Not more than 45 seconds ago I finished reading
Hillbilly Feuding and Loving. I can sum the book up in one word.... Wow!
The action was relentless, the love scenes literally steamed my glasses, and the character development was phenomenal. Move over, John Steinbeck; step aside, Charles Dickens... there's a new scribe in town. And his name is Harry Harrison Kroll. I can't recommend this book strongly enough. Run, don't walk to your nearest bookstore and pick up a copy of.....
Oh bloody hell Gustav
(where can I get my copy? I know you cain't judge a book by the cover, but that McCoy gal looks mighty ripe)
The Wolves of Calla ~ FINALLY!!!!!
just finished "paradise postponed" by john mortimer. since i am a real fan of his "rumpole of the bailey" stories, i thought this might be a good read. but i find it's more like chewing a piece of meat from an old bologna bull after having had a nice juicy steak. paradise postponed just doesn't have the same zest as rumpole. almost finished "trollope - his life and art" by c.p. snow. i find it is a very good read . since mrs. h and i enjoyed the mini-series "barchester chronicles" very much, i find it gives me a much better understanding and additional insight into british life at that time and in the connection between the church of england and british politics. hbg
I'm reading "The Five People You Meet In Heaven"
by Mitch Albom.
Rae, Stefan just read that book. I'm not into Stephen King.
I am reading Soul Circus by George P. Pelecanos. Very cool book!
Just startin Bill Bryson's --- A Short History of Nearly Everything.
Just read his book about Australia.
Reigning Cats and Dogs : a history of pets at court since the renaissance.
Good subway reading. It's even forcing some basic European history bits into my line of vision. It was an interesting find at Book City.
Quote:In 1434, Jan van Eyck painted his Arnolfini Marriage and, in so doing, made art history. What van Eyck did, which no previous painter had ever saw fit to do (according to Kenneth Clark), was to include in his masterpiece a little pet dog. Van Eyck has a lot to answer for. By the time you're a few pages into Katharine MacDonogh's book, you'll realize that dogs and cats (and the occasional monkey) must be in virtually every subsequent work of art--especially if that work of art also features a representative of the royal family.
As MacDonogh tells it, these poor, neglected, princely children would find succor away from their dysfunctional families with their beloved pugs, chins, and corgis--and the pets reaped the rewards, getting their own beds, clothes, glittering collars, and bizarre accessories. Why, one is tempted to ask, did Charles II's sister Henrietta-Anne think that her dog needed earrings? MacDonogh has marshaled a staggering array of anecdotes and paintings, and the result is a beautifully rich and generously illustrated body of evidence. It's an all-embracing survey, spanning six centuries and the entire Continent--and, as such, rarely allows for particularly in-depth analysis.
Some will argue that the portraits record generic convention rather than genuine affection for animals; others might cavil that the royals only seem to be more besotted with their pets because they get painted more often than your average dog owner. Jammed in amidst the jollity, there's a disturbing section on how Renaissance royals viewed their "dwarves" and black servants as quasi-animals that cries out for some serious thought. But if you can get past the title--and someone somewhere is very proud of that one--Reigning Cats and Dogs is an intriguing and diverting read for those precious minutes before the dogs need walking again. --Alan Stewart, Amazon.co.uk
That one would interest me, ehbeth.
Right now I'm reading Plainsong by Kent Haruf. I'd not heard of it before, or perhaps I wasn't paying attention. So far I am pulled into the interwoven stories of people in a western US town.
I'm also reading Nuala O'Faolain's Almost There, which I also like. While we have different lives, I always feel O'Faolain is writing directly to me, elucidating observations, emotions, I've had myself.
I got SOOOO many books for Christmas and I am SOOOOOO happy.
Two of 'em I've talked about here a lot, finally got them: Middlesex and Life of Pi. (Shall we awaken the book club?)
Also received "Family Matters" by Rohinton Mistry, and some political screeds. Am sort of reading "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them", but while I think Franken makes good points it's kind of a slog. I know Ann Coulter is a freak, I don't really need to be convinced of that. (Haven't gotten past that yet.)
The stuff about Al Gore's "lies" though is definitely interesting. (Reasonable statements with minute misquoting getting blown up to ridiculous proportions.)
Just finished "Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch" by Kinky Friedman -- he totally phoned it in, not his best effort by any means, but it was amusing. And the animal focus was nice. (He helps run Utopia Rescue Ranch, a real place for abandoned animals, and set a lot of the story there.)
After having finished the new one of Michael Moore (oooh don't beat me up you US-FOX-guys!) I started reading my Christmas presents "Fear's Empire" by Benjamin R. Barber which isn't easy to read but interesting though and a fiction book by Jeffery Deaver called "Bloody River Blues". It's an interesting story about a location scout who gets unintentionally involved into a murder - well not the most inventive plot around but it helps me falling asleep
OAK, I read Bill Bryson's book about Australia a while ago. After that, I was ready to buy a ticket right away!
Uh... Those are the best looking hillbillys I've ever seen!
JM
Yes- they both take after their mother.
Recently I read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and Heinlein's the Moon is a Harsh Mistress... both of which are incredible and I would reccommend to anyone who can read a 1070 page book without going into a coma.
I'm currently reading Legacies, by Dr. F. Paul Wilson, which is a book in the Repairman Jack series and every single M.Y.T.H book in existence (Robert Aspirin).
In the near future, it looks like I'm going to be reading Rand's Fountainhead and Godel, Escher, Bach.
Any of you ever read any of these? What did you think of them? I know someone on A2K has read Atlas, because the name John Galt was taken and I had to opt for Francisco d'Anconia...
Ok, done with Bryson's book and on to Cold Mountain. A neighbor pushed her copy on me and I feel I need to take a stab - didn't much like the movie though it was pretty.
I the voracious reader couldn't plough through the start of Cold Mountain. In my state of mind that week it seemed interminable. So, I cannot really comment on the book as I well know from many other books I have read with long intros, that it can be worth it.
I had taken Cold Mountain with me in hardback as I left LA to land in a weird new place in northern california, and I had not patience for the enactment to follow. That was the house I had landed in because the real estate agent who was showing me around knew that this house that hadn't sold for three years could use keeping warm, so it was rented to me at one bedroom apartment rate. It had 4 bedrooms and a sequoia grove, but after I unfurled my belongings, sold to the first people there and I had to be out in a month, including thanksgiving when I was going to be travelling.
So, there I am in bedroom number 4 reading Cold Mountain, before the new buyers appeared....
couldn't do it. Too long a walk for me that month.
Wondering about the movie, surely they needed to pulse it up, for box office, if not for aesthetic reasons. with dramatic skies or something.
A Bridge Across Forever-Richard Bach.
Just been loaned Jonathan Livingstone Seagull. Apparently I should have read that first.
I've never tried Cold Mountain; everyone whom I know who has read it have argued that it is rather tedious. Though I like to try I range of reads, I thought to myself that there are better books to read, and thus I can't offer an opinion.
The books that I'm reading now are 'Lolita' by Nabokov (again); tackling the French version of 'Neiges Artificielles' by Florian Zeller and the Spanish of 'Gutiérrez's 'Dirty Havana trilogy;' I'm enjoying them in this order.
