Lala, I loved Peretti's books, too! They among my list of top favorites, for sure.

Steph, have you read A Beautiful Mind. I haven't finished it yet, but that was really holding my attention.

Right now I'm almost done with Knee Deep in Paradise, the autobiography of Brett Butler, the comedienne. I favor biographies. I also am working on and deeply enjoying Savage Beauty about Edna St. Vincent Milay, one of my all-time favorite poets.

The Brett Butler book keeps me thinking of you, JawJaw, as she was raised in Georgia and is intelligent and witty like yourself.

Others I've read recently include In Lieu of Heaven (very interesting); a book about a young girl's life in a mid-west Japanese-American interment camp during WWII (I think it's called The Broken Thread but I'd have to go check); and Sue Silverman's riveting autobiography, Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You.

I'd also recommend The Rise of the Phoenix by Dawn Rivers Baker, if you like romantic speculative fiction.

Up next on my agenda are the recent purchases of Seabiscuit and In the Absence of Angels by Elizabeth Glaser, who died of AIDS. She was married to the actor Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky & Hutch) and contracted the disease via a blood transfusion following an episode of placenta previa during her first pregnancy. She passed the disease onto their daughter via breast milk, then gave their second child the disease in utero before she ever found out she'd been given tainted blood.

Tragic three ways to China and back again.

She started the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation (EGPAF) which you can support by making purchases through greatergood.com

Their daughter died at age 7. Their son, 20, is still alive.

Oh -- and I want to finish A Beautiful Mind and Savage Beauty. Yup, that oughta hold me for a while between homeschooling, dancing, and finishing my own third novel!! Ha!

PS: for anyone who's thinkin', "Who is this person?" I've been around a while, but lately just hangin' in the diet forums. I guess y'all could say my plate is full in more ways than one!

[ September 27, 2004, 11:31 PM: Message edited by: garrie keyman ]