Blimey, it's too long since I've been on here....note to self - must visit more often! Sheri - I read Your Inner Fish about six months ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. This month, I've read a couple of books which might interest you. First, I decided that I'd see what the creationists have to say about everything (or, at least, one of them), and read Evolution - The Fossils Still Say No! by Duane Gish. He follows the story of life as written by evolutionists and just finds holes in the arguments; his main argument being that there are no real transitional fossils. It's a very frustrating book - it just picks holes in evolution and evolutionary theory over and over again without putting anything except "Goddiddit" as an alternative. To someone with a scientific bent, it's very tedious. I was able to spot a few of his flaws, but I'm not an expert on paeleontology, so the book does give the impression that evolution is dubious, to say the least. Then I turned to Evolution - What the Fossils Say and Why it Matters by Donald R Prothero. Prothero is a professor of geology, & a fellow of the Paeleontology society. Basically, he knows what he's talking about - and boy, does it show! In the first part of the book (entitled Evolution and the Fossil Record), he discusses the scientific method and why creationists cannot be considered to be scientists (basically, it comes down to the fact that if the evidence leads you somewhere, that's where you have to go - even if the bible tells you something else). He also discussed the history of evolutionary and geological theory, and systematics - the way living things are related to each other and how they are sorted out. In the second part of the book (entitled Evolution - the Fossils say Yes!), he more-or-less follows Gish in discussing the evolution of life on earth from the beginning. The difference is that he demonstrates, with dozens of examples, that the fossil record is far more complete with literally hundreds of transitional fossils between "kinds". He also takes the time to bad-mouth creationist quote-mining and their misapprehensions about evolution - he goes as far as accusing them of downright dishonesty in a lot of their books. It's a magnificent book, and I frankly don't understand how anyone could read it and still believe in young-earth creationism and flood geology. I'd thoroughly recommend Prothero - it's one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read on any subject. If you wanted to read just one book about evolution, to understand exactly what it's all about, and why the creationish arguments are so flawed, I can't think of a better one. It's worth reading Gish in parallel to see how dishonest a so-called scientist (he has a PhD in Biochemistry) can be - more-or-less HAS to be - when they are starting from a premise which they are not allowed to challenge. (The only down-side to Prothero is the fact that it's a BIG book - it's not one you can slip in your...

Yesterday I finished Turtle Feet: the making and unmaking of a Buddhist Monk by Nikolai Grozni. I started it in May and it just sat there staring at me while I dove into a bunch of mysteries. Yesterday, I decided that enough was enough, and, having a bit of time on my hands, sat down and finished it up. From the flyleaf: "In his early twenties, Nikolai Grozni, a celebrated Bulgarian music prodigy studying jazz piano at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, was struck by a malaise - some form of spiritual ennui - that suddenly robbed him of his passion for music and of any direction in life. He turned to meditation and Buddhism for answers, and eventually traveled to the Dalai Lama's university in Dharamsala India, where he quickly became fluent in Tibetan and took the robes of a Buddhist monk." It was an interesting book - not fascinating - but interesting. I think it would have meant more to me had I ever felt the way that Grozni felt. Now I can give my full attention to Chocolat... except that I am headed to the library in two minutes to look for the Iris Murdoch that Siobhan so kindly suggested, and Arthur and George that everyone has been discussing, and to put in an ILL for an English Murder. Have a super day everyone! The weather here is superb. PAM

>Wild Swans by Jung Chang Diane, I was in London when I saw that in a bookstore. Despite having several books for the trip already, I knew I had to get it. Not only an incredible story of the three women, but a very readable and well researched history of the times. Another book you might like is Legacies by Bette Bao Lord (her husband was the US ambassador to China ). She has first hand stories of a great part of the same history, esp during the cultural revolution (I took a class in college about Chinese History with a professor who thought the cultural revolution was the best thing since sliced bread. I didn't know better then, but if I was a student now I would not have been able to be quiet)

Of the ones on the list, I have only read Didion's book and thought it gripping and very well-written, but painful. It was even more painful to learn from a local newspaper recapitulating this year's stories that her daughter, Quintana Roo, who was seriously ill at the time when Didion's husband suddenly died, also ended up dying (this past August.zxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxz Several months or a year ago, I tried to read one book by Murakami because it was up for discussion in this forum, and a good deal in it disgusted me to such an extent that I never joined in the discussion. I can't help suspecting that Murakami deliberately writes the way he does for the sake of notoriety, and I plan never to read anything by him again. Maybe, just maybe, "Kafka..." (Reduced to using quotes for titles because the usual formatting won't work.) contains no disgusting scenes, but "Once bit, twice shy." zxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzx Ha haaa! The thing wouldn't let me even make paragraphs, but I have partially thwarted it--or so I hope--by typing strings of zxzxzx. Come on, Powers that Be, if only for the sake of clearer expression, give us back the ability to indent, leave double spaces, and write short lines of poetry if we want to!