What book is everyone reading at the moment?

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I am reading "Istanbul" by the great Turkish writer Ohran Pamuck (sp?). Wonderful memoir of grwoing up in that amazing city...also highly recomend his novels The White Castle and My Name is Red. Sure to be a Noble Prize winner some day...IMO.
 
Terry said:
In non-fiction, I just finished The Ancestor's tale (Richard Dawkins), and in fiction, The Iron Council (China Mieville).

--Terry.
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Mieville's Iron Council was not his best, IMO, but still a fantastic read. The way he deals with the main character's homosexuality was well written, I thought. Added a new level to his Bas Lag world. However I think I enjoyed The Scar much more.

I'm a few chapters away from the end of the Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, and loving it. It's so my sort of book! Apparently Newline cinema has bought the movie rights, which could be interesting.

I've picked up a copy of Karl Capek's Apocryphal Tales to read in Prague, which is rather good. And since I never got around to reading Harris' Fatherland, I got through half of that on the flight.

Athon
 
headscratcher4 said:
I am reading "Istanbul" by the great Turkish writer Ohran Pamuck (sp?). Wonderful memoir of grwoing up in that amazing city...also highly recomend his novels The White Castle and My Name is Red. Sure to be a Noble Prize winner some day...IMO.
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Have you read The Black Book? I wanted to read it, but it's out of print.
 
Jon. said:
Just finishing up Shadow Of The Giant by Orson Scott Card. (...) one drawback it does have is that there is too big a gap in intelligence between the Battle School kids (especially the "good" ones - and they're nearly all "good") and the rest of the world. I just don't see some of the "regular" people acting as stupidly as Card has them act.
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True enough. I also agree that it is among the better Card has written lately. However, I still thought it a bit "preachy" at the end. Those who have read the "homecoming" series may understand, it starts out ok, but at some point he passes the threshold between merely telling a story and using the story to actively advence his ideas "how the world ought to be". Of course he's fully entitled to, but when I get the feeling he sacrifises the story for the ideas, or even worse, characters (Petra?), I get annoyed.

Just read Pratchetts "A hat full of sky". Good. Not as good as the absolutely brilliant "The wee free men", but still among his best.

Currently reading Daniel Dennets "Freedom evolves". Did read it before but decided it was worth reading a bit slower. The first time I tried to skim it a bit. Which... was... a bad idea.
 
No new non-fiction recently. I've read V for Vendetta and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, vol 1 in graphic novels, and Sock and Confederacy of Dunces in "regular" novels. Still working on the last one.

--Terry.
 
I am finishing up The Mercury 13 by Martha Ackmann. About the 13 women who went through preliminary physical tests hoping to be astronauts in the early 1960's. The all had more flight hours than the Mercury 7.

A selected quote:
She remembered being paid less than male pilots who preformed the same work she did, being blamed for errors that inexperienced male pilots had committed, finding out she had been hired as a pilot because her employer could count her twice for official documents --- once as a captain and again as a stewardess. Once, after a stadistic flight examiner tried to frightern her by rolling the plane upside down until Leveton dangled in midair from a loose seat belt, she grabbed a wrench from hangar worktable and took off after him.
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editted for formatting
 
The latest Kathy Reichs novel called Cross Bones. Its about a Forensic Anthropologist called Temperance Brennan and it is a brilliant read. Can't put it down.
 
Just finished Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana and started Dorothy Sayers' The Nine Tailors.
 
"I Heard You Paint Houses" Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran & the inside story of the Mafia, the Teamsters, & the last ride of Jimmy Hoffa, by Charles Brandt.

The book's told as a narative by Sheeran (before he died in his eighties), from how he got tangled up in 'The Life', to meeting Hoffa, and what really happened to him in 1975.
 
hgc said:
Have you read The Black Book? I wanted to read it, but it's out of print.
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Pamuk's Black Book or the Black Book of Communism (;) ) -- both very good. I also highly recommend The White Castle and My Name is Red.

Pamuk recently went into exile from Turkey. He said in an interview with a German magazine that Turkey has to come to grips with the 1915 genocide of Arminians and other minorities in the dying Ottoman empire. Such a statement is against the law in Turkey (a country, btw, that I love, wonderful people and amazing land and history) and could subject Pamuk to three years in jail. In addition, Turkish nationalist have threatened his life for stating this "slander" against the Turikish people.

I have little doubt that sometime in the next decade, Pamuk will win a Nobel Prize for liturature. IT is a sad commentary that a country that wants to join the European Union can force it premire writer out of the country for speaking a truth or about truth (I am reminded of Solzenitzyn {sp?} and the USSR). Freedom of speech should never be taken lightly. I encourage all lovers of freedom of speech and expression and Turkey to contact the Turkish embassy in their country to protest the treatment of Pamuk and Pamuk's legitimate fears for his life.
 
"Gog" - Giovanni Papini , for the third time, just love it :D

"cinematographic strategies for screenwriting" (or a close translation of that) - Antonio Sánchez Escalonilla.
 
I'm rereading "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman. It's such a good trilogy.
 
Just finished the third Narnia book (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader or whatever the title was).
 
I'm now re-reading Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder.

I heard about this book on the radio, and got it from the library several years ago. Ever since, I have been looking for a decent used copy, and finally found one earlier this year. It is the story of a 15-year-old Norwegian girl, Sophie Amundsen, who learns the history of philosophy through a series of strange letters that appear in her mailbox. It's really quite good and gives an excellent overview of philosophy. Each important philosopher or philosophical movement gets a thumbnail sketch. I highly recommend it.
 
I finished Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell a couple of weeks ago (Piscivore, check your PMs); loved it. Now I'm juggling Collapse by Jared Diamond, and something my roommate lent me called Assasination Vacation, which so far is funny, if a bit rambling. When I get tired of those two, I go and read a random essay of Gould's Eight Little Piggies, just for kicks.
 
Just started "Stiffs" by Mary Roach...a very intersting book about dead bodies and decompisition.
 
I'm wading through Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - I love it, but it's so long! Hurry up and conclude already! I wish I had more time for reading.

When this is finished, it's on to We need to talk about Kevin.
 
"communion", by Whitley Strieber (maybe spelled wrong).

About his abduction by the visitors......i've read it twice, i love science fiction.
 
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