How to Mars--#72 finished

A sort of fun book imagining a reality TV show finding a way to get 6 people to Mars and establish a home there.  Chapters with the handbook for what to do there are also thrown in.  The big no no was no sex because of the dynamic with the 6 people and issues that might cause.  Well of course sex happens and a women becomes pregnant and a lot of the book is about the upcoming birth.  Mostly funny, with some strange people and some of their backgrounds and some on how they got picked.  Some weird stuff with floating ghost like people of Mars.  Overall an okay read, by end of it I just wanted to get it over with.

There were no copies on PBS so I have already posted it.  Will see if ever requested now.

Recipe for a Perfect Wife--#71 finished

A different type of story where the suburban house plays a major role.  A newly wed wife in the 1950s and a new wife in the current year are in this house with the chapters flipping between the wives.  Both are in tough kind of marriages, the 1950s a lot more so, but that is not surprising given the time and roles for women.  The current year wife and husband move from small apartment New York to suburbs and the house is newly bought but no updates have been done it sounds like since the 1950s wife passed away as widow just a few years before.  There are also some old recipes in this book as well.  It is a mostly fun and enjoyable read but also hits on tough times as well.

There are 16 WL for this book on PBS so will probably post & mail off at some point.

No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy--#70 finished

The rest of the title: Memoirs of a Working-Class Reader.  The author Mark Hodkinson grew up in northern England in a tough working class area and in school was sent to the working class studies instead of the studies that would lead to college.  He did get into journalism knowing he wanted to be a writer and worked from there.  I picked this book basically because of the title but did find it to be interesting and enjoyable.  Definitely English so some words and phrases I just didn't get.  Talks about his love of books where he has over 3500.  He also later becomes a small publisher and the struggles that entails.  I really liked he wrote about things that were floating in my mind--what is well read and even if given someone is well read they really can't expect to remember something in a book they read years before.  I enjoy reading and do read a lot but would not say I am well read.  I also don't expect myself to remember quotes or anything more than simple remembrances of books I read. 

I got this book from PBS from the multiple order listing--where a member lists books that are on WL but they only want to mail as a group of usually at least 2 or 3.  So I sort of skipped ahead of someone waiting.  There is 1 WL for this book and the author talks about how he buys used books, I think he would like PBS.  I used to try harder to read and then mail back off the books I get from the multiple listing but have been slacking off on that.  This one I will get posted & mailed off though, seems like author would want that too.

"H" is for Homicide--#69 finished

I wasn't planning on jumping into the next book in this series so quickly but I was donating blood and wanted a book along in case there was a wait and this being one of the old mass market paperbacks that fits into my pocket I grabbed it.  Now days later I have finished it.  Like all in this series it was a quick and fun read.  Kinsey gets pulled into an insurance scam gang but at least the police know she was pulled in & they wanted her help.  Action starts in home town Santa Teresa but moves to LA.  A more gritty kind of book that some in this series.  A good quick read.

This stays on my keeper shelf.

Trumpocracy--#68 finished

The rest of the title: The Corruption of the American Republic.  David Frum was a Republican that like many left the party after the election of Donald Trump back in 2016, maybe earlier since some were actively trying to help Hillary then.  This book was published in Jan 2018, so most of 2017 is what he was writing about--not even 1 year after the inauguration.  Things he pointed to and the dominance over the party that Trump was already establishing seems even funnier/pathetic when reading you realize this whole book was before Impeachment #1, Jan 6th, Impeachment #2 and then the investigations and then his re-election.  Just amazing that Trump has kept his position as the main person in the Republican party, everyone in the party & I mean everyone has to kiss his ring or risk being run out of office or positions.  I do worry for our country.

There are no copies in PBS system and no WL for this book either.  I have a bunch of politics books so I figure it will go on that shelf for now.

Whirlaway--#67 finished

This is a book of strange characters doing strange things.  The main character Eddie Plum is in a state psychiatric hospital where he doesn't see himself as belonging but refuses to work to get out either.  After years a new director--that is not qualified, just an actor making it up as he goes--helps him escape and gives him a new license and identity.  He goes back to where he was before and meets up with an old friend that is more screwed up than himself.  Characters are interesting and have to kind of read between lines a bunch to get what is actually going on.  I really enjoyed some of this author's other books/short stories, this one not as much.  Still overall interesting and entertaining.

This one is a keeper for me as all the books by this author, Poe Ballantine, since he lives in NE--way out western NE.  

This Town Sleeps--#66 finished

A really different sort of story.  It is about characters around a Ojibwe reservation in MN.  The main character grew up there and lives outside reservation but only a 1/2 hr away and he is an out gay man.  There is a lot about a relationship with a former high school classmate who is not out.  There is also a 2nd story about a boy that was murdered at 17 in the reservation town and how his spirit is still there first as a wolf and then later as a person.  Some mystical storylines like that that I am not quite sure about but in a native American sense does carry or make sense.  Like I said a little different kind of read.  

I have already posted it on PBS and it is the only copy in system.