BOOKS THREAD

Just bought the first book of the "new" Mark Twain autobiography. Should be interesting.

 

Top 100 books of 2010 as chosen by Publisher's Weekly

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/book-news/awards-and-prizes/article/45070-best-books-of-2010.html

 

I'm going to

I can see I have a lot more holds to place at the library! Good to see the love for "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks". Great book that hooked me much more than I expected.

 

Just finished Dave Kindred's Morning Miracle about The Washington Post and recommend it to everyone.

 

Thank you for reminding me of this book, which I read a long time ago, had forgotten, and really admired at the time, for the fact that it so skillfully made you sympathize with these grotesque characters. If you're looking for something with the same effect, I would recommend Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates, which, counter-intuitively, draws you into a first-person account by a child-molesting murderer and actually compels you to read it. I can't adequately explain this, it's just really good story-telling.

 

Took No. 1 on the list out for lunch today (since I work in a library, and it was on the shelves), and it was a great date. Think we're going out again tomorrow.

 

Haven't read #1 yet but loved #2 much more than other folks on SJ.

 

"The Making of Slap Shot" is nowhere to be found on that list.

The list, ergo, is fail.

 

Just finished Barbara Ehrenreich's "Bright-Sided: How the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America". As always, well written and well researched with plenty of food for thought. Highly recommended.

 

Will have to check it out, HC. I'm a fan of Ehrenreich's work, and that's an interesting subject.

Just finished: "Record Store Days: From Vinyl to Digital and Back Again," by Gary Calamar and Phil Gallo.

Some good after-work brain candy for a music nerd who still likes to hang out in record stores, but rarely gets the chance to anymore. Some good history in there about the evolution of the music biz and plenty of anecdotes from musicians about obtaining their favorite records.

Among my favorites:

 

Can't wait for 'Unbroken' by Laura Hillenbrand to come out next week.