| Author |
Message |
Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Sunday, February 10, 2019 - 6:30 pm 
Hee,hee....It's a library loan, Ricky - didn't cost me a cent!  LOVE my Overdrive!
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Tuesday, February 12, 2019 - 8:11 am
ππππππ
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Tuesday, February 12, 2019 - 11:30 am
I love Overdrive too. Expanding further on my ongoing rants about my love/hate relationship with eBooks, itβs unfair that publishers are charging libraries triple the regular consumer cost for eBooks when libraries treat eBooks exactly the same as paper books, lending out one copy at a time. 
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Saturday, February 16, 2019 - 11:06 am
I'm glad Overdrive exists for you guys since it seems to offer quite a few ways to access books and other media. Alas, it has no paper pages or spines for me to cradle - I'm like Burgess Meredith (caressing all his precious books) in that old "Twilight Zone" episode, except that I don't need to wear glasses, thank goodness.
Last night I finished Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times by Mark Leibovich. I'd read his other two books which focused on the political scene in the nation's capital. This newest one, from last year, offers many behind-the-scenes (and in-depth) visits with the league's commissioner, assorted owners and extended interviews with Tom Brady.
Leibovich does not spend any time fawning over these individuals - in fact, quite the opposite. Even though he's a big fan of the game, he gives us many close-ups of the internal battles between the commissioner and the owners as well as other scenes where he's able to schmooze with players and coaches and then report on their narcissistic and boorish behaviors. The book is well written and the dishiness is a nice bonus.
P.S. I pointed out a factual boo-boo to Leibovich, via Twitter, which he acknowledged and said he'd fix. (He wrote that the Super Bowl in 1983 was held in New Orleans and I let him know that it was actually played in Pasadena.) I was very surprised he responded!
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Monday, February 18, 2019 - 8:21 pm
I spent the past two days enjoying Elizabeth George's second Inspector Lynley novel, Payment in Blood and it was marvelous. I read her debut over two years ago. At this rate, I'll get to her 20th (and most recent) book in the year 2054. I really admire how she's able to introduce two or so dozen characters and then keep everything moving without being at all confusing. I wish all mysteries were as easy to follow as hers are. That's a very special talent she has.
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Chewpito
Member
01-03-2004
| Monday, February 18, 2019 - 8:53 pm
I am so glad you all are back, I use Overdrive, actually I never pay a dime for any book. I just take what ever they have and like it or return it.
I love the library!
So I picked up 'Kitchen confidential' and am liking it very much. Its on CD so I am just listening from my DVD player. I made a quilt today while I listened. Never had to hold a book or strain my eyes. (well, except for the sewing project) .. That is what I love about the CD's or Overdrive' ..If I like it' im good, if not' it just goes back.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Friday, February 22, 2019 - 2:09 pm
Elizabeth Holmes.
Theranos.
If you're like me, you've probably never heard of Ms. Holmes or her company, Theranos. Now that I've read Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou, I am completely awestruck by the existence of this individual and this company. She self-touted herself as the female Steve Jobs and the company as the Apple of the health-care industry.
As a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Carreyrou dug very, very deeply to gather all the facts about this mind-boggling and almost-impossible-to-believe story. He expanded his reporting to create this not-to-be-missed non-fiction work.
I can totally guarantee that you will find yourself saying, repeatedly, "This can't possibly be true" because of the magnitude of the crimes the book exposes. You'll also be TRANSFIXED by every single detail. You're probably thinking I'm being hyperbolically over-the-top, but TRUST ME -- you'll see for yourself (and agree) when you read it. And read it you must!
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Rieann
Member
08-26-2006
| Friday, February 22, 2019 - 2:36 pm
Omg! This is so funny, Ric. I just heard about her this morning. Patton Oswalt tweeted a picture, of a headline, regarding her lying about her dog along with a picture of Keanu Reeves as John Wick (haha). I googled her and just read a bit about her. I get what you mean about being unbelievable. And I only read a tiny bit! 
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Rieann
Member
08-26-2006
| Friday, February 22, 2019 - 2:58 pm
Keanu made me think of something. Has anyone here read anything by Barry Eisler? One fictional series he writes is about John Rain. Rain is former CIA and freelances as an assassin who's hits appear to die of natural causes (Keanu will be playing Rain in new cable series). Eisler's latest The Killer Collective features Rain and other characters. It has been rising the charts. Eisler himself is former CIA. Anyhoo, I had started his first John Rain novel and enjoyed it, got derailed, and never got back to it. I hope to remedy that soon. I was just curious if anyone here has read his books.
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Friday, February 22, 2019 - 4:46 pm
Finished "Bay of Sighs" by Nora Roberts. I'm now on to the third book of this pretty good trilogy, "Island of Glass". Glad I bought them together, so I don't have to wait.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Friday, February 22, 2019 - 5:50 pm
I am starting Harlan Coben's Run Away. I think it comes out it May or June. I love his books!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Friday, February 22, 2019 - 9:56 pm
Elizabeth Holmes is a real piece of work and really bad people convinced she was the second coming.. Lies and more lies.
They covered this on 20/20 a couple of times..
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Sunday, February 24, 2019 - 4:59 pm
Rieann, I saw that tweet, too. You have to read the Vanity Fair article to get the full poop about the dog - it's hilarious:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/02/inside-elizabeth-holmess-final-months-at-theranos''
And for those of you who have too many books on your TBR list and prefer to skip Carreyrou book, you can tune in to the two-hour documentary on HBO that explains the entire Holmes/Theranos saga, "The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley" - it premieres on March 18.
Mamie, what can I say except what I always say: I'm insanely jealous!
This morning I finished The Wartime Sisters, Lynda Cohen Loigman's follow-up to her fabulous debut, The Two-Family House. It's a marvelous sibling rivalry story set during World War II in Brooklyn, NY and Springfield, MA. Her writing style is simple, yet sophisticated. While there's an absence of edginess, there's instead a steady warmth in describing the sisters' complicated (but never boring) relationship. It just makes you crave for more since it's only 285 pages long.
I loved all the characters and the added bonus came in the form of ZERO F-bombs, which was extremely refreshing. So many writers insist on punctuating their dialogue scenes with an endless torrent of F-bombs (none of which adds anything to the story) - to me it's a form of cheating, i.e., a lazy way to up their final word count. I think it's a special (and rare) talent in a writer to refrain from using foul language.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Monday, February 25, 2019 - 10:46 am
The Harlan Coben book is wonderful! It has everything you would want in one of his books and more. I was wrong it comes out on March 19th.
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Rieann
Member
08-26-2006
| Monday, February 25, 2019 - 4:34 pm
Thanks for the article, Ricky! Look forward to reading about her wolf... erm... dog. Lol
I just started Coben's The Stranger. It is another I started and forgot about. Life got in the way and I switched Kindles. I have so many books to get back to. 
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Kappy
Member
06-28-2002
| Friday, March 01, 2019 - 11:00 am
Thanks Mamie for mentioning that. I'm on the waiting list for Run Away when it comes in.
I love my local library! After seeing a book mentioned online, Daisy Jones & the Six, a novel, I immediately went online to see if I could borrow it. The library didn't have it but they have a feature where you can recommend books for them to purchase. Today I received an email that they have purchased the audio version and I am now on the waiting list.
Lately I've been into cookbooks and comfort food and checked out The Pioneer Woman Cooks Dinnertime and ended up renewing it twice. I don't watch her show so I was only familiar with her name. I think I gained ten pounds in February but loved every bite! Next year, I will check it out in November.
Thank you to everyone who recommends good books here, printed, audio or otherwise!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Friday, March 01, 2019 - 12:35 pm
The John Elder Robinson book was a good read. I like his style, which is very direct. He has become a real voice in the world of autism and done good work informing and supporting kids on the spectrum and their families, as well as being very involved with researchers and scientists.
His son is also on the spectrum.
The experiments with brain stimulation did result in opening up his world in some ways, to emotion.
His friend Temple Grand in had good things to say about the book.
There is probably more detail on the brain than some would like, but I enjoyed it all.
I was moved by his his third wife helped build a great family that folder in his first wife, mother of his son, so that she was included in everything. And more touching was the whole extended family supported his ex when she faced catastrophic illness and died.
Then I read a memoir based on journal entries of a woman with state 4 colorectal cancer.
She had survived being born into a Chinese family in Vietnam during the war. She was born with significant cataracts and her grandmother directed her parents to take her to an herbalist with the intent to drug her to death. The grandmother felt that she wouldn't survive, or be marriageable.
The herbalist said no, much to the relief of her parents.
The family eventually escaped in boats, which was life threatening in terms of multiple hazards, attacks by armed thugs, drowning, starvatiin..
In California, she was able to get surgery at UCLA that helped her sight, though she was still legally blind, never to drive.
She was held back from learning Chinese with her siblings, because of her eyesight.
She proved everyone wrong, going away to college on scholarship, learning Chinese and Spanish, traveling solo to 7 continents, studying in China, even in Bangladesh.
She graduated from Harvard Law, joined a Manhattan law firm, met and married another attorney, had two beautiful daughters.. Then was hit by the diagnosis.
The book is very honest.
While going through every possible treatment, she remained active running the household, including a major renovation where they bought the apartment next door to create a home for their family, for her to die at home and for those left behind to go on.
And now I am just starting another memoir, by Todd Fisher, My Girls: A Lifetime with Carrie and Debbie.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Saturday, March 02, 2019 - 2:33 pm
Enjoying Todd's book..
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Monday, March 04, 2019 - 12:43 am
Thirtynothing is Lisa Jewell's second novel (she's written 16) and I was very surprised by how much I liked it. There are few characters in the relationship-based plot, but she really knows how to make you care about each one of them. I'm really glad I stumbled across this writer.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Saturday, March 09, 2019 - 8:01 pm
I'd never heard of Anthony Horowitz until I came across a copy of his Magpie Murders at the library. In researching his background I discovered he created the British "Midsomer Murders" TV show, which is one of my favorites. Written in 2016, Magpie Murders is actually two books in one and they're both fabulous. I thought it might be overly convoluted when I saw how he structured both stories, but it was really easy to follow both and each story was equally entertaining. Mr. Horowitz is at the top of his class within the mystery writing community!
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Monday, March 11, 2019 - 3:57 pm
Finished "Island of Glass" by Nora Roberts. All the books in the trilogy were quite good.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Tuesday, March 12, 2019 - 11:19 pm
It gets off to a little bit of a bumpy start, but Rosie Walsh's debut, Ghosted, quickly turns into a terrific love story (primarily) and is presented, secondarily, with some stunningly good plot twists. I think you'll be as impressed with the twists as much as I was. Liane Moriarty gave this one her personal stamp of approval via this quote: "I absolutely loved this book and didn't want it to end." The chances are very strong that it'll make you cry, but it's the good, cathartic, sort of cry. π€
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Sunday, March 17, 2019 - 11:10 pm
I spent the weekend reading the debut novel (from 2009) by Rakesh Satyal, Blue Boy, which spotlights a young Indian-American boy during his 12th year as he tries to fit into his elementary school as a 6th grader without issues.
Set in Cincinnati in 1985, the boy's issues include trying to understand why he finds men attractive, but not women. He's also trying to please his immigrant parents (who want him to become a doctor) while enjoying his less-than-ordinary passions (Whitney Houston, his Strawberry Shortcake doll, his sampling of his mom's make-up kit etc.). I enjoyed it overall; I just wish his editors had been more adept at excising some of the dull sections. An impressive debut - I will read his next book, which was released two years ago.
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Tresbien
Member
08-26-2002
| Tuesday, March 19, 2019 - 8:19 am
It was hard to imagine that The Nix was Nathan Hill's first novel as I thought it was brilliantly written. An early section about the main character playing video games didn't grab me, but I'm so glad I stuck with it.
Thanks to Kappy for recommending Carl Hiaasen's Bad Monkey last summer. As a fan of comic novels, this one is most satisfying 2/3 of the way through.
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Kappy
Member
06-28-2002
| Thursday, March 21, 2019 - 10:10 pm
Glad You're enjoying it Tresbien!
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