Toadfish Monastery

just about to start God's Terrorists, The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad.

Given up on p.25 of the non-Booker prize-winner and sending it to the chairty shop.

So.

Onwards.

Cold Hit  Linda Fairstein


A gift from sister at least 2 christmas's ago. As unappealing and stuckworthy as the previous p.25 fiasco, but because it is also badly written and apalling literature, am able to turn pages so actual stuckness is less worrying.

More on chemical law.
Somebody had a strange sense of humor there. The programs to implement the new European law on chemicals (REACH) are officially named RIP (REACH Implementation Programs). Given the intense dislike of the law by the inductry that seems apt and ominous.

Shouldn't worry Swato. We're all going to be dead soon anyway. Perhaps a chemical disaster may be preferable to some of the others looming.

The Master Gardener's Handbook

600 pages of yumpcious botanical facts!

American Gods, by Neil Gamian

The Big Over Easy, by Jasper Fforde

and

rereading Going Postal, by Sir Terry Pratchett

<I really need to get a copy of Making Money>

Right now I am rereading Koontz's "The Face".

This:

http://www.rhgdigital.co.uk/blogs/lostintranslation/wp-content/themes/simpla/simpla/images/lit_paperback.jpg
http://www.lostintranslationbook.com/

Samples:

If this is your first visit to the USSR, you are welcome to it

Ladies, please rinse out your teapots standing upside down in sink. In no event should hot bottoms be placed on counter.

This hotel is renowned for its peace and solitude. In fact, crowds from all over the world flock here to enjoy its solitude.

This cute mild curry uses 100% Japanese apple and cheerful hamster

Soft and mild, like a Japanese woman. Good flavor and full of juice <on a Japanese chocolate bar>

Nazi Goreng

Nothing sucks like an Electrolux <American ad for Scandinavian vacuum cleaner>

Our editors are colleged and write like the Kipling and the Dickens <Madras (Chennai, India) newspaper>

I am a rabid typist <from a CV>

Personal interests: Donating blood. Fourteen gallons so far <also from a CV>

Junked the Faisrtein - it was junk.

Carry Me Down ~ M.J.Hyland

Glenn Greenwald - Great American Hypocrites

Christopher Paolini's Brisingr, the 3 book from the Eragon series (and well caught in it).

A new book on the Battle of Jutland (actually a collection of essays on that) edited by the Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt (German Armed Forces Military History Research Office)

A metric tonne of text books.  I think my eyes are about to fall out and I'm wondering where my lighter is (could they write The American Story, volume II in a more boring fashion, please? Make the DMV handbook look like fun).

Thank god for teh intarnets and the videos!

I am currently reading Baldacci's "The Simple Truth",  If IIRC, it was the 4th book he wrote, and is - so far - the best of his I have read.  The setting is similar to "Absolute Power", but centered on the Supreme Court this time.

Travelling Heroes: Greeks and Their Myths in the Epic Age of Homer

by Robin Lane Fox


It's excellent.