What’s on Your Nightstand?

Right now, I’ve Got Many, Many Reads Lined Up on My Nightstand…

In participation with “What’s on your Nightstand,” the following are the books that I’m destined to read within the next couple of months:

Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen.  I may be the last person to pick up with #1 New York Times Bestseller.  This was another book that my daughter picked out for me to read from the bargain table at Costco.  From Amazon.com, I understand that the story is about:

“Water for Elephants is the story of Jacob’s life with this circus. Sara Gruen spares no detail in chronicling the squalid, filthy, brutish circumstances in which he finds himself. The animals are mangy, underfed or fed rotten food, and abused. Jacob, once it becomes known that he has veterinary skills, is put in charge of the “menagerie” and all its ills. Uncle Al, the circus impresario, is a self-serving, venal creep who slaps people around because he can. August, the animal trainer, is a certified paranoid schizophrenic whose occasional flights into madness and brutality often have Jacob as their object. Jacob is the only person in the book who has a handle on a moral compass and as his reward he spends most of the novel beaten, broken, concussed, bleeding, swollen and hungover. He is the self-appointed Protector of the Downtrodden, and… he falls in love with Marlena, crazy August’s wife. Not his best idea.”

I can hardly wait.  I have an elephant collection in my room and this book sounds right up my alley!

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 The End of Iraq by Peter W. Galbraith

This book is Galbraith’s opinioion of “How America’s Incompetence Created a War Without End.”  I’m actually 30 pages into this book.  I needed to stop and ask my friend, Josephine, the difference between the Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds.  Galbraith starts this book off with assuming that everybody knows this history, which I am obviously inept at.  But, after talking to Josephine, I think I have a slightly better understanding of the history of the tribes so, hopefully, I will get through this book with a better understanding and appreciation for it.

 

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The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

OK, folks…. my other daughter insisted I buy this harback from Costco at $13.99.  Since I just finished Mostert’s Season of the Witch, I guess she thought that this would be up my alley.  Since I purchased two books that her twin suggested, I had to honor my daughter by saying, “Yes, this book does look like something I’d like to read.  Thank you, D!”  So, it’s on the nightstand.

From what the inside cover says about this book:

 “A beautiful and compelling, but clearly unhinged, sculpturess of gargoyles by the name of Marianne Engle appears at the foot of his bed and insists that they were once lovers in medieval Germany.  In her telling, he was a badly injured mercenary and she was a nun and scribe in the famed monastery of Engelthal who nursed him back to health.  As she spins their tale in Scheherazade fashion and relates equaly mesmerizing sotories of deathless love in Japan, Iceland, Italy and England, he finds himself drawn back to life – and, finally, in love.  He is released into Marianne’s care and takes up residence in her huge stone house.  But all is not well….”

Alrighty then… iit’s a promise to D, and I may enjoy it!

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 StartUp Your Own Blogging Business

by Entrepreneur Press and J.S. McDougall

This is a “how to” book on:

• Attracting visitors and holding their interest
• Enticing advertisers to promote their products on your blog
• Earning an affiliate fee when your visitors shop at some of the most popular websites
• Promote your blog and get listed on the top blog search engines

Reason why I’m reading it:  Well, right now I am not working and LOVE LOVE LOVE to blog (thanks to Lisa M. at Books on the Brain).  If there’s a way to add a little income or traffic… I’m up for it!  She’s created a monster!

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One Man Great Enough – Abraham Lincoln’s Road to Civil War by John C. Waugh

My brother better read this blog or else!  I bought this book for both he and I at Christmas of 2007.  We were to read it together and discuss it as a means of discussing politics, common interests, etc.  I got half-way through it and stopped for books that his wife recommended to me that soon became my favorites including: The Glass Castle, Jesus Land, and The Time Traveler’s Wife.  The, she and I read Beautiful Boy together (well, she had a baby and isn’t done yet).  I lent her Marley and Me (she loved it) and sTori Telling (another book she liked).  So, Old Abe has just been waiting, patiently, for me to come back to him.

What I’ve read about so far is that he led a life of poverty as a child, was abnormally tall, and married a woman he didn’t love.  He was a great man, I know this from school, and I need to finish this book or my brother will continue to hound me about my book blog.

FOLKS, THAT’S MY FIVE ON THE NIGHTSTAND.  I HAVE ORDERED 10 BOOKS FOR SEPTEMBER… LORD, HAVE MERCY!

PLEASE BUY YOUR BOOKS AT: AMAZON.COM