Not much conversation here but I know most of you are reading more than ever. I took my grandson for our trip to B&N yesterday and we could hardly get in the store, (and no they weren't all in the Cafe), signs that reading is still flourishing. And I do hear that the paper book is now edging out the I readers. That's interesting. I need the tactile effects of a book, that part is important to me too.
There was an entire table labelled Escape Reading. Now that's just what you need when the temps are 101 as they were yesterday, to curl up with a good book in a cool place.
I love Escape Reading in the summer and I don't feel too bad about it because I combine it with "should" reading and then I feel quite virtuous sinking into a good escape book, almost as good as eating. My current one has all my requisites: the Museum of Natural History, NYC, downstairs, the tomb of Senef, long forgotten (written by a person who used to work in that museum) lots of descriptions of the 38 buildings and the long forgotten corridors below, a plan to put that tomb on exhibition and of course a curse and of course the Mummy's Revenge. It's Preston and Childs in their last leg of the Diogenes trilogy, The Book of the Dead. I love their NYC books. (I've actually gotten half way thru this one without a gory lot of graphic description, which is most unusual).. but I expect it's coming. Actually they could really just allude to that like Agatha Christie used to do, and it would be so much better. Horror in the Museum type stuff. It's a paperback but beautifully done with little Egyptian illustrations on the tops of the pages and strange typeface for the Chapter titles. Whenever I see somebody has bound and presented a book with love and thought about the presentation of it, it makes it even more of an experience for me.
Amazon has a new list out called What People Are Really Reading, vs What Publishers Say People Are Buying. It's very interesting.
Camino Road by John Grisham is #2, replacing the last list showing The Gentleman in Moscow in that place. I've got them both and the reviews are out of this world for both, but I've got 2 going at the mo, combining The Book of Death (the museum one) with the wonderful MacArthur Biography, Douglas MacArthur American Warrior by Arthur Herman. I knew NOTHING of Douglas MacArthur or Inchon or the Philippines or anything whatsoever of that war except hearing the "old Soldiers never die....," something about Harry Truman, and seeing the film of MacArthur's landing on the beach. But he keeps coming up in classes of Caesar and it seems everybody EXCEPT me knows a great deal about him, and so this book was recommended to me by a student and it's wonderfully written. I had NO idea of his background, he was actually alive when Geronimo was a threat, and his father and family were posted to that region.... but it's a BIG book, SO I am reading it one chapter at a time (they are short and marvelously interesting). That way I can remember more of it.
Everybody seems to think if you're a certain age you know a lot about XXX or YYY, even IF you were a child when it happened, and so now I hope to fix that. (It would be a wonderful book for somebody interested in that period as a gift, if they are strong enough to lift it.) It reads like a novel, it's very intersting with short chapters.
I've got Camino Road by Grisham and it's about books and stolen manuscripts and looks wonderful, are any of you reading it? I'll start it when I get through with the Horror in the Museum.
A new book (April 2017) everybody is talking about is Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life and Maybe Your World, short little book, "Should be read by every leader in America...a book to inspire your children and grandchildren to become everything that they can." --Wall Street Journal
I saw something on it on TV and it's a little bit different than the other self help books, written by an Admiral and former Navy Seal, and I've ordered it, it looks the perfect stocking stuffer for adults, new graduates and children alike. I recently read something about if you make your bed in the morning you sleep better at night, and apparently it has some psychological effect...isn't that interesting?
I picked up a book on the Must Read By New Authors shelf called The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules by Catharina Sundberg, a Swedish author, called "The funniest book of the year," by Familien Magazine, Norway, about a 79 year old heroine in a retirement center who, fed up with cutbacks in service and mandatory regulations at the retirement center, decides to engage with her friends and stand up for themselves, by taking up white collar crime.. It sounds unlikely but Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin just did it successfully in their movie Going in Style, and it sounds fun. I used to love the Corrine Holt Sawyer books on Camden sur Mer, a retirement home at the sea (based on her own mother's place) and a delightful set of geriatric detectives who solved crime. Now in this new book they are committing it.
And finally, I keep seeing no end of press on the new season of Game of Thrones. I have never seen the TV series or read one of the books. Have any of you read the books or seen the movie, and do you recommend any of ? Is it some kind of Armageddon thing? Or?
It looks like most of the books on the best seller lists are either versions of Harry Potter or shoot em up spies/ thrillers/ types of books.
So, what are YOU reading? OR what's in your TBR stack?
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