BOOKS THREAD

Thought about trying to get into 1Q84. Never ready any Murakami, hear he's not for everyone.

 

I'm reading that now. About a third of the way through it. I'm diggin' it so far. Pretty fascinating stuff.

 

I'm not sure if I'm going to make it. Through about 250 pages. Might give it one more shot before I give up. It was printed as three books in Japan and combined into one edition in this release. Maybe I'll get through the first book and then say I'll come back to it for the second book ... even though I know what the ultimate result will be.

 

Received this as a gift this weekend. Looking forward to starting it as soon as I'm through with the Steve Jobs book.

 

Have read only "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running." An interesting meditation on what can be a lonely endeavour -- but little, I imagine, like his novels.

Just finished "56" by Kostya Kennedy. Remarkably thorough and detailed, though it never really dragged. I'd be interested in talking/reading an interview with him about his reporting.

Finally getting around to the collected works of David Sedaris. "Barrel Fever" and "Naked" down.

 

Has anyone read Jerry Sandusky's book titled Touched?

 

Just raced through "Truth and Consequences: Life inside the Madoff Family." Amazing. A very inside look. The author had access to almost everyone. Now I'm starting the one by the wife of Mark Madoff, the son who killed himself.

 

I'm almost done with Gene Weingarte's "The Fiddler in the Subway." Just great, great reporting in the stories. For folks with kids, "Fatal Distraction" is a tough, tough read, just a harrowing story.

He's a little too liberal with adverbs for my taste, but I can get past that because the reporting is just spot-on.

Highly recommended.

 

OK, easily finished the second in the trio of Madoff books. Now I've started "Wizard of Lies." It's a little drier, written by the NY Times financial writer who interviewed Madoff in prison. But it gets into a lot of insider baseball about the stock indexes and how they were put together, etc.

 

I've read bits and pieces of this since I got it at a writers conference this summer where Weingarten was one of the highlighted speakers. I have a 7-year-old and a 5-year-old. I have not been able to bring myself to read Fatal Distraction yet. But the rest of the book has been great. And at the conference, Weingarten opened by saying, "I'm not a good public speaker." He was wrong. He did a great job and explained some behind-the-scenes stuff of several of his stories and columns.

 

Bought this for $1 today at our book sale at work. I could set it on fire and get my money's worth.

 

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