What are you reading now?

[Pariah]

"The Sex Lives of Cannibals," by J. Maarten Troost

You must be registered for see images attach

From Publishers Weekly
At 26, Troost followed his wife to Kiribati, a tiny island nation in the South Pacific. Virtually ignored by the rest of humanity (its erstwhile colonial owners, the Brits, left in 1979), Kiribati is the kind of place where dolphins frolic in lagoons, days end with glorious sunsets and airplanes might have to circle overhead because pigs occupy the island's sole runway. Troost's wife was working for an international nonprofit; the author himself planned to hang out and maybe write a literary masterpiece. But Kiribati wasn't quite paradise. It was polluted, overpopulated and scorchingly sunny (Troost could almost feel his freckles mutating into something "interesting and tumorous"). The villages overflowed with scavengers and recently introduced, nonbiodegradable trash. And the Kiribati people seemed excessively hedonistic. Yet after two years, Troost and his wife felt so comfortable, they were reluctant to return home. Troost is a sharp, funny writer, richly evoking the strange, day-by-day wonder that became his life in the islands. One night, he's doing his best funky chicken with dancing Kiribati; the next morning, he's on the high seas contemplating a toilet extending off the boat's stern (when the ocean was rough, he learns, it was like using a bidet). Troost's chronicle of his sojourn in a forgotten world is a comic masterwork of travel writing and a revealing look at a culture clash.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

 

[CorporalCardinal]

Once an Eagle by Anton Myrer. Really good book

 

[Heucrazy]

The Tears of Artamon by Sarah Ash.

Fanatastic trilogy, I'm on the second book right now.

 

[dodie53]

The Bourne Sanction

Eric Van Lustbader - [Jason Bourne 6] - The Bourne Sanction (html).rar

 

[Louis]

Picked UP

1. Rant - Chuck Palahlniuk (sp?)

Buster “Rant” Casey just may be the most efficient serial killer of our time. A high school rebel, Rant Casey escapes from his small town home for the big city where he becomes the leader of an urban demolition derby called Party Crashing. Rant Casey will die a spectacular highway death, after which his friends gather the testimony needed to build an oral history of his short, violent life. With hilarity, horror, and blazing insight, Rant is a mind-bending vision of the future, as only Chuck Palahniuk could ever imagine.

2. Generation Kill - Evan Wright - The HBO series is based on this book

3. Lone Survivor - Marcus Luttrell/Patrick Robinson

If you're looking for a true story that showcases both American heroism and Afghani humanity, Marcus Luttrell's Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 (Little, Brown, $24.99), written with Patrick Robinson, may be the book for you. In June of 2005, Luttrell led a four-man team of Navy SEALs into the mountains of Afghanistan on a mission to kill a Taliban leader thought to be allied with Osama bin Laden. On foot, the team encountered two adult men and a teenage boy. A debate broke out as to whether the SEALs should summarily execute the trio to keep them from alerting the Taliban. Luttrell himself was called upon to make the decision. He was torn between considerations of morality and his survival instinct, and he points out that "any government that thinks war is somehow fair and subject to rules like a baseball game probably should not get into one. Because nothing's fair in war, and occasionally the wrong people do get killed."

Luttrell opted to spare the Afghanis' lives. About an hour later, the Taliban launched an attack that claimed nearly a hundred of their own men but also the lives of all the SEALs except Luttrell, who was left wounded.
Not long after that, the Taliban shot down an American rescue helicopter, killing all 16 men on board. Luttrell is sure that the three Afghanis he let go turned around and betrayed the SEALs.
But if nothing is fair in war, neither is anything foreordained. Luttrell was found by other Afghanis, one of whom claimed to be his village's doctor. Once again, Luttrell had to rely on his instincts. "There was something about him," Luttrell writes. "By now I'd seen a whole lot of Taliban warriors, and he looked nothing like any of them. There was no arrogance, no hatred in his eyes." Luttrell trusted the man and his colleagues, who took him back to their village, where the law of hospitality -- "strictly nonnegotiable" -- took hold. "They were committed to defend me against the Taliban," Luttrell writes, "until there was no one left alive." The law held, and Luttrell survived, returned home and received the Navy Cross for combat heroism from President Bush.

4. Stiff - The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers - Mary Roach

Uproariously funny" doesn't seem a likely description for a book on cadavers. However, Roach, a Salon and Reader's Digest columnist, has done the nearly impossible and written a book as informative and respectful as it is irreverent and witty. From her opening lines ("The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship. Most of your time is spent lying on your back"), it is clear that she's taking a unique approach to issues surrounding death. Roach delves into the many productive uses to which cadavers have been put, from medical experimentation to applications in transportation safety research (in a chapter archly called "Dead Man Driving") to work by forensic scientists quantifying rates of decay under a wide array of bizarre circumstances. There are also chapters on cannibalism, including an aside on dumplings allegedly filled with human remains from a Chinese crematorium, methods of disposal (burial, cremation, composting) and "beating-heart" cadavers used in organ transplants. Roach has a fabulous eye and a wonderful voice as she describes such macabre situations as a plastic surgery seminar with doctors practicing face-lifts on decapitated human heads and her trip to China in search of the cannibalistic dumpling makers. Even Roach's digressions and footnotes are captivating, helping to make the book impossible to put down.

5. Super Crunchers - Ian Ayres

An international sensation—and still the talk of the relevant blogosphere—this Wall Street Journal and New York Times business bestseller examines the “power” in numbers. Today more than ever, number crunching affects your life in ways you might not even imagine. Intuition and experience are no longer enough to make the grade. In order to succeed—even survive—in our data-based world, you need to become statistically literate.

Cutting-edge organizations are already crunching increasingly larger databases to find the unseen connections among seemingly unconnected things to predict human behavior with staggeringly accurate results. From Internet sites like Google and Amazon that use filters to keep track of your tastes and your purchasing history, to insurance companies and government agencies that every day make decisions affecting your life, the brave new world of the super crunchers is happening right now. No one who wants to stay ahead of the curve should make another keystroke without reading Ian Ayres’s engrossing and enlightening book.

 

[Zeno]

Picked UP

1. Rant - Chuck Palahlniuk (sp?)

2. Generation Kill - Evan Wright - The HBO series is based on this book

3. Lone Survivor - Marcus Luttrell/Patrick Robinson

I've read each of those 3...Rant is the worst of that bunch by a wide margin (worst of the 4 Chuck P. books I've read). The other 2 are great reads.

 

[CaptTurbo]

Augustus

The life of Romes first emporer. Probabaly has never been a more powerful, intelligent man to lead a nation. A great read.

 

[Pariah]

"Out Stealing Horses," by Per Petterson

I'm literally only 3 pages in and it might already be one of my favorite books ever. Not by virtue of what's happened, but by the terse language and the idea of living a hermit-esque life in old age.

You must be registered for see images attach

From Publishers Weekly
Award-winning Norwegian novelist Petterson renders the meditations of Trond Sander, a man nearing 70, dwelling in self-imposed exile at the eastern edge of Norway in a primitive cabin. Trond's peaceful existence is interrupted by a meeting with his only neighbor, who seems familiar. The meeting pries loose a memory from a summer day in 1948 when Trond's friend Jon suggests they go out and steal horses. That distant summer is transformative for Trond as he reflects on the fragility of life while discovering secrets about his father's wartime activities. The past also looms in the present: Trond realizes that his neighbor, Lars, is Jon's younger brother, who "pulls aside the fifty years with a lightness that seems almost indecent." Trond becomes immersed in his memory, recalling that summer that shaped the course of his life while, in the present, Trond and Lars prepare for the winter, allowing Petterson to dabble in parallels both bold and subtle. Petterson coaxes out of Trond's reticent, deliberate narration a story as vast as the Norwegian tundra. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

 

[D-Dogg]

Twilight
Stephenie Meyer.

 

[Mulli]

Twilight
Stephenie Meyer.

Vampire book?

 

[Pariah]

Twilight
Stephenie Meyer.

Isn't that kind of chicky?

 

[NMCard]

I'm literally only 3 pages in and it might already be one of my favorite books ever. Not by virtue of what's happened, but by the terse language and the idea of living a hermit-esque life in old age.

I book I would enjoy. Thanks for the recomendation. It's on my wish list.

 

[D-Dogg]

Vampire book?

Yes

Isn't that kind of chicky?

I'm like a teenage girl all a'twitter.

 

[jstadvl]

Just finished the whole series in a matter of days. Don't stop! This series has intrigue, violence, forbidden love, mortal enemies being friends, unbelievable twists and turns.
Chick schmick, it's just plain good. Now on to romeo and Juliet again, The odysey again, and a new trilogy "The Circle"! First book is "Black".

 

[Brian in Mesa]

A new trilogy "The Circle"! First book is "Black".

Black, Red, and White.

My wife has read all of Ted Dekker's books. We're going to get his latest, called Sinner, at Berean's over the weekend. He's got a book called Kiss which comes out in early January also.

For the last year he has been working on Green (Book Zero in the Circle Trilogy).

I'm going to dive in and read all of his books in the near future as well as a couple of books by T.L. Hines also.

 

[jstadvl]

Thanks B. looked good. Need to re-read some classics though, to help my daughter. the general gist is still there, go figure at almost 56, but I need the ins and outs again.
Alas, a father's work is never done.
However, that said, I will enjoy the circle series I'm sure.

 

[D-Dogg]

Just finished the whole series in a matter of days. Don't stop! This series has intrigue, violence, forbidden love, mortal enemies being friends, unbelievable twists and turns.
Chick schmick, it's just plain good. Now on to romeo and Juliet again, The odysey again, and a new trilogy "The Circle"! First book is "Black".

Yeah, I destroyed that series in 5 days, having to wait for my wife to finish each book first.

The movie will suck, IMO. No way in hell they could ever create the feeling of the books.

The last book was my favorite, and I saw the imprint stuff coming a mile away, but my wife did not.

Very good series. I read all the Anne Rice books back in the day...these are very different, but good in their own right.

 

[Pariah]

I'm reading "PR 2.0," "Out Stealing Horses" (currently on hold, though) and a bunch of trade paperbacks (comic book compilations) that I ordered.

I highly recommend "Fear Agent" for anyone who likes sci-fi/space adventure comic books. It's pretty f'n great.

 

[dodie53]

world of warcraft - beyond the dark portal

 

[AZZenny]

Just re-read Owen Wister's "The Virginian." Lovely, if now quaint book, and the very first one that depicted our idealized American cowboy mythos. I found myself pulled back to longing for that strong, silent hero -- trustworthy, loyal, but not given to easy intimacy, and with a ready capacity for cold violence in service of good. The irony is that Wister was also longing for that lost Western hero -- in 1902.

 

[dodie53]

infected

 

[AZZenny]

Just ordered

You must be registered for see images

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barton Gellman’s newsbreaking investigative journalism documents how Vice President Dick Cheney redefined the role of the American vice presidency, assuming unprecedented responsibilities and making it a post of historic power.

I heard an interview with the author yesterday and was very impressed with him -- he seemed very sensible, not at all a hack -- he said Cheney would not speak to him, but for the most part, did not interfere or try to stop people from talking to Gellman (other than current employees, of course.) I gather the book is pretty shocking, when you really look at all the things in which Cheney has exerted substantial control, and the sense of a Cheney-Bush administration seems more accurate.

 

[Nasser22]

Twilight...sucks. But I'm still reading.

 

[Zeno]

I'm currently reading Man With The Iron Heart by Harry Turtledove

Alternate history timeline, Reinhard Heydrich doesn't die in 1942 and he knows that Germany will be defeated and occupied so he prepares to fight the occupation as an insurgency. The war ends like it did in our timeline but in the book there is an organized resistance movement. The Germans attack the Americans & Russians with a mix of IEDs, suicide bombers, guerilla tactics & hostage takings. Nuremburg courthouse is bombed, Patton is assasinated and the list goes on.

The Americans & Russians deal with it in far different ways. Meanwhile the public in the States is becoming more and more discontent as they see soldiers killed in a war they were told was over.

So far so good.

 

[Linderbee]

I need a good book to read...I'd prefer a fast paced, easy reading fiction...not sci-fi. Any suggestions? I'll try re-reading through this thread again, but I was hoping for some quicker help for the really lazy. Nothing too verbose (no Stephen King)...I'm trying to get back in the habit of reading regularly, and need to be broken in slowly...

dcr put my name on the list for "In Defense of Food" at the library...I'm pretty far down, so hopefully I'll have my reading eyes/brain back in full swing before my turn comes.