What are we all reading at the moment?

[kittyhead]

i've finally picked up "angels & demons" the prequel to the davinci code. my friend lent it to me 2 years ago and i finally started it. now i wish i had saved it for the flight over to paris...

[sunshine817]

'Angels and Demons' takes place mostly in Rome and the Vatican -- so you didn't miss any real-life links! But it would definitely keep you awake the whole flight.

I've read all his books, although The DaVinci Code was by far his best -- and I devoured all of them in one or two sittings.

[Katharine]

A dear friend wanted to borrow my copy of Suite Francais before I was able to read it, so that is in the wings. I am finishing Theodore Rex, about Teddy Roosevelt's first round as President. I also have Code Talkers (about the Navajo helping win WWII in Pacific with their code) and Thomas Jefferson: The Paradoxical Patriot in the wings. Hmm.....those all seem so serious. I have to get over to the book store and lighten thinsgs up a little. After all, it is summer!

[Happygoin]

Over the weekend, I started Paris! Paris! by Irwin Shaw with drawings by Ronald Searle. It's a wonderful memoir about Shaw's love affair with Paris. It begins the day of the liberation; Shaw is a news photographer. Ronald Searle lives in Paris and does wonderful pen and ink drawings of Paris at the beginning of each chapter.

[Jody]

Just read an article on the new Patricia and Walters Wells book, " "We've always had Paris and Provence, a Scrapbook of our life in France. " It is excerpted in this month's France Today and looks like it will be a really good read.

[Happygoin]

Oh darn! Just when I let my subscription lapse...I'll have to look for the book. Thanks demarais.

[chicchantal]

Le tour du monde en 80 jours.

Been trying to get into it for two years, so if you don't hear much from me this weekend, you'll know why!

[cigalechanta]

demarais, I was disappointed in it. She goes on too much about her beauty running routines, How things were tough financially but notes in her photos all the designer clothes she's wearing. i wanted to know more about the people she interacted with in Paris and Provence

[geordy]

Has anyone read "A Summer in Gascony" by Martin Calder? I saw a brief..goood..review in France Today.

[Happygoin]

This is for all you David Sedaris fans. His new book, "When You're Engulfed In Flames" is positively hysterical. He has the hands-down BEST sense of the absurd of any writer I've ever been entertained by.

Warning: I wouldn't read it while on an airplane or in a waiting room, or anyplace else where laughing out loud might be construed as a sign of mental instability. People will try to have you committed to the loony bin.

What fun!

[Becky (Berkeleytravelers)]

Happy - I'm glad to hear that, and just as soon as I can pry it away from Joe I will jump into it! (He says several of the chapters previously were in the New Yorker, so hopefully it won't take him long to get through the others - and I know what you mean about reading his stuff in public, I read "Me Talk Pretty" on a plane and I'm sure people thought I was nuts and/or annoyingly rude for laughing!)

[sistereurope]

David Sedaris is one of my favorite authors/commentators EVER. His stories of his childhood and those about his life in France are really laugh out loud funny!

[mez]

I am going to see David Sedaris in August! He's doing readings from the new book here at the Opera House!

He's also autographing books on the night!

[Becky (Berkeleytravelers)]

Mez, how very cool - I will be interested to hear what you think about seeing him live.

++++++++

Different topic - I'm just starting Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals" (about Lincoln and the former rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, who became cabinet members and top appointed officials). Joe read it and gave it rave reviews (as have the critics) and although I'm just starting it, I can tell the writing style is very readable. (It's quite long, but I'm lookin forward to learning more about that period in US history.)

[Jody]

Doris Kearns Goodwin really does have a readable style. I just finished her book on the Roosevelts. No Ordinary Time

[denise]

:)I am reading " Star of the Sea" by Joseph O'Connor who is the brother of Sinead O'Connor.
It is about a ship carrying Irish people to America to escape the famine in 1847.
My son gave it to me for my birthday in March after I had been to Sligo, and became interested in Irish history.
It is an excellent book, extreemly well written, but I have difficulty with the print so I can't read more than a few pages at a time.
Becouse the book keeps going off on short stories about the characters and how they came to be on the boat it is easy to pick up and put down.
I have been alternating it with Paris related easy read books.
I read it while I was away and now I'm back I am trying to finish it and not get distracted by Paris related books.
Loved Suite Francais Katherine,

Denise

[geordy]

I did get the Gascony book...referenced earlier and enjoyed it immensely!

I got from Amazon today "French Milk". I had seen it in the window of an indie bookstore near where I work. The author was to be there one night last week..unfortunately on the night I was in Long Island. But the book retails for $15.00 and was 10+ new on Amazon!

"Through delightful drawings, photographs, and musings, twenty treee year old Lucy Kinsley documents a six week trip she and her mother took to Paris when each was facing a milestone birthday."

The title refers to her "love for the fresh whole milk that I found so different from American processed dairy."

From flipping through I know I'm going to love it..she draws dishes of food and has arrows identifying each part)i.e. potatoes, Foie Gras, etc.) Also black and white photos and drawings of other experiences.

I could read the whole thing this weekend but am saving for subway and lunches next week! But it is rainy.....

[GitteK]

I'm reading Kate Mosse "Labyrinth" (and the sequel "Sepulchre" which I bought at the same time)

www.katemosse.com/content/index.asp

Totally French setting (Carcassonne and Chartres), great thriller story (holy grail theme, Da Vinci Code style) - plot skips forward and backwards between the MiddleAges and today. She's perhaps no Shakespeare or Hemingway (i.e. not the ultimate stylistic master of the 21st century) - but it's great entertainment, lots of historic details, lots of descriptions of the French towns and landscapes, lots of suspense.

Ideal for a relaxing vacation read.

[holger]

Sounds interesting. Sitting at Reno airport post conference waiting for flight to Vegas en route home. Will look into these books when I get home. So dug out lap top and am checking my favorite site.

[greyghost1]

I ordered used from Amazon: Leaonard Pitt's "Walks Through Lost Paris" which is really interesting. It would seem to be right up GitteK's alley...so to speak.