Being that I was on my death bed all week and didn't have any power, I decided to read a few books between sleeping and wishing for death.

Worth More Dead - Anne Rule - surprisingly I never really got into her books after picking up SMall Sacrifices years ago after my mom read it (freaked me out, I thought my mom wanted to off us like the woman in the book...) This was really good.

Few more pages of A Cold Heart - Johnathan Kellerman

I don't know what I am going to read next...I am waiting for the new Bret Easton Ellis book - coming out 2010 - because I need to see what's going on with the kids from Less Than Zero.

this is starting to look like a friggin fractal!
redbear, my respect for you grows daily.
and yes i meant fighting in both respects. again, not what i prefer(passive resistance at least makes the point without semantic hypocracy) but if we've been there before,(and last i checked my watch, as a society the only thing we're learning from the past is how to repeat it) we will be there again. but one must choose one's fights as well. and know when to leave them at home, as you aptly pointed out. and this is quite off topic and turning into homespun philosophy, so enough of that.

now reading-
le ton beau de marot-douglas r. hofstadter
the cornel west reader-cornel west
the sailor who fell from grace with the sea-yukio mishima
making movies-sidney lumet

QUOTE:

My uni is one of two schools in the country with this facility. Quite a boon to our national recognition. I'm interested to know how the book is.

Logic Hat Online- logichat.org

Let's try this again;

Thanks for the kind words JFK, I which I felt more deserving of your respect but that is me and it is yours so you may do with it what you will.

I blew through Little Brother by Cory Doctorow on Sunday.  It is sold as a YA book but is definitely not dumbed down.  The story of a terrorist attack on the Bay area, governmental over reaction and the vulnerability of high tech security measures.  A good read imo though high on technogeekiness so if that is likely to turn you off/on be aware.

Finished Empire by Card the other night.  Pretty good although I could have done with out some of the more fanciful high tech weaponry but he is a Sci Fi author.  Where it really hit was his afterword in which he discusses the current state of discourse in this society and how we are likely to regard anyone who does not share our world as stupid, insane or evil.  Even if you don't think you'd like the story you might want to pick it up the next time you are browsing around just to read this part.

Currently home; The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss.  The story of a rebellion at the other end of this on going experiment we call the U.S. of A.

Currently road; Booked to Die by John Dunning.  A murder mystery themed around the world of used books.

"It's not so bad as long as you can keep the fear from your mind." - D. Cooper

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer." - P. Atreides

"Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe" - L. tzu

Burned through I Am Legend by Richard Matheson on Sunday. I started to get a little creeped out since it was an abnormally quite morning and my roommate was out scouting for a new laundry but then the Army Corps of Engineers came through and yelled at the rich people to get their lines straight. 

Drank all of You Suck by Christopher Moore, his follow up to Bloodsucking Fiends.  Damn that was one funny book, stayed up till about 2 a.m. finishing it.

Tried to start The Haunting (previously published as The Haunting of Hill House before fucking Hollywood got hold of it) by Shirley Jackson, once again it did not catch.  Guess I'm kind of in a horror mood.

Non Fiction; The ABC Of Relativity by Bertrand Russell.  Requires a great deal of concentration so we will see.

"It's not so bad as long as you can keep the fear from your mind." - D. Cooper

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer." - P. Atreides

"Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe" - L. tzu

Ursula LeGuinn's The Left Hand of Darkness

-cg

Just finished When We Were Bad by Charlotte Mendelson which was very enjoyable.  Not her best, but it's the one that has received the most attention.  (I think it was up for the Orange Prize...)  I preferred Daughters of Jerusalem.

Just started The Rain Before it Falls by Jonathan Coe, one of my favourite authors.

~ 'I will give you my finest hour, the one I spent watching you shower' ~

 I'm reading Watchmen for the first time at the moment. It's brilliant so far.

Just finished Sacks' The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat, which was very interesting. I'm also reading Phil Dick's Second Variety and Dawkins' God Delusion.

A family tale from my husband's side, Sweet and Low is the story of his Uncle Ben E., the creator of the artificial sweetener with a similar name to the book title (Sweet 'N' Low) as told by the son of Cousin Ellen, the disinherited, by her son Rich. Full of secrets and a lot of fun! It's a history of the family, an act of revenge for his mother having been excised from the will, but also a history of sugar, dieting, slavery and Brooklyn.  It's also about the freedom that comes from being disinherited.

Rich writes for Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone and has also written some equally entertaining non-fiction books like "Tough Jews" and "The Avengers".  A month or so ago he did a fawning interview with Angelina Jolie.  Geez! 

I feel like a voyeur reading it however.  For the second time around yet!

Sweet and Low

by Rich Cohen

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

QUOTE:Hmmm....I wonder why Cousin Ellen was disinherited ? Guess I'll have to get the book !

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Just started The Beacon by Susan Hill which seems very promising.

Also enjoyed A Partisan's Daughter by Louis de Bernieres.

And I have a new book to add to my all time favourites list: Angel by Elizabeth Taylor (not that Elizabeth Taylor).  I loved it.

~ 'I will give you my finest hour, the one I spent watching you shower' ~

"It's not so bad as long as you can keep the fear from your mind." - D. Cooper

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer." - P. Atreides

"Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe" - L. tzu

A biography of Elia Kazan, having been inspired by watching "A Face in the Crowd."

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

50 Degrees Below by Kim Stanley Robinson

This is the middle book in his climate change trilogy.  Robinson may be the best hard science fiction author of our time.  Whatever you think of the theory of climate change he does an outstanding job of weaving it into an excelant story about how it might play out and how we might confront it in a particularly tech heavy way.  His Mars trilogy is also outstanding but quite a bit denser than this one.

"It's not so bad as long as you can keep the fear from your mind." - D. Cooper

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer." - P. Atreides

"Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe" - L. tzu

 I'm reading his Musicophilia now, and I've noticed his big weakness: he ends up giving so many (admittedly extremely interesting) cases that it just ends up hitting you as case after case, without enough linking together or introspection. The main strength is the source matter, and whether this is other scientists' cases, or Sacks' own patients, you have to admit that it doesn't come from him. You have to give him credit for bringing these phenomena to your attention but it means you start to see him more as a editor of a compilation than an author.

I read Matheson's I Am Legend recently too, and I thought it was brilliant. I'm not sure I want to see the film now, as I know it will spoil the novel.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."