Read any good books lately?

[Red Rock]

I have read the following:
Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell The eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of Seal Team 10. This was a great book. After reading this it gave me appreciation for what the Military are doing in Afganistan. That part of the world is not easy to be fighting in especially due to the terrain.

Madam Secretary A Memoir Madeleine Albright. This has been intresting just from the point of view of someone so close to the President and what actually happens on a day to day basis inside a whitehouse/cabinet posisition. I am still in the middle of this book. Some chapters are more dry than others. Also, it is intresting how she even ended up in politics.

The Green Book by Elizabeth Rodgers and Thomas Kostigen. This has been helpful to make my/our lives more green where we can.

One bullet Away by Nathaniel Fick. Inspired by the Lone Survior read. Finished the first part, bur should be intresting.

Inspired by CC and her studies, I picked up Urban Sprawl and Public Health Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communites by Howard Frumkin, Lawrence Frank, and Richard Jackson. I just started this one. I really like it. I think it will actually answer a lot of questions that I have about commuting and cycling instead of driving. I am also intrested in Public Health too. So this is a good combonation of the two subjects.

Gusher of Lies The Dangerous Delusions of "Energy Independence" by Robert Bryce. I read The Bottomless Well and I think it was a bit over my head. I think this might still explain the same subject matter but in a way that might more sense to me.

I have also ordered Oil and Gas Production so I have a better understanding of how this all takes place.

If anyone has any other Urban Studies/Planning titles, I'd be intrested. The whole cycling commuting connection is facinating to me. America's dependence on the automobile is terrible, but if we could change/modify our cities that would much better.

Anyway, that is my most recent selection.

Happy reading.....

Red Rock

[OnTerryOh]

Right now I'm reading Don't Kiss Them Goodbye, by Allison Dubois. This is "the true story of the woman who inspired the hit NBC television series Medium." I find DuBois' discussions of communicating with dead people fascinating.

Earlier this year I read Over the Hills: A Midlife Escape Across America by Bicycle, by David Lamb. I greatly enjoyed his independent spirit and the adventure of crossing the U.S. alone by bike. I usually skipped the descriptions of bicyling history.

[crazycanuck]

RedRock..I think it was Spokewench or Tulip that put me onto the cyburbia website (planning related) www.cyburbia.org

You can also go to www.planning.org (American Planning assn)

Suburban Nation:Rise of Sprawl and the decline of the American Dream Andres Duany
(I'd love to read all of it but it's a high demand book at the uni library & only avail for 3 day loans..) I can see this one on my shelf very soon!

Books I have out atm for another class (Diversity & cultural planning) but haven't read yet...
Heterotopia & the City-Dehaene & De Cauter
Identity, Ethnic Diversity and Community Cohesion Wetherell, Lafleche & Berkeley
Enough is Enough: Contested Communities Paul HOggett

[badger]

if you're into Chinese politics/human rights, I highly recommend Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng. I couldn't put it down.

[papaver]

I'm reading The suspicions of mr. Wicher right now. By Kate Summerscale. It's about a true murderstory and the policeman who investigated the murder. Non-fiction but written as a detective story.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008...books.features

Another book that is waiting for me: The Good Terrorist by Doris Lessing.

http://www.dorislessing.org/thegood.html

This is an all time favorite:

The Larve by Midas Dekkers. An interesting view on children....
http://www.nlpvf.nl/book/book2.php?Book=89

[OakLeaf]

I haven't read The Good Terrorist, but the title reminded me of a book that I have read: The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. One of those books you read in one sitting with your eyes huge.

But you were looking for nonfiction... I have a couple in the pile, but mostly been reading fiction lately.

[shootingstar]

I haven't read fiction in last 2 yrs. or more. Unlike some folks here, I'm pretty turtlish at the rate of reading books at this point in life. A big contrast when I used to devour them many decades ago.