Moi?
Just finished:
Marianne Faithful's autobiography from the early 1990s - Faithfull.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0140 ... e&n=266239

Off reading:
Nico - Sounds they never play on the radio (Velvet Underground chick)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0747 ... e&n=266239

Just delivered:
The Tango Singer - Tomas Eloy Martinez
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0747 ... e&n=266239

Mirrors of the Unseen, Journeys in Iran - Jason Elliot
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0330 ... e&n=266239

All are available to borrow!

I'd love to borrow "Faithfull;" I'd like to see what she's got to say about Mick, Keith et al. Incidentally, her version of the Beatles's "I'm a Loser" is much better than the original.

I started reading "The Sea" by John Banville yesterday; I should be done with it this evening. It's great, so far. I am going to read The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger afterwards, purely because everyone else has, and the public opinion seems to be evenly split between genius and arsecrack.

started:

Qui a tue daniel pearl by bernard-henri levy.

taking to holiday (tomorrow night baby!):

the human zoo, desmond morris

affluence and poverty in the middle east, m. riad el-chonemy

tbe corrections, jonathan franzer.

also available to borrow when i get back on july 16th.

Just read "Saving Fish From Drowning" Amy Tan. Liked it alot.

Reading Tracey Chevalier Virgin Blue (both in Turkish&English)

I'm reading "Serial Killers" - by Rodney Castleden

Basically a book about each and every serial killer known to man through out history

Sections involve :

Killer kings and queens
Cannibal Killers
Sadists
Murder for profit
Team Killers
Executioners
The lady killers
Killing for the state
Killer Doctors
Madmen and Madwomen

Very good read if you're stomch can handle such stuff

http://www.bokklubben.no/SamboWeb/produ ... 097&rom=AK

A Dirty Job
by Christopher Moore
synopsis- a neurotic "Beta Male" finds himself the next appointed grim reaper. Excellent so far for the genre. the second chapter had me crying and snuffling (on the service bus to work--embarassing), the following chapters had me laughing.


Avoiding Prison and Other Noble Vacation Goals
by Wendy Dale
have not yet started, but collecting humorous travel writing for research purposes. suggestions welcomed

[quote user="Aya" post="57865"]Just read "Saving Fish From Drowning" Amy Tan. Liked it alot.[/quote]

she is one of my favorites. looking fwd to reading it

I was lucky enough to have Amy Tan visit and do a reading in my Creative Writing class at my tiny liberal arts college in Wisconsin back in 1996. She stuck around for the entire 2 hours and graciously answered all of our questions.

I often recommend "The Joy Luck Club" to my upper-intermediate and above Turkish students. The writing style is simple and direct and I've gotten very positive feedback from the students who seem to comprehend the book with ease. It's one of those movies which is pure sap to be sure, but it is a pretty decent cinematic representation and not that much of a letdown after the book.

I am currently reading "The New Life" by Mr. Pamuk. I have found it to be his least accessible book that I have read thus far by him but I am still trudging through it.

[quote user="Arikan" post="57837"]I'd love to borrow "Faithfull;" I'd like to see what she's got to say about Mick, Keith et al. [/quote]

Well written honest book. Nothing to do with Mars Bars. Bi-sexuality, drug addiction, family, artistic pursuits, egos, suicide. All the main characters of the era pop in and out at various points. Free your mind. Some important stuff in there. She says that Keith is Mr Rock n roll and that Mick was in love with him.

Well, stop the presses!

I have a few Rolling Stones biographies if you'd like to borrow them; the one by "Spanish" Tony Sanchez has a brilliant account of the Mars Bar incident. Too bad it's horseshit.

He was the London drug lord right? She was banging him for crack I think. Don't think he was at the set-up party. Will cross-check (as if).

He wasn't the drug lord, but he did score for the Stones, especially Brian Jones. But you're right, he did exchange fluids with Marianne Faithful, among others. There's even a graffitti on the cover of "Beggar's Banquet" that reads "Where are you, Spanish Tony?" He wasn't at the set-up party, no; that's why his account thereof is all the more ridiculous.

[quote user="pollyanna" post="57878"]


Avoiding Prison and Other Noble Vacation Goals
by Wendy Dale
have not yet started, but collecting humorous travel writing for research purposes. suggestions welcomed[/quote]

Finished. Interesting look at her quest to integrate into life in various south american countries, but she never distills the irony of it-- she went traveling to escape responsibility, yet immediately adopts situations requiring her to be the caretaker (picking up a boyfriend in a Costa Rican prison and championing his legal case to eventually free him). I have to hand it to her, she doesn't choose the flippant, easy, isolated route to expatriating. And she does have some very funny stories-- I laughed out loud quite a few times.

"A Short History of Nearly Everything" - Bill Bryson

"The Man Who Ate Everything" - Jeffrey Steingarten

"A History of God" - Karen Armstrong