What BOOK are you reading right now?

All Governments Lie
All Governments Lie: The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone
by Myra MacPherson

How I miss one of my journalist heros, I. F.. Stone. Seymour Hersh is the journalist we have closest to Stone's ethic when we need truth seekers more than ever.

With painstaking research, MacPherson offers a penetrating look at one of the nation's most respected journalists and a tour de force of five decades of challenge to the principles of press freedom in a democracy.

MacPherson chronicles the internecine strife on the Left during and since the cold war era, with Stone battling away at the excesses of capitalism. Interviews with friends, family, and colleagues offer a personal look at a complex man: demanding, prickly, passionate, and iconoclastic.

A man of astonishing energy and intelligence, Stone began his career at 15 as editorial writer in 1923 for the Philadelphia Record and later the New York Evening Post. He went on to write for the Nation, PM, and his own I. F. Stone's Weekly. Suffering poor vision and eventual deafness, Stone eschewed coziness with high-placed sources, relying instead on meticulous research and low-level government workers who had a better feel for what was actually happening.

A descendent of Russian Jews, Stone was born too late for the height of the radical socialist era but maintained progressive ideals and was highly skeptical of government policies. He opposed Joseph McCarthy's Red-baiting, the Vietnam War, and FBI surveillance of citizens. He himself was a lifelong target of the FBI.

bbb -- The I. F. Stone bio sounds fascinating.

I finished reading Updike's Terrorist, a book which faded, starved by Updike's telegraphing of his main theme (will not disclose as I don't want to be a spoiler) and the lack of a plot (it is called a political thriller but if there is uptake of events until page 193, how thrilling is it?). However, the dazzling descriptive powers of Updike compelled me to read it. T

Since the book group for which I read Terrorist read Updike's The Centaur last month and wants to see how the man advanced as a writer, I am reading The Centaur.

I find it annoying and smug.

House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski.

Second time I have read it. Still just as complex as the first, still just as good. Its a post-modern masterpiece, in my opinion. Anyone else here read it?

I just started to read Grendel again. It's the tale of beowulf from the monster's perspective. It's very very 1971. I read it in high school and liked it then.

Ralph Nader's "The Seventeen Traditions"
C-SPAN featured Ralph Nader talking about his wonderful new book, lamenting the impact the modern world has on America's children and it's family structure. The Seventeen Traditions recounts his boyhood in a small town in Connecticut which was shaped his my family, his friends, his neighbors, his chores and hobbies, his town's culture and environment, its schools, libraries, factories, and businesses, their workers, and by storms that came from nowhere to disrupt everything. Yet childhood in any family is a mysterious experience. What shapes the mind, the personality, the character?

This is an unexpected and extraordinary book by Ralph Nader. Known for his lifetime of selfless activism, Nader now looks back to the earliest days of his own life, to his serene and enriching childhood in bucolic Winsted, Connecticut. From listening to learning, from patriotism to argument, from work to simple enjoyment, Nader revisits seventeen key traditions he absorbed from his parents, his siblings, and the people in his community, and draws from them inspiring lessons for today's society. Warmly human, rich with sensory memories and lasting wisdom, it offers a kind of modern-day parable of how we grow from children into responsible adults?-a reminder of a time when nature and community were central to the way we all learned and lived.

Does Crochet Gifts from the Heart count? I get itchy fingers this time if year and find myself in crafting mode. I picked up this book for the adult sized mitten pattern. (Got to keep the itchy fingers warm, after all.) The back of the book has a list of charities that will accept handmade donations. NOW I know what to do with all those afghans!

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. I found it on my bookshelf on the weekend and I know I read something by this author before. It's a very light read.

I'm almost finished with another James Patteron book, The Big Bad Wolf.
It was about 1AM when I put down the book to go to sleep.

American Pastoral by Philip Roth....Only a few pages in so far...anyone read it?

Just finished "Crow Lake" by Mary Lawson. I'd highly recommend it.

I'm finally finishing off







it's definitely a book that gets "looks" on the subway

Terry -- Of course, your crocheting book counts. We have to be both literary and crafty to keep from going nuts.

Yeah, it's a real mind bender.

I started reading "Only Revolutions" by him, but I obviously wasn't in the proper psychotic frame of mind, and had to put it down.

This one is 2 books that are written in reverse of each other, on every other page, starting at opposite ends of the book.

Ok, I can handle that, but on top of that, it's not even a straight story, just this stream random thoughts.

Maybe I should take it down from the shelf and try again.

"How to win friends and influence people."

I need friends. Teddy Ruxpin is getting redundant.

Never take for granted a doll that can open and close its mouth.

Jane Eyre. there's a great feminist bit of musing in Chapter 12.

A Walk in the Woods Bill Bryson
A funny, funny guy.
And I've always wanted to walk the Appalachian Trail.

A Biography of Eva Peron (Three more biographies to go for the moment, in case anybody wondering...)

Eviiiita...Eviiiiiita....


Ive put HAnnibal Rising aside to read Dracula.Seen so many film adaptations i thought Id read the book to see what the true story is.

That's the only book of Bryson's I liked, George..