Y is for Yesterday--#26 finished

This is the last book in this series, the author Sue Grafton passed away before finishing Z and from what her children said she did not want anyone else to write or finish up the novel--her notes, etc were to be destroyed.  I was and am still sadden by this but have to understand her wishes.  I really enjoy the series and glad to have gotten to Y at least.  Her family after her passing had a statement along the lines of: the alphabet now ends at Y for them.  I like that.  This book does wrap up a couple things--Ned Lowe tries to kill Kinsey but in the end he dies.  It also wraps up the case she was working.  Henry & his family continue on.  Her family is still in background except for Anna and we start to come around on Pearl introduced earlier.  A nice ending to a very good series.  I am looking forward to re-starting it at some point.

This is on my keeper shelf.

Children of the Flames--#25 finished

The rest of the title is Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz.  A tough book to read, the cruelty of the Nazis and especially Dr Mengele is just shocking.  How he was at the trains when they came in & he would literally decide who would live & who would be sent to the gas chamber and then crematorium.  This book touched on that but also the focus was on how twins were pulled out & sent to a separate area where he would do experiments on them.  Many died but this book tracked down some of the living and their stories are in the book along with the research they did on Mengele.  Also Mengele was able to avoid being arrested and lived in South America until he died in the 1980s is also just shocking.  In today's world with the internet and information at finger tips you can't see how this would happen but then I remember the US & allies searching for years for Bin Laden.

There are 7 or 8 WL for the book so I will get it posted & mailed off at some point.

Blue--#24 finished

The rest of the title is The LAPD and the battle to redeem American policing.  The author looks at the LAPD and the power of the chief of police.  He looks at the chiefs over time and shows how slow they were to react to changing times from the 1960s onward.  How they were basically run as a type of military and their response to gangs were to arrest more rather than work with people & try to keep them out of gangs.  The Rodney King beating and then the acquittal of the police officers and the riot that happened after that, played a big role in forcing the changes to the dept.  Also talked about the OJ Simpson arrest & how badly the police performed in collecting the evidence as well as how the African American community in LA wanted to strike back at the racist cops there.  The book was written in 2015 so a few years dated but the end of the book basically was all of the positives that were occurring and how much better the LAPD was working with the community now.  I have never been to LA & really other than what I have read from afar, don't know much about these issues.  This book did a great job of providing information and underlying causes as to what was happening there. I really enjoyed this book.

There are no copies in PBS but since I don't want to mail off anything, will wait to post it at some later date.

Another Brooklyn--#23 finished

The story of 4 middle school and into high school girls growing up in the late '70s in Brooklyn.  All 4 are African American and all 4 become best friends but in ways really do not know each other.  As they grow up they also are sort of forced apart.  The main character is one of the girls & she and her younger brother are back after several years for their dad's funeral.  This underlies the fact that their mother wasn't with them, even though the young girl kept saying the mother will come to them.  Each of the 4 has a troubling problem in the background and for some becomes too much.  A good story about the time & place--white flight and riots in Brooklyn.  An interesting time & good story but still a sad read.

There are around 50 WL for the book so I will post & mail at some point.  Right now with the virus I am not actively posting anything.  I have enough credits so will use them as I need them.  I haven't turned off my account so if someone wants to request from my shelf it is still open.

Dad is Fat--#22 finished

Comic Jim Gaffigan's book.  I have seen him before, not sure where maybe a movie but lately I know he has been doing the Chrysler Pacifica commercials.  I didn't realize he & his wife have 5 kids and that is a large part of this book.  The title Dad is Fat is from something one of his kids wrote, so kind of funny.  They live in a small 2 bedroom apartment in NY City and the struggles of doing this.  Overall a good light reading type book.  Short chapters so can pickup & read for a couple minutes and then put down--when reading 4 books or so, it is nice to have one like this.

This is 1 copy already in system so I might as well make it 2 copies & see if it gets requested at some point.  I will have to check & see what movies or TV shows he has done to see if I can remember where I have seen him before the commercials.

The Girl in the Spider's Web--#21 finished

This is the next book in the Lisbeth Salander series but a new author.  The author of the first 3 books died shortly after handing them into his publisher--The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo--being the first one & with a good movie too.  This was a good continuation of the series even though Lisbeth has a sister that I don't remember being mentioned before, but I may have just forgotten her since has been a while since I have read those books.  Sister is evil and wants to kill Lisbeth because Lisbeth killed their dad--lots of bad stuff in this family.  Well there was other stuff going on with stealing AI computer programs and a young savant that is incredible with numbers & also drawing but no one knew this at first.  Throw in stuff with the reporter & the magazine and makes a good story, I enjoyed it.

There are already 11 copies in system & this is an ex-library copy that has a couple issues, I will not post it.  I have kept the first 3 books and will keep this. It is a good series & would like my kids to read it at some point.

Laura: America's First Lady, First Mother--#20 finished

A book about Laura Bush, wife and first lady under George W Bush.  This was mostly written at the beginning of the first year he was elected, 9/11 was sort of filled in at the end.  The book is not very good unfortunately, just a lot of talking points & almost propaganda, you don't get much of a true sense of her.  Learned a few things but these sort of cheerleader type books that get thrown out there early in a term are generally not good & this fits it.

There are already a dozen copies in PBS so no reason to add another one.  This will be a give away book in one of those little free library stands that are around.

The Killer Angels--#19 finished

The 2nd in a series sort of, father wrote this book and then years later son wrote one before & after this, so a sort of series to me.  This is about the Civil War and this book is focused on Gettysburg.  Good reading in that it tries to take you into the mindset of mostly the Confederate Generals and also some officers in the Union.  Really helps the reader understand that war is awful and especially the Civil War where tactics were not up to par with the technology changes.  Throw in the fact that basically the generals were making blind decisions--they were never sure what the strength of the army against them really was--a lot more guesswork than I am sure any of them would like, this just shows how rough the Civil War really was.  I am interested in Gettysburg and I would like to do a tour of Civil War battlefields--only seen Shiloh and a couple smaller ones in MO so far but I have not studied these in depth as I know many people have.  Still an key time in our country and shows how close it was to our country being at least broken in two and maybe more pieces--talk about changing the history of the world for our times.

This is an old beaten up mass market paperback, not in any shape to be mailed off & since I have liked the series I was going to keep it anyway.

The Man Who Loved Clowns--#18 finished

This is more of a middle school or maybe even younger type book about a young man with Down syndrome.  Story is told by his niece Delrita, he lives with her & her parents.  They had just moved from the country into town & she has started school and has tried to not make any friends because she is afraid of how they would react to her Uncle Punky.  She loves him but is scared of how people react to him and is basically trying to protect him.  Her mother is Punky's sister and they have another brother that lives in town too & is married but they have no children.  There is some conflict because Uncle Bert & Aunt Queen think Punky should be out more--going to special olympics and working at a special needs workshop but Delrita's mom doesn't want this.  She stays at home with Punky.  Well throw in a terrible accident that kills Delrita's parents and her and Punky are now with Uncle Bert and Aunt Queenie--conflict happens obviously.  Sadly Punky has a heart condition too and dies, think he was in late 30s only.  Delrita wants a private ceremony for the funeral but when going to the cemetery a parade of people from town join in and she realizes that Punky affected people positively more than the negative way she had seen.  A sad kind of younger kid read.

Book is in a little rough shape and it will be on my keepers since about Down syndrome too.

Baseball's First Indian--#17 finished

This is about Louis Sockalexis a Penobscot Indian from Maine that played for Cleveland in the late 1890s.  He seemed to be an emerging star when he first arrived, could hit, hit for some power, great speed and amazing throwing arm.  But about halfway through the season started drinking himself out of the game.  Played a few games the next year and about 7 his final year--this on the worst team ever in baseball the 1899 that went 20-134.  The owner had bought the St Louis Browns and sent all the decent players there and also played tons of road games so would get gate receipts for games since no one would show up in Cleveland to watch the team after he gutted it.  The Cleveland team really didn't have an official name then but was called the Spiders back then.  Looks like Cleveland took year off & then came back as AL team Blues then later the Naps after a player coach and then after he left eventually some Cleveland writers chose the Indians.  They were sort of known as the Indians back when Sockalexis was there before and it stuck this time.  The author certainly dug deep to find out what he could about Sockalexis, and it had to be hard research trying to locate any mentions.  Basically Sockalexis was the first Indian to play professional baseball minus a couple other mentions that are likely not true.  And while he drank himself out of the majors he did play a couple more years in lower levels before sounds like he returned to the reservation in Maine but eventually dying young likely from alcoholism.  An interesting story even though the book was pretty boring at times to get through.

I have posted it in PBS & it is the only copy so hope at some point it will get requested & moved.

The Fifth Risk--#16 finished

Michael Lewis basically looked into the Trump transition team and the early part of his presidency in a few of the cabinet positions--Energy, Commerce and Agriculture.  It just pissed me off even more about our president.  I was not a fan of Chris Christie but thought it was appropriate that during the summer before the convention, Christie recognized Trump's team was under qualified on setting up a transition team.  He steps up & starts work on this as is mandated even while getting push back from Trump himself because he didn't see the need.  Then once elected, days afterward, Christie & all his work on vetting people for appointments is out.  What a scary thought and then basically no transition happened--no help or training the new people coming in with what all of this is about.  This is not just about the cabinet secretary level but many many levels in all these departments.  This is why you cannot elect a stupid anti-establishment president.  Anti-establishment fine, but most would recognize or soon learn to recognize the importance of our government departments.  Trump doesn't and seems to have not learned this either.  I still remember Rubio basically pointing out that Trump didn't want to learn or had any real interest in how the government works in a debate and how true this is being proven.  Ok, enough ranting but wow I just hope 4 years is enough, a re-election of this guy would be too much for this country.  By the way I am usually a very dependable Republican voter but Trump has turned me off this party.  Of course I don't see myself fitting in the Dems either but they are the lesser of the 2 evils at this point.

There are 40 some WL for this book in PBS so I will get it posted soon & mail it off, need to encourage others to read it.

Sex Object--#15 finished

This is a memoir by noted feminist Jessica Valenti--maybe I shouldn't say noted because I hadn't heard of her before but she has published & has blogged & articles.  I don't really follow feminist writings much but this sounded interesting.  I have mixed feelings about this book.  She has suffered through some torment, seeing men exposing themselves to her at a young age and the whole struggle of self image in the teen years along with finding out about herself sexually after that.  She also made a choice to have an abortion and while she is a feminist, I am sure it had to be a tough decision.  My thought is to pray for her.  She later had a daughter & she was a premie and the struggles with that, our youngest was a premie so I could understand some of what she was going through.  While I don't agree with much of her politics, I think she has a story to tell and I was glad to read it.

There are around 7 WL for this book on PBS so at some point I will offer it out there & mail it off.  This book was finished in February which shows how slow I have been at updating my books read list.  Will try to get better but already have 3 for March that will try to update tonight too.