I'm always looking for book recommendations or new authors to check out!  I just finished Apathy and Other Small Victories by Paul Neilan, which is about a thirty-ish cubicle worker from Portland whose life becomes a lot less mundane when he finds himself a suspect in the murder of an acquaintance.  I'm (finally) starting Black Swan Green by David Mitchell.  What are all of you out there reading?

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. It's a narrative of the author's drug and alcohol addiction and his tale of rehab and post rehab. He has a follow up novel, My Friend Leonard that I'll read next.

Not my usual appetite but so far (100 pages) so good...

Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich

"Raintree County" by Ross Lockridge Jr. Some critics called it the "great American novel" when it was published in 1948. I must say, it comes pretty close! It's long (1060 pages!) but not as daunting as it looks. Set during one day in Indiana 1892, it's filled in with a series of flashbacks spanning the Civil War and after. The writing style is amazing. It's really about the power of the word and a book every writer should read.

By the River Piedra I sat down and wept--- Paulo Coelho. Coelho is a great author (also wrote "The Alchemist" and "The Zahir"). Highly recommend any of his works. Very poetic way of writing and very insightful/philosophical view on life/love.

"Fasting Feasting" by Anita Desai. Set in the US and India, the book revolves around the life of an Indian middle class family and the contradictions inherent in their every day family life.

I just finished Isaac Asimov's The Foundation, but haven't decided what to read next.  I'm working my way through Andre Dubus's Selected Stories and a depressing history of eugenics, War Against the Weak.

The Hacker Crackdown by Bruce Sterling -- it's nonfiction, about a botched government crackdown on phone phreakers (pre-Internet hackers) in 1990-ish.  I read it when it was pretty new, but all this government talk of cybercriminals has me picking it up again.  It's actually legally electronically distributed at http://www.mit.edu/hacker/hacker.html

I've been catching up on children's classics I somehow missed the first time - Swiss Family Robinson, Around the World in Eighty Days and both The Moonstone and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins were really great!

The Big Machine by Victor LaValle, and found myself disappointed. It was sold like literary fiction but read differently. It was more about keeping the reader uninformed in order to create intrigue, but it failed to be good enough for the intrigue to actually be there (IMO). Looking for some good literary stuff so if you have a suggestion, say something!

I am reading a persuasive and fascinating non-fiction work which argues that American culture, at all levels, is being held captive by the anti-social individualism of the18th century British philosopher, John Locke, and that, because all of us, consciously or unconsciously, share the world-view created by Locke, we are unble to grasp any notions of the public interest or to address, in a meaningful way, the problems of econoimc inequality, poverty, dysfunctional public education systems, or domination by lobbyists, corporations and other special interests. The book is appropriately entitled, The Politics of Selfishness: How John Locke's Legacy Is Paralyzing America (Greenwood/Praeger/ABC-CLIO,) by a Boston lawyer and writer, Paul Nevins 

I just read Cutting for Stone  which had intriguing character development.  I found it a compelling read.  Interesting twist on the title.

Is anyone interested in forming a book discussion group that would meet once a month?  If so, e-mail me at flonoonan@gmail.com.