BALLING THE JACK: A NOVEL-Frank Baldwin
Coming of age story. Girls, drinking and....balling the jack.

Bangkok 8 : A Novel -JOHN BURDETT
Mystery-thriller set in, uh, Bangkok

A Clockwork Orange -Anthony Burgess
Read this masterpiece for a 2nd time after finding out that I had previously read the old 20 chapter American edition. Book actually has always had 21 chapters, if you read it anywhere but the States. It's a better book WITHOUT that chapter.

The Rising Tide -- John M. Barry -- About the Mississippi River flood of 1927..very good...about halfway through, and just getting to the actual flood.

I Am Charlotte Simmons -- Tom Wolfe -- The new one

Just finished "Sharpe's Revenge", now only have to read "Waterloo" and the new one to finish the series.

Almost finished with "American Tabloid", which I didn't take on vacation 'cuz the trade paperback is too damned bulky.

Almost finished with the latest Lovejoy book, "Every Last Cent", which I did take on vacation because it's not too damned bulky.

Excellent books, all three.

reading this on the computer

and this in hard copy

Get "Cold Six Thousand" next, my brutha.

Btw, dunno if you saw, I got my hands on the new Ike Reilly -- does not dissapoint! In contention for Top 10 on 2 listens

Extraordinary Groups: An Examination of Unconventional Lifestyles - Kephart and Zellner Readings about The Old Order Amish; The Oneida Community; The Gypsies; Church of Christ, Scientist; The Hasidim; The Father Divine Movement; The Mormons; as well as The Jehovah's . . . a perfect Radcliffean read, if he hasn't already.

The Death of Nature - Carolyn Merchant The book that birthed ecofeminism. Quite a good history.

Just read:
The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing - Charlie Papazian Mmm . . . beer in my closet . . . nnngggaahhh.

nearly inert on my bedside table:
Gravity's Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon Again.
Ulysses - James Joyce Again.

I've actually been having a hard time with fiction recently - I don't know why, but none of it has been holding my attention.

I just finished:



Really well done and humorous, and a little scary. Loved it.


ed.---how's that new Tom Wolfe, Loogar? It's been getting ripped in reviews, but I'll probably still read it. A Man In Full and Bonfire of the Vanities are two of my favorites.

I forgot these, yoinked today from the "free" table in the hall outside the Biology office right next to my lab. Old, presumably some faculty member clearing detritus from his shelves. I want to know which biologist has works of important mid-20th century American novelists standing next to his scientific tomes in his office.

1) The Assistant - Bernard Malamud
2) North of Grand Central Three Novels of New England by - John P. Marquand

Recently finished:

The Maltese Falcon-Dashiell Hammett
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone--read it for a class I'm auditing and I can see why kids and people like it so much

Currently reading:

The Crying of Lot 49--T. Pynchon. It's okay, I guess. We'll see.
A Mirror for England: British Movies from Austerity to Affluence--Raymond Durgnat. I always wanted this book in my film studies days and then completely forgot about it. Recently was reminded of it, bought it, and am now reading. The recently deceased Durgnat is a good writer and one of the best in film criticism.

Nietzsche - Genealogy of Morals/Ecce Homo

KPH

me too

I am reading Thucydides 'History of the Peloponnesian War' because I'd quite like a 1st class degree.

A couple of weeks ago I went through a major John Gray phase. No not the one that wrote 'Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus' - a different one. He's a sort of modern philosopher. I read both 'Heresy Against Progress' and 'Straw Dogs' and both were excellent and have had an effect on the way I think about things.

Just finished Arthur Conan Doyle's The Sign Of Four (the second Sherlock Holmes novel). Currently reading:


Ann Patchett - Bel Canto

Jimmy Corrigan, "The Smartest Kid on the Earth" - Chris Ware

Just finished:

Shroud of the Gnome - James Tate
Jesus' Son - Denis Johnson

That book depressed the hell out of me.

I've got to disagree with you here, Dude.

I just started James Patterson's Along Came A Spider. I thought the movie sucked, but I was told the novel's much different. We'll see...

Recently finished John Kennedy Toole's Confederacy Of Dunces and Joe R. Lansdale's The Bottoms. Both excellent reads.

Just finished:



About to start: The Abolition of Man

I had a week and a half of my life sucked away from me from reading Gregory Maguire's Lost. It was nothing like the other two books of his I had read. It drove me insane.

So I'm taking a mini break before I start Maguire's book Mirror Mirror.

Derris......always late to the party........

I know, I know, Max. Many people would. I just felt that the 'added' chapter was kind of a cop out on what I thought was the central message- It's better to have the choice to be bad than to have goodness foisted upon you.

Steve

Great. Now as you read it you can have the added enjoyment of imagining Tom Hanks as the protagonist.

Steve

i recently read 'down and out in the magic kingdom' by the guy who writes boinboing.net, cory doctorow. it was a really fun read, and its free!

also, i'm slowly getting through murakami's 'a wild sheep chase'. its really good, but i'm starting to see the same themes from 'wind up bird chronicle' and 'norwegian wood' popping up in it.

Fletch Won

The Bourne Ultimatum


8)