I read so many books a week it's impossible to keep up. Seriously, I have over 2500 "keepers" most from used book stores.

So who knows what's next?

You are certainly among friends here. There are a number of voracious readers who post here so stick around. You might see a book you recognize and want to say something about it. Or maybe add another to your collection.

I'm jonesing!!!

Reread everything at least 5 times, then trade the ones I didn't fall in love with (rare). What a great group!

It was from his list I chose to read “A Gentleman In Moscow” last year.

Feeling lousy with a bad head cold, so I’m still reading about Freddie Mercury.

I’ve enjoyed the Stephanie Plum books when I was in the mood for something light.

Hope you feel better soon.

Thank you, Obama.

and for a non-fiction I am reading A History of Future Cities by Brook.

Gonna have to read that one. " a funny, poignant love story that answers the question: What happens after we die? (Lots of stuff, it turns out)."

I seem to always grab books on the topic. I have also read "How to Stop Time" by Haig a bit of a turn on time travel.

If you like the topic of afterlife you MUST read The Mercy of Thin Air by Domingue. Ghosts roaming the city, going to the library after hours, keeping up their old homes etc. Excellent.

That does sound fun. Thanks!

Baldacci's "Long Road to Mercy" and Patterson's "Target".. am into a five book Scott Pratt "Joe Dillard" series now, first 2 down 3 to go

A new Alex Cross story. And Baldacci's is a Suspense/Thriller taking place in the Grand Canyon, one of my favorite places. Good stuff.

I still like Baldacci.

Not sure what I think about it yet, but I do appreciate Erdrich's writing style. She is native American. It's a story that winds through fifty years or so (30s thru 80s) of a couple of family's lives on a Chippewa reservation in North Dakota. Erdrich really does a good job of bringing the people, the place and the situations to life for me. I will definitely finish it before returning it to the library.

Sometimes you have to take notes to keep up with who is who but I always feel great satisfaction after reading her books.

I can relate to the note-taking. I’ve had to refer back to keep things straight a couple times already.

The Vera novel Hidden Depths by Ann Cleeves was very good. She twisted it up so that I keep following the wrong trails. If you like British police procedural murder mysteries it's a good one.

A novel about "The Battle of the Bulge."

"Many American boys went into World War II, and each one lived their own nightmare, critically shaped by what they experienced. Told with gritty authenticity, Donn Pearce captures the very essence of what it means to be caught under the worst circumstances imaginable, while having the strength and humanity to rise above them."


Pearce also wrote Cool Hand Luke.

Luke" it decided to buy it.

by Joe Hill. Joe Hill is the nom de plume of Stephen King's son. The real Joe Hill was a famous labor leader.

This is a dystopian novel as well.

I have reached the part of the book where the groupthink is worse than the illness that is devastating the world. IMHO.

Spontaneous combustion. Yeah, groupthink is pretty much always the at the root of our problems.

Interesting choice of a nom de plume.

Did you read the earlier books?

About half, or slightly more of what I read is non-fiction. I wish someone over at the non-fiction place would pin a thread like this every week.

I've downloaded Joe Ide's audio books but hadn't got around to them. Last week, I gave IQ a try. Wow! Now I'm about half way through Righteous.

I haven't read anything about the author or any reviews. The largest issue I can see is that he appears to be Asian-American, and his novels center around African-Americans, many gang-related. So you can imagine the language. It all seems to work, however. The characters are multi-dimensional, the stories are intricate. They're basically private investigator novels with many, many twists. Definitely worth a try.

Came across Mark de Castrique in a list of books to read and was reminded to restart his two series. Very light and very entertaining. I started to read A Specter of Justice and realized I had already read it. I'll read it again. There's one more in this series, Sam Blackman. Based in Asheville, NC, and I get the impression that the depictions are pretty realistic. Characters are entertaining, people you care about. Will pick up where I left off in the Buryin' Barry series as well.

Also reading A Noise Downstairs, a standalone novel by Linwood Barclay. I've ready most of Barclay's Promise Falls novels. As above, a good writer, complex plots, developed characters. Just about 20 pages in, but so far, so good.

Pronounced EE-day, born c. 1958, Joe grew up in South Central Los Angeles, which he used as the setting for a series of crime novels. His 2016 debut novel was nominated for a 2017 Edgar Award for best first novel by an American writer. Second novel got New York Times Critics' Best of the Year and winner of the Anthony, Macavity, and Shamus Awards.

Your other 2 authors also sound worth checking out. Thanks!

His depictions are a little too spot on to be from research. I suspect that what I might see as cliche is stuff that he actually saw and lived. Rap artists, gangbangers and ex-gangbangers, prolific use of the n-word, holding guns sideways, and more.

I don't know how far he's going to take the series - he's already at 3. But I'm in as far as he goes. Plus any standalones.

...and enjoying it very much!
Also plugging away at the V. I. Warshawsky series by Sara Paretsky. She's a little too Wonder Woman for me to take seriously, but they're fun.

Sorry for the slow reply. The power went out here, just about the same time as you posted. Just got it back. Glad it wasn't awfully cold today. 32 and quite sunny so we didn't freeze. Sure gets boring, though. I read for a bit, then fell asleep.

I read some V. I. Warshawsky books back in the 80s. Not really memorable. Impressive that Sara is still writing, though.

And one new Bentley Little that my MIL sent home with my husband over xmas. She buys brand new books and reads them one time. Then I get them, and I'm thrilled! So looking forward to those.

Right now I'm still finishing, "The Girl in the Spider's Web". I had to lay it down over the holidays. The book moves w-a-y slower than the movie. I prefer Stieg Larsson's writing.

Free books. Thanks, Mom.

Stieg Larsson was amazing.

Sure are a lot of people reading Galbraith these days. You're in good company.

Last edited Sun Dec 30, 2018, 07:36 PM - Edit history (1)

read. Sometimes, I can't make a contribution, but this week I think I have hit the motherlode.

I started reading Tayari Jones's book, An American Marriage but got about 1/2 into the book and the whole thing started to seem a bit contrived. It just didn't ring true for me. I know it's on President Obama's list, and I tried, but it just wasn't what I wanted to be reading.

I am thrilled that you are reading Lighthouse Island as Paulette Jiles is one of my most favorite authors and that book is absolutely among my top tier. It is right up there with The Handmaid's Tale on my list of best/favorites. I read somewhere (maybe on Paulette Jiles' blog) that there would be a sequel to Lighthouse Island which would make me jump for joy, but then I read this blog entry which addresses characters from her book, News of the World:

The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge A thrilling tale of betrayal and revenge set against the nineteenth-century American frontier, the astonishing story of real-life trapper and frontiersman Hugh Glass

The year is 1823, and the trappers of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company live a brutal frontier life. Hugh Glass is among the company’s finest men, an experienced frontiersman and an expert tracker. But when a scouting mission puts him face-to-face with a grizzly bear, he is viciously mauled and not expected to survive. Two company men are dispatched to stay behind and tend to Glass before he dies. When the men abandon him instead, Glass is driven to survive by one desire: revenge. With shocking grit and determination, Glass sets out, crawling at first, across hundreds of miles of uncharted American frontier. Based on a true story, The Revenant is a remarkable tale of obsession, the human will stretched to its limits, and the lengths that one man will go to for retribution.

"Michael Punke serves as the U.S. Ambassador to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. He has also served on the White House National Security Council staff and on Capitol Hill. He was formerly the history correspondent for Montana Quarterly, and an adjunct professor at the University of Montana. He is the author of "Fire and Brimstone: The North Butte Mine Disaster of 1917, "and "Last Stand: George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New West. His family home is in Montana."

If the arc of justice ever bends in our direction, I would love to meet up for lunch some time!

Happy New Year to you and your kitties.

A couple of weeks ago I discovered there is a Drinking Liberally group here that meets the second Friday of each month so that is on my dance card for next week. Last week I went to a Christmas party put on by the local Democratic Party and had a wonderful time. The food was fantastic and the two dozen people in attendance were all just delightful. So, ...

It is on Obama's list ( and Oprah's)

Definetely the best book
I've read in a long tine. A man is jailed for a crime he didn't commit and his wife is left with life altering decisions.

Very powerful.

I also read A Gentleman in Moscow which someone mentioned above. That was on ast year's list. Great writing.

I am going to check out what other fiction is on the list.

"...a masterpiece of storytelling, an intimate look deep into the souls of people who must reckon with the past while moving forward--with hope and pain--into the future."

And you are reading to understand about how good people grapple with an Imposdible situation,
This is one of the best
I've read for making me relate to the characters and the ending sums it up in two words .

I just want to give my copy to everyone I know.

It's a follow-up to "The Calculating Stars". The set-up is that the East Coast of the U.S. is almost completely destroyed in 1952 by a meteor strike in the Chesapeake Bay, which pushes the Space Program into fast forward, as scientists realize that the long-term after-effects will kill most life on Earth. Initially there's a meteor winter that lasts for five or so years, then a greenhouse effect takes hold and will make the planet uninhabitable in time, although the time frame is never quite specified.

The narrator of both books is a woman with a PhD in math, married to the chief engineer of the space program. The issues of racism and sexism are very much front and center in the books. She wrote the first one before "Hidden Figures" was published, but the author knew about those women.

On a personal note, I keep a book list and read 117 books last year.

I should keep a list. Guess I could just go back through all my posts here, but I won't. Instead I'll just take a guess at 47, not counting the audibles. Those would bring it up up into the 80s. Cheers!