What I'm Reading Now

The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendelsohn.

It's a nonfiction book about this guy's seach through geneology and regional history in Poland to find out what happened to his grandfather's brother, brother's wife and four daughters, which he grew up hearing about only as those "killed by the Nazis." So far, it's well written, if a little oddly organized, but I'm only 65 pages in.

This will probably end up being my last book of the quarter, since it's more than 500 pages and I've only got 2 weeks left until school work begins.

This quarter I read:

The Jester by James Patterson --> not the normal James Patterson, a.k.a. not a murder mystery, but I enjoyed it. Takes place during the Crusades.

The Brothers Karamozov by Fyodor Dostoyesvsky (sp?) --> A good book, especially right after taking criminal trial practice. It's about brothers (obvi) and the subsequent murder of their father and the trial of one of the brothers. Of course, it takes until nearly page 700 for the murder and trial to occur, but whatevs. At times it was hard to follow (it is 19th century russian), but worth the trouble.

Manhunt by James Swanson --> about Lincoln's killers and their escape/capture after the assassination. VERY good. I would definitely recommend this, even if you're not normally a nonfiction person because it read like a novel. It always fascinates me when a writer can make something that compelling and suspenseful to a reader even knowing how it ends.

I then attempted A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess and couldn't get through the first 20 pages. It's written in Cockney English and it was way too hard. I have the movie on my Netflix queue, so I might make another attempt after seeing the movie and having a basic plot understanding.

The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch by Michael Wolff --> I found this to be very interesting. I've only known Rupert Murdoch as a bad man and the owner of Fox News, but this made him more human. I kind of like him now... I mean, you can't blame him for trying to make money, and once you find out he's ashamed of Fox News and HATES Bill O'Reilly, you realize he can't be that bad.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger --> This is one of my all-time favorite books. I was reading it for the second time and with every turn of the page I remembered why I loved it. It's a love story between a regular woman, Clare, and a man, Henry, who has a time traveling gene and how they handle his constant disappearances. It's a beautiful love story and she does a great job weaving the time periods together to make a clear, touching story. I definitely recommend this book, and you should read it before the movie comes out this summer!