Comments on: The Sunday Salon Monday Edition: Where the hell have you been?

By: Rob @ 52 Novels

Rob @ 52 Novels — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 07:46:54 +0000

@Lisa: I can get behind that cause. Anything I can do to help.

By: Lisa Kenney

Lisa Kenney — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:58:51 +0000

You can borrow it. I hesitated about buying it in hardcover as a new release, but it was an impulse purchase. If you read it, I'll feel better about paying full price for it.

By: Rob in Denver

Rob in Denver — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 12:38:34 +0000

@Lisa: I pick that book up every time I'm in a book store. Venkatesh has some good stuff in Slate or Salon (I never can keep them straight) in the wake of the Spitzer scandal. And he added some insight about gang economics in the book FREAKANOMICS, specifically the stuff on why rank-and-file drug dealers still live with Moms. @Kristen: PERSEPOLIS is the first memoir I've been interested in since James Frey kicked off the run of fake memoirs. I've really grown to distrust them.

By: Kristen

Kristen — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:09:22 +0000

I've been reading a bit too much memoir lately… Eat, Pray, Love… A New Earth… and Julie/Julia was my latest (about an early blogger)… but I recently really enjoyed Money Ball by Michael Lewis (his latest, The Blind Side, is really good, too!

By: Lisa Kenney

Lisa Kenney — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 01:53:19 +0000

Here was my last non-fiction read. It was excellent… "Gang Leader for a Day", by Sudhir Venkatesh is the non-fiction account of the decade the self-proclaimed “rogue sociologist” spent conducting research in one of the most infamous public housing projects in Chicago. Venkatesh became acquainted with a gang leader and his associates, as well as an intricate cast of characters that included prostitutes, Chicago Housing Authority building managers, Housing Police, clergymen and tenants. The book reveals a fascinating picture of the hidden economy and organization found within a society immersed in urban poverty. This was an impulse purchase from my local independent bookstore. I was trying to understand gang culture and I thought this book might provide some insights. This was a fascinating book and I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of a world most of us know very little about.

By: Rob in Denver

Rob in Denver — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 17:17:46 +0000

@Bethany: Thanks for the comment. Some people tend to thing the graphic novel is somehow less than reading, that it's shortcutting. Pah! With good graphic novels — and they do exist — the stories are just as rich as any traditional novel.

By: bethany

bethany — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 16:12:55 +0000

I really want to read Persepolis as well, I have never read a graphic novel before so it sounds really interesting and different to me. Looks like you are reading some fun stuff there!!