What book is everyone reading at the moment?

[Shoogar]

Lasker's Manual of Chess. (Sigh, I'll probably still be mediocre).
Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.

 

[zeusbheld]

just started The Agile Gene by Matt Ridley.

trying to wrap my brain around the implications of recent research, regarding how inextricably intertwined 'nature' and 'nurture' are.

 

[Francesca R]

The Black Swan, Nassim Taleb

 

[jenspen]

Oliver Sacks: Musicophilia: tales of music and the brain.

Philip Ball: Bright Earth: art and the invention of colour. This is exciting - where science meets art - and very well written. The author has a degree in chemistry and a PhD in physics. It's well illustrated.

Reginald Hill: A Cure for All Diseases. Jane Austen's Sanditon taken up where she left off and seen through the eyes of, among others, Andy Dalziel. Does anybody else start talking Yorkshire after a session with Dalziel?

 

[The Whether Man]

The Cabinet of Curiosities, by Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston.

 

[Magenta]

I just finished Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Being aware of its reputation and the notes that its widespread use as a school English Lit text have given rise to, reading the novel proper was something of a let down, but I don't think that's Golding's fault. Also I read The Beach (Alex Garland) some years ago which was influenced by it, and backtracking to the roots of another novel isn't usually all that rewarding. I guess it was a case of "fill in the blanks" rather than discovery.

I read Lord of the Flies a long time ago when my daily train journey took me past a meat rendering plant that smelled really bad. In my mind, the book is indelibly linked with that smell.

Currently reading Redmond O'Hanlon's Into the Heart of Borneo. (It has no smell. )

 

[qayak]

Just finished "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" by Christopher Moore.

If you haven't, you should. This book is absurdly funny and tells about the "lost years" of Joshua as he learns how to be the Messiah.

 

[Francesca R]

The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood, following recommendation from a forumite

 

[UnrepentantSinner]

I'm not reading it currently but read a review of it and would love to get a copy - Bill Mauldin A Life Up Front by Todd DePastino is a biography of everyone other than G.S. Patton's favorite WW II cartoonist. I think WW II was the greatest endevour by free people wanting to preserve it ever, but war sucks. And even in as great a crusade as the Allied effort was, Maudlin captured that undenyable fact. The reprint accompanying the review in the Dallas Morning News is of a haggered G.I., his M-1 slung over his shoulder, escorting equally haggard German P.O.W.s and the caption reads - "Fresh, spirited American troops, flushed with victory are bringing in thousands of hungry, ragged, battle-weary prisoners."

Genius. Utter ◊◊◊◊◊ Genius.

 

[bruto]

I'm not reading it currently but read a review of it and would love to get a copy - Bill Mauldin A Life Up Front by Todd DePastino is a biography of everyone other than G.S. Patton's favorite WW II cartoonist. I think WW II was the greatest endevour by free people wanting to preserve it ever, but war sucks. And even in as great a crusade as the Allied effort was, Maudlin captured that undenyable fact. The reprint accompanying the review in the Dallas Morning News is of a haggered G.I., his M-1 slung over his shoulder, escorting equally haggard German P.O.W.s and the caption reads - "Fresh, spirited American troops, flushed with victory are bringing in thousands of hungry, ragged, battle-weary prisoners."

Genius. Utter ◊◊◊◊◊ Genius.

The Mauldin collections Up Front and Back Home are classics of cartooning, combining humor, commentary and straight history in an unusually effective way. Great stuff.

 

[Lilith]

I just finished "Charlotte Sometimes" by Penelope Farmer. It's supposed to be a childrens book but it's a nice read nevertheless. I bought it because I've been a fan of the song Charlotte Sometimes by The Cure, and recently learned that Smith wrote the song about the book. Similarly, he wrote the song, Killing an Arab, after reading "The Stranger" by Camus. I read that one years ago. NOT a children's book.

 

[Lilith]

double post

 

[HawaiiBigSis]

Magic Street, by Orson Scott Card. Really good so far, but I wonder where it's going to go.

 

[Dr H]

"Long Pig," by Foreman, Russell

 

[SDC]

Ryszard Kapuscinski, "Podroze z Herodotem" (translated as Travels with Herodotus). Fascinating professional memoir. Also Dm Likhachev's selected essays. Hey, it's a living.

 

[chapka]

Just finishing up Trollope's "The Small House at Allington," which may be my new favorite Trollope novel (with the possible exception of "The Way We Live Now"), and definitely on my short list of great nineteenth-century English novels by any author.

 

[sackett]

The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Bronte. Just getting started on it. Harsh from about page 2, and getting heavier.

 

[Bododio]

Through a Glass, Darkly, a Commisario Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.

 

[dahduh]

Guns, germs and steel - Jared Diamond
Intellectual Impostures - Alan Sokal
Beyond Belief - Dale McGowan
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
The Singularity is Near - Ray Kurzweil

Yeah yea, I know. As I get older the boredom threshold gets lower and lower.

 

[Serenity's Light]

Right now, I'm reading The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker. It's quite well-written, and very interesting for anyone who's interested in psychology or evolutionary biology.