cardioaholic
Member
"The Art of Happiness" by the Dalai Lama and Chelsea Handler's new one...it's HILARIOUS!!!
What IS Everyone Reading
- Thread starter Roxie 1965
- Start date
dbelden1
Cathlete
I have to admit that I have not read anything lately, but I LOVE Nicolas Sparks books and looking forward to the new moving based on his A Night in Rodanthe! I was literally glued to The Notebook and sequel The Wedding and bawled my friggin head off reading them both! I'm such a lush!
Other books that I have read from the beginning of the series are the Sue Grafton Alphabet mysteries... I think that the last one I started was "P is for Peril" (I think that's the title) but haven't finished it yet... they are very easy reads and I find them easier to get through them than other books I have picked up in the past. As I read for relaxation (and airplane rides) the more turns and twists, I get lost and quickly lose interest...
I should start reading again before bed, instead of watching TV.. maybe that would help with my insomnia!
Great thread!!!
Other books that I have read from the beginning of the series are the Sue Grafton Alphabet mysteries... I think that the last one I started was "P is for Peril" (I think that's the title) but haven't finished it yet... they are very easy reads and I find them easier to get through them than other books I have picked up in the past. As I read for relaxation (and airplane rides) the more turns and twists, I get lost and quickly lose interest...
I should start reading again before bed, instead of watching TV.. maybe that would help with my insomnia!
Great thread!!!
purple_magada
Cathlete
I'm STILL reading Duma Key by Stephen King. It is a good book - I just haven't had the time to sit down and read.
Boingo1
Cathlete
It always takes me a while to read books. I've been reading: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See. It's VERY good! It's fiction about Japanese girls and how they grew up (foot binding, pre-arranged marriages, boys being preferred to girls, etc). It came highly recommended to me and I highly recommend it to anyone!
I can't WAIT to see The Secret Life of Bees! I loved that book too!!
I can't WAIT to see The Secret Life of Bees! I loved that book too!!
bitmover
Cathlete
Coming late to the party here, maybe, but I'm reading "Free Food for Millionaires" and enjoying it. I also have to tell you to get to your library and pick up "My Half of the Sky" -- it may start out a little slow, but boy you just feel like you are right there with those characters.
-Beth
-Beth
MDolfiniReed
Cathlete
If you love dogs, this book is a must read
I just finished reading Merle's Door by Ted Kerasote. It is one of the most well written books that I have ever read. You can see every detail and you feel like you know this dog. I was crying with joy on page 5 when Merle adopts Ted and I laughed out loud through the book. By the end, I was crying and laughing at the same time. How many writers can evoke both outright joy and sadness at the same time? Not many. And keep your pup close as you read this, because you will want to reach out and love him.
I just finished reading Merle's Door by Ted Kerasote. It is one of the most well written books that I have ever read. You can see every detail and you feel like you know this dog. I was crying with joy on page 5 when Merle adopts Ted and I laughed out loud through the book. By the end, I was crying and laughing at the same time. How many writers can evoke both outright joy and sadness at the same time? Not many. And keep your pup close as you read this, because you will want to reach out and love him.
josiespcah6ojsh
Cathlete
i just finished reading The Ruins. Worst book i have ever read. it kept talking about the same thing over and over. not the least bit scary.about 1/3 way through i just skimmed through the book til the ending. i am going back to fantasy books.
laura
laura
orphylea
Cathlete
Thanks to everyone that responded to this thread! My Amazon wish list just got bigger. 
I read The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield recently. It was terrific- it started a bit slow but I was obsessed by the end. It isn't a tough read but it isn't fluff either- I love those "inbetween" books. It is about a famous author's "secret" childhood and what her family's dark secret was- good read!
I read The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield recently. It was terrific- it started a bit slow but I was obsessed by the end. It isn't a tough read but it isn't fluff either- I love those "inbetween" books. It is about a famous author's "secret" childhood and what her family's dark secret was- good read!
berry99
Cathlete
I am currently reading Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland. This particular book of hers is about the famous Renoir painting. I really enjoy her books. She also wrote Girl in Hyacinth Blue.
After this book, I am planning on reading The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs.
After this book, I am planning on reading The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs.
SirenSongWoman
Cathlete
I just started FROM BEIRUT TO JERUSALEM by Thomas L. Friedman (first published 1995). Here's some excerpts, where Friedman describes life in Beirut in:
"It was the ever-present prospect of dying a random, senseless death that made Beirut so frightening to me. Ever since the start of the Lebanese civil was, much of the fighting in Beirut has consisted of sniping or shelling from great distances; those doing the fighting often have no idea where their bullets of shells will land, and they care even less. When car bombs came into vogue in the late 1970s, life on the Beirut streets became even more terrifying, since you never knew whether the car you were about to walk past, lean on, or park behind was going to burst into a fireball from two hundred pounds of dynamite packed under its hood by some crazed militiaman.... That was Beirut. No one was keeping score. No matter how you lived your life, whether you were decent or indecent, sinner or saint, it was all irrelevant... Hana Abu Salman, a young psychology researcher whom I got to know at the American University of beirut, once did a project interviewing her classmates about their deepest anxieties. Among their greatest fears, she found, was this fear of dying in a city without echoes, where you knew that your tombstone could end up as someone' doorstep before the grass had even grown over your grave."
Friendman went on to talk about the "society that would exist if government and society completely broke down and the law of the jungle reigned" as described by Thomas Hobbes in LEVIATHAN. Hobbes wrote of a society "where every man is enemy to every man... there is no place for industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving, and removing, such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters' no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" to which Friedman replies: "I don't know if Beirut is a perfect Hobbesian state of nature but it is probably the closest thing to it that exists in the world today. If so, Hobbes was right about life in such a world being "nasty, brutish, and short," but he was quite wrong about it being "poor" and "solitary." Indeed, if I learned any lesson from living in Beirut it is that when authority breaks down and a society collapses into a state of nature, men will do anything to avoid being poor or solitary."
Friedman's tragic stories of the middle east, culled from his own experience there, will haunt you when your head hits the pillow. And I've just started the book.
"It was the ever-present prospect of dying a random, senseless death that made Beirut so frightening to me. Ever since the start of the Lebanese civil was, much of the fighting in Beirut has consisted of sniping or shelling from great distances; those doing the fighting often have no idea where their bullets of shells will land, and they care even less. When car bombs came into vogue in the late 1970s, life on the Beirut streets became even more terrifying, since you never knew whether the car you were about to walk past, lean on, or park behind was going to burst into a fireball from two hundred pounds of dynamite packed under its hood by some crazed militiaman.... That was Beirut. No one was keeping score. No matter how you lived your life, whether you were decent or indecent, sinner or saint, it was all irrelevant... Hana Abu Salman, a young psychology researcher whom I got to know at the American University of beirut, once did a project interviewing her classmates about their deepest anxieties. Among their greatest fears, she found, was this fear of dying in a city without echoes, where you knew that your tombstone could end up as someone' doorstep before the grass had even grown over your grave."
Friendman went on to talk about the "society that would exist if government and society completely broke down and the law of the jungle reigned" as described by Thomas Hobbes in LEVIATHAN. Hobbes wrote of a society "where every man is enemy to every man... there is no place for industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving, and removing, such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters' no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" to which Friedman replies: "I don't know if Beirut is a perfect Hobbesian state of nature but it is probably the closest thing to it that exists in the world today. If so, Hobbes was right about life in such a world being "nasty, brutish, and short," but he was quite wrong about it being "poor" and "solitary." Indeed, if I learned any lesson from living in Beirut it is that when authority breaks down and a society collapses into a state of nature, men will do anything to avoid being poor or solitary."
Friedman's tragic stories of the middle east, culled from his own experience there, will haunt you when your head hits the pillow. And I've just started the book.
SirenSongWoman
Cathlete
Sorry, duplicate of above. It was late...
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SirenSongWoman
Cathlete
I'm reading The Good Earth by Pearl Buck for a book club I'm in.
It's funny b/c I had to read it my freshmen year of high school and I didn't really like it then, but now I really do! What a difference about 23 years makes!
I felt that way about Wuthering Heights. I even used the same copy when I re-read it. I kept thinking 'I know I read this book but I don't remember ANY of it.' But I love it now. I'd pick it any day over the other Bronte sisters' Jane Eyre. WH is simply the strangest story for a young English girl to write in the mid-1800s. Strange, that a young woman would be so perceptive as to pick up on the weirdness of certain types of romantic love. Where Jane Eyre is a typical girlish romance with a twist, Wuthering Heights is twisted, period.
I still can't believe I couldn't remember anything about the book on the second read. I guess when you're young and hyper you miss a lot...
I really want to read this when I get the time. Doris Kearns Goodwin spoke at a conference I attended last year and referred a lot to Lincoln's story in this book - the topic of the session was leadership. She was great.
Gayle...I've just started it, but I've been wanting to read it ever since it came out! I've heard Kearns speak of it often on various interviews, and I think she's wonderful.
BTW: Now, I don't want to start another "what does your signature line mean" debate, but why are you saying you're not an intellectual? I've read a few of your posts, and I think you fit the definition quite well:
a: given to study, reflection, and speculation b: engaged in activity requiring the creative use of the intellect
BTW: Now, I don't want to start another "what does your signature line mean" debate, but why are you saying you're not an intellectual? I've read a few of your posts, and I think you fit the definition quite well:
a: given to study, reflection, and speculation b: engaged in activity requiring the creative use of the intellect
BTW: Now, I don't want to start another "what does your signature line mean" debate, but why are you saying you're not an intellectual? I've read a few of your posts, and I think you fit the definition quite well:
a: given to study, reflection, and speculation b: engaged in activity requiring the creative use of the intellect
I was informed in another thread that I was apparently not an intellectual, so thought a disclaimer might be necessary...wouldn't want to mislead anybody.