Anybody read a good book lately?

[Philly_Crew]

For those of you who enjoy police/detective series like John Sandford's Prey novels I would recommend Archer Mayor's Joe Gunther series. I am in the 3rd book of that series and they're pretty good.

I also picked up Grisham's The Broker but haven't started it yet.

The Broker is a quick read.  Probably take you a day.  Recommend Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat.  It is on the best-seller's list but is actually quite good.

[phattymatty]

Read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time last week.  Good shtein.  Written through the eyes of an autistic 15-year old, it's really different and an awsome read.

[Sgt PSN]

About 2 weeks ago I was watching The Daily Show and Jon Stewart had some dude named John Hodgman on pimping his new book.  Dude seemed pretty funny and his book sounded decent so I picked it up over the weekend.   It's called "The Areas of My Expertise" 

I've only read a chapter or 2 but so far the book is pretty damn funny.  I think it's humor would be appreciated by mostly everyone here.  I'll let you guys know how it turns out. 

[rjs246]

Read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time last week.  Good shtein.  Written through the eyes of an autistic 15-year old, it's really different and an awsome read.

Nerd.

[Diomedes]

Now I'm reading Joyce Carol Oates' We Were the Mulvaneys.  I'm sure you care.

[Philly_Crew]

Read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time last week.  Good shtein.  Written through the eyes of an autistic 15-year old, it's really different and an awsome read.

Basically it's like reading T-Hawk's posts.

[Tomahawk]

Only probably more coherent.

[Fan_Since_64]

Okay, last day of the year and it's time for me to update this thread with what I've been reading since summer, starting with.....

Chronicles: Volume 1, by Bob Dylan - No disappointment here for anyone who wants to gain insight into this creative genius. It reads like Kerouac's "On the Road" and is striking in its imagery. If being observant is a significant aspect of artistry, then Bob Dylan has been very observant indeed.

Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan, by Howard Sounes - An excellent follow-up to Dylan's own recollections. Sounes has written a carefully researched biography of a person who is very private and has kept much of his personal life hidden, and has done so with evenhandedness and thoroughness. He clearly admires Dylan and his work, but is not afraid to present his subject warts and all. A number of people who have known Dylan well and have not spoken to previous biographers spoke to Sounes - the man even had the balls to call William Zantzinger (of "Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" infamy) to ask how he liked being so immortalized by Dylan, with predictable results.

If you read "Chronicles" and "Down the Highway" and then watch the PBS "No Direction Home" documentary, you will definitely gain both a deeper appreciation of where Dylan came from and how he achieved success and fame, as well as why he became reclusive and frustrated with the downside to that fame.

Are You Ready for the Country, by Peter Doggett - If you enjoy learning about the history of music as well as listening to it, and enjoy rock and/or country, this book is essential reading. Doggett gives a well-researched narrative of, first, how rock came to influence country music and then how country melded into rock. The material on Dylan, Gram Parsons, Hank Williams, Emmylou Harris, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash - to name a few of the artists discussed in the book - is outstanding, and you definitely come away with a clearer understanding of who was influencing whom along the way.

Stealing Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity, by Bruce Bawer - Okay, a real digression from the titles above! But in many ways, this was the most significant book I read all year. Bawer writes from the perspective of a liberal (excuse me, non-legalistic) Episcopalian. His impressive research is thought provoking as well as extremely informative. The book holds together well, and for those of us who are neither atheist nor doctrinaire in our concept of God, it is deeply affirming. If you don't think much of religion, you will get plenty of ammo from this book to back you up. If you are a believer but deeply disturbed by the aggressiveness and influence of the Religious Right, you will get plenty of ammo, too. If you just want to learn something about what lies behind some of the debates that have made the news in recent years, you will find this book quite helpful, too. Bawer has written something impressive and important, but your own viewpoint will determine what you take from this book.

That's more than enough for one post lol. I've been reading histories of the Democrats (by Jules Witcover) and Republicans (by Lewis L. Gould), but will review them seperately.

[Gene]

"The Spy Who Came In From The Cold".........John LeCarre

[SunMo]

I read If Football's a Religion, Why Don't We Have a Prayer? by Jere Longman over the weekend.  It was a decent recounting of the playoff run, the negative of the book is that it focused incredibly too much on Shaun Young.

[henchmanUK]

I am currently reading Coach by Keith Dunnavant, a biography of Bear Bryant. A lot of bio's are quite dull and chronological I find, but this one is a very good read. Recommended. 

[Zanshin]

Eagles Encyclopedia.  It's pretty much what you'd expect, but interesting nonetheless.

[General_Failure]

I've been a bit behind on my geek reading, so I'm going through Discworld novels from the beginning. I just finished up The Color of Magic and I'm halfway done The Light Fantastic. I've read a few out of order before, so it's nice to see how the whole thing started off.

[Geowhizzer]

I've been a bit behind on my geek reading, so I'm going through Discworld novels from the beginning. I just finished up The Color of Magic and I'm halfway done The Light Fantastic. I've read a few out of order before, so it's nice to see how the whole thing started off.

What in THE WORLD is that?  Never heard of it. 

[General_Failure]

http://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/