It's Just Abbey

Hmmm... well I have a hunch our reading lists will be slightly incompatible (unless some historian pens a new book advocating the theory that John Wilkes Booth was part of a secret cabal of vampires sent to kill Abe Lincoln, who was actually a werewolf). But still, I'll let you know what I'm reading this summer and toss out a few I've read recently I think you might like.

I just started reading "Nixonland," which is a bio about Richard Nixon and takes a pointed look at the LBJ landslide victory in 1964, Nixon's landslide in 1972 and the political changes that occurred during the intervening eight years to cause that massive partisan shift. I'm about four chapters in and enjoying it, but it's like 900 pages long and Juana, who read it before me, said it can get kind of boring and needlessly wordy.

-"The Bush Tragedy" by Jacob Weisberg. If you're feeling nostalgic for the Bush administration, this short, readable book does an interesting job psychoanalyzing George W. Bush - particularly his relationship with his father. I'm in the middle of this one. It's what I wish the movie "W." would have been.

Also in non-fiction…
I highly recommend "Black Hawk Down" and "Tiger Force." Both are riveting real-life combat accounts. "Black Hawk Down" is about the botched humanitarian mission in Somalia, "Tiger Force" is a about a platoon that spun out of control in Vietnam and started slaughtering civilians.

And my favorite fiction book of late is "Then We Came to the End" by Joshua Ferris. Basically, this is the book form of “The Office.” It's all about a Chicago ad agency facing lay-offs shortly after the dot com boom. It's crazy good. It's very sweet, humorous and very well written.

And, if you want to start the Big Dawg and Crusher book club, you could go ahead and order "Hitler: A Biography." The next on my happy and bright summer reading list. I ordered it today. You could too and we could have tele-book chats on Skype. We'll get sloshed on wine, complain about our husbands and talk about how unfulfilled we feel living in an upscale subdivision in Orange County (just like a real book club!)

I'm still working on my reading list now too, but here's what I got so far:

-Currently reading John Grisham's "The Rainmaker." I've been getting into those kind of books lately, and I don't know how you'd feel about lawerly stuff haha.

-I also recently bought "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman. I've heard it's really good by many people, so it'll be a treat!

-As for more sci-fi stuff, I always recommend "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card. If you get a chance, read it! I'm also planning on reading some Michael Crichton ("Congo," "Timeline") and also "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert A. Heinlein.

That's quite a few books haha. I hope it helped at least!

Tim: I am sooo getting the Hitler book. Skype Book Club meetings sound AWESOME!

Colleen: I think I actually have a Grisham novel around here somewhere. The Innocent Man I believe. I'll have to look. Also I have heard amazing things about Golden Compass. Mostly from people who loved the book and hated the movie. Haha.