'Thinking Musically: experiencing music, expressing culture' by Bonnie Wade: a brilliant course in moving beyond one's own cultural constraints through musical appreaciation. 

I am reading Any Known Blood by Lawrence Hill. I read The Book of Negroes in the summer and liked it so much I wanted to read another by this author. I have not been disappointed so far.

I have a few books lined up waiting for be read. I will be having foot surgery in the next little bit, and so got the latest book in my favourite series by Diana Gabaldon. I can't remember the name of the book. I have not opened it since it came in the mail from Chapters. I am trying to be strong and waiting until I have my foot up on the pillows to read. When I read these books, I have to know I have a weekend to kill because I get glued in to them.

I think the other book on my pile is Angels and Demons. Oh yeah, I also have a book by the author of What the Body Remembers.

Hey trish - I read "Late Nights" a while ago - interesting characters & setting! I enjoyed it.

Right now I'm immersed in "Rain Gods" by James Lee Burke - excellent crime writer - most his books are based in the deep south - Louisianna etc. 

Recently read "Stone Rain" by Linwood Barclay - it was the first novel of his that I've read - I used to love reading his newspaper column on family life - the book is a crime mystery, with lots of family comedy thrown in too.

And I guess before that "The Flying Troutmans" by Miriam Toews - very entertaining if you've ever hung out with teens & pre-teens!

Life of pi!

Life of Pi was a good book.

I just finished "Misquoting Jesus: The story behind who changed the bible and why".  EXCELLENT read.  Recomended to...well...everyone.

I have no idea what book from my copious collection I shall delve into next, perhaps some of my shakespeare.

As-salaamu alaikum

-Omni

I haven't had much time for fun reading of my own, but the wild girls and I read together every night.  We are on the last of the Harry Potter series, and before that we read Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy together - so many layers of narrative and philosophy, I enjoyed it as a read for myself, and it opened up so much for discussion with the girls.

My daughter brought home two graphic novels, Maus I and Maus II.  They tell the story of comic book artist Art Spiegelman's father and mother and their experiences in the Holocaust.  Very compelling.  I foresee some interesting conversations in the near future.

Just textbooks right now...  but lots of interesting stuff on wacky early Christians and scraps of bug-eaten bibles.  LOTS of reading.  Oh, and of course research, which means more reading. 

I just bought "The Greatest Show on Earth:  The Evidence for Evolution" by Dawkins the other day.  Haven't even cracked it open yet.  I figure it is one of those books you have to have on your shelf.

"Between the Monster and the Saint" - Richard Holloway

"End the Struggle and Dance with Life" - Susan Jeffers

Birthstone,

I'm curious to know what you're studying?

Dawkins isn't nearly as "militant" as people say.  He can be very to-the-point, but then, there really isn't much to debate about when it comes to evolution.  It's all there, it's fact, and if you're going to try to debate it, come armed with something better than a banana.

I liked "The God Delusion", and I learned a few things from it, but Hitchen's "God is not Great" was a better read.  Dawkins is a researcher and an educator first, and an author second.  Hitchens may be one of the best authors of our time.

I agree that Dawkins' the God Delusion was rather boring and repetative.  Anyone with half a moderate mind could see that Dawkins is quiet good at painting all religious people with the fundamentalist brush.  Very repetative, no new knowledge. 

I suppose it is a good book for those ignorant of the religious (sarcasm).

I love neitzsche, Although I haven't picked  him up in a while, been busy with other things.

I just started the Book of Certitude.  It's a Baha'i book.  It's interesting so far.

As-salaamu alaikum

-Omni

LoveFaithHopeJoy, 

Haven't seen Anita Diamant's Day After Night, but I loved both The Red Tent and Good Harbor. 

Life of Pi was definitely a favourite, too.

Can you recommend a good Nietzsce book for me Omni?

Still working through Foucault - yet another book by the Dali Lama - the book of Job - and a Virginia Woolf novel - all at once.  Just finished a biography of W.A.C Bennett.  Very odd to write an entire expose of BC politics without getting into the gristle of the rape of the forests  - but what-the-hay!

Working on 3 books right now; "Dead and Gone", which is the most recent novel in the Sookie Stackhouse series that True Blood is based on. Also, "Reading Lolita in Tehran" (very interesting stuff by the way), and "All the Kings Men".

I agree ninja - I also found her point interesting that by being so particular about how women present themselves (clothes, makeup, the hijab, etc.) indirectly ascribes to them an awful lot of power (with one dab of lip colour, a woman can distract some of the country's most powerful men). Reading this shortly on the heels of Persepolis, the hypocrisy you mention - that in fact this speaks quite highly of the power held by women, and the weakness of men in terms of their willpower, and how easily distracted they are, in a society where the reverse is perceived to be true, is quite interesting.

I'm reading Vikram Seth's An Equal Music , which I've read before but not for some years. It's better than a brand new book because a) I have no room on my shelves for new books till I take some to the rummage sale and b) I haven't had a chance to go to the library for a bit.

Np :)  I hope you enjoy :D

As-salaamu alaikum

-Omni

The Atrocity Archive by Charles Stross. It's what happens when you combine the espionage genre with cosmic horror (a la H.P. Lovecraft) and toss in a liberal dose of British humour. Basically the main character is a computer hacker for a top secret intelligence unit (nicknamed The Laundry) whose mission is to stop people from opening gateways to other universes where nastiness lives. He becomes a field agent and plunges straight into some serious crap with results both horrifying and funny. Much of the humour comes from skewering the bureaucratic mindset of the agency and the protagonist's ongoing battle with it. Probably not for everyone, but if the description sounds interesting, then it's probably worth a look.

Mendalla

THanks for that review Marzo. I  love Margaret Atwood and was tempted by that book. I really enjoyed Oryx and Crake, but it did leave me kind of shell shocked for a bit. She can take events that are happening today and evolve them into a very plausible future. I needed to be in the right frame of mind to read it!

I'm simultaneously working through the Kitab-i-Iqan, the Torah, and the Eisenhorn omnibus.

As-salaamu alaikum

-Omni

A gift from a friend - "Glimpse after Glimpse - Daily Reflections on Living and Dying" - by Sogyal Rinpoche - Tibetan Buddhist master - enjoying this a lot.

Picking up from a recent conference - "The Body Bears the Burden" - by Dr. R. Scaer - a psychologist who went back to school & became a neurologist.  The book centres on how emotional traumas may be 'stored' or 'frozen' in the body & reactivated by later life events - emerging as various physical problems which often are not relieved by traditional medical treatment.  

 I'm reading the only book a person really needs...the Holy Bible.

a hur a hur a hur, good one narrowgate.

Indeed, thou followeth a narrow gate.

As-salaamu alaikum

-Omni