Book Nook Cafe discussion

Share with us what you read in July 2016!


Please provide:

~ A GoodReads link
~ A few sentences telling us how you felt about the book.
~ How would you rate the book

Here are my July reads:

Trespassing Across America: One Man's Epic, Never-Done-Before (and Sort of Illegal) Hike Across the Heartland BY Ken Ilgunas
Non fiction
Rate: 4/5
The author's trek along the Keystone XL pipeline. (Canada to Texas). I enjoy this book quite a bit. So much so that I put his other book, Walden on Wheels: On the Open Road from Debt to Freedom on my TBR list.

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Fiction
Rate: 3/5
Well done. The novel is a roman à clef. It made me want to read a nonfiction book about Hemingway. Just today there was an article in the newspaper by Mariel Hemingway, who is the youngest daughter of Ernest Hemingway's son Jack.
With 7 suicides in her family, Mariel Hemingway declares war on depression
http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifesty...

Go Set a Watchman BY Harper Lee
Fiction
Rate: 2/5
This is the first draft of To Kill a Mockingbird. The publisher rejected it. The book was totally reworked and became Mockingbird. This first attempt reads like a first draft. It's a bit disjointed and doesn't flow well. It take the first 100 pages for the story to even begin. I don't know if the author wanted this published. If not, I think her estate did her a disservice.

What were you all reading in July ?

I also thought that Watchman read like a draft. I'm glad I read it but had it not been published I wouldn't have missed it either.
Hemingway is also on my TBR list. I've got a hate-like relationship with his work and have hopes that at least some of his other works will be something I enjoy. I'm also interested in Hemingway, the man. What made this man tick?? :D

I had a good reading month in July:

My Brilliant Friend (4-star)
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I liked the complex nature of Elena and Lila's relationship, even if I didn't understand the attraction at times. Friendship is complicated.
The community surrounding these two friends is lively and volatile. The European feel of a community comes through with the gossip, the leaning out the windows, the knowing of everyone's business. It was delightful and entertaining.
NOTE: this is a 4 volume series. From the first few pages of this book, it's clear that one will need to read all 4 volumes. This book takes the girls up to age 16.

Six Records of a Floating Life (5-star)
Shen Fu writes as if he's talking with a friend. He was kind, gentle, artistic, observant and loving to his wife. He was happy and content in Life. His life was full of friends and cheer.
His writing is intimate and personal. I felt like I was with him in his journey. His wife, Yun, was interesting and complex. The two loved each other throughout their time together, which doesn't mean that life was monogamous. Shen Fu was a player and Yun had her moments as well.

The Buried Giant (3-star....but I wonder if I was too hard on it)
This is a strange book. There's no excitement or thrilling moments. There's the everyday. Even the fight scenes seem lackluster; the resolutions unimpressive. But Ishiguro moves Axl and Beatrice to the end of the book and we will remember them.
This is a bold story. I'm not sure I "got" it but I'll be thinking about it.

Eating Dirt (3-star)
This is an interesting look at the life of a tree planter and the botany of trees & their environment, nature and our part in all of this.

Mercy Among the Children (4-star)
Many themes throughout this book: strength vs pacifism, poverty/lack of voice vs privilege/voice, good vs evil (of course), truth vs lies and choices.
There's alcoholism, abuse, destitution, vileness of people (the town's people are all basically selfish, mean, greedy), martyrs, rage and so much more. It's about facing your beliefs and living with them, the good & bad of this choice.....and who it may hurt or help. It's a story of family, father & sons and community.

Eleanor Rigby (4-star)
In the song, Eleanor Rigby and Father MacKenzie are lonely and so caught up in their own sorrows that they don't see the lives around them or reach out to others; they see only their own issues. Is this the way it has to be with loneliness?
This story is warm and told with humor and reality. Liz Dunn is lonely. She admits it and waits for death. She sees no other way through life. She's short, overweight, plain, has no friends.....what does she have to offer the world? .....and then things start to happen.
I really like Douglas Coupland's writing.

Petra wrote: "Hemingway is also on my TBR list. I've got a hate-like relationship with his work and have hopes that at least some of his other works will be something I enjoy. I'm also interested in Hemingway, the man. What made this man tick?? :D

My next Hemingway, will be A Moveable Feast. It's on my TBR list but who knows when I will get to it.

As to a bio of the family, if anyone knows of a good one that is around 300 pages please let me know.
One of the men in my library book group said he read a few. I have to ask him next time we meet if he recalls any titles and recommends any.

It was interesting in The Sun Also Rises one of the main characters is a women who exhibit male traits. (hair, language etc.) The fellow in my book group then mentioned that Hemingway's son, Gregory, dressed as a women.

Petra wrote: "I had a good reading month in July:

My Brilliant Friend (4-star)
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I liked the complex nature of Elena and Lila's relationship, even if I didn't under..."

I have it on my TBR list. Though the thought of 4 fictions books for me is a bit off putting. Would you say the first book is contained enough to stand alone ?

Alias Reader wrote: "Would you say the first book is contained enough to stand alone ? ..."

Alias, as a stand alone it's a good story of childhood. The story ends when the girls are 16. As a stand alone, it's more of a coming of age story with no conclusions. It's still enjoyable, though.
There's a prologue that gives away that the full story comes around to old age, so in that sense, this one book is not the full story of the friendship between these two girls.

Thanks, Petra !

Sector 12 and the Art of Dying by Joseph Kainz. This was a fun surprise. It's your basic Space Marine science fiction : out past The Border and in The Frontier, humanity is kept safe by Marines and Rangers. Marines are well-funded mecha-warrior types who arrive by the hundreds in drop-ships, Rangers are incognito loners who live off the land and keep an eye out for trouble. This story is told by a Ranger, and it's the unorthodox methods he uses to keep the peace stay alive that make the book succeed. Some of the most fun I've had reading science fiction in awhile Four stars.

The Best of Murray Leinster by Murray Leinster. Some good ol' golden age (silver? I can never keep those straight) pulp sci-fi. This is your typically awful 50s writing, with lantern-jawed former quarterbacks saving buxom blondes in distress. Still, the core ideas behind many of the stories makes it a bit of fun. One of the stories, "A Logic Named Joe", is this year's candidate for Neglected Science Fiction Story That Predicted The Modern Internet, and of course it does nothing of the sort. Just a variation of the Monkey's Paw story, using electronic relays and databanks instead of old gypsies. Three gold (or is it silver?) stars.

Doctor Faustus: The Life Of The German Composer Adrian Leverkuhn As Told By A Friend by Thomas Mann. This novel provided much entertainment around the household due to the glacial pace at which I read it, and the groans I inadvertently emitted upon picking it up each evening. At its core, this is a very powerful and personal novel by Mann: from self-imposed exile in Pacific Palisades, CA (must be the third time this summer I've encountered that location in print), Mann decides to seize the Faustus myth back from the Nazis (who appropriated it from Goethe, who himself declared he was "seizing it back" from England), and write a Germanic lament for the path the country took following its defeat in World War I. Too bad it's so, so boring. Three (iron, heh) stars.

The Mystery of Hamlet, King of Denmark by Percy Mackaye. I finally got around to reading this four-play prequel to Hamlet that I picked up at the Strand a year or so ago. This really should not have been written; having been written, it should not have been published. The playwright adds nothing which is not already in Shakespeare's Hamlet, merely filling in the blanks (how did Yorick die? where is Laertes' mother? how did Gertrude and Claudius hook up?) with a dilettante's understanding of the characters. Spoiler: Claudius is responsible for everything because he is the bad guy. Deducting one star for each play in the tetralogy which shouldn't have been written, that leaves us with 2 stars.

Now and on Earth by Jim Thompson. I enjoy Thompson's pulp writing, and thought I'd see what he had to offer in the semi-autobiographical front. Not much, it turns out: the narrator complains about how hard it is to write when working at a factory and living with his wife and three kids (and sister and mother, and potentially his other sister and his father). He's not a particularly great guy, either; suspicious and petty and antisocial. But people seem to like him, so things tend to go his way, and he can't stop complaining about it. Reminds me of a few people I know in NYC. Three stars.

Mkfs, have to laugh at your Mann experience. :)

Re Jim Thompson....I've enjoyed a couple of his. If "enjoy" is the right word. Hah. I've just give up on Pop. 1280, but enjoyed its other incarnation, sorry the name escapes me, a lot.
(On the iPad, can't change screens...will come back with other title).

Mkfs, have to laugh at your Mann experience. :)

Re Jim Thompson, I've enjoyed (if "enjoy" is the right word) his other books. But I've just given up on Pop. 1280 even though I liked its other incarnation, The Killer Inside Me. The main characters voice just grated on my last nerve.

Cateline wrote: "But I've just given up on Pop. 1280 even though I liked its other incarnation, The Killer Inside Me."

I liked the Killer Inside Me. Even liked the movie, which I had expected to be pretty awful. Never got around to Pop. 1280 -- I find Thompson is best in small, infrequent doses.

Beautiful Ruins - 3/5
This took me forever to read due to the cross country move, but the time/location jumping between chapters didn't help either. Overall I found the story premise compelling but wished it had been executed differently.

Emma, i hope you like your new home. And, i really hope the area has a sterling library!

Petra wrote: "I also thought that Watchman read like a draft. I'm glad I read it but had it not been published I wouldn't have missed it either. ..."

That's a great way to put it, Petra. She had a way in describing the southern ways but i could have done without the book just as nicely, as Eudora Welty does it even better.

I know Alias has heard my complaints about Hemingway previously but i just want to add that i think his female characters a single dimensions, which scribbles all over the story for me.

I was pleased to see that i read more than two books last month, although not by much. Because i never tire of mentioning my daughter's book, it's neat that i can share it as my first completed book in July.

Face Value: The Hidden Ways Beauty Shapes Women's Lives by Autumn Whitefield-Madrano. Speaking honestly, personal beauty has never interested me much. I think this is well written (of course i do, right?!) and if one has wondered about her feminist ideals vs. wearing makeup, this would be a good book to read.

The Grapes of Math: How Life Reflects Numbers and Numbers Reflect Life by Alex Bellos. I began this book in March, i think, so was glad to read it. Bellos writes very well & clearly about mathematics. Better yet, he encourages readers to keep moving if they find math issues too difficult to follow. I did so & learned much. Sometimes my problem with the math concept was cleared up by doing so. He knew that, right?

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. This book, which for some reason i thought was going to be a mystery, turned out to me more science fiction. And fascinating. There are two more books in the series. And in a tip of the hat to synchronicity, some of the math/physics issues mentioned in the Bellos book (above) were mentioned in this novel. Neat. (And a tip of the hat to translator Ken Liu, who is also a sci-fi author. This couldn't have been easy to put into USA English.)

Walking Through Walls by Philip Smith. This memoir is mostly about the author's father, Lewis Smith, who was an interior decorator in the early 60s or so, and later began psychically healing people. I felt it was good in explaining some aspects, such as spiritual guides (dead people, i hasten to add, in case you are thinking nuns) who helped with the work and the constant work Lew did to improve his work. I am not sold on all that was written but it is a good introduction to the topic.

Sink Trap by Christy Evans. Set in the Portland, OR, area, i thought this mystery about a woman who lost her cyber security business in San Francisco & returned to OR would be good. She is now a plumber's apprentice, which is different. The mystery was okay but i wasn't particularly drawn to the characters & won't read any more.

Mkfs wrote: "Sector 12 and the Art of Dying by Joseph Kainz. This was a fun surprise. It's your basic Space Marine science fiction : out past The Border and in The Frontier, humanity is kept saf..."

This one looks intriguing :)

madrano wrote: "Emma, i hope you like your new home. And, i really hope the area has a sterling library!"

Thanks, Deb! The library is small but seems to have a decent selection of titles (at least a solid number of things on my TBR for now anyway). The kids section is huge, though we borrowed Grizzly Dad which didn't seem that scary but triggered a serious phobia of bears for my 3yo. So it goes. ;)

I had started The Three-Body Problem awhile back but had to return it to the library. I had barely started it, so no biggie, but was intrigued by the little I read. One day, I'll pick it up again. Thanks for the reminder and encouragement.

I have The Three-Body Problem high on my TBR stack.

Petra wrote: "I had started The Three-Body Problem awhile back but had to return it to the library. I had barely started it, so no biggie, but was intrigued by the little I read. One day, I'll pi..."

I've just finished reading this book :) I'm still mulling it over, deciding what to say in my review.
I've already requested the second book in the series from the library.

Mkfs wrote: " This novel provided much entertainment around the household due to the glacial pace at which I read it, and the groans I inadvertently emitted upon picking it up each evening.

LOL

Nice reviews ! Thanks for sharing.

Emma wrote: "Beautiful Ruins - 3/5
This took me forever to read due to the cross country move, but the time/location jumping between chapters didn't help either. Overall I found the story premis..."

Sorry to see you didn't like this more. :(
I purchased it for my Kindle but haven't read it yet. I bought it because I like books that take place in Italy.

All the best in your new home !

madrano wrote:
Face Value: The Hidden Ways Beauty Shapes Women's Lives by Autumn Whitefield-Madrano. Speaking honestly, personal beauty has never interested me much. I think this is well written (of course i do, right?!) and if one has wondered about her feminist ideals vs. wearing makeup, this would be a good book to read..."

Congratulations to you and Autumn ! Well done.

Emma wrote: The kids section is huge, though we borrowed Grizzly Dad which didn't seem that scary but triggered a serious phobia of bears for my 3yo. So it goes. ;)
.."

Poor little guy. :(

Night Film by Marisha Pessl 2.5/5

An investigative reporter obsessed with a certain film director whose reputation is beyond strange. A daughter that commits suicide. The reporters obsession leads him down a dubious path that could certainly lead to his own destruction, not to mention the impressionable young people that latch onto him during his quest.

Does the director dabble in Black Magic? What is causing the reporters obsession with him? Who can the reporter trust?

Pessl seems not to be able to make up her mind which tack she wishes to take with the story. Black magic? Obsessive behavior? Or, can all the strange occurrences be explained by ordinary means? The ending left me dissatisfied, to say the least. I 'm rating it the three out of five stars because the story did pull me along, in spite of stalling out about a third of the way through.

There were way too many utterly, unbelievably stupid actions taken by the reporter, taking chances with both his life and the lives of those that worked with him. Chances that a man with his supposed life experience would never take.

Make that a 2.5/5 rating after all.

The Time Traders by Andre Norton 5/5

I love this book! Written in 1958, it still holds up, for the most part. This was a time of the "Cold War" and this novel makes full use of it.

Suddenly, the "other side" has advances that ordinarily would take decades to develop.....how is it happening? "Our side" uses what is evidently a common method of time travel to track down the source of the advances. But the average citizen is too civilized, too laid back, to be successful at infiltration. So the powers that be sign up men that are proven adventurers, a certain type of criminal, that are up to the job.

I read it on kindle, in an anthology called The Science Fiction Novel Super Pack No 1. It contains 10 full novels, by authors that have, between them, won 13 Hugo awards and 4 Nebula awards, 6 of them have been named Grand Masters by the Science Fiction Writers of America.

Not my first reading, by a long shot. Over the last 50 years, perhaps my 5th time. :)

The Glass Room by Ann Cleeves 4/5

I flew right through Ann Cleeves, The Glass Room. It's part of her DI Vera Stanhope series, and we've watched several seasons of Vera through Acorn.

A murder takes place at a writers workshop in a fairly deserted area of North England. How are all these people connected? Then another murder takes place, and the scene is obviously staged. Vera is her usual superficially ditsy self, but underneath her detectives brain is working overtime.

A well done whodunit that is somewhat complicated, but not impossible to figure out near the end. I think Cleeves hits the right note allowing the reader some room to figure out who the killer is, if they've paid attention to all the clues dropped. Very enjoyable fast read.

The personal relationships make this series special, much is alluded to and I'm sure breadcrumbs are dropped throughout the series.
Recommended.

The Joy of Leaving Your Sh*t All Over the Place: The Art of Being Messy by Jennifer McCartney 2/5

I love the idea behind the book, and the author does have a wicked sense of humor. And, since I'm a fairly messy person to begin with I appreciate much of what her tongue-in-cheek message imparts.

I'm not going to get on my soap box, and goodness knows I can cuss like the proverbial sailor when driving. But, really, to have f*ck every other word (almost literally) is just too much. If not for the proliferation of obscene language, I'd have rated it higher, 'cause I laughed throughout a lot of the book.

Willnot by James Sallis 5+/5

It's been awhile since I've read any of Sallis's books. /sigh/ Silly me. There is a wonderful, mellow flow to his writing that, in a way, reminds me of Nabokov. Yes, but no. Sallis has a dead-center way of looking at life, and describing it in an off hand manner whose profundity just suddenly pops you in the back of the head. The reader is forced to go back and reread the last page or two just for the immediate pleasure of reliving those thoughts.

The plot is deceptively simple. Small town, hometown doctor, several bodies found in the woods, mysterious comings and goings all assemble and then.....disassemble. Readers that need definite resolutions to their stories will be somewhat disappointed, I believe. But, for the pleasure of the journey, it's totally worth it.

Highly recommended.

The Killer Is Dying by James Sallis 5+/5

The story, such as it is, is told by three......no really four narrators. The killer himself, a young boy that is living by his wits, and two policeman with their own problems. How Sallis intertwines those lives is fascinating. With barely an actual meeting between them, physically, they combine to tell a story of identity, love, and letting go. As always, Sallis's prose is magnificently descriptive, and evocative of time and place.

Highly recommended.

The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North 4/5

How would you live if within 15 or 20 minutes of leaving a person they had absolutely no memory of you? Not your face, not the conversation you had, not the love you made. When Hope Arden reached her teen years, slowly but inexorably her family began to forget her. She learned to live by her wits, using the forgetfulness of others to cover her criminal activities. North weaves a complex story of memory, identity, and the search for perfection to an exciting finale.

I'd have given 5 stars if not for what I considered over-preparation of the characters motivations. I bogged down in the middle for a while. However the last third really made up for that slowness, and sped to an exciting and fulfilling conclusion.

Recommended.


The Two Faces of January by Patricia Highsmith 3/5

In a rather seedy hotel in Athens, a man witnesses someone disposing of what appears to be a dead body, and decides to help him. Said witness then falls in with the killer and his wife, helping them in various ways. Highsmith weaves a tale of suspicion and murder whose culmination you may not guess.

I loved Highsmith's Ripley series, all five of them. Well mostly, one or two were a bit weaker than the others. But, all in all, great storytelling. And, in spite of the er....moral character (or lack thereof) of Ripley, he was interesting. I think that is the crux of my dissatisfaction with this novel. The main protag is simply not fully formed, so therefore not completely there.

Alias Reader wrote: "Emma wrote: "Beautiful Ruins - 3/5
This took me forever to read due to the cross country move, but the time/location jumping between chapters didn't help either. Overall I found the..."

Thanks Alias!

You may have better luck with it. I'm not sure it's the kind of book well suited to small bursts of reading.

I have to admit that, much as i liked 3-Body Problem, i'm not rushing to read the next two in the series. I suppose i should have mentioned that the story isn't chronological, as far as the Chinese sections go.

Cateline, what a good reading month you had. I'm glad you shared so much, as it helped me decide if i would be willing to commit to it. My husband really likes Highsmith's Ripley series, too. Can't believe i haven't read even one.

Cateline, thanks for your reading update. A couple of the books look really good...especially the Sallis and North stories.

Cateline wrote: "Night Film by Marisha Pessl 2.5/5

An investigative reporter obsessed with a certain film director whose reputation is beyond strange. A daughter that commits suicide...."

Really nice month and reviews, Cateline !

Madrano, FYI there are two Ripley movies. Both good, but I have to admit that John Malcovich playing him in the second one was more my cuppa.
Plus in the first one, the ending was altered in a way that truly changed everything. I know films change things, but this was integral to the character, and should NOT have been done.

And thanks all, I wondered if I was putting too much, but those were my reviews at the time, and difficult for me to reduce.

Cateline, i think we saw both but i'm not sure. I'll ask DH when he returns. If we haven't, count on us watching it soon.

Cateline wrote: And thanks all, I wondered if I was putting too much, but those were my reviews at the time, and difficult for me to reduce."

Your reviews are absolutely perfect. Don't change a comma ! :)

Could somebody tell me how to add the Goodreads book link in my comments please?

Alias Reader wrote: "Cateline wrote: And thanks all, I wondered if I was putting too much, but those were my reviews at the time, and difficult for me to reduce."

Your reviews are absolutely perfect. Don't change a co..."

:). Thanks so much!
madrano wrote: "Cateline, i think we saw both but i'm not sure. I'll ask DH when he returns. If we haven't, count on us watching it soon."

Even though we'd watched both Ripley films, my curiosity got the better of me. :). We watched both last night. Wow! Interesting, especially together.

J.T. wrote: "Could somebody tell me how to add the Goodreads book link in my comments please?"

You'll see at the top of your reply box add book/author. Click in that, and then choose book or author and type in the name you want to link.

Cateline, i like that you watched them all in one night. After DH & i discussed it, i realized the Malcovich version seemed darker to me. At some point in his career he "turned dark" on me & it's tougher to watch him. I know as an actor he probably much prefers the characters he plays now but i was so fond of him after Killing Fields and Places in the Heart.

Cateline wrote: "J.T. wrote: "Could somebody tell me how to add the Goodreads book link in my comments please?"

You'll see at the top of your reply box add book/author. Click in that, and then choose book or autho..."

Thank you, ma'am. I found it on the computer, but I was trying to find out how to do it on my iPhone. At any rate, thank you again!

Just finished upDesolation Island. Great series, and the author has kept the quality up and improved throughout the series. The book follows the captain of a British naval ship into the waters of the Antarctic while transporting a group of prisoners and trying to evade a Dutch ship larger than herself. Again great series if you like action and naval action of any kind.

Thanks for sharing with us, JT !

J.T., Patrick O'Brian's books have been praised for their consistency. Imagine the research involved.

Alias Reader wrote: "Thanks for sharing with us, JT !"

Absolutely. Thanks for listening. :)

madrano wrote: "J.T., Patrick O'Brian's books have been praised for their consistency. Imagine the research involved."

I think about that often. I write children's fiction and try to do a fair bit of research while I write, but Mr. O'Brian must have either been an extremely experienced sailor, or done an amount of research I can't even fathom!

Agreed. This is what makes his work so appreciated, but i imagine it also helped quench his own thirst for things nautical.

My reads for July:

NONFICTION:

The Fall of Pan Am 103 by Steven Emerson and Brian Duffy: A detailed look at the investigation into the bombing of Pan Am 103 in December 1988, and how meticulous investigators picked through the wreckage and figured out who was responsible. I thought it was fascinating. 3 stars

My Lucky Life in and Out of Show Business by Dick Van Dyke: A memoir by the lovely and talented actor. It was an easy, nice and pleasant read. And that's both a compliment and a criticism. I felt as though Van Dyke glossed over and sanitized some of the more difficult--and therefore, interesting--stories from his life. 3 stars

FICTION:

The Brothers K by David James Duncan: This 736-page book had been sitting on my bookshelf for at least 13 years. I'd picked it up and put it down more times than I can count in that time. Finally decided to turn to page 1 and start it. And I'm so glad I did. This is a novel about a family named Chance as they moved through life in the 1960s in Camas, Washington. I can't even accurately summarize the plot -- it's got baseball, and religion, and the Vietnam War, and draft dodging, and India, and college campuses, and beautifully written sentences that stopped me in my tracks and enlarged my heart ...basically, it's just a really good book and I don't know what took me so long to read it. 4 stars

The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian: A bachelor party goes horribly wrong when the two young women hired to provide the “entertainment” kill their Russian bodyguards and flee. And that’s just the beginning of the book. A sobering novel about sex trafficking and decisions made and the consequences that follow. This book kept my attention throughout with a suitable and realistic ending. 3 stars

Hidden by Karen E. Olson: A mystery thriller set on Block Island, a tiny, 7 mile-long by 3-mile-wide property off the coast of Rhode Island. It's a favorite vacation spot for my family, so the setting grabbed me right away. The protagonist is a former computer hacker on the run who has been hiding in plain sight on the island for 15 years -- and then her past catches up with her. I was a bit skeptical about some of the plotlines, but the overall story kept my attention moving to the end. And there is a 2nd and 3rd book to follow this one. 3.5 stars

Accelerated by Bronwen Hruska: Stereotypical chick lit crammed with a heavy-handed, fairly preachy message about how society is overmedicating kids for ADD/ADHD. I don't have a problem with the message itself, but the book isn't particularly well written. 2 stars

It looks as though you had a good reading month. The David James Duncan novel sounds interesting but too long for me, i fear.

Amy wrote:
My Lucky Life in and Out of Show Business by Dick Van Dyke: A memoir by the lovely and talented actor. It was an easy, nice and pleasant read. And that's both a compliment and a criticism. I felt as though Van Dyke glossed over and sanitized some of the more difficult--and therefore, interesting--stories from his life. 3 stars.."

I listened to the audio and enjoyed this one a lot.

If I recall correctly, Van Dyke says at the start of the book if you are looking for a salacious account of things, look elsewhere.

I found it refreshing. He seems like such a nice man.

Very nice reading month, Amy !

Alias Reader wrote: "If I recall correctly, Van Dyke says at the start of the book if you are looking for a salacious account of things, look elsewhere. ..."

I wasn't looking for salacious details. I mean, if I did, I'd pick up an autobiography by one of the Kardashians, not Dick Van Dyke ....lol. I guess I would have liked to see a bit more depth and introspection from a nonagenarian who is looking back over nearly a century of his life. It reads more like a recitation of events --- "first we lived here, and then I had this job, and then we moved over there so I could do this movie..." That's not to say it's a bad read. It just wasn't what I expected.

In July, I read:
The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott (5 stars)
I loved this book a lot! I have always been a huge fan of "Little Women" and also enjoyed "Little Men," so I have been intrigued by Louisa May Alcott for some time. I really enjoyed this fictionalized take, based on biography, of her life and in particular a specific lover and explanation for why she never married. I felt a personal connection to the storyline, and could relate to the issues of independence and expectations of women, which was of course even more of an issue in the 1800s for Lousia May Alcott.

Treasure Island (3 stars)
I enjoyed this book, but had some mixed feelings about it during the reading that in general made it just "ok" for me. I grew up watching the Muppet version of this as a movie as a kid, and absolutely loved that (the Muppets are my absolute FAVORITE), so it was a bit hard at times to not picture Kermit the Frog as Captain Smollet and Tim Curry as Long John Silver while reading this book. I really can't decide if that added to the books enjoyment or not! On the one hand, it was quite entertaining, but on the other, the voice of Kermit the Frog in my head as I'm reading can indeed be a bit distracting. For that matter, some of the detail also does drag on. I don't care much for or know anything really about boats or ships, so all of that description was just more stuff to blah over in the reading, and hurry on to the plot already. For what it's worth, that was intriguing. I particularly liked the issues played out here with Good and Evil, and how we classify people, Long John being of particular interests as example of this.

Firefly Lane (4 stars)
I don't have a great review for this one other than to say I thoroughly enjoyed it! I enjoyed watching the two women's lives and friendships play out, and I loved the way the book was written, so much action and dialogue that I literally could see a movie playing out in my head as I read it, and visual the scenes in which it all took place. I also think the author did a pretty great job with her details of the decades, that it made it all the more real and believable.

I thought I was too late to contribute this time, but I see people are still discussing, so I'll jump in very quickly and give you my July list. I haven't posted a Goodreads review for the last two as yet. I just finished them on vacation. I will be very brief. Thanks to everyone for the great book suggestions.

Pretty good Gabriel Allon mystery about Israeli intelligence. I haven't read one in this series in years, and this one ends in a way that begs for a sequel. OK of its kind. 3 stars

One of the best novels about mental illness and its long-term consequences that I've ever read. Definitely upset me, but 4 stars.

Super feel-good story about cantankerous old man who loses his wife and has to build a new life. What makes it fresh is the fact that Ove is Swedish. It's very funny in spots, very visual, and there are some surprises, too.
4.5 stars

Wonderful tale of Native Americans in the early part of the last century. An alcoholic father abandons his son to be raised by a stranger, disappoints and endangers him, breaks every promise. But when he becomes ill, the abandoned son helps him take his last journey. 4 stars

A small PA town, at the heart of the first oil boom a hundred plus years ago, has been left behind since the oil ran out, and now finds itself with a second chance at wealth when fracking becomes a thing. Of course, everything changes when the exploiters come to town. Pretty good characters and I think realistic plot elements. Also a cautionary tale. 4 stars

Wow. A real old-fashioned saga. I couldn't put it down, though I thought it a little James Michener-ish. It turned out to be one of the most disturbing books I've read in a long time. I don't want to give anything away, but this one also involves resource-management mistakes and Native Americans. This was purely unintentional on my part----I mean reading two such books in a month. 4 stars at least. Probably deserves more.

Michele

Jessica wrote: "In July, I read:
The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott (5 stars)
I loved this book a lot! I have always been a huge fan of "Little Women" and also enjoyed "Little Men," so I have been..."

Looks like you had a winning reading month, Jessica !

Michele wrote: "I thought I was too late to contribute this time, but I see people are still discussing, so I'll jump in very quickly and give you my July list. ..."

It's never too late to post your monthly reads, Michele !
These threads are never deleted. So you can even go back a few months. It's all good !