Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' thread -- August 2017 Edition

[Elendil_s_Heir]

I finished Founding Father and enjoyed it all over again.

Just starting Alistair MacLean’s HMS Ulysses, about a Royal Navy warship on convoy duty in the far North Atlantic during WWII. The officers are on edge, the crew is exhausted and surly, and MacLean’s descriptions of extreme cold and mountainous seas go on at somewhat tiresome length. Hope they get into a battle soon!

Also starting Tony Kushner’s screenplay of Steven Spielberg’s movie Lincoln. I really liked the movie, despite some quibbles, and am looking forward to seeing it in print.

@Dendarii_Dame

Finished What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, by Randall Munroe. A lot of very intelligent fun. Recommended…

I read it a few years ago and liked it, too. I bet just about any Doper would.

[peedin]

@jsgoddess

Finished Auntie Mame this morning while home sick as a dog. I laughed a ridiculous amount at this book.

Now I’ll have to watch the movie again. I remember adoring Rosalind Russell in it, though I can see why she’s not the perfect casting. The idea of Lucille Ball starring in “Mame” makes me feel both depressed and stabby.

Find the sequel “Around the World with Auntie Mame.” I laugh til I cry at that one.

Finished John Cleese’s autobiography “So, Anyway.” The first half was very good. The send half consisted of anecdotes and verbatim transcripts of stuff he did before MP. Boring.

[Misnomer]

@Dendarii_Dame

Finished What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, by Randall Munroe. A lot of very intelligent fun. Recommended.

@Elendil_s_Heir

I read it a few years ago and liked it, too. I bet just about any Doper would.

It’s my “between books” book: when I’m either recovering from a book or can’t decide what to start next, I’ll read a chapter or two.

[CalMeacham]

I just read Lost Amusement Parks of New York City by Barbara and Wesley Gottlock. I had no idea how many there were. I knew about Freedomland in Queens, having gone there as a kid. It was bigger than Disneyland, and located inside New York City (built by the same guy who built Disneyland, to – Cornelius Vanderbilt Wood). But I had no idea there had once been an amusement park on Manhattan itself!

Really. An amusement park with ferris wheels, roller coasters, and other rides. Paradise Park/ Fort George was in the upper East Side from 1895-1913. Its death was brought about by a number of factors, but an overriding one was land values, something that contributed to the downfall of Freedomland, as well. Other parks were taken by eminent domain (Golden City in Canarsie – the land was needed for the Beltway Parkway.) Another had la Guardia airport built over it after it closed.

[Shodan]

Finished The Alaskan, by James Oliver Curwood. It was supposed to be a Western, but it was more a romance novel. Meh, at best. The climax is anti-climatic, and there is a deo ex machina that is kind of jarring. The Invisible Man by H.G.Wells is my latest dog-walking book. Haven’t read it in years and years - let’s see how it holds up.

Regards,
Shodan

[TRC4941]

@The_wind_of_my_soul

Oh boy, I finished quite a few good books since I last posted in one of these threads.

I read Me Before You. Unfortunately, since it’s such a popular book, I knew the ending going into the book, which lessened its emotional impact. I still enjoyed the book, though.

I read Dealing with Dragons. My choice to read this book comes with a backstory that I’ll spoiler.

My best friend and I were talking about our different tastes in books. She commented that she had trouble recommending books to me, because she wasn’t sure what I enjoyed. I told her that my favorite author was Kimberley Freeman, so she added Freeman’s most popular book, Wildflower Hill, to her to read list. Then she said that if she could recommend one book to me to read, as representative of her tastes, she’d choose Dealing with Dragons. Well, I felt a little like I had been duped into taking a recommendation when I hadn’t asked for one, but when I looked up a sample of the book on Amazon it actually looked pretty light-hearted and enjoyable – exactly what I was in the mood for at the moment. So I downloaded it that weekend. And since it’s a middle reader book, it’s pretty short with simple sentences, so I finished it in just a few days. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it.

I read The Wiregrass, which is the sort of book that you really ought to read in the summertime. The premise is that a group of cousins in their early teens stay at their aunt’s house down south for the summer, and it follows them around on their hijinks. While it starts out fairly light-hearted, it eventually gets into some dark subject matter. It was a good book, but there were a few minor flaws. For instance, I think there were too many cousins, and the storyline would have been easier to follow if there were fewer main characters. I also didn’t like the author’s habit of putting the narrator’s thoughts in italics in the middle of an action scene. It was usually unnecessary, because you could figure out what the narrator was likely to be thinking, between the events and what you know of her personality. But this was the author’s first novel, and the flaws were fairly minor, so I’m looking forward to seeing her improve.

I read Nick Vujicic’s Limitless: Devotions for a Ridiculously Good Life. Nick Vujicic is a Christian motivational speaker, and his manner of speaking really works for me. He comes across as incredibly humble and gracious, while also lively with a good sense of humor. At least based on his public persona, he is very much the person I strive to be, so his advice on how to live well carries a lot of weight coming from him. His first book, Life Without Limits, changed my outlook on life. His more recent offering was worth reading, but considerably weaker than his first book. Vujicic has become pretty famous and successful, and some of his more recent books seem like they were put together rather fast to capitalize on his current success. So while I enjoyed Limitless, I certainly wouldn’t consider it life-changing, the way his first book was.

Lastly, I finished Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, and this is definitely in my list of top books that I’ve read all year. It’s about a socially awkward girl who lives a life full of routine but absent of meaningful social interaction. She starts to engage more with the world, but doing so opens up some psychological wounds from her past. The beginning of the book is part humorous and part creepy; her social awkwardness is amusing, but her way of life is depressing. 2/3 of the way into the book the tone of the book changes and becomes much less upbeat, but by that point I was incredibly intrigued to hear her life story so the change in tone was almost a relief, because I could tell I was close to finally learning her secrets. This was one of those books where when I got to the last quarter of the book I pretty much abandoned everything else I needed to do and hungrily turned the pages until I was finished.

I started reading The Wiregrass earlier this summer but just let it go. It didn’t seem to go anywhere and like you said too many cousins. I was losing track of them! Is it worth me picking it up again? I’m only a little more than 1/3 through it.

[wonky]

Reading The Freedom Maze, by Delia Sherman. Time travel fantasy between 1960 and 1860.

[The_wind_of_my_soul]

@TRC4941

I started reading The Wiregrass earlier this summer but just let it go. It didn’t seem to go anywhere and like you said too many cousins. I was losing track of them! Is it worth me picking it up again? I’m only a little more than 1/3 through it.

No. The rest of the book is similar enough to the first part that if you didn’t like the beginning, I doubt you’d like the rest of it much better.

[Dung_Beetle]

@jsgoddess

Reading The Freedom Maze, by Delia Sherman. Time travel fantasy between 1960 and 1860.

I put it on my list after I saw you with it over at Goodreads.

[wonky]

@Dung_Beetle

I put it on my list after I saw you with it over at Goodreads.

I didn’t read any blurbs about it, so it’s had a lot of surprises for me. I’m enjoying the read!

[TRC4941]

@The_wind_of_my_soul

No. The rest of the book is similar enough to the first part that if you didn’t like the beginning, I doubt you’d like the rest of it much better.

Thanks! Now I don’t have to feel guilty about it anymore.

[Dung_Beetle]

I’ve been reading Maplecroft by Cherie Priest this week. I had really been looking forward to it, but twice this week I used part of my precious reading time for something else (once to take a nap, once to do some internet shopping). And that’s just not like me. At the 2/3rds mark, I’m going to give in to the inevitable and ditch it.

[wonky]

@jsgoddess

Reading The Freedom Maze, by Delia Sherman. Time travel fantasy between 1960 and 1860.

Enjoyable. I wasn’t blown away like some of the reviewers on Goodreads, but I liked it a lot.

[wonky]

@jsgoddess

Witch, by Barbara Michaels. Supernatural thriller. I’m reading this in my browser, which means I might never finish. Amazon can’t seem to figure out how to download it to my Kindle.

I didn’t end up having any trouble finishing it. Of course, Barbara Michaels is like candy for me. This is a slight, fun one. Nothing to write home about, but the perfect book to stay home for, especially if you have a fuzzy blankie and a fire.

[wonky]

Finished

Resenting the Hero, by Moira J. Moore. Light fantasy with unusual magic system and some slight attempt at a deeper philosophical conversation about status. The cover and blurb made me think it would be satirical. It isn’t. I don’t mind that.

DNFed

The Crossword Murder, by Nero Blanc. The dialogue in the first three chapters made me hate humanity.

Started

Murder at the PTA, by Laura Alden. Cozy.

Down to 27 books on my currently reading pile! Woo!

[Dendarii_Dame]

Finished River of Teeth, by Sarah Gailey. Interesting premise, but the execution was a little weak. I don’t like it when characters who are supposed to be very smart do (or believe) things which are anything but.

Just started Black Powder War by Naomi Novik. It’s the third book in the Temeraire dragon series.

[movingfinger]

I just finished Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. Very good! I am starting The Two Ocean War by Samuel Elliot Morrison

[Chefguy]

Just started Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell.

[Dung_Beetle]

Finished the audiobook of Lincoln in the Bardo this morning. Very odd, but I liked it. I keep wondering if I would have liked reading it, as opposed to listening to it, and I think not, although it would have enabled me to skip a lot of repetitive citations! It was quite a weird little story, but the voice performances were compelling. I particulary enjoyed David Sedaris and Megan Mulally.

I’m also reading a self-help book, How to Be Miserable: 40 strategies you already use. The title caught me because I know I’m frequently the cause of my own problems due to poor habits of thought. I don’t feel that the book is helping me any, but I’m interested enough to finish.

[wonky]

Officially DNFed a few books that were in my currently reading stack.

Finished

The Walker in Shadows, by Barbara Michaels. Supernatural thriller of the easy to read variety. She’s like popcorn. Hmm. Like KETTLE corn. I love kettle corn.