Currently reading?

geo · Sat Mar 06, 2010 3:13 pm


	bleachededen wrote: Man, I seriously need to pick a book already. I've gone well over a week without having a book by my side -- how depressing is that? I need to just pick something and read it. . . .(

Nonsense. I'll pick one for you. The Keep by Jennifer Egan.

bleachededen · Sat Mar 06, 2010 3:24 pm

The problem with that is I don't have the book right now.

My decision is really between a few books I have here...including:

The Trial of Joan of Arc
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein
Spook Country - William Gibson
American Pastoral - Philip Roth
White Noise - Don Delillo
and, as always, my last ditch effort to read Les Miserables before I die.

I really want to read The Trial of Joan and Arc, and should technically read it first as it is on loan from my father, but I'm still more inclined toward science fiction so I'm reluctant to pull away from Stephenson and Gibson and the like.

I make things very complicated and far more difficult than they ever need to be. Tragic character flaw.

But I will keep your suggestion in mind for the next time I go book hunting.

wilde · Mon Mar 08, 2010 1:39 pm

I'm re-reading "The Time Traveler's Wife." It's definitely my favorite love story; I haven't seen the movie yet though. :lol:

SarahIG · Sat Mar 13, 2010 9:09 am

World War Z - Max Brooks and The Tommyknockers - Stephen King

wilde · Sat Mar 13, 2010 1:00 pm

Now I'm reading "Except the Queen" by Jane Yolen & Midori Snyder.

Gigila · Sat Mar 13, 2010 2:32 pm

On Monday I will start listening to "The Women" by T.C. Boyle. Sometime this weekend I will begin reading "The Most They Ever Had" by Rick Brag.

missyannlala · Sat Mar 13, 2010 7:52 pm


	wilde wrote: I'm re-reading "The Time Traveler's Wife." It's definitely my favorite love story; I haven't seen the movie yet though.

it was hard for me to get through this book. It took me quite awhile.

wilde · Sat Mar 13, 2010 11:00 pm

missyannlala wrote:


	wilde wrote: I'm re-reading "The Time Traveler's Wife." It's definitely my favorite love story; I haven't seen the movie yet though.

it was hard for me to get through this book. It took me quite awhile.

It always takes me a while too, especially toward the end. The first half is all happy and full of love, then the second half gets pretty depressing.

xkimberleyx · Mon Mar 15, 2010 6:20 am

A Million Little Pieces - James Frey

wilde · Sat Mar 20, 2010 3:56 pm

Right now I'm giving "To Kill a Mockingbird" a chance. When I was in 10th grade, all of the classes read it... except mine of course!

Everybody told me how boring they thought it was, so I put it off, but everybody here seems to love it, and I trust your opinions more than a lot of people in my grade, so now I'm reading it.

ruthiekb72 · Mon Mar 22, 2010 10:51 pm


	Gigila wrote: On Monday I will start listening to "The Women" by T.C. Boyle. Sometime this weekend I will begin reading "The Most They Ever Had" by Rick Brag.

I will be starting 'Loving Frank' by Nancy Horan soon (our book club selection) & I believe it's similar to 'The Woman'
Finished 'The Guernsey Literature & Potato Peel Pie Society' last week...loved it!

DWill · Tue Mar 23, 2010 2:14 pm

I just finished reading Darwin, His Daughter, and Human Evolution, by Randall Keynes, who is a descendent of Charles Darwin. That fact turns out to be significant for me, because in the book he gives a great deal of detail about the daily lives of the Darwin household, especially concerning the fatal illness of the 10-year-old Annie. I felt that much of this information had more significance for him, as a relative who prizes this family history, than it did for me as a reader. The title promises to link the daughter with the theory somehow, and though it does do this to some degree, it could have been achieved in many fewer pages, I felt. It becomes clear quickly that Darwin was kind and wise and an ideal father to his many children, but as I said, this is illustrated at too much length.

I would still recommend the book, however. Some of it can be skimmed. What I didn't appreciate before this book is the realtionship between Darwin's theory and his religious beliefs, that is the struggle that went on between the two. I had just assumed that he collected the evidence for his theory, and under this influence gradually moved away from belief in a benevolent, overseeing, creator God. But Keynes showed that he was just as actively interested in the question of faith as he was in the science of his theory, and that more importantly, he became an ever-stronger advocate for the theory as he became convinced that the faith he had held as a younger man did not have a factual basis. The influence of 'natural theology' was strong in Darwin's day. It was the liberal, enlightened view that science showed the fullness of God's purpose and benevolent design. To go against this already liberal understanding was not easy for anybody, and especially not for Darwin, who wasn't a natural boat-rocker and who suffered for 40 years from various and serious, stress-related psychosomatic illnesses.

Other scientists who could just as easily have arrived at Darwin's position did not, because they were unwilling to make the leap to a fully naturalistic explanation for the existence of species and particularly for the development of man. Though Darwin mentioned humans only twice in The Origin he had been thinking about human development from early on and was to continue throughout his life. The connection with Annie, his daughter who died at age 10, is that the event pushed him to a more tragic view of life in which we suffer without any apparent purpose other than that natural selection requires it. He came to believe that we are just as much a part of the natural stuggle as any animal with whom we share the planet.

bleachededen · Tue Mar 23, 2010 4:20 pm

I am waiting for my mother to bring me her copy of Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brian (the non-fiction BookTalk book for April-May). I will probably also read a fiction book, since I don't consider non-fiction to be the same kind of read, but I (still) haven't figured out which book that will be. I'm considering rereading His Dark Materials trilogy or Good Omens, but the jury is still out.

I'll be back when I finally know what I want to read next. :lol:

bobbysbooksblogger · Tue Mar 23, 2010 11:06 pm

Currently, Im reading Ocean's End by Woodard. It is a non-fictional account of one mans journey around the world te view and report the sad state that most of our oceans and seas are in. It's pretty interesting but does make a good pre-sleep read.

Bobby
www.bobbysbooks.blogspot.com

bleachededen · Wed Mar 24, 2010 10:01 pm

So yay my book decisions are made!

I'm reading Musicophilia and Don Quixote (Edith Grossman translation), both being discussed right here at BookTalk! Yay!

I haven't tried to tackle two books at once since I graduated from college, so this should be interesting. I'm hopeful that because one is fiction and one is non-fiction that reading one will seem like taking a break from the other. Or something like that, so long as it works out that I'm reading both at once! :lol:

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