Reading Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything and enjoying it. I admire writers -- scientists or not -- who can translate heavy science to lay persons without overly dumbing it down, like Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, and Siddhartha Mukherjee.

Bryson's writing is clear and effective. I don't always follow the seeminly abrupt jumps he makes from one period of scientific exploration to another, just following along for now. Nearly half way through it. With these books, particularly Mukherjee's, I have to re-read several times to understand. (It's not Mukherjee's fault, he's a brilliant writer, he just writes at a higher scientific level than Bryson or Gould, for instance.)

I am just starting A People's History of the United States. It will take me a while-688 pages. So far, I lke his writing and think it will be fascinating reading. It is a non-fiction book.

Started to leave a comment on the Aug thread then realized - oops!

Generally I read non-fiction but have been trying to 1) get back into fiction and 2) give myself (and my stress levels) a bit of a break.

Currently about 3/4 of the way through the 592 pages of All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker. Really liked it to this point, even though there are continuity issues with the location which I have some familiarity with. But it has now jumped the shark with the portrayal of a 6 year old girl who writes a script for a home produced version of Grease and when asked what she wants to be comes up with "Maybe a writer. I'll tell stories and dazzle people with my words. I want to go to Harvard." Tell me you're not a parent of a 6 yr old without telling me you're not a parent of a 6 yr old 🙄

We finished Comfort Me with Apples, by Ruth Reichel, and then moved on to her book Not Being My Mother, which is not book club worthy but is the bridge to the next book we're reading, Save Me the Plums. I hope it is just as good as all of her other books.

I'm still reading the Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides. And my wish has come true. He doesn't just write about the person, in this instance James Cook, he writes about what's going on in the world in which they live, at the time. He does this through specific people; there are a bunch of side stories that interconnect. I love this style!

I am reading The Lady of the Camellias, by Alexandre Dumas (the son). It's wonderful! His father's The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favorite books, and I was curious about him. It's the inspiration for La Traviata.

@nutsaboutplants

A long time ago, a question was posted as to what author would you love to spend a day with. I would certainly pick Bill Bryson. He must be an incredibly interesting person to write as fascinating as he does. Often laugh out loud hilarious too.