OT- Books

[crazycanuck]

Hmm..Non fiction-I could spend days at a particular bookshop's History section

SIx Days or Forever-Ray Ginger (read it for uni..not bad)

Right now I'm reading "Pity the Nation"-Robert Fisk

Shake Hands with the Devil-Ret Lt Gen Romeo Dallaire (to understand PTSD but don't read it if gory details bother you)

Hitlers Willing Executioners-Daniel Jonah Goldhagen(This one has to be read just for the arrogant nature of the Author-I forced myself to continue reading for some reason)

In Retrospect-Robert S MCnamara-(did you see the film about him??)

The Lost Executioner-NIc Dunlop(author went on a search for Duch-Head of S21 prison in Cambodia)

Bright Shining Lie-Neil Sheehan

The Downing Street Years-Margaret Thatcher(have only read a bit of it so far)

CHallenge to Civilization-History of the 20th Century-1900-1933, 1934-1951, 1952-1999-Martin Gilbert

I really want to read Martin Gilbert's biographies on Sir Winston CHurchill

I know most of my books are on war but that's one of my main interests-History/War/Conflict

These are just some of the books on our bookcases but have many more stored in Canada...

c

[crazycanuck]

Lise- Reading Lolita In Tehran -tell me your thoughts

c

[Lise]

CC-- Reading Lolita in Tehran was like peeking in through a magic window. Lives of women we'd otherwise never know anything about. Ah, I just remembered, The Hemmingway Club of Kosova, something like that...I must've given it to somebody...similar book, but an American who lives in Kosovo during the Balkan war, and teaches English via The Old Man and the Sea.

You have a strong stomach, by the books you read. Have you read Rising Up and Rising Down, Some thoughts on violence, freedom, and urgent means, by William T. Vollmann? I bought it, but haven't brought myself to read it yet. It's a 705 page abridgement of his 3,500 page, 7 volume work on the history of violence.

[crazycanuck]

Lise-I will def try & find The Hemmingway Club of Kosova, & Rising Up and Rising Down, Some thoughts on violence, freedom, and urgent means


Do you ladies have a favourite non fiction book shop? I have one down from my work & can't go in without spending $.....It's not one of the big chain book shops and am oh so happy to go there...

c

[bikerz]

Favorite non-fiction:

Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down - Anne Fadiman (this book has a string TE fan club, as I recall) - also by her - Ex Libris - a must for book lovers!

I'm a big Karen Armstrong fan (Lise, were we twins seperated at birth?) - I just read her Biography of Muhammed, which made me want to re-read Satanic Verses (an "all-time top 10" book for me)

I liked Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, and have almost finished Collapse (sort of depressing...)

I haven't unpacked my non-fiction, so not much more is coming immediately to mind - oh, except essays by Joan Didiion and Barbara Kingsolver (esp. High Tide in Tucson)- I love a good essay.

Ok - off to bed to read -

[Lise]

I'm a big Karen Armstrong fan (Lise, were we twins seperated at birth?)

Entirely possible.

[margo49]

:


I'm a big Karen Armstrong fan (Lise, were we twins seperated at birth?)

-

Make that triplets

Anyone read her new one The Great Transformation?

[bikerz]

Anyone read her new one The Great Transformation?

It's on my list - but I think I'll wait for the paperback release! I'm looking forward to reading it - I'm trying to get my book club to read it but I think I will not be successful!

[Lise]

Make that triplets

Anyone read her new one The Great Transformation?

Ooooh! Ooooh! A new one! Thanks for the info! What a remarkable writer (and person) she is, that people get so excited when she publishes a new book on the history of religion.

Edit: I just went to Amazon and read reviews. This book looks amazing: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/037...e=UTF8&s=books
Amazon's selling the hardcover for $18.90. I like to get her books in hardcover--sort of a sign of respect!

Her two volumes of autobiography were so moving, especially The Spiral Staircase. I first read Jerusalem in '97. My sister had just come back from living in Tel Aviv for 15 years. I'd been to visit her three times. Karen Armstrong makes the historical record read like a novel. It took me 9 months to finish Holy Wars, which is about the Crusades. I usually only have time to read before going to bed, and that book is slow going. It gave me good historical back ground on the relation between the Arab and European/Western worlds.

Holy Wars and The Battle for God, by KA, and Thomas Friedman's From Beirut to Jerusalem helped me have a wider perspective on the Middle East's conflicts.

[salsabike]

A Bright Shining Lie is a great book.

Also: And The Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic, by Randy Shilts. From Wiki--"a sweeping and extensively researched journalistic account of the early days of the AIDS epidemic in the United States. It details a variety of overlapping story lines including the tepid response to the epidemic by the scientific research establishment, and the later controversy over competing proprietary claims to discovery of the virus, now known as HIV, that causes AIDS made by a research group at the NIH of the United States led by Robert Gallo, and by a research group at the Pasteur Institute of France led by Luc Montagnier."

And Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir, by Paul Monette.

And Karen Armstrong's The Spiral Staircase, a fascinating story about what it was like to be a nun, what happened to her after she left the convent, and how she became the writer and thinker she is today.

For fiction:

The Dave Robicheaux series, by James Lee Burke

Richard Morgan's sci fi trilogy about a time when your "self" can be stored in a cortical stack and moved from body to body. First book of the trilogy is Altered Carbon.

Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch books. Between these and Robicheaux, I seem to be in an iconoclastic, troubled-cop, with sometimes alcohol problems and Vietnam histories, mood. I have no idea why.

Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl has written two wonderful books about HER favorite books. She has a very wide-ranging set of tastes, and I found many of the books I love in there. The first one is called Book Lust, and I think the second may be simply called More Book Lust. You couldn't have a more wonderful compendium of book suggestions. She has them in chapters by type of book, too. Just READING Book Lust itself is fun.

[Veronica]

I loved Lolitia in Tehran! I've loaned it to so many people!

V.

[Bikingmomof3]

I loved Lolitia in Tehran! I've loaned it to so many people!

V.

I thoroughly enjoyed that book and have recommended it to countless people.