good books

[Sunshine1]

So, anyone read any good books lately? :wavey:Although, I don't remember the author's name- We were the Malvany's was good.

Aimee

[Betsy]

Mine! Well, I hope it will be one of those in about a year or so.

Sadly, I don't read nearly as many books as I wish I did, although I avidly read the NYTimes Book Review every week. Does that count?

The last really good book I read which I talked about here was "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Corpses."

Right now, my nose is in a bunch of organic gardening books which I've had for years but just brought out of storage again as I've planted my new garden. I needed a quick solution for an immediate aphid problem I encountered. I found a quick homemade garlic spray recipe (my kitchen now stinks from boiling the garlic) which worked like a charm.

The garden is all containerized using recycled materials---5 gallon buckets I mostly went dumpster diving for at local fast food places and begged a few off of friends. Some are old wooden crates I found at the local junk store for just a couple of dollars each. Stakes and support materials are made from saplings I cut down in the woods behind my house and from trees around the property I felt needed some trimming. Ties are from recycled nylon stockings another friend gave me.

The potting soil was the only thing I purchased and I regret I didn't make my own as it got a bit pricey. I got really annoyed with the dirt over the weekend because I went to a lesbian owned farm nearby thinking I would give them my business but it turned out their dirt was almost twice the price of the same bags at another farm closer to my home. Any future deliveries of it will come from the nearby farm but if I need any, it will be a bag or two.

I did containers in order to keep them up on my deck and away from the deer, plus I was too lazy to dig a garden or build a raised bed properly.

I've got 12 tomato plants of different varieties, two pepper plants (I need a couple more), several pickling cucumbers, and a bunch of herbs. It's a great use of a small space.

Betsy

[Meadow]

Hi All,

I suppose my favorite fiction includes any books by Richard Bach. Many probably know of his first, that being "Jonathan Livingston Seagull." Others have included "A Bridge Across Forever", "Illusions", and "One". While most use a backdrop of his days as a pilot of smaller bush type planes or fighters, the real points of consideration are his unique views on time, dimension, and spirituallity. I have certainly have come away with new perspectives on many things after reading.

One in particular that I recall was a book that centered around his meeting himself as a child. So, for a brief segment in time, we are presented with both Richard Bach as a young inquisitive boy as well as the adult with many years behind him. One would think that they could easily pick out which of the two was the pupil, and who was the teacher. But after reading different perspectives, one comes away not totally clear, the younger of the two possessing insight that was lost with time.

That's my 2 cents. I guess I live much of my life that can only be described by the title of one of his other books, "Above the Clouds". And while one might interprete that to mean airhead, rest assured, this person has her feet firmly on the ground.

[Dana Gold]

I'm a "bookworm" and absolutely love the library environment; on weekends I go out to a local coffee shop, then to the library, then lastly shopping. My favorite reads are, of course, science oriented, although the last link below was the exception. Medical thrillers (Michael Palmer, Tess Gerritsen, and Robin Cook) top the reading "inventory". recent reads:

http://members.aol.com/thesussman/pandemic.htm

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/books/04/02/lab.257/

http://mostlyfiction.com/adventure/dowd.htm

Science magazines : Discover, Scientific American, Smithsonian, National Geographic, Science (all favs) I also check out from the library.

For "serious" reading, I go to the Science Library here at the University.

Book stores are a cool place to "hang out", too......tons of books!! and two that I frequent have a coffee shop inside, too....libraries (and bookstores) are "heaven" for me. :island: and peaceful (quiet) :thumbs_up

Dana :nerd: :pizza:

[Jolinn]

Meadow..
I remember reading JL Seagull long time ago, was a interesting book.
If you were to spend a lot of time in the air you would find it to be a different world compared to what your use to. I don`t mean in commerical airliners either, a smaller type plane gives you the oppertunity to see much more & enjoy it . Myself I spend a fair amount of time in a helio (back country) so I get to see things fairly close by. Best I can say is "AWSOME".
I read mystery novels, like to try and figure out the culpert before the book ends.

[Peter]

Here are a couple of good books that I have read recently:

"One Of US: conjoined twins and the future of normal" by Alice Dreger

An interesting look at surgeries performed on conjoined twins, where science and ethics are often involved in life and death treatment decisions. It's a different world than our intersex world, but the issues involved are very familiar to me.

"Judith Butler" by Sara Salih

Part of the Routledge Critical Thinkers series, the book does an admirable job of examining Butler's on-going work, and situating it in a wider intellectual context.

Peter

[Morgan]

My choices of reading matter at home might be a bit lighter than the very worthy examples given so far...

For fiction, I tend to prefer SF. My favourite authors and books include:

Paul McAuley, especially 'The Secret of Life' - a near future biotechnology thriller, with good characterisations and a lot of social realism.

Sheri S Tepper, especially 'The Fresco' and 'The Family Tree' - the first one is a great fun read, in some ways a wish list of what you might like to see happen to those senators whose views are somewhere to the right of Attila the Hun. Nothing _too_ malevolent, though. The second is a little darker, with some elements of fantasy. She also wrote 'Beauty' which is dark but good.

Peter F Hamilton, an imaginative space opera writer. His latest is 'Pandora's Star'. Star ships, wormholes, terrorists, fairies and other aliens...

For more heavyweight non-fiction, I read New Scientist, The Economist (not that I agree with everything it says) and a few online newspaper sites. I also loved this book, although it's a bit of a rant:

Francis Wheen, 'How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World'. Link here: http://books.guardian.co.uk/top10s/top10/0,6109,1140156,00.html - Hmmm, he needs a better haircut.

[Sofie]

"The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time" by Mark Haddon and "The Shelters of Stone" by Jean M. Auel