What are you reading right now?

I was reading a ‘Little Book of Excuses’, and I thought this one might come in handy for someone:

‘Of course I wasn’t trying to hurt your feelings. I never even thought about your feelings!’

I think the book I was dissing as too long was The Last Mrs Parrish, and no matter which review I check it's still well over 500 pages.
The Cloisters sounds intriguing but alas, it isn't available at my library.

CW, you are looking at the wrong The Cloisters. This is by Katy Hays and is quite intriguing. Only 312 pages on my kindle, about half way through. Set in The Met
Cloisters.

https://www.metmuseum.org/visit/plan-your-visit/met-cloisters

Interesting info Igloo. I always admired Michael Fox for how he has handled his Parkinson's and also raised money and awareness for Parkinson's research. A true hero in my eyes.

Just started the mystery by Ragnar Jonasson The Girl Who Died. Set in Iceland in the winter, off at the end of a quite deserted peninsula. Very atmospheric.

Igloo,
where are you watching the Mexican Sr. Avila
I am totally addicted to international series on Netflix, but, could not find that one.

igloo - thank you That's very interesting. You are such a fount of knowledge. We don't know what toxic substances/environments we are being exposed to wherever we are. The girl next door where I grew up developed a rare form of brain cancer in her 40s and died in a few years, Her younger brother followed her a few years after that. Many studies were done to try to detect the cause. Unfortunately, they were not successful.

Gershun & Golden, FWiW on the Michael Fox / Parkinson’s thread. The cluster from “Leo & Me” the last millennium series he was on as a child actor is likely due to anti-weed herbicides spraying (old school “weed” not cannabis “weed”). Specifically the use of dioxin MPP as a herbicide. MPP and it’s sister mixture - Agent Orange- was used big time to treat public property/ parks brush, along highways, along waterways & alongside homes adjacent to well traveled roads or highways in the BC 1960’s x 1970’s. Massive amounts sprayed especially along areas below power lines or by any state infrastructure, like a harbor or water treatment plant. It likely entered the water system. “Leo” had a lot of young actors and was filmed in Vancouver BC and it’s environs. Lots & lots of outdoorsy scenes, lots on on/in the water scenes. At the time BC was the big up & coming production hub & still is (but lesser so as b4 GA did their encased in state constitution film tax credit which has made GA the new Hollywood South but I digress….). Anyways there probably was exposure to the crew and actors to MPP. Some younger ones had same fate as those younger solders in Vietnam who were exposed to agent Orange as they started showing Parkinson’s symptoms in their 30 & & 40’s which is way unusual. It’s 1 in 300 for early onset Park but for this group it was 4 in 425. Plus higher incidence of other cancers.
The Parkinson’s & cancer cluster on the “Leo” cast & crew stood out & could be traced as so many who work on films are Union affiliated. Unions tend to keep production records forever as it can take a while to get your # of hours to be eligible. Epidemiologists could cull production records, do contract tracing and find info as to those with Parkinson’s.

That whole area of Canada has increased cancers & Parkinsons as dioxin was used for years as weed & brush killer as sprayed all over BC.

On the current reading, I mainly watch foreign series with closed captions as my “reading”. Just finished 2 seasons of “Teheran”. Currently doing “Blinded By the Lights” a Polish mafia series and “Sr. Avila” a Mexican series on an average appearing businessman who actually is a hit man.

Yes, Treasure State is new in the Cassie DeWell series. I get books from the library and put things on the Hold List. When the item is available they notify you to come get it. Our library has a New Book section that I always browse. We also have a Lucky Day selection with popular new books and DVDs. You might get lucky and find a popular item there, but only get to check it out for one week instead of the usual three. And by the way, we don't have late fees and every month you can print or copy up to $44 worth of papers for free. We can also fax for free and check out things like musical instruments, assistive devices for medical issues, and backpacks stocked with binoculars, bird field guide books and free passes to state parks (thank you Audubon Society). Progressive!

I'm currently reading The Locked Room (Ruth Galloway #14) by Elly Griffiths.
I'm having a lot of tongue in cheek moments reading about everyone coping with the early days of pandemic lock downs (Ruth juggles zooming with her university students while trying to keep her 11 yr old daughter occupied; queueing up at the shop and overbuying wine and loo roll... and of course her brother sends conspiracy info 🤣). So far the mystery is taking a back seat, but the pandemic stuff is priceless.

Ooo I like C.J. Box, is that a new one vegaslady? I have Shadows Reel (a Joe Picket mystery) on my wish list.

I just read Treasure State by C J Box. I like anything he does, and his books are the inspiration for several TV series, like Big Sky.

Just finished and really enjoyed “Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt. It’s partially told from the perspective of an octopus, and that gives the story a really interesting twist. Also touches on the topics of aging and loss some, set in the NW coast

The book I'm reading right now made me cry, it's so good! It's called "The Office Of Historical Corrections," but it's not about history like I thought it would be, it's a bunch of different stories about different women. The one that really got me was about a lady who sort of accidentally kidnaps a baby and gets really attached to him. I don't want to spoil it but it's really good.

I've bookmarked that book Barb - usually my library doesn't have the books people here recommend but Pachinko showed up in the catalogue 😊

Re MJ Fox and Parkinson, apparently they suspect some kind of viral infection on set of Leo and Me.
It happened in 1977, 4 people developed Parkinson’s in 1990s. They made this connection in 2011 and still nothing conclusive. But it looks more as mere coincidence. Out of 150 people working on set that is 6%, generally 1 in 300 which is .3% if my quick without calculating math is correct.
Thank you Gershun, need to read a little more.
Golden, thanks for mentioning The Great Age Reboot, will order now on Amazon, It sounds very interesting.

Min Jin Lee's Pachinko. Wonderful book!

It makes sense about environmental exposure and Parkinson's. One of the reasons the VA considers exposure to "Agent Rainbow", the diagnosis of Parkinson's a "Service Connected Disability"

I read The Bitter Season by Tami Hoag a couple of weeks ago, Kovac and Liska is a good series.

And I remember reading that about Michael Fox back when he was first diagnosed.

I didn't know that about Michael Fox. It certainly sounds like environment was involved. Off the drink my coffee and finish the latest mystery.

Sort of on topic but did you all know that Michael J Fox starred in a little known show when he first started acting called Leo & Me. Apparently four other cast members from that show developed Parkinson's as well. So there is something to be said for the environment contributing to diseases etc. Something they were exposed to perhaps. Anyway.

I'm reading a book called The 9th Girl by Tami Hoag. But I'm halfway through and I keep thinking I've read it before........but not sure so I'm plodding my way through it anyway. Mark this as another age related thing I guess.

Epigenetics is the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work (which affects how your body works) - not by affecting your DNA but by affecting the turning on and off of genes. For example lifestyle (behaviors and environment) can affect the likelihood of getting certain diseases.

I suspect behaviors and environment continue to affect us in our 60s and beyond. The cellular mechanisms are still there so why wouldn't they?

Hello, Alexa, what is epigenetics?

No I don't have alexa, but will have to google. Not too late in my 60's?

590? No 385 at least on my kindle.

Mysteries as usual, and I picked up "The Great Age Reboot" by Albert Ratner, Michael Roizen, and Peter Linneman which addresses many things regarding aging including how we can prepare ourselves for a good old age by our choices in our 40s 50s and 60s. I (I guess instinctively) knew that and made lifestyle changes to keep my BP, blood sugar etc where they should be as I aged. Apparently it involves epigenetics which I did not know. I have read an article about the book but not the book itself which I am looking forward to reading

560 pages Glad? .... I hope it was worth it. When I read

"A REESE WITHERSPOON HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB PICK"
and
"as twisty, spellbinding, and addictive as Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl or Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train”

I didn't think it was something I'd like. And then I saw the page count 🤣

A while ago I finished a book "The Book of Lost Names" by Kristen Harmel. I loved the book. "A heart-stopping tale of survival and heroism centered on a female forger who risks everything to help Jewish children escape Nazi- occupied France"
The tale and the writing led me to track down another of her books so "The Winemakers Wife" is next after I finish "Vanished Days" by Susanna Kearsley. I have found I like her writing as well and have read several of her books. (thank goodness there is a Half Price Books store near me. And will hit up the library for more.)

A very strange book, but everyone got what they had coming to them.

The Cloisters next...

The Last Mrs. Parrish. Very strange, about 80 pages remaining.

The Umbrian Thursday Night Supper Club by Malena de Blasi. Not my first book by her, as she writes about Italy a lot and I love Italy. But this one is really fun. She meets with some elder women in their village who cook on Thursday nights. Some recipes included. And the womens' stories, some from the World War, are amazing.

I've been working my way back through the Ian Rutledge series by Charles Todd, it's been long enough that they are almost like new again. But I have to say that the Hamish plot device (his inner ghost) has gotten a little old.

I still have complaints about the Cloud Library though, it is slow and glitchy and searching for books filtered by publication date or alphabetically by title or author leaves a lot to be desired. And it's really annoying to have only some random books in an ongoing series... what good is that?!