What I’m Reading

~ Laura

I’m catching up on a stack of reading this week. Everything is half read, so no reviews. Here’s what’s on my coffee table and e-reader.

  • The Third Coast: When Chicago Built the American Dream – My dad handed me this book last week. We share a great love of Chicago. He grew up on the South Side, and I lived there for two years.
  • Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes, Revised 25th Anniversary Edition – A friend who is going through a transition bought this for me. I’m not going through a transition, but she wanted some feedback on it. We’re having drinks next week. Better crack that spine.
  • Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life – Two months ago, this was the assignment for the book club. I didn’t get the book in time for the meeting, but it looks good. A graphic novel about Austria teenagers bumming through Europe in the mid-1980s. Since I was a teenager in the mid-1980s who spent a few weeks bumming through Europe, I really must finish this book.
  • The Interestings: A Novel – This was this month’s book club book, which I also didn’t finish in time for the meeting. Yesterday, I read about 100 pages in the public library and a coffee shop. Teenagers in New York City in the mid-1980s and then how their lives develop. It’s nice when authors are my age. The characters in this book are also my type of people, so this is a fun read.
  • Crossroads: How the Blues Shaped Rock ‘n’ Roll (and Rock Saved the Blues) – My brother handed me this book last week. The book describes a time when blues music suddenly became popular, so young, white, Jewish record producers ran down South looking for old black blues singers. Some of these old  dudes hadn’t played a guitar in decades and had to be retaught guitar before being shoved in front of audiences. Sounds like a Coen brothers movie.
  • The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success – I’m really interested in Megan’s primary thesis that failure leads to success, because… well… failure and I are old friends.

Published by Laura

18 thoughts on “What I’m Reading”

  2. I read The Wife by Wolitzer. It was good, though also very irritating. I’m looking for Interesting in the library. I think I’ll break down and buy it when it’s available in paperback (I hate reading hardback books).

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  3. I’m reading Wikipedia, randomly and for extended periods of time. Because I have a lot of work to finish.

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      1. The founder of my hometown has a wikipedia page that doesn’t list the founding of my hometown and calls him stupid. Because Canadians aren’t as nice as everyone says.

        The webpage of my hometown says that he founded the town the year after he died, which I think is just poor editing.

        I feel the need to fix both of these.

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    1. I remember a few years ago when food coloring in the frosting at a kid’s birthday party really gave me a scare.

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    2. This is how I convinced my kids to eat beets. “You’ll pee purple!” They thought that would be awesome!

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    3. It only took me eight clicks to get from your beet-urine link to the page of the founder of my town.

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    4. There are worse side effects to eating too many beets than just colored pee. You certainly remember how healthy they are as they blaze a trail through your intestines.

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