NONFICTION:
The Rising Tide by John M. Barry - the great Mississippi flood of 1929 and how it changed America.

The Mapmaker's Wife by Robert Whittaker - a true tale of love, murder and survival in the Amazon.

FICTION:
Songs in Ordinary Time by Mary McGarry Morris (and Oprah's Book Club Book)

The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (a mind-bending romance)

PHILOSOPHY/ECONOMICS
After the End of History, The Curious Fate of American Materialism by Robert E. Lane (a fictional series of dialogues between two Yale professors; one a humanist philosopher, the other a materialist economist)

I also read The Kite Runner, an outstanding first novel!

Robert

Jaye, it's great to hear how you are doing! We will keep the good thoughts and prayers going for a complete recovery.
Best wishes,
Robert

Steve - Congrats on the boat sale. I don't know anything about fishing boats, so this may not apply. But I've done a ton of water skiing in my day and I'm reminded that the two happiest moments in a boat owners life are the day they buy it and they day they sell it!

Dale - Awesome picture. Very pretty. But sorry, I have to brag yet again. It's November and it's still in the 80's here. I'm loving it...

Nothing too exciting to report from my end. Just counting down the remaining few weeks in my Masters program at school. It's exciting to be almost done as it's been an incredible amount of work, but I'm also happy to finish. I'm pretty amazed with myself as I barely graduated high school. I was more into hockey and sex, drugs, and rock and roll, since it was the late 70's! That was back in the day when the sex was safe, the drugs were good, and the music rocked! So, being just a few weeks from getting my Masters degree is pretty exciting. Not bad for an old guy, huh?

My neurologists in my health care plan pretty much suck, so I've seen two MDS's outside of my network and they've both been awesome. Thankfully, since I have to pay out of pocket to see them, they've been quite kind and generous by working with me on the fee. Now, I just need to figure out how to get my health care provider (Kaiser) to cover the prescriptions. Looks like I'm in for a fight...

Oh, and if you're looking for an interesting read, try "Deep Survival - Who Lives, Who Dies, And Why" by Laurence Gonzales. Fascinating information about how the brain works when confronted with life-threatening situations. I'm not a big reader and just loved this book.

Hope everyone has a great week. Fight the good fight!

Todd
PDTalks.com

Thanks for all the good book referrals... I'm more of a non-fiction reader than a fiction reader, but I like a good tale from time to time. I am currently reading "The Kite Runner". I agree, it's very good. "Deep Survival" sounds interesting... Maybe I'll put a few of these on my Christmas list. Good idea Burkle, to exchange names of books we've found worth our time. I used to read when my meds were off, but now they get really off and I have difficulty turning the pages. Any good suggestions for managing books. I have found a large elastic band on the left side holding the book open anchoring the page to be useful. Where there's a will there's a way....

I'm glad to hear you sold your boat Steve. One big time stressor out of the way. Are you still fishing or are you into the no fishing season now? You just have the little boat you built for Conch fishing now, right?

Well, just checkin' in to say I'm still here. Glad to see Jaye back and sounding good. I followed the big change in the US Senate, the resignation of Rumsfeld and was saddened to hear of the death of Ed Bradley. It's raining like crazy here in the green zone...we're breaking all the records for November. I'm thinking of having myself rubberized! (I need a rubber duck icon!)

Rosebud..Im still conch fishing with my little boat, probably for another 2 or 3 weeks before its over