A Stained White Radiance, James Lee Burke.  I've read these Dave Robicheaux books all out of order and am trying to go back and catch the ones I missed.  Love them all.

nice to see you, julie! thanks for sharing!

Oh goody. My computer actually let me sign in! I am reading "The Strange Story of Edgar Sawtelle"' Lovely descriptions of where I grew up but I'm not sure what to make of it yet...

hi, marycharles! glad you're here!

saw all the emails with comments from this group and decided it was time to get back here..I read for entertainment and have found a few recommendations here in the past...will try bookbub....

in last few weeks I have read several books ...just finished Bald in the land of big hair by Joni Rodgers....true story of her journey through cancer..some funny bits and of course some hard bits...

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey was very good as was Winter of the world by Ken Follett.second in the series that started with Fall of Giants ...would recommend all of those... 

so glad you're here, nancy. we're only as strong as the involvement on  wiffledust. i'd like to see everyone come regularly. fb isn't even nice to us!

I am currently doing a reread - Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon.  It's #6 in her Oulander series.  I finally got #7 and it had been so long since I read the other books, I wanted to refresh my memory.  Very well written; very well researched.  A bit of fancy (involves time travel) but SO well done that you can almost believe it's possible!

elle! so happy you are here!!

Want to get some Folger Shakespeares.  I enjoy learning the phrasing, puns and wordplays in Shakespeare's writing as much as the drama. 

there is really nothing better than shakespeare. it's beautiful, it's funny, it's touching.....the only issue is not being afraid of it.

in Jr High we did some of Shakespeare's sonnets and in high school English read a couple of his plays...I had amazing teachers that taught it well and inspired me to read more of his work....

me too, nancy.. i feel particularly blessed that all in all i had 3 maybe 4 teachers who were particularly good at teaching shakespeare over the years. i would have never understood it without them. a good teacher is a wonderful thing. i urge anyone who has not taken a fresh look at shakespeare to try again even if you need to do it with cliff notes standing by.

there is nothing like a teacher who really knows how to teach....When I went to The Tempest in Stratford upon Avon I was very glad I had read the play (thanks to drama teacher)...it was amazing to watch...and even better knowing a bit about it even if it had been a few years...(many few)

guys, i just saw this great status from author anne lamott where she lists 20 books she has read and loved....i thought you might like to see the list:

Tattoos on the Heart by Fr. Gregory Boyle,
Stations of the Heart, By Richard Lischer,
Half-Baked by Alexa Stevenson, 
What I thought I Knew, by Eve Alice Cohen,
Still Alice, am spacing out on the author,
Me Before You, by Jojo Moyes
Is This Tomorrow by Caroline Leavitt, 
The Wrong Dog Dream, by Jane Vandenburgh,
What's Wrong With White People, by Joan Walsh, 
Gypsy Boy by Mikey Walsh,
After Mandela by Douglas Foster, 
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver, 
Going Clear by Lawrence Wright (the Scientology book--airplane heaven), 
In the Garden of the Beast, by the man who wrote Devil in the White City, 
Beyond the Beautiful Forevers, by Katherine Boo, 
all the newly released early books by my buddy Mark Childress, plus Georgia Bottoms, 
Hellhound on His Trail
Everything by Junot Diaz--he's so great;
The End of Your Life Book Club, by Will Schwalbe,
Far From the Tree, by Andrew Solomon--stunning.

Have just started BioWars by Stephen Coonts.

Its about an intelligence gathering agency that is answerable ONLY to the POTUS. Much like the FBI infringements of today. With an exception. Outside the US, anything goes. Inside the US, Constitutional, federal, state, local  laws or observed and a properly issued warrant must be obtained

I agree with you on Shakespeare 100 per cent, Lisa.  HAMLET is a favorite work of writing and fiction to me -- not merely drama, but as writing and fiction, it stands head and shoulders above most works of dramatic fiction I've read (although I'll admit Dickens came close at times).  If I was in Hollywood then, I'd have wanted to not only buy the script but give the writer a 20-year contract with a million-dollar advance.

You readers might want to check this out: http://nprfreshair.tumblr.com/post/57522432583/maureen-corrigan-rev...

"8 Habits of Love" by The Rev. Ed Bacon...non-fiction self help type of category about the struggles of fear and love within each of us. 

"Love is Letting Go of Fear," by Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D. Very good little self-help book.

THE PRINCE OF TIDES by Pat Conroy. The book does a lot the famed movie doesn't, like describe things from a poet's point of view.

yes! prince of tides really is excellent. the movie is good too, but pat conroy is a heck of a writer..enjoy the book too, folks! i agree with pamela

"Five Days at Memorial" is the first book club selection at Morning Joe. It's about the crucial five days of Hurricane Katrina at the Memorial Hospital ...apparently it's one of those books you can't put down. 

Article called "32 Books that Will Change Your Life" from Buzzfeed
http://www.buzzfeed.com/erinlarosa/books-that-will-actually-change-...

I can't recall how I heard about it, but I just finished reading David Harris-Gershon's memoir "What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried  to Kill Your Wife?" You may recognize the author if you read Daily Kos, as he's a featured writer there. Part emotional story-telling, part fascinating history lesson, this book is phenomenal. Highly recommend it!

thank you for this, cindi! i will check it out.daily kos is often written well..

Anne Lamott..."Stiches"...read anything by Anne. She's a joy!

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline...amazon description below
Penobscot Indian Molly Ayer is close to “aging out” out of the foster care system. A community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping Molly out of juvie and worse...

As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly learns that she and Vivian aren’t as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.

Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life – answers that will ultimately free them both.

Rich in detail and epic in scope, Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of unexpected friendship, and of the secrets we carry that keep us from finding out who we are.

"My Age of Anxiety..Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind" by Scott Stossel. If you or someone you love have wrestled with anxiety, this is a book you need to read. 

Some reviews:

“Ambitious and bravely intimate…A thrilling intellectual chase.” —The New York Times

“The most accurate representation of the anxiety sufferer’s mindset that I’ve ever come across….I suspect that much will be made of Stossel’s bravery, but praise should be given to his literary achievement and the arrival of a substantial, if challenging, voice capable of elucidating the 130 year history of “magic” pharmaceuticals….The book is a startling achievement.” —Steve Danziger, Open Letters Monthly

“Books exploring personal experiences of mental illness tend to be either over-wrought accounts of personal trauma that shed little light on the world beyond the author’s nose, or the more detached observations of scientists and medics. It is rare to find works that bridge these objectives, which is one reason that the writer Andrew Solomon achieved such success with The Noonday Demon….Stossel’s book deserves a place on this higher shelf.” —David Adam, Nature

“‘My Age of Anxiety’” is a brave—and quite possibly perverse—book, one that will leave you squirming and fascinated in equal measure….There is much pain here, but humor, too….Without meaning to, Stossel has written a self-help manual. There is no miracle cure for anxiety, he suggests—we can manage our fears and worries, even if we can never quite tame them.” —Matt Price, Newsday

“On the one hand, the book is astonishingly thorough and lucidly written. It’s a fascinating look at that linchpin of the human condition—the primitive fight-or-flight response—and how it resides in our psyches in a time of IEDs and SSRIs. Rare will be the reader who doesn’t spot him or herself somewhere in Stossel’s sweeping analysis, as he digs into parenting styles, performance stress, talk therapy, medication, depression, fear of flying, blushing, you name it. On the other hand, you have to wonder if “My Age of Anxiety” is so good, so copiously reported and completist, in large part thanks to Stossel’s harsh expectations of himself....His perpetual agony has become our reading pleasure.” —Matthew Gilbert, The Boston Globe

Just finished The Horse Whisperer; had seen the movie years ago.  The movie seemed pretty faithful to the book until the ending; book was a surprise.  Very well-written, interesting character studies (human and equine).

Worth the read

Here's a book that might shake up your thinking: 

"From the New York Times bestselling author of Nickel and Dimed comes a brave, frank, and exquisitely written memoir that will change the way you see the world.

Barbara Ehrenreich is one of the most important thinkers of our time. Educated as a scientist, she is an author, journalist, activist, and advocate for social justice. In LIVING WITH A WILD GOD, she recounts her quest-beginning in childhood-to find "the Truth" about the universe and everything else: What's really going on? Why are we here? In middle age, she rediscovered the journal she had kept during her tumultuous adolescence, which records an event so strange, so cataclysmic, that she had never, in all the intervening years, written or spoken about it to anyone. It was the kind of event that people call a "mystical experience"-and, to a steadfast atheist and rationalist, nothing less than shattering.

I recently finished THE LOVELY BONES. I haven't actually seen the movie, but I suspect the book is better. There are many subtleties about the family and other relationships involved, and people's personal responses to events, that couldn't have been very well communicated in a film. It's a good read, hard to put down.

I started reading Confessions of an Economic Hitman. It's a small book and I am taking it by about 10 pages a week because of how upsetting it is!  The author is writing about how he was hired to basically exploit others and especially other nations for profit. I love that he wrote it because I think that it took a lot of guts but the fact that nothing changes when people speak up and tell the truth is discouraging. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man

When I was at the bookstore I saw that one of the staff picks was Love, Anthony by Lisa Genova about a mother with a son who is autistic and she loses him. Has anyone read it? The reviews on Amazon are so compelling. I will be going back to pick it up soon.  I feel as though it is going to be some heavy reading and need something a little lighter in the interim. Any suggestions? http://www.amazon.com/Love-Anthony-Lisa-Genova-ebook/dp/B007EDYKSE/...

Pamela! I loved The Lovely Bones! I also saw the movie and thought it was great. They captured the sweetness of the sisters and I am always amazed by those actors who are willing to play a bad person and Stanley Tucci was perfect in the role. How do these folks walk the streets afterwards? I remember horror stories about how viewers would yell at soap stars for whatever they were up to in the story lines. :-/

i'm loving the conversation on here! thanks, you guys!

Stanley Tucci played the villain, Katie? That's intriguing. I guess Jack Nicholson was busy when they were casting. ;) As far as walking the streets - I feel one must be unusually tough just to WORK in Hollywood. Up at 4:30, in makeup at 5, be available all day for shooting, go to dinner with other public figures and get secretly stared at and gossiped about by everyone else in the restaurant, in bed at 10 and up at 4 again! :P

Guilty confession - I sometimes pick up one of the umpteen classics I never read in school (because they weren't assigned). TREASURE ISLAND is my current one. A lot of classic literary cliches in there! Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

Oh! My mom read Treasure Island to us! Very cool! 

stanley tucci is brilliant! 

I'm reading a very interesting little collection of essays called The Accidental Universe by Alan Lightman. He's an MIT professor in both Physics and Humanities and offers some ideas that are surprisingly insightful.

i love the mixture of physics with philosophy, dave. thanks for that suggestion! 

what's your summer reading, guys? 

it's not just a movie??? it looks great!

Summer is for running barefoot through plotty novels. My current one is LILY WHITE by Susan Isaacs.

I'm reading The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult-- kind of a modern-day flashback about family caught up on the Holocaust. I confess I'm finding it a bit harder to follow than many of her earlier books. Also just started a legal thriller by Clifford Irving called Trial on Kindle. bookbub.com is keeping me well-stocked in trashy, free or low cost, reading. Some is actually diverting-- others set my teeth on edge! ;-)

so many books so little time...right now I am reading ...The boys in the boat about the rowing team from my state that won in the 1936 Olympics...have heard good stuff about it but it is a bit slow moving...read The lost Child of Philomena Lee...yep the one the movie was based on and before that The Orchardest...very good but strange ...ah so many books so little time...summer is good reading time since my TV time goes from minimal to just the news for the most part.....

Will have to try the Storyteller since I like the rest of books that Jodi Picoult has written....