What have you read recently?

I'm amazed that Fredrik Backman's books are so popular over there. His stories are "so Swedish" in my eyes, I thought it would never work. Maybe we are more alike than we think across the world.

Ove is my favorite. We all know an Ove, and can relate.

 

A friend of mine worked with Turner's mother. From my friend's interactions with her, it appears he learned behaviors from her.

It's been a few years but I read a memoir that I just couldn't put down. I was at a scrapping retreat and thought I'd read for a little while before going to bed. I ended up reading the whole thing. "Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, a Life Reclaimed" by Michelle Knight, the first of the 3 girls held in captivity in Cleveland, Ohio. She was held for a decade. They escaped in 2013. A co-worker from the Cleveland depot of my company actually had met the abductor as they were from the same area of Cleveland.

I have a bunch of memoirs on my Kindle to be read along with those cozy mysteries!

 

I loved Demon Copperhead. I never read David Copperfield but I’m tempted to read it now.

 

I used to read lots and lots of Stephen King. Then in his lesser known books I got bogged down in the evil and/or horror that seemed so prevalent in them. So I haven't read anything of his in about 20+ years. So does Fairy Tale have that aspect or is it more fantasy? I like fantasy. One of my favorites is the Ingathering: The Complete People series of short stories. My husband thought them too repetitive, but I really liked them.

 

I loved that one too!

 

I'm listening to The Spare right now too! It is so crazy, but fascinating too!

 

My book club was talking about this one, so that's on my list already too!

 

This thread is dangerous! I've added even more to my To Read list now. Lol.

My last book was The Last Green Valley by Mark Sullivan. I loved it. I think we read his other book Under a Scarlett Sky for the TLP book club here a few years ago... Nope, I just checked and we didn't, but it was really good also, but I liked this newer one better I think.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus was great and also I loved Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt too. That one was our November pick here at TLP.

 

Yes, very dangerous! I've added a few to my TBR list too! Thank the Good Lord for libraries!

 

I started this month reading a nonfiction book by John Grisham - The Innocent Man. It was interesting but he's definitely a better fiction writer. I'm still glad I read it.

I also read the latest Amos Decker (Memory Man) book by David Baldacci - Long Shadows. Baldacci is one of my favorite thriller writers and Decker is a great character. If you've never read any, you have to start with Memory Man.

I just finished this week The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce. It's about a small group of shopkeepers on a rundown side street in London in the late 80's, particularly Frank who owns a the music shop where all he sells are vinyl records. Then a mysterious woman shows up at the door of his shop and things happen. It's a story of love, struggle, friendship, poverty, hope, and the wonder that is music. I read the book Sunday & Monday and today, while working on my computer, I listened to all the music that was directly referred to in the book. Quite an interesting experience!

Next on my list is a re-read of West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge based on a true story of transporting 2 giraffes (newly arrived in New York City, rescued from a sinking boat caught in a hurricane) across the USA and delivering them to the San Diego Zoo.

 

I read all over the place. Most of my non-fiction has been cookbooks or kitchen books lately. An oldie that I liked was The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry.

Recommended to me by others that I'm just starting (so, no opinion yet):
Death's Acre Dr. Bill Bass - about the FBI body farm
Death of Innocence The Story of the Hate Crime that changed America - Mamie Till-Mobley - about Emmett Till
When I Fell From the Sky - Juliane Diller - about a woman that fell from a plane and survived the jungle.

 

Yikes. Reading this has opened my eyes even wider at how much focus is on victims and how women can avoid being a victim, and not enough focus on preventing this behavior from ever happening. We need to focus much more on teaching all our kids, but boys especially, not to be perpetrators.
I am actually reading this as part of an online book club and we will be meeting with the author over zoom. I am so interested to hear her speak in person as well.

 

A man called Ove is one of my favorite books ever! Such a great character. I enjoyed the Swedish film adaptation- it has subtitles which I don't mind but I know not everyone likes that. I saw the American version, A Man Called Otto, in the theater and loved it.

 

Looking forward to see Otto, I imagine Tom Hanks really will do the character justice.

 

I'm slowly reading Entangled Life and highly recommend it. The philosophical aspects of the book get the cogs in the brain turning - especially about interspecies communication and the definition of intelligence. I know human gut is colonized by bacteria - never thought that chemicals bacteria produce could be "read" by our cells and possibly cause us to crave certain foods.



I am listening to Spellmaker on Audible (after finishing Spellbreaker). Listened to the Paper Magician series and picked up the Spellbreaker series. Fun entertainment and great to listen to on my Obi walks.

 

I typically have a non-fiction I read and a fiction I listen to on Audible. Made the mistake of listening to The 6th Mass Extinction - An Unnatural History on Audible....better to see words like Holocene and Anthropocene when they are new to you (maybe for me, I am a horrible speller).



Listened to Michelle Obama's Becoming on Audible and Matthew McConaughey's Greenlights.



I liked them both, but highly recommend Greenlights for the positivity the book spreads.

For science lovers, I highly recommend the magazine OYLA - geared towards STEM students the articles are a fun read for adults too. HUGE variety of subjects.