For the time being at least, WAYR will be posted on Wednesday mornings.
For those who are new ... we discuss books. I list what I'm reading, and people comment with what they're reading. Sometimes a post a special edition on a particular genre or topic.
Just the usual list this week
cfk has Bookflurries on Wednesday nights, with links to lots of other diaries about books and reading on daily Kos.
sarahnity has Books by kossacks on Tuesdays.
If you like to trade books, try bookmooch
NEW: We are still reading Godel Escher Bach on Sundays, but I'm collecting ideas for the next book. It should be in print and worthy of long discussion.
[Update [2009-6-24 7:49:56 by plf515]:] I gotta go out for a while, back later. Thanks for rec list!
Just finished
The Enlightenment: An anthology by Peter Gay. I found this at a used book stand near me. A fascinating period.
Now reading:
Godel, Escher, Bach - the going is getting heavy, the crowds are getting scarce, but I keep plugging away, every Sunday morning.
Bozo Sapiens: Why to err is human by Ellen and Michael Kaplan. The authors, one of whom (Ellen) is a friend, sent this to me. This is wonderful stuff, full of humor and insight into why we make mistakes. Also, the jacket photo shows one author (Ellen) pushing the other in a baby carriage (she's his mom). In fact, you can get a good sense of the book from the cover (I KNOW I KNOW) ... but ... the title, the subtitle, the cover picture (a banana skin) and the jacket photo together give me the following impressions:
1) The authors are having fun. When the authors have fun writing, I usually have fun reading.
2) The authors have a sense of humor
3) The authors assume you will get the joke. Not on some super-high, Umberto Eco-like level, but that you will know "to err is human" and "bozo sapiens" and similar levels (or perhaps slightly higher level) things throughout the book
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. Astonishing. Stunning. Am amazingly good book. I don't want to spoil any of it for you, but I can say it involves finding life on other planets, finding love in odd places; like all great literature, it's about what it means to be human. Go get it. I may discuss this a bit in Brothers and Sisters on Sunday.
Ideas: A history of thought and invention from Fire to Freud by Peter Watson. Stunning in an entirely different way. This one stuns you with the depth and breadth of the erudition of the author. I read this a while ago, and am now re-reading. It's remarkable.
Down here by Andrew Vachss.
Publisher Comments:
For years Burke has harbored an outlaw's hard love for Wolfe, the beautiful, driven former sex-crimes prosecutor who was fired for refusing to "go along to get along." So when Wolfe is arrested for the attempted murder of John Anson Wychek, a vicious rapist she once prosecuted, Burke deals himself in. That means putting together a distrustful alliance between his underground "family of choice," Wolfe's priv