| Author |
Message |
Chewpito
Member
01-03-2004
| Sunday, February 02, 2020 - 10:44 pm 
Oh thanks sea’ I read ‘things they carried’ I will look for this one’
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, February 03, 2020 - 2:26 am
I am reading The Elephant Whisperer: My Life with the Here in the African Wild, by Lawrence Anthony.
Memoir of a game preserve..
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Tresbien
Member
08-26-2002
| Monday, February 03, 2020 - 6:40 pm
Recently, a friend reminded me of the series of private investigator novels by Robert Galbraith aka J. K. Rowling. I finished the first of the four in this series, The Cuckoo's Calling and enjoyed it well enough to want to read the next three.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Tuesday, February 04, 2020 - 1:47 am
So, done with the elephants.. The author also wrote a book about rescuing animals from the zoo in Baghdad, I think.. May have to read that.
Now starting The Only Plane in the Sky.
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Tuesday, February 04, 2020 - 11:50 am
Finished "See How She Dies" by Lisa Jackson. I liked it, but didn't really like how they resolved the main issue. To me, it wouldn't really matter that they weren't related biologically, but that they thought they were all of their lives. It just wouldn't seem right.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Thursday, February 06, 2020 - 11:06 pm
Last night I finished a very early book by Ian Rankin (Westwind), written in 1990, when it more or less bombed. He went on to write a couple of dozen (very popular) books featuring the Inspector Rebus character. Rankin decided to re-release Westwind with a few minor edits. It's not great but it's also not bad - I would rate it slightly higher than mediocre. I'm debating whether I'll pursue the Rebus series.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Friday, February 07, 2020 - 1:04 am
Such a rousing recommendation.. Slightly higher than mediocre! 
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Rieann
Member
08-26-2006
| Friday, February 07, 2020 - 1:16 am
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Sunday, February 09, 2020 - 1:04 pm
A few months ago I read what certainly appears to be the 1st book of a new series. I remember thinking that I was surprised at a different writing style by John Sandford and I liked it. I was quite the Lucas Davenport fan in the earlier books but became weary of the good guy crossing more and more lines. I think the latter few books have improved and are back to as good as the early works were. It took me awhile to warm to the Virgil Flowers series. Enjoyed the Kidd series but I think it was only 3 books, but still a Sandford fan so delighted for a new series. Anyway, liked the new book and could not remember the title for love nor money. Searched and searched and searched some more, stupid internet was no help. Finally recalled the 1st name of the main character, Colter. Starting searching for John Sandford books with Colter character, still nothing. grr
I can, however, report that the new Colter Shaw series by Jeffery Deaver looks both fun and promising. No wonder the writing style was different! BTW, Deaver is one of my favorite authors. How wrong can a Sugar be?!
The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver.
Off to post in the Series thread.}
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Tresbien
Member
08-26-2002
| Tuesday, February 11, 2020 - 12:17 pm
Finally got back to Liane Moriarity's The Hypnotist's Love Story after finishing off the library books I had checked out. I liked this even more than her Big Little Lies. I found myself wondering how I would react in the characters place and in their unusual situations. And it reminded me of the importance of good, open communication to avoid misunderstandings and hurt feelings. Now I need to find all of her other books, hoping that they are equally as good as these two.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Tuesday, February 11, 2020 - 8:44 pm
Tres! I'm so glad you liked The Hypnotist's Love Story - I loved it myself. Having read all the Moriarty titles, the only one I've liked more is The Husband's Secret - please let us know what you think of that one, when/if you get to it.
Tonight I finished The People We Hate at the Wedding by Grant Ginder, which turned out to be the best of the three books I've read by him (he's written four). This one focused a highly dysfunctional family grappling with the wedding of an estranged sibling. The Goodreads average rating for this one is only 2.83, which I don't agree with but I definitely understand -- not all the characters are likeable. I found them all amusing but you might not think so, so please proceed at your own risk. 
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Jimmer
Board Administrator
08-29-2000
| Wednesday, February 12, 2020 - 8:08 am
I agree that the Goodreads ratings can be a bit wacky at times. Some authors and series develop almost cult like followings and their ratings go through the roof.
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Friday, February 14, 2020 - 7:17 am
I just read "Virtue Falls" by Christina Dodd. It was very good.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Friday, February 14, 2020 - 3:42 pm
I recently read Night of Miracles by Elizabeth Berg. I enjoyed it. It is the 2nd book of the Mason series. The 1st book was The Story of Arthur Truluv and the 3rd is The Confession Club.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Saturday, February 15, 2020 - 9:41 am
Sugar, I enjoyed those as well. They were just sweet stories. I still have to read The Confession Club.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Saturday, February 15, 2020 - 1:45 pm
I love those as well, the two I have read. I have loved her books for years.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Saturday, February 15, 2020 - 7:26 pm
Having loved Nell Zink's debut novel, The Wallcreeper, I naturally had to read the follow-up, Mislaid, which she wrote in 2015. I absolutely loved it - much more mature and engaging than her first one. She is gifted, almost supernaturally so, with creating extremely interesting characters and putting them in outlandish, but believable predicaments. She's written three other books since then and I am very anxious to read those, too.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Sunday, February 16, 2020 - 1:51 pm
Finished The Only Plane in the Sky. Thanks for the recommendation, Ric. I had read so many books, including the excellent 102Minutes that this journalist highly recommends, so was familiar with many of the scenes and people.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Tuesday, February 18, 2020 - 1:40 am
Sea, I'm so glad you liked it. I read the 102 Minutes book, too, and was concerned there would be too much of that one inserted in TOPITS. Happily, there's just a small amount. Both books are tremendous.
Tonight I finished Garth Greenwell's Cleanness, which is the follow-up to his debut, What Belongs to You. The latter was one of 2016's best. This new one, though, is leaps and bounds better. Some people are really born to write literary fiction and Greenwell definitely qualifies for that club.
Cleanness follows the exploits of a gay American professor teaching literature at a university in Sofia, Bulgaria. It's a towering achievement and I have zero doubt it'll appear on many year-end best book lists. The only reason I hesitate to recommend it is because two of the chapters are extremely pornographic and when I say extremely, I mean EXTREMELY. It's only 223 pages long, but it's also quite Proustian due to the lines on each page going margin to margin - very dense indeed. But what's contained in each is really superb writing - just be forewarned about the pornography.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Tuesday, February 18, 2020 - 2:07 am
Ric, I have the other book (Never Forget of oral histories he especially mentioned on order. It apparently was not available in e book format, but I found a used paperback. If it is good, I would be happy to pass it on to you.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Friday, February 21, 2020 - 6:11 pm
So my copy of Never Forget: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 arrived today. It looks pristine and is signed by the author, "To Ted, you are a wonderful friend and colleague" .
I will try to think that Ted had another copy to read... Or he read this very carefully...
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Friday, February 28, 2020 - 12:21 am
Sea, thank you for offering to share your copy of the book with me. I'm still recovering from the other one, so I think I'll take a little break from 9/11 for now. But I'll definitely let you know when I'm ready to borrow it -- I'm glad you got such a great copy!
Last night I finished Before I Met You by Lisa Jewell. I won't bore you with (yet another) love letter to her brilliance except to say that I loved it (as I have all the nine others of hers I'v read thus far).
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Friday, February 28, 2020 - 12:41 am
I am not finished yet.. Just read a chapter at a time.
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Tresbien
Member
08-26-2002
| Sunday, March 01, 2020 - 11:31 am
I love to read John Grisham's novels, but I didn't love The Reckoning. There is a very long section detailing the main character's WWII experiences, which was so well written and compelling but also hard to read. I didn't find the ending very satisfying, but maybe that's just on me as I had other expectations.
Loved Liane Moriarity's What Alice Forgot. I'm on a mission now to read her other books and have started Nine Perfect Strangers. Thanks to all who have recommended her.
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Chewpito
Member
01-03-2004
| Sunday, March 01, 2020 - 12:28 pm
Just finished 3 books in a row that I loved.
Where the crawdads sing'
The giver of stars'
Saving Cee Cee Honeycut...
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