SFist Reads
Did you follow Rita's advice and join up to do One City, One Book? Or maybe you just want a voice in what book is selected for the next go-round? The SFPL is soliciting and feedback for the next choice, so give it here! And don't forget that you can always get your book for this program in a variety of ways, including from the SFPL or from one of our fine local independent bookstores.
SFist Rain just finished Lost in the Forest by Sue Miller, and she can't really discuss it because it was kind of disturbing. Now she's reading No Lifeguard on Duty by Janice Dickinson and she can't really discuss it because it's kind of disturbing. Actually, it's not at all disturbing. What's disturbing is it's the second book by or about a supermodel that she's read in her lifetime (the other being a biography of Gia Carangi.) "What's wrong with me?" she asks.
SFist Mary-Lynn marvels: "My god, I'm actually reading real books!" Why isn't Kepler's Booksense live again? It should be so she can link there! Anyway, just last night she started Tunnel Vision which she thinks will be kind of fun mostly because she loves London and taking the Tube (wow, a city with a grown-up public transport system. She fees a little misty). She's also been poking in and out of Mark Kingwell's collection of National Post columns from 2000 to 2003 called Nothing for Granted.
SFist Jer just started The Egyptologist, by Arthur Phillips, and already it's proven to be an interesting tale of murder, polyamory, detective work, and Eqyptian antiquities. Jer was a huge fan of Phillip's first book, Prague.
SFist Cedric has been reading American Prometheus : the triumph and tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, to freshen up on the topic before seeing Dr. Atomic's world premiere. The biography is well documented, very instructive and an easy read. Some of the psychological inferences of the biographer are a bit far-fetched, but don't they always try to make a vibrant inside portrait of their subject? Had Cedric been at the Main library instead of a local branch, he would have also picked Robert Oppenheimer, letters and recollections by the man himself.
Sfist Rita just finished Sara Nelson's So Many Books, So Little Time, which is sort of a bloglike book, in that Nelson (an editor for Glamour) sets herself an arbitrary goal to read one book a week for a year and write down her thoughts about the books and the reading process. It was a little strange how different her and Rita's tastes in books are (pretty much they disagree on everything), but it's kind of a fun SFist-Reads-like read.