In January 2018, this is what we're reading....

I'm reading SAS Rogue Heroes by Ben Macintyre for a book club.

We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates, I think.

Cartoon County: My Father and His Friends in the Golden Age of Make-Believe by Cullen Murphy

The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene.

A Christmas present: Leonardo da Vinci, by Walter Isaacson.

The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu by Charlie English. Chapters on European explorers' search for Timbuktu interspersed with the story of the struggle to preserve precious ancient manuscripts from jihadist destruction in 2012/13. Nicely written.

Born Both: An Intersex Life by Hida Viloria.

Decade of the Trains a photojournalistic look at railroads in the US during and just after World War 2.

I've got a dozen started. Making most progress on

Miraculous Abundance : one quarter acre, two French farmers, and enough food to feed the world
and
Trump is f*cking crazy

I've just wrapped up a read of Albert Churchward's peculiar Arcana of Freemasonry, and I'm on the downward slope of Nietzsche and the Origin of Virtue.

Cartoon County: My Father and His Friends in the Golden Age of Make-Believe
Cullen Murphy
4.5/5 stars
Somehow this book ended up on my hold shelf, I know I must have ordered it but had forgotten all about it. What a wonderful surprise this book was to me! I love comics and this was a look at a slice of life that is disappearing. Cullen Murphy, the author and comic strip artist; writes of the heydey of print comic strips and the artists that lived in Connecticut including his father, John Cullen Murphy who drew the Prince Valiant comic for a time. If you love comics or just a good book, I think you will enjoy this look back at the wonderful artists and the work they did.

Reading A Mistress of Paris by Catherine Hewitt.

About to start Viking Britain by Thomas Williams. I'm a big Viking geek in both fact and fiction so really looking forward to it.

Listening to Jolly Wicked, Actually in the car. Works well as an audio book as it is a short (2 to 10 minutes) essay of each of the words, looking at usage, meaning, derivation and equivalents in other languages. Some of the words are just so English and others make clear just how difficult the English language can be, with contradictory meanings coded in the same word. Started it in December, should finish this week. Changed job in November, and commuting time has been cut - that's good for me, but not necessarily for audiobook listening!

You Don't Look Your Age: And Other Fairy Tales
Sheila Nevins
3/5 stars
Filmmaker and television producer, Sheila Nevins writes about life as a woman living and working in this day and age through short stories based on true life scenarios. I did enjoy this interesting book, some tales more than others and I think all women can empathize and share similar stories.

I'm reading SPQR by Mary Beard - it's great.

Currently listening to Hidden Figures. Cutesy prose, but orders of magnitude better than the highly fictionalized 2016 movie.

Listening to Stamped from the beginning by Ibram X. Kendi.

Reading Gentrifier.

I haven't read that particular title, how is it? I've read two others by Macintyre.

I just finished a book on the building of first WDW and then Epcot. It was ok, different than I expected.

I have now started and am devouring my second book by Jim Newton. This one is on Eisenhower's White House years.

I'm going to read How the Scots Invented Canada by Ken McGoogan.

>20 PokPok: What's the title of the Epcot book? My husband was an ironworker who worked on the buildings in 1981.

Sometimes I am more than a little behind in reading things. I am now tackling Gödel Escher Bach, which I am certain will cause me to add several more books to the reading list.

I finished a book I found in the library and picked up on a whim. Lincoln's Smile and Other Enigmas was an examination in the style of literary criticism of photography and literature as it searches for American culture, particularly American city culture. The literature and collections of photography examined were created between 1830 and 1950.

In continuation of my catching up learning about revolutionary American history that I slept through in school, I am now reading War of Two by John Sedgwick. The author (who is the great great etc grandson of one of the men involved in both lives) traces the lives of Hamilton and Burr simutanously Its a very interesting way to see them both develop at the same time, how their paths intersected, and how early the seeds were planted that lead to the duel. I started reading these books last summer, and have to say that this one is the most readable, and interesting of them all, and perhaps the best at putting everything together

Walking Through Walls: A Memoir
Philip Smith
3/5 stars
In this non-fiction book, Philip Smith, an editor and artist writes about his life growing up with his father, Lew Smith, a decorator and psychic healer. Yes, this is non-fiction though it does read like fiction and in this very interesting account, he details his father’s highly unusual life as he helps heal people psychically using pendulums and also has the ability to talk to the dead. As I read this book, I did and still have my doubts about his father’s abilities but I think you’ll have to read this book to make up your own mind.

In Such Good Company by Carol Burnett

A truly exhaustive account of the Carol Burnett Show. 5/7ths of the way through, she is describing all of the movie take-off skits. I'd rather watch them than hear her talk about it.

I was so excited about the book, but I didn't make it passed the half way point. So we got one of the collections and have been howling for days now. She was pure genius, along with Korman and Allen and her writers. And except for the musical numbers, was not dated at all.

>27 2wonderY: >28 cindydavid4:
We just watched a greatest skits program from her show and we just laughed so much. Will skip her book. Thanks for the heads up.

Fantasyland: How America Went Crazy: A 500-Year History - Kurt Anderson

I've decided to read Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else by our Global Affairs Minister, Chrystia Freeland.

Reading A History of Britain in 21 Women as it is in 21 short chapters, making it ideal reading for travelling, with that constant distraction that goes on. Half way through already, and enjoying the selection, the information and the reasons behind selecting them.

>32 Helenliz: >31 LynnB: Both those books sound very interesting.

>25 cindydavid4: Just finished the War of Two, and consider it equal to the Chernow biography in understanding Hamilton, Burr , what lead up to the duel, and understanding the history of our young nation. Really an excellent read (had some trouble with the chapters dealing with Burr and his post duel life, esp when he was ploting his treachery - the names and incidents all start sounding alike and I skipped some parts of it. But I highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in the history, and any lover of Hamilton the musical, wanting to know more.

Just started Myths of the Pagan North: the Gods of the Norsemen by Christopher Abram. A study of how Norse mythology grew and developed.

I've got fifty pages (translate: another week, at least) to go in The Wine Lover's Daughter by Anne Fadiman.
She is an exceptional writer, imho.

I've begun The Armies of Labor: a Chronicle of the Organized Wage Earners by Samuel P. Orth. This book was originally published in 1916 and is part of the Yale Chronicles of America series. Orth was a professor of political science at Cornell when he wrote this book. So, this is a book about the history of the American labor movement written over 100 years ago.

I finished Jim Newton 's book on Eisenhower: The White House Years. It was very well done (as was his previous book on Earl Warren).

Now I'm reading a book of essays Margaret Atwood wrote about the sci fit/ ustopia genre, called In other worlds. I'm really enjoying it.