I am generally pimping John Hope Franklin's Autobiography: [link]

My stepfather (age 75, likes history, lefty) seems to have liked it.

That sounds like a great recommendation, dcp, though he might already have it. Which is the problem with my father.

Thanks for all of the recs. I'll check them out when I make it to the bookstore.

I'll second the Sarah Vowell recommendation and specifically the book Assassination Vacation.

Has he already read Devil in the White City? My dad's into history books, as well, and I loaned him my copy a few years ago, and he loved it.

I don't know, but it looks cool.

Anybody read Vellum ? I think I'm almost halfway in, and there does not appear to be a plot. Or a story. Barely any characters. And it's too clever by half.

I need to start using different criteria to choose books - the last few I've picked have been oh-so-clever and erudite and so completely lacking in any story to hold my attention that they get put down.

Plus, the DH and I aren't speaking because he hated Inkheart and really liked Thirsty.

According to reports security is so tight for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that German workers at the GGP print factory in the small town of Poessneck are being forced to work in pitch black conditions so that they cannot read any of the books.

(Found through Wizard News which also reports that there is a world wide project to knit socks that are HP related. . . (?) Perhaps they are trying to free house elves. )

After hearing about the conveyer belt bissection at a newspaper on another thread, I'm wondering how long before someone has an accident (or possibly is paid to to get the lights on).

I just finished reading Time Traveler's Wife--what a great book! As soon as I'm caught up on the weekend's worth of posts elsewhere here, I'm going to search through this thread for everyone's opinions on it. It's been a long time since a non-HP book that long has held me so riveted that I finished it in (almost) one sitting. It helped that I started it as we left my uncle's house in Athens, OH, and had only 100 pages left when we pulled into Dad's house in Joliet.

I was laughing that in the first few pages of the book, Henry is explaining what his life is like, and he uses the examples of arriving in a Motel 6 in Athens, OH, and some lady's backyard in Oak Park, IL (where I lived until last year).

Yes that book was so sumptuous! It's been a long time since I was laughing and crying at the same time. And I loved the references to places I've been. I used to give carriage rides right past the Newberry Library.