Your Current Reading....

[royalfan5]

I just finished The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry, and Africa by Martin Meredith. Both were fantastic. I just started on Australia by Frank Welsch and How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove.

I have no idea why it took me so long to start reading McMurtry novels. I missed the boat on that.

[Crucifax Autumn]

Nothing overly smart here, but damned good halfway through: Stephen King's Under the Dome.

[King Crimson]

i keep trying to read the latest William Gibson stuff.....but, honestly, i stopped reading for pleasure about 5 years ago. summers sometimes i can get on a roll....but, sad. but, it's much easier to watch movies and stuff to relax the brain when 80% of my job is already reading or grading student work (a hellish fate, grading...so much of it is just half-a$$ or LCD type no effort garbage).

[Crucifax Autumn]

I can't **** without a good novel.

[JohnnyMack]

Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis

[DeadSolidPerfect]

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John LeCarre'

[King Crimson]

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John LeCarre'

i watched that from Netflix along with Smiley's People not too long ago....with Alec Guinness. pretty cool cold war/spy stuff. shows you can do espionage fiction that's plot based and not just explosions and off the charts violence and absurd shootouts..

[Harry Beanbag]

Pocket Pistols: Concealed Carry Handgun 2010 Buyer's Guide

[DeadSolidPerfect]

i watched that from Netflix along with Smiley's People not too long ago....with Alec Guinness. pretty cool cold war/spy stuff. shows you can do espionage fiction that's plot based and not just explosions and off the charts violence and absurd shootouts..

My dad was a huge fan of all LeCarre' novels. Smiley's People, Russia House, Little Drummer Girl. And when Alec Guinness' Smiley's People came on PBS we were all forced to watch. With the exception of the BBC's George Smiley dad hated all movies made from LeCarre's novels.

[Curly Bill]

Patricia Cornwell: Cruel and Unusual

[Tulsa_Fireman]

Mack Brown: The Hundreds Of Ways You Can Like Buttholes

[proud gonzo]

Hell. That reminds me, I have to finish reading "Rhino Ranch" by Larry McMurty...my review is due soon.

[SunnySooner]

I recently read Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. It's non-fiction, but really interesting, one of those "you-can't-make-this-crap-up" type books. I'm a diver, so it was of particular interest to me, but I would recommend it to anyone, you don't have to be a diver to understand any of it or anything.

http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Divers-Adventure-Americans-Everything/dp/0375508589

[Crucifax Autumn]

Where are all the honest people saying the only thing they've read in 20 years is this board and the back of the cereal box?

[Veritas]

Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis
I've not read that; I've read American Sphinx and my impression was that it was partisan screed wearing historical dress. And then there was that whole "I'm a Vietnam her...oh, wait, I'm not."

That said, I'm interested to hear your impression. FWIW I usually go read most of the books you mention as we seem to have a high intersection of interests.

I've just started reading "With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa" after seeing an interview with the author on one of the pile of WWII documentaries I have.

[rainiersooner]

Soccernomics. Basically its a mixture between Freakonomics and MoneyBall, but for the soccer crowd. I'm digging it.

[delhalew]

Rediscovery of Man by Cordwainer Smith. Kind of a sci-fi, fascist wet dream written in the 40's by a US intelligence officer. Strange stuff. Cobbled together from short stories published in old sci-fi mags.

[Harry Beanbag]

I've just started reading "With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa" after seeing an interview with the author on one of the pile of WWII documentaries I have.

Read that two or three years ago. That is one of the sources for The Pacific that starts on HBO this month.

[proud gonzo]

Fablehaven
The Lightning Thief (well, the first 3 books in the Olympians series)
The Last Apprentice
Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians
Rhino Ranch
In the Company of Ogres

[soonerboomer93]

Road of the Patriach

I have a whole stack of books I need to go through including:

The lightning thief
Pirate Latitudes
The Wrecker
World War Z
The Zombie Survival Guide

[NormanPride]

My dad recently got me some of the Dresden Files books, so I'm tearing through one of those. It's pretty good. I'm going to start Anathema by Neal Stephenson soon, and I need to warm up on some simple books. His books are tough sometimes.

[Sooner04]

I just finished The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry.
Does Cybill Shepard get more or less naked in the book compared to the movie?


My dad recently got me some of the Dresden Files books, so I'm tearing through one of those. It's pretty good. I'm going to start Anathema by Neal Stephenson soon, and I need to warm up on some simple books. His books are tough sometimes.
Try some Thomas Pynchon. If you can deciper those then odds are you can see through time.

[TopDawg]

What the Dog Saw - Malcolm Gladwell
Chasing Daylight - Erwin McManus

[TUSooner]

I kinda got into some veddy British murder mysteries that someone left in the office library.
Careless in Red, by Elizabeth George. Slightly better than "meh"

Bones and Silence , by Reginald Hill. My first look at Dalziel and Pascoe, though why Pascoe gets equals billing with the fatter, drunker, and funnier Dalziel is beyond me. I will look for more of these.

Underway: Death of a Expert Witness, by P.D. James. I think James is old school, Crime Scene Investigators meets "Col. Mustard in the dining room with a candlestick." She has set up some suspects and their motives and now the detective, Dalglaish, is starting to sort it all out.

Before that, I read Void Moon by Michael Connelly, hard-boiled American stuff with a good female heroine, who is not a detective but a skillful burglar, & stuff.

And before that, A Crooked Man(?) a political thriller that was better than expected by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, a guy I had never heard of.

Other than that.... trial transcripts.

[LosAngelesSooner]

I just finished books 1 & 2 of Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo & The Girl Who Played With Fire) and I HIGHLY recommend them. They have already been made into movies, internationally, and are currently in pre-production to be turned into a major series of movies here in the U.S. (Think the Bourne Movies).

If you like suspense, murder, intrigue, international politics and some sick, twisted characters...these books are for you.

I'm waiting for book three to be released in a month or two (they just finished translating it from Swedish into English).

Also, the story behind the writer of the books is pretty fascinating as well. Check them out. They absolutely FLY.

[TheHumanAlphabet]

Animals in Transition by Temple Grandin

[TMcGee86]

My dad was a huge fan of all LeCarre' novels. Smiley's People, Russia House, Little Drummer Girl. And when Alec Guinness' Smiley's People came on PBS we were all forced to watch. With the exception of the BBC's George Smiley dad hated all movies made from LeCarre's novels.

heh, that's funny because I just read The Mission Song by LeCarre and I wondered if anyone here would even know who he was.

Good book, interesting take on the Congo and why it's so f'd up.

[TUSooner]

I read LeCarre years ago. I might need a refresher.

For a good cold war spy story, I recommend the Cold War Swap by Ross Thomas. Hee rightes goode.

For a series of fine European cold war spy novels (very London-&-Berlin-ish), you can't beat Len Deighton's three trilogies plus a precursor.

The precursor is Winter (a name, not a season, actually)
The other 9, which go by quickly enough, are
1983 - Berlin Game
1984 - Mexico Set
1985 - London Match
1988 - Spy Hook
1989 - Spy Line
1990 - Spy Sinker
1994 - Faith
1995 - Hope
1996 - Charity
The characters stay with you.

[royalfan5]

Does Cybill Shepard get more or less naked in the book compared to the movie?


Try some Thomas Pynchon. If you can deciper those then odds are you can see through time.

Everyone gets much more naked in the book.

[proud gonzo]

My dad recently got me some of the Dresden Files books, so I'm tearing through one of those. It's pretty good. I'm going to start Anathema by Neal Stephenson soon, and I need to warm up on some simple books. His books are tough sometimes.
Yeah, Jim Butcher rocks. Plus he's an OU grad. I read one of his books last semester and got GHP hooked on the series.

[SoonerInKCMO]

Men, Oil and War (http://www.amazon.com/Men-Oil-War-Thomas-Curtin/dp/B0006EUISE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268102569&sr=8-1)

Written in 1946: How the nation's petroleum industry won WWII.


ETA: Oh yeah, "Food, Inc." too - just to **** off royalfan5 and veritas. ;)