what are you reading... other than Pnet?

[le pire]

I've just finished reading every book and short story by Truman Capote and am now reading "High Wire Angel: The Angel Wallenda Story."

She's the only person to walk the high wire with an artificial leg (and half her lungs removed)... she passed away in 1996 at the age of 28. The book is terribly written (somewhere between "Readers Digest" and the script for a Lifetime Original Movie) but it documents the history of someone who had a pretty shit life and did whatever she could to live to her fullest.

[Seamus]

The Age of Capital by Eric Hobsbawm. That's the 1848-1875 segment from his groundbreaking historical study.

I'm also on my way to the bookstore this evening to pick up something on Singaporean political history. Preferrably something not published in Singapore because it seems like Lee Kuan Yew has a veto at the domestic publishing houses.

Also on a daily basis:

http://www.iht.com

http://news.google.com

http://cbc.ca/news/

And a variety of RSS feeds.

EDIT: I forgot Edge. Over at www.edge.org It's one of the best reads on the net. Do yourself a favour by ignoring the crap web design and signing up for their newsletter.

[Guest]

Flashman and the Redskins by G.M. Fraser

Well researched history wrapped up in a story of theft, deceit and bullying cowardice; starring the school tough from Tom Brown's School Days.

Same bloke wrote the screenplays for the Three (and 4) Musketeers w/ Oliver Reed, and Octopussy (though we shouldn't hold that agin 'im).

[Frisbee]

Angels and Demons - Dan Brown

[Mr.Taxi Trix]

Etienne, if you liked that, Have you read "The Last Confession of Mabel Stark"? Its a great fictional biography of a rocking tiger trainer, in the 30s.

I'm in the middle of "Snowfall on Cedars", excellent novel, and am about to crack "Beloved" by Toni Morrison, but only because the Times just voted it the best American novel in two decades. Their survey included Helprin's "Winter's Tale", and I want to find out what could possibly knock that off the winners platform.

Just discovered and enjoy... http://www.newsvine.com/

especially... http://winsomecowboy.newsvine.com/

[le pire]

Thanks Taxi, I just ordered a copy from Amazon. I see the author is Robert Hough-- is he related to Levin Hough (who wrote Step Right Up!) and teaches Circus History at (I think) the University of Virginia?

Beloved- eh? The one Oprah turned into a movie...? I'm not too big on Ms Morrison's stuff-- mostly chick-lit, but I'll have to give that one a chance. Have you read "In Cold Blood" by Capote? It gave me nightmares about being a murderer...

Oh, and thanks for those links, Seamus, Edge is amazing.


etienne

[Mr. Pitts]

"Love and Other Games of Chance" by Lee Siegel. A strange fictional carnival/sideshow biography of sorts. Interesting. Also "Buffalo Girls" by Larry McMurtry, about Calamity Jane and Buffalo Bill

[lucky john]

carter beats the devil....fiction woven with facts about magician carter the great 1920's

thief of light....fiction, art forgery in new york and japanese gangsters.

both books very entertaining superbly writen.

[Will]

"House of the Spirits" by Isabel Allende

[worldwidese]

Useful

'You Can Negotiate Anything' Paperback by Herb Cohen.

[Scot Free]

I am just finishing Paradise Alley by Kevin Barker. Historical fiction set in New York during the civil war when they instatuted the draft. For $300 you could buy your way out. The result was the worst roit in US history in which they burned NY city down.
A very interesting and entertaining read!

[Mr.Taxi Trix]

Hi Etienne.

Sorry for the lack of reply... I've been in Mesa Verde for awhile with my daughter and partner Terri. Lots of very cool ancestral Pueblo Dwelling exploration, but no internet.

"Snowfall on Cedars" rocked, you were right about "Beloved". If it wasn't a library book, it would be recycled at a used bookstore by now. Requires patience. Anyway, Mabel Stark rocks.

[Lynneski]

I'm in the midst of "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer. A lot more 'of the moment' than my usual reads, it was prompted by a pal's recommendation of "Everything is Illuminated", which was an hilarious movie, and a pretty ripping read too.

"Loud"'s protagonist is a precocious jewish vegan 9yr old who lost his father in the twin towers collapse (I said it was annoyingly of the moment, nu?). But I'm not quite a third of the way in, and the music of it has brought me to tears four times already. We all, with our special collection of friends (or is that, collection of *special* friends?) will recognize the way this boy thinks and reacts to the world. But Safran Foer's words bring even more dimension to those things we rarely see so vivid: what it was like to be a young man, and to be a young man *in love* during the second world war. Oy, but I want to know this man's brain, want to climb in there and be held by his words. It is, with no doubt, one of those rarest of things: a book that I shall read, and re-read, with regularity and gain new insight each time.

And check this out:

http://www.jonathansafranfoer.com/

Is there a Schadchen in the house?

[nick nickolas]

the men who stare at goats

Just Finished
The Men who Stare at Goats (Non-Fiction)
Jon Ronson
Stories on how the US military, have Physic spies employed to teach things like invisability, walking through walls how to kill people by thinking about them ?!?
very interesting