Here's one we haven't done in a few years! Anybody out there reading for pleasure these days? I've managed to read a couple (and I do mean a couple) of books in the last month or two:

1. Daughters of Men: Portraits of African American Women & Their Fathers
This is a collection of essays by famous, and not so famous women about their fathers'.

2. Odd Hours - Dean Koontz's 4th book featuring Odd Thomas, the Pico Mundo fry cook who sees dead people.

Just finished the Fifth Woman, another Henning Makell atmospheric police procedural from Sweden. He wrote 9 of them. Also just finished In The Prescence of the Enemy, the 7th outing of Inspector Lynley by Elizabeth George. Always a good read. I'm also reading all the Bill Pronzini "Nameless Detective" books in order. Recently finished reading the Sherlock Holmes stories in order; was surprised by how fresh and well written they were. PS: I read a lot. Usually knock off at least one book a week.

Mis-typed. It's Henning Mankell. Great writer.

Wow! One book a week! That's great! I myself am going for one book a month.

I was sick for a year when I was 13. It got me in the habit of reading. Now in my 50's and the habit remains....funny how sometimes "bad" things turn out pretty ok.

I am currently reading "Walking in Circles Before Lying Down" by Merrill Markoe.

I'm reading a couple of books at the same time (well, not at EXACTLY the same time! you know what I mean) -

"The Importance of Music to Girls" - a memoir from an English writer, Lavinia Greenlaw about growing up in England in the 70s

and "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch.

Ken
http://www.kennavarro.com

If you haven't yet read Interpreter of Maladies, by Jumpa Lahiri, do so immediately. Her first book, it won the Pulitzer and the Hemingway Pen. A true delight. Available in paperback. Avoid the Kite Runner: melodramatic, contrived, manipulative. And avoid anything by Dan Brown; commercial hypercaffeinated crap. His Angels and Demons is the single worst book I have ever read.

I tried to get into "Everything I Needed to Know I learned in Kindergarten" but found it to be an unenaging spate of personal opinion on the part of the author.

I did read "Who Moved My Cheese" recently, and enjoyed that. If you haven't read it, it's about accepting change, letting go of old situations that have died, and moving on to new and usually better circumstances.

I'm about to read "Critical Chain" by Eli Goldratt, which is his application of the Theory of Constraints to project management. Just finished a course in Project Management and am finding myself involved in more and more projects lately, so I think it'll be a good read.

Wow! I actually liked Angels & Demons. I'm awaiting his new one that takes place in DC.

Oh, well. Different strokes.

I find myself reading bass books, or practicing my bass when I have any kind of spare time. Bookwise I'm really getting into "MUSIC THEORY" by David Harp...(who's snoring?)

Seriously though I did buy John Grisham's latest endeavor a few months ago and so far all I've read is the cover and title...er, ah... which I can't even tell you because I don't know where the book is at the moment. Probably buried under the bass books. Sorry! Well, uh, when I find the book I'll share the title with you.

Well, BillyG, at least you're putting your reading time to good use! Won't be long now, we'll be reviewing your first CD!

Most of my reading lately has been business related, technical manuals, etc. And of course the obligatory loose translations into English from Taiwanese or something, while trying to build my computer.....however, as far as Dan Brown goes, I haven't read the Angels.. one, but found the DaVinci code to be a great read. I know the book is bunk, factually all over the place and lots of liberties taken, but hey- it's fiction, people.
To be honest, I just don't have the time to read for the fun of it. Maybe when vacation comes in August, I'll find one to get absorbed into.
Oh yeah- one interesting read (to me anyway) is a book I inherited from my sister in law, when she recently moved. Her husband was a Corvette guy, had a 68 convertible and a 75 with the removable roof panels. He had an old book, simply called Corvette, by Karl Ludvigsen. Covers the car from inception to about 73. Believe it or not, makes for a good read, has lots of behind the scenes looks at what decisions drove the design and marketing changes over the years, and is a very insightful look at the car industry of the 50's thru early 70's. And of our country, I guess- our machines influence us as much as we influence the makers of them.
OK, so yeah- pretty sad, huh.....

Just finished a very interesting book, Naked: Black Women Bare All About Their Skin, Hair, Hips, Lips, and Other Parts, by Akiba Solomon and Ayana Byrd. It's a collection of essays by black women, famous and not so famous, discussing their race, body image, color, etc. A quick but enlightening read. I definitely saw myself in a lot of their stories.

Women that bare it all? That does sound interesting Mary. Curious you saw yourself. If I read it, how would I recognize you? Oh! Wait; Not that I want to see you bare...uh; no, not that I wouldn't want to...er, ahh, ... I mean, no, not to say I would want to see... I mean, It's not that I don't want to ... uh; well no, I don't mean that I want, uh; umm, uh oh. You know what I mean. Don't you? (Any pictures in that book?)

The Innocent Man is the title of the Grisham I bought and haven't cracked the cover yet.

I think I'll get the Solomon & Byrd...for, uh, my mom. Yeah!

Can I ask a candid question? Other than skin and hair, aren't the topics relative to all women, regardless of race? Most women have body image issues (as opposed to men who will remove shirts and drop trow for most any reason regardless of their appearance!) I read some of the reviews of this book, and mostly it's a personal self-esteem issue, which to me, crosses all party lines. And the media helps no one by trying to dictate the "perfect" image.

And Billy...you need to quit while you're ahead. That ditch you're digging yourself into is getting deeper! HAHA!

Hi Bonnie!
I put the shovel away - at least for now anyway. I didn't think your question was directed to anyone in particular, but posed more for discussion. Not being a woman I can't speak to the topics, however for the majority of my life there have been few situations where I think race did not matter. Now I'm headed to Barnes & Noble because you both have me really curious now. I'd really be interested in hearing my wife's input after reading the book. You?

And hey; this man is not dropping trow for anybody for any reason unless the price is right and I get paid first. Ain't nobody catching this masterpiece for free! You don't come by specimens like me everyday you know!

Got it. Nearly 50 miles one way to a B&N that had it. The first one, which is only 35 miles away didn't have it. What a trek, but a great evening for a motorcycle ride! I doubt I'll get the book read tonight; I just got back at 9:00.

LMBO, Billy, you're nuts, dude. Love ya.
As to Bonnie's question, I agree with Billy in not being able to speak to the topics, but being black and living in Mississippi, almost everything in our culture - for better or worse - has a racial element. I will say that any advice given on those subjects can be beneficial to women of all cultures. However, I think the purpose in targeting black women is because mainstream society often forgets all things wholesome and beautiful don't begin and end with historic European standards of straight hair, thin noses, blond hair and narrow hips. Women whose physical characteristics are largely dictated by African ancestry aren't appreciated by the masses as much as their white counterparts are. Widespread admiration of Beyonce Knowles and Halle Barry only goes so far.
Movies, television and even novels have always celebrated the beautiful white women of our world. One side effect of that is that it's not just white men who are fascinated with Jayne Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe, Raquel Welch, Anjelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Joyce Cooling (sorry, Billy), etc. Get saturated with enough of that, and eventually black women start to question their worth in this society. Not all do, but on a societal level, it's a very real concern.
*shameless plug alert*
This fall, I'm directing a play called "Playing Juliet / Casting Othello." In the Juliet portion, Georgia is a black actress who feels she was cast as Juliet to make a political statement in a mixed-race production. Throughout, she questions the director's decision to cast her instead of the light-skinned Lorraine (think Jasmine Guy) as Romeo's love interest. And despite being told she's beautiful by the other actors and her boyfriend, Georgia believe she's ugly because she's dark and thick.
It's fiction and it's largely a comedy, but I've known several women who see things as Georgia does. You and I might see her as drop-dead gorgeous because we don't judge by skin color. But that doesn't stop her from thinking she's unattractive. The world has told her for too long that she's too large and too dark-skinned to matter.
I hope this helps.

Yes, we are all women, so a lot of it pertains to women, period. But, the skin, hair, and a few other things are relative to women of color, and these stories are told by them.

And Billy, you crack me up!

Woody...thanks for the detail in your explanation and perception of this topic. I find discussions like this very informative and thank G*D that we are all civil enough here to have them. I love you guys! [sniff!]

However, without reading the book for myself, and just going by the synopsis and reviews I've read, it sounds like it can relate to any culture, race, or even religion. You know what I mean...hey, I'm Jewish, eastern European background. Stereotypical big nose...the Jewish look. You've all seen it and heard it, maybe even said it.

What I am saying is that body image and self-esteem is something across all party lines And, as you said, Woody, too many times the movie stars, actresses and yes, smooth jazz guitarists are portrayed differently then everyday folks.

It's that old judging a book by it's cover and not by it's content. All I can say, is thankfully my husband is attracted to the Jewish nose!!!

I don't think you have a big nose!

I'm 700 pages into Ken Follett's "World Without End" the follow-up to "Pillars of the Earth" which is one of my all time fave books. I got on the waiting list for it in Feb and didn't get it until early July! While this one is not as strong as the original and some critics have said the plot isn't well constructred I'm enjoying it..what I love about both these books is that when you read them you feel like you are living in that world (14th Century England in this case).

Someone left a copy of John Grisham's "The Innocent Man" in the break room at work and I started reading it there. I'll probably read that when I finish Follett.

I enjoyed "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns" But I agree about Dan Brown..I don't try to plod through books that don't hold my attention anymore. I just put them down, which is what I did with that one.

As for the sub-topic here: My feeling is that the standard for "beauty" that we impose on women today is unattainable and brutally unrealistic. And what is sad is that now women who cannot attain and maintain that standard are on the receiving end of so much cruelty. It's perfectly OK now to point out to average looking women that they are "ugly" by contemporary standards and impress your male friends by calling them names and making "clever" comments. But guess what..those people in magazines don't look like that either when their cadre of stylists, makeup artists and photoshop geniuses go home. Some of them look pretty close to...average people.

As for the sub-topic, I think the bar for the standard for beauty HAS been lowered to a more realistic approach over the last 10 years. The Hollywood check-out magazines seem obsessed with pointing out how flabby and out of shape celebrities really are. Most diet commercials on TV (Jenny Craig, etc.) don't show hot bikini babes but "normal" sized looking women that certainly are not modeling material and may even need to lose more weight, but the message that comes across is that they have succeeded, and that's good! Even Bally's commercials have gone away from totally hot and buff models in their commercials to models (actors?) that are much more wholesome and normal looking. Even fashions seem about baggy, loose and comfortable to "help" hide a persons not so perfect figure. Even clothing sizes in stores have gotten bigger to accommodate the obesity epidemic. Heck, good luck finding clothes if you are normal sized these days.

I've noticed that in the new Nair commercials, the women - while still thin, are more fleshy than their past counterparts. As a teen, I enjoyed those "Nair for short-shorts" ads, but thought the models - except for the "token" black girl - were way too skinny. The group I see in the new ads are still thin, but not waifish. The world is slowly coming around to realizing that super-thin is not only unhealthy but is also not a realistic impression of beauty.
Change comes slowly, but at least it's coming.
That's why I was so happy to see Sanaa Lathan get some lead roles in movies. She's not 20 and skinny. She's in her upper 30s and looks a lot more like people I see every day than the typical theatrical beauty.

Hey!

I managed to get through the foreword and the introduction. If what follows is equally as interesting it should be a good read.

Sonia Sanchez really hits the nail on the head in the foreword when relating the incident of stereotypical identification. That type of "thing" is common to black men as well.

One thing that really struck me was the last paragraph of the introduction: All told, Naked is an entry point, a way to get mothers talking to daughters, women talking to men, and, most significant, women talking to themselves about how to form our identities, claim our ideals, and come to terms with the relationship we have with our bodies. Nothing less than our humanity is at stake.

In case some of you are wondering why a guy would be interested in something like this, I can tell you there are a couple of reasons. One is I enjoy a good book when I have time to read. Another is I'm always looking for ways to help relate to this woman I've been married to for more than half my life. Every little bit helps.

SH mentioned the Jenny Craig ads, and I commend them having Queen Latifah as one of their spokesperson. She's definitely not a twiggy, nor is she trying to be. I like how she takes the emphasis off size numbers, and goes more for a "size healthy," whatever that is for the individual. I think that's more important, and, more realistic. Remember a couple of months ago when there was all that flack over the bikini photos of Jennifer Love Hewitt? They were calling her fat! She's far from it.

Billy, glad you decided to read the book. I commend your reasons for wanting to read it. As I said before, I see myself in some of those stories. Let me know what you think about it when you get through it.

Mmmm. Latifah. Now there's one large woman I find exceptionally gorgeous. And, regardless of size, a lot has to do with the smile. She's got one of the most beautiful smiles among celebrities that I've ever seen.

I just finished a book that Bonnie loaned me awhile back, "But Enough About Me: A Jersey Girl's Unlikely Adventures Among the Absurdly Famous." The author is a former writer for Rolling Stone, and she tells about that life, and her Jersey upbringing. Funny stuff! Shannon, I think you'd like this one.

This is a great thread!

LibraLady-- I've been really wanting to read that!

I've gotten some really good recommendations lately but I'm ashamed to admit that I have yet to get my library card here! This is pretty disgraceful, but my daughter isn't exactly library-ready-- she likes to hear her own voice as loud as she can. I have to make it a point to go on a weekend, already.

I did just finish two books-- one, "I Was Such A Good mom Until I Had Kids" is fantastic for moms. It gave me a lot of lightbulb moments about the pressure we put on ourselves as mothers to do everything perfectly when it's not possible to do so-- at least I do this. Great insight from the authors and even better, they include quotes from a bunch of people they spoke to while researching the book. I definitely got a lot out of this slim volume!

The other was a graphic novel called Clubbing by Andi Howard, in which a London goth girl with a good wit gets sent to her grandparents' golf course in a provencial town for the summer, and a murder mystery develops. It was pleasant, I'm a sucker for British characters but the "mystery" element was pretty obvious to me early on. (does anyone else read comix, manga or graphic novels?)

meanwhile, my husband is listening to middlesex on audiobook (he has a monster commute) and when he comes home talking about it, it makes me want to pick that one up again. LOVE that book.

Billy-- you are awesome for seeking out that book.

I can never understand the body issue brought up in the book in its context. But as far as general body issues, as I'm raising a daughter it's something that concerns me. I used to work in publishing so I know how fake the media image is and plan on being very very frank about this through her life.

I have read about studies where it's found that young women get cues about their own beauty by what their mother says about herself. Different girls with serious body issues would say that they would watch their moms look at themselves in the mirror and say how fat they were, or how ugly they were. Thankfully I don't do either-- I like me!-- but like anyone else I'll mindlessly throw out a comment about needing to shed a few pounds. Now, I try to keep this to myself!

It's got to start young, too. Surprisingly I've noticed how much little girl clothing veers to the skimpy. I'm no prude, but I like childhood to last a long time. I am surprised at what passes for little girls' wear. They are not small adults!

Knowing/admitting that you need to shed "a few pounds" is healthy.
Obsessing about it is not.

true, but my general point is being a good example.

Exactly. It's in the home. Lead by example. Nine times out of 10. Heavy, unhealthy parents = heavy unhealthy kids. Encourage "wellness", good eating habits and exercise and you are well ahead of the game. This in itself will do wonders for self image.

Just had to let you all know about a book I stumbled upon at a recent visit to my local library (I LOVE the library!) called "The Soloist" by Steve Lopez. It is a non-fiction book by Mr. Lopez, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, about a homeless, mentally ill man he encounters on the streets of LA by the name of Nathaniel Ayers. Ayers is playing his heart out on a beat up two string violin and Lopez thinks he could be good material for a column. It goes from there. It is an incredible story about music, mental illness and second chances. I'm still in the middle of it but felt compelled to share it with my friends here at magicisland.

Ken

Sounds like a very interesting story Ken. It's amazing where people find their inspiration.

I just finished reading "The Shack," which was referred by a fellow music lover (even though it's not about music at all.) Very interesting story about a man who suffers a tremendous tragedy and, as a result of that, meets God at this shack. God is not who or what he anticipated. I don't want to give it away, but, it's a very interesting read, and, it makes you think.

Thanks for that recommendation - I'm definitely going to check out "The Shack" as soon as I finish "The Soloist". FYI - Much to my surprise, I just heard that The Soloist has been made into a movie with Jamie Foxx starring.