Saturday, May 31, 2014

The Death Cure--#35 finished

This is the 3rd and last in order in the Maze Runner series.  This is another young adult series and I think it was just okay.  I wasn't a big fan of the first book and hoped the 2nd would be better and it was until a confusing end.  The 3rd book is still confusing and I really just have a hard time caring about the characters and what is happening to them.  I was mostly just rooting to get the book read and be done with the series.  The author has a prequel to the series now but just not interested.  Glad I am through the 3 books and the series, they are done and probably soon forgotten.  The Hunger Games series is much better or my time would have been better spent reading the Harry Potter series, which I haven't gotten to yet.  Oh well not all books I read I have to like or enjoy.  This one is not completely bad, I would have never finished it but just isn't that good either.

I will be posting it on PBS at some point, there are something like 100 WL for it.  Again no hurry to post, still sitting at 9 credits right now.  Still reading The Midnight Club and Jo Shelby, not sure if I will start another book tonight or not.

Monday, May 26, 2014

The Night Ranger--#34 finished

The next in the line of John Wells books by Alex Berenson.  A fun and easy book to read for action adventure.  Volunteer college students are kidnapped in Kenya by an inside job and then kidnapping goes bad and are really kidnapped by small time warlord on Somalia.  Wells is on the mission and has to find them and rescue them with little support.  Interesting descriptions and sounds realistic of the area and how people would react.  Like I said a good read.

Not sure if I will post this or not.  It is an ex-library copy & just in so so condition.  I might just to move it on but still in no hurry to be posting much on PBS right now since movement of books is slow.  I did get a WL book and have spent a couple credits on non-WL books.  At 10 credits have enough for now with such a slow rate.

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Lips Unsealed--#33 finished

This is Belinda Carlisle's memoir, Belinda of Go Go's fame.  I remember the Go Go's and I remember her doing some solo stuff in late '80s maybe early '90s but that was about it.  I guess she did more solo stuff than I knew & also the Go Go's did more reunions than I ever heard about.  Most of the book discussed her addiction to drugs, mainly cocaine.  Good to hear she is cleaned up and life seems to be going good for her.  Kind of an interesting read, a little portions of inside the music business once in a while especially with her changing her label often.  Mostly about her life on drugs though.

There are like 12 WL for it so I will post it at some point but since I have enough credits already no need to it or others at this time.

Friday, May 23, 2014

Grime and PUNishment--#32 finished

Wow, I am embarrassed to even have this book listed among books that I have read.  It is a 113 pages of bad sexual puns.  I really thought the book was tasteless and not worth my time but at least it was little time.  I kept reminding myself when I was growing up Mad Magazine was very popular and this is along those lines.  I think if I read Mad now I might have a similar reaction.  Oh well.

I have posted it on PBS but not sure why.  I will probably weed it out along with some others this summer.

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Death by Rodrigo--#31 finished

A lawyer story, not too bad.  Some interesting twists & turns and nice to see these are not the perfect man type lawyers that you might see in a Grisham book, these are kind of screwup type lawyers but in the end it seems to work out.  Characters are okay, I think there is a 2nd book so might be nice to see the characters fleshed out a little more too.  A pretty good read that I enjoyed.

I have posted it on PBS, I think there was 1 copy already on system so might be a little while before it moves.  I just started the 3rd Maze Runner book, The Death Cure and still reading the Belinda Carlisle book, Lips Unsealed.  Reading a terrible pun book from the early '80s, kind of bad Mad Magazine type humor.  I will looked to get another book started tonight or tomorrow as well.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Bed--#30 finished

I thought I would really like this book and it started off very good.  Two boys growing up with the older one being very different--throwing tantrums, getting undressed in public and generally just not being a social kid.  The book never really dated this but sounded like '70s or '80s before spectrum diagnosis and medicines were used to treat a child like this.  Mal, the older & unusual grows up still a little different but does seem to find a place and has a girlfriend.  The younger brother falls in love with girlfriend and knows a disaster is coming to her because she loves Mal.  At 25 Mal decides to stay in bed for the rest of his life and his mom in a bizarro way starts stuffing him with food.  He is in his bed never leaving well into his forties and rest of the book revolves around this.  The younger brother & the girl do get together & then apart.  The end is all open ended but sounds like they will be together.

I guess all of the characters have flaws and some are really exposed by Mal checking out.  By the end they all seem crazy and with their inability to break free, I was at the point of no longer feeling sorry for them.  An interesting book but really ended up just a little too far for me.  Oh well.

There are like 29 WL for it so at some point I will post it & ship it off but no need to do so right now.

Saturday, May 10, 2014

The Postman--#29 finished

I think I was one of the few that sort of liked the movie The Postman with Kevin Costner, it was his 2nd in a row big budget flop after Waterworld.  I liked parts of the movie and I liked the idea of rebuilding after the world goes to hell.  It has been a while since I last saw the movie but I think the basic idea remained but they re-arranged parts and removed other parts altogether.  I actually think what was removed was good, the book had a couple weird things--supercomputer that lights up but doesn't actually work but everyone thinks it does, the smart people around it feed ideas out like it came from the computer.  Then introduced late in the book, augmented people, super strong or super ability people that were originally military that are fighting the good people.  These supers want to become the Kings and lord over everyone else, even though everything there is is basically barely survivable shit.  Other than that and really those didn't take away from the basic story much, I liked the book like I liked the movie.  Maybe I have been missing these types of books with all of the focus on the walking dead, zombies, world ending stuff--a real look at rebuilding & how it could be done is kind of interesting to me.

I will probably post it on PBS, it is an older book and is a little beaten up but is still postable.  I was thinking about keeping it but I just don't see a good reason to do so,  better to pass it along.  I started 2 other books in the last couple of days, Death by Rodrigo and Belinda Carlisle's book Lips Unsealed.  Still reading Bed.  Might find a 4th later today as well.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Does Anything Eat Wasps?--#28 finished

This is a book by New Scientist magazine where one part of the magazine was a question and answer part.  This book is from that.  Readers would send in questions and the magazine would publish the questions and then readers, lots of scientists, would answer the questions.  Kind of interesting and also more science than I understand as well.  The idea and some of the questions are really good, but by the end it was mostly tedious.  It was an easy read of 3-5 pages though.

I have already posted it back on PBS, I think it is copy 6.  I think it will be sitting there a while but you never know either.  I am still reading The Postman and Bed.  I need to pick out another book or maybe two tonight or in the next day or so.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

The Mysterious Montague--#27 finished

A good read about someone I had never heard of before.  This is about a person that gained some fame in the 1930s as a golfer but not on the tour but instead a club pro type that people he played with built up to be one of the best golfers ever.  The Mysterious being he had committed a crime--armed robbery with others in small town New York and escaped to eventually Hollywood, where his golfing introduced him to many famous Hollywood types.  He avoided photos and publicity as a way to stay away from the law but this too caught up to him and he returned to New York 7 years later for a trail.  While probably guilty, his lawyer, that was famous for getting mob bosses off, was able to create enough doubt that he was acquitted.  The trail & the rumors of his golf and other exploits made this big news of the day and he had his 15 minutes plus of fame.  Out of shape and not playing much golf, he wasn't able to put himself fully into golf and with everyone wanting a big splash, it never happened.  Hollywood was told by the Hays Group, or something like that, a government censor type group, to keep him out of movies.  Today, this type of person would probably make a movie or two before flaming out, a Brian Bosworth career maybe.  Instead Montague just simply got old and seems like never really got past not hitting it big.  He didn't get a job or career, putting on golf exhibitions and marrying well got him through it seems.  Kind of a sad ending but then again overall a kind of sad life altogether.

There were no copies on PBS so now this is the only one.  I would expect it to move at some point.  Still reading Does Anything Eat Wasps and The Postman and just started Bed.  Might look to start another book in the next day or two as well.