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Library Bookshelf

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

Previous topic - Next topic

MarsGal

#2610
Ah, progress! I am almost done listening to the Medieval history book I was listening to.

Ebook reads: another SciFi series started. This one begins before the three Terran Scout Force books I read by Joshua Dalzelle. Omega Rising is about a former soldier (Iraq and Afghanistan experience) who accidentally got himself "abducted" by a space alien who was running illegal cargo for a space crime cartel, managed to get out of that before he got sold into slavery, and took off with the ship and some crew grateful to be out of a bad situation. I already know some of the background from the previous three books, so I can expect more butting heads with crime cartels, mercenary work. and work for Earth's fledgling Space Force. It is a father/son kind of thing. Omega Force series is about the father, Terran Scout Force is about the son. Dalzelle writes well and his books are well edited for the most part.

Also just started is Richard Powers' The Echo Maker. It is going to be hard to put down. It is about a sister and her brother who ends up with the rare Capgras syndrome (imposter syndrome) after he has a severe brain injury.

Just in from the library my ILL, US Power and the Multinational Corporation (1975) by Robert Gilpin. which is about multi-national corporations, politics and the trend toward globalization. Even though this is dated, I expect it to be interesting. I'd like to get the history of the trend and to compare the predictions, trends and people involved from back then to what we are seeing now. 

MarsGal

A week has gone by and I am continuing on with the scifi series I am reading. This series, it turns out, is his first. I can see a difference between the two related series, but not by much. Dalzelle uses some of his air force experience and his love of working on classic cars as character background. There are twelve books in this first series; I just finished number three. None of them are overlong, but manage to get a good, complete story in each. So, not a lot of technical explanations or lengthy background descriptions. The books focus more on character interactions and basic plot.

I am still reading The Echo Maker which is a longer book than I expected. Still good, but I am getting a little annoyed with one main character. She brings an overbearing sense of responsibility regarding keeping her younger brother out of trouble and dislikes his choice of friends as well as a simmering resentment for being pulled back to a town and life she keeps trying to get away from.

The economics book is going back to the library, unread except for a few paragraphs. I read more than enough as it is without killing my eyes on tiny print. Too bad it is not digitized.

In audio, I am listening to a modernized version of Gilgamesh. Some of the details of the story I think earlier translators either skipped over or moderated so as not to offend sensibilities. I really don't remember the rape scene, for example. It is short, only 4hrs. long. Not sure what I want to listen to next.


 

FlaJean

Still reading about life in the middle to the late 1800s.  Oh, how life has changed since those days, but people haven't changed that much in my opinion.  There are still decent and caring people and selfish and mean people.  That dynamic never seems to change.

CallieOK

Good Afternoon,   

Finally finished "Sheltering Rain" by JoJo Moyes (good story), "People We Meet On Vacation" by Emily Henry ("Meh"  ::) ) and "The Husband's Secret" by Liane Moriarty (good - but I've liked others by her better)

Hadn't finished "...Rain" when 4 I had on Hold appeared in Loans.  :o  Put one of them on "Delay" for a week and have good intentions of finishing at least two of these before it appears again:  "Lincoln Highway" by Amor Towles, "To Live and Die In Dixie' by Mary Kay Andrews (a light read humorous mystery) and "Today A Woman Went Missing In The Supermarket" - which had been mentioned here.

I've been working on the final editing, etc. of my Dad's biography so my reading has been Late Night. Dozing off and a couple of nights when severe storms moved in around then have kept me from "one more chapter" - and I need to Concentrate And Catch Up

Happy Reading.  TTYL.







MarsGal

I am almost done reading Richard Powers' The Echo Maker. The farther I got into it, I think it should have been yet another book to not finish. And it seemed so promising in the beginning. The sister and the psychologist/author she consults have issues of their own that complicate things. Most of the characters' personalities seem greatly exaggerated. The farther I read into the book, the less I liked any of the characters except maybe for the accident victim who can be excused for his bizarre behavior.

MarsGal

Good Morning, all.

Between now and my last post, I have almost completed listening to Jack Weatherford's Genghis Kahn and The Making of the Modern World. Very well done, very engrossing. Learned a whole lot more about Genghis Kahn and the steppe tribes in general.

I have not finished Gilgamesh. It is a story I am generally interested in, and have read parts of or a summary of before. This one is a bit more graphic than I am used to or remember.

Since my last post, I am well into Joshua Dalzelle's Omega Force series which is about a group of mismatched guys from different species the end up forming a mercenary group to help defend against criminals and various nefarious  political groups. Very well written and edited. It reminds me some of Guardians of the Galaxy with maybe a little Firefly mixed in.

I am also into Margaret Attwood's The Penelopiad. Penelope, the wife of Odysseus (Ulysses), is in Hades. It is the 21st century, and she is reminiscing about her marriage and life in ancient Sparta. It is humorous and fun to read. Those who don't already know the story of Penelope and her long wait for Odysseus to come home after the Trojan War may not enjoy it quite so much as I, so I would suggest reading about that bit from The Odyssey.

There is still a little under half left to read of A Splendid Exchange which I put aside a while back and got forgotten. Good history of how trade routes got established and how trade changed the world through trade. I see I left off at the Opium trade and the trade wars surrounding it.

Marilyne


MarsGal -  I keep meaning to tell you that I now have "Angle of Repose", from my library.  So far I've only read the introduction, which was quite intriguing.  However, I can see a problem looming ahead for me . . . it's a paperback, and the print is tiny and very light.  My eyes are shot, (along with my ears and my voice), so I doubt if I will be able to stick with it.  I would definitely be better off ordering it for my Kindle.  My husband is in the middle of a book on the Kindle, so I will have to wait.

The book by Margaret Atwood, "The Penelopiad",  sounds good.  I may get that one from  the library, when I return,  "Angle".  I've read a couple of books by Atwood, in past years, besides "The Handmaid's Tale",  but can't remember the titles at the moment?  It's been a long time!  I'm thinking that she is getting along in years, and may be up into her 80's by now?  Like Hilma Wolitzer, Atwood is still writing.  Hilma is now 91.

MarsGal

I recently sent a book back to the library for the same "tiny print" reason. Unfortunately, it is not one that I can get in large print or as an Ebook. I am sure there are more current books out there that I can get which are very much more up-to-date.

Marilyne


Callie - Just today seeing your message here from October 28th!   I'm not as alert as I once was, so have missed lots of posts in recent months.   ::)  :(

I'm impressed that you have completed your father's  biography, and you are in the final editing stage.   What a wonderful legacy to leave for your family members.  I've thought seriously of writing a short biography or at least a time-line, on both my mother and father, but now I know it will never happen.  I'm so sorry I didn't get more detailed information on either parent, but too late now.    My Dad was born in a lumber camp, in Northern California, and my Mother was born in a mining camp, in Eastern Nevada. They were both born in 1909.

You mentioned, "Sheltering Rain", by JoJo Moyes.   I read, "Me Before You", a long time ago, and liked it.  Always intended to read more by her, but never have.   I gave my grandaughter one for Christmas, last year, but can't remember which one?    I've read quite a few novels by Liane Moriarty, over the years, and enjoyed most of them.   She's a prolific writer, as is JoJo Moyes.   

MarsGal

We talked a little about The Last Thing He Told Me not too long ago. Guess What! AppleTV+ is going to make it into a TV series. Jennifer Garner is will be playing the lead role after Julia Roberts had to back out because of other commitments.

Nothing new to report book reading wise. I want to finish up what I am reading now and then pick up some of those that have been languishing in my already acquired TBR pile.

MarsGal

I finished The Penelopiad a short while ago. I especially liked the last few chapters which included a modern day court case against Odysseus for killing the 12 slave girls and some paragraphs about the dead being reborn with a nod to those who believe they remember past lives.  Interspersed through out the book were skits performed by The 12 Maids which were pretty good.

I've just started I'm Waiting for You and Other Stories by South Korean author Kim Bo-Young. She has won the South Korean SF Novel Award three times since her debut novella in 2004. That one won her the first ever Korean Science & Technology Creative Writing Award.

FlaJean

I just finished an interesting free book from Apple Books called Wild Heart on the Prairie about two Norwegian families homesteading in Nebraska in the late 1800s.  It started when they landed in New York.  Amazing to read of the grit and determination of these young families with only a few English words.

Marilyne, I thought of you when they mentioned lutefisk.  I remember you mentioning that at your husband's family reunion.

Marilyne


Jean - I will definitely look for  Wild Heart On the Prairie.  I am drawn to books or movies about settlers from Northern Europe - Sweden, Norway, Czechoslovakia, who came to the US with absolutely nothing, and settled in  Minnesota, Wisconsin, The Dakota's, Nebraska, etc.  It was a hardscrabble life for immigrants in those days.  No money or help from the US Government back then, except for a plot of land in the wilderness that no one else wanted.  They either survived those first brutal Winters, or they died. 

My Mother-in -law was born in N. Dakota, of Czech emigrants (Bohemia), and my FIL, in MN of Swedish emigrants.  They were second generation, but had fascinating stories to tell that had been passed down from their parents.

There are two movies playing on either Netflix or Amazon Prime, (don't remember which), about the Swedes coming to MN.  The first one is,  The Emigrants,  and the second is a follow up on the same family called,  The New Land[/u].  Both starring Max Von Sydow and Liv Ullman.

If you have never read,  My Antonia,  by Willa Cather, I think you'd like it very much.  It is  centered around a Czech/Bohemian family who came to N. Dakota, with absolutely nothing, and of course couldn't speak English, had no money, etc.  It's a classic American novel, and if you read it, you will understand why it has stood the test of time. 

MarsGal

Yesterday I finished listening to the first half of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. This audio edition presents the story in modern English first and then in Middle English. What strikes me in the modern version is how the story is very pointed about how women were thought of as sneaky/conniving and not to be trusted.

By an odd coincidence, I just started reading Evan Curry's Holy Ground, a modern warfare novel, where one of the fighter squadrons is designated the Green Knights.

The audio book on Genghis Khan is finally finished. It ends with an account of Kublai Khan and his reign in China, and includes how the Black Death began in China, was transported to Europe,  and created a world wide economic collapse complete with another round of persecution against the Jews.

I got carried away and bought seven more audio books on sale, all but one are Great Courses.

MarsGal

Can't say I have done much super interesting reading since my last post. I've read several SciFi series that were okay at the beginning but went in a direction I wasn't interest in following in the last few. I did however, finish them.

Currently listening to Nolyn by Michael J. Sullivan, another of his Elan Universe books. It is not quite as interesting as the rest. Wonder if this is a trend with me. Reader burnout? At any rate, I am reading only one book at the moment and that is Evan Currie's Archangel One. It is an offshoot of his Odyssey series which is following a fighter pilot who is the best friend of the main character in that series.

What are you all reading these days? Any interesting new Christmas stories?

FlaJean

I've been reading some old Mary Stewart and Helen MacInnes books.  I read many of them many years ago but am enjoying them once again.

MarsGal

I used to love reading the Mary Stuart books.

Marilyne


MarsGal - Knowing that you favor Science Fiction, I thought you might enjoy a list of The Wall Street Journal's top picks from 2021.  Some of these sound intriguing, and others, not so much.  Maybe you have read some of them?  I plan to order a couple of them from the library.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-best-books-of-2021-reviews-science-fiction-fantasy-11639155248?mod=series_boty2021

Here's a new book review that was in today's WSJ, that sounds like a fun spoof on the apocalyptic fantasy.  I surely do agree with the reviewer, that it's a theme/genre that has been totally overdone in recent years! 

Harrow
By Joy Williams
The apocalyptic fantasy—the most hackneyed, oversaturated genre in contemporary literature—receives a much-deserved kick in the tail with this cracked, morbidly hilarious novel. Elderly ecoterrorists, a confused quasi-messiah, a Kafka-quoting child magistrate, an oddly indifferent totalitarian regime: all feature in a splintered vision of environmental collapse that seems somehow both gleefully nihilistic and yearningly spiritual.

MarsGal

Harrow sounds like something we might see on the big screen in future, Marilyne. Maybe in cartoon form?

I couldn't get into the Wall Street Journal list, so I looked at few other lists. All of them included Andy Weir's Hail Mary, which I do not intend to read. Also on many of the lists are Martha Wells Fugitive Telemetry (read), Arkady Martine's A Desolation Called Peace (read), [/i] Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shards of Earth (haven't acquired yet), The Last Watch (The Divide Series, 1) by J. S. Dewes (new to me, must investigate), and S. A. Corey's Leviathan Falls (The Expanse, 9) (haven't acquired yet).

I do recommend Arkady Martine's Teixcalaan series of which A Desolation Called Peace is the second in the series. These are the only novels she has written, all else are short works.

phyllis

Jean, I loved Mary Stewart, too, and it is because of one of her books my husband and I traveled to the Isle of Lewis/Harris in the Outer Hebrides and had a wonderful and memorable time.  She wrote "THE SILENT ONES".  It was about that island and her writing was so descriptive I wanted to see it.  The "Silent Ones" named in her book are the Standing Stones of Callinish and it was/is a beautiful site and one we always remembered.

I think I read everything she wrote.  Also, I read Victoria Holt, Jean Plaidy, and my favorite author of my all-time favorite book, "Rebecca", Daphne du Maurier.  I think you and I liked what used to be called Romantic Fiction.  I still do.  I love happy endings instead of "the world is being destroyed!" endings.  :)
phyllis
Cary,NC

MarsGal

Just a note for anyone using the Overdrive app. Overdrive is discontinuing their "legacy" app as of Feb 1922, and will completely drop it by the end of next year. They are in the process of moving everyone over to Libby by Overdrive. As far as I can tell, you can still only get Libby through the Apple Store or through Google Play.

MarsGal

One of my holds dropped two days ago, so now I have started it. It is a nonfiction called Gladius by Guy De le Bedoyere. It is about the life of the everyday Legionnaire as described by various first person accounts, letters, tombstone inscriptions, and the like.

I am getting close to the end of Nolyn. It got better as I listened further on.

FlaJean

"Rebecca" is also one of my all time favorites.  I haven't read it in several years and think it is time to read it again as I am wondering what to read next.

Marsgal, I get a little frustrated with Libby regarding books in series.  They will digitize #one or #two in a series and then skip to #4, etc.  completely out of order.  Of course, that might have to do with our local county library system.  I don't think the library system is high on the local list of importance.  There just aren't a lot of digitized books in the genre I prefer, and many of the good authors are completely ignored.

FlaJean

I noticed on iBooks that they have another book by Daphne du Maurier "Jamaica Inn" for $1.99 so I bought it.  Has anyone here read that book?

MarsGal

Jean, I know what you mean about the Libby/Overdrive offerings of series books missing some. I suspect that if they purge some offerings because they don't get borrowed enough, just like my local library. I know of at least one that was there a while back that isn't now. I think, too, that they pay the book companies for a certain amount of time or number of borrows, then they have to either pay again or drop the book. I could be wrong on that, but it seems to me I saw that somewhere. I have Kindle Unlimited, so that helps. Between my local library, the Free Library of Philadelphia and Kindle, I can usually find a free copy to borrow. Oh, but what a scramble it is sometimes. For instance, one series I "read" came from several sources and in ebook or audiobook form. Oh, and YouTube actually has some of the audio books up on their site. Like I said, a scramble.

Hoopla would be interesting to have, but my library system has Overdrive. Hoopla lets you borrow movies. Overdrive doesn't offer that.

phyllis

#2635
I read "Jamaica Inn" years ago, Jean.  Another good one.  I loved all those so-called Gothic Romanaces.  As I said, I much prefer a happy ending, even after all the terrible things have happened to the heroine.   ;D 

My library went to Libby a long time ago MarsGal.  I like it better than Overdrive.

                   MERRY CHRISTMAS AND PEACE TO ALL!                             
phyllis
Cary,NC

MarsGal

I think Overdrive has been offering the Libby app here for at least two, maybe three years. They finally decided to get rid of the original Overdrive platform and go entirely with Libby which is much easier to use on smartphones and tablets. It will be interesting to see if Amazon and Overdrive come up with a Kindle compatible Libby now that the Overdrive app will disappear altogether next year.

BTW, you can download android apps that are not Amazon approved. It is not too hard, but it does run the risk of introducing malware to your Kindle tablet. The Amazon approved apps which are listed in their app store have all been vetted and checked to be malware free.

Marilyne

Good morning book lovers!  Sorry it's been so long since I've posted, but I'll try to come up with a good excuse!  ;D  ::)  Actually, the honest  reason, is that I haven't read anything . . .  since way before Christmas!  That's a long time for me, but I'm going to try to get back to the books, starting today!

I do have one interesting non-fiction library  book here, that I have picked up a couple of times, but I'm finding it difficult to read.  It's called,  A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century . . .  Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life.  I read a good review on,  "The Wall Street Journal" book recommendations, and it sounded fascinating, however . . .  I'm afraid it's a little too intellectual for this 87 year old brain. 

I may give it another try this afternoon, or I may turn to a couple of new novels I got for Christmas from my dil.  Apples Never Fall, by Liane Moriarty.  I've read a couple of her best sellers over the years, and liked them.  The best being,  Big Little Lies.  The other is an oldie . . . The House of the Spirits,  by Isabel Allende.    It's a book I've always wanted to read, so I'm looking forward to it.

Phyllis - Your mention of,  Jamaica Inn, reminds me that I watched a new movie version of it on one of the streaming channels.  It's been a couple of years now, but I recall that I was disappointed.  It was either Netflix or Amazon Prime, and had a couple of well known actors, but I didn't care for it.  I'll check and see who the actors were?

MarsGal



I see my post never made it. Oh well!

My current list:

Gladius by Guy de La Bedoyere, nonfiction. Okay but hasn't told me much I don't aleady know.

International Bounty Hunter four book series by Rick Partlow. Bounty hunter and his AI dog. Again, okay I don't care for it as much as his Drop Trooper series.

Theft of Swords, my current Elan Universe listen by Michael J. Sullivan. Again okay, but time has moved on in the series and with it come different characters that I haven't warmed up to as well as the earlier book sequence. Still worth listening to.

I am expecting Stephen Fry's Mythos from the library soon.

Marilyne


The TV version of  "Jamaica Inn",  that I mentioned yesterday, was a BBC series, that was rerun here in the US about five years ago.  I don't remember exactly why I disliked it, but I remember that I never finished watching all the episodes.  I looked at the list of British actors, but didn't recognize any of the names.  Apparently, it's still playing on Amazon Prime, if anyone is interested.

We've been watching the show/series,  "Yellowstone",  starring Kevin Costner.  These are reruns of the original show, that ran on NBC, for many years.  Now on the NBC channel, called Peacock.  I didn't even know that we had that channel, but apparently they show reruns of all older NBC shows.  Anyway, we're enjoying it . . . watching one, one hour episode, every night.  No commercials on Peacock!  :thumbup: