Book Club and other reads II

Last week was book club. I love book club. Lots of finger food, wine and chatting and occasionally talking about books. We read 8:55 to Baghdad, a travel memoir about retracing Agatha Christie's travels on the Orient Express. I didn't really love the book and I wasn't alone. WE all agree that the author never really committed to a focus of the book. Some chapters would focus on the history of the countries the train traveled through (the Balkans, Syria, Iraq) other times he would focus on Agatha Christie. And oh boy was it over-written; flowery, fowery prose. One sentence bears repeating just because it was so colorful "We ignored the subject of ethnic cleansing like a fart at a cocktail party." So, we picked something a little more fun and fictional this time. A fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett called Night Watch. I haven't read much fantasy so I am looking forward to trying something new and this sounds funny. I haven't started it yet though I am waiting till I finish Freakanomics, which I only have about 50 more pages left of. I recommend Freakanomics, it is a quick read and it makes you think a little. I also have been listening to books on tape in the car and I just finished The Nature of Alexander by Mary Renault. It may, in fact be this book that inspired me to name the kitty Livia because Alexander's mother was also a formiddable woman. But Livia has a better ring than Olympias. Before Alexander I finished Guns, Germs, and STeel, which I highly recommend but getting on tape rather than reading. I am sure it is easier to get through the chapters on acorn flavors and evolution of domesticated horses if you are listening to it. Now I am listening to Phillip Pullman's The Golden Compass, a children's fantasy novel along the lines of Harry Potter except much better writing and a lot more violent. Oh and while I am drying my hair in the morning I have been reading The Restraunt at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams. Wow I am a big nerd.