Nominate a book for everyone to read in this thread.

Give us the title, author, genre and if you like, any other recommendations you've heard about the book.

Once we choose a book to read, we'll make a new thread to discuss it.

Yay!

I think this is a wonderful idea, however since I pretty much only read 2 specific authours, I dont think I would be very good at choosing a book.  (unless everyone wants to read the latest by Grisham or Patterson).  I will be glad to attempt any that are suggessted though.

Well, I think I have a suggestion. I have a book that I bought a few months ago but haven't cracked it yet because there are so many others ahead of it to read.

It's a fictional novel called "The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time" by Mark Haddon.

Here's what the back of the book says;

"Christopher John  Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057.  He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow.

This improbable story of Christopher's quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for one of the most captivating, unusual, and widely heralded novels in recent  years."

Check out this site for reviews and more info on the book. If the site turns out to be a dud (I have dial up and it was taking  f o r e v e r   to load), go here and pick your favorite site.

How 'bout you, nomo? Any book ideas?

I have a non-fiction, but very entertaining book nomination:  Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: a Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver.

From the back cover of the book: "This is the story...of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breeathed the air."

Continued on the back cover: Author Barbara Kingsolver (The Bean Trees, The Poinsonwood Bible, etc.) and her family abandoned the industrial-food pipeline to live a rural life, vowing that for one year they'd only buy food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is an enthralling narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat.

This book is so very current to our times and happenstances: it informs different ways of relating to food and food choices. It also addresses very appropriately the current economic crisis at hand. Last, but not least, it happens to be a very good read...I had a hard time putting it down. I mean, where else would you find info about turkey sex? -- and why that is such an important issue!

PS: She doesn't advocate everyone leaving the city for rural life...it really does speak to everyone.

Here's one for you, yes, I've been raving about it for a while now, but Christopher Paolini's 3rd book has been released. Brisinger!  If you haven't read books 1 (Eragon) and 2 (Eldest) don't sweat it, Christopher wrote in a synopsis of the first two books to catch you up.

I'm such a fan that I had pre-ordered mine. It arrived saturday and all I will say is that I'm 370pgs into the 748pg book.

Go check it out.  It's a good read - especially if you are into sci-fi. :)

I love sci-fi...will do! thanks.

This book would maybe a good one to nominate for the 'book to be read'  The Year of Living Biblically even has a discussion guide to challenge the brain along with a couple of recipes and a 10 point challenge.

The following is an excerpt:

SAMPLE CHAPTER

They shall be stoned with stones, their blood shall be upon them
Leviticus 20:27

Day 64. It’s been more than a month since my mixed fiber adventure. Time for me to tackle the second item on my list of Most Perplexing Laws. Capital Punishment.

The Hebrew scriptures prescribe a tremendous amount of capital punishment. Think Saudi Arabia, multiply by Texas, then triple that. It wasn’t just for murder. You could also be executed for adultery, blasphemy, breaking the Sabbath, perjury, incest, bestiality and witchcraft, among others. A rebellious son could be sentenced to death. As could a gluttonous or a drunkardly son.

The most commonly mentioned punishment method in the Hebrew Bible is stoning. So I figure, at the very least, I should try to stone. But how?

I can’t tell you how many people have suggested I get adulterers and blasphemers stoned in the cannabis sense. Which is an interesting idea. But I haven’t smoked pot since I was at Brown University and I wrote a paper for my anthropology class on the hidden symbolism of bong hits. (Brown was the type of college where this paper actually earned a B+).

Instead, I figured my loophole would be this: the bible doesn’t specify the size of the stones. So…pebbles.

A few days ago, I gathered a handful of small white pebbles from Central Park, which I stuffed in my back pants pocket. Now all I needed were some victims. I decide to start with Sabbath breakers. That’s easy enough to find in this workaholic city. I noticed a pot-bellied guy at the Avis down our block had worked on both Saturday and Sunday. So no matter what, he’s a Sabbath-breaker.

Here’s the thing, though: Even with pebbles, it is surprisingly hard to stone people.

My plan had been to walk nonchalantly past him and chuck the pebbles at the small of his back. But after a couple of failed passes, I realized it was a bad idea. A chucked pebble, no matter how small, does not go unnoticed.

My revised plan: I would pretend to be clumsy and drop the pebble on his shoe. So I did.

And in this way I stoned. But it was probably the most polite stoning in history – I said ‘I’m sorry,’ and then leaned down to pick up the pebble. And he leaned down at the same time, and we almost butted heads, and then he apologized, then I apologized again.

Highly unsatisfying.

Today, I get another chance. I am resting in a small public park on the Upper West Side, the kind where you see retirees eating tuna sandwiches on benches.

“Hey, you’re dressed queer.”

I look over. The speaker is an elderly man, mid-70s I’d guess. He is tall and thin and is wearing of those caps that cabbies wore in movies from the Forties.

“You’re dressed queer,” he snarls. “Why you dressed so queer.” I have on my usual fringes, and, for good measure, have worn some sandals and am carrying a knotty maple walking stick I’d bought on the Internet for $25.

“I’m trying to live by the rules of the Bible. The 10 commandments, stoning adulterers…”

“You’re stoning adulterers?”

“Yeah, I’m stoning adulterers.”

“I’m an adulterer.”

“You’re currently an adulterer?”

“Yeah. Tonight, tomorrow, yesterday, two weeks from now. You gonna stone me?”

“If I could, yes, that’d be great.”

“I’ll punch you in the face. I’ll send you to the cemetery.”

He is serious. This isn’t a cutesy grumpy old man. This is an angry old man. This is a man with seven decades of hostility behind him.

I fish out my pebbles from my back pocket.

“I wouldn’t stone you with big stones,” I say. “Just these little guys.”

I open my palm to show him the pebbles. He lunges at me, grabbing one out of my hand, then chucking it at my face. It whizzes by my cheek.

I am stunned for a second. I hadn’t expected this elderly man to make the first move. But now there is nothing stopping me from retaliating. An eye for an eye.

I take one of the remaining pebbles and whip it at his chest. It bounces off.

“I’ll punch you right in the kisser,” he say.

“Well, you really shouldn’t commit adultery,” I say.

That is my nomination.

The amazing adventures of diet girl by Shauna Reid.

It started out as the personal blog of a young woman in Australia who went from 350lbs to about 170 lbs over the course of four years. The best part is, through her writing you can see the changes that her personality is undergoing, as well, there is a sectionwith picture inserts so you can see where she started and where she is now.

It changed my life, seriously, everyone who has ever been on a diet should read this book!

L.

sounds good...I'll look it up on amazon...

Kingsolver's book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is changing mine -- and very appropriate for our time: how to become self-sufficient. The basic premise is one purported by the Slow Movement: eat food that is seasonal and locally grown. It puts food in the right perspective. Very inspirational: I'm looking into making my own cheese! Mozzarella takes 30 minutes! How cool is that! Ricotta, cottage cheese, and sour cream are other easy-to-make items. What's interesting is when you eat this way, vegetables come first. Anyway, it's motivational. 

I have heard the Kingsolver book is very good, and I think I heard her talk about it on NPR.

So which book has been selected as the community read?

I know this is an old thread, and the book isn't really related to dieting so much as it is about self discovery and being true to yourself but, 'Don't Bite the Sun' by Tanith Lee

Original Post by kingmedia:

This book would maybe a good one to nominate for the 'book to be read'  The Year of Living Biblically even has a discussion guide to challenge the brain along with a couple of recipes and a 10 point challenge.

Sounds really amusing!  Have we got a group together to start reading it yet?

Sounds funny enough! Will Amazon give us a discount like Oprah's Book Club?!!! (Tee-hee-hee!)  Seriously, I'll get a copy soon and make it a holiday read.

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry... I'm a big fan of his, great characters and another author I recommend is W.P. Kinsella, but NOT his baseball books, he's written a few books with short stories about life on a reserve in Canada, rather amusing, he writes with a great sense of humour. 

J

I have started reading The Year of Living Biblically. It's a hoot! I also foresee there will be the reward of much insight in the end.

The year of living biblically does looks like a good read from the exerpt. thanks will try to get ahold of one

I got mine @ amazon...about $12.

I'm up to November.

It's an intriguing read so far...and more than a few laughs.

Let me know when you start...I'm not moving as fast as usual through it in that I have so much work around here to do...too many deadlines.

I can't wait to read Animal Vegetable Miracle... I posted below in the wrong section so I will try again.

read anything by chuck palahnuik... (sp?) ... he is great at taking social norms and twisting them until you are ill.. i haven't read Snuff yet... but waiting on softcover...

right now i am reading the Lonesome Dove series... 1. Dead Man Walking 2. Comanche Moon 3. Lonesome Dove and 4. Streets of Laredo.

I just finished Comanche Moon (brutal) and now am rereading Lonesome Dove.. wanted to read them all in order... John Updike just died, so I plan to read Witches of Eastwick next.

I do so love to read...

I also have just ordered Skinny Bitches and the Abs Diet... i am always looking for some sort of guidance!

We've got a lot of nominations - how do we get to a selection process?  I think it would be great to read a book a month.

In my non-CC book club, each member picks a book and we make a list (one a month).  No voting, no need for consensus, fiction/nonfiction doesn't matter, the only rule is the book must be currently available in paperback. 

Anyone else like the idea of just developing a list from the current involved members of the group and going for it?

The down-side/up-side would be that this list would take months to get through at the pace of one book a month (down-side), which means we would all need to maintain our participation in this group and CC (upside).