Currently Reading (Take 2) — Page 30

I just started JK Rowling's new book for adults, The Casual Vacancy. 19 pages in and I already feel like I need to get a huge wall of post-its with character names and connections, like what I felt I needed to do with the HP series to remember everything.

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I just finished The Fun House and am now reading Are You My Mother?.

I'd love to read a Mileziner bio--had no idea there was one, though I loved the glimpses they had into his life in that beautiful coffee table book of his designs. I'll have to look for it.

To fill up some credits I had to take for school I've been doing a class that compares books to their film adaptations, and is focused on American ideas of masculinity. In the past two weeks I had to finish Deliverance and Revolutionary Road--I loved Rev Road, though it was pretty depressing (a lot of people I talk to in class found it tough going just because it is pretty long, and despite some satire, prtty heavy), and I liked Deliverance--certainly more than the film--but I get why Dickey is considered himself more as a poet than a novelist. Still, I'm glad I read both, and probably wouldn't have without the class.

When I have time right now to read something I want to read I'm still thumbing through Pulp Friction, a collection of excerpts of gay pulp novels. It's really fascinating--often campy, but a number of the excerpts are actually really good and make me want to try to track down the full book--and there's great historical context about each choice.

About to start reading Outlander. I love time travel books, and I heard it's a great series

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Updated On: 11/25/12 at 01:34 AM

Carl Hiaasen's Stormy Weather, which is filled with his usual cast of Florida eccentrics.

Well, my new (used) car has a CD player so I've been listening to books that I otherwise probably wouldn't have the patience to read. Driving three hours a night allows for a lot more listening time than reading time. One recently finished BOCD was the fantastic Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul. Examining the life of Williams allows a plunge into a historical view of the separation of church and state in Colonial America. It reveals a huge, early chunk of the backstory of an American debate that continues today.

http://www.amazon.com/Roger-Williams-Creation-American-Soul/dp/0670023051

Reading-wise I recently started Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago. "Heat waves in the United States kill more people during a typical year than all other natural disasters combined." In July, 1995, Chicago experienced a week long heat wave that resulted in the deaths of over 700 residents. The author, Eric Klinenberg, looked into the whys of such a high death toll and found that the social breakdowns typical in most large American cities played a major role.

http://www.amazon.com/Heat-Wave-Autopsy-Disaster-Illinois/dp/0226443221

Updated On: 11/25/12 at 02:58 PM

I am currenty reading "Who Stole the American Dream" by Hedrick Smith.

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Updated On: 11/25/12 at 03:21 PM

"In Cold Blood" & "The Virgin Suicides" - bit took a break yesterday to read "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" a young adult supernatural fiction series. Pretty entertaining for a YA novel. I didn't want to put it down.

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I just finished Patron Saint of Liars. Not sure how I feel about it.

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The Twelve, Book Two in the Passages Trilogy.

Basically a bit of the apocalypse and horror related to military experiments gone awry, in one handy dandy book.

Hilary Mantel's Thomas Cromwell books. Finished Wolf Hall, almost through Bring Up the Bodies. Recommend.

All the astronomy books I can find.