We've just moved near two large libraries and I'm itching to read. The books I want to read are waitlisted (The God Delusion, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and The Omnivore's Dilemma).

Have you read a good book lately? Tell me about it.

I've just finished Dumbing Us Down for the third time, The End of Faith and I'm working back through Women Who Run With the Wolves. I began to read Twinkie, Deconstructed at Barnes & Noble but I found the writer not to be captivating, though the content is interesting.

The Educated Child was actually very well done. I'm a bit horrified that I liked it since it's by a man I don't admire (William Bennet). My Mom observed that a broken clock is correct twice a day :D

The last book I loved was Wide Sargasso Sea, followed closely by Bridget Jones' diary.

Well, from the books you listed that you are interested in reading, perhaps you would like these too:

Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion, by Dale McGowan

Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally Hardcover by Alisa Smith

Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck

Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats by Sally Fallon

Family Matters - Why Homeschooling Makes Sense by David Guterson (older, but an interesting perspective)

And just a few ideas of good novels???

His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass) by Philip Pullman - I just finished The Golden Compass, and it was interesting and light (think Harry Potter for females, but written earlier & a bit more intense).

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

I am a library addict, so we read a lot. These are just a few off the top of my head. :)

Novels?

Anything and everything by Sarah Bird. Funniest books, ever. Situational, with a huge build up, rather than tricky little whiny one- liners. Too funny and heartbreaking to believe she's a real person.

People get really excited about Laurie Colwin. I read them all in a lump, so I'm not as enamored. But still, they do tend to stick with you.

Umm, in the fancy high school tradition of book and a movie, Conspiracy of Fools, followed by the movie "Smartest Guys in the Room." All about Enron.

Kids books: The Story of US, by Joy Hakim. Better than any history book I've ever read. Gorgeous, pertinent illustrations, definite authorial voice. I'm reading them right now, fwiw.

I don't know about your library, but the one over here has a hopping mom section. It's good, sometimes, to look in other mirrors. Although, for some of it, I have this terrible urge to -not- be in these women's company. If you have the faintest urge to go back to high school and get picked on, try D Shine, or the Mom's Town Guide to Getting a Life. They're even blonde, thin, and I bet former cheerleaders. Totally corporate, and then went into momming. This really weird mix of theoretically supportive, and nasty to real people. Ariel Gore and Bee Lavendar are good correctives, there. Bee Lavendar writes amazing. amazing. amazing. prose. Ann Crittenden, if you're all about the money ( The Price of Motherhood, or the Mask of Motherhood.) It's hoodyville in motherland, amongst the titles.

The comic book guide to chemistry is surprisingly entertaining. Oh, wait, the Periodic Kingdom, is like a walking tour of the periodic chart. Some of the images stick with you- a restless lake of red bromine with an undulating silver shore.

For genre mysteries, please press 2 for **** Francis, and 3 for Anne Perry.

Iain Pears wrote an Instance of the Fingerpost, a modern novel, and one set in ww2, the middle ages, and the fourth century. I can't remember the title. All the times are different, but the place is the same. The whole "woo- woo" exotic ancient history feeling that some modern novels are trying to exploit is here, but explained and legitimized. Like, an archeologist finds a mosaic from a house of an earlier character, but you get the archaeologist early, and the mosaic late. Its' themes are civilization, barbarism, and "the other."

The Prize by Daniel Yergin is all about oil. I want to say there's a movie, too, but I haven't seen it. History, but gossipy.

If you want a sort of panopticon effect, Marge Piercy's WW2 novel "Gone to Soldiers" followed by Dean Hughes four set, and other sprawling ww2 books. Although, the femininist vs the patriarchal devout makes for a really great throwdown. Throw in Rosie the Riveter Revisited ( a short social history) for more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

I would say James Ellroy, but he's sort of an acquired taste. He has some set in the 1950's, which kind of effervesce ( as in Alka Seltzer tablets) with David Halberstams book about the 1950's. One of his books had a movie last year- black dahlia. It was the first grown up movie I'd seen in a while, and it was actually shocking.

I'll second Educated Child.

Tell us what you read. I am in a dry spell. It's depressing.

ari

Economics books- and I am not an economist, but I found these interesting

David Landes: The Wealth and Poverty of Nations. He has a paean to eyeglasses, and I've been four-eyed since I was eight. It looks big and smart, and mostly it's anecdotal.

The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto. It's short.

Fernand Braudel wrote The Structures of Everyday Life the Wheels of Commerce, and the Perspective of the World.

Simon Schama is famous for the French Revolution book, but I really like the english history books better. And yes, there's a movie. The anecdote about Queen Victoria makes the whole thing- you can see he's enjoying himself, rather than "Working, working, working." He has a better feel for the people, and the material.

The middle book of John Julius Norwich's trilogy on Byzantium. The first is sincere, the last is depressing, but the middle book has all the money, gossip and sex your heart could desire. And jewelry. Lots of jewelry. Royals. Knights. barbarians. Queens. Lawnboys. Don't get the compressed three in one, that's all business and history. The middle book is fun.

I like Thomas Cahill's books. They have a neat structure- there's a central argument that is always kept on the side while he does his business of facts and imagination. It's pretty much why I like the book Oranges, by John McPhee, too. The Razor's Edge, in fiction, tries it out, too.

The Screwtape Letters. CSLewis.

ari

wow, ari, there are many people who have not read that many books in their lifetime. i have, but i'm majorly impressed with your recollection of all of those books.

hope you find something good to read soon!