| Author |
Message |
Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Thursday, March 22, 2018 - 8:35 pm 
I'll be interested in hearing what you and he think of it.
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Thursday, March 22, 2018 - 8:38 pm
Oh another good young adult series that Denecee mentioned earlier is Red Rising by Pierce Brown, in the event he is in the mood for further reading after this one.
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Karuuna
Board Administrator
08-30-2000
| Friday, March 23, 2018 - 9:27 am
Well, this is a three book series, so if he likes the first one, it may be awhile before he moves on to something else. Will let you know how he likes it.
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Friday, March 23, 2018 - 11:22 am
Sometimes with series that I enjoy, I like to take a break between books and read something else. Other people are so into them that they prefer to read them all in a row. It's just a matter of what you enjoy. 
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Friday, March 23, 2018 - 3:52 pm
The two most recent books I've finished were radically different from each other.
First was The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons and an Unlikely Road to Manhood by Ta-Nehisi Coates. I saw him on an episode of Real Time with Bill Maher and he spoke so eloquently that it made me want to read this, which is his first book. It's fairly esoteric but excellently written. I was most impressed with how Coates describes how his father (and mother) kept after him to pursue his education even when it looked pretty bleak that his grades were too poor to go to college.
I next read Marc Acito's 2004 debut novel, How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship & Musical Theater, which is a laugh-riot romp about a musical theater high-schooler determined to go to Julliard despite having many, many obstacles in his way. It's consistently funny (and zany). I liked it enough to make me track down a copy of the sequel, which came out in 2008.
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Friday, March 23, 2018 - 8:09 pm
Just finished "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. It was really good. I guess I'm late to the party. Sounds like it is considered a classic.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Friday, March 23, 2018 - 8:13 pm
That was a good one!
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Monday, March 26, 2018 - 12:14 pm
Over the weekend I read Jen Kirkman's I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales From a Happy Life Without Kids, which she wrote in 2013. It was a fun read because she cracks a lot of good jokes along the way. Her focus is on how she handles people who don't accept her position of not wanting to have children. I never knew that single (and married) women who opt to not pursue motherhood are subjected to such intrusive questioning -- it's awful! I really admire Ms. Kirkman's resolve to firmly hold her stance and her ongoing mission to put all those nosey people in their place.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Monday, March 26, 2018 - 1:20 pm
I just finished Educated by Tara Westover and wow. It is such an amazing true story. She went from really having no education, living in Idaho with a Mormon father who though the end of days was near and acted accordingly, to going to Cambridge and Harvard!
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Rieann
Member
08-26-2006
| Monday, March 26, 2018 - 6:50 pm
I read I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer By Michelle McNamara. Patton Oswalt had his late wife's book finished by a writer and fellow researcher after her death. The GSK (or EAR/ONS... East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker) committed 50 rapes in Northern California during the 70s and murdered twelve people in Southern California from 1979 through 1986.
It was a good read. I can't stop thinking about it. You get insight into Michelle and how she had such determination in tracking cold cases. She also writes with profound compassion the devastation left with the victims, their families, and law enforcement. I really hope the renewed interest in the case catches this guy (many think he is still alive).
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, March 26, 2018 - 8:34 pm
Those all sound interesting.
Ric, oh for sure, if a woman didn't have kids there can be shade cast.
I feel like I read that one, or something similar.
I am reading The Surgeons: Life and Death in a Top Heart Center.
They allowed the author amazing access over time.
Slow to grab me, but I have been reading the DMV study book.
I have to take the written driver test tomorrow.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 8:16 pm
Ric - it's SO true! I took all kinds of crap for 1) continuing to work full time after DS was born (this was 1995!), and 2) deciding VERY quickly that one was more than enough. (He's a good 'un - so it wasn't that we got a rough child. I'm just not cut out for young children!) I think it's getting marginally better, but some of it depends on where you live. Here in the red-neck midwest, if you don't marry heterosexually, have 2.5 kids, and want a house and a big SUV, you're gonna' be questioned and looked down upon.
I just keep trying to educate the kids that there's a whole new world outside the town walls! LOL
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:59 pm
And at my age you should have grandkids or great grandkids.
And people forget that there might not have been a choice against, but maybe other issues.
I think these days there is probably a bit of pressure on gay couples and lesbian that they should also have or adopt kids.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Wednesday, March 28, 2018 - 3:01 pm
Thank you Teach and Sea for your testimonials. I'm embarrassed by my naivete on that topic. Teach, your son is very lucky to have you for a mom (as you know) - being an only child does have its advantages. I'm in that camp and I turned out okay (I think).
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Wednesday, March 28, 2018 - 4:28 pm
I think, too 😀
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Mak1
Member
08-11-2002
| Thursday, March 29, 2018 - 7:39 am
I think so, too!
I just finished an intriguing book, The Forgetting Time, the first book by Sharon Guskin. She should write more! It was very good, not perfect, but certainly an interesting story and characters. A scientist, writing a book about reincarnation with evidence he has collected over the years, has developed aphasia. He must find one more case to include in the book before he loses too much of his language to finish. The mom who contacts him is desperate to find help for her pre-schooler who nightly cries and insists he wants to go home and see his other mama. He also knows about things he has never been exposed to and speaks of people and places he has not seen. I really enjoyed it.
Now I'm starting The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty. I loved her book What Alice Forgot and hope this is as good.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Saturday, March 31, 2018 - 10:11 am
Finished both Himself by Jess Kidd and (FINALLY - got it back on library loan) Eleanor Oliphant is Perfectly Fine. LOVED THEM - although the ending of Himself was better than Eleanor's ending - which seemed a bit abrupt after the first half of the book.
Now I'm off to grade all the papers I've avoided this spring break and to finalize the testing crap that has to be finalized. **pouts - reading is more fun**
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Saturday, March 31, 2018 - 9:52 pm
Author Anita Shreve died of cancer on Thursday at age 71.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Sunday, April 01, 2018 - 5:30 pm
I loved reading her books when I was in grad school.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Monday, April 02, 2018 - 2:21 pm
Late last week I finished Rules of Civility by Amor Towles and earlier today Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli.
I'd never read anything by either author, so I was hoping for the best. Mr. Towles, in his 2011 debut, did a marvelous job. The book is set mostly in 1938 New York City and all the characters are terrific, while the quality of the writing is even better. I loved it from cover to cover.
Ms. Albertalli gave the world her debut in 2015 and it was recently adapted into the film, "Love, Simon," which I will go see as soon as I can because of all the good reviews AND because the book was a delightful experience. I'm anxious to see what they exclude from the film as well as what they add. I've heard the character of Simon's mother (played by Jennifer Garner) is expanded in the film so that she gives a speech that I'm pretty sure isn't in the book.
I highly recommend both of these books!
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Rieann
Member
08-26-2006
| Sunday, April 08, 2018 - 12:30 pm
I burned through The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn. Great page-turner. Very Hitchcockian. I guessed some things at different points and then baked my noodle wondering if the author wanted the reader to have that sense of dread right before something went down. Made it fun.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Sunday, April 08, 2018 - 3:43 pm
Finished The Surgeons: Life and Death in a Top Heart Center.
Thought provoking, for sure.
And now, the new book by neuroscientist author Lisa Genova, Every Note Played, which involves a main character with ALS.
Her most famous book is Still Alice, which dealt with early onset Alzheimer's and was made into the movie of the same name, starring Julianne Moore, Alex Baldwin and Kristin Stewart.
One of a very short list of authors who inspire me to pre order and pay full kindle price for their books.
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Mak1
Member
08-11-2002
| Sunday, April 08, 2018 - 4:57 pm
The Moriarty book was good, but I didn't like it as much as her first book. I just didn't like the story and the title secret.
I just finished The Taster by V. S. Alexander. It was engrossing but not a light read, as it is a fictional account of one of the women chosen to taste Hitler's food before each meal to prevent him from being poisoned.
Like Ricky, I loved Rules of Civility. Now I'm getting ready to read Amor Towles's second book A Gentleman in Moscow. I'm excited to dive into it!
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Sunday, April 08, 2018 - 6:35 pm
Mak, I’m thrilled you loved it - yay! And just to clarify, his second book is Eve in Hollywood which is the sequel to Rules of Civility - but I gather from the research I’ve done that A Gentleman in Moscow is his most well-known (and third) book - I look forward to reading it, too!
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Mak1
Member
08-11-2002
| Monday, April 09, 2018 - 9:01 am
Ricky, thank you for telling me of the second book! I have just read the first chapter of Gentleman in Moscow and love it too. The gentleman is quite amusing and his situation will be challenging. I wish I could stay home all day and read it while at the same time savoring it to make it last longer!
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