Cerebral reading..what have you?
 

as opposed to beach, that is. I picked up Madeleine Albright's book The Mighty and the Almighty, and another by Elizabeth Gilbert called eat pray love(One woman's search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia), which looks interesting, because she gave everything up and traveled for a year.. haven't started it yet.((O))
Just nice to weed the nonsense out and read of someone who has achieved something different than my checkerboard existance.(though gawd knows I try to make it interesting,lol). J. ((i))hmm, how does one make the Aquafina symbol, since it's Monday and I've been behaving myself...

thanks for the recommendation! i just finished the clinton autobiography (two weeks overdue at the library...) and now i only have "fluff" reading to catch up on. it's just not the same! i'll definitely check out the albright bio.

lynne

i just read Night by elie weisel. it's a short book, but has quite an impact.

What about "God's Politics" subtitled
Why the right gets it wrong and the left doesnt get it, by Jim Wallis

Yes on both Wiesel and Wallis books which I've read recently. Just finished a new biography of Henry Ward Beecher, philandering but phamous preacher, entitled "The Most Famous Man in America." A must is Kevin Phillips "American Theocracy." Does anyone else get upset with right win religous fanatics surrounding the White House? And for a scary look at Iraq debacle: "Assasin's Gate" by Packer.

ozarksbill

Not doing ANY serious cerebral reading this summer - too much time during the year in textbooks. :) I am FINALLY getting to read Empire Falls, and I just bought Secret Life of Bees. I have a lot of <i>fluff</i> to catch up on! :-D

I just reread Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., by Ron Chernow.
-Bill

Probably should return to deciphering Russian novelists or attempting to like Eyre/heathcliffe &lt;sigh&gt;

But y'all are waaaaay too much fun!

After starting Devil in the White City a year ago for my book club I finally finished it. Whew. Lots of details about the architects and their struggles to build the Chicago Worlds Fair in the later part of the 19th century. So many people and their roles to remember I spent a good deal of the book going back to figure out who did what and how each person knew each other. The stuff about the devil was pretty easy to remember.

&quot;Easy&quot; reads but quite beautifully written: novels by Kazuo Ishiguro. Just finished <i>Wish You Were Here</i>. Excellent!

Not necessarily cerebral, but when I want to dig into a juicy, well-written novel, I go back to Henry James again and again. And William Gaddis is (was) so good it's scary.

I have to admit I hate so-called beach reading. And usually I'm such a fun person.

Wow, quite impressive everyone! ((Y))mooselywild, you are scaring me, though I have some Russina blood;)

Leely, I know, it's like being seen with the National Requirer aboard a plane, ha ha.

Eli Wiesel is on my list too. I feel like I have wasted too much time on fiction sometimes, but the world is so harsh that I need my escapes, wine, and some tolerant Fodorites..((L)), J.

Every time I see Eat Pray Love I want to read it. The last time I saw it was at a friend's house and she promised I was next in line. Apparently, she's a slow reader, darn. That's okay, I've been engrossed in the Forest Lover, by Susan Veerland about the painter Emily Carr. That was an easy book to judge by the cover. Carr was a spunky woman in her time.

One of the things I enjoyed about the Devil in the White City was the way one chapter focused on the architects and the next about the devil. About half way through I skipped the chapters about the devil and read only about the architects, than it became a good book for me.

I have a very good friend in Calif. who belongs to a book circle.. she sends me a list every few months and I can hardly keep the list together. She recommended Jodi Piccoult, but the material seemed a little too real.
So I'm back to non fiction and happy. I love reading about strong intelligent women, and men, who have broken barriers and especially overcome personal challenges. J.

Ive recently enjoyed reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's &quot; The Cost Of Discipleship&quot;

jetset1 - let me recommend one of my favorite books, one of the few I have read several times, as it fits neatly with themes of travel and &quot;strong intelligent women, and men, who have broken barriers and especially overcome personal challenges.&quot;

The book is &quot;Everest: The West Ridge&quot; by Dr. Tom Hornbein and is his reflective recounting of the 1963 expedition to climb Everest that became the first successful American effort, and Hornbein's and his climbing partner Willi Unsoeld's remarkable ascent of Everest via the never-before-climbed West Ridge as part of that expedition. A sampler: &quot;There was loneliness, too, as the sun set, but only rarely now did doubts return. Then I felt sinkingly as if my whole life lay behind me. Once on the mountain I knew (or trusted) that this would give way to total absorption with the task at hand. But at times I wondered if I had not come a long way only to find that what I really sought was something I had left behind.&quot; And it only gets better.

Hey we read Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper. That book had most of us really mad at the mom character and we felt that the author wrote a cop out ending rather than face the real dilemma she had created. CHICKEN!

We just finished the Other Bolyn Girl and we're doing Night and The Known World. Yeesh that's heavy stuff!

Loved Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love but wouldn't consider it cerebral. Delighted to be reading Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country again in preparation for our October trip to Australia.

L48SKY,
I did just the opposite with Devil in the White City. I became oddly fascinated with the devil. Then, I went back and read the other chapter by single character too...

Bayougirl,
I'd really like to know what you think of the end of Empire Falls. I loved the book, but not the conclusion (and I'm not one for happy endings but...) I won't say anymore and ruin it for you. Secret Life of Bees is wonderful.

To those of you reading Night... yes, it had a strong impact, but did not wring my heart in the way I expected... anybody feel that way?

I'm reading The Poisonwood Bible... not exactly cerebral, but interesting. Kept my attention on a recent flight...usually I can't focus well enough.

Also trying to finish Anna Karenina... not the right choice for summer reading. Maybe I'll finish in the Fall.

MRand~ thank you. I will write that one down. J.

I finally got to Freakonomics - Steven Levitt is my new hero..he's brilliant!! It was my beach reading...is that a bad thing???

pepper131~ reading is good and I wish more people I know would pick up something, so we could have interesting discussions, vs. gossip or endless venting sessions,lol.
I never understood the appeal of tabloids, except I do have a fondness for Batboy..he always has something going on:-!

Loved Devil in the White City. Oddly disturbing but a great read.

okay, jetset...I'll admit to flipping through my latest Domino magazine at the beach too.

Sounds like I should read Devil in the White City. It's sitting on my husband's dresser afterall.

But...I have trouble getting through a Vanity Fair - lots of reading, good reading; but those dang two kids I've got...!!!!

pepper131~ I love Vanity Fair. What is Domino though?.. it can't be a pizza digest can it,lol.

I liked Freakonomics ... which made me think of Blink and The Tipping Point both my Malcolm Gladwell. I liked Tipping Point better, about how trends start but you might prefer Blink which explores how people are able to make instant decisions and be right without being sure why they decided that way. It starts out with an ancient statue a museum wished to buy. It had been authenticated but someone &quot;instinctively&quot; knew it was fake.

I am currently reading Anthony Bourdain's &quot;Kitchen Confidential&quot;...enjoying it so far...

Betsy-- I Love Bill Bryson! I just finished reading &quot;The Lost Continent&quot; but &quot;Sunburnt Country is still tied for my fave of all of his books (the other is &quot;Notes From a Small Island). I have read all of his travel books at this point.He is the funniest/crankiest guy in the world.

Reading Robert Baer's book upon which &quot;Syriana&quot; is based as well as rereading &quot;A Separate Peace&quot; in order to &quot;discuss&quot; with my 14 y. o. daughter (summer homework).

Just finished &quot;The Unbearable Lightness of Being&quot; and have Edith Wharton's &quot;Summer&quot; and &quot;The Bee Season&quot; on deck. I am trying to alternate &quot;light&quot; and &quot;heavy&quot; reading this summer. I have McCulloch's &quot;John Adams&quot; waiting in the wings as well.

Loved The Devil in the White City, too, and was far more fascinated by the devil!

Currently reading Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt.

jetset - Domino is my fluff...it's a Lucky magazine for your home. I HAVE to see how everyone is decorating these days....

dfrost - I'll have to chech out The Tipping Point and Blink...I'm facinated by things like that. Also on my shelf (untouched for a couple of yrs) is The Deviant's Advantage: How Fringe Ideas Create Mass Markets by Ryan Matthews and Watts Wacker.

My DH has all the Bill Bryson books - guess he has good taste afterall...;)

I just finished <i>No god but God</i> by Reza Aslan, which was informative but dense. I'm one of the many currently reading <i>Freakanomics</i>. I love Bill Bryson, too. My favorites are <i>A Walk in the Woods</i> and <i>In a Sunburned Country</i>, but <i>Lost Continent</i> was great because he basically declares the Midwest to be the best part of the country. Reading <i>Nickel and Dimed</i> on vacation recently made me want to overtip like crazy.

Have you read &quot;Their Eyes Were Watching God&quot;? My sister (who takes classes in &quot;womens' studies&quot;) got it for me. I resisted for a while, but I really loved it.

Here's a suggestion for anyone who is looking for a good book to read: Go to the web site of any high school with high academic standards and look at their summer reading lists for the pre-AP and AP English classes. The teachers are quite up to date and, besides the &quot;classics&quot;, list the best of the recent books.

In no particular order-James Howard Kunstler's Geography of Nowhere; Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation; William Manchester's The Last Lion; Kenneth Jackson's Crabgrass Frontier; Donald Spoto's The Dark Side of Genius (bio of A. Hitchcock); Patrick Buchanan's The Death of the West; Michael Shelden's Orwell; Carlos Baker's Hemingway; and John Mack Faragher's Daniel Boone. For fiction, Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series, preferably in order.

I was going to add Vanity Fair (still makes me laugh when the bible comes flying out of the carriage), but someone beat me to it!

Well, what a nice way to start the morning..and to the naysayers(though they are being kind at this point), the aforementioned books do travel well.
I usually notice what people are reading and buying in the airport bookstores.
Thanks for all the great reads.. I noticed a few I've been meaning to buy and I'm a library supporter as well.

P.S. Has Stephen Hawking released anything new this year? J.

just finished eat pray love a few weeks ago. Good quick read but not a deep as I had thought it would be.

Great thread! I can't seem to leave it alone.
I enjoyed the Tipping Point and I started noticing things in my own life that related. Haven't read Blink yet.

A couple of months ago I read Under the Banner of Heaven. Whew! It was hard to believe that's going on here in the good old U.S of A. Seems like a great book for a book club, at least, I wanted to discuss it endlessly.

I also wanted to add Carolyn Myss' Invisable Acts of Kindness to this list. It was one of those books that can make you leak with joy.

I just finished Before The Wind an autobiography of early 19th century sea captain Charles Tyng. It was wonderfully written even for today's standards, and I learned a lot about the world of that era, the captain, and expanded my ever-growing base of nautical knowledge.

yeees, missypie- HS was my first unfortunate encounter with the russian novelists:)

I used that tactic a few times my Freshman year of college....and then gave up in disgust when a few to many listed HP (and other popular reads)....talk about the frightening future of education, LOL

hmmmm- and I enjoy a good political commentary/social issues humor....not exactly cerebral, but not beach reading either:)

Here's our high school's list for the 11th graders:

1. The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty

2. You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe

3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

4. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

5. A Death in the Family by James Agee

6. Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver

7. A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest Gaines

Not bad (and not Harry Potter!)

Here's the list for the incoming G/T 9th graders:

1. Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1997, 1999.

2. Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America. Owl Books, 2001.

3. Kunstler, James Howard. Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape. Simon and Schuster, June 1993.

4. Friedman, Thomas. Longitudes and Attitudes. Anchor, August 2003.

5. Friedman, Thomas. The Lexus and the Olive Tree. Anchor, April 2000.

6. Lapierre, Dominique. City of Joy. Doubleday, October 1985.

7. Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. HarperCollins, 2002.

8. Herzog, Brad. States of Mind. John F. Blair Pub., 2000.

9. Zakaria, Fareed. The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad. W. W. Norton, 2003.

10. Foner, Eric. Who Owns History? Rethinking the Past in a Changing World. Hill and Wang, 2003.

Yikes, what a list.

My Dad picked up a copy of You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe at a library sale and found it difficult. Though now retired, he has an excellent education and does read 'difficult' novels and nonfiction. When he said it was hard, I decided against it. If someone with an extensive education, maturity of living a long life, plus a history of the time period and place has difficulty, how would a high school student rank it?


Nickel &amp; Dimed was summer reading for incoming freshmen at UNC a few years ago.