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Tresbien
Member
08-26-2002
| Wednesday, April 07, 2021 - 3:29 pm 
For most of my reading of Jodi Picoult's The Book of Two Ways, I enjoyed the journey believing that some loose ends would be tied up at the end. One wasn't resolved to my satisfaction. It's the only one of her books I've read so I can't compare, but some of her devoted readers didn't care for this one from what I gathered on Goodreads. Disappointed.
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Kappy
Member
06-28-2002
| Saturday, April 17, 2021 - 8:56 pm
Just finished Lone Wolf by Linwood Barclay. It's #3 in the Zack Walker series and I enjoyed it as much as I did the first two. There's a bit of humor to these books in that the main character is a good person who just happens to constantly trip as he goes through life.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Sunday, April 18, 2021 - 8:49 pm
Just finished A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, which I had to wait for 5 weeks to get on Kindle from the library. It was quite lovely.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Monday, April 19, 2021 - 2:02 pm
Uncle_ricky, I have said it before and I must say it again, thank you for introducing me to Steve Cavanagh. I just finished Twisted and it did not disappoint. Sadly, I have now read all of his books and must wait for another. How wrong is it that I almost wish I could keep my favorite authors firmly at their desks pounding away at their keyboards night and day to meet my voracious reading habits.
Yes, it is very wrong, bad Sugar!
Uncle_ricky, if we were neighbors, I would certainly bring some of my world, ok, Midwest, well maybe friends and family famous sugar cookies to you in appreciation of alerting me to the works of Steve Cavanagh and Linwood Barclay. (I really do make an excellent sugar cookie)
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Monday, April 19, 2021 - 8:06 pm
Yoo-hoo, guess-who? Your delinquent Uncle Ricky! I can't believe it's been two whole months since I posted any of the books I finished. That infernal Spelling Bee completely turned me upside down. Juju advised me to step away from its vaporizing clutches (excellent advice, of course), but I was too stubborn in my resolve to keep achieving Queen Bees. Well, I finally got all that madness out of my system -- the honeymoon is over. Now I just play when the mood strikes - I actually skip entire days without playing and I certainly don't spend the HOURS on it that I used to, thank goodness.
Now, let's see:
1) Juju -- I'm so glad you loved AGIM - a true classic, that one.
2) Kappy! I'm so glad you've read LB's early works -- they made me howl with laughter and I'm only sorry he abandoned writing humorous books in favor of suspense thrillers.
3) Teach! I knew you'd love TML and AP - both are such tremendous works.
4) Sugar! You are so welcome! I'm sure your cookies are the very best in any neighborhood - the thrill of knowing you enjoyed the Cavanagh and Barclay books is plenty of thanks, indeed.
Now, here's what I've read over the past two months:
Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain by Charles Cross. Very well written and researched. A tragic, tragic loss of one of the most troubled rock stars to ever exist in the music business.
Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache: How Music Came Out by Martin Aston. This is a history of all the major (and minor) gay people in the music business over the past several decades. Another well-researched book, but it was way too long.
Twisted by Steve Cavanagh. I can't believe Sugar read it before I did! It was as delicious as all of his other books. His new one comes out later this year, thank goodness.
Dolls! Dolls! Dolls! Deep Inside Valley of the Dolls, the Most Beloved Bad Book and Movie of All Time by Stephen Rebello. It helps to be a big fan of the book and the movie - otherwise, you'll probably be bored senseless. Every page was finger-lickin' good and offered plenty of juicy gossip about everyone involved in the writing of the book and the production of the film.
I Found You by Lisa Jewell. You may recall I loathed the book she wrote immediately prior to this one. I was greatly relieved that this one was much more in line with the quality I'd come to expect from her earlier works. This one was very engrossing and would make a great film.
Show Them You're Good: A Portrait of Boys in the City of Angels the Year before College by Jeff Hobbs. This is his follow-up to the sensational The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League. It's not quite as good, but it's still excellent, especially how it captures the hell high school kids have to go through to get into the colleges of their choice and the hardships that accompany that challenge. It made me very grateful that I went to high school and college in 1970s when things were much, much easier than they are today.
Win by Harlan Coben. He's finally written a book devoted to Win, the sidekick to Myron Bolitar in all the books devoted to that main character. It was very good - it just wasn't great. But they all can't be great, as I've come to find. 
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Jimmer
Board Administrator
08-29-2000
| Tuesday, April 20, 2021 - 12:28 pm
I was getting worried about you, Ric. You were about to get a concerned PM from me. I'm so happy to see you posting again.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Tuesday, April 20, 2021 - 8:24 pm
Awww, thank you Jim - so sweet of you to be so concerned. I’ve also been very busy at work and that’s made it harder than usual to keep up with my reading (and thus my posts). ☹️ But I’ve vowed to cut back dramatically on that crazy Spelling Bee game. (And wouldn’t you know that earlier today I conquered the Queen Bee — the ultimate “get” in each day’s game). 😛
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Tresbien
Member
08-26-2002
| Friday, April 23, 2021 - 11:45 am
I was gifted a copy of Christina Kline's The Orphan Train, and early on had the feeling I had at least started it before. Continued reading confirmed that I had read it. Since I didn't quite recall the ending, it was a satisfying second read.
Great timing because I finally got The Last Flight from the library this morning. As several of you recommended it, I'm looking forward to it.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Friday, April 23, 2021 - 9:26 pm
<hoses Uncle Ricky down and puts him back in the game> You've GOT to go cold turkey, Uncle Ricky. You've found your kryptonite.
I recently read The Orphan Train. It was very good.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Sunday, April 25, 2021 - 1:23 pm
Hope you enjoy The Last Flight as much as I did, Tresbien. Read that one in just a couple days!
I'm sooooo close to finishing Shuggie Bain but I also have 2 grad classes to finish, so time for reading is almost non-existent. We were supposed to start tech rehearsals tomorrow for our musical Sister Act, but our lead just came down with Covid. If we do NOT find a replacement (and we had to ask our lead b/c no one auditioned for that particular role), I might just have the time to finish up the last 20%.
I started listening to both A Gentleman in Moscow and Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria and just did NOT have the concentration for them. Sword of Destiny a Witcher novel, played in its entirety, but I couldn't tell you a damn thing that happened. SOOOO....now I'm REALLY listening to Before We Were Yours and enjoying it. The 35-minute drives to the theater have helped.
Have also gotten a couple of chapters into Conundrum but I suspect that will be one I'll finish after my grad classes are done.
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Sunday, April 25, 2021 - 3:58 pm
"Golden Lion" by Wilbur Smith. It was good. Definitely kept my interest.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Sunday, April 25, 2021 - 4:17 pm
Teach, I honestly don't know how you do all that you do - I'm simply amazed! Hope you end up liking Shuggie Bain as much as I did.
Juju! It's so funny you should mention going cold turkey because that's exactly what I did day before yesterday. It really is the only effective method of dropping any addiction with authority. I had fun with it, but the way it took over all my free time was just too disturbing (as you know).
This afternoon I finished Running Home by Fred Murolo. I'm sure this title and writer are completely unknown to you. You'll recall my avocation -- in addition to reading -- is long-distance running and Fred is a member of that community, too. He recently spent four weeks in the hospital battling Covid-19 and he's on the road to recovery.
In lieu of get-well cards and flowers, he implored people to buy his self-published novel. I'm sure most of you know how utterly impossible it is to enjoy anything that is self-published, but I wanted to show my support by buying the book ($12). I told myself repeatedly to *NOT* read it because I would regret doing so and of course I was right. It's horrendously written, endlessly repetitive and chockful of typos (all the things I absolutely detest in any book) -- but it reminded me that I must never again read a self-published book. This one was 258 pages and it felt like 2,580. 
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Tresbien
Member
08-26-2002
| Tuesday, April 27, 2021 - 10:25 am
Who needs sleep when you have a good read like The Last Flight? Thanks to Mak1, Ric and Teach for recommending it.
I've been extraordinarily lucky getting books from the library recently, and Kristin Hannah's The Four Winds became available today. Looking forward to that one after a friend recommended it.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Tuesday, April 27, 2021 - 3:07 pm
The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim & Three Perfect Liars by Heidi Perks we rather meh for me. Both books started out rather interesting but I quite disliked the endings. Three Perfect Liars reminded me of those movies I have seen based on the books of Liane Moriarty.
Pianos and Flowers by Alexander McCall Smith is my next read. I haven't read any short stories in some time but I have enjoyed several of this authors books so hopefully this will be another of them.
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Mak1
Member
08-11-2002
| Tuesday, April 27, 2021 - 3:31 pm
Tresbien, I'm glad you enjoyed The Last Flight as much as several of us did!
Ric, that self-published book sounds like torture to read. Kudos to you for finishing. A nice lady who came to our book club one winter had self-published a novel and it sounded like an interesting read. Lo and behold, it was in the condo that I rented the next winter. I read it...all of it...and was so very glad I did not spend a penny on it. It was so awful! At lead there were no typos.
I recently finished Upstairs at the White House, a memoir by the former Chief Usher of the WH, J. B. West with Mary Lynn Kotz. I found it very interesting. He did tell some amusing anecdotes but didn't dish dirt about any of the First Families he worked for.
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Friday, April 30, 2021 - 3:28 pm
Before the Dawn by Cynthia Eden. It was good. A blurb on the front said it is a "Killer Instinct" novel.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Friday, April 30, 2021 - 9:45 pm
quote:I recently read The Orphan Train. It was very good.
Turns out I did NOT just read the Orphan Train. I read the Orphan's Tale by Pam Jenoff, and it revolved around an orphan train taking babies to Auschwitz. A teenager who got pregnant by a Nazi soldier was turned out into the streets by her parents, gave up her baby, ran away and got a menial job cleaning toilets in a railway station. One day a train pulled in and it was full of babies in an unheated car, most of them dead, and she takes one of the live ones, then has to run away again with the baby, gets rescued by a circus clown, and joins the circus. It is an odd plot, but a great read.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Friday, April 30, 2021 - 9:46 pm
quote:Juju! It's so funny you should mention going cold turkey because that's exactly what I did day before yesterday.
That's actually hilarious, Uncle Ricky, as I was probably posting that at the same time you were starting to go cold turkey. Keep up the good work, one day at a time, and do not look back.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Sunday, May 02, 2021 - 8:29 pm
Some of the short stories in Pianos and Flowers by Alexander McCall Smith have been a nice little read. I was a bit worried when I did not care for the first one and almost returned the book but decided to try another story or two. I really like the idea of creating a story from a picture. If I had stayed with the teaching program I would probably have my students do this, it could be a great lesson on multiple levels.
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Kappy
Member
06-28-2002
| Monday, May 03, 2021 - 11:46 am
The Orphan's Tale sounds interesting. They say it's a cross between The Nightingale and Water for Elephants. I liked both of those so I'm adding it to my list.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Sunday, May 09, 2021 - 6:07 pm
Juju! It’s been over a week and absolutely no interaction with the Spelling Bee — thank you for keeping after me to abandon it! 👍👍👍
Last week I finished Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston — definitely my first and last time reading this writer. The story was enjoyable and cute, but she (McQuiston) insisted on lacing every major character’s dialogue with an endless fusillade of F-bombs. I don’t mind them if they’re used sparingly and/or to fortify the characters in some interesting fashion. But this was totally ridiculous - the F-bs appeared on at least 90% of the book’s 400+ pages. Hugely annoying. 🤮
Today I finished Then She Was Gone, Lisa Jewell’s 15th published title. I’m relieved to report that it’s one of her very best. This one had a couple of intensely creepy characters but they were, interestingly, characters who you found yourself rooting for in spite of the creepiness factor. Jewell is a total genius, of that there is no doubt!
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Tresbien
Member
08-26-2002
| Friday, May 14, 2021 - 1:28 pm
Enjoyed The Four Winds, another of Kristin Hannah's wonderful sagas. This one takes place during the Dust Bowl, and it taught me a lot about that very harsh period. Written before the pandemic, it reflects to some degree the challenges of our time.
On to Isabel Allende's memoir My Invented Country."
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Friday, May 14, 2021 - 5:55 pm
Quick update: We DID perform Sister Act with a wonderful replacement. So happy my family came the first night because the second/last night, after two songs into the second act, we first got a rain delay, and then LIGHTNING so tore everything down and had the most abrupt ending to a musical ever. Next day - both our other HS kids in the cast tested positive for Covid. They are doing OK, but it wiped them out energy wise.
I have only finished Before We Were Yours - and that's because of a wee road trip. Started The Distant Echo today (Vic McDermid) as I traveled and am thoroughly enjoying it.
Haven't finished anything else, though I read a couple pages of Shuggie Bain most days. Just Wed. finished the last day of state testing - and we started on April 13! WORST YEAR ever for testing stress - 90 hours of extra work and double testing plus extended testing. Biggest scam in education.
BUT - One more month of school, Seniors Honors Assembly, Graduation (outdoors - god help me) and three weeks to finish my own classes AND I will be a free woman for 2 1/2 months. I intend to do nothing but read, ride bike and get back to my workouts. I can hardly wait!!!
TL*DR: I've only finished one book! LOL
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Sunday, May 16, 2021 - 4:49 pm
Tres, I’m glad you liked it. I have added it to my list. Some of the Goodreads reviews indicate there’s a lot of crying by people who have read it. I love books that make me cry. 🥲
Last night I finished the latest Linwood Barclay, Find You First and what an exhilarating experience it was! It’s easily one of his most action-packed stories. The chapters fly by at lightning speed, primarily because of how anxious you get in wanting to find out what happens next. This is one of his more outrageous plots, but it’s fun, fun, fun from beginning to end. I really love how he punishes the bad guys when it comes time to make them suffer!
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Saturday, May 22, 2021 - 6:09 am
"Daughter of the Empire" by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts. It was different. It seems like it takes place in the Orient, though it's supposed to be science fiction, I think.
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