What are you reading the week of November 1, 2009?

[DUgosh]

Chow Down by Laurien Berenson

[waiting for hope]

1. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant ..

Halfway through - already have skipped ahead a few times, not a good sign.

[hippywife]

10. I really enjoyed that book.

It was very sad but well told. :hi:

[waiting for hope]

11. I am liking it too - otherwise I would have put it

down - there are some slow spots to me however, and it's an interesting midrash of what could have happened - but I like how Diamant tells it, it's not so horrific as the Bible version.

[donheld]

2. Re-reading "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

[Staph]

3. An Echo in the Bone

By Diana Gabaldon. I love the continuing saga of Jamie and Claire and their family.

[sazemisery]

15. Enjoy, it is indeed a caltrop

:hi:

[OffWithTheirHeads]

4. O.K. I'll bite. Two things, well, sorta three

I'm reading my second book by an author named Vince Flynn called "Executive Power". Vince Flynn writes the sort of international intrigue type spy stuff similar to Ian Fleming or Robert Ludlum but with more of a political overtone. I just eat this shit up! I have ever since I read my first James Bond book 40 some years ago and Flynn does not disappoint. If you like Ludlum, you'll like flynn.
"
The other thing I'm reading is by Elaine Pagels called "Beyond Belief, the secret gospel of Thomas" Elaine writes about early Christianity with a lot of emphasis on the Gnostic gospels and other things that never made the final cut
when the ruling elite decided what should be included in the Bible. In it are many references to the KJ text and in order to really understand what she is saying, you have to have a Bible to reference so I guess I am sort of reading the Bible too.

As an atheist, I find the history of the development of the Christian religion fascinating due to its immense influence on Western culture. I am also amazed at the number of people who just accept the King James version of the Bible as the unadulterated word of their God without any understanding of the hand that men and politics played in the development of what they accept to be the truth, unconditionally.

So, there are my two cents for the week.

Well, there is additionally, my weekly delve into Peter Rinehart's "Bread bakers Apprentice" along with weekly ventures into obscure books about building a circa 1770, Pennsylvania long rifle, but I doubt you are interested in them.

[asjr]

5. The Whole Truth by David Baldacci

The first book of his that I find hard to get through. His characters usually have flesh but this book seems almost as if he had used cardboard characters. He must have outsourced this one.

[pscot]

6. It's a little complicated.

I just finished GLADSTONE, by Roy Jenkins. Jenkins is smart and witty and an expert on the workings of British parliamentary democracy. But the book raised a lot of questions about goings-on in Europe during the 19th century. My knowledge of the period began with Waterloo and ended with the name "Bismarck", so I decided a little remediation was in order. I'm reading RITES OF PEACE by Adam Zamoysky, an excellent book about the Congress of Vienna and the restructuring of Europe after the fall of Napoleon. To be followed by GOLD AND IRON, about Bismarck and his Jewish banker. I have a couple of others on my list and would be grateful for suggestions from anyone familiar with the history of the period, especially Garibaldi and the events surrounding the Italian resorgimento as well as the Franco-Prussian war. I also have a couple of Pratchetts waiting, and 14 items on hold at my local library. I think I'm probably good until Xmas.

[Jim__]

7. On the Franco Prussian War - Zola's "The Debacle".

It's a novel, not a historical book. IIRC it may not contain the details of the causes of the war. But, it is a great novel about the effects of war, on soldiers and local populations. Zola details the logistical problems that the French Army has in getting supplies to their soldiers in the field -in the field on French territory. But the armies are hungry and they decimate the surrounding farms searching for food. Also, his descriptions of the aftermath of battles. This was the time of cavalries, and after the battle, the bodies of horses and soldiers lie rotting in the fields, thousands of them. Then the flies come - clouds of flies all over the fields. The blood turns the rivers and streams red.

I believe the battle details in the novel are correct. I read this book when I was young and it was the first realistic book that I ever read on the consequences of war.

[pscot]

8. The Three Musketeers

was my earliest brush with history. Novels provide an interesting gloss on events, even when they aren't accurate historically. I'll put M.Zola on my list.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

9. Newton and the Counterfeiter

An excellent factual companion to the fictional Baroque Cycle trilogy.

[hippywife]

12. Still working on Small Wonders by Barbara Kingsolver.

I'm really loving the book and her reflections on life, looking backwards and forwards. I've just been so busy again lately that I'm only getting to read at bed time once again.

:hi:

[azmouse]

13. Populuxe by Thomas Hine

It's yet another book I'm reading about life in the 1950s.

[bluethruandthru]

14. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. n/t

[shimmergal]

16. Poison Study by

Maria Snyder.

Also The Art of Walt Disney, and a couple of short bios. of Walter Reuther. These last are for assignments, not just pleasure, although I'm enjoying them.

[malakai2]

17. Heart of Darkness

Conrad, of course.

[Dr. Strange]

18. House of Leaves

[Lydia Leftcoast]

19. Purse book: The Falls by Ian Rankin

Bedside book: Blood on the Tongue by Stephen Booth

Both mysteries.

[yellowdogintexas]

20. 'Cat in a Sapphire Slipper' by Carole Nelson Douglas, a Midnight Louie Mystery

I love Midnight Louie