We have been up to our eyeballs in grandkids, starting with a birthday party at noon yesterday for our six-year-old grandson Evan and his last one in Reno since the move to Bend, Oregon is schedule for December 1st. We came home with two more, who are finally eating breakfast after watching Hotel for Dogs on HBO this morning - cute mobie, Lexie says. Mommy picked them up this afternoon and I'm enjoying the quiet, thinking about what to read - because I can.
Giving myself permission to read at odd hours of the day has been a tug-of-war between the years of conditioning that I should be something and realizing that I can do nothing. I am having to learn how to be retired, a new form of job training.
I don't really like the book I'm reading and went to look at the stack on my nightstand for a replacement, when I thought of Theresa's blog about what she is going to read. Leigh has since posted a list and I am taking this opportunity to make one too. This is what's on my nightstand - it does have a shelf underneath.
Gift from the Sea. Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Ali and Nino: a love story Kurban Said
The Thing around Your Neck. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Talk Talk. T.C. Boyle
Housekeeping. Marilynne Robinson
Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town. Paul Theroux
The Women. T.C. Boyle
Cause Celeb. Helen Fielding
Loving Frank. Nancy Horan
Love Walked In. Marisa de los Santos
New American Bible. Lots of guys
Unaccustomed Earth. Jhumpa Lahiri
This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western mind. Ivan Doig
How Green was my Valley. Richard Llewellyn
Beyond Belief. Elaine Pagels
The Rest of Us. Stephen Birmingham
Guns, Germs, and Steel. Jared Diamond
Library: an unquiet history. Matthew Battles
The Look of Architecture. Witold Rybczynski
I'm going to give Loving Frank another try tonight but I'm already over a hundred pages into it and I am just not loving Frank. It's like the Titanic. I know how the story ends. Anyone who has read a biography of Frank Lloyd Wright knows how this story ends and it doesn't end well.
I always love to know what people are reading and I am always looking for book recommendations. I hope to come across your lists in future posts.
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10 comments:
I am always amazed at the variation of books you read, mine seem superfluous. But I do have a few interesting ones (I dont think the ones I normally read aren't interesting, obviously, but they are more akin to dime novels than your collection :). I have 'Me and the Model T, a book that belonged to my great uncle; Sheep, a book printed in the 1890's; Lucky Man, by Michael J Fox; The Shark, by Peter Benchley; World Masterpieces, a compilation of ancient masterpieces by those such as Homer, Aeschylus, Thucydides, Plato and Aristotle (haven't read much of that one...); rounded out with books by my favorite authors such as Diana Gabaldon, Margreat Weis, Tracy Hickman, Terry Brooks, and others of the fiction/fantasy ilk :)
I read "Love Walked In" and absolutely hated it, although everyone I know thought it was great. Now Elaine Pagels is another story. It's so difficult to find people who can write fairly dispassionately about religion and belief; she's one of the few.
On (in) my nightstand is: House Thinking by Winifred Gallagher, The Affinity Bridge by George Mann, The Treehorn Trilogy by Florence Perry Heide, The Grub-and-Stakers Spin a Yarn by Alisa Craig, The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling, Cocaine Blues and Flying Too High, both by Kerry Greenwood, Mexico Style by Angelika Taschen, Knits to Fit and Flatter by Jane Ellison, The Skylark of Space by E.E.Doc Smith, The Perfect Red by Amy Butler Greenfield, One Life at a Time, Please by Edward Abbey, The Complete Guide to America's National Parks, and Grimm's Fairy Tales. What does that say about me?
You've got a big nightstand!!
I went to the library the other day and picked up lots of books on creativity. Now if only I could absorb their contents without reading every single one!
Sue
Love just about anything by Paul Theroux, although my favorite is his newest, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star...excellent read.
I read Anne Morrow Lindbergh's book years ago and honestly it just didn't do it for me. Not my kind of read I guess.
Guns germs and steel is a great read. I read it at my folks house a couple of visits ago.
One of my favorite books ever just popped into mind.
Don't know if you've read it, but the House of Sky book jogged my memory.
Where Rivers Change Direction by Mark Spragg. A memorable read indeed.
Is your nightstand groaning yet? :-)
I have quite the stack as well, Sharon. And, great minds thinking alike, have also thought about a "What's on the Nightstand" (or Stack to Read) post on the blog.
Like the proverbial "dog on the loom", it's hard when you're an avid reader to give up on a book, but some just aren't worth it. Time to start another one, methinks. ;)
Ok, I feel much better about the library sitting next to my bed (way too many to make a list. My only excuse is that there is no place else for them to go, all of our bookcases (most of which are, unfortunately, in the basement) are groaning already.
I love Gift from the Sea. I have the edition my grandmother gave me, I think it was a gift to her as well. I can see why it might no be everyone's cup of tea, but I find it to be a lovely, contemplative book, and so utterly female in the very best sense of the word.
Um, I just read or re-read every book I could get through interlibrary loan by Susan Wiggs. I've been re-reading Loretta Chase, too, really enjoying her earliest historicals. For heavy stuff, Hayek's The Road to Serfdom, Martin Stephen's The Diary of a Stroke, Coyle's The Talent Code, Levin's Liberty and Tyranny, Brunner's Do You Matter, and Baker's From Concept to Consumer. Pretty soon I'll unpack the box of Christmas Regencies to re-read yet again. Love those. Own dozens...
I sure am enjoying eveyones reading lists and getting so many ideas. Right now my list is pretty slim. I have four boxes of books going to the Goodwill tomorrow.
Well, I'm not familiar with many of those. Still, like you, I like to know what folks are reading. You've already seen my list, so I won't repeat it now. I'll wait till it changes again. :)
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