Book List

Is anyone interested in sharing titles of some of their favorite reads?

Here are a few of my most recent in fiction:

1. Breakfast With Buddha.............Roland Merullo
2. Water For Elephants..........Sara Gruen
3. Flesh and Blood..................Michael Cunningham
4. Poland.............James Michener
5. Poisonwood Bible..............Barbara Kingsolver

Let's see...currently it would be:

no death, no fear - Thich Nhat Hahn
Pavilion of Women - Pearl S. Buck
Conflict from Theory to Action - Lulofs & Cahn
Life in the Cold - Peter Marchand
Seventh Child, a Family Memoir of Malcolm X - Rodnell P. Collins
New England Forests Through Time - Foster & O'Keefe
Arundel - Kenneth Roberts

It depends on which room I'm in at the time, since the books are everywhere..lol

Oh yeah, I read the Rumford Town Charter and Town of Rumford By-Laws quite frequently...does that count?

Local Authors:
Town of Rumford Charter - Citizens of the Town of Rumford
Town of Rumford Ordinances - Citizens of the Town of Rumford

National Authors:
National Response Framework - Dept of Homeland Security
Pandemic Influenza Preparedness, Response and Recovery Guide for critical infrastructure and key resources - Dept of Homeland Security

Recent Favorites:

• Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love - Dava Sobel
  
• Deadline - Gerry Boyle (fictional murder mystery set in a thinly disguised version of Rumford)
  
• Buried - Robin Merrow MacCready (excellent young adult novel by a Maine writer)
  
• Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay - Nancy Milford
  
• How to Grade for Learning: Linking Grades to Standards - Ken O'Connor (because everyone knows grade averages are bogus, both mathematically and as a an indicator of what a student knows)
  

"I cannot live without books." - Thomas Jefferson

I mostly read non fiction and books about history but.......

Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven
By Mitch Albom

Little Earthquakes
By Jennifer Weiner (total chick book)

and currently

Dead Until Dark
By Charlaine Harris (a series of seven books with another on the way)

I don't read a lot of fiction. But here are a few of my all time favorites.

The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption - Stephen King
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
Another Roadside Attraction - Tom Robbins

I'm in the process of writing a novel. At the current pace of this project, it may not be complete until 2030.

If you wanna go Kevins route.....

FEMA's ICP training manual...............9 hours, 3 tests.........thank god its only required every two years!!

Oh, Kite Runner - I almost put that down...good one

I am only listing 3 right now, although I have 9238209382039832 more, but these I can heartily recommend to almost anyone with a brain:



Therese Raquin…. By Emile Zola A very smart woman with a mind of her own when it wasn’t fashionable for women to have a mind. Even though this was written in the 19^th century, it’s soooooooo contemporary (and juicy!).





Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon. It’s got everything! Superman, Batman, magic tricks, cheap back rooms in sleazy hotels, the Holocaust, Business in the 50’s (think MAD MEN). Oh, and it won a pullitzer.





I LIKE YOU… cooking under the influence, by Amy Sedaris. Ostensibly a cookbook (and actually not a bad one) it’s so funny that it’s hard to beat up the eggs. I liked this book so much, I actually got the audio version just to lull myself to sleep with (although that didn’t work, because I couldn’t go to sleep from laughing).

xmashen wrote:A very smart woman with a mind of her own when it wasn’t fashionable for women to have a mind. [/size]

Lol...and this has what to do with fashion?

How's that manger display coming?

Duma Key: A Novel by Stephen King

Yeah! Stephen King. I have this love/hate relationship with him (not personally, just literary). He's a lousy writer (not always, but sometimes) but a great story teller (not always, but usually). Also, he writes about our neck of the woods so often and Rumford is often mentioned. I was convinced that the library in " IT" (one of the scariests books i ever read, so much so, in fact, that i had to cover it over with layers of Disney comics when i went to bed to keep the evil out) was based on the Rumford Library. Did anyone else who read it get the same impression? I spent so many years in that building, and his descriptions of it were so on point.

I'm giving three book to Mrs. Steve for Christmas - "Change of Heart" by Jodi Picoult, the hardcover of "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follet, and the sequel to that, "World Without End". If you've never read "Pillars of the Earth", I would highly recommend it. As for me, I'm re-reading "Dog Stories" by James Herriott and wishing that Robert Ludlum were still alive and writing.

911Dispatcher wrote:

Little Earthquakes
By Jennifer Weiner (total chick book)

I too love the Jennifer Weiner books. If you haven't read any of the Janet Evanovich ones you may like those too. The titles seem a bit trite (One For the Money, Two for the Dough) but her characters are certainly interesting, quirky and entertaining.

For any of you who still read to their kids- these are some terrific series for pre-teens that we've read over the past two years.

THE EDGE CHRONICLES (there are 10 to date)
by: Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell
CHILDREN OF THE LAMP (5 to date)
by: P.B. Kerr
THE ENCHANTED FOREST CHRONICLES
by: Patricia Wrede
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA (1-7)
by: C.S. Lewis
A WRINKLE IN TIME (7 total )
by: Madeleine L'Engle
THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH
by: Norton Juster
INHERITANCE SERIES (3 so far) we've just started with Eragon and are enjoying it)
by: Christopher Paolini

And for those kids who also like to read alone, these are a bit easier reading:

FAR-FLUNG ADVENTURES (3 to date)
by: Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell
SECRETS OF DROON (at least 35 to date)
by: Tony Abbott

let's not forget the Lemony Snicket series! (oh, i just got "lemony snicket, the unauthorized autobiography." it's so meta and great!

Alas, do not read these tragic tales, for woe is written upon every page. Sadness is heaped upon unbearable sadness, combined with treachery beyond measure... (wait, that sounds familiar!). May I instead suggest reading the Encyclopedia Brittanica, perhaps a cheerless chapter on sea slugs?

well, why don't we all just go read THE BIBLE?

Speaking of which, how's that manger scene coming?

Excellent list. We've read most of them. But you forgot the Harry Potter series, and the Adventures of Tin-Tin by Herge. A classic series.

C wrote:For any of you who still read to their kids- these are some terrific series for pre-teens that we've read over the past two years.

THE EDGE CHRONICLES (there are 10 to date)
by: Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell
CHILDREN OF THE LAMP (5 to date)
by: P.B. Kerr
THE ENCHANTED FOREST CHRONICLES
by: Patricia Wrede
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA (1-7)
by: C.S. Lewis
A WRINKLE IN TIME (7 total )
by: Madeleine L'Engle
THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH
by: Norton Juster
INHERITANCE SERIES (3 so far) we've just started with Eragon and are enjoying it)
by: Christopher Paolini

And for those kids who also like to read alone, these are a bit easier reading:

FAR-FLUNG ADVENTURES (3 to date)
by: Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell
SECRETS OF DROON (at least 35 to date)
by: Tony Abbott

it's amazing that paolini wrote the first book when he was like THREE (ok, he was 16 or so, but still)

Also, I don't want anyone to think I was trashing the bible. it's one of the best children's books ever!

also, speaking of children's books, does anyone remember a series called " the STUPIDS" ? it was incredibly funny and bright. (ok, like when their lights went out and they thought they didn't exist any more)

Wasn't the STUPIDS a Saturday Night Live skit??

SNL maybe did do some sketches based on the books. But the books themselves are precious.

hmmmm my little one loves Dr Seuss....but if I have to read One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish one more time......