it down for awhile, not because it's bad, I'm just taking a break.

 

[Polka Dot]

North & South, by Elizabeth Gaskell

 

[woodyinnyc]

I just finished Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund, an historical fiction of the life of Marie Antoinette, and have started The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.

 

[Sunny]

Just finished reading, Whose Body?, Dorothy L. Sayers first book published in 1923. I really enjoyed it. I may even like her detective Lord Peter Wimsey better than Agatha Christie's, Poirot. Although the jury still out on that one.

Good job! Make sure you read them in order. Sayers and Christie are both experts. Christie's biggest skills were in plotting and revealing the mysteries themselves and in her terrific dialogue and character sketching. Sayers' mysteries are just as complicated and well-planned, but the action is more character-driven. As you'll know from reading Whose Body? her emphasis isn't on the who done it, but on how it comes untangled and the effects it has on the people concerned. Her characters are amazing. I have read all of their books many times - and there's just no comparing Poirot and Lord Peter. They're so different!

 

[Mike1939]

Good job! Make sure you read them in order. Sayers and Christie are both experts. Christie's biggest skills were in plotting and revealing the mysteries themselves and in her terrific dialogue and character sketching. Sayers' mysteries are just as complicated and well-planned, but the action is more character-driven. As you'll know from reading Whose Body? her emphasis isn't on the who done it, but on how it comes untangled and the effects it has on the people concerned. Her characters are amazing. I have read all of their books many times - and there's just no comparing Poirot and Lord Peter. They're so different!

I just got Sayers second book, Clouds of Witness in the mail today and can't wait to start it. The only thing keeping from doing so is that I'm in the middle of Christie's Murder on the Orient Express.

 

[Novella]

I just finished Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham (amazing! gripping!), and will probably be heading for a reread of Rider Haggard's King Solomon Mines next since it's part of a final exam I have Saturday.

North & South, by Elizabeth Gaskell

Oooo, I read that last year and really enjoyed it. How do you like it so far?