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Library Bookshelf

Started by Marilyne, March 29, 2016, 03:20:53 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

MarsGal

Sigh! I am between books again. I sent Matter back to the library because I thought I wasn't going to get a chance to finish it. Now I have to wait to borrow it again.

The Scifi series I got into was too interesting to stop reading until book five. The war is over and the series starts a new arc. It doesn't appeal to me at the moment. It involves the main character and his wife leaving the marines to settle on a colony planet which, wouldn't you know, doesn't have much, if any, law enforcement. The pirates are moving in with crews that include former enemy aliens. I dropped the series for now. Time to find something else to read.

My audio book listen is another of the Michael J. Sullivan fantasy series. This one is marginally interesting, but not his best.


Marilyne

#2581

Good Thursday morning to MarsGal, Pat, maryc, Callie, and anyone else who is still  checking in on this folder?  Not many of us left, I'm afraid.  :(    Last time I posted here, I was excited and pleased that our library was open again, for browsing and spending  quality time in a pleasant environment.    Sorry to say that it has closed once again . . . so back to ordering online, and picking up at a designated outside area. 

Along with everyone else, I'm wondering if this pandemic will ever really be over for good?  Restaurants are closing again for indoor dining, and movie theaters that had just opened, are now closed again.  It's a sad state of affairs, but I'm hoping I live to see the day then Covid-19, is just a bad memory! 

My reading is about like it's been all Summer . . . nothing new, so mostly trading books with my younger daughter, and dil.  This past weekend, Sandy gave me,  "The Orphan Train",  by Christina Baker Kline.  There were a lot of variations on this story a few years ago, so I'm not sure if I read this particular book or not?  Jackie, my dil, gave me,  "The Things They Carried", by Tim O'Brien.  I've always wanted to read it, so happy to have it.

I was browsing through one of my WWII,  Facebook  groups,  and someone recommended a 1943 novel called, "Shore Leave", by Frederic Wakeman.  I checked my library and of course they didn't have it.  However, eBAY had a number of used copies for very reasonable prices, and Amazon had one,  (used of course),  for $14.95, with the original jacket.  I haven't ordered one yet, but I'm thinking about it.         

Tomereader1

Marilyne, I just finished a book by Lisa Wingate who wrote "Before We Were Yours".  This book is titled "The Book of Lost Friends". The story goes back and forth from 1875, after the Civil War, until 1987.  The story is told by a former slave, then in 1987 by a school teacher, who is trying to coax some kind of interest in her students ranging from 7th to 12th grade, small rural school in Augustine, Louisiana, predominantly black.

I found, and you might also, that the book begins very slowly, but as the story progresses I found myself unable to put it down for the night. I do recommend this book. It is not something to be rushed through. It does have a "family saga" for the former slave-owner, both historically and present day.

Lots of further reading, if one is so inclined, a fairly large Bibliography, and two websites, i.e. Historic New Orleans Collection, and an NPR website.

MarsGal

#2583
I have just started book 4 of the SSG VanHorn scifi series. The story is keeping me interested even though I think that Staff Sargent VanHorn is over the top with acquiring various injuries and still goes out for more. Kind of like the Timex commercial, he "takes a licking and keeps on ticking".

The newest download from FLP is A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. I just downloaded it today.

MarsGal

Time for an update.

A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet was finished almost two weeks ago. What in great story, chock full of interactions between various aliens as a "tunnel-borer' ship makes its way across space to the next big job. The ship tunnels space to make wormholes large enough for ships to travel through. This is again, the first of a series of four. However, it appears each book (or at least the next one) has a different story with different characters. I liked the characters in this one so much that I don't think I will read the others, at least not right away.

We talked a little about William Kent Krueger's This Tender Land a little while back. I just got notice of his 18th Cork O'Connor book. It is a billed as a prequel to This Tender Land. I am looking forward to reading it when it shows up in my online library.

My current audio book is about The Crusades by Thomas Asbridge. It is one of the first audio books I bought, so it is more than about time I listen to it.

My newest library ebook is Matter by Iain M. Banks. Part of his Culture series, it is the one I sent back to read later because I was in the middle of too many other things at the time.

I hope everyone is doing well.


CallieOK

MarsGal's update reminded me that my Book Club (which has been meeting via Zoom) has chosen books for the next several months.

For September, we're to read "The Dressmaker of Khair Khana" by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. She is a former reporter for ABC News and the book tells the story of a fearless young entrepreneur who brought hope to the lives of dozens of women in war-torn Afghanistan. It's a novel but is based on a true story.

Others are:
"The Last Thing He Told Me" by Laura Dave. Before Owen Michasels disappears, he manages to smuggle a note to hs beloved wife of one year:  "Protect her."    He's referring to his 16-year-old daughter. When Owen's boss is arrested by the FBI, his wife realizes her husband isn't who he said he was. She and the daughter set out to discover the truth.

"People We Meet On Vacation" by Emily Henry.  Poppy and Alex, former very best friends, live far apart but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together. Until two years ago, when they ruined everything and haven't spoken since. Poppy decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation and make it all right. He agrees... and the plot thickens.  ;)

"The Indigo Girl" by Natasha Boyd. Based on historical documents from 1739-1744, this is a historical fiction account of how a teenage girl produced indigo dye, which became one of the largest exports out of South Carolina.

"The Lincoln Highway" by Amor Towles In June, 1954, an 18-year-old boy is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served 15 months for involuntary manslaughter. He discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden in the trunk of the warden's car. They hatch a plan that will take them all to New York City.

These are all available in e-books from my library.  I've put the first and second ones on Hold and the others on my Wish List.  Looks like I'll have plenty to read for a while.
That's good because I'm about to the end of the lists for various authors'  "beach books".  ;D   

 

MarsGal

I read The Last Thing He Told Me a month or two ago. It was a good story. I'll be darn if I remember how it ended though.

I am trying to finish up a book of short stories before I go on to read Matter.

Marilyne


Callie and MarsGal -  Thanks for the book suggestions.     I also, think I might have read, "The Last Thing He Told Me"?   Something about that title sounds so familiar, but it could have been a former recommendation or a similar title?   Callie, let  us know about any of the other books on your Book Club list that cause some good discussion amongst your members?

My dil belonged to a book club for years, but it disbanded, because of heated discussion/controversies over politically charged books.   People in today's world, just can't seem to allow a person to have a viewpoint, that deviates from their own opinion.    I see that issue all the time on my Next Door messages, and in general conversation on various websites.   

Last week she brought me a couple of novels that she liked, but I haven't even looked at them yet.   "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo",  by Taylor Jenkins Reid, and  "The Last Green Valley", by Mark Sullivan.                     

MarsGal

Gosh, a whole month had gone by without any posts. It is as bad if not worse over on SeniorLearn.

Her is my current update. The audio book listens include a non-fiction, The Crusades by Thomas Asbridge. Very listenable and interesting.

Blood Territory by Mark Wittaker is a narrative/reconstruction of a true story murder investigation by an investigative reporter in Australia. The victim was a part-aboriginal male. It shows up some of the discrimination/prejudice many have toward indigenous and mixed-blood people. For me, it is not quite as interesting as Midnight Son was, but still good. I have about an hour left to listen.

I don't think I mentioned Midnight Son here. It is by James Dommek Jr., Josephine Holtzman, and Isaac Kestenbaum and is narrated by James Dommek, Jr. who is an Alaska Native writer, musician and the great-grandson of the last of the Iñupiaq story-tellers. An interesting and sad true story, it is about Teddy Kyle Smith who murdered his mom and attempted to kill two others, his supposed encounter with the mythical Iñukun tribe, his capture and trial. Midnight Son is a winner of the 2020 Excellence in Audio Digital Storytelling, Limited Series Award. There is no book version. Information about Teddy Kyle Smith, his acting career (including movie clips) and his trial, and about James Dommek Jr. can be found if you do an online search.

As for reading, yesterday I finished the latest Galaxy's Edge novel in the main series. Now I can concentrate on finishing Iain M. Banks' Matter from his Culture series, another very interesting book, and oh so long. While the tablet with the Libby app on it is charging, I am reading the third in Marko Kloos Palladian Wars series, Citadel. These days, I like using the Libby app because, for some reason, it is more complicated downloading an Amazon library borrow from FLP onto my Kindle E-Reader. I may have set things up wrong, but I always have to sign into Amazon to complete the download of Kindle e-books. On Libby, I don't. It just downloads. Plus, on Libby, I can download .epub formatted books which Kindle does not support.

Marilyne


MarsGal -  Not a month since anyone posted in this folder . . . actually only about a week!  ::)  :D    I left a message on the 25th, about two books that my dil had brought over, and I was looking forward to reading them!   Well, I have to confess that I have yet to open either one.  I got involved with the Afghanistan evacuation, and of course the never ending California wildfires, and the major surge of Covid cases here in California . . . and on and on it goes.   So I've spent most of my days watching all of these stories unfolding on television news programs, and haven't done any reading.

In the meantime, a new book was delivered to me yesterday, that I had forgotten I had ordered a long time ago.   It was announced a number of months ago, that Hilma Wolitzer, one of my all time favorite authors, had written a new book, and that I could order in advance and it would be delivered the end of August!  I ordered, and it arrived on August 31st.  The book is a collection of her short stories, that she has written over the years.  They were all published in various magazines, going way back to the 1960's.

I love the intriguing title of this book . . .  Today A Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket.  It's also the title of one of the stories in this collection.  I know I'm going to enjoy all the stories, just as I have enjoyed all of her novels over the years.  Hilma Wolitzer, is now 91 years old! 

MarsGal

And now, for the mid-month update.

I am still working through the audio book on the crusades. The chapters are somewhat long. Interesting stuff, but I am sure I will, at some point, have to listen to it again because not all of it is trickling into my long term memory. It is now 1118 and Baldwin I has just died, so there is lots more to come.

Matter
by Iain M. Banks is finished. Of the Culture Series novels, this one is probably my favorite. There are several that didn't appeal to me.

Last night I downloaded The Legend of Broken by Caleb Carr. Today I will start reading it. I am horrified to see that the audio book version is 36 hours long. I may end up switching to it - because - Tim Gerard Reynolds is narrating it, along with some help from George Guidall, and John Curless. But then, the reviewers on Audible say there are extensive footnotes, and some had trouble following the action without reverting to the print version to go back and clarify something. I adore Tim Gerard Reynolds and enjoy George Guidall narrations (not familiar with John Curless yet), so if I like the book well enough, I might just buy the book and the audio book to complement each other. This is Carr's first venture into writing a fantasy. I also have his The Alienist on my wish list.

Have also just started reading Take What You Can Carry by Gian Sadar. It is a romance novel about an aspiring photographer in Kurdistan. Amazon lists it as a Woman's Historical Fiction or Romance Literary Fiction. Not my usual reading venture, but it promises to have some elements of adventure in it. We'll see.

MarsGal

#2591
Good morning.

I am still reading The Legend of Broken. Even though I have been reading it fairly steadily, I have yet to reach the middle of this very lengthy book. The tale, essentially, is a clash between pagan tribes and the early Christian communities, and of people clinging to the old ways (including sorcery and wizardry) vs. people embracing the new. I see all kinds of oblique references to events and peoples which belong to the time period possibly around the first Sack of Rome which was 410AD. The Romans had pulled back troops from fringe areas, and the Huns were pushing westward into Europe. The Franks were mentioned which could be sometime before or around the time they became the Merovingian kingdom, and what looks like a Norse reference. There was an early migration by northern Germanic tribes (which included the Scandinavians) prior to the Hun invasion. [BTW, the early Scandinavian migrations are considered a the source for the German legend of Siegfried, Sigurd in Norse. You can find translations of the Norse tales of Sigurd in the Nibelungenlied, the Völsunga saga, and the Poetic Edda.] The story also includes a plague, or what is suspected of being a plague, but I can't find any reference to plague in that area in the same time frame as the others. The closest I can come to that is the Plague of Athens in the 5th century. Oh, and there is a movement afoot to banish or destroy any that are deformed, physically weak, or sickly (rather Hitlerian, that). Lots going on in this book.

You can read and enjoy The Legend of Broken without knowing the late Roman/early dark age history, but I just love to find and pick through these references. The location of the tale is in the Harz Mountain range of Northern Germany, somewhere around the popular Brocken Mountain which comes with its own set legends of witches and black magic. Today it is part of the Harz National Park and is a popular place for hiking, climbing and mountaineering.



MarsGal

I've narrowed down the timeline for The Legend of Broken. It appears to take place in the early to mid 700AD time-frame. Even though I am reading fairly steadily, I am still only about 2/3 of the way through, if that.

I have not had a chance to read further into Take What You Can Carry for a few days while trying to get the other book read so I do not have to renew it. Still listening to the Medieval history book, but that is also spotty because of other things that need tended to. I have only been listening to it when I spend time doing my jigsaws, which I haven't been working on much lately.

Marilyne


MarsGal -  Good to read your posts here and in Bait & Tackle, even though I haven't been responding much lately.  I've been underwhelmed by the books I've read in recent weeks . . . make that months!  Nothing worth recommending, or even mentioning, since my last post.    Someday, I hope to be able to visit the library in person, and spend the afternoon browsing and picking books that I will like.  Again, our libraries are closed, except for online ordering and pick up.  I think I'm just plain burnt out with that routine, and want to get back to what suits me.

I did enjoy the book of short stories by Hilma Woliter,  that I ordered from Amazon . . . Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket.  Lots of food for thought in those stories, plus her ability to convey understated humor.  I plan to read it again this weekend, as I know from her novels, that I will like it more and more, with every subsequent reading.

Other than that, I've been reading a lot of poetry.  I have all my "soothing" favorites, but have also found many other collections online that I'm enjoying.  I especially like poems that are calming, and  that offer a spark of hope for our future.  The world is changing too drastically for me, and I think I'm having a hard time adjusting!  :o

CallieOK

Hello.  Been a while since I've posted but I have been reading one e-book after another.  This is mainly because an HOA roofing project has been going on and crews have been working their way toward my duplex for the past two weeks.  Had to choose "going out" times around their trucks being parked along the narrow street. Mine was done last week -gutters put on Monday - and crews finished the last building yesterday.

Marilyne, thanks for mentioning "Today A Woman Went Mad...".  I looked up the author in my library's e-book list and am now 51st in line to get the book. I have checked out "An Available Man" by Hilma Woliter, which is about a 62-year-old widower whose friends decide he needs a new wife.   
I learned that Hilma Woliter is 90 years old and still actively writing. Amazing!

I recently read "The Last Thing He Told Me' by Laura Dave, which is the next selection of my Book Club.  Another member said she started reading it one morning - and finished it about 1:00 a.m. the next morning!    I did take a couple of days to finish but we agreed that it was hard to put down. 

Two other good novels are "Time Is A River" by Mary Alice Munroe and
"The Bestsellers" by Olivia Goldsmith, which is quite long.  It's about 5 authors who are trying to get a book published and the owner of a publishing company and his chief editor who are considering all of them.  Probably of more interest to anyone who has tried freelance writing (as I have with non-fiction articles) but I liked it.

Visiting with friend, who had dropped by, made me realize how very seldom I have one-on-one "in person" conversations. Most are by text or e-mail and I think I'm losing the ability to keep up with what I'm talking about vocally.  :(  :'(

Happy Reading, Everyone.

Marilyne


Good morning Callie - Thanks for all the recommendations!   I've heard that,  "The Last Thing He Told Me", is an excellent story, so I'll be looking forward to seeing if you like it?    I'll put in a request today, because there is likely a long wait.  I'm pretty sure I read, "Time is a River",  by M.A Monroe?  I've read most of her novels over the years.  There are lots of good books, written by or about women struggling with breast cancer, and I've read quite a few of them.

I thought I had read all of Hilma Wolitzer's books, but I don't remember,  "An Available Man"?   The title is definitely familiar, but it could one of her older novels, that I read, but have forgotten.  My favorite is the first book I ever read of hers, which is "Hearts".  The storyline might seem a bit dated now, as I think it took place in the 1970's, but that makes it all the better for me!  I like to read stories that took place during that time frame, and I really love this one.

As I mentioned before,  "Today A Woman Went Mad...", etc, is a collection of her short stories, that she wrote in the 1960's and 70's, that were published in various magazines at that time. They are written as fiction, but  after reading a few, you can tell that they are a reflection of her marriage and her family.   

Incidentally, her daughter is much more famous - Meg Wolitzer.  She is a prolific writer, so you may have read some of her novels - a couple have been made into movies.  She wrote, "The Wife", starring Glenn Close,  that was nominated for the Academy Award a couple of seasons ago?  I read it and it was good, but I don't think I've read any of her other books.  I prefer Hilma's style to Meg's.

Vanilla-Jackie

#2596
Just taken in my order of " Poems For Pensioners " by Andy Seed... Cover page states " hilarious and nostalgic poetry from the award-winning author of " All Teachers Great and Small " i will read it in bed, i will let you know if it makes me laugh or any of it associates with me...I will give you my verdict if it is-was, a worthwhile purchase book... it wasn't too expensive for 76 pages..
" There is no present like the time "

CallieOK

#2597
Jackie,  I like anything that's "hilarious and nostalgic".  :)

Marilyne, I did like "The Last Thing He Told Me' but it isn't a particularly "pleasant" story.
I started "An Available Man" this afternoon.  Publication date is 2012.   Looked at the author information; she is definitely NOT 90 years old!!!!!!    "Today A Woman..." is the only other e-book of hers available from my library.  :(
I've read "The Wife" and will look for more Meg Wolitzer e-books.  Thanks for the reminder/suggestion.

Vanilla-Jackie

#2598
Callie...wow, she doesn't look a day over 75..i too cant believe she ( Hilma Wolitzer ) is 90..

Her most current book ( Today a Woman Went Mad In the Supermarket ) seems appealing to me as it rings bells of me in the past, i can relate to that, my lack of patience and crowds, the sooner i was in, the sooner i was out...This book comes with 4 and 5 star ratings-reviews...
" There is no present like the time "

Marilyne

Callie and Jackie -
Hilma W,  is 90 for sure, but certainly doesn't look like it on the picture shown on the book jacket of,  "Today A Woman Went Mad...".   It's the same picture she uses on her Facebook profile.  Yes, she is one of my FB friends!  Ha ha -  ::)    I'm  also "friends" with lots of other authors, such as  Meg W,  Elizabeth Berg, Mona Simpson, etc.    Also a few older movie stars like Shirley MacLaine,  Julie Christy, and many others.      Of course I don't know any of them, and I never write messages to them on FB,  but I do enjoy reading what they have to say.  That's how I found out that Hilma had written this book of short stories, and how I happened to order it early.   Also,  how I learned that she and her husband both had Covid, last Fall, in October 2020.  She survived, but her husband died in a hospital in NYC.  He was 91.  Hilma writes about it in the final chapter of the book.

CallieOK

Marilyne,  Hilma is truly amazing! 

Never thought about looking up celebrities on Facebook - much less becoming Friends.  May have to look into that.

Did errands this morning.  It's very humid and I'm glad I'm in for the rest of the day.  Will probably continue with "An Available Man" - if I don't doze off.

MarsGal

Last night I finished both E-book reads. Both The Legend of Broken and Take What You Can Carry are worth recommending. I did skip a few things in "Legend": the supposed letters between Edward Gibbon and, darn, I forget who already, and the end where all the Notes were. While the Notes were interesting, they were (for me) unnecessary to the story. As for the second, I was not overly invested in the main characters, themselves, but the story itself was became more absorbing as I read along. I found the acknowledgements at the end most interesting as she named the numerous (many family members) whom many of the characters were based upon. Much of the story is set in Kurdistan.

Time to get back to listening to the book on the crusades, and to hunt down my next reads.

I am happy to hear, Callie, that you enjoyed The Last Thing He Told Me. I too, enjoyed it but with a few qualms.

Marilyne


MarsGal and Callie:   Good morning to you both,  and anyone else who enjoys reading, television or movies.  I haven't started a new book, since,  "Mad in the Supermarket".  I've been having a return bout with sciatica, which limits the amount of time I can sit, so reading anything more than the daily newspaper is out of the question for now.  I can deal with this desk chair for short periods of time, but 15 minutes is my limit at the computer.

Did either of you happen to watch Manifest, when it played on NBC a couple of years ago?  It's a Sci-fi/Supernatural series about a commercial airliner, with a full load of passengers, that disappears, and it's assumed that it crashed in the ocean, and everyone died.   Five years later, the airliner suddenly returns and lands, with all passengers looking exactly as they did five years earlier, and not aware that they have been gone and their loved ones have mourned their death and then moved forward.   Anyway, it's now playing on Netflix, and we are liking it enough to watch an hour every night.  Very predictable story line, but even when you figure out what will happen next, it's pretty entertaining.

MarsGal

Didn't see it Marilyne, but I think I may have seen a trailer or clip because the bit showing them going through the airport looking a bit bewildered. The only "airplane" movie I think I ever watched was The Langoliers. BTW, I think that is the only Steven King I have ever seen, or read for that matter. Oh, no. I lied!  :yikes:  I read Misery, and saw at least part of Delores Clayborne. My sister insists that I should see The Dark Tower (or was it The Stand?). I am amazed at the huge number of movies/TV presentations that are based on King's short-stories rather than full novels.

I am reading another book in the Galaxy's Edge universe, although I have no clue why. There is only one character I truly like. It is really a bit much to have all in one story survivors of several colony ships that were sent from Earth by rival warring groups crash on the same planet, an advanced AI (mighty helpful), an absolutely brilliant scientist who seems to be able to invent all kinds of things in incredibly short order (with the AI's help), and a slightly "brain damaged" war robot, not to mention the genetically modified wildlife bent on killing humans. No library read at the moment. but I am thinking of downloading  Helen Morales, Antigone Rising. It is a non-fiction book about the power of myths. Continuing with The Crusades on audio book.

FlaJean

I've been reading family stories about the Amish.  I read five in a series on Libby and then the last two in the series as hard copies from our library.  I love reading using Libby, but our county library system is small and what is digitally available is limited, so then I have to go to the library for hard copies.

MarsGal

#2605
That is a shame, Jean. Here in PA the Free Library of Philadelphia is free to all PA residents as long as you have a local library card. Does any other state do the same I wonder? What I like about Libby is that I can read books that are epub. but none avaiable in Kindle formats. It is also nice to have an extra reader for when I am charging my regular one. I do all my library reads through Libby because if I do I have to log in to my Amazon account to complete the loan. I don't know if I set up something wrong originally, but I don't have to do that when I use Libby, even for  Kindle formatted books.

I just finished reading a book called Constance by Matthew FitzSimmons. It is a social scifi which centers around a clone who, aside from the mystery surrounding her "original's" death, she must navigate through clone hating people (including former friends), political enemies, legal laws which differ from state to state, and big money interests looking to use her in one way or another. Pretty good, and now I find out there is a second to be released in Sept. of next year.

Now I am looking for another read. Got another 11 hours to go on my audio book on the crusades.



FlaJean

#2606
Margal, I also found that I had to log in to Amazon to complete the loan when using the Kindle app.  So I always use Libby.  Unfortunately, we don't have the best library system. 

 The County system is linked to the Panhandle system but they only recognize my card for this County.  I've been wondering if I could get a library card for Pensacola Library.  I could add a library on Libby if I can join them.  Would be worth a try.  There are very few movies that I like and I don't care much for what is available on TV so books are important to me.

Both my oldest daughter and my son are big science fiction fans, but not me.

Marilyne


Jean -  Good to see you here in the Library!  Please return with some suggestions for books that you have read and enjoyed?  This weekend, our library is finally opening again for browsing.  It did open for a very short time in early Summer, but then closed again when the Delta Variant appeared.   I missed that window of opportunity, so it's been more than 18 months since I have been.    Of course we have ordered and picked up, but not the same!

Callie -  How did you like "An Available Man"?  I only remember that I was anxious to read it, and must have been disappointed, because I can't recall any of the story.  Hilma Wolitzer's novel "Hearts", is always on my list of my top five favorite  novels.   I would definitely recommend,  "Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket",  by Hilma, although it's not at all like "Hearts". 

MarsGal -  I've read a few Stephen King books, but the only two I really like and remember are,  "Stand By Me",  and  "The Shawshank Redemption".   Both made into wonderful movies.   His other books don't interest me much, because I don't like being scared . . .  don't care for psychological thrillers.     

CallieOK

Marilyne,  I liked "An Available Man" but, having become a widow at age 57, I did find the general plot a bit stereotypical.    I became more than a bit cynical about the attitudes and procedures of getting "coupled" again and decided I liked my independence too much to adjust to "playing the game"...which I have never regretted!

Since then, I've read "The Wish" - Nicolas Sparks' latest which was #1 on the NY book list last Sunday. It's a good story but, again, a bit hard for me to accept some of the details about the main relationship in the plot.

Also finished "Rules of Civility" by Amor Towles.  Had already read "A Gentleman In Moscow".  His style isn't the easiest to follow but, once I got into the rhythm of it, I liked both books. His "Lincoln Highway" comes out October 5 and I have it on hold.

Now bouncing between a Stuart Woods "Stone Barrington" thriller and "That Summer" by Jennifer Weiner. Both are quick reads (for me) and, if our weather continues to be as soggy as it's been for the past week or so, I'll probably be looking for another one soon.

Flajean, what are titles for some of the family stories about the Amish?

FlaJean

Jennifer Beckstrand has a cute series about grandparents playing matchmakers for several of their grandchildren.  I looked her up in Fastasicfiction.com and read the books in order on my ipad using Libby.  

I just finished a series of three written by Tamera Alexander which takes place in fictional Timberlake Colorado in the late 1800s soon after the Civil War.  They are very well written, I thought.  I seldom recommend books because my taste in books is so different.  In my "old age" I like a little clean romance and a reasonably good ending.