What are you reading 2017?

[Ultralight]

I picked up Those Who Watch by Robert Silverberg last night. I will likely start it tonight.

[Tammy]

Red mars
Green mars
Blue mars

[JaneV2.0]

Amy Knight's Orders to Kill--the Putin Regime and Political Murder just popped up in an email from my library. I'm in the middle of Tami Hoag's mystery Secrets to the Grave as well.

[Yppej]

I don't know how many of these I will finish, but I have started:

L'Art de la Simplicite
Little Soldiers: An American Boy, a Chinese School, and the Global Race to Achieve
Nobody's Son
At the Point of A Cutlass
The Health of Nations: The Campaign to End Polio and Eradicate Epidemic Diseases
When We Rise
The Return: Fathers, Sons and The Land In Between

All are nonfiction.

[frugal-one]

Finished "The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper" for a book club group. I had a hard time in the beginning. It is a British author and had to look up much of the slang/British vernacular. It was an otherwise easy entertaining read.

[Williamsmith]

I’m reading, “The Other Wes Moore”....One Name, Two Fates. It’s not a new book by any means, written in 2011. I ran into the book at my daughters house laying on the kitchen counter. If I see a book, I pick it up and thumb through it. I like holding books.

My daughter is a prolific reader which is funny because we held her back one grade in elementary school and she had to have a reading specialist help her with certain deficiencies. Math is another story. She’s is very good with numbers and frugal to a fault. Is that possible? Anyway, she asked me if I wanted to read it. I am always interested in what my children are reading. Yes, sure. But what’s it about?

Turns out it’s about two African American kids with the same name, growing up in the same urban locale. One becomes a Rhodes Scholar , the other a murderer serving a life sentence.

Now this book would definitely disappoint you if you thought the answer to why each one ended up where they did would be resolved within its covers. Unfortunately it’s not that simple. I’m not interested so much in that as I am that ability of people to make choices....good ones and bad ones. There’s no doubt by inference you can believe that family mentors make a difference but there are plenty of examples of people without much assistance at all that made something amazing of their lives. And some who were provided everything that failed tremendously.

So Im reading this book with lower expectations than most I think. Still, I hope to get some insight into the mind of successful versus the “disposable” .

[LDAHL]

Re-reading The Convivial Codfish by Charlotte MacLeod. Part of a fun, if somewhat silly, mystery series.

[Lainey]

I’m reading, “The Other Wes Moore”....One Name, Two Fates. ...

Turns out it’s about two African American kids with the same name, growing up in the same urban locale. One becomes a Rhodes Scholar , the other a murderer serving a life sentence. ...

I've seen the author on TV and also read an essay about it, although not the entire book. Would be curious to what you think when you finish.

I also like your idea of reading a book that a relative or friend has read, it's a great way to connect on another level with our loved ones. I have done this multiple times with siblings and friends and we always enjoy the recommendations and our discussions about it afterwards.

[catherine]

I also like your idea of reading a book that a relative or friend has read, it's a great way to connect on another level with our loved ones. I have done this multiple times with siblings and friends and we always enjoy the recommendations and our discussions about it afterwards.

Agreed. Its' fun to be able to discuss a book with someone. I had a "one woman book club" this summer with my DIL, who is a prolific reader. We chose the book Touch by Courtney Maum. I also gave my copy of the Dorothy Day biography, The World Will Be Saved By Beauty, to my daughter who is not Catholic, but she's always been a social activist, plus she shares her birthday with Dorothy Day. It's a great story, anyway. So far she is appreciating the historical backdrop of New York in the era of Emma Goldman and Eugene O'Neill.

I'm currently reading a wonderful book by Gene Logsdon--A Sanctuary of Trees. It's part memoir, part love story for the trees, part field notes.

[The Storyteller]

Why Buddhism Is True: The Science and Philosophy of Enlightenment, by Robert Wright

Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body, by Daniel Coleman and Richard Davidson

Since my last visit long ago, I have really gotten into meditation, and just a bit into the secular side of Buddhism (though I in no way consider myself a Buddhist). Right now I'm on a kick studying up on the science side of the whole thing, since I've read a couple dozen books on the how-to.