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Organized by annikee
Group Info
For everyone who loves to read, wants to share what they've read, or is looking for recommendations to read.
This group is Public
To bring together readers in an enthusiastic forum.
Latest Posts
Memoir vs. Bios?
A question came up around my house today with regard to the review of this book: She Left Me the Gun by Emma Brockes about Brockes search for her mother's life story.
The question is: what makes a book a memoir instead of an autobiography or biography? Is it a subjective difference or is there some hard and fast rule one can point to?
Michael Pollan's Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation.
I put up a similar version of this post in Foodies Unite!
I'm posting it here as well since it revolves around Michael Pollan's new book, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation.
http://www.us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9781594204210,00.html
I highly recommend the interview described below:
Did anybody else hear Michael Pollan on with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now on Monday?
It
was a full hour of food talk - the history of food from the discovery
of cooking meat over fire on forward to the invasion of the home kitchen
by Betty Crocker and the microwave.
History (and Other Books) That Relates to Current Events
Events this week have me thinking of Edward Robb Ellis' Echoes of Distant Thunder, Life in the United States, 1914-1918.
The event was a verbal & physical assault on a Muslim taxi driver in Virginia.
The Washington Post reported on the attack here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/va-man-charged-with-assaulting-musli...
This one of many attacks following the Boston Marathon bombing and by and large responsible people have denounced them (note that I do include Fox News in that category). There have been times in the past when that (the denouncing) might not have taken place.
Librarything.com
I wondered if the people in this group are aware of a website called Librarything.com. It's a rather unattractive name, but it's a great way to keep track of the books you read. It allows you to keep a list, rate the book, write a review/description so you can remember what it was all about and why you liked it (or didn't), You can also see reviews that other folks have written. It's fun to see all the books you've read over the years.
Bios
It seems every Spring I go thru a bio binge. Having just finished the Oliver Reed bio I'm on to the Janis Joplin bio Scars of Sweet Paradise. I read the NY Times review that Barry Adams posted on Facebook and had to have it.
Has anyone else got bios to recommend? I've a feeling I'll fly thru this.
Sci Fi and Fantasy Suggestions
I notice on the Winter Reading thread that some sci fi and fantasy titles/authors were mentioned. I've been poking around for the last couple years for a really good sci fi or fantasy novel or series, but I can't make heads or tails of them when I look. So many multi-novel series with comic book covers. Are they any good, worth the effort? I can't tell.
