What was the last book you read?

[Clem Snide]

Catch-22, for about the twentieth time. Never gets old.

I read it this year.

Someone saw it and said they thought it was the funnist book they ever read.

Personally I didn't see much humour in it.

A lot of horror, but very little humour.

Much to make me cry, little to make me laugh.

It cracks me up.

"They're trying to kill me," Yossarian told him calmly.

"No one's trying to kill you," Clevinger cried.

"Then why are they shooting at me?" Yossarian asked.

"They're shooting at everyone," Clevinger answered. "They're trying to kill everyone."

"And what difference does that make?"

[JP]

The End of Faith by Sam Harris

Entertaining though a bit scattergun style book ranting against religious thought in general, and islamic movement in particular. Solid arguments last about half way to the book before he tries to offer some solutions.

His characterisation of islamic societies was misinformed and ignorrant - maybe deliberately, but i find it hard to trust a book characterising islamic countries from pakistan to iran without even mentioning the conflicts they have with progressive secular movements internally. Instead he just talks about some military solution which should take out advanced weaponry in the hands of any religious islamist leader. Having read about womens groups, student groups, unions and secular political parties (like secular non sectarian communist party polling 20% in some areas of iraq for instance) its clear that you cant just paint a whole country with the same brush. But Harris doesnt make a beep about that.

Otherwise entertaining easy to read book.

Rousseau's Dog: Two Great Thinkers at War in the Age of Enlightenment

Boring book unless you like to read about 18th century upper class squabbles.

Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians by Noam Chomsky

This massive tome gives painfully detailed account of the history of the state of Israel and increasing in detail of evidence towards the 80s and especially the brutal lebanon invasion in 82. the focus and running theme of this book is the unblinkering and unquestioning financial, military, political and moral support of the US to the state of israel.

Triangle doesnt really fairly describe the relationship between the worlds only superpower, worlds 4th biggest military power and bunch of folk chased from their and without any recognised political representation (at the time of writing the book, 80s).

Chomsky being Chomsky, there is usually about 50 pages more evidence per argument than is needed to convince anyone, so this book works the best for those really deeply, interested in the situation, as a reference book for studies, articles and so on. As a bedside book you have to start skimming it pretty soon, or suffer some kind of mental breakdown.

[SpugFab]

Rousseau's Dog: Two Great Thinkers at War in the Age of Enlightenment

Boring book unless you like to read about 18th century upper class squabbles.

After reading "Confessions" I make a point to avoid Rousseau like the plague.

He was a cock.

[baldy]

Being in Ireland, I just finished
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Not that amazing but a warm up for Ulysses, which I must read while I am in Ireland.

[KaliBaby]

"Lords of the Harvest: Biotech, Big Money, and the Future of Food" by Daniel Charles

The book talks about Monsanto's lead in the GM biotech industry and how they bought up various seed companies to more better control of both domestic and international food markets. Pretty scary shit. The author has a good writing style- mixing his interviews with facts all the while in an entertaining and thought provoking way. This is way too detailed to be an introduction for someone on the issue but if you have some knowledge about the subject and want to know more details about how Monsanto is a money grubbing exploitative agribusiness giant... this book is for you

[XkillerX]

Kaddish for the unborn child, by Kertész Imre.

i am very indecisive about this tiny book. amongst other huge recommendations, it helped the author win a nobel prize in literature.

but i hardly liked it.

it's just 140 pages of thoughts, the sentences are sometimes PAGES long (for real) and as much as i pushed myself and tried as hard as i can to get into his situation it still could not grasp me. at all.

which makes me believe that there is something wrong with me?

or this book just sucks? give it a go, you can read it in less than a day, but dont blame me if you dont like it.

(and if you do, please explain, thank you)

[KaliBaby]

"Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty" by Muhammad Yunus.

What a great read!!! Yunus's accomplishments and drive are so inspiring. I want to be like him and find an innovative way to help people in need. This is a really great book to introduce you to microfinance and how it's a more sustainable way to bring people out of absolute poverty. Yunus writes very well and it's a quick read... if this is up your alley. Maybe I'm just a dork I can't wait to read his other book, "Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism."

[baldy]

Rather embarrassingly I read this book, Vegan Virgin Valentine. Amazon tricked me into reading it, after they suggested it when I bought a vegan cookbook.

It turns out to be a book for teenage girls and in the end she eats cheese!
Not recommended.

[The Duke]

Currently reading:

The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers Omnibus edition.

Classic stuff!

[emm7]

ha ha I think baldy you were expecting it to be a sexy book and the title was a definite case of false advertising!
Why don't you write your own sexy book and get JP to sell some copies for you?
post on the creative writing thread and let us see the work in progress!

am confused, why did the girl renounce being vegan and eat cheese at the end?
It wasn't to try and impress a lad was it? grrrrr

[Arnie]

I'm currently reading the Dexter trilogy again by Jeff Lindsay so I can get acquainted with the second series before it's released over here. Great books.

[cactuspear]

Yes, the homosexuality is key to how he made Stella and Stanley. Ten never understood sex and concluded that everything else revolved around it. Stella really has no other motivation than Stanley, and later on we find out Blanche is just a sexual woman - nothing else to her really. All the rest is just fake. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof has a ot of that too, the end is all about sex solves everything.

yes thinking about this...... what would keep Stella hooked would not be sex alone. If she were a genuine sex addict and that was the only reason she stayed with Stan........ she would no doubt be having affairs with other people in the town! Rather than just being hooked on Stan and nobody else. Ditto Blanche, if that were the case she would not be a serial monogamist but more likely I suspect, stringing several of Stan's friends along at the same time rather than just focusing on Mitch.

They are interesting characters though!
It's the fantasist nature of Blanche that makes me feel so sad for her.
I think that when writing Blanche, TW has put his vivid imagination and his loneliness, and feeling of being "set apart" (outsider), into her. She's literally the outsider in the town, isn't she.

Great writing though, and great interpretations. I love the way that period of Amercian writers were poetic with images and themes, but with really simple language.

yes I love the quality of the writing too. There's certainly a lot of poetic longing in it but it's not "too rich" / overblown.

emm7 and papaya - I love Tennesse Williams, too! Have you ever seen the film version of The Glass Menagerie with John Malkovich?

Just finished On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. Related a bit to Williams in that it's really good writing about longing and sexual anxiety. It's a novella chronicling a relationship that falls apart due to the characters' inability to communicate or figure out where to place themselves in the moral/sexual climate of the mid 20th century.

Also about to finish Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire. It's an old but powerful book and is getting me really excited about teaching again.

[emm7]

the film version of The Glass Menagerie with John Malkovich?

I haven't but I want to.
I think Malkovich is a bloody fantastic actor. Really really good. He's worth a million Brad Pitts and Keanu Reeves-es.

haven't read On Chesil Beach by McEwan but I should because I live just down the road from the real Chesil Beach!
Longing and sexual anxiety eh, it does sound very Tennessee Williams!
It is a sinister kind of undercurrent in Tennessee Williams though, it seems to me that (to use a metaphor) sex is always a drink (of hard liquor of course ) spiked with violence in Streetcar.
Is Chesil Beach similarly dark?

Haven't heard of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, tell more?
Excellent what subject do you teach?

[Konstantin]

emm7 and papaya - I love Tennesse Williams, too! Have you ever seen the film version of The Glass Menagerie with John Malkovich?

No, never saw it, should check it out.

'Hundredth Man' by Jack Kerley. Easy-to-read serial killer Vs cop stuff but I really enjoyed it. Made me want to write again.

[emm7]

Made me want to write again.

write write write in creative writing thread!!!