AUGUST READS

[rapa]

"Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit".....Hello August! The 3rd month of summer has arrived, hot, dry and a good time to chill out with a good book in the a/c!

I'm about half finished reading Emily Griffin's FIRST COMES LOVE. This is what I'd call good chick lit for a summer read. It's basically about two sisters who find themselves at a crossroads in their relationship. There is quite a reserve list so can't renew it. Am #21 on the reserve list for Louise Penny's new Three Pines novel being released later this month.

Anything good on your plate?

[Mandy Muffin]

Made a two day trip up from Florida to Kentucky to the words of Anne Perry's "Acceptable Loss." This British thriller takes places along the Thames River where pornographers and pimps are are working the sex trade and influential British noblemen are caught up in a web of blackmail. My house is now officially on the real estate market in Florida.  Hoping from some retiring Canadians to purchase an escape location for the winter.  

[Ioruach]

Hooray!!! Finally!!! Another book by Carl Hiaasen. Razor Girl. It went right on the hold list at my library.

[Mandy Muffin]

Author's Bio Doubletake:

"Doubt" by CE Tobisman

"For fifteen years, C.E. Tobisman has been an appellate attorney, handling cases in the California courts of appeal and Supreme Court. After graduating from UC Berkeley and attending law school there, she moved to Los Angeles, where she now lives with her wife and their three children. Doubt is the first novel in her new series featuring Caroline Auden. Tobisman is also the author of Inside the Loop, published by Emet Comics. Find her on Twitter at @cetobisman, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cetobisman, and at www.cetobisman.com."

I know women wrote as men in past times of hiding one's sex, examples are George Elliot and George Sant.  But this author of an excellent legal thriller puts in on the line: she has a wife and three children. I am no prude and accept these modern times when everybody comes out with their sexual preference and lifestyle.  But it is the first time I have read it on a book jacket bio. 

"Doubt" is every bit as good a story as John Grisham spins and is available for free is you are an Amazon Prime member, otherwise it's $4.99. I stayed up half the night turning pages on my Kindle.  

 

[Ioruach]

I just finished a book called, I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid, a short suspense novel of only 200 pages. It was well written, but frustrating in that the characters behaved and responded to each other in ways that made the reader want to shout out at them and ask what the hell they were thinking. On the other hand the book does ask some profound questions about life and its meaning. But you need to pay attention, and since it just wasn’t my type, I didn’t pay enough attention. You had to like the book enough to focus on it, and I didn’t.

This was one of those books you grab off the new book display when waiting for something you really want to read.  Now I’m heading out on a road trip to visit family and a good friend, all in Southeast Wisconsin and the Chicago area, taking with me David Baldacci’s The Last Mile. Be back in about ten days

[rapa]

Safe travels!!!!!!!

[Ioruach]

Thanks, rapa. And a belated Happy Birthday.

[rapa]

Last night finished a most interesting read THE BRIGHT FOREVER, written in 2005 by Lee Martin, who teaches in the creative writing program at The Ohio State University. Quoting a blurb from one of my favorite authors, the late Kent Haruf, "Lee Martin's THE BRIGHT FOREVER goes deep into the mystery of being alive on this earth. Written in the clearest prose working back and forth over its complex story, and told in the dark, desperate, vivid voices of its various speakers, it holds you spellbound to the end, to its final, sad revelations."

[Carolyn Tewell]

RAPA...thinking of you tonight. A few people around me are going through major changes in their world and their strength keeps me grounded.

READING...GRUNT which is on top 10 Non-fiction and will buy the book for my daughter-in-Law who works for VA in Miami. Lots of research on Military. Diarrhea, hearing loss and more. The book is not for easily grossed out! Who knew? (Those guys on front lines!)

Gosh...it is almost midnight so my fun read is Adrian McKintys "Rain Dogs." Now, so far it is not his best or my favorite but I will finish. (For the record he is my favorite author...maybe I'm Irish?)

I have some popular choices waiting. To be continued...

Having abandonment issues...where is everyone?

[Joanne]

I'm here, Rapa, as always.  Just not having anything to contribute at this time.  Happy to be following everyone here who contribute on a regular basis.  As I recently told a friend, I have so much "Stuff" going on in my life, it's hard to remember exactly what I've read, or even get into reading something assigned for f2f book group.

Our mystery group did read "First Daughter" by Eric Lustbader, and believe it or not, it generated a great deal of discussion. (There are more than one book titled First Daughter, one of which is a YA story.) Mr. Lustbader writes under Eric Van Lustbader, and is the guy who is finishing all the "Bourne" stories since Ludlum passed.   He also has written dozens of other novels, several different Series books.  

[Mandy Muffin]

Just checking in.  I made a trip to the library since I last posted and have been through "Redemption Road" by John Heart and "Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter" by Tom Franklin. Both are kind of gray stories about sad people living sad lives as the world seems stacked against them. I'm on "Rogue Lawyer" by John Grisham, another day of bad police work and people caught up in the law. Next is the end of the latest Stephen King trilogy, "End of Watch" that wraps up the stories he spun in "Mr Mercedes" and "Finders Keepers."  King continues to tell a good tale. I've got to get back to my Kindle as my arms are killing me from holding those old fashioned tomes. 

[rapa]

Have you settled into your new quarters, Mandy? As I recall, I really liked CROOKED LETTER CROOKED LETTER! For the past couple years I haven't kept a record of the books I've read or a synopsis. Need to get back to doing that!!!!!

[Mandy Muffin]

No, I'm still trying to sell my Florida house.  Some of these Florida retirement homes are not selling that quickly since the economy has been down.  People can't afford to retire or are putting it off.  The biggest market is Canadians. 

I use Library Thing:  https://www.librarything.com to keep track of my books.

"Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter," a mnemonic to spelling Mississippi, was a very interesting look at the relationship between races in a small town in that state, with a reversal in stereotype, with the black man being the cop and the white man an accused rapist and murderer.