Friday, December 30, 2005

Book stack gone mad

Now that the holiday hubbub is settled down to a steady pace, very much eased by the nice long Christmas break for my dear husband and Son1, I've started in on my after-Christmas-Day reading.

I decided to finally start reading about the Balkans, Rwanda, and so on after a failed attempt a while ago (upon finishing The Bone Woman, see below). Causes: my nonfiction book club started in November, with Guns, Germs, and Steel, and though I hadn't barely made a dent in the book -- it was November, eek! -- the discussion got me interested in both tackling the book again and learning more about genocide. Then I volunteered The Bone Woman for our January book, so why not. Bosnia and Rwanda, here I come. Tonight I read a good chunk of The Balkans: A Short History.

Here's my current book stack, more or less, almost all from the library.

Audubon First Field Guide: Night Sky
Looking Through a Telescope
...because we can see stars by 6 pm at this time of year.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
...January book for my MOMS Club fiction book group.
The Botany of Desire: A Plant's Eye View of the World
...February book for my nonfiction book club.
The Bone Woman: A Forensic Anthropologist's Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo by Clea Koff
...January book for my nonfiction book club. I highly recommend it, even if you never would imagine reading a book on this topic -- like me.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
...last November's book for my nonfiction book club. And therefore:
The Balkans: a short history
Madness Visible: A Memoir of War
Beyond the Mountains of the Damned: The War Inside Kosovo
A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide -- I actually bought this book.
(requested: We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda)

Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt
...I'm curious about this book, a completely different topic for Anne Rice, about the boy Jesus.

The Good Son: Shaping the Moral Development of Our Boys and Young Men by Michael Gurian
Raising Musical Kids: A Guide for Parents
Homeschooling: The Middle Years
...Son1 has been having puzzling difficulties with school and I really like this book The Good Son; I want to incorporate more music into our lives; I really like the HSing, the Early Years book.

Crewel Yule and Embroidered Truths by Monica Ferris
...and a LOT of other themed murder mysteries (coffeehouse, scrapbooking, knitting). Fun!

Handknit Holidays by Melanie Falick
The Knitter's Companion
Knitting in Plain English by Maggie Righetti
...it was time for some fun inspiration, plus a rereading of solid foundation books.

No comments: