Thursday, September 28, 2017

The Hollow Man--#52 finished

This book had been on my shelf for years, it is a mass market paperback with small writing so those usually do get picked to be read first unless there is something grabbing me about the book.  I think the only reason I had the book was because a hospital room in St Louis was mentioned on the back cover.  Well it is almost too bad because I really didn't like this book.  What started as an interesting idea, a professor can read, in his head, what other people are thinking.  His wife is the same & together can communicate with each other without talking.  She dies of cancer & he goes off the deep end.  Then for just really no reasons at all, he burns down the house, goes to nowhere Florida, meets up with a mafia guy disposing of a body, gets away, becomes homeless in Denver, beats someone up, goes west & does work on a ranch until the crazy lady owner with steel fake teeth and a desire to kill people & freeze them tries to catch him.  Then he stumbles into Vegas, wins a bunch of money & gets kidnapped by mafia guy.  What should have been a decent story was just destroyed by all that crap in the middle.  Then the end he gets sucked into the thoughts of a death, blind & dumb kid in St Louis where he can hang with his wife.  Just terrible.  Maybe I am a bad judge but this was not it for me, not even close.

I was thinking about posting on PBS but there are already 6 copies and just no reason to do so.  I will put this in my give-away pile.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

The Plain Sense of Things--#51 finished


What a great read, really enjoyed this book and will be on my keeper shelf.  She loosely follows a family through generations in the far Western part of Nebraska.  Talks about the tough life of the plains and you get a sense of the desolation that is around the people living there.  I really enjoyed how you as the reader get to really know & understand the characters but only to a degree, there is much left unsaid about the people as well.  Really good and very mature read, one of my favorites of the year.

This is a keeper for me.  I think there is one copy on PBS so no need to add this one to it.

The Mirrored World--#50 finished

A story of a not all that well to do family of nobility in St Petersburg.  An extended family where they have to try to marry off the girls & succeed with 2 of the 3, the 3rd marrying when much older and rest of family mostly out of picture.  Story talks about the struggles of their position as well as the every day struggles of life at that time.  Xenia the middle daughter had married with love to a well respected & liked singer but after struggling to have a baby & then losing the baby after a few months, Xenia slips into remorseful state.  Her husband then dies & well she goes off the deep end and thought dead only to be found living on the street in a poor part of town as a kind of holy fool.  The last daughter married an Italian singer eunuch and after he died is when she found Xenia but could not control or change Xenia.  A good story with interesting characters and an interesting insight into a possible life at that time.

There are 6 WL for this book so will probably post & mail at some point.

Sunday, September 10, 2017

Degrees Kelvin--#49 finished


A book about William Thomson a physicist in the 1800s that was renown world wide for his work in electricity and much else.  A great mind and interesting character that was involved in science and new technologies during his time.  He later became Lord Kelvin appointed this by the Queen of England.  I am not a science guy so much of the technical in & outs of the book were not up my alley but really still can appreciate the work the scientists did at the time with the limited resources in comparison to today.

I have already posted it on PBS & should be mailing off later this week, there was 1 WL for it so figured I should move it quick.

The Visible Man--#48 finished

A man develops a kind of cloaking outfit where he can be in a room and basically not be seen.  The book is about him discussing this with a counselor and the counselor's notes & transcripts are becoming a book for the counselor.  Interesting idea and can see where there is probably some research going into this area.  As far as the characters and the book, well not so much.  I have liked other things I have read by the author but this one just wasn't for me.  I didn't like the characters, I didn't believe the actions of the characters so basically didn't by into or like the book.

There are I think 11 WL for it so I will gladly mail it off to someone else & maybe they will enjoy it.

Friday, September 8, 2017

U is for Undertow--#47 finished

This is the next in the Kinsey Millhone series.  I do enjoy this series & this was a good continuation of it.  A little bit of a journey back in time with some hippies and drug dealing in the '70s that led to a kidnapping for money and a dead little girl.  Kinsey does the leg work & figures it out.  Also she is learning new things about her relatives & them trying to connect with her when she was growing up.  Fun series and while I want to keep pushing ahead & read them, it will be a little sad once it is done too.

These are all on my keeper shelf at this point.  Might have to re-read them and/or I have been trying to get others to read them.

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This!--46 finished

This is a kind of autobiography by Bob Newhart, not too in depth but touches on the points of his life and his career in comedy.  I have always liked his TV shows and enjoy that he still making appearances on Big Bang Theory.  He touches on some of his stand routines from early '60s but reading them I am sure isn't the same as seeing or even hearing them.  I didn't know that his comedy routines sold that well on albums.  Good read.

I will post it on PBS, there are like 9 copies already in system so might take a while before it moves.