Books on my Mind

What am I reading these days?

1. God, a biography--Jack Miles. Got the Pullitzer Prize. Super-cool. And his sequel was even better.


2.The Makings of a Poker Player---Matt Matros. How an ivy league math geek became a poker champ.
Is there a theological pattern here?
Q: What's the difference between people praying in church and at the poker table?
A: At the poker table, they really mean it.

3. No-Rules Brazilian Jiu-JItsu--Gene Simco. Presupposes you already know some BJJ and gears it for street fighting. Hmm. I wish Bruce Lee were still alive . . .

4. Emily Dickinson, Selected Poems.

" Long Years apart--can make no
Breach a second cannot fill--
The absence of the Witch does not
Invalidate the spell--

The embers of a Thousand Years
Uncovered by the Hand
That fondled them when they were Fire
Will stir and understand "

5. Judgement Day--Nathaniel Brandon. His years with his mentor, Ayn Rand. Their 'logical' and 'open' affair (both were married and Ayn was 25 years older), his subsequent excommunication when he fell in love with a hot babe, and how whacko the most important novelist /philosoher of 20th century America was when it came to romantic love. Sad, riveting and absolutely nuts.

6. Thieve's Dozen--Donald Westlake. Wonderfull fluff! Short stories starring the one and only John Dortmunder, thief, loser, and all round nice guy.

7. Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban boy--Carlos Eire. A kid growing up in Havana at the time of Castro's take over. Brilliant, fast paced, funny and dark. As he states in his preamble: " This is not a work of fiction, but the author would like it to be." I know, Carlos. I was there, too.

I just finished a fabulous short story collection called This Life She's Chosen by Kirsten Sundberg Lundrstrum and I'm looking forward to reading Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles next.