What book are you reading?

Rereading, after many, many years, Ringworld by Larry Niven...

When I'm in the right mood, I'm working through Paddy's Lament by Thomas Gallagher. Tells the story of the Irish potato famines of 1846 and 1847...

Waiting in the wings: Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World...

 

Stealing Lincoln's Body byThomas J. Craughwell.

Here's the synopsis from Barnes & Noble:

Synopsis

On the night of the presidential election in 1876, a gang of counterfeiters out of Chicago attempted to steal the entombed embalmed body of Abraham Lincoln and hold it for ransom. The custodian of the tomb was so shaken by the incident that he willingly dedicated the rest of his life to protecting the president's corpse.

In a lively and dramatic narrative, Thomas J. Craughwell returns to this bizarre, and largely forgotten, event with the first book to place the grave robbery in historical context. He takes us through the planning and execution of the crime and the outcome of the investigation. He describes the reactions of Mary Todd Lincoln and Robert Todd Lincoln to the theft—and the peculiar silence of a nation. He follows the unlikely tale of what happened to Lincoln's remains after the attempted robbery, and details the plan devised by the Lincoln Guard of Honor to prevent a similar abominable recurrence.

Along the way, Craughwell offers entertaining sidelights on the rise of counterfeiting in America and the establishment of the Secret Service to combat it; the prevalence of grave robberies; the art of nineteenth-century embalming; and the emergence among Irish immigrants of an ambitious middle class—and a criminal underclass.

This rousing story of hapless con men, intrepid federal agents, and ordinary Springfield citizens who honored their native son by keeping a valuable, burdensome secret for decades offers a riveting glimpse into late-nineteenth-century America, and underscores that truth really is sometimes stranger than fiction.

 

Flat, Hot, and Crowded by Tom Friedman
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

 

In print: The Hemi in the Barn - Automotive Archaeology, by Tom Cotter
(an aside - Can you imagine finding an old Prius is somebody's barn, say in the year 2050? It might make a good novel idea.)

Audio in the car: The art of Detection, by Laurie R. King (sort of modern Sherlock Holmes mystery with a twist). Her whole Mary Russell series is great too - more Holmes type stuff.

Both different, but good reads (listens).

 

Just finished (after a long time between books) "To Chicago and Back", a travelogue by a Bulgarian who went to the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 and his impression of lighted buildings and smoke-choked industrial cities and the Chicago slaughterhouses. He also stopped (for 4 hours) at Niagara Falls, which made quite an impression on him. It was required reading by all Bulgarians, despite being not much more than a lengthy blog by today's standards, but explains why Bulgarians in the U.S. all want to see Niagara.

Next is Brisingr, 3rd of the Eragon series (fantasy). Some don't like it, and it's a bit of a knock-off of LOTR and McAffery, but it's still a good read to me.

 

If I remember, he had a brillant subplot where this gal had a genetic trait of "good luck" with very crafty side effects. Only a really creative writer could conceive such a far out idea.

At my brother's urging, he had me read "Wizard's First Rule". Not as a silly fantasy story, but as a journalism manual. Wizard's First Rule is the magic secret to getting people to believe what you say. It's used here on Prius Chat all the time.

 

I believe you.

 

Non-Fiction Man reporting in!

Just starting "Ghost Train to the Eastern Star," by Paul Theroux, a sequel of sorts to his epic "The Great Railway Bazaar," which I read while in college.

Also reading "The Irish-Americans - A History," by Jay P. Dolan, so that I'll be in the proper frame of mind when St. Patrick's day rolls around again!

I look forward to reading some of the great titles already suggested in this thread!

I'm also mourning the impending closure of our largest independent bookseller in the metro Milwaukee area, after 82 years in business. out:

Jim