Who Is Alex Trebek?--#21 finished

This is a biography of Alex Trebek, not sure if authorized.  Just checked his wikipedia page & looks like he had a memoir that came out about the same time as this book.  It is a good quick read with some insights into Alex Trebek, I watched Jeopardy but probably more so in the 1990s and sporadic since then.  He sounds like an interesting and caring person but he was also able to do what he loves.  A good life and a good person.

I was going to post & mail off on PBS but when reading it I found a few pages where something was spilled on them & stained.  This makes in no longer postable on PBS so will go on my give away pile instead.

Chaos Theory--#20 finished

This is an older book, published in 2001 so takes place in late 1990s.  A couple high school kids drive into a bad part of Washington DC looking to buy drugs.  A dealer type guy comes up to them & has a gone & after a sort of struggle, the gun is fired, hitting the car floor and the dealer guy is drug into a parked car.  Later it comes out that the dealer guy was an undercover police officer and people other than just police are looking for these 2 high school guys.  A decent fast paced type story, plenty here that you can decide to not buy & book/story becomes stupid, but just go along for ride & remember what late '90s was like and then not too bad.

This was another 2nd book ordered, that the original PBS person didn't have & it rolled over to next person who sent it.  Tried to help out person sending books to me by doing a multiple order & didn't work out.  I have posted this back on PBS & there is 1 copy ahead of it so who knows if it will move or not.

The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher--#19 finished

This is a book of short stories by an English author Hilary Mantel.  I didn't know anything about the author, this was a 2nd book ordered if I remember right, from PBS.  This is where I am offered a book on my Wish List & I look through other books the member has posted & I picked this one out.  I like finding short story books and this one had an unusual title so there you have it.  Some interesting stories, the Margaret Thatcher one was about a sniper trying to shoot her as she was leaving a hospital after eye surgery.  Since didn't follow English politics much, not sure if a sort of true story or not--the sniper was IRA so that has some truthful feeling to it.  Overall an okay short story book.

I have posted it back on PBS, there is 1 copy ahead of it so might not ever move, will just have to see.  

French Braid--#18 finished

This is a book by Anne Tyler, I have read a couple other of her books and enjoyed them.  This one was a different sort.  About a family starting in the '50s I guess and going through to today's time.  It only hits in snippets of time or happenings with the family so you have to sort of guess/figure out what was going on in between.  The family had issues but never really went into those issues.  Made it a different sort of read.  Hard to like the characters and get into what they were doing with their life the way it was written.  Not a bad read but just seems like too much was missing to make it a story I would have cared about.

There are 10 WL for this book so I will post & mail off at some point.

Hail Mary--#17 finished

The rest of the title is: The Rise and Fall of the National Women's Football League.  This is a league that I have to admit that I had never heard of before reading this book.  It talked about the history of women's football leading up to a sort of league in late '60s and then in to the formation of this league--NWFL.  Teams in Toledo, Cleveland, Detroit and that area, then teams in OK, Dallas area and then teams around LA.  Not sure about calling it a professional league, sounds almost semi-pro in that little pay and few people watching it.  It did get some coverage in a women's sport magazine that Billie Jean King started but otherwise seems like mostly out of the major news.  The writers did a nice job of interviewing and getting stories on the league and players from 40-50 years ago.  Interesting read of again something I hadn't heard about before.

I have already posted this book on PBS, only copy in system and has not been requested.  Who knows if it will move or not but there if someone else can find it.

This is What America Looks Like--#16 finished

 The rest of the title: My Journey From Refugee to Congresswoman.  This is a memoir by Ilhan Omar, one of the so called Squad in Congress.  Far left liberal women in Congress.  A good read about where she comes from & her struggles to get where she is today.  She & her family were forced from their home in Somali when she was 8 and were lucky to get to a refugee camp in Kenya.  They were there for 4 years struggling to survive until they received refugee status & able to come to the US.  Her struggles in school, struggles with their community and as she got older the patriarchal part of the community too.  Her struggles with love life & raising a family, she truly had to juggle a lot to keep going to get her where she is today.  Even if you don't agree with her politics, she is a true American success story and shows how our country is a great country.  A great country even if not everything about our country is great.  I enjoyed this read.

There is 1 WL for this book in PBS so plan to post & mail off hopefully soon.  Too much bad weather--cold and snow--to do so right now though. 

The Fourth Protocol--#15 finished

This is a Frederick Forsyth book written in the mid 1980s.  Forsyth is one of those writers I enjoyed when I first started reading back in junior high time--Day of the Jackal and Dogs of War were 2 I remember reading and being enthralled.  Also didn't know we had Peacock until around Christmas so watched the first season of Day of the Jackal and really liked it too.  This book is about the inner workings & an investigation about an internal spy in England along with what was going on in USSR to work to cause a major disruption in England and maybe turn them over to far left liberals starting them toward communism.  A very good read and interesting with how things turn on little things.  The details in his books are sometimes amazing to think about--especially in how things are investigated.  Really enjoyed the book.

There are already like 10 copies in PBS so I will not be posting it.  While I enjoyed it, the book is not a keeper for me.  I will look to donate it away.

Lord of the Pies--#14 finished

 This is the 2nd book in that short mystery series about an American chef in Kensington Palace.  As I think I mentioned in the other review, I don't usually read these types of books but this one I had gotten from my mom and figured why not.  It is a sort of cutesy quick read about that American chef that helps try to solve 2 murders that occurred where she was sort of involved.  Some investigation, some romance and worries about her job pushed the story along.  A nice kind of quick read.

I posted it & the 1st in series at same time.  This one has already been requested but they didn't need the first book, oh well.  Will get it mailed off today or tomorrow.

After All--#13 finished

 This is Mary Tyler Moore's memoir of her life.  I remember watching her show--The Mary Tyler Moore show, I guess this was on repeats when I saw it.  I never saw the Dick Van Dyke show but from a few clips, seems like a funny 1960s kind of show.  I didn't know really anything about her personal life--3 marriages, her son's early death but a gun accident while he was holding the gun, her younger sister dying of a drug overdose, really a lot of tragedies in her life.  Still her book is a mostly positive book on life.  I had to wikipedia her and she has passed away in 2017, this book was written in 1995.  She had several health issues so her career was mostly over by the time of this book.  An interesting read and an interesting time in TV as well.

There is 1 copy of PBS and I will go ahead and post this one as well.  Not sure if it will move or not but could I guess.

American War--#12 finished

 This is a futuristic novel about a family in Louisiana during a 2nd American civil war.  The time is 2070s and on.  It isn't spelled out exactly what happened but temperatures have risen and sounds like icecaps have melted, large areas of the coasts are now under water.  The south is Georgia, Alabama & Mississippi with South Carolina in quarantine from a chemical attack.  Mexico has taken large parts of the southwest and what is left is the north.  The new capital is Columbus, OH and for the south it is Atlanta.  The story follows a girl, Sarat, and her family forced into a refugee center that is eventually overrun by the north and a massacre happens.  She survives and becomes a rogue fighter for the south.  A really interesting book with a lot of makes you think scenarios.

There are 4 WL for this book on PBS so will probably post & send off at some point. 

So You Want to Talk About Race--#11 finished

 An interesting read about race and issues in America.  White privilege, white supremacy, police issues, etc--a lot of topics about race and the many issues here.  It is informative and certainly makes you think.  Reading this while DJT was being sworn in again as our president and the craziness that has started since then, this was just a reminder of how far we still have to go in this country.  This is not to say our country is a great country--I believe it is but there are many areas to improve and race is certainly one of them.  

It shows 8 WL for this book on PBS but this might be one to re-read or maybe hand off to one of my kids so is a keeper at this point. 

Burr--#10 finished

 This is Gore Vidal's historical fiction of Aaron Burr.  A pretty good and interesting read, I just wondered throughout how much was real and the afterward kind of goes over that.  An interesting life and interesting person.  He really doesn't like Thomas Jefferson and sounds like the feelings were mutual.  The book really brings out a division in the new USA of Virginians vs almost everyone else.  The rest of the south sort of siding with Virginia while many others were against them.  Interesting in that I hadn't heard this before--not sure if Vidal sort of made this up or if it was a real thing.  Of course slavery would be part of this north south issue as well.  This is a long read and at many times hard to fight through but was still good read with an interesting perspective on the time.

I had a day of jury duty on Jan 2nd and needed a paperback that I could easily carry or stuff in pocket and this is the one I chose.  Wish at time I had picked something smaller/shorter in pages but now glad that I did read this book--it had been on my shelf for more than a few years.

It is an older paperback and I think there is 1 copy in system for this edition but probably more in other editions.  I will not bother in putting on PBS, this one will go in my donate away pile.