Sunday, September 28, 2014

West of Venus--#59 finished

This is the other book that I was reading that was kind of about a woman searching to find herself.  I don't know if that is actually correct because for most of the book she wasn't really searching, she was more like just going with the flow.  By the end though it was a happy ending for her and the rest of the characters seemed like they were going in a better direction than during most of the book.  A good story with some humor mixed in as well.  It was a first novel for the author and I should try to keep lookout for other books by her.  I don't think any are available from PBS right now though.

I have already posted it on PBS and there was a copy or two already on the system, I think this book does move though.  I think the number of copies on system has changed the last few months so hope to be mailing it off at some point.

Friday, September 26, 2014

And She Was--#58 finished

A really good story of a woman trying to find herself, actually maybe more of her coming aware that she needs to find herself.  Crummy life growing up and continues just a wayward life and after following a man to the Aleutian Islands kind of slips into the unusual life in a desolate area.  The books bounces between Brandy's life and the life of Aleut women over time.  This is a tough place to live and you get a history lesson of what the natives had to go through especially after the Russians came and then later the Americans in WWII changed so much of their lives.  Interesting read of some customs, not sure they are completely true, I should probably check into that, but certainly sounds possible.  Brandy investigates some of this & through that realizes more about herself.  The book doesn't wrap it all up nicely.  She mentions on the last couple pages about her later life but no real answers about finding herself.  I guess that is a continuous journey.  A good book.

I have posted it on PBS, there were a couple copies on the system before but when I posted it today it was the only copy there.  I expect it will move at some point.  Also reading West of Venus--another kind of woman trying to find herself book with more comedy and bizarre characters.  Also reading a College Football book and The Incredible Lives of Greta Wells.  I will probably start another book today or at least over the weekend.

Saturday, September 20, 2014

A Necessary Evil--#57 finished

This was the next in the Alex Kava series with CIA agent Maggie O'Dell.  This one was her story about the priest scandal.  I brought back her first adversary and maybe will get him killed off too in the next book.  Not a bad read and did continue the storyline and also reintroduced Maggie to her kind of love interest Nick from the first book.  Next book maybe answer or move these story lines ahead a little, I would hope.

I have been keeping my Kava books so this one will get tucked back in with the other books in series.  I need to keep on this series too but still need to move forward on the Grafton one and the Harry Potter thing too and probably another series or two as well.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Big Hair and Plastic Grass--#56 finished

The rest of the title is, A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s.  A good read that touches on each baseball season in the 1970s and also touches on some of the unusual happenings going on around there too.  Most of the stories I had heard of but many I hadn't just because  I was under 10 all through the '70s.  Fun stuff and a fun read.  I started paying attention to baseball in 1977 and remember the Yankee vs Dodgers world series that year & the next.  My team was & still is basically---I have added the Cardinals to my team list since I live here---but growing up my team was the Texas Rangers.  I think some of it has to do with I liked the Lone Ranger tv show & the TX Rangers just fit with that.

I am not sure yet if this will be a keeper book, I am leaning that way.  I have enough credits on PBS & enough other books to mail off that I at least won't be in any hurry to move this one anytime soon.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

The Home Jar--#55 finished

This is short story book by Nancy Zafris.  I read her book, Lucky Strike and enjoyed it.  This was different.  Some of the stories had interesting characters but most were kind of abstract.  It seemed as if the story itself wasn't that important but instead just putting down what the characters were doing & thinking.  I can understand that but isn't really what I enjoy.  I am sure there is lots of symbolism and references that I am missing, I am not an English or Literature major and it was like that is really more the intended audience that just some guy who picked up & read the book.

There is 1 WL for it so I will be posting it soon to mail it off.  PBS is still very slow on my WL books so don't need more credits but still do have a couple books that would be best to just mail and this is one of them.