recent reads

it's been a while since i've posted what i've been reading.  many of these books turned into favorites and i'd recommend them all.  happy summer reading!

David and Goliath (Malcolm Gladwell) - "...wiping out a town or a people or a movement is never as simple as it looks.  The powerful are not as powerful as they seem - nor the weak as weak."

Congratulations, by the way (George Saunders) - "Do all the other things, of course, the ambitious things -- travel, get rich, get famous, innovate, lead, fall in love, make and lose fortunes, swim naked in wild jungle rivers... but as you do, to the extent that you can, err in the direction of kindness."

 The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Neil Gaiman) - "I saw the world from above and below.  I saw that there were patterns and gates and paths beyond the real.  I saw all these things and understood them and they filled me, just as the waters of the ocean filled me.  Everything whispered inside me.  Everything spoke to everything, and I knew it all."

Floating City (Sudhir Venkatesh) - "Because this was New York City, and those twinkling lights were a million different worlds beckoning us with their delicious possibilities of knowledge and commerce.  We might not know all the answers, but at least we knew what we had to do..."

The Perfume Collector (Kathleen Tessaro) - “She took down one of the vials from the shelf. Jasmin de la Mer, the label said. Opening it, she sniffed the cork. Its contents had long since evaporated, leaving a slightly grainy amber residue at the bottom of the bottle. But there was a ghost of the intensely white bloom, undercut by a coolness, an almost metallic airiness, slicing through the depth and lushness that lingered still.”

The Cuckoo's Calling (Robert Galbraith) - “He had hoped to spot the flickering shadow of a murderer as he turned the file's pages, but instead it was the ghost of Lula herself who emerged, gazing up at him, as victims of violent crimes sometimes did, through the detritus of their interrupted lives.”