What are You Reading?

[carver]

As some of you may know, I live in China.

And despite 4 years of living here, the customs and habits are still very much estranged to me. I don't understand most of what happens before my eyes.
So I am trying to read some books that have been written by Chinese people who have an objective look on their society and could shed some light on Chinese people every day life.

One of which is "The Good Women of China" written by XinRan.

For nearly 8 years in the late 80s and early 90s, Xinran hosted a radio program in China called Words on the Night Breeze where she invited women to call in and share their stories. Unfortunately, because of strong government censorship, many of the calls could not be shared or the experiences talked about in full. Xinran received thousands of letters, voice messages, and personal interviews from women whose stories could not be shared with the women who needed to hear the stories the most – fellow Chinese women.
The stories are heartbreaking. Most of the women were victims of rape at one point. I sobbed while I read the chapter on the mothers who lost their children in the great Tangshan earthquake in 1976. I was sickened by the story of the Guomindan general’s daughter. These stories are not for the faint of heart, but they are all true. And even though the stories are 30, 40, 50+ years old, they are not so far removed as to be irrelevant and help explain why the role of women in China today is the way it is.

Excellent book! Very poignant.
I am planning to read Wild Swans soon. Anyone read it?
Right now I am reading ... :: The Hobbit.

I recently finished all Lord of the rings in French and I am wondering if it's worth reading them in English. Maybe, I am tempted, I love the feeling of being in Middle Earth.

 

[elbert]

I read "Anger" a few months ago. I began to notice with Thich Naht Hanh's work that his books can be a bit repetitive if you've read a few of them. But "The Heart of the Buddha's Teachings" is still my go-to primer on the subject.
Carver, that book sounds very interesting. I read "A Bintel Brief" in college--its along similar lines, but the stories and letters in that book come from immigrants to the Jewish community in the Lower East Side of Manhatten. Lots of tragedy and heartbreak, but lots of courage and magnanimity as well.

 

[stickframer]

Living Buddha, Living Christ is my favirite by Thich Nhat Hanh. Very insightful.

 

[maxx]

Martha Stout - The Sociopath Next Door (2005)

 

[maxx]

Cancel that book by Stout. Too much fluff.

 

[maxx]

Timothy Ferris - The Science of Liberty: Democracy, Reason, and the Laws of Nature (2010)

 

[emaine]

Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go

Dickens - Hard Times

 

[davet]

The Civil War, Volume One, Fort Sumter to Perryville by Shelby Foote

I've been watching Ken Burns' civil war documentary ( 25 year anniversary) and thoroughly enjoyed Shelby Foote's part in it so I picked this up today. Plus he was a pipe smoker!

 

[maxx]

That Ken Burns documentary is excellent. I had Shelby Foote's books and lost them to a mini flood years ago. Hadn't read them, so I plan to get them again someday. Burns' film on Jazz is another good one. Likewise, Lewis and Clarke.

 

[lochinvar]

Back and forth between three today

The Polish Officer by Alan Furst

Crow Killer by Raymond Thorp

The Complete Father Brown by Chesterton

 

[davet]

A wonderful documentary,The last, I think, instalment is on tonight. I'm looking forward to reading all three of these, twenty years to write them, I don't care for books on tape but it would be great to hear it in Foote's own voice.

 

[maxx]

Erik.Larson - The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America (2003)
This is about H. H. Holmes, the serial killer, during the 1893 World's Fair. During this time there was also an important meeting of mathematicians at the Chicago Mathematical Congress; but I don't think Larson mentions it. See: The Emergence of the American Mathematical Research Community, 1876-1900: J. J. Sylvester, Felix Klein, and E. H. Moore - by Karen Hunger Parshall and David E. Rowe (1994), chapter seven.

 

[maxx]

Michael Harris - Mathematics Without Apologies: Portrait of a Problematic Vocation (2015)

 

[maxx]

I'd love to see more readers let us know what they're reading. You lawyers and law students: what books are you reading? You academics: tell us. Everyone: novels, comic books, textbooks, history, politics, sociology, psychology, philosophy, science, porn, whatever - it all would be interesting to see.

 

[shawnofthedead]

Ford Madox Ford - The Good Soldier

 

[stickframer]

East of Eden by John Steinbeck.

 

[papipeguy]

<br />

 

[warren]

Theodore Roosevelt trilogy. Now starting on Vol. II.

 

[mcitinner1]

The Residence - Inside the Private World of The White House

 

[maxx]

Larry Millett - Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon (1996)
Holmes and Watson in Minnesota in 1894.