What are you reading tonight DU? I'm reading "God is not Great" by Christopher Hitchens. I think

[applegrove]

I prefer his shorter writings.

[MiddleFingerMom]

1. I'm down to the last 10 pages or so of one of my favorite books, "Jitterbug Perfume" by Tom Robbins.

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What's your recommendation for a shorter Hitchens book for a newbie?
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[applegrove]

2. Oh I was thinking of his vanity fair writings. I read his autobiography which was interesting. Don't

remember what it was called. That was full length.

[JitterbugPerfume]

5. awww shucks

[Zorra]

9. Great book, I love all his work.

My favorite is Another Roadside Attraction.

[clyrc]

3. I'm reading "The Case for God" by Karen Armstrong

I saw her speak last month and I was very impressed, and so far I like her book. I'm also reading "Brasyl" by Ian McDonald, and I am enjoying it, too.

Two books I highly highly recommend that I finished recently are "People Like Us" by Joris Luyendijk and "Paradise Beneath Her Feet-How Women are Transforming the Middle East" by Isobel Coleman. The first book is by a Dutch journalist who covered 5 Middle Eastern countries for 5 years, and he does an astonishingly good job of explaining the region and the limits of journalism, in a book of less than 250 pages. I've lived in the Middle East for 8 years now, and this book taught me a few things. The second book is so good because it looks at the women in the Middle East who are trying to change things for women. There are a lot of them, which is nice to know because I don't see many stories on them in the media.

Oh and I also want to recommend "The Geopolitics of Emotion" by Dominique Moisi because it is also a very interesting read.

[kwassa]

20. Me, too.

[ZombieHorde]

28. Does she make a case for any god, or a specific god? nt

[clyrc]

32. I'm only about 45 pages in, but so far she has mostly dismissed

modern religious people as worshiping what she calls a sky God. I had to laugh. She is making a case for God, so far, that most religious people I know would hate.

[bigwillq]

4. Alone

by Lisa Gardner

[SteppingRazor]

6. I'm currently in the middle of four...

Greil Marcus' "Mystery Train," in which he considers Elvis, The Band and a couple others in the context of antecedents Robert Johnson and Harmonica Frank.

Also slogging through Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom," Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs' "And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks," and Kerouac's "The Subterraneans." The last two are the only major works by Kerouac that I haven't read, so I figured I should check'em out.

Eagerly anticipating George RR Martin's A Dance With Dragons, which will (allegedly) be coming out next month. Also on deck, I've got Dreams From my Father, which I never quite got around to reading (and has actually been on deck since, oh, 2005 or so)

[hifiguy]

7. Matt Taibbi's "Griftopia"

A tremendous book which details and explains all of the criminality that has ruined this country's economy over the last 30 years.

Also, the one-volume bio of Ike by Ambrose and a collection of Lovecraft pastiches, "Shadows Over Innsmouth."

I always have between two and four books going at once.

[Bunny]

8. I've been reading Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks, a fictionalized account of the

real-life 'Plague Village' in England.

http://www.beautifulbritain.co.uk/htm/outandabout/eyam.htm

Eyam village and the Great Plague

It's hard to imagine that the quiet village of Eyam, off the A623 in Derbyshire, could have such a fascinating, yet tragic story to tell. But .... at the end of August 1665 bubonic plague arrived at the house of the village tailor George Vicars, via a parcel of cloth from London. The cloth was damp and was hung out in front of the fire to dry, thus releasing the plague infested fleas. On 7th September 1665, George Vicars, the first plague victim, died of a raging fever. As the plague took hold and decimated the villagers it was decided to hold the church services outdoors at nearby Cucklett Delf and, on the advice of rector William Mompesson and the previous incumbent Thomas Stanley, villagers stayed within the confines of the village to minimize the spread of the disease. Cucklett Delf was also the secret meeting place of sweethearts Emmott Sydall, from Eyam, and Rowland Torre, who was from a neighbouring village. They would call to each other across the rocks, until Emmott Sydall herself became a victim of the plague. Six of the eight Sydall family died, and their neighbours lost nine family members.

[kimi]

16. Such a good book, I really enjoyed it

I read it a year or so ago - and was inspired to research the real story online. Just fascinating.

[dawg]

10. I'm reading "Morgoth's Ring" by JRR/Christopher Tolkien.

Which makes me, without a doubt, the biggest nerd on this message board.

[graywarrior]

11. Just finished No Exit by Sartre and I'm gonna start of Last Temptation of Christ

[ScreamingMeemie]

12. "The Help"

Halfway through.

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. Saw the movie trailer, looks like they did a good job of capturing the setting.

Wonderful book, isn't it?
:hi:

[ScreamingMeemie]

25. It is!

I'm at the chapter on the Benefit right now...and my heart is breaking for Celia. Ms. Stockett writes so that one really feels the pain and rejection.

[Arkansas Granny]

13. "Life on the Mississppi" by Mark Twain.

[UTUSN]

33. I had stayed away from TWAIN but then read Innocents Abroad a couple of mos ago

And it was a blast!1 The reason I had avoided him was my images being limited to Tom and Huck and the dialects and the "naive" sort of Americana, the good side of how TeaBaggers like to see themselves as.

But this adult side of TWAIN, this travel book was so refreshing with its observations of tour groups and guides, not to mention the (in his time) the awakening that the New World was already bigger and more powerful than the old, was just astounding. The blurbs say this is still the best selling travel book ever.

He is out there with prejudicial comments about other countries and cultures. He still regarded French culture as the maximum. Rough on the Portuguese, Italians, and Catholic monks. Did some astounding things: Violated ship's quarantines a couple of places, was not supposed to leave the ship in Greece but snuck off to see the Acropolis, camped out with Arab guides across Palestine.

Keen observation that the European sites and cities were tiny compared to New World places. Sebastopol was super friendly to Americans. Unforgettable: How tiny Palestine is when the Bible casts it in gigantic proportions.

I've got Mississippi and a couple of others on the Kindle.

[Arkansas Granny]

34. I'm reading this on Kindle, also. I'm hooked on the Kindle.

[RSillsbee]

14. Anything for Billy By Larry McMurtry NT

[pitohui]

17. nobody ever admits to reading trash, i take it

i was going to read a michael connolly mystery but now i'm afraid...very afraid...not that it's trash, he really knows how to spin a tale, but it seems pretty breezy reading compared to this line-up!

[femmocrat]

19. There are some serious readers on DU!

Hey, it's summer... enjoy a good book. :)

[ScreamingMeemie]

26. "The Help" isn't really all that highbrow. Before that, I was reading

a couple of A-List books (teen trash fiction) from my daughter's collection. I'll read the back of a can of Lysol if I have to. I love to read.
I'm also re-reading "The Outsiders" because my son is reading it in his 7th grade class. I wanted to brush up so we could talk about it.

[Taverner]

31. I'm reading War and Peace in the original Russian...

And when I'm done with that, I'll read the Esperanto version of King Lear.

:P

(I hope you know I'm joking)

[Sisaruus]

18. The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress by Chris Hedges

I have God is not Great on the bedside table but haven't started it yet.

[femmocrat]

21. "Fall of Giants" by Ken Follett.

I've been reading it all winter. It's part one of a 3-part series (to be published in the future). It's historical fiction set against World War I.

[XemaSab]

22. Second and a half reading of

"A storm of swords."

Sequel to "A game of thrones." :D

/admits to reading trash

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Forkboy]

24. My new apartment lease.

More rules than a school, fer cryin' out loud. 12 pages on just pet regulations alone. :crazy:

I hope my new neighbors like black metal....

[ZombieHorde]

27. Does Hitchens have a specific god in mind in that book? nt

[applegrove]

29. No. He is going after everyone. Even the Hindus.

[ZombieHorde]

30. Sounds fun. nt