lol, you’re a ringer for him. or like his brother or something.
I think that’s the only pic of him I’ve ever seen without the bandanna.
I was cleaning house the other day, and put on a purple bandanna to keep my bangs out of my eyes. Passed a mirror and did a double-take. He’s better-looking, but yeah, he’s what I look like under those circumstances. If it weren’t for him making my day-to-day look seem respectable (nay, lit’ry!), I’d just look like an out-of-work Axl Rose fan.
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Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity.
Nominated because the author’s interviews on NPR were absolutely gripping, and I bought the book, and what with one thing and another it’s sat on my shelf. It’s explores the stories of parents whose children are so different from themselves in some way (e.g. prodigies, transgender, murderers, conceived in rape) that it seems hard to imagine how parents and child could conceive of their relationship as mutual.
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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nigh-Time - Mark Haddon
That’s the first thing that comes to my mind is. I don’t know if it’s something BBers would be interested in, but it deals with Asperger’s/Autism and there’s some lovely math at the end.
Also, if you want a real conversation starter about prostitution and feminism:
The King Kong Theory - Virginie Despentes
The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo is another one I love.
And I love everything by Bret Easton Ellis. I own Less Than Zero but haven’t read it yet, so maybe there’s something there.
But I personally would prefer books that I can get from the library - I don’t have the money to be buying new books.
EDIT// And if it should rather be something I haven’t read, Wired For Culture by Mark Pagel is in my backlog and might give some food for though, I don’t know.
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Been ages since I read that. Worth another visit for sure.
That looks really interesting. Could spark some great discussion.
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Gravity’s Rainbow or Finnegans Wake.
Let’s do this!
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I think I’m interested in some James Baldwin - Going to Meet the Man- or one of his essay collections if anyone is interested in non-fiction like The Fire Next Time or maybe The Cross of Redemption. Alternately, I’d love to read more Dubois, and I’ve heard interesting things about Darkwater.
I’d like to read some Flannery O’Connor perhaps. I’ve never read Alice Munro and would like to.
Or, how about an anthology of Sci-Fi from Africa… I know there are some works of Arab sci-fi, but I can’t find any interested anthologies right now.
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liked for O’Connor. Baldwin would work for me, also. the others seem like something I’d be OK with, though.
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I’ve been to Flannery O’Connor’s house.
Never read any of her stuff though.
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Thanks for the link to the African SF anthology. I have “Mothership” but haven’t read it yet, so in a similar vein, I’d like to submit that?
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Question: What kind of books are people looking for to read? Fiction, non-fiction? Or are we just gonna pick whatever is the most popular choice?
That sounds interesting!
I’d love to recommend A Scanner Darkly by Phillip K. Dick because that’s a book I own but have yet to read it, but I bet most everyone here has read it already anyway.
Also, I’m still waving the flag for The King Kong Theory by Virginia Despantes, because it’s non-fiction, no-bullshit, shameless, honest real-life feminism. She says all the things no one else dares to say. And we need that now more than ever, with all this stuff going on in the gaming community and rape victim-blaming and other crap.
Also, I hope the books you suggest are available on the library.
That sounds like a dark, dark metaphor.
???
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Did you want to add some of these? Not like the person who I replied to has any interest in them…
I think we were going to put some books here, pull out the most popular to put in another thread and then vote on what we have there (being all democratic like, yo).
I’d bet they are… plus most libraries allow you to do interlibrary loans, which at my local public library is a dollar I think.
Yeah, sorry wasn’t feeling very articulate apparently.
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No worries! Which of these look interesting? Peter Gran is another great one - The Islamic Roots of Capitalism. And anything by any of the Abu-Lughod family (Ibrahim, Janet, and Lila), such as this (which I’ve never read):
I really love this book by Makdisi - it really is a beautifually written book:
Well, you’re probably in a much better situation to select one, you’ve read them, I haven’t. Although Haj and Said seem most interesting to me personally.
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Said’s Orientalism is a must read, for sure - a classic post-colonialist text.
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