Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni.
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Monday, February 10
Blue Latitudes & A Voyage Long and Strange ... both by Tony Horowitz. Fantastic travel/history/adventure books.
i honor summer's finest tradition -- reruns -- by rereading some favorites. this summer i've been rereading jean shepherd's anthologies.
Finished Swann's Way and started reading Nabokov's collected short stories and The Road. Haven't decided what I'll read next. Maybe Within a Budding Grove.
Bitch is the New Black, Killing Willis, and Red Hats. No theme or anything--they all just finally became available via Chgo Pub Library. :-)
Bonfire of the Vanities----Thomas Wolfe
Currency - written by my friend Zoe Zolbrod. A great read, especially if you have traveled in SEA.
The Watch - Stories by Rick Bass.Can't get enough of his stories. He uses words like a musician or a painter.
Invisible - Paul Auster. Next on the list.
In a New Orleans frame of mind after Treme, I just finished Dave Eggers' Zeitoun last night.
I finally just got around to reading The Devil in the White City. You might have heard by now...it's a really good book.
I'm on a Neil Gaiman kick. Just finished Anansi Boys. Going to turn my attention to Coraline, and then Stardust.
The Annotated Dracula. Unfortunately it's an oversize hardcover, which doesn't lend itself to El reading.
Here's an annotation of my own. Vampires are not hot, nor do they sparkle.
I loved Blue Latitudes!
"Loosing My Cool, How a Fathers Love and 15,000 Books Saved Me From Hip-Hop Culture" by Thomas Chatterton Williams; "Bitch is the New Black" by Helena Andrews; and "Brainwashed" by Thomas Burrell
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
It is an engrossing Summer read, it just sucks carrying around an 800 page book all summer.
"American Rust," a novel whose author selected an interesting writing style.
"Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy."
"The World That Made New Orleans."
"Year of Magical Thinking" by Joan Didion
and as many stories as I can get through from the collected stories of Ray Bradbury.
"The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr" -- 600+ pages but very readable.
"Legacies: A Chinese Mosaic" by Bette Bao Lord -- personal tales from Chinese living from WWII through Tiananmen Square.
"Living Together:
A Legal Guide for Unmarried Couples" -- for pragmatic reasons.
Zeitoun was a fantastic book... also check out What is the What.
After watching some episodes of the history/porn series, The Tudors, I've been wading through The Six Wives of Henry VIII and the bio of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir.
Also: Everything Matters by Ron Currie Jr., and, of course old sex-ed and marriage advice books.
The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie.
Sex At Dawn, the Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality, by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha, because Dan Savage is so excited about it.
I just put down Pygmy in favor of Zeitoun, which I'm loving. I'm still determined to get through Pygmy, but I think it's more because I won't let it beat me than a good read. For some reason, even though aspects of his style annoy me, I read everything Palahniuk writes.
The Ghost Map (about the 1854 cholera outbreak in London)by Steven Johnson,
Family Affair: Greed, Treachery and Betrayal in the Chicago Mafia by Sam Giancana,
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair,
For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder that Shocked Chicago by Simon Baatz
Kara, you might also want to try 'Queen's Consort' by Lisa Hilton--it looks at the evolution of the duties/rights of English kings' wives from 1066 to Mary Tudor.
Which is what I'm reading right now.
The Dog of the South by Charles Portis. Decent. Norwood was better.
I've been reading 'I wanna Be your Joey Ramone' and I just picked up 'The Time Traveler's Wife' to remind myself how good it is.
@Kara- Alison Weir's bio of Elizabeth is fantastic, I read it a couple of summers ago.
Daemon, Daniel Suarez.
Geeky and violent.
Perfect summer escapist book.
I'm amused that Spook hasn't answered his own question yet. He must be off on vacation, reading a book.
Just finished Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson, part 1 of a trilogy. Took me forever to get through all 900 pages, but I'm totally looking forward to the next two books in the series.
Currently finishing up Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Living to Tell the Tale autobiography (replaced a copy a left on an airplane a few months ago).
Anna Karenina is immediately up next, but there are always a couple dozen unread books on the docket.
Just finished Virgin Suicides, now almost done with the last of the Y: The Last Man graphic novels (all of which I'm borrowing from the Chicago Public Library, btw).
I also have the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test to start, and a book, I Curse The River of Time by Per Petterson which I won a free galley copy of from Graywolf Press. http://www.graywolfpress.org/
netherland by joseph o'neill
Urban Ethos [26]
What is Chicago's "urban ethos"?
Cool Glass of... [16]
What're you drinking?
Supreme Decision [22]
What's your reaction to the Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Care Act?
Taking it to the Streets [20]
Chicago Street Fairs: Revolting or Awesome?
I Can Be Cruel [9]
Be real: what is the meanest thing you've ever done?
Andrew Huff / July 20, 2010 10:12 AM
Question suggested by Spook. Well, actually, he wrote "What is your theme Book for this summer, this question is based off of the summer song question." Hopefully this is close enough.
I've been reading a book about the science of cooking, and slowly getting through Lords of the Levee, in between all the writing and editing I do every day.