Thursday, May 28, 2015

The Fight of the Century--#30 finished

Good book about the first Ali vs Frazier fight and the buildup before and a quick run down of what came after.  Ali being suspended after his arrest for refusing his begin drafted and serving in the Army during Vietnam along with trying to get back into top shape after having those 3 years off.  Frazier's style of fighting where he keeps coming after his opponent and taking a lot of punishment--doing this to compensate for his smaller stature and shorter reach--makes a shorter career likely.  Just lots of good stuff in the book about both fighters and the people around them.  This was really the heyday of boxing.

I will probably post it on PBS, there are no copies on the system so it will be the only one but things aren't moving much at PBS so who knows how long it will sit there.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

I am Hutterite--#29 finished

I really didn't know much about Hutterite communities before reading this book.  I think I had scanned a wikipedia article on them and that was the reason for finding & WL the book on PBS.  Eventually it came but like most books on PBS it requires patience.  It was really interesting to read about these different related farms of communities and how they live their life.  I would imagine living in a community has it own struggles but throw in the fact that in some ways they are Amish like, no TV, no radio and little interaction with the outside world.  But they do have modern things like their kitchen and farm equipment.  I would guess they also have a hard time keeping people in the community.  The author grew up in a Hutterite community until around age 10 when her family left and went on their own.  A really interesting life and struggle for the author and her family.

I am not sure if I will post on PBS or not.  I might try to talk others into reading the book because it is an interesting way of life that most just don't realize is even out there.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Sleeping at the Starlight Motel--#28 finished

A short story book written in 1995 with stories mostly centered around eccentric people or family in Georgia.  An okay read overall, some stories were pretty good and others simply were not.  It was a quick read and most stories pretty short so could just spend a few minutes reading one between things.  Some of the stories were kind of look back and now that book is 20 years old just doesn't seem to stand the test of time.  Oh well.

I have posted it on PBS but there are 36 books ahead of it so it is probably not going anywhere.  I will leave posted for now & maybe give away later at some point.

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Fargo Rock City -- #27 finished

The author, Chuck Klosterman, is just a couple years older than me and grew up in midwestern rural life--him in North Dakota & me in Nebraska.  Kind of fun to read about how he saw his life growing up and this was all weaved in the heavy metal/glam rock that was going on.  He mentions AC/DC Back in Black as an early album and from there he went into heavier rock.  I had that same album/cassette and from there I went backward into classic rock.  He goes on & on about the metal bands that for the most part I avoided, Poison, Ratt, Motley Crue, Guns & Roses, etc.  I remember some of them but never really got into them other than maybe a popular song or two from each.  Still fun to hear about his growing up and interesting takes on the bands that I think he has probably spent more time thinking about than just about anyone else.  From reading about these bands, I am pretty glad that my teenage self was able to decide to avoid them for the most part.

I have posted it on PBS, there were 2 WL for it and figured no reason to hold on to it.  I posted a couple others to move on as well and just waiting for them to get accepted to mail the whole group off at once.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

The Boyfriend--#26 finished

2nd in a series, at least I hope it continues as a series, with Jack Till as a retired cop that is a private investigator.  Not as much of the day in the life like the Kinsey Milhone series but more of a focus on big cases that take months not days to solve.  Other thing I like about this is Jack Till has a young adult daughter with Down Syndrome and she is just a character in the book.  No crazy story lines or weird focus, she just is there and it describes their relationship.  I enjoy this, just a seemingly normal like background character.  The investigation part in this one may have been a little hard to believe and follow but was still fun overall.

I am keeping this series at this point so this one will stay on my shelf.  I have 4 books reading but not sure if any will get finished over this weekend or not.  Reading Fargo Rock City, Chuck Klosterman's book about growing up in ND & being a metal rock fan in the '80s.  Also reading I Am Hutterite about a lady that grew up in early years in a Hutterite community--think Amish but live in a community.  Then started reading Tom Wolfe's Back to Blood about Miami and then that leaves a short story book Sleeping at the Starlite Motel by Bailey White.  All four books are good but none have grabbed me yet to where I will sit & kick out a 100 or so pages in a night.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

The Quickie--#25 finished

This is another James Patterson book with another author and about the same kind of results as the other one I read at the end of last year--Swimsuit.  Not really a good book.  Lots of holes in the story and just an unbelieveableness to it as well--if that is a word.  It was like the author's kept saying, well what if this and then what if this--really just not good & barely worth my time.  The chapters were short & was a good book to carry around when outside or going places because didn't care much about it.  Really not worth my time doing much more about it.

There are plenty of copies on PBS already so it will go into the pile of donate books and hopefully gone off to somewhere else in the next few weeks.