It's November and I'm reading

The advantage of long vacations. In Bali I've read :
- Against the Gods, the remarkable story of risk (Peter Bernstein) : pretty good history of statistics and the worldview behind them
- Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (Amy Chua) : entertaining and more nuanced than expected
- The Art of Plotting (Linda Cowgill) : another shitty "how to write a screenplay" (strange obsession for Erin Brockowich)
- True Grit (Charles Portis) : quite enjoyable (the Coen Bros adaptation is faithful in tone)
- The Zen of Steve Jobs (comic book) : quick and superficial
- 25 French Films (Roger Ebert) : quick reviews of some important french films
- The Games that Changed the Game (Ron Jaworski) : about American Football, a bit confusing, not enough explanations.
- Problem Solving 101 (Ken Watanabe) : a concise book on planning your goals and solving problems. Short and smart.
- The Talent Code (Daniel Coyle) : a good description of the formula to achieve excellence
- The Art of the Steal (Frank Abagnale) : a reference book on scams, cons and other ways to rip people off, by the real life hero of Catch Me if You Can.
- Tokyo Vice (Jake Adelstein) : a Jewish-American reporter in the world of Japanese journalism, includes Tokyo's red light districts and Yakuza

The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin.

Okay franc- what do you do for a living???, I barely have time to read you list, much less read those books.
I had to get up twice to chase my toddler around, since I started reading this thread. It's taken me 40 minutes to get this far.
The Talent Code, and Art of the Steal, looks really good.
I tried the Devil in White City, Audio book, but had a zillion other domestic and work related errands...*sigh*

I've never considered that Franc had to do anything for a living. Being as cool as him seems like a full time job.

Yeah I just realized that when I think of Ludwig, I just think of him either (a.) sitting around being cool or (b.) practicing aikido.

Exactly. Except sometimes he also smokes while walking umbrella-less in the rain.

Which is, I imagine, the French national pastime.

That's what I did in Paris. Seemed the right thing to do.

I also imagine Ludwig solving crime. With his fists.

Oh, and Harry Potter 4.

ludwig is the only french non-smoker alive. apart from that everything´s accurate.

here´s a picture of us in our leisure time.

Cloud Atlas! Slowly but steadily.

So, I work for a company that belongs to the Daimler concern (Mercedes-Benz). Our job is to make sure that trucks, buses and transporters get repaired as efficiently as possible in case of breakdown, and that the workshops and garages get paid. My department works all over Europe and our team is made up with people from about 10 different countries.
Neither do I generally, but we were on vacation for two weeks, including extremely long flights, so I caught up on my reading. Thank you Kindle !
The Talent Code is one of those books in the same vein as Freaknomics or Malcolm Gladwell's, in its category it was pretty good.
The Art of the Steal is a bit scary, makes you paranoid about all the possible ways to get fleeced in our daily lives. On the other hand, I'd recommend it strongly for anyone interested in writing stories of con men or crime stories in general, it contains dozens of potential starting points.

And yes, we are the german-french Nick and Nora Charles.

So you guys do relax on occasion!

Ludwig is Franc?
I need a chart to match up real names to screen names.
Oh! Or maybe there could be a game show thread with prizes!!

Franc, you know good and well you synthesize your critiques from the wikipedia version.
Franc should change his picture to this:

But seriously, you have impeccable taste in lit!
I know I've seen a few of those Nick and Norah movies (great dialogue). I used to live with my grandma, so I have an affinity for black and white movies.
Uh, and Pica is your lady...I'm getting the hang of this.
And you are a supervisor at Mercedes-Benz. That's a rad job!!
But you and Pica live in France?
The only language I sound good saying is German. People say that I pronounces things really accurately, it feels like my first language- natural. I need to learn more than novice.
My husband is French on both sides of his family. But I think my husband knows as much about France as I do about India.
I speak Indian menu fluently.

Yes, Pica is my lovely wife, we met here a few years ago.
Currenty I supervise mostly my arse.
No, in Germany. She's the German half of the couple.
Do you read it too ? There's a German language thread somewhere around here.
Where is he from in France ?

Ack! I spelled interesting wrong!! Oh well, it's centered too high, anyhow.

Mazeltov!
Lucky! My toddler owns mine.
So, there is a Most Interesting Woman in the World. Hmm, we may need to make a documentary on her.
You know hobbies are a powerful way to meet a mate. You two met here on the Cult site. Met my husband, Joey, playing poker. We played in same tournaments for years, then saw each other at mutual best friends house and realized we had so much more in common. Fell in love in a week.
Nein. My German is like talking with a baby. A baby that speaks very well, though.
His father is French-Canadian, and his mother was born in France but grew up in Lyons.

I've never met a French person.

I loved reading, The Boys From Brazil, over and over again!
Note to self- Read more Ira Levin
Also, need to read more Phillip K. Dick.

There's this French guy at work who's an engineer and he smokes a lot and can outdrink me and he's thr smartest person in the lab and he will not allow you to take his picture and he doesn't have a cellphone. That's the only French person I've met. He's cool.

lucky you.

The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Heartsick Chelsea Cain

Now I´ve decided to get a little bit more into stephen king. going for vacation next week and I wanted to get one of his books. I believe I`ve just read shining from him.
So which one would you recommend me? I really can`t decide!

Hey, any recommendations similar to Geek Love by Katherine Dunn, The Cortortionists Handbook by Craig Clevenger, and Clown Girl by Monika Drake?

Frozen by Daniel Powell.

Rereading The Passage by Justin Cronin. I'm enjoying it more the second time around. I have the sequel put aside for my next trip to Barcelona.

Bag of bones - Stephen King

You might like Craig Davidson (Rust and Bone), Denis Johnson (Jesus' Son), or John O'Brien (Leaving Las Vegas). Kockroach by Tyler Knox is good.

Heartsick is great.

For Stephen King, I loved Carrie. It's up there as a favorite of mine.
If you have the time to invest, The Stand is awesome.
And the first Stephen King I ever read was Salem's Lot. It's got a special place in my heart.

I'd have to agree with Craig Davidson. But I like to recommend The Fighter.
Also Kiss Me, Judas by Will Christopher Baer. And then Penny Dreadful and Hell's Half Acre.
I love Harry Crews' work. I would compare it to the style of Geek Love. Try A Feast of Snakes.
Another good one would be Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell.

Hope that helps.

A Choir of ill Children by Tom Piccirilli is like Geek Love minus all the wit and charm.

thanks alot,I will check those out!

I don't see the comparison myself, but Feast of Snakes should be read anyway.

It's the book that taught me the meaning of real love.

I don't know. When I was trying to think of a book like Geek Love, that popped into my head. You're probably right though. Either way, it's a great book.

Things You Should Know by A.M.Homes. If this is what every book I received on my birthday will be like, I'll be one happy gal.

I've read 140 pages in one sitting. It's a great collection of short stories.

I was wondering about that.

I just finished it and it's awesome. But then of course I'd like it, Phil has very similar tastes to mine, and this was a gift from him, so I'm having high hopes for all the other books.

Tales from the Script : a series a testimonies from Hollywood screenwriters about how they entered and stayed in the business.

I'm reading Mesopotamia by Arthur Nersessian. It's okay but the last few books I've read by Nersessian aren't living up to the heights of the first few I read and it's getting a bit annoying.

There's a cool DVD series, a few years old now, called "The Dialogue" that I enjoyed a lot; probably very similar. It's not very often you see long interviews with scribes, so they get pretty in-depth on that kind of stuff over the course of 80 or so minutes each.

I'm loving Cloud Atlas, and want to read all the time, but work is ruining that for me.

I'm glad you do, Imke. It's a wonderful book.

On to When Nietzsche Wept by Irvin D Yalom.

I've never read anything like it before, and I'm excited about it!

The Pilgrim Hawk by Glenway Wescott.

The Ebony Tower by John Fowles.

Finishing off The Last Tomorrow by Ryan David Jahn. It's not bad but not as good as my favourite be him: Good Neighbours.

Harry Potter 5: Harry Goes All Emo And Shit For, Like, A Thousand Pages

Figure I may just as well finish the series out at this point.

I would've stopped there but then my sister gave me the 6th one when it came out.

So I stopped there.

I picked up Broken Piano for President again and I'm really enjoying it now. I like where the story is going.

You don't even know where the story is going! I promise!

The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch.

I'm reading Legion by William Peter Blatty. It's supposedly the sequel to The Exorcist but so far, it's got nothing to do with it other than a couple returning characters.

Yeah, it wasn't all that great and neither was the movie.