| Author |
Message |
Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Friday, November 23, 2018 - 8:22 pm 
I've finished 3 books in the last 24 hours: finished Drums of Autumn in audio form, stayed up until 1:30am to finish Educated - INCREDIBLE!! - then today I finished The Guernsy Literary and Potato Peel Society. My Kindle said I was at 69% but there was so much stuff at the end (author notes, reader's guide, annotations) that the story just ended much quicker than I anticipated. I made the mistake of watching the movie right after I finished the book. It was NOT as good - the change with the Mark Reynolds character irked me to no end!
I've now started on Between the World and Me - was that a recommendation from this group? Can't for the life of me remember where I heard about it (nor can I remember what it's supposed to be about!). Will have to get more than 3 pages in to find out, I suppose. 
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Sunday, November 25, 2018 - 10:44 pm
Teach! I’m so glad you liked Educated!
Tonight I finished the latest from Michael Connelly, Dark Sacred Night. It’s nice and juicy and features multiple storylines — all of them are fast paced and thrilling. I will never be able to figure out how he’s able to deliver book after book AND make each one exciting. He’s an amazing workhorse, as are Linwood Barclay and Harlan Cohen - I love the three of them equally!
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Wednesday, November 28, 2018 - 5:28 pm
Today I finished Vacationland - True Stories from Painful Beaches by John Hodgman. It's his 4th book and focuses on the property he and his wife have bought over the years in various locations in New England. I had no idea who he was until I came across someone who raved about this book. It's funny, but not hysterically so. But then, they all can't be that (however much I wish them to be).
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Wednesday, November 28, 2018 - 8:54 pm
I finished Detroit.. Sad and so many familiar street names. I remember so much, oddly. I left there the day I turnedv13.
Starting a memoir of pen pals.. I Will Always Write Back:How One Letter Changed Two Lives by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Banda with Liz Welch.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, December 03, 2018 - 2:10 pm
That was pretty amazing how these two kept writing and as she started figuring out how difficult his life was, she would send money or clothing. Then her mom got involved.
He was incredibly motivated as well. Good true story and book.
I next read get another Catherine Ryan Hyde novel, Allie and Bea, which was typical of her characters and a good ending.
Starting the book I got through Prime for free for December, True Places by Sonja Voerg. It is well reviewed, but the main character has the same as my late cousin's wife, Suzanne Blakemore. Set in the Smokies, which I loved, and the author went to Berkeley, as I did. So I had to give it a chance! And it was free 😉
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Monday, December 03, 2018 - 6:16 pm
Digging through the archives, it looks like Rieann is the only one who has read I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara.
I agree completely with her review. I finished it last night and was mesmerized from start to finish. Thank goodness McNamara's husband, Patton Oswalt, made a point of getting it finished and published after her untimely death in 2016. Very few books have creeped me out as much as this one did. Thank goodness the cops caught the guy this past April. It's just so sad Ms. McNamara did not live to celebrate that arrest.
HBO is turning her book into a documentary mini-series, so it'll be great to see her get the recognition of all her hard work via that adapatation.
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Roxip
Member
01-29-2004
| Tuesday, December 04, 2018 - 3:22 pm
I felt the same way the first time I read "The Stranger Beside Me" by Ann Rule. That book freaked me out so much I couldn't bring it into my house - I could only read it at work during the daytime.
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Mak1
Member
08-11-2002
| Tuesday, December 04, 2018 - 6:15 pm
I keep picking up books from our library's stacks. I just finished Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. These were 9 thoughtful short stories that taught me more about the culture and customs of India.
Another library patron just can't get enough of Louise Penny's series about Inspector Armand Gamache. Her enthusiasm, plus a friend's, led me to bring home Still Life. I started it yesterday, and I resent having to put it down to do anything else!
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Thursday, December 06, 2018 - 2:08 pm
I came across a library copy of Playing Hurt: My Journey from Despair to Hope by the late John Saunders, the long-time ESPN sportscaster; I had no idea he'd written it.
Published after his death in 2016, the book gives great insight into his battles with depression and his rise to stardom on ESPN after his humble beginnings in the suburbs of Toronto. I always enjoyed his work on ESPN and the glimpses into his upbringing were difficult to read because some of them were quite harrowing. His death at age 61 was very sad indeed.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Thursday, December 06, 2018 - 2:57 pm
I finished True Places, which I liked. About family, no crime, no death.
And I was delighted to snag When Breath Becomes Air with a price drop in Kindle thanks to BookGorilla and BookBub e-mails. That is the next book..
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Thursday, December 06, 2018 - 11:09 pm
Sea, that book is marvelous. Tough to read, but marvelous and incredibly inspiring - I think you’ll really like it.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Thursday, December 06, 2018 - 11:13 pm
I have no doubt!
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Saturday, December 08, 2018 - 5:42 pm
Finished "We'll Meet Again" by Mary Higgins Clark. Pretty okay mystery.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Tuesday, December 11, 2018 - 10:27 am
This morning I finished Gone Boy: A Walkabout by Gregory Gibson. Written in 1999, it's about Mr. Gibson's traumatic experience, back in December 1992, when he lost his 19-year-old son to a gunman (fellow student of his son's) while attending a small liberal arts college in Massachusetts -- six people on campus were shot, two died.
I thought it was extremely well-written, especially because he decided to write the book pretty much in response to his son's murder and the trial of the killer and the aftermath of the shooting, i.e., he was not a writer by profession.
Mass shootings were still somewhat rare in 1992, so I kept wondering while I read the book what Mr. Gibson must think of all the mass shootings that have become all-to-common in our everyday lives. The chapter where he and his wife meet, and spend time with, the parents of the killer was the most powerful and heartbreaking.
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Mak1
Member
08-11-2002
| Wednesday, December 12, 2018 - 4:13 pm
I loved When Breath Becomes Air. It was tough to read at times but that's because it was real life. I read articles and listened to interviews with his wife after I finished the book. Her life has taken a nice turn.
This morning I finished a novella by Stephen King, Elevation. The main character is losing weight at a fast pace while maintaining his bulk. He has a date marked "0" on his calendar, the day he thinks he will weigh nothing. It was interesting to follow the imagined progression of his weightlessness. I enjoyed it.
Now I'm starting "a spot of bother" by Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time which was very good.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Wednesday, December 12, 2018 - 5:08 pm
When Breath.. Is very good.. I have appreciated writing by other doctors also and others who are dying, so this is in my wheelhouse.
I will look for those interviews, too, Mak.
Curious Dog was a good one.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Friday, December 14, 2018 - 2:57 am
Si, I finished.. Amazing man, and book.
And now I remember what happened after he died. I read The Bright Hour some time ago and had learned that Lucy had gotten together with Nina's husband after Nina died.
https://cupofjo.com/2018/01/lucy-kalanithi-john-duberstein/
I think I will re-read that book now.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Sunday, December 16, 2018 - 8:18 pm
Yay! I'm so glad you liked it, Sea.
A few minutes ago I finished the latest by Joe Ide, Wrecked, which is the third in the IQ series of novels. For a new writer, Ide is really cranking them out - I think this is the third in as many years.
The hero, Isaiah Quintabe (IQ, for short), is not your run-of-the-mill private detective. He's haunted by tragedies in his past, but he doesn't let them stand in the way of helping people less fortunate than he is. Ide is an excellent storyteller and this latest work is the best, and most exciting, of the three. The fourth in the series I predict will be out next fall.
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Monday, December 17, 2018 - 2:46 pm
So you’d recommend all three?
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, December 17, 2018 - 5:34 pm
Plans changed, as I found Just After Midnight was free to borrow. Another Catherine Ryan Hyde novel. Started and finished. Enjoyed it.
Next up.. Will decide very soon.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Monday, December 17, 2018 - 6:38 pm
Jimmer, thank you for reminding me. I forgot to mention that while it's not necessary to read the books in order, you'll enjoy them a little bit more if you do read them sequentially but they're still enjoyable on their own. The first one is titled IQ and the second is Righteous.
Here's a profile of Joe Ide in the Washington Post where he's referred to as "one of the hottest mystery novelists at work":
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/at-60-joe-ide-proves-its-never-too-late-to-establish-yourself-as-a-novelist/2018/11/20/a186457a-ecdc-11e8-8679-934a2b33be52_story.html?utm_term=.303fa58aecbb
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, December 17, 2018 - 6:52 pm
So.. Next book is another borrowed for free from Amazon Prime.
The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 on Gander, Newfoundland by Jim Defede.
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Monday, December 17, 2018 - 7:05 pm
Thank you, Rick!
You seem very interested in free books, Sea. Have you tried borrowing from the library? I’ve been doing that a lot more the last few years and it’s fantastic.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, December 17, 2018 - 8:20 pm
Free and bargain books are always of interest and getting them now is a plus.
I DO keep meaning to explore library ebooks, and came closer recently when we want at a little park next to the library. I was early, so I wandered in, but my library card was not with me and I couldn't access the website.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Friday, December 21, 2018 - 2:41 am
Well, this was a wonderful book!
I learned much about Newfoundland and the Newfies and how they responded, along with various civil groups, service clubs churches and businesses to accommodate all the people. So many things like caring for animals on the planes, to refilling prescriptions, which involved calling doctors (One facility had people from 55 countries) and even figuring out the name of certain meds that were different in Canada.
Too many great stories.. I rank it up with the book by the White House usher or the history of Arlington cemetary.. except this all happened within a short timeframe. Ric, I suspect you would enjoy this one.
Now I will re read The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying by Nina Riggs, whose widower married Paul Kalanithi's widow Lucy.
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