Although the garden, the yard, and the bike paths beckon, I'm trying to keep some time devoted to a few good books.
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This month the family reading is Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book." For those of you with kids, you may find the longer chapters and more advanced vocabulary a good thing.
We're only on chapter 3, so I'm not in any position to say much more about it. This might sound vague but the book is very uhmmm Gaiman and that's very good to me.
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For those precious moments of my own reading time I've picked up "One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey" by Dick Proenneke and a rarely cited Sam Keith. While it is sure to sound very public media I don't care, I like the read. Proenneke's style is both practical and (just a smidge!) poetic, which suits his story of building a log cabin by hand in the Alaska wild.
Who here has watched the lovely & grainy version on PBS? It isn't on their video site, but be sure to catch it when you can...you'll recognize segments from the book.
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Well, that's my May in a two-book pack. What are you reading? What would you recommend?
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Julia Schrenkler
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Minnesota Public Radio
American Public Media
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Comments: 15
FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression
Great book. Not new, but very relevant for the times. It's almost like President Obama is using this as a playbook.
Another book is Bill Bennett's American Patriot's Almanac. He features many people in American history who I didn't know of or didn't know the full story on. I don't read it like and everyday almanac, I read it in chunks.
My 13 year old son wants to read it next. A great book for a junior or senior high student.
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/12/11/bill-bennett-conference-call-an-american-patriots-almanac/
That's the problem with reading advance book reviews. If they're full of praise and everybody is going ga ga over the book, they set your expectations too high.
It's odd that these were my last two books, because most of what I read is novels.
One of the books I am reading is "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell. Definitely light reading. This is one of those books with about 20 pages of content stretched to over 270 pages. It has some good points, so I will probably finish it, but the excess fluff is annoying.
I also reading:
Middllemarch by George Elliot
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance by Robert Pirsig
New Ideas from Dead Economists by Todd Buchholz
What Came Before He Shoot Her by Elizabeth George
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
I'm trying really hard to avoid starting any new books until a finish a few of these. Chris has raised my curiosity about Gladwell's "Outilers". Maybe I can get a used copy cheap, . .
I'm reading The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court.
Looking for a novel to read on vacation this summer. Any suggestions?
Modern Spice: Inspired Indian Flavors for the Contemporary Kitchen