Wednesday, April 30, 2014

The Clarinet Polka--#26 finished

I really enjoyed this book.  It is about a couple Polish families in small-town West Virginia.  In an area where holding onto your Polish identity was very important.  The time was the late 1960s and Vietnam and WWII and then USSR taking over Poland were major themes.  I really liked the characters and it seemed at times you could easily transport back to that time.  While more than a few parts were hard to read because bad things were happening to good people, in the end the good wins out.  In a book like this where I like the characters, I do like a happy ending.  I wouldn't mind a continuation of life for the main characters even but I am not sure that book is coming.

I am not sure if I will post this or hold onto it.  There are no copies on PBS and there are no WL for it either.   I think I will just hang onto it for now.  I will probably post at some point, just because I probably won't re-read this book but in no hurry to post it.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Silent Enemy--#25 finished

This is the 2nd in a series about an Air Force pilot and an Army sergeant.  Pretty good book, lots of action and author switches back and forth between the two to give reader different thoughts on what is going on.  This time he is piloting a transport plane with injured people, soldiers and Afghans and after they take off they find out there is a bomb on the plane that forces them to stay in the air like 30 some hours.  Plane has mechanical issues and injured people are getting worse.  Good read.  I am not sure if this series will or should continue, the two main characters went their separate ways after the first book & had no contact until this book, like 4 years later.  That seems a little strange.  Oh well.

I have posted it on PBS, there was 1 copy in the system so I would think it will move at some point.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Crude World--#24 finished

The subtitle is The Violent Twilight of Oil.  The author talks about all of the economic downfalls of oil especially from the producing countries.  Countries like Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Iraq, etc.  Countries were corruption and vast wealth disparities have become the norm.  The author seems to really favor wind & solar as replacements as I would think most people would if proven effective enough.  And by replace, I don't mean and neither did the author mean completely, enough to start weaning our economies away from oil dependence.  A good read with some interesting thoughts and insights.  As part of the consumer country here in the US, I know I often don't think of what it takes to get the oil here and refine it for our use.  I enjoy watching shows like Klondike Gold and Nome Gold and think while watching, what a waste of time and effort for that little bit of gold.  Reading this book I had similar thoughts--all of efforts, corruption, pollution, destruction of environment, poverty, etc that are brought about by oil, really makes you question if it is worth it.  Of course our style of living is predicated on cheap energy, take the cheapness away and things would change drastically.

I will post it on PBS at some point, but no hurry right now, I think there are 14 or so WL for it.  I am still reading The Clarinet Polk and Silent Enemy and the Does Anything Eat Wasps books.  I might look to start another tonight or tomorrow.

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Dead Eye--#23 finished

This is the next book in the Gray Man series for me.  I like the series & I liked this book.  Rogue assassin with a heart gets on CIA/America's bad side and has to live off the grid.  Good action in this one & pulls some other characters in & certainly ends with the anticipation that more books should be coming.  It is kind of Bourne like, maybe more like the movies than the books which were older.  Maybe there are new Bourne books, I don't know but that is kind of what this is like.  Easy to read & good page turner.

I will post it on PBS at some point but have enough credits & other books I can post so might be a little while yet.  Still Wasps book and The Clarinet Polka and started an Crude World book about oil and all it's problems.  I might add another book this weekend too.

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Nightwing--#22 finished

This is a 1970s book by Martin Cruz Smith, the same author that has the Russian detective Renko series.  This is not part of that series and it predates that series.  It has a lot of what I remember about the  '70s, some Indian/Native American themes and a fear that something was going to wipe humans out.  I remember the Billy Jack movies & the mushrooms, I think they were '70s movies, at least that is when I saw them and there was the commercial about pollution being bad with the Indian with a tear running down his cheek.  The Westerns as movies were popular and there were TV shows like Lone Ranger and Gunsmoke(not sure if had Indian themes but was western).

The 2nd part was the fear of wild unknown things wiping out humanity.  I remember killer bees and killer ants.  There was a fruit fly scare that I kind of remember as well.  This book with vampire bats that spread the plaque on an Indian reservation out west with the plaque threatening to go epidemic proportions.

For these reasons this book placed me back into a childhood kind of memory.  It is a good story and for the most part I like Cruz Smith as a author.  This isn't anything great but was a good read.  I needed a paperback to grab quick before a doctor's appointment last month & this was the one I saw and it fit the bill.  I think I read at least the first 50 pages in the waiting room and then waiting in the exam room.

I have posted it on PBS, there was a copy of this version already and I think probably plenty of copies of other versions.  I don't expect it to move but I have been surprised enough to realize I need to put it on my PBS bookshelf and see what happens.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

The Columbus Affair--#21 finished

A fun read about Christopher Columbus being Jewish and hiding the lost temple treasures in Jamaica.  I get the author Steve Berry confused with James Rollins in that both take rumors or unlikely theories and pull them out into a story.  Not just a ho-hum story but an action page turner type story.  They are fun.  I really don't know much about Columbus or lost temple treasure so I can't say how hair brained these theories really are, but Berry makes them sound both possible in some ways.   The treasure in Jamaica very unlikely but had to find a way to put them together to make the story.  It was entertaining at least and somewhat educational in a way.

I have posted it on PBS, there was 1 WL for it so I will be mailing it off with a couple other books shortly.  Still reading Nightwing but getting closer to finishing.  Also still reading The Clarinet Polk and Does Anything Eat Wasps--I hadn't read much this last week, been busy with other stuff.  Weather is also turning better so reading time will probably shrink some as well.