Just started an H.P. Lovecraft collection that my co-worker lent me.  I just finished Obama's "Dreams of our Fathers" or whatever its called.  This is the book he wrote in the mid-'90's that only goes up until law school more or less.  I liked the beginning and end where it was more about his personal narrative.  The middle covers a lot of his early community organizing in Chicago, and spends more time on his reflection on the black experience.  I really got into the last section that detailed his first trip to Kenya to meet his father's family.  I sometimes lost who all the family were, but it was pretty engrossing, especially one long narrative about his grandfather that he recounts towards the end of the book.

I read the Lovecraft story "He" recently.

Green River, Running Red - Ann Rule*

*after this book, I will be retiring from reading for a period of time so I can just stare at a screen or mash buttons for entertainment

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

Re-reading, again, The Player Of Games by Banks. This is my favorite of his 'M' books (science fiction.)  It takes place in the Culture, the hyper advanced civilization that about two thirds of his scifi books are set in.  Its inhabitants live lives of anarchic, hedonistic, machine run splendor with glands that produce scores of different drugs on demand and the ability to change genders at a thought. Well, a thought and several months for the body to catch up.

Finished Walking On Glass last night, first time through.  Banks sure did some strange stuff early in his career, Lynchish in that there is many weird things going on that seem to be open to a broad range of interpretation.  He has gotten much more conventional in his non genre fiction as time has passed.  The Crow Road is my favorite M-less title, very conventional, to me at least.  It's a nice love story/mystery set in Great Britain and was adapted into a decent BBC mini series, if you have a multi-region DVD player.

Edit; Late edit for clarity due to early manager arrival.

"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

Small Sacrifices - Ann Rule *

*I'd like to give a fistbump to 12r for introducing me to Ann Rule and smeds for mentioning this specific book in an earlier post

**This book is going to ruin the Duran Duran song Hungry Like the Wolf for me - read the book or reviews of this book on amazon.com to see why

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

 Scariest book/scariest movie maybe of all time.

We seem to be in agreement here, Nefud!

 XOXO,

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Fall Down Laughing by David L. Lander

Rough book.  I pretty much read the whole thing one day at Barnes and Noble.  My mother-in-law died from MS so I was curious about his take.

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

The little bitch
Is awfully sorry
The little bitch
Drinks you up

"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

 One of my top ten all time books although I was less thrilled by the final tack on chapter.

Crimes and Misdemeanors makes my top ten all time movie list too, for what it's worth.  

Enjoy!

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

I tried in vain to read my coworker's self-published novel The Snows of Rongelap but I just couldn't do it anymore. I had volunteered to be a copy editor for him, but he failed to listen to anything I had to say and it shows. Plus he rushed to publish it looooooong before it was ready. And now I have a $20 paperweight on my nightstand because I swear to god, I can't read another fucking page. I'm not sure if it's because I've read it numerous times from an editor's perspective, or if it's because the book is just that meh.

So for now, while I'm trying to find a new book to read, I'm regressing to my younger years and pushing through rereads of The House With a Clock In Its Walls and The Phantom Tollbooth.

~ Amanda

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

Oh snap, I completely missed this post on the previous page.

OK, I like Michael Medved and all. But his article is really very one-sided. He paints Native Americans as all one type of Indian when in fact, the behaviors of Natives towards the land depended on the tribe they were a part of. Contrary to popular belief, Natives didn't and still don't all pray to the same set of gods and practice the same methods of hunting and gathering. Yes, there were those tribes that decimated animal and plant species simply because they had access to the resources and did whatever they wanted to get what they needed. But there were also tribes whose treatment of the environment tied directly into their belief system, and it's that belief system that kept them in check in terms of how they harvested and consumed their natural resources. Compared to how the white settlers reacted to their surroundings, these Natives were stewards of the environment; the fact that it was the result of their belief system doesn't make that any less valid.

And as far as the Chief Seattle speech...if Medved had bothered to spend a few extra minutes doing some research, he would have known that the speech he's quoted? Was written in the 1970's as a part of a film based on the Chief Seattle speech. The line about buffalos being shot from trains was added specifically as a fabricated flourish. Boo to Medved for not doing enough research before writing his poorly-informed diatribe.

I have quite a collection of textbooks and papers written about Chief Seattle, the Native Americans, the European settlers, and all of their interactions with the environment, if anyone needs recommendations on impartial, well-documented, well-supported discussions regarding this entire subject.

~ Amanda

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

Finished a re-read of Canal Dreams by Banks last night.  If you're looking for a good book with a female protagonist who kicks ass this might fit the bill.

Re-reading Look To Windward by the same + M. at the moment.

"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

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

Persuasion- Jane Austen  I like Anne.  She's a quiet, unassuming creature.

Ugh.  I feel for anyone reading Crime and Punishment.  The title is quite appropriate. 

 Doesn't this say the same thing as you wrote, Amanda? 

 Actually, it’s unlikely that Chief Seattle ever saw even a single buffalo, either rotting or otherwise, or ever looked at a train for that matter, since buffalo never lived in his verdant corner of the Pacific Northwest, and railroads (along with “the clatter” of white the man’s cities) only arrived several decades after the alleged speech. His poetic remarks (immortalized in a bestselling children’s book, “Brother Eagle, Sister Sky”) represent an internationally influential hoax-- a more or less whole-cloth invention by a screenwriter named Ted Perry for a now-forgotten 1972 TV documentary, based very, very loosely on an account in a Seattle newspaper (twenty years after the kindly chief’s death) of a real talk he may (or may not) have delivered in his largely indecipherable native language to the drenched but respectful pioneers.

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin