I Didn't get as much reading done this summer as I'd have liked- but oh well. I am reading 'Dragonfly in Amber' which is the second book in the 'Outlander' series. I'd like to finish it before I watch the Starz version of it. Then after that? Who knows!!

So...what are you reading this summer?

Went to Barnes & Noble last night and brought home...

THE INVISIBLE HISTORY OF THE HUMAN RACE: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures, by Christine Kenneally, and...

THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON PARASITES: How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior and Shape Society, by Kathleen McAuliffe

They are both already fascinating, and I didn't know either book existed until I began scanning the Science section last night!!!

Getting ready to start reading 'Clockwork Lives' by Kevin J Anderson & Neil Peart

Walter Kaufman's translation of Goethe's "Faust," and "Wuthering Heights," in a wonderfully annotated edition by Janet Gazari. Gazari's minutia is fascinating, but I tend to get bogged down in it.

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.

An author's name popped in my mind, a sci/fi guy from the 60s and 70s, Keith Laumer. I asked Amazon what they knew about the guy and they sold me two Kindle versions of two of his books, both about Jaime Retief, of the Corps Diplomatique Terrestre. All very swash-buckley. And clever! It was Mr. Laumer who pointed out that in all the known universe, only humans pay money to have others stimulate the heck out of their sex drive, with absolute no hope of having that person satisfy it.

These two were mind candy.

Then Kindle had a sale on "Switcheroo" by Aaron Elkins. According to the blurb, Elkins' hero is a forensic investigator and this book is about events that begin in 1940, on the Isle of Jersey, just 12 miles off the then Nazi-occupied French Coast. I've only read enough to note that two channel islands were given up without a fight, despite Winnie having declared that not one inch of sacred English soil would be yielded without a fight. This is a new author for me, and like so many English writers, he pleases me.

Aaron Elkins was a favorite around here for many years, and his earlier books were most often adventurous (as to their settings), and also forensically wonderful.

(Forensics was a new kind of mystery sub-genre at that time, and I learned quite a bit from him...and I also had a great and entertaining time!!!).

I have fond memories of Elkins' novels.

:) :) :)

There's so much humor in the Retief novels. And Laumer has a great short story collection titled "Nine by Laumer." Must read for SF fans.

I've been reading Aaron Elkin's Gideon Oliver books for years. They're great. He's actually a US author who lives in Port Angeles, WA. As a former scientist, I love his portrayal of scientists and their dialogue. Enjoy!

Just finished The Boys in the Boat, an excellent read, and fun to read right before the Olympics. PBS just came out with an American Experience episode, The Boys of 36, inspired by the book. Also very good.

Gee, I'm embarrassed at the high-falutin' books around here; the last two things I thumbed through were the August Squadron Mail Order catalog and the latest flyer from Harbor Freight Tools.

A man's gotta have priorities, though...

The Complete Short Stories of Zora Neale Hurston. She was an African American writer who worked in the early to mid 20th century. Her skills with dialect are over the top. It helps to read the dialog aloud. Lots of insight and culture in her tales.

donbagley Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Complete Short Stories of Zora Neale Hurston.
> She was an African American writer who worked in
> the early to mid 20th century. Her skills with
> dialect are over the top. It helps to read the
> dialog aloud. Lots of insight and culture in her
> tales.


I read a short story many years ago that I have been trying to find ever since, which has been difficult since I cannot remember the title or author. I thought it was Zora Neale Hurston, but haven't been able to find the story.

It was about a devout old woman who was going to town to visit her nephew (?) who was in jail. On the way she gets off the path, gets sidetracked, and spends her little bit of money on a pin-wheel.

If you are familiar with the story could you let me know the title of it? I don't really think that the old lady was truly a "christian", and the story explored the concept of image vs true character. The story came to mind after I left the church, and I think I can learn more from it than the BOM. Thanks. Sorry for the thread jack.

FWIW I am reading The Name of the Wind. Pure entertainment and no thinking involved.

Please post the title if someone gave you the title of the short story offline. I'm interested in reading the short story!

Thanks!

Could it be A WORN PATH by Eudora Welty? The synopsis here says she buys a pinwheel at the end but the actual story says a windmill.

http://www.enotes.com/topics/worn-path for synopsis

The text of the short story A WORN PATH:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1941/02/a-worn-path/376236/

That's the one I remember. The old lady talks to nature and anything else she thinks will listen.

I looked through my Hurston stories and couldn't find it.

The Radicalism of the American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood

Starting Window on Humanity so I have a reasonable understanding of anthropology for this coming semester and Divergent because I have have two more weeks to read for fun until the winter break.

An Indigenous Peoples' History of The United States by

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. The title is self explanitory.

Wow, that is soooooo weird! I am currently writing a book which my publisher has tentatively titled, "An Ingenious People's History of White Man Music in the 1960s-1970s."

It's a tell all...

Yeah you could definately write that book and you could skewer us with those hard hitting facts. Know what I mean?

Stop interloping!

Ok ok .... I thought I could get away with the occasional interlope.

Nope, not gonna happen, not in the land where the deer and the interlope play!!

Let me start by saying I don't believe in an historical Jesus. That being said, I read a book called, 'The Second Coming of Christ.' It was written by a Hindi guru by the name of Paramahansa Yogananda. I recommend it highly. It's about love and inner peace. It's a book of commentary. He did the same thing with the, Baghavd Gita. Books of peace. I also recommed the Nag Hamadi Scriptures. Lastly, I really liked the biography of Dietrich Bonhoffer by Mextasis. You cannot lose by reading The Tao Te Ching. Of course, there's always the Penthouse letters...

I'm just starting to re-read John Brooke's "The Refiner's Fire: The Development of Mormon Cosmology 1644-1844"

I had forgotten how much Joseph Smith's ideas were influenced by the occult and the many weird sects that flourished in the couple of centuries before Mormonism. Every detail of Mormon theology was a copy of something that was already current.

>
> I had forgotten how much Joseph Smith's
> ideas were influenced by the occult and
> the many weird sects that flourished in
> the couple of centuries before Mormonism.
> Every detail of Mormon theology was a copy
> of something that was already current.
>

Lemme guess! He cherry-picked the fun stuff, the sexy stuff, the stuff that made being mormon fun and important!

The Art Of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
If you are a dog lover (this dog's name is Enzo); if you're a race fan; if you've had to fight for anything against the odds..

Hot Rod, Road & Track and Automobile magazines....got a couple books to read but can't seem to get started on them.

RB

Ian Rankin's latest Rebus book Even Dogs in the Wild...and slavering at the mouth for a new book out later this month by America's most literary fiction writer James Lee Burke...heir to Hemingway and Steinbeck.

Haven't read the Rebus books but loved Ken Stott in the title roll in the BBC series.

RB



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Story was good but preferred the original John Hannah.

American Heiress by Jeffery Toobin. It is the story of Patti Hearst and the SLA

Trash detective novels.

Just about everything important to know in life, I learned from a trashy detective novel. Travis McGee was like a father to me.

Just finished John Barry's "The Great Influenza" about the 1918 pandemic. Very entertaining, especially if you like death, pain, chaos, fear--all that good stuff.

Am back to "The Fatal Shore," about Australia's colonization by the British. Also "Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish" so I can maybe start understanding what my stepdaughters are saying about me.

I want to start another science or medicine book, however. Or maybe history--I finished Shelby Foote's first volume of his Civil War trilogy a couple months ago--maybe it's time to start No. 2.

I am going through a Samuel Beckett phase.

The Obesity Code by Jason Fung.

Having heard of a novel more accurately prophetic than Orwell's 1984, I did "The Camp of the Saints" (Le Camp des Saints), a 1973 French apocalyptic novel by Jean Raspail.

The thing depicts a nightmare dystopia wherein Third World mass immigration to France and the West leads to the destruction of Western civilization.

Almost forty years after publication, the book returned to the bestseller list in 2011.

For those on here who grouse about the Fifteen Apostles not delivering any relevant prophecy, Jean Raspail's stuff is as spot on as this morning's headlines.

Downloadable for nothing as well.

"Punch: The Delights (and Dangers) of the Flowing Bowl" by David Wondrich.



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Books 3 and 4 (Voyager, and Drums of Autumn) are my favorites in the entire series.