What Are You Reading

[just_me]

Big Russ and Me - Tim Russert. Died much too young.

 

[Mike1939]

I've been reading Anthony Powell's 'A Dance to the Music of Time,' a 12 novel series that follows the life of a English gentleman and those in his life from the 1920's to the 1960's. I just started the third book this morning and have found the series to be a wonderful character study of the time. Although I've read the 'Chap Manifesto' on the side for a little light reading.

 

[Queue]

I finished Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land and am no entrenched in Frank Herbert's Dune.

And now my nerd is showing...

 

[BinkieBaumont]

I think that is the book on which the David Bowie movie "The man who fell to earth" is based?

 

[carter]

Snow Wolf by Glenn Meade. St. Martin's Press, 1996. A good read for fans of Frederick Forsyth, Jack Higgins, and Robert Ludlum.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

I'm reading "Paris: The Secret History," by Andrew Hussey. It's an interesting book and not just because of the intriguing subject matter. This book discusses the history of Paris by following the typical chronological method, but bringing in elements of events from all eras to compare it too. So, for instance, Islamic incursions into France in Medieval times are compared to the current tension between the radical Islamic elements in the suburbs of Paris today. Fascinating.

 

[bdb71]

The Original Wild Ones

Its the life and times of the Boozefighters Motorcycle Club

The fellas that shook things up in Hollister in '47

 

[Brian Sheridan]

Deconstructing Sammy by Matt Birkbeck

Sammy Davis Jr. lived a storied life. Adored by millions over a six-decade-long career, he was considered an entertainment icon and a national treasure. But despite lifetime earnings that topped $50 million, Sammy died in 1990 near bankruptcy. His estate was declared insolvent, and there was no possibility of it ever using Sammy's name or likeness again. It was as if Sammy had never existed.

Years later his wife, Altovise, a once-vivacious woman and heir to one of the greatest entertainment legacies of the twentieth century, was living in poverty, and with nowhere else to go, she turned to a former federal prosecutor, Albert "Sonny" Murray, to make one last attempt to resolve Sammy's debts, restore his estate, and revive his legacy. For seven years Sonny probed Sammy's life to understand how someone of great notoriety and wealth could have lost everything, and in the process he came to understand Sammy as a man whose complexity makes for a riveting work of celebrity biography as cultural history.

Matt Birkbeck's serious work of investigative journalism unveils the extraordinary story of an international celebrity at the center of a confluence of entertainment, politics, and organized crime, and shows how even Sammy's outsized talent couldn't save him from himself. (From Amazon.com)

This isn't a salacious, gossipy piece of trash. It really is a detailed story about a man who never met Davis but dedicated himself to saving his widow and his legacy. It is a real page turner better than some mysteries I have read. The book is also a somewhat sad look into money, fame, and show business.

 

[Lancealot]

Recently acquired the 33 volume set of Time-Life Books Mysteries of the Unknown. So I am starting my way through them.

 

[Lancealot]

I finished Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land and am no entrenched in Frank Herbert's Dune.

And now my nerd is showing...

I enjoyed the Dune series until mid-way through God-Emperor Dune it seemed to just be stretched at that point, although it could be I was reading them one right after the other.

 

[PADDY]

Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.

As the title says. Is as enjoyable a read for an adult as for a child at upper Elementary/Primary School level. (And a movie has recently been made of it too).

 

[imoldfashioned]

Recently acquired the 33 volume set of Time-Life Books Mysteries of the Unknown. So I am starting my way through them.

I still remember the ads for that book set!

I'm still working my way through The Brontes (I'm up to page 247) which really is excellent. This quote stood out: "One of the reasons Patrick cited for needing a magiastrate in Haworth itself was to enforce the new factory regulations of 1833 which restricted the hours children under 11 could work in the mills to a maximum of 48, those under eighteen to a maximum of 69 and insisted on a minimum of 2 hours' schooling per day."

I'll remember that bit the next time I'm whining about my job!

 

[carebear]

Recently acquired the 33 volume set of Time-Life Books Mysteries of the Unknown. So I am starting my way through them.

Remember the ads for those?

A guy would be reading a book on a plane or something. Someone would ask him what it was about, get told and tehn ask, "are UFO's really real?"

The answer would be "Read the book."

 

[Harp]

reetpleat's treat: Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides,
a chronicle of the Ranger/Filipino raid on the Cabanatuan POW camp.

Thanks again, reet.

 

[vonwotan]

On to the next Modesty Blaise novel, The Xanadu Talisman, by Peter O'Donnell

 

[carebear]

Hit the bargain bin at Barnes and Noble and got the latest Jesse Stone and John Rain novels.

 

[bobalooba]

I just started the Dresden FIles by Jim Butcher. Kind of Sam SPade meets Harry Potter. A rather enjoyable bit of fluff.

I just started reading these a few months back, I've read numbers 1-3 so far and I would recomend them.

I've also been hooked on the doctor who books because I'm a nerd. The newest one I got is cool if you like steampunk, It's about a whole planet stuck in a steampunk-like era.

 

["Skeet" McD]

Prayer; Baseball; Ballads; GALLIA EST DIVISA IN PARTES TRES...

Currently reading "Christian Teachings on the Practice of Prayer" an anthology collected by Lorraine Kisly, as part of my lenten discipline.

Just finished "The Hidden Language of Baseball" by Paul Dickson; before that "The Mercier Book of Old Irish Street Ballads, vol. 2: History and Politics" collected by James N. Healy; and in the middle of Caesar's "The Battle for Gaul: a new illustrated translation" by Anne and Peter Wiseman.

 

[Harp]

[QUOTE="Skeet" McD]
Just finished... "The Mercier Book of Old Irish Street Ballads, vol. 2: History and Politics" collected by James N. Healy...[/QUOTE]


Irish poets, learn your trade,
Sing whatever is well made...

Yeats

caithfidh me' mo cheird...

 

[Lancealot]

I just started reading these a few months back, I've read numbers 1-3 so far and I would recomend them.

I've also been hooked on the doctor who books because I'm a nerd. The newest one I got is cool if you like steampunk, It's about a whole planet stuck in a steampunk-like era.

Once I got started I just couldn't stop I am a confirmed Dresden aholic current;y waiting the new book coming out this month.