| Author |
Message |
Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Tuesday, June 18, 2019 - 9:31 am 
The book ends about there.
In the picture of them together, Scott looks better but consider that Mark was still dealing with his wife contending with traumatic brain injury and preparing to lead a team going to the ISS.
The two did everything the same during the year in terms of exercise and immunization.
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Grooch
Member
06-16-2006
| Tuesday, June 18, 2019 - 9:51 am
Thanks, Sea. Sounds like he has sequel to write. 
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Tuesday, June 18, 2019 - 3:23 pm
This morning I finished Liane Moriarty's 4th published novel, The Hypnotist's Love Story, and -- speaking of love -- I loved it. I feel like such a NINNY for waiting so long to read her stuff. I laughed and laughed and laughed (my favorite thing to do while reading a book)! The woman is nothing less than a genius. I only wish I had 80 novels of hers to choose from instead of 8! End of (positive) rant.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Wednesday, June 19, 2019 - 8:25 am
Ric, I just started reading her book Truly Madly Guilty which I have had on my bookshelf forever.
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Thursday, June 20, 2019 - 3:49 pm
Finally started and finished a book I got at the dollar store called Father Night by Eric Van Lustbader. I started it about 4 times, and then quit, but finished it this time. Not my typical kind of book. Makes me think of action movie type.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Thursday, June 20, 2019 - 5:44 pm
Not Enough was interesting.
Now going to do the Blessings series from the beginning again, with a new one at the end. Beverly Jenkins, Bring on the Blessings.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Friday, June 21, 2019 - 11:14 am
Mamie, I'm thrilled you're crossing that one off your list - I hope you love it. I can't wait to read it myself.
Last night I finished Ramin Setoodeh's Ladies Who Punch, a blistering, behind-the-scenes deep dive into the complicated relationships of the hosts of ABC's "The View." I personally don't watch the show, but it's not necessary to be a viewer because of all the juicy confrontations that Setoodeh chronicles. Rosie O'Donnell comes off as the worst of the bunch, but, interestingly, she's also the host who spoke to the writer most extensively. The book is excellently researched and if conflicts between celebrities interest you, this one is definitely not to be missed!
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Tuesday, June 25, 2019 - 12:10 pm
After the superb introduction of new character Daniel Hawthorne in The Word is Murder, Anthony Horowitz has brought him back for the follow-up, The Sentence is Death and it's just as delightful as TWIM. It's a little bit busier (more characters to get to know, including two villainous detectives), but also ultimately satisfying. Horowitz is really, really talented in laying out his plots and the Hawthorne character is a huge oddball, so that adds to the fun.
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Chewpito
Member
01-03-2004
| Tuesday, June 25, 2019 - 8:05 pm
I loved the word is murder, yea for another...
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Wednesday, June 26, 2019 - 10:36 am
I went to the library and found a book called Milkman by Anna Burns. The cover of the book says it was the winner of The Man Booker Prize . I decided to give it a read. The author has used 24 commas on the first page and continues the excessive use of commas on page 2. It is so distracting I stopped reading. I don't think all the commas were grammatically necessary or used correctly and it is most certainly annoying.
If anyone has read it and it is worth going beyond page 2 let me know.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Thursday, June 27, 2019 - 6:59 pm
Thank you for the warning, Sugar - I will definitely place that one on my DNR list.
Even though I really should've placed Mary Button's memoir Running and Me: Then and Now on that same, Do Not Read list, I simply could not because Mary told me ahead of time that she was including me in it. This was years ago, of course, and I naturally assumed her writing a memoir would be just a dream, not an actual book.
Unsurprisingly, she self-published it last month and it's definitely NOT available in any library. So I shelled out 23 dollars for a copy (a painful exercise, believe me). Even MORE painful was the act of actually reading all 321 pages.
Mary is a former elite marathon runner who I ran alongside in numerous marathons in and around the Los Angeles area during the '80s and '90s. She and her husband also had their own running apparel company and were very successful with it. The memoir details her running career and even though one or two anecdotes are interesting, the rest of the book is relentlessly dull (even the section where she included me)! That's what happens when someone who isn't a writer writes a book.
There was zero editing, of course. It drove me bananas, for example, to see her insist on explaininig the running term "PR," which stands for Personal Record -- there were at least six mentions and each one was written exactly like this: PR (personal record) - suggesting the reader could not remember what PR stands for. And considering that the VAST MAJORITY of people who will read the book will be RUNNERS, this is a crime of unspeakable proportion -- every single runner on Planet Earth knows what PR stands for!
Sorry for the (too-long) rant. I'm sure none of you will read this book, but I urge you to do your best to avoid (at all costs) reading a self-published book by a friend, acquaintance or family member. The experience will almost certainly be dreadful and exasperating.
P.S. This afternoon I sent Mary a thank-you note (via snail mail) for including me in her book and that I enjoyed every page. I hated having to fib, but sometimes you just have to do that to spare the writer's feelings. No more self-published books for me even if the writer includes me in it! 
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Thursday, June 27, 2019 - 10:00 pm
I would read a book you wrote, Ric.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Friday, June 28, 2019 - 8:58 am
So.... what did she say about our fabulous Uncle Ricky? Can you give us a snippet? (This is so exciting - even if the book was a dud!)
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Friday, June 28, 2019 - 11:43 pm
Awww, Sea, that is so sweet, but I'll stick to reading (it's what I do best).
Mame, it's kind of you to ask, but you have to trust me - the only readers who would find the subject matter interesting are runners.
Mary and I grew frustrated when, in the mid-'90s, the L.A. Marathon race organizers added a bicycling event and an in-line skating event on the same day the marathon was held. Their sole goal was to maximize their sales while at the same time insulting the runners by concurrently offering these non-running events.
The L.A. Marathon is, at best, a D-list race, despite attracting 20,000 runners every year. It's never had, and never will have, the prestige of the world-class, A-list, big-city marathons held in Boston, Chicago, New York, Berlin, London and Tokyo. Never in a million years would these 6 marathons offer bicycling and in-line skating as well as running. Just think of them as the penthouses of our sport, while L.A. is the outhouse. That gives you an idea about the odious reputation the L.A. event holds. Mary quoted me extensively as I ranted and raved against the L.A. powers-that-be for "packing the streets" in their quest to make money. It's an interesting topic for runners, much less so for everyone else. 
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Saturday, June 29, 2019 - 12:39 am
I don't blame you, but you do write very well.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Saturday, June 29, 2019 - 5:58 am
ITA SEA, and thx Ric for the background info.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Sunday, June 30, 2019 - 11:54 am
Thanks again for the kind words. It always warms my heart to receive compliments about my writing especially when I recall that I didn't speak (or write) a word of English for the first 6 years of my life.
This morning I finished The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty. I feel totally overwhelmed by her gargantuan writing talent, i.e., how can one human being write so well while also concocting such great stories?
There are three writers who, when I think of them, I am immediately filled with warm wonderful sentiments about how great their books made me feel - those writers are Anita Brookner, Barbara Pym and Anne Tyler. To that list I must add Ms. Moriarty, especially after how much I found myself loving The Husband's Secret. With only Truly, Madly, Guilty and Big Little Lies left of hers to read, I'm excited to find out if either one of those end up being better than The Husband's Secret. She's only 52 - I hope she keeps writing for another 25 (or more) years!
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Tresbien
Member
08-26-2002
| Wednesday, July 03, 2019 - 9:40 am
Friends told me that Amor Towles' The Rules of Civility wasn't as good as his A Gentleman In Moscow but I thought it was. To me, the characters were fully formed, and I felt the era come alive in this book. Hope he has another one in progress.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Wednesday, July 03, 2019 - 7:28 pm
I agree, Tres! I loved both of them equally. I think because AGIM is a much grander endeavor, the average reader rates it higher because it's a more ambitious undertaking. I'll be shocked if his next one doesn't come out either this year or next.
This afternoon I finished Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen. Once in a very blue moon I'll veer out of my comfort zone and try a genre that I never pursue. Mr. Chen's debut concerns time travel (from the year 2142 to the years 2014 and 1996). It started a little shakily but then when it settled into the main story, I was hooked. I'm pleased to report that it's excellent, family-centric, thrilling, heartwarming and has a lovely ending. It's always nice to find oneself surprised by a book that would've typically been ignored and otherwise never read. I really enjoyed this one!
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Thursday, July 04, 2019 - 12:11 pm
Finished listening to The Hate U Give (wow - loved it!) and am now listening to and thoroughly enjoying Sally Rooney's Normal People.
Finished re-reading Little Fires Everywhere and am almost done with Unsheltered (Kingsolver) on Kindle. Kingsolver frequently plays with structure, and this is no exception. Same house, 2 centuries (swapping each chapter), and the last couple words of a sentence are the next chapter's title.
Finished Fortress - the 2nd Tom Buckingham novel in Andy McNab's trilogy, and REALLY liked it! Hard to find in the US, but got all 3 through Amazon used books so I'm on to the final one State of Emergency.
Also reading There's Always the Hills by Cameron McNeish and The F*ck It Diet for my non-fiction selections.
YUP - STILL LOVE SUMMER!!!
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Thursday, July 04, 2019 - 3:52 pm
Well, went to the big Walmart I usually go to when I need other than just food. No book section! What? Why did they do away with it? Not only do I occasionally buy books from there, but almost always buy my puzzle books from there. Don't know what I will do now. It's really hard for me to have time to go to the library.
Finished Humans by Robert J. Sawyer. It's actually the second book of a trilogy, but was fine on its own. It has neanderthals in it, and very different from how I think of neanderthals.
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Jmm
Moderator
08-15-2002
| Thursday, July 04, 2019 - 5:22 pm
Did you check back by the Electronics section, Heckagirl? That's where the books are at my local Walmart.
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Friday, July 05, 2019 - 7:05 pm
No, didn't think about it. They have never been anywhere else in the store. I will look next time I go.
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Jmm
Moderator
08-15-2002
| Friday, July 05, 2019 - 7:15 pm
They moved them a couple of years ago here. Like you I couldn't find them and just stumbled on them one day.
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Jmm
Moderator
08-15-2002
| Friday, July 05, 2019 - 7:18 pm
I don't know if any of you read Regency novels or what I call "bodice rippers", but I have found a new author in the genre that I absolutely love. Her name is Grace Burrowes and she has a couple of different series that I have read lately. She really keeps me interested and I can't wait to get to the next book in each series.
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