JANUARY READS

[rapa]

HAPPY 2016 BOOKOHOLICS!!!!!!

Here is a toast, compliments of Cyril M. Drew


"A health to books!....
Your goblets all refill;
When all things mortel are decayed
May books be with us still!"

Happy reading to you this year. Please share your best and worst reads of 2015 in the discussion below.

[rapa]

OOPS!!!!! The name of the book is MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON.......I've been thinking it was Nancy. Forgive me Elizabeth Strout!

[Mandy Muffin]

"Purity" is my first bummer in 2016.  I guess the $1.99 price got me to purchase it from Amazon but I have tried to read Jonathan Franzen before and didn't like him.  His new novel is making some of the lists of the best novel of 2015 but I just find it a muddled mass of dirty words describing some people I don't like at all. The characters are all totally dysfunctional, morally decrepit and doing bad things all the time, like murdering people and living in exile in Bolivia because the hero publishes "WikiLeaks" stuff that he gets illegally.  I read the plot synopsis and know how it turns out so I am going to move on to something more entertaining. But if anyone has had a different experience with Franzen, I would be happy to have them disagree with me.  Now to find a good novel about people I enjoy reading about. I have about six books with "the girl.." as part of the title.  Maybe I'll try "The Girl Who Fell Out of the Sky" or "The Girl with no Past."     

[Carci]

Helloooo....  Where is everybody?  What are you reading?

Just finished The Fixer,  a stand-alone by Joseph Finder. It grabbed my interest right at the beginning and was a quick read.  I was left wanting a little more conclusion at the end.

I liked it enough to get 2 more by the same author and am now reading Vanished, the first of 2 featuring Nick Heller.  If you like the "Reacher" type books, you'll like Nick Heller, another tough ex-military good guy.

[Carolyn Tewell]

"House of the Rising Sun" by James Lee Burke...just started it last night on Audio. The reader is Will Patten and he has just enough of that Southern or Texas drawl to pull me into Burke's world.

Mandy...Jonathan Franzen...I read (mostly) his main book that was NY Times best seller for months. Honestly felt as if I was wasting my time with that thing? I dunno...I don't think I'm below the intellectual level of 90% of reading population but his writing just doesn't "move" me?

Telephone books. We get local Yellow Pages for our Chagin Valley but no longer get the Cleveland proper...white pages? GEESCH! I forgot all about those?

I got for XMAS the IPhone 6S and now I am learning it. Similar to my iPad but unbelievable amount of feature. Sure hated when I pressed the wrong button and got live Stock Market dive!

We still have a land line. Mamasan, my Mother in Law, age 95 lives with us and should we need ambulance service they can target our home perfectly for her safety.

[Mandy Muffin]

My "Girl with No Past" was fairly interesting, following the general story line of "The Girl on a Train" with a plot twist at the end that will blow your mind. Action takes place in London, as a nerdy librarian tries to make sense of her muddled life, and an event that controlled it since it happened to her as a teen. "The Girl Who Fell From the Sky" is the story of a mixed race (Danish and American Negro) young girl growing up in Chicago and Portland after experiencing the death of her family in an act of violence that threw them off a roof and killed all but her.  Following " the girl who" title genre I have "The Girl Who Looked Into a Mirror" to read next.  I think there are enough titles with "the girl who/with/that" to last me a year of reading. I still have "The Girl Who Came Home" in my E-Book collection. I believe the girl who movement started with "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" or was it "Gone Girl?"   

[Flowergram]

I know the phone books were going down for a while - used to get maps and info on the city - now zero.  I still have my land line and plan to keep it.  Carolyn - Ian Rankin has new book as of today (19th) Even Dogs in the Wild in case you are interested. (Scottish writer - John Rebus books.)

I read one of George Pelecanos's books and decided to watch the HBO production of The Wire.  Am up to season 3 and I really like it.  It is a gritty , x rated and then some with every other word cursing in some scenes but the story is a good representation of what is and was going on in the drug world - this city was Baltimore.  Very realistic from both the police and druggies side.  I hope to see the whole series through - much mayhem and murder of course.  Any one else seen this.  I know I am behind the time - started out in 2003 but never had time to see or interested until now. 

[Mandy Muffin]

I watched "The Wire" a couple of years ago.  Pelecanos wrote several of the episodes.  It really explains what much of the fuss was about in the Baltimore riots. When you are through, Treme, another HBO series, takes on the New Orleans Katrina flood and the effects it had on it's people.  A few of the same character actors are in both, which were directed by the same man. Many rating services name "The Wire" the best TV series of all time. 

[Flowergram]

Thanks Mandy - plan on reading more of Pelacanos and will check on Treme - sounds good.  I do like The Wire.  The acting is super so would like to follow up with your suggestion.

[Ioruach]

I just finished The Fixer, as well. It was a quick read and a pretty good thriller.

Now I am reading The Promise by Robert Crais. I’ve just started it and it is looking very good. It was on hold at my library at least four months; there must have been only one copy available. I have always liked Crais’ books so have high hopes for this one.

And, Flowergram, George Pelecanos has long been one of my favorite writers. Yes, gritty and x rated are appropriate terms. But he also captures the ethos of the inner city as well as anyone I have read. Two excellent examples are Drama City and The Turnaround.

[Flowergram]

Just finished the Turnaround and you are right - makes you see a lot of what is wrong in society today and most seems unfixable because not much being done to correct it.  Drugs mean big money and wretched poor people using and committing crimes.  I know it sure must be frustrating to the police.  People used to be poor but struggled to get things better - now they do not seem to care about much of anything.  Sad....

[rapa]

Last week I read MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON by Elizabth Strout, who won the Pulitzer for her OLIVE KITTERIDGE. This novel is only 193 pages and tells the story of a young hospitalized woman trying to reconcile her relationship with her mother whom she hasn't seen in years. Beautifully written book but I found the last two pages superfluous. Have any of you read this? It entered the NYTimes best seller list this week at #1.

Last night I finished John Katzenbach's THE DEAD STUDENT. Found it a tense psychological mystery dealing with the primal human motive of revenge. Hard to put this one down!

Any of you dealing with the recent snow storm? Our daughter in N. Virginia measured 31.5 in in their back yard. Fortunately they didn't lose power and do have a snow blower. Am grateful to no longer live in the snow belt! This Thursday we are predicted to reach 70 degrees!

What are you reading now?

[Eaglewoman]

We had no snow here, just the playoff game- enough excitement for our town.

My kids livein Anchorage and had a pretty good shake-up yesterday, house rattled a few things= but they are OK>Am reading Long Awakening- true story about a woman in coma for 47 days.