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What is everyone currently reading?

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Started 7 years ago by Anne
Latest reply from M.O.

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chrisgillespie
Short North/Victorian Village
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jmak said:
"Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert Heinlein. Been on my to-read list forever and finally getting around to it.

Love that book!

Just finished "Inside of a Dog". Appealed to both the dog person and science geek in me.

Requested a hard cover of "The Wild Vine: A Forgotten Grape and the Untold Story of American Wine" for my birthday next month. We bought a vacation home in Hermann, MO last spring (ultimately, to be where we retire), and I'm anxious to read this book about the history of the Norton grape as well as parts of Hermann history. Figure this book will be a keeper :)

Posted 4 months ago #
kkmd

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Destiny is a fun book to read! Here's a summary of what goes on...

"Gabriella is a witch. The problem is, she doesn't remember. She repressed the memories of her powers years ago when her mother was murdered. Now, the warlock who was responsible for her mother's death has set his sights on Gabriella. He is determined to use her fear to turn her to the dark side of magick…even if it kills her. Her mother's spirit is reaching out to warn her, but even that she pushes away. Desperate to save her daughter, the spirit finds a male witch–one that just happens to be in love with Gabriella. Darron is more than willing to help but the two young witches will have way more to battle than just an evil warlock. There are overbearing jocks and petty rich girls who get tempers flaring and often set Gabrielle and Darron at odds.

There is more to the story than Gabrielle and Darron could even imagine. There are terrible secrets to be revealed, battles to be waged, and lives will be lost. Only after Gabrielle and Darron both come to terms with who they really are, and open themselves up to the true meaning of magick, can they have any hope of fulfilling their destiny."

And you can actually win this book for free too at http://thecelebritycafe.com/contests/destiny-prize-pack

Posted 4 months ago #
ChrisSunami
King-Lincoln District
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I finally got a copy of "Ready Player One" from the library. I already knew it would be steeped in 80's pop-culture references, but what I didn't realize is that it's set in a near future in which Columbus has become the most important city in the world! Worth a read for just that reason IMHO --although I have a feeling Columbus was chosen more or less at random...

Posted 3 months ago #
bayrea
Dublin, Oh
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ChrisSunami said:
I finally got a copy of "Ready Player One" from the library. I already knew it would be steeped in 80's pop-culture references, but what I didn't realize is that it's set in a near future in which Columbus has become the most important city in the world! Worth a read for just that reason IMHO --although I have a feeling Columbus was chosen more or less at random...

The author grew up in Ohio...

Posted 3 months ago #
Cookie
Flyntonville
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I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution is a lot of fun. Excerpt here.

Posted 3 months ago #
FoodFort

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Finished Unbroken last week and now re-reading the Hobbit.

Posted 3 months ago #
johnwirtz
Evanston, IL
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I wanted to recommend a book I'm reading now called "Don't Shoot: One Man, A Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America." I think anyone interested in inner-city urban crime and drug problems will find this book interesting. The author has field tested solutions in dozens of cities with pretty amazing results.

Posted 2 months ago #
jeff_r

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I just finished "InGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity" by Tina Seelig.

Here's my synopsis:

In her newest book, "InGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity" best-selling author Tina Seelig ("What I Wish I Knew When I was Twenty") presents valuable insights and practical tips designed to take the mystery out of innovative thinking. Culled from years teaching and studying creativity, "InGenius..." alternates between the classroom, the laboratory and the business world to provide a well-rounded look at the subject of idea generation. Stressing the idea that creativity is something you do, Seelig outlines the behaviors, attitudes, and environments that can lead to breakthrough ideas. If you only read one book on creativity, make it "InGenius".

Reserve a library copy here: InGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity

Posted 2 weeks ago #
DavidF
Elysium Fields
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"Chop Suey "an interesting history of Chinese food in America. Great read for anyone interested in how Chinese food crossed the Pacific and became ubiquitous across the country.

Posted 2 weeks ago #
groundrules

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Posted 2 weeks ago #
tolemac5050

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Calico Joe by John Grisham. So far so good! If you are a Grisham fan and or baseball fan...a good read.

Posted 2 weeks ago #
DocMedPot
Columbus, Crosswoods area
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Gotham : A History of New York City to 1898

"Like the city it celebrates, Gotham is massive and endlessly fascinating. This narrative of well over 1,000 pages, written after more than two decades of collaborative research by history professors Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, copiously chronicles New York City from the primeval days of the Lenape Indians to the era when, with Teddy Roosevelt as police commissioner, the great American city became regarded as "Capital of the World." The sheer bulk of the book may be off- putting, but the reader can use a typically New York approach: Those who don't settle in for the entire history can easily "commute" in and out to read individual chapters, which stand alone nicely and cover the major themes of particular eras very well.

While Gotham is fact-laden (with a critical apparatus that includes a bibliography and two indices--one for names, another for subjects), the prose admirably achieves both clarity and style. "What is our take, our angle, our schtick?" ask the authors, setting a distinctly New York tone in their introduction. No matter what it's called, their method of weaving together countless stories works wonderfully. The startlingly detailed research and lively writing bring innumerable characters (from Peter Minuit to Boss Tweed) to life, and even those who think they know the history of New York City will no doubt find surprises on nearly every page. Gotham is a rarity, reigning as both authoritative history and page-turning story. --Robert McNamara"

Clocking in at over 1400 pages it makes me glad I have it on my Kindle not lugging around this weight. Very good information and storytelling, it shows how much we still repeat history over and over when it comes to economy and social issues of not just NYC but of the forming nation told within this book.

Posted 2 weeks ago #
hungrywoolf
Victorian Village
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DavidF said:

"Chop Suey "an interesting history of Chinese food in America. Great read for anyone interested in how Chinese food crossed the Pacific and became ubiquitous across the country.

I enjoyed Chop Suey. Also really enjoyed Fuschia Dunlop's Shark Fin and Sichuan Pepper.

At the moment I am reading Taco USA by Gustavo Arellano and the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Posted 2 weeks ago #
DavidF
Elysium Fields
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hungrywoolf said:
I enjoyed Chop Suey. Also really enjoyed Fuschia Dunlop's Shark Fin and Sichuan Pepper.

At the moment I am reading Taco USA by Gustavo Arellano and the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Maybe I should do a kickstarter to fund my dream book. I've always wanted to do a coffee table book about Chinese restaurants in America, focusing on those incredibly out of the way rural restaurants, and the stories of how those immigrant families (mostly from Fujian province) got from there to here. I think it would be a fascinating story.

Posted 2 weeks ago #
DocMedPot
Columbus, Crosswoods area
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DavidF said:
Maybe I should do a kickstarter to fund my dream book. I've always wanted to do a coffee table book about Chinese restaurants in America, focusing on those incredibly out of the way rural restaurants, and the stories of how those immigrant families (mostly from Fujian province) got from there to here. I think it would be a fascinating story.

Yeah in my travels across the US it always amazed me in some of the BFE towns you'd find asian family run restaurants. No chain restaurants and sometime barely any other food options but then there'd be these diamonds in the rough.

Posted 2 weeks ago #
DavidF
Elysium Fields
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DocMedPot said:
Yeah in my travels across the US it always amazed me in some of the BFE towns you'd find asian family run restaurants. No chain restaurants and sometime barely any other food options but then there'd be these diamonds in the rough.

My ex-wife was Chinese and when we would walk in, more often then not, we'd get this huge celebratory greeting and tney'd pull all the family out of the kitchen and set us down to huge family meal. It was exciting for them to see another Chinese face and to be able to prepare some non gweilo food. Generally we'd have a hard time paying too. Heck, in some places (East Liverpool comes to mind) my ridiculously miniscule amount of Mandarin (ya know, being able to say thanks) would get me special treatment.

I know in most of the Chinese places in Columbus, we'd go in and they would immediately whip out a special Chinese menu with the good stuff on it. (and in the place of China First, they even had a back dining room for their Chinese patrons with the buffet up front).

Posted 2 weeks ago #
brothermarcus
West Siiiide
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Posted 2 weeks ago #
JonMyers
HCMC ✈
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DavidF said:
Maybe I should do a kickstarter to fund my dream book. I've always wanted to do a coffee table book about Chinese restaurants in America, focusing on those incredibly out of the way rural restaurants, and the stories of how those immigrant families (mostly from Fujian province) got from there to here. I think it would be a fascinating story.

Great idea. I love it. I would definitely kick in. I think it is a fascinating story.

It's also something I've encountered when traveling around the U.S.. I bet a lot of people can relate.

My favorite rural Chinese restaurant run in was when I was driving cross-country through the South, and was passing through West Texas.

I'll never forget when I entered a Chinese restaurant and the Chinese hostess greeted me in the thickest Texas accent.

You should do this!

Posted 2 weeks ago #
jeff_r

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Imagine: How Creativity Works

Fantastic book. If you're interested at all in urban planning, the importance of cities, and the role of place in the creative process then at the very least read Chapter 7, "Urban Friction".

Read my Goodreads review here.

Reserve a library copy here.

Posted 6 days ago #
M.O.
Columbus
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I'm reading Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and Damned.

And Flying Saucer Girls, a literary train wreck I can't put down.

Posted 6 days ago #