If your care giving duties allow you time to read.....................I'm interested in what book you are in the middle of or just finished or have waiting on your bedside table.
I'm reading "Total Control" by David Baldacci
It's a crime/thriller drama. Quite compelling.
If you can't find the time to read, you should try. It helps to escape from it all in a good book.
As I tell the boys, if you think genocide is a unique failing of the mankind, just read about the Punic Wars, subjugation acts of the British Empire, our Civil War, the Indian Wars, WWI and WWII, Croatia, and the Middle East (both the "civilized" Europeans and the Infidels)...
Man's inhumanity to man... a universal theme across the ages. I wonder if the civilizd college kids who protest with such certainty of their views would have that same certainty if they lived in a land that had experienced a real war (I don't count WWII for many of these - our soliders kept the fighting out of our country, the war was mostly shortages and many living today do not appreciate what it is to kiss a solider good bye and never see him again). America gave her blood and treasure in WWII, our families (except in a few territories) never lived under the danger of bombs or an occupation.
Sounds interesting . I’m not the cruise type either . I like access to the beach everyday . My parents got very sick along with many others on a cruise years ago . It was their first and last .
As stated it is not lighthearted in the least but truly gives a perspective of certain front lines during that time. Lying on my couch eating too many ice cream bars ( really no such thing as low fat there ) seems incredibly mild in comparison.
I am not the cruise type and after reading this I know why I prefer boats framed on my walls.
Reading is the best escape ever from the real world, so I often stick to fiction, but if anyone is interested in the Big Five MASS extinctions that have taken place on the earth with global weather changes I sure recommend Peter Brannen's The Ends of the World. It puts solidly in your mind how recent we are as compared to other species, what a teensy bit of time we have been here, and just why we won't last as long as the dinos were able to. There's a reason you are digging river rocks out of your desert back yard. And a reason that PNW I so enjoy visiting was a sea of lava for more than a few years. It kind of all makes me "know my place" and sets my sense of any importance reeling.
Compulsory cannabalism - everyone has to eat anything they kill!
Both books are very interesting and prove there is nothing new under the sun.
Read it myself in 1983 to see what Orwell thought we were in for. I was so naive back then.
I had to read “1984 “ in high school , I think it was 1981 when I read it
We also had to read “ A Clockwork Orange” also an early accurate prediction of how life is now , particularly the violence / gun culture.
“In the central portion of the great North American Continent there lies an arid and repulsive desert. From the Sierra Nevada to Nebraska, and from the Yellowstone River in the north to the Colorado upon the south, is a region of desolation and silence. Nor is Nature always in one mood throughout this grim district. It comprises capped and lofty mountains ….(etc on landscape)...They all preserve, however, the common characteristics of barrenness, inhospitality and misery. There are no inhabitants of this land of despair”.
Do any of you live there? Despairing? Miserable? Yours, Margaret!
I want to read it soon. I know Abby, the author’s daughter. Abby has been to my house. I haven’t met her mom. My daughter knows Abby’s mom and likes her.
My daughter went to Louisiana State University and Abby went to Southeastern Louisiana University. They met leach other through mutual friends and have become friends.
My daughter told me that the book is fascinating.
I love to go to our local bookstores and read books written by local authors on various subjects.
I have read books from people that I know. It’s pretty cool to read what they write.
I think I’m going to order her book to read or borrow it from my daughter. Occasionally, we exchange books with one another.
The author is Colleen Hildebrand. (Colleenhildebrand.com) The name of the book is, Into the Ether: A Memoir of Holding Space
This book is so spot on with the current climate, it's actually disturbing to see how something written, as fiction, in 1949, can be so real in 2023 and beyond.
I highly recommend it for everyone.
I had put it on their suggestions to purchase list & they now have. I think I am the first borrower. 😊
The ereads program has a lot of older popular novels but some publishing limitation on the number of newer books mean you may need to wait a couple of years to get them. Newer books are physically available from the library (and I get a few) but I'm more likely to purchase books I really want to read for my kindle if I want to read it now. Currently I have just over 3000 books and magazines (reader's digest is a favorite) for my kindle so occasionally I just read something again. And then there are the thousands of physical books from before kindle days - both my mother's readers digest condensed books and all the novels I read during my traveling days - used to need a new book for each plane ride (biggest reason I was an early kindle adopter). My storage barn has cartons of books "filed" by author or subject matter. I like being able to hand a kid a book that I read years ago for them to enjoy (or read it to them). The younger kids are astonished I have comic books my Dad purchased for me over 50 years ago - but they still love them. Reading material has always been my biggest vice - disposable income wise!
What I don't get is why there don't seem to be any older books from popular series like this in the physical library either, did they throw them all out?
I see. I hope your book gets better. I catch myself reading books that I enjoyed a long time ago. Like you say, sometimes we don’t know what to select from newer books.
I've currently started a story that is well written but seems like it's going nowhere, A Prayer For Travellers by Ruchika Tomar. I'm 100 pages in and I finally sneaked a peak at some of the spoilers on Goodreads and despite the rave reviews it sounds like this book is a long winding tale with no satisfactory conclusion... I'm not sure if I can stomach another 200+ pages of that.
One book I recently enjoyed was “Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone” by Benjamin Stevenson. It had some of the rehashing too, but the author wrote in a sarcastic, snarky style, often directly speaking to the reader, that was unique and fun
Our library will order a book for us if they don’t have it. Have you asked your librarian if you can do this?
Do you have second hand bookstores in your area? You can find great bargains there. Thrift shops too!
I also like to listen to unabridged books on our local public radio station. wrbh.org
I want a plot that tells a story, not some rambling epic that never comes to any resolution.
I want an author who can invent a protagonist that I care about, what happens to them should leave me wanting more not feeling meh.
Romance is fine but I hate when it morphs into the central theme of a novel or series, especially when the women seem to lose all their brain cells whenever the object of their lust enters the page.
Some attention needs to be paid to reality - I can see an ex cop or a forensic pathologist or a detective etc solving crimes but not a chef or a dog sitter or a baker or the thousand of the other cozy mystery tropes.
I'm into mysteries, dystopian worlds, fantasy and SF as well as the occasional plain old literary genre.
Oh, and it's almost impossible to find library books or a complete series that are more than a decade old, so that limits things considerably. Any recommendations?
“Every day a different body, every day a different life, every day in love with the same girl.”
Interesting!