Book Lovers Club
Comments
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Enrique's Journey was a great read and a true story, well-researched but heartbreaking. What's a mother to do, given a choice between staying and starving or leaving and sending money back home to keep the wolf from the family's door.
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I think someone mentioned this one before- I just finished At The Edge Of The Orchard by Tracy Chevalier. A good read. It's a fictional story (set among some real life characters) of a family settling and living in mid 1800s in tragedy and poverty in Ohio and one son's escapemigration to California. Major supporting roles played by nature including a fascinating look at apple trees and their propagation, and the discovery of the giant sequoia.
I really enjoyed it and recommend it.
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I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh was recommended to me by my librarian. 5 stars! It was excellent.
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Badger, let me know your thoughts on Enrique's Journey. Sounds like a book I would like to read.
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ladyb, I would recommend it. Very thought-provoking and puts human faces to the current immigration debate. Although I still don't agree with people sneaking into the US, I see why they try.
The effect on the families is staggering. Moms think the children should be more grateful for their sacrifices. The kids are fed and clothed but feel abandoned. They have all kinds of issues when they grow up.
Enrique's mom ended up 12,000 miles from her son in Honduras. (!!) That's how far she went to support her kids, and how much her son wanted to find her. I don't want to say any more in case you do read it.
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Stiletto is a follow up to Rook, in which Daniel O' Malley introduced readers to the Checquy - the centuries old British covert agency comprised of British citizens born with odd/special powers which is charged with saving society from supernatural threats. In Stiletto, two entities, the Checquey and representatives of "the Grafters" are exploring a merger of forces despite the fact that their long histories have been of mutual emnity. The Grafters is a secret, equally old private group - based in Belgium but with outposts throughout Europe, originally alchemists who over the centuries began perfecting surgical enhancements of humans. The story focuses on Odette, a member of the Grafter delegation and Felicity, a Checquy Pawn, who has been assigned to be Odette's bodyguard as both organizations try to identify and subdue a new threat intent on destroying them both. Very exciting and funny.
Miss Jane by Brad Watson - totally different kind of book!!! the novel is based on the author's great-aunt who was born in rural Mississippi in 1914 with a genital birth defect which not only prevented her from fulfilling her role as wife and mother, but also made it difficult to engage in ordinary social functions. She lived on her parents' farm with a brief period "in town" with her sister helping at her dry cleaning store. The family doctor who delivered her, remained her doctor, friend and confidant. I like this blurb from the back of the book the best " Calmly, quietly, with deceptive simplicity, Brad Watson brings to life a most unusual woman, finding a most unusual grace."
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Anyone familiar with Maeve Binchy. Reading her "A Few Of The Girls", collection of short stories. Very entertaining.0
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Pheasant, I've read many of Maeve Binchy's books and like them a lot. She populates her books with people I like. Sometimes sappy but always heartwarming. I have Chestnut Street on my TBR pile. It's a collection of previously unreleased short stories published posthumously in 2014 by her DH.
Just back from a week's vacay. Between two plane rides and some down time, polished off three paperbacks: Storm Front (2014) a Virgil Flowers by John Sandford, Cross Justice (2016) an Alex Cross by James Patterson, and Make Me (2016) a Jack Reacher by Lee Child. The Patterson & Child were good but the Sandford was just OK as I like Lucas Davenport way better than Flowers.
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If you like western mystery genre I can highly recommend author Keith McCafferty for his
Sean Stranahan Mysteries.
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Here are some books I enjoyed that couldn't be more opposite:
Golden Boy by Martin Booth is his memories of a Hong Kong childhood. His father (a Brit) was posted to Hong Kong in 1952 when Martin was seven. Wonderful adventure and the sights, sounds, tastes are fantastic. True story/memoir but reads like a novel.
The Martian by Andy Weir. Yes I know Matt Damon made a movie of this book. Still this WSF comment is perfect "a celebration of human ingenuity & the purest example of real-science sci-fi for many years". I couldn't understand much of the math or engineering and no way could all that have been in the movie, but I followed it through.
The Wolf in Winter by John Connolly. One of the series about private investigator Charlie Parker but can be read as a stand alone. Seems like his books get more weird as time goes on. This one involves a "closed" community in Maine that has some secret "religious" practices they brought over from the British Isles in the 1700s. And his books always have several threads - pulling in friends & compatriots from other adventures, not to mention his 1st deceased wife & daughter, and his 2nd divorced wife & daughter.
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Dying to read something other than stuff from my textbook for class that is assigne
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mom...the DH and younger son read The Martian. Way before the film was made Irandomly grabbed the book off of the library shelf.. Both are engineers so it appealed to them. When I discovered that a movie was being made...I wondered how they might get the tech understandable for us commoners! I was pleasantly surprised when I viewed the movie.. Now I long for more intelligently focused Hollywood films...for sure there are some dramas that are intellectual. But...The Martian makes understandable some beefy technology without the need to dumb it down for those of us whose brains are not baked with engineering minds.
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Well I started re-reading Ernest Cline's "Ready Player One". Thebook is set on Earth in the future but is full of '80s references
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Just finished The Book Thief - thank you Kaneli for suggestion. In Young Adult section of library but worth seeking out. So thought provoking - I could not put it down.
I'm reading The Assistants by Camille Perri - fiction - a fun read on the lives of corporate assistants0 -
Reading World War II From Above by Jeremy Harwood. Fascinating book about aerial spying! On a side note...one of my parents' best friends served over Europe during the war. His job was to take aerial photos over enemy lines. When I saw the book, I was so excited to read it! I am NOT disappointed
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almost forgot...dh breezed thru latest Baldacci book and is almost finished reading Lee Child's latest.
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VR - both are on my list. Does he read C.J. Box?
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minus...will have to check out Box....i have the new O'Reilly book waiting for him and the WWII book waiting for him as well.
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VR, received a recent gift of : Diane Arbus Portrait of a Photographer, by Arthur Lubow. Hoping to delve into it soon..been a bit busy
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Told my hubby there was a new Philippa Gregory book out that He could get me for Christmas.
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lilac! How nice! Someone gave you a gift of a book you really wanted! Now THAT is a nice person! Keep me posted once you read it
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Lilac: I've head from others as well that Portrait of a photographer is an excellent read and is on my Kindle. I'm just starting Trevor Noah's Born a Crime - autobiographical pieces of his life. He was born of a Black mother and Swiss father is Aparthied South Africa when it was a punishable crime to be so born.
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I want to read Born a Crime,,,, WTH did they do? Jail the parents for the "crime"?
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Glennie: Yes they could jail the parents for the crime and then the child goes into state care. Fortunately, that did not happen to Trevor Noah's parents. He was raised by his mother, a very shrewd, careful woman trying to raise a mischievous young boy. As a comedian, his stories are both funny and tragic.
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Intrigued by the cover, read Charlie McDowell's The Girls Upstairs - some laugh out loud parts, a 30 something - at loose ends can hear everything the two girls above him say - and their inane conversations drive him crazy - so he begins to tweet their comments and his reactions. Read an Agatha Raisin, perhaps the latest - who knows, they are certainly starting to blend together - but like a bag of m&ms - I will just keep mindlessly grabbing the next one. More aware of what I was doing when I sat down with the latest of Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce book - Thrice the Brindled Cat Hath Mew'd. Now 12 years old and literally just off the boat from her short but eventful attempt at a Canadian boarding school, she finds her father in the hospital with pneumonia, her pet chicken missing, her sisters even more awful that ever and of course, a corpse. Lovely!! I tried a new series The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman a mysterious library - whose Librarians collect books from alternate realities - dragons, fairies, werewolves, vampires, victorian steam punk - eh. I almost forgot Deborah Meyler's delightful novel The Bookstore about an English girl who, while doing a PhD in Art History at Columbia, takes a job at a bookstore on the upper Westside. If you have always secretly wanted to work in a used bookshop and you love Manhattan, this is the book for you.
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I did enjoy Still Life by Louise Penney. Will have to try the next one sometime. I also love Sanford's Lucas Davenport novels.
Just got The Boys in the Boat. Will start reading soon.
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Love it Ruth. Thanks for posting.
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What do classic sci-fi and military/espionage thrillers have in common? My DH. The bookcase has four shelves of his old paperbacks and it's a treasure trove. The sci-fi may tempt me this winter but I've been into the thrillers all fall. Two I'll mention: The Timothy Files (1987) by Lawrence Sanders and Invasion (2000) by Eric L. Harry. The first book features Wall Street investigator Timothy Cone, who works three cases of financial malfeasance. Liked it so well am going to library search for the sequel Timothy's Game (1988). The second book is about a Chinese invasion of the US by sea.
TBR is The Eight (1988) by Katherine Neville. It's historical fiction about hiding and finding the pieces of a chess set possibly owned by Charlemagne, set in NYC in 1972 and the South of France in 1790. The WaPo book review dubbed it a feminist answer to Raiders of the Lost Ark.
But first is a book on loan from a friend at work: The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel.
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Badger - you & Jelson are so good at sharing your reads. Thanks. I'll try to do better.
Stayed up all night with Harlan Coben's The Stranger (2015). Somehow this stranger drops "secrets" in the ears of happy, unsuspecting people. He has their best interest at heart - maybe?
Just finished an Ann Rivers Siddons book from 1987 - Homeplace. I hadn't read one of her books in years and it was fun to sit back with a bag of chips & indulge. What is it about the South? And the LAND, and old forgotten loves & hatreds.
Read one of my old favorite authors Reginald Hill. Exit Lines (1984) sets up Detective-Inspector Peter Pascoe to find out why "old" people are dying - and are they murdered? Superintendent Dalziel is drinking more than usual and who's telling the truth?
J.A Jance is another author I read regularly. I think I like her Sheriff Joanna Brady stories best, but I've also read the J.P. Beaumont mysteries. This one was an Ali Reynonds mystery - Left for Dead (2012). One of Ali's Police Academy classmates is gunned down & left to die. Is he a victim of the drug cartels or is he mixed up in the drug trade?
Can you tell I've been to the used book store?
Just started Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods (1998). Laughed out loud at this comment from his research about predators before he starts out. "And how foolish must one be to be reassured by the information that no bear has killed a human in Vermont for New Hampshire in 200 years. That's not because the bears have signed a treaty you know..." Once upon a time I thought I might walk the Appalachian Trail so I'm looking forward to this book.
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