| Author |
Message |
Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Thursday, November 14, 2024 - 12:44 pm 
Not available on Libby or Hoopla.
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Kappy
Member
06-28-2002
| Friday, November 15, 2024 - 10:04 am
Heckagirl - Can you put in a recommendation that your library purchase it? I've found books before under the author's name but not under the title of the book. Rare but it can happen.
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Monday, November 18, 2024 - 1:15 pm
I just suggested it. We will see what they say.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-21-2001
| Saturday, November 23, 2024 - 7:47 pm
Two fun audiobooks for me:
TJ Klune's The House in the Cerulean Sea which I read because I saw a post that the author models one of the villains after JK Rowling. It was such a lovely YA book. HIGHLY recommend the audio version as the narrator is just fabulous (Chauncy was my absolute favorite character!)
Almost done with The Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg. A group of people in an assisted living home have formed "The League of Pensioners" whose goal is to commit a bad enough crime to get them thrown in jail, after Martha watches a documentary on the Swedish prison system and decides jail offers more amenities than their retirement home. It is quite comical!
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Jimmer
Board Administrator
08-29-2000
| Sunday, November 24, 2024 - 8:03 am
I think I’ll give The House in the Cerulean Sea a try!
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Tuesday, November 26, 2024 - 9:50 am
I just finished listening to James by Percival Everett. Wow. I understand why it is on all the top books of the year lists. I am so glad I did audio with this one. The narrator was fantastic, so moving.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Thursday, November 28, 2024 - 9:28 am
Yesterday I finished The God in the Woods By Liz Moore and loved it. Thank you, Mamie, for recommending it so highly. And speaking of thanks, Happy Thanksgiving to all of the U.S. folks here in the ol’ Club House — don’t forget to do plenty of reading in between bites of your T-day dinners! 😜
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Saturday, November 30, 2024 - 10:42 am
I am so glad you liked it too!
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Sunday, December 01, 2024 - 10:10 am
You're a treasure - I have lost count of the (huge) number of books you've recommended to me!
My most recent post failed to mention that I'd also read Liane Moriarty's latest, Here One Moment. The plot (pseudo-psychic predicts the deaths of several strangers on a crowded flight) did not grip me in the way her other books have. It's well-written, though, and also has many laugh-out-loud passages despite the subject matter. I liked it a lot, but did not love it.
Yesterday I finished Heartbreak Is The National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music by Rob Sheffield. What follows may surprise/horrify/perplex you, depending on what you think of Ms. Swift.
About 18 months ago -- completely out of the blue and a severe shock to my system -- I developed an intense obsession with her music. "What???" you may ask. Prior to summer 2023, the only thing I knew about her was her name. I didn't like or dislike her - I'd always just ignored her, as one does, similar to something like sky-diving, i.e., you know what it is, but never in a million years would you actually participate in it.
One of my all-time favorite heroes of music, Bruce Springsteen, was interviewed by Howard Stern and the interview aired on HBO Max. I watched it enthusiastically - it was summer 2023 when I watched it - and at one point Taylor Swift's name came up. Bruce unhesitatingly extolled her songwriting talents to Howard, who sounded surprised by Bruce's endorsement. I, on the other hand, was TOTALLY SHOCKED. That set the wheels in motion for me to, at the very least, devote some time to give her music a chance (that Amazon Music subscription came in very handy). I'll spare you the gory details, but I fell hopelessly, enormously, (monstrously!) in love with her music. To this day, I still can't believe it happened. And I owe it all to Bruce and Howard with an assist from Bruce's daughter, Jessica. In the interview, Bruce explained how he'd picked Jessica up at the Newark airport to drive her home. During the hour-long trip she insisted that Bruce listen to Taylor's latest (at the time) album, "Midnights" - Howard asked him what he thought of it and Bruce replied, "it's really, really good."
Once I boarded the Swiftian love train, I was glued to my seat. I listen to her every single day, from morning to night - every song, every album, every concert film, every video, the works - she's recorded nearly 300 songs. I've watched the live streams of every concert she's held over the past 12 months, including the ones in Australia and Japan, where the shows got underway at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. in my time zone! No one is more stunned by all this than I am. How on earth does one become a massive Taylor Swift fan at age 65??? I'll be 67 in February! But it's a very happy accident; if I'd never seen that Bruce/Howard interview I'd still be ignoring her to this day. And when I develop an obsession with someone or something, the word obsession becomes a very mild way to describe the whole thing. 
Mr. Sheffield's book is very good and he's clearly an unapologetic fan, but he also points out her faults (respectfully). I learned a couple of details about her that I'd not known before, so that was worth the price of the book right there. WARNING: do *not* buy or read this book if you are not a fan of Taylor Swift!
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Chieko
Member
11-19-2003
| Monday, December 16, 2024 - 9:07 am
You may enjoy this article about songs Taylor has written for others. https://www.businessinsider.com/songs-taylor-swift-wrote-2018-5#swift-cowrote-safe-and-sound-with-the-civil-wars-for-the-hunger-games-soundtrack-8
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Jimmer
Board Administrator
08-29-2000
| Monday, December 16, 2024 - 10:31 am
My oldest DD is a huge fan (as well as her sister). I love her music and artistry. Also her management ability is extraordinary. Truly remarkable.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Friday, December 20, 2024 - 11:31 am
Chieko! Thanks so much for the link - I *never* get tired of reading articles about her - the more the merrier.
Jimmer! What marvelous daughters you've raised (this is not news to you, I'm sure). I'm so pleased you love her music - I still can't get over how brilliant she is - I agree: truly remarkable! I read somewhere that her IQ is 180. No wonder she's a musical genius and an other-worldly-smart businesswoman! I'm only bummed that she'll probably write a memoir of her life when she gets to be my age (or older) and I likely won't be around to read it since that would mean I got to live into my late 90s or early 100s.
And, now, back to our regularly scheduled program:
Speaking of memoirs, I noticed a copy of the one Britney Spears recently released,
The Woman in Me, at the library and gave it a try. I never got into her music, but - similar to Barbra Streisand - I found her to be a fascinating personality. The writing quality is not the best, but Spears does a good job of covering all the painful moments of her life. The section about her relationship with Justin Timberlake was particulary painful - she's very lucky to have emerged from it relatively unscathed.
I'd heard of, but never read, ••••••• Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison. (The censored word equates to 'illegitimate child'). Oh my goodness, there's pain and then there's P-A-I-N. Yikes! Though a work of fiction, this is totally based on her own childhood and it is one of the most difficult reading experiences I've encountered in recent years. Major, major kudos to her for being able to turn all of those wickedly painful moments into such a staggering achievement in fiction inspired by actual events.
Last week I finished Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. This was my first time reading Ms. Keegan and though the book is quite short (about 120 pages in the hardcover edition), it packs quite a wallop. It's been adapted into a film and the early reviews of it have been extremely positive. I will definitely seek out Keegan's other works.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-21-2001
| Friday, December 20, 2024 - 5:54 pm
OOoo... Uncle_Ricky you mentioned not only one of the most powerful books I ever read in grad school w/Dorothy Allison's book (the other was Sue Silverman's Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You), but one of my favorite Irish authors. Keegan's books are all small but mighty!
I've done mainly audio books the last 2-3 months as I've been on the road a ton between 3 weekends of musical performances (w/tech week and other pit rehearsals prior) and then my dad having a major neck surgery and being in rehab until after the new year. My list includes:
Himself (Kidd), The House in the Cerulean Sea (Klune), The Little Old Lady Who Broke all the Rules (Ingelman-Sundberg), One Last Stop (McQuiston), The Message (Coates), This American Ex-Wife (Lenz), and Something Spectacular (Hall).
My Kindle reads include: Sandwich (Newman), The Situationship (Jimenez) and Go Cook Yourself (Chase) and I am just a couple hundred pages away from finishing All the Colors of the Dark (Whitaker).
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Tuesday, December 24, 2024 - 9:34 am
Finally finished "World Without End" (1025 pages) by Ken Follett. It was really good. Now on to something else.
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Tuesday, December 24, 2024 - 6:27 pm
I read two samples on the Libby App. Both of them were good. The library said it didn't have either one of them. I put in a notice to be notified if they get either one. Both by Monica Wood. How to Read a Book and One In A Million Boy.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-21-2001
| Friday, December 27, 2024 - 10:21 pm
Hecka - those two books by Wood are AMAZING!! One in a Million Boy is one of my top 5 for 2024.
I finished All the Colors of the Dark and it was another wonderfully written story. Complex characters, a serial murderer where - even though the murderer is known from the first 10% of the book - the mystery surrounding it is not revealed completely until the end. And it was a total surprise! The story portrayed so much pain and emotional trauma but did it with beauty and dignity. Highly, highly recommend it.
I also just finished listening to Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan. It was another story where the characters faced pain but the story was not maudlin. Recommended.
Finally, I did a fun, quick read of One on One by Jamie Harrow. It was a basketball-based romance that dealt with sexual harassment in the college sports world. It is Harrow's first book, and I'm looking forward to reading more by her.
I'm currently reading Phil Rickman's The Smile of a Ghost, part of the Merrily Watkins series. I'm hoping to finish it before the year ends. His books are always enjoyable - usually a murder mystery with a supernatural element as Merrily is a female priest who is part of the "Deliverance Council" investigating spiritual paranormal events.
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Sunday, January 05, 2025 - 1:23 pm
I finished "Wool"by Hugh Howey. It is the first in a trilogy. Don't know if I want to read the others. It was okay. Science Fiction Dystopian. The Apple series "Silo" is based on it. I've only seen the first one in that series. I would be way behind. They are already on Season 2.
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Sunday, January 05, 2025 - 2:31 pm
Teach, they don't have either one of those books by Wood. I have a request in to be notified if they get them.
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Friday, January 10, 2025 - 4:06 pm
I finished a much lighter book, Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson. It was about the 1 %'ers, I guess. Interesting.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-21-2001
| Sunday, January 12, 2025 - 9:13 am
Starting January out a bit slowly, but the book journal is set up (see pretty picture).
Kindle books
I finished The Smile of a Ghost on NYE, and it was - as Rickman's books always are - a solid mystery interspersed with history & the paranormal.
I read The Pairing by McQuinston and enjoyed it. A pastry chef and a sommelier take a wine and food tour. They were friends, then lovers, and at the start of the book are exes. They progress back through to friends and lovers. Fun read and solid representation of the LGBTQA community.
Today I finished Bookish People by Coll. Depending on the day I read it, it was either wildly chaotic fun or anxiety-inducing stress. It's set in a Washington DC bookstore owned by a widow. Another unique cast of characters, including a Roomba riding tortoise.
Current read is now The Sweet Spot by Peoppel.
I've got 10 KU books that I was going to attempt to read by the time my subscription ends on Jan. 19. As that is looking highly unlikely, I'll extend my subscription one month past the "deal" and see how many I can get through by then.
Audiobooks
My last audiobook of 2024 was The Christmas Book Hunt a short story by Jenny Colgan. It was fine - nothing spectacular, but I'm finding I'm just not a short story kind of gal as I miss the character development and more complicated plots.
I also listened to The Midnight Feast by Foley as my first audiobook of 2025. I don't know if it's because I was distracted or what, but I didn't find this one as enjoyable or compelling as I have her other books. It was still interesting and the plot/mystery was solid, but it didn't meet my expectations.
My current audiobook is Redemption Falls by O'Connor. It is an interesting time period as are the characters, but the narrator is killing me. He's almost monotone. I've listened to over 4 hours of it and still have 10 hours left. I'm not sure I have it in me.
Deadtree books
I am partway through July's newest All Fours and am hoping to finish it today. The fist part I've completely enjoyed, so I look forward to the rest.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-21-2001
| Sunday, January 12, 2025 - 9:58 am
Pretty journal picture for above (totally forgot to attach it)
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Wednesday, January 15, 2025 - 11:51 am
Finished another very good one by Barbara Kingsolver. It said it was her first book. The Bean Trees.
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Kappy
Member
06-28-2002
| Wednesday, January 15, 2025 - 1:12 pm
It's been years since I read that book, Hecka, but I remember wanting to read everything Kingsolver wrote after that.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-21-2001
| Wednesday, January 15, 2025 - 6:17 pm
That was a good one! Kingsolver is one of my favorites.
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Saturday, January 25, 2025 - 5:34 pm
I finished "The Last List of Mabel Beaumont" by Linda Pearson. It was pretty good. Different.
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