June, Summer is here and I'm reading...

Bluebeard by Vonnegut, then delving into Crime and Punishment or a Dawkins book. I haven't yet decided.

¡Viva el Dawkins!

Just started Healing Our World in an Age of Aggression by Mary Ruwart. Awesome so far.

Loved Bluebeard.

Working through Pygmy still. Got sidetracked for a bit. Don't know what's next.

Yeah, I'm really enjoying Bluebeard as well.

Wrapping up This Book Will Save Your Life very soon. Thanks for the recommendation Mirka! Absolutely brilliant!

Trying to decide what comes next... Crime and Punishment, or a re-reading of The Road and The Raw Shark Texts. All three are calling out to me.

I'd also like to re-read the Phineas Poe trilogy and all of Will Christopher Baer's short stories before GODSPEED drops on 07.24.09!! I can't put into words the fireworks I've got planned for the July thread.

Color of Magic

found this old book in one of the outbuildings, called "The Woman's Story by Twenty American Women". it smells sorta funny and is dusty, but it's got some awesome short stories in it, by various prominent (prominent as women go, during that time period) 18th century authors mainly from the New England area.
i'm thoroughly enjoying it. suck it, Jane Austen. you give girl writers a bad name - but Harriet Prescott Spofford and Celia Thaxter are unraveling my horrible prejudice against all female writers before the 20th century.

The Best of American Travel Stories: 2008, edited by Anthony Bourdain

About halfway through The Lovely Bones. It's ok - but I wish it was over...

I am just about to finish up Vonnegut's Deadeye Dick. Next up is Player Piano (also Vonnegut).

You folk that are debating whether or not to read CRIME AND PUNISHMENT should do so immediately. I'm looking at you, Alberto and mcdrake! Start it now. Your reaction to that book will determine my feelings towards you forever.

I've been almost completely unable to read fiction written by other people since February. I get about twenty pages into a book, don't pick it up for a month, then start another one to much the same result. Took me about two months to read BIRTHSTONE by DM Thomas, which is a great book, mind. I just can't seem to read. Also, been bouncing through THE NEW YORK TRILOGY by Paul Auster for about a month or so. Nearly done now. It, too, is a fantastic book and under normal circumstances i probably would've finished this in a morning rather than however many weeks it's taking me.

I've been under the influence of this Web site latey. I bumped off Pygmy, Clown Girl, Faraway Places, and am working my way through Hempel's Collected Stories. It seems that Hempel's work requires a little more patience. Like if you just blast along you'll miss something.

In the hopper are: The Boat, Under the Banner of Heaven, and a revisit to Carver's Where I'm Calling From. I keep a copy of the AP Style guide by the shitter. It'll make you smarter.

Thanks for asking.

Useful!

How would you compare it to Strunk & White? Different uses or do they more or less interchange?

Oh man, there's a great essay about Strunk and White somewhere on the internet or my computer or somewhere. I'll try to find it.

I finished Clown Girl a week ago. It was good but not great. I liked the idea of it, just felt long. Might have been better as a short story.

Lunar Park

William Gay! He's my latest favorite author. I read his novels The Long  Home and Twilight this weekend and I'm going to try to snag an ARC of his forthcoming one: The Lost Country

I need to hunt down his other novel and his short story collections too. He's that amazing.

I'm about halfway through Less Than Zero by Ellis. Don't know if I like it yet, but I'm glad I picked it up. Along with that, I got Fight Club, which is literally the last book of Palahniuk's I need to read, I kinda saved Fight Club for last, so I'll likely be digging into that next week. I'm also reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the first time.

I read Twilight and I loved it. I dint realsie he had other books. I will add them to my Amazon Wish List.

Thanks for the heads up Mirka. Thats why I love the Monthly Book Thread!

I'm so happy that you read it. Twilight was so good it left me reeling. The way it begins is amazing, and to watch the story unfold to explain the beginning is incredible. I can't believe how good it is.

that's not the one about sparkling vampires i'm taking it?

Lord, no! It's about a brother and sister that dig up some graves, starting with their own fathers, because they suspect the local undertaker of being a thief. What they find out is so much worse..then it all spirals out of control.

ewwww, it's not necrophilia is it?

READ TO FIND OUT!

I'm still getting ready to start this Gargoyle book that doesn't have any gargoyles in it that everyone is so high on.

THANK YOU!

Have you read it, Eddy?

I would tell you the same! I'm the one who's living in the future!

time is just a flawed man-made concept anyways.

And there is gargoyles in it!

I'm reading "The Echo Maker" by Richard Powers. He's a very smart author for sure, and the story is interesting enough to ensure that I'll be finishing the book, but its just not grabbing me. I'm reading it slow, and not because I chose to do it that way.

I'm not huge on fantasy novels, but I've started Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. Pretty good so far.

(1.) pygmy
(2.) God is Not Great

Fixed!

I finished When Will There be Good News? last night, and am just about to start Hunting Midnight By Richard Zimler.

Finally started pygmy last night & I'm enjoying it.

Christopher Hitchens is not Great also works.

I'm one of the few who despises him solely for reasons unrelated to his atheism.

I just ordered Blindness by Jose Saramago off of Amazon and can't wait to get it in. In the mean time, I'll finish Life of Pi and The Dharma Bums.

I also ordered

Rhett Miller: On Stage at World Cafe Live (DVD)
Black Keys Live at the Crystal Ballroom (DVD)
Shine a Light (Rolling Stones DVD)
The Black Crowes - Freak N Roll into the Fog (DVD)
Alive & Wired (Old 97's lived cd)

... none of those things is a book!

Hey now! The first thing I mentioned was! It just so happens to have a movie adaptation, too. And then the next two things I mentioned are books I am in the midst of reading. ;]

As for the last little bit, well, I was just excited and there's no "June, Summer is here and I spent all my money on Amazon items" thread!

Should be, though.

Ah, what the heck. I'm a reasonable man. You kids run on along now. Stay out of trouble, hear?

Next up is Nobody Move by Denis Johnson.

I just read The Road by Cormac McCarthy after all the talk about it here. Hands down the best book I've read in a long while. Maybe even ever. It's the first of his that I've read so I'm desperate to get more now.

Next up is Breakfast Of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. Thanks Corellion...wherever you may be...

after finishing the road my first time through i had to take a break and soak. any other book i picked up just would not do for awhile.

I periodically fashion myself crash-courses in relatively unfamiliar philosophizers; this usually includes a reputable biography, journals, and one or two essential texts. For the last month or so it's been Kierkegaard.
But I'm a little done with that now, and I just ordered a bunch of biographies of Beats. First up is "I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg".
I'm also reading "The Films In My Life" by Truffaut, which was a good find. His writing style is very endearing.

SURVIVOR?!?!?! Just dont cash in all your frequent flyer miles!

Just to keep this thread on the subject of books Im reading The Third Brother by Nick McDonell.

after finishing the road my first time through i had to take a break and soak. any other book i picked up just would not do for awhile.

I felt that way after Pillars of the Earth