what are you reading?

[rainbowgardener]

It's slow in the garden and slow around here, so I thought maybe I'd start a thread about what people have been reading lately, especially non-gardening stuff.

I just finished a novel by Jacqueline Sheehan, Lost & Found. It's about a woman whose husband dies suddenly at age 42. She moves away to start a new life and ends up finding an injured dog and they nurse each other back to health. Along the way there's some mystery/suspense and other interesting characters. All you dog lovers will enjoy it; some of the chapters are from the dog's point of view.

Since I wasn't familiar with Sheehan's work and liked her writing, I'm now reading her book Comet's Tale: A Novel About Sojourner Truth. Fictionalized biography of slavery times and the escape from slavery, very well done.

Before that I read Round House, by Louse Erdrich, a woman whose work I am familiar with and always like. She writes about modern life on Native American reservations, with depth and sensitivity. I think this is one of her best.

What are you reading this fall/ winter?

[KeyWee]

Yup ~ winter time is book time! Just finished Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. Yeah, I know either ya like him or not, but I usually read one of his books each year. While I don't find his books all that scary, his writing style hooks me in sometimes. His fictional account of the Kennedy event (11/22/63) was really pretty good. In any case, both books have "movie" written all over them.
I am anxiously awaiting a used copy of Islandia (boy was THAT hard to find) by Aaron T. Wright. At 1,024 pages it should last me ALL this winter, no problem. I am very intrigued by this tome.
I always carry a book list in my wallet, in case of an unplanned library visit, a surprise bookstore, or a Free Download Friday.

[rainbowgardener]

Wow! Amazing that the first response was about Islandia! You are the first person I have ever "talked" to that has ever heard of it. I believe it is his only book and he worked on it for most of his life. The book was actually much longer and an editor helped him get it down to publishable size. I have a copy of it that I have had for decades. It's been that long since I read it, but I loved it when I read it! Have fun!

I don't much like Stephen King, but I did like 11/22/63. It would be very relevant to read now on the 50th anniversary.

[DoubleDogFarm]

I keep telling myself "self, it's winter again and you should read more, learn to play your guitar". One would think not having TV reading would be obvious, but the internet gets in the way.

I have two loaned books waiting.

Retieved from the Future. John Seymour
Peak oil novel

John Seymour imagines a crash of the structure of Government in Britain and gives a chilling but realistic description of how a federation of East Anglia survives. The recent emergency procedures following the collapse of the South East Asian economies suggest that Seymour is fairly near the mark in his vivid description of life in such circumstances

One Second After, William R. Forstchen

a story in which one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war that will send America back to the Dark Ages...A war based upon a weapon, an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP). A weapon that may already be in the hands of our enemies.

Eric

[rainbowgardener]

cheerful! are you getting ready to become a Doomsday Prepper?

(But they do sound interesting and I understand both the fascination and the educational value of dystopian novels - if we stay on the course we are on, here are some of the possible outcomes. I have a shelf of them. I think one of the best is Woman on the Edge of Time, by Marge Piercy, which manages to be simultaneously a utopian novel (as is Islandia) and a dystopian novel, and really good writing.)

If you like utopian novels, The Dispossessed, by Ursula LeGuin, is a really good one.

[digitS']

I was just thinking last night about my winter reading and the pace of it. I am on the internet for hours each winter day but only pick up a book when I can lay it down & open it beside my pillow . I realized that I had read only 35 pages each week over the last 3. Some nights, I read something else but this average usually allows me to renew a library book only once before finishing it. Yeah, I expect that I'll be reading my current book right through until the end of the year.

It is "DNA USA" by geneticist Bryan Sykes and not quite what I expected altho', I don't quite know what I was expecting . . . I had read his The Seven Daughters of Eve and Saxons, Vikings and Celts in previous years along with one or two other books on the genetic evidence from history and prehistory. I am a little concerned, here in my 1st month of reading , that the USA may not have quite enough history & a little too much "mobility" to fit within genetic parameters.

I seldom read novels but the most recent one was last year when I read a novel by Rachel Simon about 2 deaf people incarcerated in a state institution and set in 1968. They fall in love and escape but become separated. It is really quite a simple story but I identified with it in some ways. 1968 was an important year in my life and there is a "what if things had been different" kind of thing going on. I was thinking last night if I should spare a few weeks to read another novel. The library had a suggestion for one "similar" that had to do with Nicolas II of Russia. What in Heaven's name that would have to do with institutionalized deaf people I have trouble imagining!

Steve
who once read The Dispossessed, by Ursula LeGuin

[DoubleDogFarm]

"a dystopian society’s dreams of improvement are overshadowed by stimulating fears of the "ugly consequences of present-day behavior"

That sounds about right

cheerful! are you getting ready to become a Doomsday Prepper?

Not really. More resilient. Self relient.

Eric

[rainbowgardener]

you left out the emoticons when quoting me, which were put there to signify that I'm just teasing...

Self-reliance and having lots of skills is a valuable goal for all of us, I think.

[rainbowgardener]

If you like novels about deaf people, In this Sign, by Joanne Greenberg is one of the all time best and she is one of my favorite authors. It starts with a young institutionalized deaf couple in depression era and continues their story through coming out in the real world, WWII, raising their children and how the deaf parents impacted on the hearing children and a little bit in to the grandchildren. Amazing depiction of what the world of deafness and Sign is like.

[digitS']

Rainbowgardener, I read a review. It looks as tho' life was a hardship and test of endurance for everyone in the family!

The author has written other books in the library here. Her Where the Road Goes is another test of endurance for a sixty-something person. I'm fairly confident that I won't read I Never Promised You a Rose Garden; I was hoping for a rose garden !

Maybe I should read the road novel. Walking has become my off-season exercise and a big enough challenge for the winter months.

Steve

[rainbowgardener]

Joanne Greenberg is amazing, she brings so many different worlds to vivid life. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden is my favorite and the one she is best known for, about an institutionalized schizophrenic girl's journey back to health. Based on the work of a real psychologist Frieda Fromm-Reichman. I'm a mental health professional and INPYRG helped me understand mental illness from the inside better than any text book. JG also wrote Of Such Small Differences, whose main character is a deaf-blind man. It is not one of my favorites of hers, but making the deaf-blind world real to hearing-sighted people is a pretty huge challenge and she does a good job.

[rainbowgardener]

I love this thread already! Rachel Simon is someone I was not familiar with, but I looked her up and it sounds like I've been missing some good writing. The novel mentioned is called The Story of Beautiful Girl (note not The Story of A Beautiful Girl, I expect that is an important subtlety). I'm going to look for it.

There's already a winter's worth of wonderful reading laid out here! More??

[digitS']

The RainbowGardener, I think you will enjoy that book. There are 3 main characters - so I was only identifying 33.3% with Beautiful Girl .

On her webpages, I read Joanne Greenberg's blog, a couple of posts.

Reading one, I thought, "Oh, I'm going to end up like that!" Then, read another and thought, "Yeah, that's the way to do it!!!" Maybe that is what good writing is supposed to do for us .

Steve

[tomf]

My reading is different than most of the books you all are talking about, I read a lot of technical books, some fiction.
Rainbow I have worked with a number of deaf people, and one of my good friends is deaf, I have learned sign language from them and from books quite well, I can carry on a conversation in sign just fine.

[rainbowgardener]

That's great. Years ago took a couple sign courses (just once a week in the evening, for six months) and never got real good at it and don't remember any now. It is a very interesting language.

So what fiction do you read?

[rainbowgardener]

This is just a bump -- surely there are a few more people this time of year, reading something worth telling us about! C'mon.. share!

[KeyWee]

Okay, since you bumped the topic, I have a few more things to say. First, I hesitated to post again since compared to some of the reading choices listed, I appear to be a "recreational reader". I guess you will just have to sue me, as I am a Type A personality and reading serves to soothe and entertain. If I want to learn something, I will learn it hands-on. That being said (man, I really hate that phrase:) here are a few things I have read lately that I have enjoyed. Currently reading The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert. I wasn't even going to pick this book up, since the same author wrote Eat, Pray, Love which I kinda skimmed because I thought it was a bit trite. But since this new book is about botany, I find it a little more entertaining.
Next, I want to know if anyone has read Life After Life by Kate Atkinson and if so, what did you think? It is one of the more unusual fictions I have read and hard to describe, jumps in and out of time a lot, but you can follow.
Also recommended is The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. Told in first person by the dog ~ sounds dumb, but I really enjoyed it.
I have been told I trend towards books about hardship. Guess this is true as I like to see how it is overcome. I will strictly avoid any mainstream books with incredibly bad writing such as Fifty Shades of Grey or Twilight. Not saying they don't have merit as a LOT of folks enjoy them. Something for everyone, no?

[rainbowgardener]

Don't be defensive. I read other stuff, especially environmental/ ecological and simple living. But I read a lot of fiction and that's what I was posting about.

There appears to be a whole genre developing of books from a dog's point of view. Besides the chapters I mentioned in Lost and Found, I read A Dog's Purpose and A Dog's Journey, both novels from the dog's point of view, by W Bruce Cameron. A Dog's Purpose was pretty sappy and sentimental, but had some real heart, so I tolerated it. A Dog's Journey is the second one and to me it read like, oh I made a ton of money off the first one so I will do it again. Manufactured, nothing new to say, and nothing but sappy sentiment and manipulatively playing on your emotions.

[KeyWee]

Thanks, RBG ~ I don't want to bore anyone with endless details about works of fiction that no one cares to read. Yes, someone recommended The Dog's Purpose books to me awhile back, but I did not really know the recommender's taste in books. Looking them over, I thought "perhaps not" and I am glad that you saved me the trouble.

But I am SO excited that I received my used copy of Islandia in the mail yesterday. It arrived in passable good shape for its age (70s), and the cover art is classic LSD-era design, think Yellow-Submarine-ish. I read through the forward by the author's daughter and am excited to get started as soon as I finish a couple books that need to go back to the library.

[webmaster]

Just a note to let everyone know that we have a new forum dedicated to the book titiled, Noah's Garden. Here is the Noah's Garden Book Forum.

[tomf]

Steven King's Under the Dome.
I like the Odd Thomas books.
And my computer screen.

[digitS']

I am reading Joanne Greenberg, Where the Road Goes .

Two nights since I picked it up at the library.

I'm on page #18 .

Steve

[DoubleDogFarm]

[youtudotbe]https://youtu.be/7KuDPfTfw6w[/youtudotbe]

[Shirley Pinchev]

OK, here goes........

Last two months or so; CJ Box, Blood Trail; Ridley Pearson, No Witnesses; Jeffery Deaver, The Cold Moon; Jeffery Deaver, The bodies Left Behind; Dead Silent, Robert Ferrigno; ** David Hagberg, The Cabal, P. D James, The Private Patient; P.D James, A Certain Justice; Karen Slaughter, Blindsighted; Robert Crais, Demolition Angel; Kathy Reichs, Monday Mourning; and will finish David Baldacci, Simple Truth, tonight.

My older cousin taught me to sight read when I was three. I do web work and other technical reading all day and this is what I read for 'fun'. Love all mysteries and not Stephen King or any other scifi.

I know there are other speed readers out there and hope that they sign in. All books are bought at thrift stores or the sale area at Half Price Books! lol Almost never pay more than $3 per book, and buy between 6 and 15 at a shot. All the books are then donated to various hospitals, back to thrift stores or some other readers and then they donate them to their favorite charities.

Being able to read at this pace is a gift! Some people are tall, others strong and I read fast! lol After a day on the computer working on a PowerPoint Lecture on the History of Herbs and Medicinal Plants, there is nothing like a really gory murder mystery to put you to sleep.

sps

[tomf]

Rght now I am reading the Helpful Gardener Forum.

[tomf]

Out of the books I have read about Relativity that is not hard to understand and I felt did a good job of explaining Relativity is Its-About time by David Mermin.

https://www.amazon.com/Its-About-Time-Un ... 0691141274

[digitS']

I'm trying to read between the lines.

Steve

[ElizabethB]

Rainbow - I read more than I garden.

Some recent favorites - 3 books by Khaled Hassein - EXTREMELY well written- good reads. Highly recommended.

An older one - "The Shack" by William P. Young - very moving. Makes you think about your spiritual beliefs without preaching.

An avid fan of Stephen King (SUCH A SICK PUPPY!) so looking forward to his newest book. A master of characterization. When I finish one of his books I feel as if I am saying good bye to people I know. Not many authors have the talent to make their characters so believable even in extremely insane situations.

Sometimes genera authors can surprise you. I read several of John Grisham's early books and quickly became bored with his "Lawyer Books". His non lawyer books are very enjoyable. "The Painted House" is my favorite. Also try "Calico Joe" and "Playing For Pizza" - fun reads.

Anything by Fannie Flagg is an all time favorite.

I have read some of Jodi Picoult's novels - like some, do not like others.

Enjoy your good reads.

[rainbowgardener]

I bumped in to this thread because someone made a new talk-about-books post, so I thought I would bump this one as there's a lot of good books mentioned in it.

Here's what I have loaded on to my Nook this year (I have also read a few paper books! still have a soft spot for them):

Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, Bill McKibben (of 350.org) Non-fiction, but an absolute must read for anyone who is concerned about what we are doing to our planet, wants a better understanding, etc. His writing (like his speeches) is very clear and powerful.

Soft Apocalypse Will McIntosh end of civilization as we know it novel. It's been done a lot before, this doesn't have much new to say.

Years Best SF 1, ed David Hartwell. Science Fiction short stories.

Valley of Amazement Amy Tan. If you have read any of her other novels, she always writes about Chinese history and culture, especially in the period late 1800's to late 1900's She's a good writer, but I don't think this is her best.

Look me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's. John E. Robison. First person memoir about his experiences growing up as an abused child with undiagnosed Aspergers. At times the writing seems kind of wooden and strange, but that's because he has Asperger's syndrome! They have difficulty recognizing/ expressing any emotions.

Finding Jake, Bryan Reardon. Novel about a school shooting and its aftermath. Seems a little like capitalizing on a current hot off the presses issue.

Dolley, Rita Mae Brown. Slightly fictionalized biography of Dolley Madison - fictionalized just to fill in the gaps in the record, since the record is sparse. Rita Mae Brown is a strong feminist and a strong writer. Many of the issues Dolley and other women were dealing with back then seem still very relevant.

Frozen in Time: An Epic story of survival and a modern quest for lost heroes of WWII, Mitchell Zuckoff. non-fiction. During the war, three different planes went down in terrible Arctic conditions on Greenland. This documents exhaustively, the rescue attempts that were made at the time and the current attempts to find the planes and bring the bodies home.

Rock with Wings, Anne Hillerman Anne Hillerman is Tony Hillerman's daughter. She is keeping his Navajo police murder mystery series going. Unlike many such attempts, I actually think her books are better written than his -- greater depth of characterization. If you live in the SW or love the SW you will love these books.

The Maytrees. Annie Dillard. I like some of her writing, but this one was very strange and did not grab me. A novel, sort of an anti- love story

Bloom: Find Beauty in the Unexpected -- A memoir. First person story about a woman with a down's syndrome baby and how she learns to love her child and appreciate her gifts. A little sappy for my taste, but to each their own

Lovey, Mary MacCracken and Beautiful Child by Torey Hayden. I grouped these because these two authors write very similar books about their experiences as special ed teachers with very disturbed children. Very well written although the love heals everything happy endings seem kind of predictable.

Song at Dawn (first in a quartet of novels). Historical fiction about life in France in the Dark Ages (e.g. 1150)

Death By a HoneyBee, Abigail Kearn. Entertaining murder mystery in which the victim, a beekeeper, was stung to death.

The Losing Role Steve Anderson. Historical fiction about WWII, based on a real event, a troupe of German actors is put together to impersonate American soldiers as a spy attempt. I didn't enjoy it very much.

Quicksilver (Baroque Cycle Series #1) Neal Stephenson has written some very good science fiction. This is just him indulging his hobby. It is a non-novel about life in London and Boston in the 1600;s OMG! I got stuck on page 243 of 1180! And this is book one! It has NO plot, no characterization, just a bunch of stuff about what life was like then. Not entertaining enough to keep me reading 1200 pages.

Other than Quicksilver, I finished them all. In case you wondered, no this did not cost me a fortune. I discovered BookBub. https://www.bookbub.com/ebook-deals/recommended every day they send me an email with today's book deals. The books are priced from 99 cents to 2.99, with an occasional freebie thrown in. You can tell them what genres you like and give them a list of your favorite authors. Sometimes you get an extra offer of a new book by one of your favorite authors. Each daily specials email has a book in each category you asked for. You never have to buy anything, but if you don't take advantage of today's specials, tomorrow they go back to regular price (usually $12-15 - I never understood why a digital book should cost as much as a paper/ printed one. $2 seems like a much more reasonable price. ) So if you don't mind reading stuff that wasn't something you specifically picked out, you can read to your heart's content! You can see from my mini-reviews that there have been some successes and some fails.

[catgrass]

I read a lot-More so in the winter than the other months. I especially like anything by Patricia Cornwell. I like John Grisham, Tom Clancy, James Patterson. For fun I am trying to read all of Janet Evanovich's books-they are hilarious and I can read one in 2 days. I like Biographies and autobiographies. Once a year one of the local churches has a 3 day book Fair, and on the last day they give you a nice size bag that you can fill for $5.00. Paperback, hard back, doesn't matter. I came home with 17 books this year-more than that last year because I had a lot of hardbacks this year.

[Lindsaylew82]

Just Finish the Red Rising trilogy by Brown. Some of the best fiction I've ever read.

Also just finished the Maze Runner trilogy, and the first Prequel to the series.

I started re-reading The Twelve from Cronin's The Passage trilogy because the last book is scheduled to come out end of May.

Hung up on The 5th book of the Outlander Series.... Meh.

[HoneyBerry]

I just watched that YouTube clip on page 2 of this thread about the coffee table book about coffee tables. It reminded me about the time my brother gave me a coffee table book for Christmas. I don't even have a coffee table. It is a big, heavy book and was expensive to send to me in the mail. The book is in my shed. It's a nice book - don't get me wrong - about the Italian Rennaissance - but not something I would sit down and read. It reminds me of a history book for a college class. A coffee table book seems more appropriate for his lifestyle than mine. Gifts are like that sometimes. Sometimes people that I think know me don't really know me at all.

[HoneyBerry]

I don't read much. I am too busy to find the time. I read short stories once in a while, and magazines that I pick from the library 'for-free' pile that were donated. I seem to have a preference for non-fiction - nature, plants, birds, mushrooms, nature art, nature poetry. I love nature.
I have tried to read, but the books I picked were boring. And they were award winners even. I need something deep, something that really grabs me.
Most recently, I read 'The Glass Castle", and yes it was good, and easy to read, but not really my type of book. My friend read it at the same time I did, and she loved it. She was going to read another book by that author called 'Half Broke Horses".
That last time I read a good book that grabbed me was when I was in sixth grade and read 'Two Against The North". It's an excellent adventure story. I still remember how it felt to be so absorbed and inside of that book. I couldn't put it down. I need to read it again sometime and see if it still does that to me. I used to love Pippi Longstocking books back then.
Lately, I've been working some O.T. and am going to donate the money that I make to the Oasis parrot sanctuary in Arizona. So far, I have sponsored 3 birds. I want to continue to provide for their care. This is what I like to do. The place seems to be well managed and it feels good to help such marvelous birds.