Stuff I've Been Reading

[gnomi]

More 50bookchallenge books:


#36: Families Like Mine: Children of Gay Parents Tell it Like it Is by Abigail Garner: Garner's personal account of growing up with her gay father and an investigation into the lives of other children of families in which at least one parent is gay. As someone not a member of the community being discussed, I found the book quite interesting, but some of the issues that Garner mentions as being unique to families where at least one parent is gay I thought were also aspects of families that otherwise don't fit the norm - whether it's a mixed-heritage family (religiously or racially) or a family in which one parent has a disability.

#37: Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest by Stephen E. Ambrose: The book on which the HBO miniseries is based. The narrative follows E Company from their early days of training through their post-war experiences. Quite a powerful book, which I enjoyed immensely.

#38: Suspended in Language: Niels Bohr's Life, Discoveries, And The Century He Shaped by Jim Ottaviani, et al.: A graphic novel documenting the life and scientific work of Niels Bohr. Both fun and educational, the book explains obstruse concepts clearly and tells a very interesting story.

#39: Divided in Death by J.D. Robb: The latest paperback in Robb's In Death series. We follow Eve Dallas, Roarke, and company as they get entangled in a murder that hits very close to home. A fun, quick read.

#40: The Wild Swans by Peg Kerr: Two intermingled tales, one of 17th-century witchcraft and Puritanism and one of early-1980s gay culture in New York City. Brilliantly told, both stories are evocative and wrenching. Highly recommended.

#41: The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time by William Safire: The most recent collection of Safire's "On Language" columns, dating from 2000-2003. A wide range of topics are discussed through the lens of language and grammar.

#42: A Man of My Words : Reflections on the English Language by Richard Lederer: A collection of language-related essays on a wide range of topics. This is Lederer's most memoir-like language book, and it made me wonder if he was considering getting out of the language-book business.

Comments

[bluepapercup]

#38 sounds fabulous! I love Bohr. Where did you find this one?

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

i've seen it at comic book stores...

[bluepapercup]

waiiiit, you know gnomi?!

yikes.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Yuppers...world's small, isn't it?

(asciikitty was, once upon a time, a student of mabfan)

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

you beat me to it.

while i'm at it, i also know arib although that's cheating, since i met him through lj.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Our copy came from the Coolidge Corner New England Comics, but I assume, as asciikitty said, that many comic book stores would carry it.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

We had our local New England Comics get it for us; conversely, you can order it here:

http://www.gt-labs.com/suspended.html

[neilfein.livejournal.com]

#42,the Lederer book, looks like great fun, judging by the pages up on Amazon. I assume the book gets more in-depth after the first few pages?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Goes back and forth in terms of depth. They're all standalone essays. So some are very dense and others are fluffier. But on the whole I enjoyed the book.