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CamrnCrz1974
Joined: 18 Nov 2004
Posts: 18371
Location: Phoenix
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 Posted: 05/02/05 2:20 am ::: Board Junkies - Summer Reading |
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So what is everyone reading? I just bought:
In America - by Susan Sontag
The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln - by C.A. Tripp
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Keegan
Joined: 17 Nov 2004
Posts: 6861
Location: The Cathedral of Snark
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| Posted: 05/02/05 4:08 am ::: |
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Went on a recent splurge at the library. I mainly read fantasy/science fiction
Just finished
Stephen Baxter - Evolution (brilliant 'ideas' book)
Margaret Atwood - Oryx and Crake (yeah Margs, not a sci-fi book  Some interesting ideas but executed in a clunky way)
Alastair Reynolds - Revelation Space (entertaining - will continue with series)
Reading at the moment
Elizabeth Haydon - Requiem for the Sun (schlocky fantasy, with one of the biggest 'Mary Sues' in history. Continuing with series only because world is interesting)
Stephen Baxter - Raft (like a lot of his work but this one isn't doing it for me)
Backlist
Peter Hamilton - The Reality Dysfunction (I hear this is good space opera - looking forward to reading it)
Stephen Baxter - Moonseed
A A Attansion - The Last Legends of Earth |
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herrade
Joined: 23 Sep 2004
Posts: 2308
Location: Twin Peaks
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| Posted: 05/02/05 6:56 pm ::: Re: Board Junkies - Summer Reading |
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| CamrnCrz1974 wrote: |
In America - by Susan Sontag
The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln - by C.A. Tripp |
sorry cam, sontag irks me, as do biographies.
i just finished "cities of the dead: circum-atlantic performance", by joseph roach. tonight and tomorrow i'll be reading "ambassadors of culture: the transamerican origins of latino writing, by gruesz. tomorrow it's "the jacksonian economy", temin, and "king cotton and his retainers", woodman -- i'm doing some research on the panic of 1837.
then, it's time to start tackling my 80-title long bibliography for my final field exam on criminalized labor and underground economies. i've got sections on piracy (the 18th century variety), narco-trafficking, forced/illegal labor migration, and sex trafficking -- my favorite topic!
then, after i finish my exam in june, i'm not going to read another book until september! yeah, right.
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CamrnCrz1974
Joined: 18 Nov 2004
Posts: 18371
Location: Phoenix
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| Posted: 05/02/05 7:00 pm ::: |
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| Quote: |
| sorry cam, sontag irks me, as do biographies. |
Herrade, the Lincoln biography is supposed to be pretty good. It deals with Lincoln's homosexuality, something previous historians have intentionally brushed under the rug, despite the evidence in correspondence and other papers.
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BCBG25
Joined: 23 Sep 2004
Posts: 20112
Location: Sampa
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| Posted: 05/02/05 7:16 pm ::: |
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I'm reading...and this is very sad:
Configuring SAP R/3 FI/CO: The Essential Resource for Configuring the Financial and Controlling Modules -- by David Nowak
SAP R/3 Administration for Dummies by -- Joey Hirao, Jim Meade
SAP NetWeaver For Dummies -- by Dan Woods, Jeffrey Word
SAP BW Professional -- by Norbert Egger
When your work reading takes up your free time, you know you're screwed. Hopefully I'll go back to reading more useless stuff after we go live with this project I'm working on...
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pilight
Joined: 23 Sep 2004
Posts: 66900
Location: Where the action is
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| Posted: 05/02/05 7:40 pm ::: |
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I'm working on "Black Maria" by Kevin Young right now.
I finished "On Bullshit" by Harry Frankfurt not long ago.
Next up is "No Place to Hide" by Robert O'Harrow Jr.
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CamrnCrz1974
Joined: 18 Nov 2004
Posts: 18371
Location: Phoenix
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| Posted: 05/02/05 7:56 pm ::: |
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| Before my current books (see above), I had finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. It is a Pulitzer Prize winner and one of the best works of fiction I have ever read.
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Sass
Joined: 22 Mar 2005
Posts: 5576
Location: where it's sunny and warm
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| Posted: 05/02/05 10:52 pm ::: |
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Since it seems like all the news is horrible lately, I've been reading three books at once from the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series. Most def an upper.
PS - BCBG, your avatar is going to send me to counseling.......
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Queenie
Joined: 18 Nov 2004
Posts: 18029
Location: Queens
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| Posted: 05/03/05 6:25 am ::: |
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I haven't been reading anything as heavy as y'all have. Lately I've been curled up with fantasy/sci-fi- Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series, Piers Anthony's Cluster and Tarot serieses, and a little bit of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series (of which: GO. READ. NOW. I don't care if you don't like fantasy, there's such an element of human truth in all of them that they'll win you over.) I've also been doing character research, which means I have three different baby name books out, cross-referencing spellings and meanings so I can make my point properly.
And of course, there is the ongoing science experiment to see whether keeping The Same River Twice and Raise the Roof next to each other will cause a matter/antimatter reaction.
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herrade
Joined: 23 Sep 2004
Posts: 2308
Location: Twin Peaks
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| Posted: 05/03/05 9:15 pm ::: |
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| CamrnCrz1974 wrote: |
| Herrade, the Lincoln biography is supposed to be pretty good. It deals with Lincoln's homosexuality, something previous historians have intentionally brushed under the rug, despite the evidence in correspondence and other papers. |
let me know how it goes. as long as the author doesn't try to project late-nineteenth and twentieth century identity categories onto the antebellum period...
if you want a really interesting read in queer studies, check out "Men Like That: A Southern Queer History" by Howard.
from the amazon description: "For three decades, social historians have claimed that for gay people, sexual freedom was only found in cities because rural areas were draconian in their regulation of nontraditional sexual practices. In this groundbreaking and engrossing analysis of gay male life in postwar Mississippi, Howard, a professor of American Studies at the University of York, boldly demonstrates that gay culture and sex not only existed but flourished in small towns and agricultural communities throughout the state. Supporting his challenging argument with a compelling mixture of postmodern theory, reportage, cultural analysis, conjecture and personal anecdote, Howard not only convinces but paints a vivid, complex and often startling portrait of the lives of Southern gay men between 1945 and 1985. While the 55 personal interviews and oral historiesAwhich are alternately funny, poignant, informative and sometimes unsettlingAform the emotional backbone of the book, Howard is terrific at explicating obvious homosexual content in popular culture. His reading of the gay themes in Bobbie Gentry's 1967 country hit "Ode to Billy Joe" and of Joe Hains's spirited defenses of homosexuality in his popular entertainment column in the Jackson Daily News from 1955 to 1975, and Howard's own interpretation of an infamous murder trial, support his thesis that homosexuality was anything but hidden. Most provocative of all, however, is Howard's innovative analysis of how gay sexual activity and homophobia fueled and shaped white resistance to the black civil rights movement."
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PUmatty
Joined: 10 Nov 2004
Posts: 16358
Location: Chicago
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| Posted: 05/04/05 3:39 pm ::: |
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"Before my current books (see above), I had finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. It is a Pulitzer Prize winner and one of the best works of fiction I have ever read."
As cam knows, big ditto on that. Kavalier and Clay is one of my top two novels I have read. Highly recommended. Everyone who I have encouraged to read this book has loved it.
Right now I am reading Alan Cummings' novel, "Tommy's Tale." It is pretty bad, but keeping me entertained.
Before that, I read Augusten Burroughs' two memoires -- "Running with Scissors" and "Dry." These are tw of the best books I have ever read and I can't recommend them enough. I am usually not into memoires too much, but these read much more like novels. You can't begin to imagine what this man has been through, but as tragic as they both are, he writes the stories in a light-hearted, laugh-out-loud way that will blow you out of the water.
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dtsnms
Joined: 23 Sep 2004
Posts: 18815
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| Posted: 05/04/05 3:42 pm ::: |
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| I recently started "The Punch" by John Feinstein, about the Kermit Washington - Rudy Tomjanovich knockout and the impact it had on the lives of all involved. So far, excellent.
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PUmatty
Joined: 10 Nov 2004
Posts: 16358
Location: Chicago
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| Posted: 05/04/05 3:45 pm ::: |
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| I have "The Punch" waiting for me on my shelf. SI ran 10 or 15 pages of it a year or two back and it convinced me I needed to read the whole thing. Glad it stays that good.
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Queenie
Joined: 18 Nov 2004
Posts: 18029
Location: Queens
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| Posted: 05/04/05 3:57 pm ::: |
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| Mmm, Feinstein is great. He loves and respects the game. <u>The Last Amateurs</u>, about a season in the life of men's basketball in the Patriot League, is fantastic.
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