My Dad is very literate

Last book read:

Prague, by Arthur Phillips. It's about six twenty-somethings living in Budapest in 1990 right after the fall of communism. (That's right, Budapest. Why he called it "Prague" I can't tell. [Ed: wikipedia says "Prague represents the unfulfilled emotional desires of the novel's main characters: it is the city where – as the novel's characters perceive – there is more life, capital flows more freely, and there are better parties, than in Budapest."]) It's engrossing, but you have to get past Phillips' snide condescension towards his characters. The book did keep me going through to the end, but left me unsatisfied, for reasons I can't really pin down. Maybe I'm too old, but it feels kind of like a more serious version of TV's "Friends", picked up and deposited in Hungary. Still, it's a good read.

Now reading:

Pure Goldwater, by John W. Dean and Barry M. Goldwater, Jr. It's a compilation of the private journals, letters, and some other writings, of the late U.S. Senator and 1964 presidential candidate, Barry M. Goldwater, Sr. John Dean is the one of Watergate fame, and Goldwater Jr. has been a congressman. It's very interesting stuff. I disagreed with Goldwater about most political things, but he had great integrity and candor. I heard Goldwater, Jr. speak recently, and while he and Dean are both conservative, they are highly critical of the Bush Administration, saying that Senator Goldwater would never have agreed with the invasion of Iraq or the current government's attempt to confiscate our civil liberties.

Also re-reading the short stories of Ernest Hemingway. They're still great.