I meant to say -- I'm reading John Adams because a copy of it literally fell into my lap. I haven't yet seen the HBO series, but it's on my list of films to get once I finally register for Netflix. From what I understand, the HBO series is extremely faithful to the book/history and awesome watching besides. I have yet to see a single episode of the Sopranos, but I'll give Giomatti the benefit of the doubt here. Adams would be a plum of a role to portray.

I'm currently re-reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

Reading the Squandering of America, by Robert Kuttner.

Perhaps the best book I have ever read that dissects our last 40 years of rampant corporatism and what the long-term economic damage has been. I highly recommend it for anyone who isn't trained as an economist, but is very concerned with the current state of the American economy.

By shedding light on the problems, Kuttner sets the stage for the wide-ranging solutions that are required. I haven't gotten to that part yet, but what I have read so far is excellent and accessible to the layman.

I recently finished rereading Don Hewitt's Tell Me A Story, his memoirs covering his career progress from aspiring print reporter to executive producer of "60 Minutes". It's a good bit of inside revelation about broadcast journalism, and yes, he's a first-rate storyteller.

I just finished reading The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig.

I've just started Caroline Elkins' Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya. I'm wow'd already. She is so fab.

I will also be reading this one as soon as the paperback arrives in my mailbox. Cannot wait. Absolutely loved his other stuff.

I just read I Claudius and want to start Claudius the God.

The Discovery of France by Graham Robb is a great book for francophiles (or others interested in France). I would recommend it to my French friends but apparently there is no French translation of it.

I'm reading Nemesis: the last days of the American republic. It's the third in Chalmers Johnson's The American Empire Project trilogy and covers militarism, imperial pathologies, the cia as the president's private army, and more.

Next up are Jane Mayer's The dark side and Susan Neiman's Evil in modern thought: an alternative history of philosophy

And in between readings to cheer me up I've got Janet Evanovich's latest piece of fluff.

I just finished:

Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks. I wouldn't recommend it. It's boring as hell and lacks insight. If you want to read a bunch of short case studies about things that go wrong in the brain and how it might relate to music, then feel free. Otherwise, avoid it.

The End of Blackness by Debra Dickerson. Interesting read. I would recommend it.

And I am now starting Swann's Way by Marcel Proust. Here's hoping.

I would also recommend Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford. Really excellent work. A popular history, but it's the sort of thing that can expand your worldview significantly.

The best book I have read in the past year is Torture and Democracy by Darius Rejali. Anyone, anyone, who cares about torture policy should read this book.

I am re-reading the instructions for my HDTV converter box. Does that count?

I finished My Face is Black is True by Mary Frances Berry.

StartedSlavery by Another by Doug Blackmon

80% into Jeff Faux's The Global Class War.

Reading Suskind's book "The Way of the World".
Last read Keegan's "Churchill's Generals" and before that "Suite Francaise"- written on toilet paper during the Holocaust, unfortunately not really that good.Stock characters and some
non credible scenes.

Like someone above, reading in parallel Doris Kearns Goodwin's book about Lincoln and his pals.
It's my go-to-sleep book so it will take a long time. Which reminds me of Ogden Nash's:

Adjust the blankets fore and aft,
Swallow next a soothing draughft
Then a page of Scott or Cooper
May induce a healthy stupor

Not a comment on DKG or her book , just on my state when reading it.

A couple of months go reread the opening section of War and Peace to get in the mood for a tour in Russia. First tour I've ever taken and am unlikely to take another but some of the political comments of the tour guides resonate right now. One of them , in defending Russia's pressure on the Baltics said-fairly accurately I think- that the Russian- speaking minorites there were being deprived of their civil rights- that he approved the West's actions in Kosovo but (perhaps to show that he didn't simply mouth the official Russian position) but the same principles should apply in the case of those Balti Russian-speaking minorities. Presumably he'd endorse Putin's policies in Ossetia.