And what are you reading these days?
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One reader's thoughts as she steps from book to book.
Books I've Finished
- "A Christmas Memory"
- by Truman Capote 12/8/12
- "Child's Christmas in Wales"
- by Dylan Thomas 12/7/12
- "One Christmas"
- by Truman Capote 11/29/12
- "The Thanksgiving Visitor"
- by Truman Capote 11/29/12
- Inside Mrs. B's Classroom
- by Leslie Baldacci 11/28/12
- The Bee Eater
- by Richard Whitmire 11/15/12
- There Are No Shortcuts
- by Rafe Esquith 10/28/12
- I'd Like to Apologize to
- Every Teacher I Ever Had
- by Tony Danza 10/21/12
- Corked
- by Kathryn Borel 10/15/12
- Year of Learning Dangerously
- by Quinn Cummings 9/30/12
- A Hologram for the King
- by Dave Eggers 8/23/12
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- by Harper Lee 7/18/12
About Me
- Christine
- I often have a few books with bookmarks in them at once. I enjoy classics more than contemporary works of fiction, often read historical fiction, and love to get glimpses into other people's lives by reading memoirs and biographies.
6 comments:
The Steal: Cultural History of Shoplifting. (Shteir)
Required reading for anyone working in retail? Probably not: After working three months, any clerk could likely add a chapter or two.
Some details about the book, an interesting read, I thought. Shteir starts with shoplifting throughout history and across cultures, continues on with the Great Debate (Is it a disease, i.e., kleptomania or OCD, or is it a cultural failing as Hoffman’s Steal This Book might suggest?), then gets into the nitty-gritty of the book—the section I would refer to as “shop talk.” And, oh, the stories she can tell! There are whole chapters on celebrity shoplifters like Winona Ryder. There are self-help AA-styled shoplifter reform groups. The American Psychiatric Association actually lists bibliomania as a disease in the DSM! There are detailed descriptions of tricks & techniques of the trade. And sad, discouraging reports of LP failures despite advances in technology.
This book was recommended to me by Vince’s dentist in Oklahoma, who remembered that I had worked about 15 years in three different bookstores. It’s something I probably would have never picked up on my own because it’s definitely out of my comfort zone for reading. But I’m glad I did.
Sounds very interesting, Mary. You've always got a good bit of nonfiction going.
That *does* sound pretty interesting, Mary!
I read the Jaycee Dugard book last week...it was a quick read, and disturbing, poignant, and inspiring all at once. I was amazed at how thorough the invisible restraints around her mind were, once she was able to move about freely in the "backyard." That, coupled with the existence of her two daughters ("if we go, it's together or not at all") kept her confined probably longer than was necessary. But her captors seemed to have broken her will without breaking her spirit.
Lisa, I've been on the Duggard book waiting list @ the library for as long as it's been out. Still no copies available. I'm interested to read it! I especially wondered about her mothering skills, since she was abducted at such a young age, and living in such an untenable situation.
As to the "invisible restraints," aren't we all bound by emotional & psychological constraints more so than any other type?
I kept arguing that we should break those restraints when I visited Stonehenge...but I couldn't talk anyone into leaping over the flimsy little rope barrier with me :)
I've been rereading Dickens' Little Dorrit in the interest of understanding what's going on when I watch the BBC version. I started it, and couldn't follow it because I kept getting mixed up with the characters and events of Bleak House. Now that I'm rereading, I can see why--Little Dorrit is very dark, and rather surreal in some parts. Not that Dickens isn't often dark, but there's a bitterness to this book I don't notice in the others. And, of course, he was being paid by the word, so it's full of long passages of bloated metaphors and circumlocutions--though no doubt he would violently object to the latter description!
Danika's reading a 155 year old book. Shocker.
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