Island--#105 finished

 This is an early Thomas Perry book, published in 1987, wow the year I graduated high school.  A couple that are con-people, steal a half million from a gangster and take off to Caribbean to hide out.  He finds what he believes is an uninhabited island on some old maps.  They come upon a couple other people with shading pasts to join in.  The island gets covered up by the ocean/sea at high tide so is not really an island but the main guy Harry sees it as an opportunity.  They find disguarded stuff--cars, dirt, concrete--really anything they can find to build this up into an island.  They keep at it for years & becomes a resort with golf course, baseball field, housing, a sort of downtown.  They sort of get in with the UN and become a kind of country.  They have to fend off bad characters too.  A sort of goofy but what if this could really happen type of story.  

There were no copies on PBS so I posted it & it got requested right away.  I should be mailing off in next day or two.

The Great Revolt--#104 finished

 The rest of this title is: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics.  The authors did a survey of Donald Trump voters after the 2016 election in the rust belt states that went for him--PA, MI, OH, WI & Iowa.  They broke out into different sort of categories the maybe surprise voters for Trump.  They looked into county data to find counties that had gone for Obama and then switched to Trump.  They then found voters they interviewed about their decision to vote for Trump.  An interesting read and I started it right after the 2024 election where Trump was elected for a 2nd time.  In the 2024 election, to men interesting that he was able to pull more votes from these rural type counties than he did previously.  These elections will be studied for years because it seems the parties have shifted from what was previously expected as to who their voters would be.  A really interesting read and I think much of what they found still applies in ways to this year's election

There were no copies on PBS so I figured I would post right away and it got requested right away.  I will be mailing off later this week.

A Very Punchable Face--#103 finished

 This is Colin Jost memoir, he is the Saturday Night Live Weekend Update host with Michael Che.  I have started trying to watch SNL after taking many years off and the Weekend Update segment is probably the one most consistently funny part.  Colin is also a writer & a head writer for SNL so maybe not as much as a compliment as it seems.  This was a funny read about his life and struggles.  Not much about Scarlett Johansen since they were just engaged at that time.  A fun quick read.

There are 14 WL for this book, not sure if one of my kids wants to read it first before I mail it off.  Again have plenty of credits on PBS but no real reason to keep this book around either.

Dinner at the Center of the Earth--#102 finished

 A really good story with good characters but because the chapters jump between the characters and 2002 and 2014 it does get a little confusing.  A Jewish man from the US, has joined a spy network for Israel but an incident occurs when dealing with a Palestinian man and the spy is arrested in 2002 and held in secret in Israel for years.  There is also a tough Israeli general and his secretary & son as characters.  Once I started to figure out what was happening on the bouncing back and forth the story made more sense.  This is probably one of the issues with me reading several books at a time, having one bounce around story wise makes it harder to follow when other story lines also bouncing around in my head.

There are 2 WL for this book so I will post & get mailed off at some point, maybe soon.

No Use For a Name--#101 finished

 This is a young adult book with some sexual situations that would bump it out of teen literature.  The main character in the book finds out when getting her learner's permit, that her parents never gave her a name on her birth certificate.  She is just listed as Baby Girl Anderson.  Her home life is really screwed up and she is just starting school and is putting herself in more screwed up situations.  Her life just needs some adult attention and help but there is none.  The book reads quick and easy and there is a twist that I didn't see coming too.  

I have posted this back onto PBS & is only copy in system.  Not sure if a self published book--in PBS it shows the back cover which I have seen before on similar books, but this book looks to me to be professionally done.  I also been logging in Goodreads and it shows up there but most reviews are because the reviewers received free copy.  Oh well, to me seems better than a self published--at least those I have read.

Handmade Wilderness--#100 finished

 Got to 100 books read already this year--wow, that seems quick.

The rest of this title is: How an Unlikely Pair Saved the Least Worst Land in Mississippi.  A really good and interesting read about a gay couple in 1968 living in New Orleans area that were looking for some property nearby.  They found 80 acres in MS that wasn't really near anything and I think 30 miles or so from the Gulf coast.  In the book, he gets into great details of the land and the different trees, marshes, wildlife, etc on this land.  Goes into the improvements that made and how after a hurricane how those improvements had to start over & actually were much improved on their 2nd time.  Not only was this a gay couple, Don the author is white and his partner Willie was a black man which plays into some of the relationships they have with neighbors.  I don't remember it being mentioned in book if neighbors thought they were a couple or if it was more like roommates or friends.  Willie does end up dying of AIDS and Don after buy some surrounding land turns it over to the Nature Conservancy to keep the land as a nature preserve.  I checked their website & it is still listed as that today--a really nice and happy ending to this story and for the land.

There are no copies in the system and I will be posting it on PBS.  I had gotten it sent to me through PBS but I think it was a free one that was sent because not in the transaction pages, oh well would have been nice to see where the book has traveled.

Salem's Lot--#99 finished

 This is an older Stephen King book about vampires.  I remember seeing part of this movie & it basically scared me then--looked up on IMDB and it was made in 1979 but probably a couple years after that since likely on TV when I saw it.  So put me around 12-13, yep it scared me.  I only remember a few minutes, I am pretty sure never watched the whole thing.  I read a bunch of Stephen King when I was in high school but avoided this one--maybe an opportunity thing since I bought used books and maybe never found one for Salem's Lot.  I know this copy I found used and have had for a while--maybe 10 years and just now talked myself into reading.  Halloween was coming up & figured this as a "classic" type book for me so finally read it.  It does it's job to scare the reader.  Lots of bad things happen and not really sure at the end if everything was taken care of or not.  Good Stephen King read, glad I finally got to it.

It will stay as a keeper, why not, it is an older book and people can find it around.  I don't need to post on PBS.

They Knew--#98 finished

 This is a powerful book that looks at conspiracies in America.  Written during the pandemic but going back to Trump's election--now his first election and looking at what has become.  I have mixed opinions on this book, I don't think all the arguments for some of this corruption are complete enough to make believable.  There is certainly a lot that points to some of her conclusions but to get there you have to believe a lot of people have to have some knowledge of the bad doings and not fighting back against it.  She does look back in American history for some of these linkages and after reading the book on Bechtel it really makes me think there could be something there.  Reading this book makes me want to learn more of what she is thinking--I read her earlier book Views From the Flyover or something like that.  I am not a podcast person but might try to track down the podcast she was doing a few years ago to give it a listen.  Read this during the election time which now the results have made it even scarier.

There are some WL for this one on PBS but this will be a keeper for now.  If for no better reason than author lives in St Louis so like to keep the local author books.