Hey, What Ya Reading??? A book???

[Kerry]

I've just finished reading "The Boy from Oz - The Peter Allen Story," by Stephen MacLean.

I thoroughly enjoy biographies and autobiographies, and this one was no exception. It was very entertaining and fast-moving, as was the life of the "Boy" himself.

I must confess that I was never a great fan of Peter Allen. Certainly, I am very proud of him as a fellow gay Australian, who wrote many truly beautiful and memorable songs. As a personality, however, the author of this particular biography paints a picture of Peter Allen as being a relentlessly driven individual. He wasn't so much manic-depressive, as just plain Manic, with a capital "M". Peter Allen had an amazing, albeit short, life. He achieved so much, and most of what he achieved was through an annihilating determination and will to win - an unwavering determination to attain "fame" at all costs.

Certainly worth reading.

[ednbarby]

I'm reading Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father.

I know - Big Shocker, right?

It's great.  He really is a wonderful writer.

[Kd5000]

I have been reading some mysteries set in the 19th century.  I just finished reading OSCAR WILDE AND A GAME CALLED MURDER. It was at the library.  It was a follow up to the author's previous Oscar Wilde mystery. Both books obviously take place before the "scandal" in 1893. I've enjoyed them.

I am now reading EMPIRES OF TRUST, a comparison between between the Roman Republic and the United States. The author points out a number of historic similarities and the book has been well received by mainstream historians.

http://www.amazon.com/Empires-Trust-Built-America-Building/dp/B001LF4AP4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234200316&sr=1-1

[delalluvia]

Just finished reading:

God against the gods - easy read, nothing new for someone like myself, but the author delves into the very interesting political/social paths that Christianity took to supplant the pagan religions.

City on Fire - about the 1947 Texas City disaster.  EXCELLENT read if you like this kind of thing.  Gruesome in the details though. 

[Dobie1018]

I am reading the "Twilight" series of books.  I didn't think I'd have any interest in them (a girl in love with a vampire?  Oh please!), but a co-worker gave me the first book "Twilight" and told me how good it was, and I needed a new book to read anyway so I thought I'd give it a try.  Well, I really liked it a lot.  It is fast and easy reading, and a book that I couldn't put down.  Now I'm reading the second book in the series, "New Moon", and am breezing right through that one very quickly too. 

[Anya_Angie]

Haha Dobie my writing partner Marsha was telling me about Twilight. She hates the writing, not crazy about the characters, and yet... she enjoys the story overall LOL. She thinks the movie is bad, but was entertained by it just the same. It was funny one of her comments last night:

"She reminds me of my writing... ten years ago."

[Kerry]

Marcel Proust

I've just finished reading Alain de Botton's delightful "How Proust Can Change Your Life."

Filled to overflowing with Proustian angst, pathos and eccentricity, as well as joy and humour in abundance. This book is more an exuberantly exhilarating experience than a mere good read.

The chapter titles tell the story:
* One - How to Love Life Today
* Two - How to Read For Yourself
* Three - How to take Your Time
* Four - How to Suffer Successfully
* Five - How to Express Your Emotions
* Six - How to Be a Good Friend
* Seven - How to Open Your Eyes
* Eight - How to be Happy in Love
* Nine - How to Put Books Down

All of the above advice is given from a decidedly Proustian perspective, which could be defined, in Brokebackian terms, as being somewhat Ennisian in places. Certainly, both Proust and Ennis met their fate in self-imposed, voluntary, internal exile.

I was hooked on this book from the very first paragraph:

"There are few things humans are more dedicated to than unhappiness. Had we been placed on earth by a malign creator for the exclusive purpose of suffering, we would have good reason to congratulate ourselves on our enthusiastic response to the task. Reasons to be inconsolable abound: the frailty of our bodies, the fickleness of love, the insincerities of social life, the compromises of friendship, the deadening effects of habit. In the face of such persistent ills, we might naturally expect that no event would be awaited with greater anticipation than the moment of our own extinction."

Don't be put off by the "Philosophy" label. This book is absolutely wonderful.

[Kerry]

Oskar Schindler
“A Righteous Person”

I’ve just finished reading the remarkable “Schindler’s List” by Thomas Keneally. This is a wonderful book, but it’s a terrible book, too. Wonderful in what Oskar Schindler managed to accomplish and terrible in the unimaginably despicable events described within the narrative. I wish I could recommend that you read it. Alas, I can’t find it in myself to do that. Unless you are, that is, prepared to completely give yourself over to Herr Schindler’s story and to become enveloped in it and swept away by it. This book is very sad, yes. And it’s tragic, too. Oh, yes, it is most certainly a tragic tale. But it goes beyond being just sad and tragic. It’s depressing. This book will depress you.  This book will possess you. Don’t pick it up, unless you are prepared to be possessed by it. “Schindler’s List” swamped me in despair. It gave me nightmares. I literally woke in the night, imagining myself as a child, on the selection ramp at Auschwitz, looking into the kind, benevolently smiling, handsome face of the dashing Dr Josef Mengele. Shudder. Read it at your peril. I read it and I’m glad I did. A triumph of the human spirit over the most unimaginably malevolent brutality.

[Kerry]

I just read “The Front Runner” by gay author, Patricia Nell Warren, and what an emotional rollercoaster it turned out to be.

I last read it when it was first published, waaaay back in the 1970s, when I was in my 20s.  I remembered I enjoyed it and that it was about a gay Olympic runner who liked to run out front of the pack – a “front runner.” Apart from that, I’d forgotten the nitty-gritty of the plot.

I read “Shindler’s List” a couple of weeks ago and was feeling somewhat shell-shocked by the experience. Was actually having nightmares about it. I told a friend that I needed something light and gay to read. He suggested “The Front Runner” and gave me his copy. I started reading immediately and soon settled into the narrative and was enjoying the story. I still couldn’t remember the ending, however, and I wasn’t quite prepared for it, when it came. There won’t be any spoilers here. Suffice to say, however, that the ending left me as shell-shocked as “Shindler’s List.” Maybe more so.

This is a beautiful and tragic gay love story. If you love “Brokeback Mountain,” you’ll love “The Front Runner.” The narrator of the story is Harlan Brown, a big, tough, ex-Marine, employed as a track coach at a small American college. Billy Sive, a brilliant young runner, comes to Harlan’s college, to be coached by him. He wants to run at the Montreal Olympics.

To quote the back of the dust jacket, “When Harlan and Billy fall in love, they will enter a race against hate and prejudice that takes them to the 1976 Olympics and a shocking, shattering conclusion.”

I wept buckets over this beautiful book and loved every moment of it. A good love story always makes me cry.

Read it. You’ll love it.

[injest]

it is a very good book...now go get "The Beauty Queen"...that one will have you cheering!

I loved the end on that one...

(same author)