The Watermen--#24 finished

This is a book about America's first swimming hero, Charles Daniels.  A really interesting life and story about his swimming and the whole development of swimming as a sport and then the beginning of the Olympics.  Throw in that Daniels also was first to use the modern freestyle swimming stroke too.  A lot of good detail and research in this book but not overwhelming to point of boredom as other books I have read.  The story kept moving along and there were good side stories about his mother & father as well.

There is 1 WL for this book but might keep for now & see if any friends would be interested in it. 

Luna--#23 finished

 This is a book published back in 2005.  It is about a high school senior that is a male to female transsexual.  The boy Liam goes by Luna when dressed is struggling with wanting to come out.  The story is told from the perspective of the younger sister Regan, who is a couple of years behind.  It is a tough read at points because you know there will be an ugly coming out to parents and friends and it just keeps getting put off.  Regan is also struggling to find herself as most high school students are anyway.  A good read about this but like I said a little tough at points too.

There is 1 WL for this book so I will go ahead and post it & see if I can get it mailed off this week.

Armored--#22 finished

 This is an action adventure book by same author as the Gray Man series.  An professional operative that served in the army and then was a hired gun type guy, was injured in Lebanon and lost the bottom part of one of his legs.  Unable to continue that type work and no education he is reduced to taking a mall security position that pays nothing and with wife working nights and two very young children the family is struggling.  He has an opportunity to get back into the game of professional operative with a very good paying job but doesn't let them know about his prosthetic leg.  The job is security for UN negotiators in Mexico with drug lords.  Mission seems simple enough but insiders have made this a big setup job.  Duff--the main character eventually figures it out & is able to get away with part of his crew.  A good action packed read.

I got this book from PBS but it is a rougher shape so I won't be mailing it off, will instead look to donate it out somewhere. 

The Monk of Mokha--#21 finished

 A really good read about a Yemeni American that becomes obsessed with coffee and the beginnings of coffee in Yemen.  Studies to become a kind of expert in coffee and then travels back to Yemen to help the farmers there to rejuvenate coffee production there and export it around the world.  All this while the Yemen civil war is going on.  It is a true story by Dave Eggers and a really interesting and page turning story as well.  I am not enough of a fancy coffee drinker to know much about Yemen coffee and how it is doing since this book.  There is still a civil war going on many problems in that area of the world.

At this point will keep this book.  One of my daughters is a barista at Starbucks and might find this book to be a good read.  If not can always mail off down the line.  There are 4 WL for this in PBS, this is a large print copy too.

Hard Times--#20 finished

 I finished this a couple weeks ago but just now playing catch up on getting my books read entered.  This was a tough one, just not that interesting and throw in a couple of characters that their conversations were written as they spoke--making it a hard read, didn't help.  Didn't really like any of the characters and while it was certainly a tough/hard time in life, to me just not enough here to really recommend.  I have a couple other Dickens books that I will try down the line so this one didn't ruin him for me.

It is a classic and it also has used stickers and high-lighting and underlining in the book.  Can't put on PBS and not really enough of a classic that people really want.  Will keep with my other classic books at this point though.