Zachary’s Comments (group member since Jan 22, 2019)

Zachary’s comments from the CPL's Book a Week Challenge group.

Hi all, It's been a while since I posted, but I am on schedule to my goal this year, but I set a goal of less than 52 because I have a toddler who is toddler-ing and I have less reading time to myself than normal. I can report that the toddler loves having me read to her and is a fan of peek-a-boo pop-up books and A Very Hungry Caterpillar.

This week I am taking on a graphic novel by Kevin Eastman, creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, called The Last Ronin. I may have fan-boyed out a little at the American Library Association conference and got him to sign a copy, lol.

How are we in Week 7 already?! I'm reading a powerful book this week called The Ground Breaking by Scott Ellsworth. It chronicles the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, the collective conscious and unconscious cover-up designed to erase the memory of said massacre, and the efforts by local citizens to memorialize the victims, and bring the event back into the collective memory.

I am reading a Halloween appropriate nonfiction book called "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," a memoir of a cremation worker. Also I'm reading Four Winds by Kristin Hannah for the Tall Tales book club at Big Ugly Brewing.

I typically don't take notes while reading--unless I am writing a review or something similar.

Currently, I'm reading Slay, by Brittney Morris, and I'm about to start The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom. I just finished Later by Stephen King, The Last Mrs. Parrish, by Liv Constantine (actually the nom de plume of two sisters), and When We Were Vikings by Andrew MacDonald. I recommend all three. I'm on a roll!.

I'm currently reading:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...

1. Hi, I'm Zach! Librarian. New dad. Kayaker.
2. Favorite authors: Stephen King, Harlan Coben, John Steinbeck, Isabel Wilkerson and a bunch of other history writers.
3. Fav books: the Stand, Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, Can't Stop, Won't Stop, a history of the HipHop Generation.
4. Favorite genre: true crime, mystery
5. Last book read that was good: Killer Come Back to Me: the crime stories of Ray Bradbury
6. Currently Reading: The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power
7. Random Fact: In an earlier library job, I helped answer questions from the Mad Men producers from our many advertising archives and collections.

My favorite reading place is my screened-in back porch in summertime, or on a bench in a dog park while Tuxedo the corgi runs around.

So I'm definitely down to one book a week, or less due to the new baby, but I am currently reading Caste: the origins of our discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson. She is the rare historian that pulls together a book on a broad concept spanning 400 years, and brings both new insights and easily accessible language, drawing in and teaching in an engaging way. She already won the Pulitzer for her work on the Great Migration, The Warmth of Other Suns, and I think this is an even more powerful work.

Hi all,

With the care and feeding of our newborn, I have definitely fallen behind on my reading! However, right now I'm reading Notorious RBG by Shana Knizhnik and Irin Carmon, as well as the City We Became by NK Jemisin, a really great fantasy work that I'm enjoying very much so far.

Excellent!!!

I'm thankful for books that open my mind up to new ideas, or enlighten me on a subject or person that I didn't know about! This month this includes: Chesapeake Requiem: A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier IslandKiller, Come Back To Me: The Crime Stories of Ray Bradbury
A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town

Oona Out of Order
Virginia Waterways and the Underground Railroad
So far this month I'm reading the two books above.

The Virginia Waterways book is from a local history professor and I'm learning a lot about how Virginia, and especially the Tidewater, contributed to the Underground Railroad.

Oona Out of Order is this month's choice of the Big Ugly Brewing Co.'s Tall Tales book club. It tells the story of a protagonist who wakes up each New Year's as herself in a different year of life. I've just begun, but it's fun!

I'm reading Wild and Crazy Guys, nonfiction by Nick de Semlyen, about Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy and other comedians in the 80s. I also just finished Max Brooks' Devolution, which I highly recommend.

I'm continuing in my self care regimen of one "serious" book, usually nonfiction, paired with a "beach" read, which if you know my ginger skin tone usually is a "covered back porch" read. This week it was John Bolton's "the Room where it happened" paired with Michael Connelly's The Night Fire. Whenever the serious read is just too much, I can switch to Harry Bosch and detective Renee Ballard solving cold cases together.

This week is my "get ahead in book clubs" week. I finished Dennis Lehane's Shutter Island, and I started Fever by Mary Beth Keane.

Not many books finished by me this week. I did finish a Rachel Maddow biography and Harlan Coben's newest, The Boy from the Woods. I learned some impressive things about Maddow, who was the first openly gay Rhodes scholar--though she takes note that she faced less stigma than those who may have come before her. I also enjoyed the new Coben. Five stars all around.
Rachel Maddow: A Biography
The Boy from the Woods

What am I reading now: The Bourbon King: The Life and Crimes of George Remus, Prohibition's Evil Genius

The Boy from the Woods

The Alice Network

I think my first book destination would be Savannah, GA, in the 1980s with all of the eccentric personalities a la John Berhendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Something about seersucker, spanish moss, and lilting southern accents is appealing. Also, as some of you mentioned, New Zealand makes my bucket list as well.

I feel I fall into #3 and#9. I'm currently reading 5 books now and a majority of what I've read this year has been nonfiction.

I'm reading a history of the Dismal Swamp Company and This is Not Propaganda by Peter Pomerantsev, which I'm reading in preparation for my media literacy workshop and it is scary.