When Skateboards Will Be Free--#9 finished

This is a memoir by Said Sayrafiezadeh, he has a Jewish American mom and an Iranian father but both were socialists if not communists.  His dad left him at around 4 I think and so did his older brother & sister--they went to stay with the dad.  Said was left with his mother and they lived in poverty in the 1970s.  Eventually they moved to Pittsburgh and while in junior high the Iran hostage crisis happened.  His dad was then in Iran and his mother was supporting Iran in their overthrow of the Shah and the imperialist powers--US included.  He voiced this opinion at school and basically lost his friends.  The book is written between talking about growing up and what he was doing at time he was writing book.  Sounds like still a lot of socialist ideas are supported but also doesn't sound all that political either.  His life was/is a struggle but sounds like has gotten better, by end of book is dating and planning future with his girlfriend.  Just can see in pages where the ideas pushed on him made his life very difficult.

There are no copies on PBS but this copy isn't stained by is does have yellow spots on majority of pages.  I got it from PBS but worry about posting & someone not accepting it.  Not sure if will post or not yet.

D is for Deadbeat--#8 finished

This was next on my re-reading of the Kinsey Milhone mysteries.  Things always come together at end which is nice.  Enough bad guys to kind of make you wonder about the kind of low life people in your neighborhood but hopefully not as much crime going on as happening for Kinsey.  A drunk driver that killed 5 people is just out of jail and hires Kinsey to deliver a cashier check to a 15 year old boy--the boy that lost his family in the accident.  The guy is soon found dead and there starts the investigation.  Good quick read.

This series is on my keeper shelf so this book will go back there.  Will pull next one when I am looking for another quick read.

Midnight Black--#7 finished

This is the next in the Gray Man series.  It is a really good series and is staying timely as well with the action being in Russia and Ukraine.  The Gray Man, Court, is trying to get into Russia with a crazy attempt to rescue the woman he loves.  He comes to find out she has not been executed but is instead located in a prison in Russia, the same woman's prison where the wife of a dissident is also located.  The dissident that ran for president of Russian against the Putin in the story is in prison 10-15 miles away.  With help from US, a band of ex-Russian fighters and Ukrainians a plan is formed to invade Russia on this rescue.  Court inside Russia with some fighters there, all work together to free hostages and make it back out.  Lots of good details and fighting.  Story will continue too, interesting to see where could be going next.

There are 18 WL for this book on PBS so it will go onto my shelf to post at some point.  Still have too many credits so not posting anything right now.  Did get a request for a book on shelf so mailing that one off in next day or so.

Exile on Main St--#6 finished

The rest of the title: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones.  The Rolling Stones just left England for tax reasons, I guess people that own their songs, etc haven't been paying taxes & now the band owes them--maybe not too sure about that.  Keith Richards has rented a mansion in south France and rest of band gets places nearby.  Not as much in the book about the making of this album, sounds like some songs came from earlier sessions but didn't make the earlier records.  A lot of talk about the people and going ons at the mansion--the drug use, crazy happenings, crazy hours, etc.  Just a different time with the end of the '60s and many many people around them all becoming addicts too.  I thought I would enjoy this book more since I really like this album but was just okay.  Still a good dive into what was happening back then.

There are no copies in PBS system but this will go as a keeper with some other Rolling Stones books I have. 

The Angel of Rome and Other Stories--#5 finished

A really good short story book by Jess Walter.  I haven't read anything by him before but will have to look for more of his stuff.  A lot of fun stories here, the title story about a college student stuck at home that his mom finds a way to get him to Rome to study Latin and while there bumps into a movie set & meets an American actor and fun just continues.  Some of the stories are like this more light-hearted but with a good story and others more serious.  Like I said just a really good short story book.

There are 7 WL for this book on PBS but since have plenty of credits & few books getting sent to me, no hurry to send off and might just put on a keeper shelf anyway.

Terrorist--#4 finished

I hadn't read a John Updike book in a long while and this is one had for a couple years on my shelf so figured now was the time.  Written in 2006 so after 9/11 and while into the wars in the Middle East.  A serious high school student being raised by his single mother and Irish nurse after his father left when he was very young.  His father was Egyptian and a Muslim and this drew him to a mosque when he was 11.  The inman there helped him study and from these studies came to embrace Islam and reject the western world, especially the consumerism of the US.  A high school guidance counselor encourages him to go to college and continue his education but he has already decided to become a truck driver from advice from the inman.  The inman sets up him with a job that a few months into it is going to trigger a terrorist bombing with him as suicide driver.  The guidance counselor after cheating on his wife with the boy's mother, hears about a possible attack and tracks down the boy as he is driving the truck.  In the end he talks him out of the attack.  The ending seemed a little quick and unlikely but overall the writing was very good, good characters and descriptions.  A good read overall.

There are already 8 copies of this book on PBS and a few more as paperbacks.  I will not add to that.  I will put in the give away pile I have and hope someone else can enjoy it.

Molly Brown--#3 finished

This is the Titanic famous Molly Brown, even though she was probably never called Molly until after her death--Margaret or maybe Maggie.  The rest of the title: Unraveling the Myth.  This is really an amazing book, the amount of research that it had to take to get the details of Margaret Brown's life is astounding.  Really amazing what she is most famous for her actions on the Titanic but really more the myth of her actions then are just a small, small part to the person she was.  Growing up in Hannibal, MO and moving to Colorado at first Leadville and then once her husband strikes riches to Denver.  Probably because she grew up poor to middle class--however that define in the late 1800s, she did not forget about the poor and working class people.  She helped the miners in CO both the mines she was part owner of as well as union miners fighting for better everything later.  She helped the Catholic church with fundraising, she helped orphans and was eventually a big time supporter of women's suffrage.  She also was as a woman an individual that had to deal with separation from her husband--he had become a different person in mind after a stroke but she would not divorce him.  As a woman at that time she traveled alone or in a group all around the world, she took her children to Europe and put them in boarding schools there or on east coast.  She lived as part of the moneyed Gilded Age in Newport, RI with the other famous families of that time.  A really remarkable person for the time.

My copy of this book is water damaged and has stains on pages, just a bad copy.  I cannot put on PBS but might be a keeper at least for now.  It also has small font which made reading this that much tougher especially at times it seems the stories repeated themselves so it was a long read but info was very interesting.