What BOOK are you reading right now?

I'm reading Science and the Modern World by A.N. Whitehead

"I will not go so far as to say that to construct a history of thought without profound study of the mathematical ideas of successive epochs is like omitting Hamlet from the play which is named after him. That would be claiming too much. But it is certainly analogous to cutting out the part of Ophelia. This simile is singularly exact. For Ophelia is quite essential to the play, she is very charming, --- and a little mad. Let us grant that the pursuit of mathematics is a divine madness of the human spirit, a refuge from the goading urgency of contingent happenings."

I'm reading a highly annoying book.
Perhaps that is just me.

I may have to revisit Herodotus faster.

What are you reading, Theroux's The Mosquito Coast?

Pesky little buggers!

Good book. But, then, I've never read a Theroux I didn't like.

I semi like Theroux, but I didn't read that one.

No, I'm reading a book Diane gave me which I admit is well written but I hate it so far. Diane is no slouch.
I admit to being exceptionally crabby these days.
The book Diane gave me - maybe I'll pull up and like it, but so far no, is Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I'll admit it is well written, I just do not like it.

The two main characters so far seem to be a mirror of the author, who must have lived a life as an intellectual smart ass kid and think that is wonderful.

The book I expected to like is by Zadie Smith, On Beauty. Raves all over the place on the book.
I apparently don't have the patience for these assholes as depicted.



Signed,
M. Crabby

Including The Great Railway Bazaar, no doubt.

That was the first one I read. I still have it in PB, I think. May have to read it again, now that I've thought about it.

I loved all his travel books..

I've read your Hedgehog book a couple of times. Rather enjoyed it the first time; not so much the next. It grew a little burdensome the second time around.

Someone gave a copy of it to the missus. I doubt that she's read it, apart from the scribbling by the donor on the inside cover. Not her cuppa.

The author threw me some words I recognized but didn't know well. So sassy.

The author's thinking well of herself is in my way.

Well, I'll keep reading. I may end up liking it or hating it.

I don't like reading as a chore, so we'll see.

Either you have or you haven't heard of The Orchid Thief. I quite enjoyed it. Oddly enough, a couple of months after I read it, we were staying in Naples for a fortnight, and I drove out to the Fakahatchee preserve. Didn't see any orchids though. It was a rather secluded spot, not far from the Everglades. I wasn't aware until now that they had used the book as a basis for a film. I'm not so much into movies these days.

Here's a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Orchid_Thief

Mildly familiar, but not read. Back manana.

I'm reading Half the Sky by the husband and wife team of Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.

It's the community read for one of my new teaching jobs this fall and I really do not like it.

It deals with sex trafficking, maternal death and the other Third World issues of abuse of women.

I do not like the style. I keep waiting for Sally Struthers to jump out of the book and urge me to adopt a child in some war torn country. It is too gee whiz and too People Magazine.

The interesting thing is the authors claim that research demonstrates that people prefer personal stories of hardship over statistics. I must be in the minority because these stories just don't ring true.

I dislike,as someone whose job it is to teach freshman writing, sentences like this: "A growing collection of psychological studies show that statistics have a dulling effect, while it is individual stories that move people to act." (99) I have repeatedly told students not to say a study said but to name the exact study. I do not care that they wrote a mass circulation, popular market book. Cite those studies!

(BTW, of course, if you tell a potential donor that 8000 women in Somalia need pre-natal care, he will think his $100 won't help them but that it might help one woman.)

I think this book will make teaching more difficult.

Beasts, Men and God
by Ossendowski.
I was looking for a book in the bookcase and happen to see this one,which I did not even knew I had.
He flees from Russia, Mongolia to China during the Russian revulotion. It isfashinating and tells about unbelievable cruelties, also about howto survieve a winter in Sebiria living under treeroots.

Antoni Ferdynand Ossendowski (May 27, 1876 – January 3, 1945) was a Polish writer, journalist, traveler, globetrotter, explorer and university professor. He is best known for his books about Lenin and the Russian Civil War, a war in which he took part.

sounds like my grandfather on my mothers side. They were jews in Russia and converted to Orthodox Catholic to avoid unpleasantness. Then he escape via W Europe and met his wife in Pruzcje

One hears real fantastic stories when intereted in family stories.
Where is Pruzcje?

Has anybody read this?

Very interesting. I see our library has several copies on the "New Books" shelves. I'll have to borrow one.

I wonder if this will be a "one-off" or the start of a new career for "Robert Galbraith." Rowling is far too young to be hanging up the pen. Lawd knows she doesn't need the money, so it must be a labor of love, what?

Thanks for posting the info.

We pronounce it "Prootch" Its somewhere in the Carpathian Mountains and Ive never been able to find it on a map.
I know that Jzadek (the name for "grandfather") and my grandmother (whom I never knew because she died in her 30's) came to America via Passage from France.

While I'm not interested in the Potter books I'd like to see what she's got in crime novels

Same here.


Meantime I'm reading a book a friend is very fond of, and I admit the writing as such is quite good. I just can't stand the characters so far (usually not a stopper, but I'm exceptionally impatient these days, what with also having trouble with a Zadie Smith book I expected to get on with, title On Beauty.

The one I'm reading is The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. I'm only on page 66 so there's hope I'll come around to appreciating it. So far I see it as the author showing how smart she is in her thought processes via the two (so far) main very self involved characters.
There are rave reviews all over the place in/on the book, though I haven't checked online. I usually don't do that until I finish something, and usually not then either.