I generally have a handful of books waiting to be read, but the past few months I've been buying faster than I can read. I have a surfeit of reading material!
Peter Mayle - A Year in Provence
Wife and I are tentatively planning on visiting Provence in '15 so I wanted to get a head start. Been meaning to read it for donkey's years.
Hedrick Smith - Who Stole The American Dream?
An analysis of the war on the Middle Class by the rich and their politicians.
Monte Reel - Between Man and Beast
The story of Paul Du Chaillu, the first naturalist to describe and bring back evidence of gorillas. He braved incredible hardships.
Walter Isaacson - Benjamin Franklin
Loved Isaacson's bio of Steve Jobs so I thought his book on one of the most fascinating characters in American history ought to be good.
Sonali Deraniyagala - Wave
Eyewitness account of the Indonesian tsunami. Looked astonishing in the bookstore.
Jessica Wapner - The Philadelphia Chromosome
Advances in DNA-targeted cancer therapies, based on the discovery of a single gene that causes (or is associated with) a rare leukemia.
Napoleon Chagnon - Noble Savages
Tales of an anthropologist's life with two war-like tribes in Venezuela -- and the surprising results of his research.
Charles Mann - 1491 and 1493
I want to read these studies of European culture just before and just after Columbus's voyages.
Gavin Menzies - 1421
The story of China's discovery of America.
David Landes - Revolution in Time
The origin of clockmaking and the regulation of time.
Floyd Skloot - In The Shadow of Memory
Story of the author's recovery from a virus that damaged his brain and memory, and left him a different person from before.
Joseph Stiglitz - The Price of Inequality
At Jenni's suggestion a book about the economic cleaving of America.
Paolo Bacigalupi - The Windup Girl
A post-apocalyptic novel about biological robots.
Karen Russell - Swamplandia
Novel about a 13-year old girl and how she deals with family drama. Great reviews.
Karl Ove Knausgaard - My Struggle
A "Proustian masterpiece" about writing and coming to grips with life. Looked fascinating.
Daniel Bartlett & James Steele - The Betrayal of the American Dream
I loved their "America: What Went Wong?" twenty years ago so I thought an update might be worthwhile.
Timothy Egan - The Worst Hard Time
The story of the dust bowl, the consequence of the last unfettered Republican control of the economy.
Mac Montandon - Jetpack Dreams
We were promised jet packs. Whatever happened to our jet packs?
Adam Hochschild - To End All Wars
"Focuses on the long-ignored moral dilemma of the First World War's critics" -- in this year of centenary celebration it's important to wonder, as NPR has been doing all week, what would have happened had WWI never happened.
Home 