What book is everyone reading at the moment?

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Just finished Generation Kill tonight (not for the squeamish). Started Strange Battles of the Civil War, Webb Garrison, Jr.

And taking a break from A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson. I'll pick it up again soon - just that going from moss-collecting to the makeup of cells didn't compell me at the moment.

I know I'm not the only one here who reads more than one book at once.
 
Ok, in addition to the Republican War on Science, I'm reading In Cold Blood and How to Think about Weird Things.
 
I enjoyed the Republican War on Science (on Randi's commentary recommendation) and thought it was relatively well done.

Right now I'm reading Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds just finished the chapter on witchcraft, which was superb. The detail that he goes into in each specific case is amazing, and aside from the general thrust of the book I'm learning all sorts of neat facts.

It's a great skeptical view of a very wide range of topics, written with a poetic grace, and acerbic wit that's still very approachable today.
 
slingblade said:
Perhaps this isn't the right place to ask this, but how did you like Mockingbird? I find each time I read it that I like it more and more. I read it again after finding out that Dill was likely based on Truman Capote, as he and Harper Lee were cousins. (Ah loves me some trivia. :))....
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I very much enjoyed the book. I loved the language she used, and the way she portrayed her characters. I knew that Dill was based on Truman Capote. I had recently watched the DVD of the movie, which had a documentary that explained Dill was unabashedly based on Truman Capote (did not know about them being cousins, but she did mention in the book that most of the people in that county were related). It was also mentioned that Harper Lee assisted Capote with research for In Cold Blood (the DVD of his bio-pic, "Capote", is on my list of things to watch).
 
Hydrogen Cyanide said:
I very much enjoyed the book. I loved the language she used, and the way she portrayed her characters. I knew that Dill was based on Truman Capote. I had recently watched the DVD of the movie, which had a documentary that explained Dill was unabashedly based on Truman Capote (did not know about them being cousins, but she did mention in the book that most of the people in that county were related). It was also mentioned that Harper Lee assisted Capote with research for In Cold Blood (the DVD of his bio-pic, "Capote", is on my list of things to watch).
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I enjoyed it for those reasons, as well. That, and the time period is near my own childhood, and I was reared in the south, so I felt a lot of connections to it.

"Capote" is definitely on my list, as well! I found him fascinating. I really got a kick out of the comedy movie he did, "Murder by Death." He was a riot. And I remember how scary I found both the book and the movie "In Cold Blood" back when they were "new."
 
I've just finished "The house of sleep" by Jonathan Coe and "Questa storia" by Alessandro Baricco (released only in Italy so far). They saved me from the invasion of all medias by politics during pre-election time :D
Any suggestion for the next? I have some tomes that I bought but I need something light-hearthed at the moment...
 
I'm currently reading Silverfin, it's a James Bond...er...prequel?
It's about when Bond was a teenager, anyway. Written by Charlie Higson who co-wrote and co-starred in The Fast Show.

Sadly, I must report that the book is dreadful so far.
 
I just received my new copy of The Longships by Bengtsson - I have had to re-buy this book at least 4 times because borrow it and never return it. So I am, once again, enjoying one of my very favorite books.

And this one doesn't get lent out. Ever.
 
Deus Ex Machina said:
I just received my new copy of The Longships by Bengtsson - I have had to re-buy this book at least 4 times because borrow it and never return it. So I am, once again, enjoying one of my very favorite books.

And this one doesn't get lent out. Ever.
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A favorite line of mine from Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber: "No one steals books, but your friends."
 
About half way through, and very much enjoying, "Team of Rivals" the Doris Kearns Goodwin book about Lincoln and cabinent.
 
Just finished Thank You for Smoking. Does anyone know whether the movie version will be set in the 1990s or in the present day?

Anyway, I've started Lost Christianities by Bart D. Ehrman. I saw an interview with him on The Daily Show for his newer book, Misquoting Jesus. LC is looking to be interesting, though; I never knew there was a segment of early Christians who believed Thomas was Jesus's identical twin brother, for example.
 
I'm about half way thru with Ulysses S. Grant's Memoirs. An excellent book that is still very relevent in today's world. It's truly amazing how history repeats itself.
 
I have a big pile of history books on the floor, many of which I'm re-reading out of necessity.

One of the new books in the pile is "The Divided Ground" by Alan Taylor. Unfortunately, it's been a while since I've read the book it responds to ("The Middle Ground," by Richard White) so I think I need to locate a copy of the latter so I can brush up on the original argument.

Hooray for historiography.
 
Evolution's Captain

Just finished Evolution's Captain, short bio/commentary re FitzRoy, captain of Darwin's Beagle. Relatively light read for the subject, but interesting. I'm sure there are more "in depth" bios of FitzRoy, but I think this one was fine. Just reading a quick mystery for light enjoyment now, then will move on the "The Golden Game" a history of baseball in California, while simultaneously boning up on my avocation with a book called "The Simplicity of Dressage."
 
Food Plants of the World : An Illustrated Guide by Ben-Erik van Wyk

Mind you, it has some medicinal woohoo parts, but it's still an engrossing book, full of great pix. One vegetable per page, so you just gotta keep turning pages! Makes me hungry even right after dinner!
 
Finished Michael Shermer's How We Believe a few days ago. Fascinating - a very good read, very illuminating. A must-read for anyone interested in combatting religion.

Have just started Maya, by Jostein Gaarder. (He wrote Sophie's World, which is one of my all-time favourite books.) Very strange. Very post-modern, in the sense of being self-referential, and having many layers, like an onion (or an ogre). Tough slogging, but I'll persevere because of how much I liked SW.
 
"Forest Plants of the Southeast and Their Wildlife Uses" by James H. Miller and Karl V. Miller. Helpful in visualizing how the plants and animals I see all around fit into their local ecologies. What grows where, who eats what, and the like.
 
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