I just finished a really good book. The Light between Oceans by M.L.Stedman. It is set in Australia shortly after WW I. Good story, well drawn characters. Love, loss, redemption. I gave it 5 stars on Goodreads and I almost never do that for fiction.
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I just finished a really good book. The Light between Oceans by M.L.Stedman. It is set in Australia shortly after WW I. Good story, well drawn characters. Love, loss, redemption. I gave it 5 stars on Goodreads and I almost never do that for fiction.
I read that one, too. It was a very nice story well told.
I am struggling to finish The Good Lord Bird by James McBride. The main character is a Huck Finn type African American slave boy who is set free by the anti-slaver John Brown and their subsequent adventures. Fiction. It's actually pretty good, but the plot just isn't grabbing me. A very interesting writing style told in the vernacular of a mid-nineteenth century former slave boy. He is mistaken for a young girl, which gets him out of a number of fixes and adds to the humor of the book.
I'm also reading Dan Brown's Inferno. His books are always a quick light read. And also a book called Nine Lives that is about some of the less heard of religions of India. It's interesting and not too cumbersome.
May reading....
Mostly non-fiction now, most notable:
- The Vegetable Gardener's Container Bible by Ed Smith - Superb overview of planting in pots for good eats.
Fiction, Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312 - he is a very interesting sci-fi read with good characters and plot, and fascinating ideas. Check out his previous Mars terra-forming trilogy - brilliant stuff!
Gaffer, I will ask my husband if he has read any of Kim Stanley Robinson's science fiction. DH is a huge sci-fi reader. Thanks!
I'm reading Encaustic Art (painting with wax--a good overview), and The Paleo Approach. The latter, subtitled Reverse Autoimmune Disease and Heal Your Body, by Sarah Ballantyne, PhD, is huge, colorful, and exhaustive--an excellent reference with lots of pictures and charts. I'll probably buy a copy, as it's a good reference. (And who knew there was a vegetable called Good King Henry. Like I said--exhaustive!)
I just finished How To Hide Money From Your Husband...and Other Time-Honored Ways to Build a Nest Egg. The foreword was by Judge Judy Scheindlin. She sees so many women who end up divorced with nothing. I'm single, but was interested in a book for women on building a nest egg. A lot of these women had nothing in their name. If they got divorced late in life, they were screwed. I don't like deceit, though. Things are much different now, with so many women working and investing. It was still interesting to see how many women were stashing cash in the cookie jar for an emergency, and how it came in handy when the unexpected happened.
Now I'm reading a book called On Your Own-A Widow's Passage to Emotional and Financial Well-Being. I always seem to check out books on money or spirituality. This one details several women and their financial situation after their husbands died. For some reason, I'm fascinated by people's financial situations. Why are some people able to save and invest, while so many others can't get ahead? I listen to Suze Orman's podcast each week for the same reason.
I'm also reading posts on Frugalvillage.com's forum by a woman who lives in the woods with her husband on under $900. a month! She does all kinds of canning, food growing, etc. It's really fun to read about her lifestyle. It inspires me to lower my monthly expenses...
I am reading, "Feeding the Hungry Ghost. Life, Faith, and What to Eat for Dinner," by Ellen Kanner.
The back cover says,"Ellen offers an irreverent (boy howdy--my words) approach to bringing reverence into daily living--and eating. She presents global vegan recipes that call you to the table, stories that make you stand up and cheer, and gentle nudges that aim to serve up what we're hungry for: a more vital self, more loving and meaningful connections....."
Kanner has a really casual, funny style. She is a food blogger and writer for the Huffington Post.
Ha, awakenedsoul! I've never visited frugalvillage.com before until I saw your post. The first thing that caught my eye was the little marquee at the top promoting an article on uses for a salad spinner! Oh, the humanity!!
KayLR, Oh, I missed that. I love their forum. The woman I'm following is woodswife. It's in the frugal section. She's a real character. They live without electricity and she cans everything. It sounds like she drinks coffee nonstop...
The last book on tape I listened to was By Ox Team To California. I just loved it. She had such a great attitude. It was fascinating to me to hear about life back then...I still think about her every day.
I have recently jumped into Buddhism with both feet and the amount of reading is unbelievable! Good, but there is so much of it. Just finished The Door Of Liberation by Geshe Wangyal and have 5 other books waiting!
I absolutely loved that book. I actually cried and that is rare for me with a book.Quote:
Originally Posted by Florence
I loved The Light Between Oceans as well. I'm currently enjoying "Me Before You" by Jojo Moyes.
I'll have to order some of these from the library!
I'm a big Kim Stanley Robinson fan, but I found "2312" pretty slow going. I loved his book "Shaman" - I thought it was one of the best books of 2013.
I recently read "What we leave behind" by Derrick Jensen - very powerful:
"What We Leave Behind" is a piercing, impassioned guide to living a truly responsible life on earth. Human waste, once considered a gift to the soil, has become toxic material that has broken the essential cycle of decay and regeneration. Here, award-winning author Derrick Jensen and activist Aric McBay weave historical analysis and devastatingly beautiful prose to remind us that life—human and nonhuman—will not go on unless we do everything we can to facilitate the most basic process on earth, the root of sustainability: one being's waste must always become another being’s food.
"The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon" - the latest in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency novels by Alexander McCall Smith.
Really love this series. It's got all the human drama plus some comedy thrown in, plus you get to learn about the Botswana culture through these wonderful main characters.
Just finishing up "The King Raven Trilogy", by Stephen R. Lawhead. These are a series of historical novels based on the Robin Hood legend. Lawhead relocates Robin Hood from Sherwood Forest in Nottingham to Wales, and sets the story in the late eleventh century, after the Battle of Hastings and to coincide with the Norman invasion of Wales and the struggles the Cymru (Welsh) people against the Normans, and the political intrigue of medieval Britain. The trilogy consists of three books named Hood, Scarlet, and Tuck, which reimagine the story of Robin Hood in more authentic and gritty settings.
I'm skimming some new adult picture books, ones about Judy Chicago's Dinner Party art piece now 30 years old (it's now in a permanent installation), a history of the Chelsea flower show (did you know that gnomes were forbidden for all but one year in all of the decades of the show???!!!)
I found a book from the 1960's in a vintage shop about growing lilies. I'll be donating to the silent auction at the International Lily convention in July, and I'm skimming that.
Greg Guttfeld's book Not Cool: The Hipster Elite and the War on You is something I just started. My friend raves about Guttfield but I've read his prose in another book and just think that he is ok.
I picked up that book about how communities are built in disaster, the one recommended by bae. The checkout girl at the library said that the author is a "beautiful writer" and so, it's fine, but I wouldn't say it's beautifully written, it is competent and she's got a point of view.
I just finished The Sandcastle Girls. It is about the Armenian genocide of 1915. The story is gripping (I really hate to use that word in describing a story but it really is gripping.) The characters are very well drawn. Not light reading but excellent story.
Lainey, I didn't know there was a new one out! Thank you! I love this series too. Now to put it on hold at the library!!:)Quote:
Originally Posted by Lainey
ah, the Ladies of the Detective Agency. I've read 3 or 4 of those, love that series. They are English Village novels only they are set in Botswana.
Iris and Florence, I too enjoyed...well couldn't put down The Sandcastle Girls. I do love the Ladies Detective Agency. They are so gentle and quite good for reading at night before sleep. I've just finished Philomena and loved it. Also The Invention of Wings. Both expose some real ugliness in the world, but end with a bit of hope. But not for before sleep reading.
I found this book for $1 in a secondhand shop in pristine condition: Hollywood Poolside.
http://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Pool...ywood+poolside
Beautiful b&w photos of old Hollywood stars in and around various private pools. Goes all the way back to silent film star days. Also includes some gossipy text. Good for a fun summer read or buy it as a gift for anyone fascinated by old Hollywood.
Just started a book by Joan Gussow called Growing, Older: A Chronicle of Death, Life and Vegetables. She is known as one of the pioneers of organic gardening so has insight there. Concurrently, she talks about how she finally felt a great freedom after her husband of 40 years died of cancer. Somehow, it all begins to weave together - gardens and personal growth.
Sounds like a book I'd like. Thanks!Quote:
Originally Posted by pinkytoe
Psychopath Whisperer : the science of those without conscience by Kent Kiel. The author spent years working in prisons using a 20 point psychological test to identify true psychopaths. He relates many stories about the men he sees in prison. In one chapter he performs an historical analysis of two famous assassins, the men who killed two Presidents, Abraham Lincoln and President Garfield. Using historical docuements, he recreates their personalities and demonstrates that people who perform mad acts are not always madmen.
Well, kids--I got my used paperback book--a 1980 edition that has the original price on it--$2.75 . It's "Act Of Vengeance", an account of the murder-for-hire of a reform-minded Union Leader in SW PA on New Years Eve, 1969. The perpetrators were caught, and imprisoned. The aftermath of the murders did bring about new leadership in the Mine Workers' Union. Don't want to spoil it for you. You can go on Google, and see an aerial view of the old stone home where the crime occurred--on Polly street in Clarksville, Pa. Ralph Nader makes a cameo appearance in this story, because at the time, one of his advocacy projects was building a case for mining safety legislation and union reform.
"Light Between the Oceans" was a very good book, IMO. I recommended it to several people and so far have heard that they liked it too. I used to belong to a book club that no longer meets, and I kept thinking what a good book this would have been for discussion.