Biography, Autobiography, Memoir discussion
What Are You Reading Now (anything goes) 2017
Cries in the Desert by John Glatt was utterly disgusting, but I gave it 4 stars. It was impossible to put down in a not-at-the-dinner-table kind of way. I expected it to be a standard serial-killer epic but it wound up going off in a very different direction.
Celine
Peter Heller
5/5 stars
Celine is a private detective and a senior citizen, who comes from a aristocratic family. She is also married to Pete, who helps her with her cases. Her latest assignment is to find out what happened to a young woman's father, who was a world famous photographer and died under mysterious conditions. As we learn more about the case, we also learn more about Celine's fascinating life and the reason she is in this profession including Celine's own personal secret. This is a stand-alone mystery but I fell in love with the characters and did not want this to end. I'm hoping the author writes a follow-up book to Celine but I will definitely read more of his books.
Mod
3 stars
Short book about a serial killer in the late seventies, early 80's. I had never heard of this one. I don't think it was very well written but it was ok.
Koren wrote: "The Jersey Shore Thrill Killer: Richard Biegenwald3 stars
Short book about a serial killer in the late seventies, early 80's. I had never heard of this one. I don't think it was v..."
That was my take on it, too.
Reading " I am Malala" the autobiography of the girl who was shot by the Taliban and survived. She now spreads the message of education defeating terrorism all around the world.
Mod
That was a good one.
I just finished God Bless This Strip of Dirt by Kathleen Owens Stephens. It's about a 54 year old RN hiking the Appalachian Trail. AT journals are one of my favorite genres to read, as once I retire I am planning to attempt a thru-hike. I am now between books and am trying to decide what to read next? Any suggestions? Does not have to be an AT journal, I'm open to a wide variety of reads.
JeanMarieT wrote: "I just finished God Bless This Strip of Dirt by Kathleen Owens Stephens. It's about a 54 year old RN hiking the Appalachian Trail. AT journals are one of my favorite genres to read, as once I retir..."Have you read A walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson? I assume you have..? He wrote another book recently about a journey though the UK but I think he whinged too much.
The Little Paris Bookshop
Nina George
4/5 stars
Monsieur Perdu runs a bookstore on a boat in France but he likes to think he is more of a "literary apothecary" - prescribing books to cure his patrons' ills. However, his patrons are not the only ones who need to be healed. When Perdu is asked to help a woman who is moving into his building, he is overcome with a over powering emotion for the woman which sets him and a young author to take the book boat on a trip to help the two of them work out their problems and learn to forgive things in the past and themselves. IMO, I thought this could have been edited a little more but I loved the characters and the story line.
Julie wrote: "The Little Paris Bookshop
Nina George
4/5 stars
Monsieur Perdu runs a bookstore on a boat in France but he likes to th..."
Is his name, "Mr. Lost," significant as a story element?
Fishface wrote: "Julie wrote: "The Little Paris Bookshop
Nina George
4/5 stars
Monsieur Perdu runs a bookstore on a boat in France but ..."
Yes, he is a lost soul trying to get over a heart break.
Julie wrote: "Fishface wrote: "Julie wrote: "The Little Paris Bookshop
Nina George
4/5 stars
Monsieur Perdu runs a bookstore on a bo..."
Ah-so.
Six Wakes
Mur Lafferty
4/5 stars
This science fiction novel is set in a time where humans no longer live but survive as clones with their memories still intact and than transferred to new clones when there old clones are damaged or worn. The story is set on the ship Dormir, where it is traveling to a new Earth like planet where the clones will set up a new civilization. Unfortunately, something has happened on the ship and all the clones have been killed. Maria Arena is the first clone awaken but is still shaky and getting used to her new body as she awakens the rest of the crew and they realize the enormity of what has happened and try to find out who wanted them all dead. I found this fascinating and hard to put down. This would make a good film or series.
First Comes Love
Emily Giffin
3.5/5 stars
Two sisters, whose lives were changed dramatically years before when their brother died, now find themselves at crossroads in their lives. Meredith, a lawyer is unhappy with her life, her husband and her job. Josie, a teacher, is also unhappy with her life and is looking to have a baby with or without a husband or partner. Unfortunately, Josie has a secret about her brother's death and revealing that could cause a further fissure in her and her sister's relationship. I enjoyed this novel and I raced through it to find out what was going to happen to the sisters and their relationship.
Mod
Just seemed appropriate to read before Halloween.
Koren wrote: "Holy Ghosts: Or, How a (Not So) Good Catholic Boy Became a Believer in Things That Go Bump in the Night by Gary JansenJust seemed appropriate to read before Halloween."
That looks interesting!
Mod
Just seemed appropriate to read before Halloween..."
Actually, it was kind of a yawner. Will try to get a review written tomorrow.
Koren wrote: "Julie wrote: "Koren wrote: "Holy Ghosts: Or, How a (Not So) Good Catholic Boy Became a Believer in Things That Go Bump in the Night by Gary JansenJust seemed appropriate to read be..."
Thanks for the warning!
Now reading In Great Waters. I approached it cautiously, but it's complex and well written; I'm pretty much loving it.
Mod
2 stars
The premise was a little different. It's not every day you can read a true crime about a priest that murders a nun. That said, this book had a hard time keeping my interest. It seemed to go off in other directions where I wondered what he was talking about had to do with the crime. There was little background information on the nun or the priest so I had a hard time feeling like I knew either one. And in the end, I wasn't convinced that the priest's guilt was proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Not that I don't believe he was guilty, I just don't think it was proven.
Reading Farmers of Forty Centuries: Organic Farming in China, Korea, and Japan by F H King. Published 1918, but still interesting, it compares eastern farming.... with american agriculture. And how organic practices like composting, manuring, mulches, intercropping, using canals on smallholdings grow bigger yields per hectare of land of rice, silk and tea. Compared to american industrial agriculture that wastes a lot of nutrients to the sea and needs pesticides and herbicides plus mining for fertilisers to feed a smaller population for the large amount of land they use. There's photographs but wish they were bigger and in colour. The author went on a tour and just wrote down his impressions but its quite interesting to read how americans react to practices that seem foreign to them I think they are used to being technologically superior, but who's land is a dustbowl after just one or two generations of farming and whos land is still fertile after forty centuries of continued agriculture?
All the Birds in the Sky
Charlie Jane Anders
2.5/5 stars
In this fantasy/science fiction novel, Patricia who is a witch and Laurence, a engineer disagree about what is happening to the world as disaster after disaster is occurring on the planet. As the world falls apart, the two friends/lovers who met as unhappy children, try to save the world in different ways until they discover that will never work.
I had a hard time with this novel. It did not quite live up to my expectations though I did not hate her writing (and I loved certain sections) but the plot was quite convoluted and at times I had a hard time following it and all the characters.
The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland
Jim DeFede
4/5 stars
This is the true story of the passengers of the 38 jetliners that were forced to land in Gander, Newfoundland on 9/11 when the US air space was closed and all planes were diverted away from the US. Jim DeFede tells an inspiring story of a community that opened their arms to all the passengers (including the animals in the planes) that could not return home.
Though I distinctly remember 9/11 and that horrible day, I had never heard of the community of Gander, who truly countered the horribleness of that disaster-definitely a wonderful read and inspiration to others.
Bad Moon Rising, Jonathan Kirsch3 stars
This was a fun read, especially considering that it's a novelized true crime, too many of which are horrendous. The author started with John L. Frazier's murder of the Ohta family and seemed to try to ring as many changes as he could on the story without leaving it completely unidentifiable. He focused on everyone surrounding the crime -- investigators, reporters, neighbors -- and their reactions to the multiple murder, taking us through all the usual dead ends and trails that lead nowhere to get us to a solution which had very much the same feel, to me, as the resolution of the real case. It also has a wonderful late-'60s psychedelic feel I remember fondly from movies like ANGEL DUSTED and BLUE SUNSHINE.
Mod
4 stars
Started this book thinking it was a True Crime. There is a Peter Davidson who has written two true crime books that I have read: Bones on the Beach: Mafia, Murder, and the True Story of an Undercover Cop Who Went Under the Coverswith a Wiseguy and Homicide Miami: The Millionaire Killers. Apparently, this is not the same author.
About 20 pages into the book I checked to see if this was nonfiction and found out it was fiction.
The book takes place in the Okoboji, Iowa Resort Area, which is a real place and a cluster of 4 towns: Arnold's Park, Spirit Lake, Okoboji, and Milford. I live about a half an hour away from this area so am a little familiar with the area and enjoyed reading a lot of familiar names, especially The Barefoot Bar, which I just discovered a few months ago, and Kuoo radio station, which is my favorite station. When he talked about some local musicians I actually saw the name of a guy that lives in my town.
That said, I do not usually read mysteries, but I couldn't put this down and started it one day and finished the next. Loved the book, but hated the ending. No spoilers here. You will have to read it to find out what I am talking about!
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
Erik Larson
5/5 stars
Larsen is one of my favorite non-fiction authors and he does not disappoint in this book about the sinking of the ocean liner, Lusitania during WWI.
In 1915, WWI was raging in Europe but the United States still had not become involved. Submarines had evolved and now were roaming the oceans aiming at non-military and military watercraft. The Lusitania was on its way to Liverpool filled with non-military men, women and children and though there were warnings about submarines, many passengers were not concerned or did not know about the warnings and thought that their ship would have an escort during the most dangerous part of the trip.
Larsen does a wonderful job describing the time period, the passengers and the crews aboard the submarine and the ocean liner. He also discusses the games Churchill was possibly playing. Was he using the situation to get the US to enter the war? And what was President Wilson’s reluctance to enter the war and who was distracting him from his job. A real page turner!
Mod
3 stars
For me, there are two kinds of true crime books that are hard to read: abuse to children and abuse to animals. I don't understand how someone can be cruel to animals and I don't understand how anyone can keep wild animals for pets. The reptile dealers in this book make thousands of dollars from rare reptiles. They will do anything to get these rare reptiles from other countries and even if they get caught the punishment is usually not that bad and when they get out they get right back into the business. They don't care if the reptiles are endangered- they make even more money the rarer they are. I hate reading about this but feel it is a story that needs to be told.
I've been hesitating to read that one for the same reasons. Winged Obsession: The Pursuit of the World's Most Notorious Butterfly Smuggler was hard to get through at times because of all the cruelty involved.
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Mary Roach
3.5/5 stars
Author Mary Roach does love to push the bar with her book subjects and I loved her book Gulp which is all about the alimentary canal. In this book, she still is probing an unusual subject, cadavers. She writes all about the physical process of death, what happens to a person’s body after death, funeral customs, donating a body and other topics. I found this very interesting and she is quite funny and informative. This book is not for everyone but if you like unusual subjects this might appeal to you.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
Gail Honeyman
4/5 stars
Eleanor has fallen in love and he is the one for her. The only problem is that they have not met yet. She has seen his singing act and it has struck a chord within her. She knows that she needs to improve herself before she can approach him and in this single act of falling for him changes her whole life. However there is horrible secret from her past that keeps interfering with her going forward in her new life and she has to face up to those past events.
I really enjoyed this book and really was rooting for Eleanor who had everything against her and still manages to prevail with the help of a few friends and her own will to improve.
When Books Went to War: The Stories that Helped Us Win World War II
Molly Guptill Manning
4/5 stars
Who would think a book about the distribution of books to WWII soldiers would be interesting? I certainly didn’t but then I read a review and thought I would give this book a try.
During WWI, there was a book distribution program for the troops but when that war ended the governing body of the program was not disbanded but funding for it ended. When Hitler encouraged the burning of books, librarians were up in arms over the desecration of books and took up the gathering of books to send to the troops and from there it grew until the government and publishers took it over. It certainly was a life saver to the men and women fighting the horror of war and over 141 million books were distributed to soldiers. Manning does a wonderful job in portraying a possibly boring subject into a real page turner and I even found several books to include on my never ending reading list.
Julie wrote: "When Books Went to War: The Stories that Helped Us Win World War II
[author:Molly Guptill Ma..."
So there's a whole new level of evil for that little twerp. I'm confused, though -- Hitler served in WWI, when you say this story was happening, but he wasn't in power until WWII. Is WWI a typo?
Fishface wrote: "Julie wrote: "When Books Went to War: The Stories that Helped Us Win World War II
[author:Mo..."
During WWI they also had a books for soldiers program but they defunded it after the war ended so they had to start from scratch in WWII. The book is mainly about the books for soldiers in WWII. Sorry, that was kinda of confusing.
Mod
[book:When Books Went to War: The Stories that Helped Us Win World War II|227..."
Does anyone know if there is a book distribution going on now?
When WWII ended -they ended that particular program in 1946.However, I found these online-
http://www.operationpaperback.org/
http://www.booksamillion.com/help/tro...
http://www.operationwearehere.com/Boo...
Now that every soldier, sailor, airman, Marine and guardsman goes into battle with a smartphone in his or her back pocket, it's probably considered unnecessary.
Bellman & Black
Diane Setterfield
3.5/5 stars
Bellman, a young ambitious man, has had a hard life but soon finds himself in a good place with a family and a good job. However, life has different plans for him and the deaths of all but one of his family members occur. That night after they were buried, he meets a Mr. Black and strikes a bargain with him. Bellman than throws himself into his new venture but does not encounter Mr. Black till years later when he realizes he has made a huge mistake. This was definitely a page turner for me and also provoked a lot of thought.
Fishface wrote: "Now that every soldier, sailor, airman, Marine and guardsman goes into battle with a smartphone in his or her back pocket, it's probably considered unnecessary."Well, they would have to have a way to re-charge their appliances so I could still see physical books as a option depending on where they are serving.
The Bone Clocks
David Mitchell
2.5/5 stars
This dark, epic story of Mitchell’s surrounds a young English girl, Holly Sykes, who has run away after learning her boyfriend has cheated on her. She returns when she finds out her brother, Jacko has disappeared but not before encountering a mysterious character named Marinus who is a horologist (beings who are reincarnated) and who she will encounter off and on throughout the book in different time periods. I loved the first chapter and loved the main character, Holly but after that first chapter I just got mired in all the characters (most of them very despicable and unlikable) and the different story lines, wondering when this was all going to end and in the end was just disappointed with the outcome of the story line and the book. However, I have not given up on Mitchell. Cloud Atlas is one of my favorite books and I look forward to reading more of him.
The Missing, a horror novel that came highly recommended. It's not nearly as good as I'd hoped, but it's OK.
The Secret Life of Trees by Colin TudgeWell I don't know this counts as biography...? It's a life (of trees) but I think it's too botanic and scientific for me. Good for boffins and people that dedicate their lives to finding out everything there is to know about classifying plants/trees, but even this gardener found it a bit waffly...author kept going on and on about human ancestors living in trees like apes and I was going huh so you bought into that lie too. Weird thing is that he talks about Genesis but then totally misses the bit where Adam and Eve actually chose from the wrong tree. Then he wonders why trees are so important to mankind and how they 'evolved'. If he'd just accepted how wonderfully made and ingenious they were as creations then could have gone on with the interesting lives but no had to keep inserting his opinion that they must have evolved from some slime.
The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy
Rachel Joyce
4/5 stars
This is the heart warming sequel to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and in it the author focuses on the character, Queenie. Queenie is at the end of her life in a nursing home. When she finds out her former co-worker, Harold Fry is taking a pilgrimage to see her, she reminisces and writes about their friendship and her awkward relationship with his son, David. Harold's trip has also charmed the other nursing home residents and changed life for them too as they look forward to his visit.
I read Joyce's first book in the series, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and enjoyed it but you can read either book on its own and in any order, IMO.
Rabbit Cake
Annie Hartnett
4/5 stars
Elvis, a young girl and her sister Lizzie live an unusual life with weird but wonderful parents. However, one night when her father drinks too much, he is unaware that his wife, who walks in her sleep, got up and left the house only to drown while trying to swim in the lake. The house is thrown in chaos as they deal with her death. To make matters worse, Lizzie starts to sleep walk. But there are some bright spots with Elvis, who starts volunteering at the zoo and Lizzie, who is trying to make a world record by making the most rabbit cakes ever made.
Mod
4 stars
A well-written case about a daughter that enlists the aid of her boyfriend and brother to kill her mother because she wasn't getting her way. I really felt sorry for the mother, a single mother working two jobs and had very little time for her children. Not sure if it would have made a difference in the outcome if she had been home more. The daughter was basically out of control, probably some oppositional defiance disorder going on. I liked that this book was concise with the investigation and trial. I didn't think the last few chapters were necessary where she talks about going to the prisons to interview the kids, but otherwise this book held my interest from beginning to end.
A Touch of Stardust
Kate Alcott
3/5 stars
Julie Crawford has come to Hollywood from Fort Wayne, Indiana, trying to follow in the footsteps of Carole Lombard, also from the same town but wanting to be a writer instead of an actress. She gets a job as a publicist for MGM and actually falls into being Lombard’s assistant. While she is at the studio, she is attracted to a fellow worker, who happens to work with David Selznick and all this is going on while the film, Gone With the Wind is being filmed.
This was a fast read and interesting but I found the story line somewhat contrived. I don’t think someone who just got to Hollywood would rise so fast in such a short time and be so successful.
I both loved and hated Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. It kept me turning the pages until the end, and it was full of biography -- of a whole extended family -- but they were just a few of the victims of a forgotten genocidal spree. The author gives us no real sense of the size of the crime under discussion -- how many died, over how long a period, was something he only hinted at, which drove me out of my tiny little mind. But the corner he does tell us about is well-researched and well-presented.
Biography, Autobiography, Memoir
Books mentioned in this topic
Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose (other topics)Hardball: How Politics Is Played, Told by One Who Knows the Game (other topics)
Escaping the Arroyo (other topics)
Stolen Lives: The Untold Stories of the Lawson Quins (other topics)
The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Kate Alcott (other topics)Annie Hartnett (other topics)
Rachel Joyce (other topics)
David Mitchell (other topics)
Diane Setterfield (other topics)
More...
3 stars
I got a little bored with this book at times but if you want to know about forensic science or just how they investigate crime scenes this book is pretty comprehensive. It discusses and gives case studies on fire scene investigation, entomology (how they use insects to figure out when someone died), pathology, toxicology, fingerprinting, blood spatter analysis, anthropology (digging up mass graves), facial reconstruction, digital forensics (computers), forensic psychology, and how forensics is used in the courtroom.