April 2007 - What are you reading?

Right now I'm reading a not so foolish book - Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl. It's about hope, and giving one's life meaning in the midst of meaninglessness (Frankl survived life in a concentration camp).

In honor of foolishness, here's a limerick for you:

There once was a girl from St. Paul
Who wore a newspaper gown to a ball
The dress caught on fire
Burned up entire
Front page, sports section, and all!

Happy Spring!

I am reading Christopher Moore's Coyote Blue. I'm working my way through everything he has published, I'm on my fifth book of his at the moment.

I read a new book by Martha Grimes titled Dust. It is one of her Superintendent Jury mysteries but has many references to Henry James works, which really made me want to read and re-read Henry James, so that was kind of fun.

Although I currently am reading the last thing I can fine by Walter Mosley, the books that come to mind for "foolishness" are Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (of course) and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke.

Between the very socially educational Walter Mosley, I have been reading a bunch of books by Debbie Macomber, which is the type of stuff I would never read (think Danielle Steel but not so sexy)! But I knit and her books are about a knitting shop, so...

Now I'm going to work my way through Ian McEwan. Anybody have anything to say about him?

I belong to a book group that chooses a variety of books to read throughout the year, so those are always my top priority on my reading list each month. Just finished reading March's book - Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani (she wrote for and produced The Cosby Show for years). Not a book I would have chosen on my own, but I really liked it. Great story, wonderful characters, heart-warming without being mushy or sentimental.

Hey Moggy - what do you like so much about Christopher Moore? I've never read him.

Susanna - I just did a quick search on Ian McEwan, and found only rave reviews. I'm definitely going to have to pick up one of his books! I'm stuck in the middle of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - it's a little slow at the moment. Would you say it's worth ploughing ahead?

Hello--Most recent hilarious book I read was "The Undomestic Goddess". Reminiscent of the "Shopaholic" books. Also enjoyed "44 Scotland Street" by Alexander McCall Smith. I can highly recommend both of these books for lighthearted enjoyment.

Moggy - Christopher Moore is something else! HERE is my review of his first book, Lamb, in case you haven't read that one yet. It was great - and talk about foolishness!!

Marianne - JSMN does indeed have a slow spot in the middle and it goes on for maybe 100 pages. I was glad that I finished it, however, as the last third of it seems to be a little different and there is some closure. By the way, it's being made into a movie and having read the book might make the movie easier to follow.

Jennifer - I read Amsterdam by Ian McEwan and thought it was very, very good if a bit offbeat. He's an intelligent, sensitive writer.

I just finished The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls and am wondering what others might have to say about it.

I am currently reading "For a Few Demons More" by Kim Harrison. I have enjoyed all of her books. For those unfamiliar, she is a Laurell Hamilton-alike, with more action and less sex, though actually this book is less enjoyable than some of her earlier ones.

Are any of you audiobook fans? I love listening to a book while knitting. I am slowly moving through the unabridged audiobook versions of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. I had read them first and thought that they would be good on audio and they really are. The reader is outstanding!

Marianne - I agree with Diana, plug on with Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell...there is what I considered to be a VERY satisfying ending! But I know what you mean about the slowish part...

Diana - I'm about to read The Glass Castle, so I'll let you know.

Shari - Alexander McCall Smith is one of my absolute FAVES! Though I haven't yet read the 44 Scotland Street books...I have read all (except the newest) of the Mma Romatswe books (The Ladies #1 Detective Agency) and they are SO good! I listened to the first 2 on audible, so that really helped with being able to "pronounce" the words in my head as I read. I have also now read up on the history and culture of Botswana.

Do others of you find you do that...read books that are fiction, but that get you interested in something real, so you study up on it?

I just finished Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow, but read Christopher Moore's "Little Green Men" before that. Very foolish...but worth the read. I am just starting Eliot's Middlemarch. I've always been a bit intimidated by it, but made up my mind to tackle it. I am also reading a series of Wodehouse "Plums" (for foolishness sake) and reading our own Garrison Keillor's collection of "Good Poems". I also have some short stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez going.

(from the title page of SLAUGHTERHOUSE - FIVE)

SLAUGHTERHOUSE - FIVE or The Children's Crusade, A DUTY-DANCE WITH DEATH by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. A FOURTH-GENERATION GERMAN-AMERICAN NOW LIVING IN EASY CIRCUMSTANCES ON CAPE COD, WHO, AS AN AMERICAN INFANTRY SCOUT HORS DE COMBAT, AS A PRISONER OF WAR, WITNESSED THE FIRE-BOMBING OF DRESDEN, GERMANY, "THE FLORENCE OF THE ELBE," A LONG TIME AGO, AND SURVIVED TO TELL THE TALE. THIS IS A NOVEL SOMEWHAT IN THE TELEGRAPHIC SCHIZOPHRENIC MANNER OF TALES OF THE PLANET TRALFAMADORE, WHERE THE FLYING SAUCERS COME FROM. PEACE.

A Seymour Lawrence Book / Delacorte Press

I read The Road by Cormac McArthy a week ago and I'm still haunted by it. I can't get the mental images out of my head. Anyone else read it?

I'm reading "Touched With Fire" by Kay Redfield Jamison, a classic book on the relationship between bipolar disorder and artistic - especially poetic - creation. As I am both bipolar and a poet, I offer a limerick for spring:

There once was a season of grief
For gardeners waiting to leaf
Their tiny buds froze
Mother Nature, she chose
To delay - but then honored belief.

MICHELANGELO'S SEIZURE, Poems by Steve Gehrke, University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago, www.press.uillinois.edu

(from the cover of MICHELANGELO'S SEIZURE)
"In Michelangelo's Seizure, Steve Gehrke seizes the lives of a number of classic and contemporary painters--from Caravaggio to Magritte, Francis Bacon, and Jackson Pollock--to demonstrate how these artists transformed physical, psychological, and political suffering into art. Mirroring the brushstrokes in long, metaphor-laden sentences, Gehrke moves freely through the canvas, into and out of the artists' lives, into the public realm, into history, to capture the way the creative mind can transform even the most violent surroundings--a prison cell, a battlefield, a madhouse--into a masterpiece."

Hey Diane -

I love your idea of listening to audio books while knitting - I've just taken up knitting, and I'd much rather "read" while knitting than watch TV. I'll have to give it a try!

M.M. - Thanks for the limerick! I love it.

Oh and thanks for all the advice concerning Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - I'll be sure to pick it up again and plug away to the finish.

Anybody besides weak reader compelled to pick up Kurt Vonnegut again in light of his passing? I realized it's been ages since I last read him...

Gracie, I'm currently reading The Road. You're right: haunting, almost unbearably so.
Marianne, I'm glad you enjoyed my limerick - it's the first one I've ever written.

I'm reading one of the most fascinating things I've ever read. I typically prefer fiction I'm currently reading "Animals in Translation" by Temple Grandin. Dr. Grandin explains how living with autism has helped her understand how animals think and feel. Although the book is primarily about autism and animals I would say that it's as much about brain research and the way the human brain works as it is about autism and animals. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in pyschology, mental illness, animals, communications, learning or anyone just looking for a really fascinating read. I'm hoping to finish the book before this coming weekend when I'm planning to hear her speak at the MN Horse Expo.

KINDNESS, CLARITY, AND INSIGHT, The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, Translated and Edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, Co-Edited by Elizabeth Napper, Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, New York, USA. www.snowlionpub.com

This book contains twenty lectures from His Holiness the Dalai Lama's tours of the United States in 1979 and 1981 and Canada in 1980.