"Blow up your TV." - John Prine
Like Karen, I made a must-read list...but stowed it in a notebook in a file folder in a closet for several months, and just recently rediscovered it... (my summer reading list is on the sidebar).
Nonfiction:
Hope: Adventures of a Diamond by Marian Fowler
The Boy Genius and the Mogul: The Untold Story of Television by Daniel Stashower
Tuxedo Park : A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II by Jennet Conant
Battling the Inner Dummy: The Craziness of Apparently Normal People by David L. Weiner/Gilbert M. Hefter
The Way We Never Were (misconceptions of a "golden age") by Stephanie Coontz
The Princess at the Window by Donna Laframboise (dissident feminist view of gender relations, putting forward the opinion that the radical fringe of feminism has appropriated the movement and distorted its original aims by villifying men, highlighting/exaggerating female victimization, etc.)
A Voyage for Madmen by Peter Nichols
American Scoundrel by Thomas Keneally
Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St.-Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
Elegy for Iris and Iris and her Friends by John Bayley
Feet of Clay: A Study of Gurus by Anthony Storr
Sleep Demons: An Insomniac's Memoir by Bill Hayes
Fiction:
Mister God, This is Anna by Anna Flynn
Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy
Still Life with Woodpeckers by Tom Robbins
The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek
An Invisible Sign of My Own by Aimee Bender
Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's 1947 novel The Blank Wall (basis for The Deep End with Tilda Swinton)
Finbar's Hotel, a novel by 7 Irish writers, telling the stories of rooms 101 through 107 in the seedy and forgotten Finbar Hotel
10 comments:
There's a history of salt?? Or is that a metaphor for something else? I have a pile of books that need my attention too. I'll get to them someday.
Salt was once the most valuable mineral on the planet. Wars were fought over it, trade routes were opened because of it, salt cartels kept the masses in fear.
It even played a huge part in Indian politics in the last century; Ghandi organized a "salt march" to protest the ungodly-high salt taxes.
Now we can just stroll into any Walmart, grab a 4-lb. vault-o'- salt with the cute little umbrella girl on it, and continue on our merry way.
Kurlansky's Salt (which I just finished on the weekend) was fabulous! There's so much history tied up with salt, as you point out SME, that I knew nothing about. I highly recommend reading it!
Two of his other books, Cod and The Basque, are histories as well but it's interesting to note how all three seemingly seperate books are tied together.
Glad to hear you're on board SME!!! I'll make sure to link to you on my blog later today or tomorrow when I post another update.
I read Salt. Good stuff.
Wow, there's actually a book on YOUR reading list that I'd read!! I've never heard of Salt, but it sounds like it's right up my alley. ;)
I learned a lot about the history of salt when I was in culinary school, actually, because we had to do a research paper on it. It's quite fascinating. It's also astounding how much land mass is tied up in collecting sea salt for sale.
Someone needs to write a book about sugar, because it is actually one of the most environmentally unfriendly things around, and it exploits poor people in third world countries to boot.
Karen, I might have to pass on "Cod". Not only am I vegan, I'm not big on fishing stories, anyway. ;D
I would totally read a book about sugar. Sugar production takes up a huge part of the world, even with all the substitutes available, and it's not a pretty picture.
You are going to be busy this summer! I love this reading list business, personally.
Oh, I'll manage! I've got no theatre work to do in the off-season, and I have several dr. appointments lined up in addition to two long road trips. Plenty of time.
Well, I guess I'll have to appreciate that little tart with the umbrella a little more huh?
It just seems odd that it never occurred to people to just leave some seawater sitting out a few days? I guess since people used to preserve meat in salt pre-refrigeration it would have been quite valuable. Funny now how we want it taken out of most of what we eat, huh?
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