Read any good books lately?

I really enjoyed this book, hard to describe, but it's a good read:
www.amazon.com/Super-Sad-True-Love-Story/dp/0812977866

Read and finished 11/22/63 by Stephen King in less than a week...the man needs a new editor. But a good read. You may borrow. The Marriage Plot is next. Love Eugenidies - have his two others...awesome.

the first part of 'the girl with the dragon tattoo' can be a little blah, but trust me, it gets good. I'm going to download the 3rd in the series tomorrow.

I liked that book a lot. Especially 11/22/63 and Big Driver.

War Dances by Sherman Alexie; I could barely stand to return it. Blood, Bones, Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton is a fun read.

Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey was the last great book I read.

I re-read The Road by Cormac McCarthy for the fourth time. It's my favorite book. Also, I just started Boomerang by Michael Lewis, whom I enjoy very much. The Big Short was awesome and recommended reading for those trying to understand what happened in this country from 2002-2008ish.

i just read "the wind in the willows" again as an adult. that will always be one of my all time favorite books, never too early to start reading it to your son!

Non-fiction, but I'm reading "Fingerprints of God - The Search for the Science of Spirituality" from NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty. Not only lots of interesting stuff (fMRIs of meditating Buddhist monks, the impact of peyote use on worldview, the overhyping of the VMAT2 "God gene", etc.), but I was also surprised to discover a friend of mine was a central figure in one of the chapters.

I just finished "Then We Came to the End" by Joshua Ferris about an ad agency going though downsizing in the early 2000s. Obviously relevant today too. The description aside, it was a fun read and a great book - kind of DeLillo Light.

I was going to see if Meredith wanted to borrow it, but I'll put it out there for anyone.

I loved this book.

i'm not good enough anymore?

I'm a history geek currently on a Teddy Roosevelt kick. 'Theodore Rex' was excellent and I'm just starting 'The River of Doubt' (his experiences in Brazil post-presidency). FINALLY read 'East of Eden' recently as well. One of those classics I just never got around to before for some reason.

Anyone read any good (as in REALLY good) travel books lately? The storytelling variety---not a guide. I inhale that stuff.

So, uh, you guys read books eh?

I made it about 2/3rds of the way through 11/22/63 and then just kind of stopped, hope I finish it at some point. Big Driver and the rest of Full Dark No Stars was great, went through the entire book in one evening.

Ever read "The Snow Leopard" by Peter Matthiessen? He also wrote "At Play in the Fields of the Lord" (which might qualify too).

Amazon describes it like this:
IN 1973, Peter Matthiessen and field biologist George Schaller traveled high into the remote mountains of Nepal to study the Himalayan blue sheep and possibly glimpse the rare and beautiful snow leopard. Matthiessen, a student of Z en Buddhism, was also on a spiritual quest—to find the Lama of Shey at the ancient shrine on Crystal Mountain. As the climb proceeds, Matthiessen charts his inner path as well as his outer one, with a deepening Buddhist understanding of reality, suffering, impermanence, and beauty.

I have just read an incredible political thriller ebook. I was browsing around at amazon.com and found this ebook called The Cain Sanction, I read the preview and a few chapters. It really was a page turner can’t put it down kind of book.
I didn’t know how it ends until the last sentence of the last page.. great read!!

All the Game of Thrones series

I finished Walt Isaacson's Steve Jobs book last month. it was buried under others since Oct. a good read even if you're not an Apple geek. fascinating personality. i think after my current book i'll read his Ben Franklin book.

Nothing compelling at the moment, but I want to get Robert Caro's latest installment of his LBJ uberbio. 'Master of the Senate' was great...this one covering his early presidency supposedly is, too.

I have to give it up for amandasessions. best spam I have ever seen.

Gerry Shields, who grew up on Cumberland Street, between Memphis & Cedar (several houses from Memphis Tap), is a journalist, works now for NY POST. He wrote several books, one of which is fiction that is titled "Flatiron: a Collection of Stories." It is loosely autobiographical. I liked it, but then I like local stuff. Bill Mettinger who grew up on Firth Street between Coral & Emerald wrote a book about his childhood called "Kensington Kid: Small Town Life in the 1970s." Non-fiction, but still a good read for a look at the neighborhood in modern times (1970s?). I read a book not too long ago by Daphne Phelps called "A House in Sicily." It's kind of a travel memoir, but enjoyable. Paul Bowles, as sick as them come, put out a "Collected Stories" volume. If you do not know Bowles work, it's a must, a bit old at this point (published 1979, reissued by Black Sparrow 1993). The writer I've been reading lately though is another local guy, born in 1870, died about 1956 or thereabouts. He grew up in South Kensington, St. Michael's Parish. His name is John T. McIntyre. He's a kind of noir writer, predates all those writer that Black Sparrow Press has populized in recent years. I would guess that David Goodis borrowed from him. McIntyre lived on Girard Avenue at one point, between Front & Second. He's father died or deserted when he was a kid, mom died soon after, raised by an aunt. He was a writer, wrote tons of stuff, all sorts of genres as well (mystery, theater, fiction, etc etc). Four of his books were on Philadelphia, and feature Kensington in a couple of them: Steps Going Down (starts off with the lead character flagging down a priest to say last rites to a Prostitute), Ferment (union labor stuff), The Ragged Edge (South Kensington Irish ward politics), and Slag (haven't gotten this one yet, hard to find in original binding).

Two other oldtimers if you haven't read them yet, "Death on the Installment Plan" and "Journey to the Center of the Mind" both by Ferdinand Celine, a favorite of Exisentialists generations....friend of Camus, Sarter, et al, who tried to rehabilitate him after the war (he supported Vichy France). Great books though....

lots of mispellings, sorry about that

Finally, an official acknowledgment of the name Flat Iron, from a historian. Thank you.

Kenzo should like that b

I'm aware that there are some calling a certain area of the neighborhood "Flatiron," but when I was growing up here, Flatiron was one intersection, over by Greensgrow, Almond & Firth, where that big hunk of Iron is on the corner lot that Greensgrow has now. That intersection plus the fact that there was a bar at Letterly & Cedar called Flatiron, that was it (plus the softball team for the bar). I'm not sure where folks got the idea that it was the name of a neighborhood.....

I'm going to read the Game of Thrones books as I think the series is absolutely incredible! Just about anything and everything Christopher Hitchens ever wrote is in a class of its own but I would suggest starting with Hitch-22, his memoir. I always find it best to know about the author before diving into their works. I realize this isn't everyones process but it's one that works for me.

Finally got around to reading A Canticle for Leibowitz, great novel.

Read this more years ago than I can to admit. Didn't know it was still around.

Read Diary of a Mad Fat Girl - amusing, brainless read - good beach book. I also read Defending Jacob - great read - finished in one day.

OK Ken, I am on board with this explanation. From your perspective, given the boundaries that exist today, what is the historic name that is most appropriate for 'Olde Richmond'? Cione?

The Marriage Plot - Jeffrey Eugenides; basically a roman a clef, not as good as Middlesex or The Virgin Suicides

11/22/63 - Stephen King - pretty good, like always he needs a better editor, ending a little disappointing

I'm considering tackling War and Peace this summer - it took me a whole summer to get through Anna Karenina, and I'm not getting anywhere with War and Peace on my phone's Kindle.

Kensington?

i'm holding out for sepviva plantation.

this. the whole area was part of the Kensington District prior to the 1854 Act of Consolidation. We are the Kenso. Resistance is futile.... Oh yeah, I just finished reading the Star Trek "Destiny" trilogy, which was alright. Now onto "A Singular Destiny".

Kensington is too large an area to be effective as an the only neighborhood name.

Seconded.

A Facebook friend from college asked this - all of her responses (except mine) were to read that Fifty Shades of Grey nonsense.

There's something to be said for not being like a lot of ladies my age.

I read a book a week, love books on the civil war and memoir's and I just finished hunger games. Ive read dozen of books on the civil war the best by far is Killer Angels by M. Shaara, as for memoir's try Angela's Ashes by F. McCOURT

I'm not sure where it came from either, however, I too grew up here, and we always called anything past York Street, but before Lehigh Avenue, Aramingo to Trenton, FlatIron. Always. And yes, it did have a killer AC and ball team called the Flat Iron Wildcats. I do my best to try to get it to stick, but it seems like its me and Kenzo, and that's it.

Last book was "The Sisters Brothers" by Patrick DeWitt. Someone said it's a bit like Cormac McCarthy, if he had a sense of humor. A very good & dark gold-rush story.

Current book is "World's End" by T.C. Boyle. Epic family history set in the Hudson River valley that reminds me a lot of Mark Helprin.

Side book for the past year has been "Godel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hofstadter. It's about... loops... and math... and symmetry.

i loved that book. i like a majority of t.c. boyle's stuff. got hooked on his short story Greasy Lake in college, read through a bunch of his novels. East Is East was really good, too.

I played for the Flatiron little leage baseball team in the late 70s. except we played all our games in port richmond at Samuels rec.

I read hunger games as well (didnt everybody?). couldnt put it down.

Angela's Ashes was great too. I thought the follow up book was good too, name escapes me at the moment, but its about his time in America.

Two music/pop culture related books I really liked:

This one perfectly articulates the nagging feeling I've been having that there's just too much fetishism of all things 'retro' Its called 'Retromania'
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/books/review/retromania-by-simon-reynolds-book-review.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
The other one is a recommendation I got after reading Jennifer Egan's 'A Visit From The Goon Squad' (also great)
This one is called Stone Arabia.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/books/stone-arabia-by-dana-spiotta-book-review.html

Read Angela's Ashes - another one I read straight through - 'Tis was the name of sequel and it was a good read but not as good as Angela's Ashes.

I haven't read the Hunger Games, but I did read Koushun Takami's Battle Royale... I can't imagine a story about school children fighting each other to death getting any better than that...

Ha. I was going to suggest Fifty Shades of Grey as a joke. I know way too many people reading it right now and I've heard it's terrible.

"'Tis"?

i never read the book, but i saw the movie battle royale. when the hunger games came out and i read the synopsis, i immediately thought, "blatant ripoff of battle royale".

I'm 53 years old, so "growing up" in the neighborhood means the late 1960s and 1970s and I have to admit, I never heard anyone refer to the neighborhood as Flatiron. I heard the word Flatiron, but not used as a neighborhood, just the intersection mentioned above, plus the bar and the softball team. When I say neighborhood, I'm talking about the boundaries that are mentioned as Flatiron (Frankford to Aramingo, York to Lehigh). We always called this Kensington, Fishtown was below York, Port Richmond east of Aramingo or above Lehigh. These names change. Historically this whole area (Frankford to Aramingo, Lehigh to York) was the District of Richmond, however since the self-governing of the district came rather late (erected 1847, formally designated a district in 1850) the name of "Richmond" has not been as concrete for the section of Richmond below Lehigh Avenue. As the area of the southern part of the parish of St. Anne's filled in and developed, I reckon folks from Kensington were moving in, or like now, new folks, and they brought the Kensington name with them, or the area name more known, thus Kensington was the name many people used. In 1854, Richmond along with all the other districts, boroughs, townships, became part of the city, so there was no real hard line of "Richmond" anymore as per the city was concerned. The opening of new churches pushed borders around as well. If I had to give the Old Richmond area a name, I'd say Richmond, as "Old Richmond" seems to me to refer to the original Port Richmond area, which was centered around Richmond & William Street, above Lehigh Avenue, not below.

Sepviva Plantation mentioned by someone above, was the working plantation of the Norris family, it stretched from Aramingo to Frankford, from Norris Street to a little above Lehigh Avenue. This plantation was built up by Isaac Norris, Sr., when he purchased many land patents that were never taken up by English investors in Penn's Holy Experiment, plus other old estates. The way Penn built his colony was early investors purchased large plots in the hinterland and received a percentage of that acres in "Liberty Land" (hence Northern Liberties) based on the size of the bigger lots in the hinterland, plus received a town lot. So you had your hinterland for a development project, you had your liberty land for your summer retreat or mansion estate, plus your town lot for your store, office, winter home, etc. Norris' hinterland became Norristown, his liberty land was Fairhill Mansion & Estate, plus he bought up other liberty lands not taken up (this became Sepviva Plantation), his town lots were several, including the Slate Roof House (2nd & Sansom). Fairhill Estate went from Frankford to Germantown Avenue, a little above Lehigh down to Norris Street, this sat adjacent to the above mentioned Sepviva Plantation. Both estates passed down in the family to Joseph Parker Norris, who died and divided the estates, his sons getting Fairhill, his daughters Sepviva. The sons quickly set up a land company, allowed the District of Kensington to incorporate Fairhill Estate into Kensington, Kensington laying out streets, utilities, the brothers land company selling off the lots. The sisters on the hand had husbands to deal with, bickering ensued, law suits, etc, the estate wasn't developed until after the Civil War. St. Anne's was one of the few lots sold in the 1840s (1845). Eventually the sisters got their act together and the area developed mostly post Civil War. The Sepviva Plantation and the ensuing lawsuits amongst the Norris sisters was the main reason the area of Richmond did not extend down below Lehigh Avenue in the 1840s-1850s. Perhaps from this story you can come up with a creative name for the area? Sister's Estates?

According to some older Fishtowners I know the norh/east bondary of Fishtown was Norris not York

Any book by Neal Stephenson. I think Stein would like his writing.

I need more/better suggestions people. Summer is here

I'll see your Neal Stephenson and raise you a China Mieville.

Sorry but I can only read in English.

I looked him up. I might actually pick up one of his books

Perdido Street Station is particularly good.

And I should start at the beginning

I really liked 'The city and the city' for the first 80% or so. Then it seemed like he didn't know how to wrap up the ending and kind of phoned it in.
I did just start 'Railsea' and its good so far, but I am afraid that he will also drop the ball for the ending too.
As for Neal Stephenson, I read 'Snow Crash' when I was in high school and have loved all his books since then. It seems like a lot of people didn't like 'Anathem', but its one of the most enjoyable books I've read in along time.

have to admit i didnt make it thru Anathem

I finished the Dragon Tattoo trilogy a few weeks ago, it took me over a year to crack open the 2nd book but I am glad I did.

This morning I finished Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson. I laughed all the way through it, same silly nonsense as S**t My Dad Says (which I also enjoyed) & My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler, Good trash too

The Hunger Games trilogy took a weekend which means I couldn't put it down.
Heaven is For Real was a quick & nice one.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot... excellent story,
Sookie Stackhouse series is fun.
Life by Keith Richards... I enjoyed very much

Hated Rob Lowe's book, Stories I only Tell My Friends.

I have a nook and I love it. I can purchase the next book in a series without getting off the sofa. It's a great gadget and a real space saver.

How about Atlas Shrugged? Give it a try even though it is 500+ pages of social commentary. lol

th shrugged.

The other author you mentioned, I looked him up. Are his books like Gravities Rainbow but with linear narrative?

I just saw that David Cronenberg's making Cosmopolis by Don Delillo into a movie. Looks cool.
Every line in the trailer is totally Delillo.

It's a really short, but dense book. One of my favorites.

I'm sure nooks and kindles are awesome, but I feel like this is a good place to plug Port Richmond Books: 3307 Richmond Street, Phila, PA 19134 (215) 425-3385

If you've never been, it's totally worth the visit, and if you have been- remember it's there and go again.

Greg Gillespie is absolutely wonderful and his prices are great. Not the best organized joint, but if you know what you're looking for he can usually find it for you. If you stop by on a weekend you might find a room of old-timers sharing cookies and telling stories.

Sorry never read Gravity's Rainbow or anything by Pynchon. I've thought about it though

I read through a ridiculous legal thriller this last weekend - "The Brass Verdict" - sequel to "The Lincoln Lawyer". It was a fun read but made me wonder why my cases are never quite as interesting.

That's a challenge to all of you, by the way…

1Q84 by Murakami

I really dug Windup Bird Chronicles and Kafka by the Shore was pretty good, but I'd heard 1Q84 was a huge disappointment and skipped it. hmm.

i heard 1Q84 was good, but not as good as windup bird or kafka. it's funny, i absolutely loved windup bird, but the people in my old book club (to whom i suggested reading it) hated it! i also really loved kafka on the shore. murakami is a genius.

I read "The Wind Through the Keyhole" by Stephen King. It was nice to revisit my friends on the Path of the Beam.

Reading the first book of GOT now.

I'll give 1Q84 a try... Bulgakov's Master and Margarita is my favorite book of all time, and I've had some tough luck convincing others of its greatness.

Also, your quote inspires me to say that Infinite Jest was one of the roughest summer reads of my life. I'm still not sure whether I loved or hated it.

Here it is. The next book you're going to read. Not only is the book a work of art but the books backstory is almost as interesting. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Read it. Love it. Immerse yourself in it. You're welcome.

IJ took me three months to read (flipping back and forth between the chapters and the endnotes was definitely a pain), but i am utterly enamored with it. it will always have a place in my top 5.

also in my top five. oh, fortuna!

I love this book too!
I read "An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination" in one sitting over the weekend. Sad, but so incredibly well written.