| Author |
Message |
Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Tuesday, May 01, 2018 - 3:37 pm 
What a fantastic review. I don't read many autobiographies/memoirs but now I'm tempted.
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Rieann
Member
08-26-2006
| Tuesday, May 01, 2018 - 5:02 pm
Thanks for that review, Ricky. I've been thinking about reading her book. Now it is a must for sure. 
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Tuesday, May 01, 2018 - 5:16 pm
That is a review an author will treasure.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Tuesday, May 01, 2018 - 6:29 pm
I won a copy of Tiffany Haddish's book. I am so glad you loved it.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Tuesday, May 01, 2018 - 10:51 pm
I quickly realized that I had read my current book before, in hardback.
I am re-,reading.
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Tuesday, May 01, 2018 - 11:55 pm
I decided to reread (and finish the series cuz I stopped at some point) Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhoune series (the alphabet books.) Took me a few chapters to get back into the early 80's, Kinsey's using a typewriter and stops at payphones, lol.
One thing I keep tripping over is the smoking. People walk into Kinsey's office, sit down and light a cigarette. She talked to one guy in the waiting room of a hospital and he was smoking! People smoked at work.
I know the early books were set in the early 80's, I would have been about 8 or 9, I remember smoking/non smoking sections in restaurants, but...I don't really remember people smoking everywhere at all times. Am I just fuzzy being so young at the time and probably not spending much time in hospitals, businesses, etc or did people really smoke everywhere in the early 80's?
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Tresbien
Member
08-26-2002
| Wednesday, May 02, 2018 - 8:47 am
Sue Grafton began publishing the alphabet series in the early '80s, and Kinsey doesn't progress much in age in the books I've read so far (I started reading them shortly before she died.). Yes, I think Grafton reflects what was the norm regarding smoking at that time. I find myself forgetting at times that she does not have a cell phone or computer. How different those stories would be if written today. My library just graced me with a set of QRS and T. Happy reading for me the next three weeks!
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Wednesday, May 02, 2018 - 10:58 am
Mamie, Jim, and Rieann - I think you'll be very impressed with Tiffany's incredible honesty as well as all the hardships she endured and overcame even before she took her first step into professional comedy. Plus, it's a very fast read, so you'll finish it in a jiffy!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Wednesday, May 02, 2018 - 12:08 pm
War.. You were young and in California.
I was in California but in travelling, other areas still had more smoking.
Airports!
Vegas.. Getting off a no smoking jet and being greeted by a toxic blue haze.
The TVCH meet in Nashville, where the bar at the hotel was all smoke, but the entertainment was good.
I was so used to no smoking sections!
Watching the smoking on Call the Midwife.. They are up to 1963.
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Wednesday, May 02, 2018 - 4:01 pm
I started reading them around '92? '93? It was around M I got bored waiting for new ones to be released and decided to wait til the series was complete to finish it. It's been a long wait, lol.
I have several in paperback, but ended up buying all of them in ebooks for my aunt to read. Then my sister read them. And my mom.
It is almost jarring to see her spending hours in the library or on the phone to get info. Or searching for a payphone! We really do have it easy these days. I have trouble relating to that and I grew up in the 80's, my kids would be totally lost reading the books, lol.
And Sea, I'd wondered if it was a fact of growing up in California. We were a bit ahead of most the country when it came to no smoking in public places.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Thursday, May 03, 2018 - 10:45 am
War, yes! Even in 1995 when I took my two month, trilateral road trip.. Pacific to Atlantic to Gulf coast in Mississippi and Louisiana, on my many stops for gas, there were very few places using the shield we were used to on the pump nozzles.
I imagine that those are far more common, now.
First isn't always best, but in terms of 🚬 smoking and gas ⛽ fumes, I think it was a good thing.
Unfortunately, the big tobacco companies were planning ahead in terms of marijuana products and vapes, so they make money 💰 while targetting various populations to get hooked on smoking.
Some hospitals around here have included vapor free on signs saying smoke free and drug free.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Thursday, May 03, 2018 - 10:49 am
And back to books.. 📚 I finished the Sue Miller memoir. She had a hard time and it took years and several intervening novels, but she did finish.
Starting The Wake Up, another Catherine Ryan Hyde book on sale.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Saturday, May 05, 2018 - 4:24 pm
This week I read Deep Freeze by John Sandford, the latest in the Virgil Flowers series. It was fine, a typical book for this series.
I also read Miss Julia Raises the Roof by Ann B. Ross and what a disappointment. The Miss Julia series generally has a bit of charm and silly situations, this last installment was mean spirited and simply not enjoyable. I hope it was an aberration and the likeable Miss Julia returns in the next novel.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Saturday, May 05, 2018 - 4:31 pm
I also read Raspberry Danish Murder by Joanne Fluke. I tend to read this series out of habit and boredom when nothing else strikes my fancy, it isn't a compelling series by any stretch. If I had a nickel for every time someone mentioned, made or drank coffee in these books, I would be WEALTHY!!! One the plus side, there were some tasty sounding recipes in this one. IMO, there was absolutely no mystery re Hannah's husband and the murder in this book, well a bit of a stretch.
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Sunday, May 06, 2018 - 7:29 pm
Just finished "The Whispering Room" by Dean Koontz. It was pretty good. Apparently, it is the second one in a series that I haven't read. I may look into reading the others.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Sunday, May 06, 2018 - 8:09 pm
Finished The Wake Up. Pretty good.
Starting a novella, The Coincidental Armadi!!o: A Southwestern Novella.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Sunday, May 06, 2018 - 10:37 pm
Thanks to Rieann (and Mamie) for talking up The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine. The story was very compelling and I stuck with it to the very end - the twists were very satisfying, so it’s very important to avoid all discussions and reviews before you read it.
The only thing that bothered me was the quality of the writing, which was too Sidney Sheldonesque for me. I was fortunately able to overlook that because the story was a lot of fun. I think I’ll stop while I’m ahead with this writer (who is actually a pair of sisters writing together under the Liv Constantine name).
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, May 07, 2018 - 1:09 pm
Well that was fast and quirky and kind of meh...
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Grooch
Member
06-16-2006
| Monday, May 07, 2018 - 1:28 pm
Sugar, I read one of Fluke's books this past winter. I was able to pick out the murderer and motive on the first page the character appeared. But i have to agree, the recipes do sound good. And i like the tips she gives. Have you ever made any of them?
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, May 07, 2018 - 2:23 pm
I started a new book about birds..
The Birds of Pandemonia, by Michele Raffin.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Monday, May 07, 2018 - 2:55 pm
Grooch, I have not. I made copies of some recipes from an earlier book and was going to do the same for this last book but did not. I know where to find them if I want to .
She really is a subpar writer with flimsy characters and no real plot.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Tuesday, May 15, 2018 - 5:45 pm
Even though it started out promisingly, Jennifer Egan's highly regarded Manhattan Beach ultimately proved unsatisfying. She writes really well, but the story was pretty much a snooze-fest. There were multiple storylines going in and they didn't really amount to anything substantial. The ending was such a colossal dud that I am shocked her publisher allowed the book to be released with something so garishly boring as that ending. I will not be pursuing any of Ms. Egan's other efforts.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Tuesday, May 15, 2018 - 6:49 pm
Just for fun and because I'm finally done with all big evening obligations for school, on Kindle I'm reading Ready Player One. For those of us who were teens in the 80s, it's a fun book. I'm also listening to Tana French's book Broken Harbor, and reading Jess Kid's book Mr. Flood's Last Resort in dead tree book. Oh, and I'm about 1/2 way through Beartown on my other Kindle. Too many books, not enough hours in the day! LOL
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Wednesday, May 16, 2018 - 12:02 am
The book about birds was extremely interesting (,to me).
Starting a memoir now, Half the Way Home: A Memoir of a Father and Son.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Wednesday, May 16, 2018 - 7:54 am
Ric, I am still laughing about the mashed potato sandwich.
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