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

[Monika]

I´m reading Bad Dirt by Annie Proulx.

I´m really enjoying it. I find the short stories in Bad Dirt more humoristic than the ones in Close Range, and I´m finding myself laughing quite often.
It´s full of mystical elements as well - talking rodants, holes in the ground that eat people etc¨
The one thing every story have in common, is that you never have any idea where they are going or how they will end.
It´s clear that she is trying to stay away from traditional story-telling that often comes with a twist or a point at the end of each story. Instead her endings are often very anti-climatic.

and as always, reading Annie Proulx, always makes me want to go back to Wyoming, and see for myself if people there really are the way AP describes them.

[hermitdave]

I'm re-reading The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. I read it and saw the movie based on it years ago. In fact I read this book before ever hearing of Brokeback.
Another book I'm reading is Animals In Translation (using the mysteries of autism to decode animal behavior) by Temple Grandin.   

[mariez]

I just finished reading Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, and I highly recommend it.  It's non-fiction that reads like a novel, and is written in a spare, direct manner.  A review from The New Yorker:

Through the story of one man’s experience after Hurricane Katrina, Eggers draws an indelible picture of Bush-era crisis management. Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a successful Syrian-born painting contractor, decides to stay in New Orleans and protect his property while his family flees. After the levees break, he uses a small canoe to rescue people, before being arrested by an armed squad and swept powerlessly into a vortex of bureaucratic brutality. When a guard accuses him of being a member of Al Qaeda, he sees that race and culture may explain his predicament. Eggers, compiling his account from interviews, sensibly resists rhetorical grandstanding, letting injustices speak for themselves. His skill is most evident in how closely he involves the reader in Zeitoun’s thoughts. Thrown into one of a series of wire cages, Zeitoun speculates, with a contractor’s practicality, that construction of his prison must have begun within a day or so of the hurricane.

The link to the Amazon page for more reviews and info:

http://www.amazon.com/Zeitoun-Dave-Eggers/dp/1934781630/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255482234&sr=1-1

[Front-Ranger]

I'm reading Bill Bryson's the Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid!!!!

Bill Bryson is my favorite writer. You cannot read his books in Public Transport, because you would make a fool out of yourself by laughing so hard and not being able to stop! LOL!

This book is about him growing up in Des Moines in the 50's. God, my boyfriend is so fed up with me now, I cannot stop laughing hysterically at it.

Has anyone ever read anything by Bill Bryson?

Oh my god, I must have read ALL of Bryson's books! My favourite of his remains "The Lost Continent" about his travels through America. I just finished "Thunderbolt kid" but must say I was disappointed.

Finished A Walk in the Woods by Bryson last year, loved it, and am now beginning A Short History of Nearly Everything. I think shakestheground, in particular, would love it. Have you read it, Tru?

[Jeff Wrangler]

I recommend a book I'm reading now, one day at a time. 

It's called 365 Days of Walking the Red Road: The Native American Path to Leading a Spiritual Life Every Day. The author's name is Terri Jean, and it was copyrighted in 2003.

As the title suggests, the book is arranged like a daily "devotional," with a one-page reading for every day of the year. However, I think the title is a little misleading, as I'm not finding this to be a completely religious book. There are readings on Native American spirituality, to be sure, but the book is chock-full of interesting information on Native American history, personalities, philosophy, and folklore, as well as readings that could be characterized as more strictly "religious." In any case, I'm enjoying making my way through this book a lot, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about the spiritual and philosophical life of Native Americans.

[Meryl]

I recommend a book I'm reading now, one day at a time. 

It's called 365 Days of Walking the Red Road: The Native American Path to Leading a Spiritual Life Every Day. The author's name is Terri Jean, and it was copyrighted in 2003.

As the title suggests, the book is arranged like a daily "devotional," with a one-page reading for every day of the year. However, I think the title is a little misleading, as I'm not finding this to be a completely religious book. There are readings on Native American spirituality, to be sure, but the book is chock-full of interesting information on Native American history, personalities, philosophy, and folklore, as well as readings that could be characterized as more strictly "religious." In any case, I'm enjoying making my way through this book a lot, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about the spiritual and philosophical life of Native Americans.

That sounds good, Jeff.  I'll look for it. 

[delalluvia]

Book I'm reading just blew my mind.

The Great Fire of Rome by S. Dando-Collins

In it, the author proposes that the people Nero actually persecuted for the fire weren't Christians...they were the worshippers of Isis.  History bears him out.  Most modern scholars agree that during Nero's reign the numbers of Christians was very small, not enough to persecute in the multitudes described by the ancient writers.  But the worshippers of Isis were wide-spread and the cult was unpopular at the time with Nero in particular.

Wonder if this idea knocks another block out from under the Christian establishment.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Book I'm reading just blew my mind.

The Great Fire of Rome by S. Dando-Collins

In it, the author proposes that the people Nero actually persecuted for the fire weren't Christians...they were the worshippers of Isis.  History bears him out.  Most modern scholars agree that during Nero's reign the numbers of Christians was very small, not enough to persecute in the multitudes described by the ancient writers.  But the worshippers of Isis were wide-spread and the cult was unpopular at the time with Nero in particular.

Wonder if this idea knocks another block out from under the Christian establishment.

I doubt it. Compared to the sex crimes committed by priests of the Roman Church and covered up by the hierarchy, this is nothing.

[delalluvia]

I doubt it. Compared to the sex crimes committed by priests of the Roman Church and covered up by the hierarchy, this is nothing.

Are the sex crimes committed by clergy - supposedly good Christians - making a dent in the number of people becoming members?

At least the archaeological findings and other studies can start knocking the shine off the self-righteous beliefs in some Christians.  It's becoming more and more common knowledge that Xmas really wasn't when Christ was born and instead is a hijacked holiday.  Same with Easter.  Christians were martyred in the Coliseum...er, no they weren't.  Christians were persecuted by their beliefs by pagans...er, no they weren't.  Jesus was born miraculously of a virgin...er, no he wasn't.  Jesus existed...er, well, there's some question.  And now, Christians were persecuted by Nero and burned as torches...er...probably not...  

[Monika]

vacation, vacation.

I'm reading Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and the anthology Wyoming Fence Lines at the moment.
In cold Blood, is of course the classic documentary-styled novel about the Clutter murders in rural Kansas in the late fifties. The subject matter, to me, isn't really interesting, and I'm reading it for the style alone. Especially the beginning, with Capote's s description of small town America, is masterful.

Wyoming Fence Lines, have been mentioned before. It contains prose and poetry, all written on the same subject: fence lines (both visible and invisible ones). A very good read.