The Faithful Spy--#96 finished

 This is the first book in the John Wells series and was kind of fun because I don't think it was written with it being that first book in a series.  An American CIA agent is able to get himself inside al Qaeda before 9/11 but is just a lowly soldier so is not aware of that plan.  After years inside, al Qaeda obviously know that he is an American so trust builds very slow, he is sent back to America on a mission.  Because the CIA no longer trust him because he has been away for so long & rarely checks in and al Qaeda still has their doubts about him too, he doesn't get much info on this attack but in the end is able to stop it.  I have the 2nd book in series too.  I jumped in on the series around 5th or 6th book so have a little catching up to do.

I got the book from PBS but it is a little rough so will not be posting it back on, will keep it for now and maybe donate away at some point.

Rickey & Robinson--#95 finished

 An interesting and good read about Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson.  Talks about Rickey's background and what led him to signing Robinson and Robinson's background leading up to the signing.  Then also about both of their careers and lives from there on.  Not a real in depth look, book is only 228 pages but it gives you a good sense of what was happening.  Also looked at the ends of their lives, some of the struggles they had, especially Jackie with his failing health and not being financially secure.  I am glad I read this, was not something I was really familiar with before.

I will post this on PBS too, there are no copies in system so who knows what will happen.

Life on Mars--#94 finished

 This is a short story collection about living on Mars.  The stories mostly seem to not be about the first settlers but instead after a generation or two, a kind of how is it going thing but told from an individual perspective.  I really enjoyed this book, a lot of really good stories and many that I could see becoming something larger--a book or series even.  There are some really good authors in this short story book.

There are no WL for the book so I will probably post it & see what happens.  I had gotten this book from someone on PBS when looking for that 2nd book to order from them.

The Kingdom of Speech--#93 finished

 I have enjoyed the books I have read by Tom Wolfe and I enjoyed this one as well.  He strikes out at Darwin and evolution when it comes to explaining how language evolved.  Then continues hitting at the Linguistic study and especially Noam Chomsky and his study of language & speech.  The whole study of this at a desk vs out in the field looking for native peoples that were not influenced by others.  This is what a Dr Everett has done with a small tribe in the Amazon and Wolfe feels this shows how wrong Chomsky was.  This is an area I don't study & really know little about but it was an interesting read.  I just skimmed through the wikipedia page on this & seems more critics feel Wolfe got this wrong but that doesn't change it being interesting and something to think about.

There were 3 WL for the book so I went ahead and posted it and should be getting it mailed off in the next few days.

The Last Days of California--#92 finished

 A different sort of story, a family believes the rapture is coming on a certain date that some leader has proclaimed.  The story starts with the family on the road to California for this event.  Their house is in Alabama but making this road trip.  Mom, dad and two teenage girls, one 17 or 18 & just found out she is pregnant and the other 15 that is the narrator of the story.  The older girl is pretty and flirty and doesn't buy into the whole religion thing that mostly her dad is forcing on them.  Her younger sister is the only one that knows of the pregnancy.  Interesting read about their struggles and just the road trip in general.  They don't make it to CA & are instead at a casino hotel in AZ when the rapture was supposed to happen and story ends with them heading back to AL.  Interesting read, characters and story give you something to think about and will probably stick with me for a while.

There are 4 WL for the book so I will probably post & get mailed off sometime soon.

Beyond the Ice Cream Cone--#91 finished

 The rest of the title is, The Whole Scoop on Food at the 1904 World's Fair.  The author looks at the 1904 Worlds Fair in St Louis and the foods that were being sold as well as the different restaurants and food carts they had.  Also talks about a couple of the food demonstrators there and recipes they used.  Being in St Louis you hear about the 1904 Worlds Fair some and this book gave some good information on it.

There is 1 WL for this book so I will probably post it and send off at some point.  This is also another October finished book that just now getting logged in.  Last of the October books.

Misery--#90 finished

 This is an older Stephen King book that I didn't read back in high school when I read a bunch of Stephen King books.  Finally got around to reading it now, I picked up my copy a few years ago and has been on my shelf waiting for me.  It is a good read, actually kind of fun with the main character discussing his writing process while being forced and tortured by his crazy captor.  I have only see parts of the movie but the parts I have seen Kathy Bates plays a very scary captor.  Glad I read it and I enjoyed it.

At this point I am keeping the book, no real reason to post it and send off.  This was an October finished book but just now getting around to logging it in.