What did you read in August??

[SFG75]

I read:

The Moral Life of Children; Robert Coles
>The gist of this book is that children model what they see. It's more important to *model* appropriate moral values, than anything else. A good read, I really enjoy psychology books by Coles.

The Origins of Consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind; Julian Jaynes
>The most fascinating non-fiction book that I read this month. Jaynes argues that ancient man heard auditory hallucinations which guided their every day life. To him, man didn't have an "I" and was incapable of introspection. The hallucinations helped guide people to navigate every day life and make decisions when hard pressed-how to treat a stranger whom you accidently stumbled upon, etc. Jaynes believes that with increased trade and familiarity, this "tick" disappeared, only to be found today in the likes of schizophrenics.


Bad Money; Kevin Phillips
>How deregulation has led to our current economic situation. Phillips is a great contemporary political writer and one who is hard to argue against.

This Land is their land; Barbara Ehrenreich
>A great book on the "downsized" economy and what low wages and the exporting of manufacturing jobs means for Americans. As the "service" sector replaces manufacturing, the standard of living ad way of life of Americans is deteriorating, creating widespread problems from education to healthcare. You will hate every CEO in the world after reading this one.

So, how about you?

 

[Stewart]

054. The Death Of The Author, Gilbert Adair
053. Oscar And The Lady In Pink, Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt
052. The Clothes On Their Backs, Linda Grant
051. Netherland, Joseph O'Neill
050. Child 44, Tom Rob Smith
049. The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga
048. Stick Out Your Tongue, Ma Jian

 

[Hedwig]

Jasper Fforde - The Well of Lost Plots
A bit confusing at first, but nevertheless funny and exciting: another case for Literary Detective Thursday Next.

Astrid Lindgren - Mio, mein Mio (Mio, my Mio)
Beautiful fairytale by one of children's literature's masters.

Bastian Sick - Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod 2
A funny and interesting look at the "specialities" of German language.

Charles Lewinsky - Melnitz
A wonderful, extensive and authentic saga about several generations of Swiss Jews between 1870 and 1945.

A.M. Homes - Dieses Buch wird Ihr Leben retten (This book will save your life)
Nice idea (successful guy changes his whole life after a breakdown), but too fraught with implausible events.

Andrea Levy - Eine englische Art von Glück (Small Island)
Jamaican immigrants to London meet a kind-hearted white landlady and many intolerant people during WW II. Well done but with some lengths.

Marina Lewycka - Kurze Geschichte des Traktors auf Ukrainisch (Short history of tractors in Ukrainian)
Two sisters try to prevent their father from marrying a cunning young Ukrainian. The author manages to balance seriousness and humour well.

Astrid Lindgren - Die Brüder Löwenherz (The Brothers Lionheart)
Two brothers discover the land where people go after death and try to liberate it from danger. Beautiful, but sooo sad.

Martin Mosebach - Westend
Broadly based portrait of a Frankfurt district, of a generation and a family. Starts out nice but turns out too artificial in the end.

 

[Bluraven]

Overclocked: Tales of the Future Present, by Cory Doctorow. Its a collection of short stories by one of Sci-Fi's most prominent up-and-coming authors. I read this after completing his other book, Little Brother, in July.

 

[Landslide]

Into the wild, by Jon Krakauer
Murder in the Mews, by Agatha Christie

 

[sparkchaser]

August was a bit of a blur.

In the beginning...was the command line by Neal Stephenson
Flying to Valhalla by Charles Pellegrino
Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk

I think I am leaving one or two out.

 

[Wells83]

Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather

The Know-it-All, AJ Jacobs

Sons and Lovers, DH Lawrence

City of Ember, Jeanne Duprau

Sellevision, Augusten Burroughs

Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, John Cleland

Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters

Dry, Augusten Burroughs

The Conservative's Handbook, Phil Valentine

Freakonomics, Stephen Levitt and Steven Dubner

Prom Nights from Hell, misc. authors

and started Fathers and Sons but didn't finish until Sept.

 

[Disenthral]

i haven't been able to go to the used book store of library sense July
i read part of THE STRANGER , and different parts of a philosophy book i have with sections on Confucius , Marcus Aurelius, Plato etc...

quite the sad reading month...

 

[Koda]

The World Made Straight by Ron Rash
One Foot in Eden by Ron Rash
The Orchard Keeper by Cormac McCarthy
Lucky You by Carl Hiasen

 

[abecedarian]

Columbus Was Last- Patrick Huyghe

 

[JCMoney218]

A Salty Piece of Land - Jimmy Buffett
From The Dust Returned - Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

Started Wicked - Gregory Maguire

I joined this site hoping it would increase the amount I read, and now thats 3 more books than the past 6 months combined :blush:

 

[acton]

Three Junes, by Julia Glass

The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon

Chronicles of a Death Foretold, by Gabriel Garcia
Marquez

 

[booklovinmom30]

An agatha christy novel.

 

[Fantasy Moon]

Star Wars: Heir to the Empire – Timothy Zahn
Star Wars: Dark Force Rising – Timothy Zahn
Star Wars: The Last Command – Timothy Zahn
Cry Wolf – Patricia Briggs
The Diary of Jack the Ripper: The Discovery, The Investigation, The Debate – Shirley Harrison
The Hob’s Bargain – Patricia Briggs
Myths and Legends of Japan – F. Hadland Davis
House of Many Ways – Diana Wynn Jones

 

[RAC42]

First To Fight - Short Stories
First To Fight II - Short Stories
Playing for Pizza - John Grisham
My Life as a 10 Year Old Boy - Nancy Cartwright
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
Thr3e - Ted Dekker

 

[Robert]

Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
Love in the Time of Cholera
Ramage's Devil by Dudley Pope
Ramage's Trial by Dudley Pope
Last Orders by Graham Swift
To Tame a Land by Louis L'Amour
Hunger by Knut Hamsun
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

 

[Heteronym]

It was a pretty good month for me:

Surrealist Art, Sarane Alexandrian: a beautiful non-fiction book about the development of surrealist art from Breton's Surrealist Manifest in 1924 to his death in the '60s. A book full of fascinating people who produced incredible art.

The Seven Messengers, Dino Buzzati: a collection of fantastic, whimsical short-stories.

Vinte e Zinco, Mia Couto: a lovely novella, sadly not translated into English, about the last days of the Portuguese colonial grip on Mozambique.

Life in Ancient Egypt, Adolf Erman: a non-fiction book about almost every aspect of Egyptian life thousands of years ago: what clothes they wore; what toys kids played with; what hobbies they had; what they ate, etc.

Science: A History, John Gribbin: a history of science from the Renaissance to the 20th century.

She, H. Ridder Haggard: a fun 19th century adventure novel about a couple of Englishmen who find a lost civilization ruled by an immortal woman.

Letter to his Father, Franz Kafka: simply one of the best things I read in August.

Hauntings, Vernon Lee: a collection of unique ghost stories, wonderfully well written.

The Scarlet Plague, Jack London: a dystopian novella, enjoyable but it could have been longer. Anyway, a nice introduction to Jack London.

The Great God Pan, Arthur Machen: a horror novella about the offspring of Pan and a mortal woman causing havok in 19th century London.

Los Funerales de la Mamá Grande, Gabriel García Márquez: a short-story collection from the master, apparently untranslated into English. It's an early work, hardly mind-blowing, but it already shows the strengths the writer would later develop.

The Maias, Eça de Queiroz: the greatest Portuguese novel ever written, according to José Saramago. In highschool I actually abandoned it halfway through, so amazingly long and dull it was. But I've been rediscovering my love for Eça so I gave it a try again, and it's actually a brilliant novel.

Cœur double, Le livre de Monelle, La Croisade des enfants, Marcel Schwob: amazing, this guy doesn't have a single book translated into English. He comes recommended in Borges' "A Personal Library", but this is one of the rare cases in which the Master's recommendation disappoints me.

 

[Landslide]

Letter to his Father, Franz Kafka: simply one of the best things I read in August.

The Scarlet Plague, Jack London: a dystopian novella, enjoyable but it could have been longer. Anyway, a nice introduction to Jack London.

I take it you're also buying the DN these days...

The Maias, Eça de Queiroz: the greatest Portuguese novel ever written, according to José Saramago. In highschool I actually abandoned it halfway through, so amazingly long and dull it was. But I've been rediscovering my love for Eça so I gave it a try again, and it's actually a brilliant novel.

I couldn't read it back then either. He lost me in all of his loooooooooooong descriptions... Since then I've read The Crime of Father Amaro and enjoyed it very much so maybe I should give The Maias another chance.

 

[Heteronym]

I take it you're also buying the DN these days...

:lol:

 

[saliotthomas]

Morphine by Tourgeniev-a short journal of a doctor with an heroine habit ,good but very short.

Human love by Andrei Makine-great,as usual,in the line of requiem for the East,hard.

the Pyramide by ismael Kadare-the story of the building of giseh and cheops,could not realy get into it.The nonsensical humour got me lost.

le testamant d'Esther by Sandor Marai-Short,surprising and original in the ideas,but the prose was a bit desapointing.I have two more Marai to go.

Alien Earth by Megan Lindholm aka Robin Hobb-great Scifi,I know Robin Hobb could write Fantasy,she is good here also.very good.