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[beckynicky]

I am looking for book recommendations.  My parents are getting ready for the Christmas shopping and htey need some help.  Only, for once, I am hitting a dead in in the book recommendations--and movie recommendations

Comments

[almightychrissy]

No fiction cuts out 75% of my useful recs :(

If you want something not explictly gay, Judith Butler's Excitable Speech deals with hate speech. She's a really hard author to follow, but sometimes she says things that are worth it.

You probably can't ask for this, but david M. Friedman's a Mind of Its Own- A Cultural History of the Penis is hilarious and educational at the same time. I really think you would love it.

If you're interested in male homosocial desire and homosexual panic in mainly Victorian literature, I cannot reccomend Eve Sedgwick's Epistemology of the Closet enough.

Elaine Scarry wrote a book called The Body In Pain that I find fascinating. The first chapter is on torture, the second on war-- I haven't got past there yet because of some crazy circumstances, but I loved it.

That's the extent of the non-fiction books I can recall off the top of my head/on my shelf. Though I can't find Body in Pain. WTF.

[dine]

I'm currently greatly enjoying The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs.

it's a quirky and funny recounting of his attempt to read the Encyclopaedia Brittanica all the way through from A to Z. the book begins with A and goes through until hitting Z (he includes various entries and discusses the topics), as well as talks about how he tries to incorporate his new knowledge into daily life.

[dine]

also! Bill Bryson has a number of really fascinating books - I can highly recommend almost all of them (barring only those I've not yet read). he's both informative and entertaining, with a wonderfully humorous narrative style.

[beckynicky]

Thank you! Those are some handy suggestions.

[lynnbo_momo]

I just read Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray Love. It's a spiritual travel memoir -- easy to read, juicy.

She also wrote a fascinating book, nonfiction, called The Last American Man, about this mountain man dude and it's very readable.

I must also jump on the David Rakoff bandwagon of late. Fraud is a great collection of his essays. And don't forget David Sedaris, while we're mentioning gay sardonic Davids...

[beckynicky]

thank you! i knew i could count on you!