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Monthly "READS"
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November 2011 reads
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What I read November 2011
A Town Like Alice~Nevil ShuteFiction
Rate 2/5
This was our group read at GoodReads, Book Nook Cafe. The book started off on an interesting premise but failed to follow through.
James Madison~Richard BrookhiserNon fiction
Rate 2/5
Read this for my reading challenge to read a book on each president. I didn't care for the writing style. The book didn't give me the detailed bio I was looking for.
11/22/63~~Stephen Kingfiction
rate 4/5
I enjoyed this travel back in time book. Though I thought the middle "Sadie" part could have been trimmed, and the ending a bit longer. All in all, a well written good read.
Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero~Chris Matthewsnon fiction
rate 5/5
Another book towards my goal to read at least one book on each president. This is my third Kennedy book.
I really enjoyed this well written book. I liked the conversational easy tone. The author's stated goal was to let you know the man. I think he accomplished this goal with flying colors. I really got a feel for Kennedy, the politics of the time, and the era. Matthews is clearly of fan of Kennedy's but I still felt he was even handed in his approach. And it's a pleasure to read a book where the author doesn't feel he needs to make his mark by tearing down his subject.
Alias Reader wrote: "What I read November 2011A Town Like Alice~Nevil ShuteFiction
Rate 2/5
This was our group read at GoodReads, Book Nook Cafe. "
I really liked A Town Like Alice when I read it back in the nineties but I have enjoyed all of the books I have read by Nevil Shute.
Hi everyone. Had some really good quality reads this month. Here are my November reads:Top Reads
Red SquareMartin Cruz Smith
Another excellent read in this series. Arkady has his old job back as an investigator in Moscow but the city is going through some major changes along with the rest of the country. A great look at the Soviet Union during the early nineties.
The Mercy SeatMartyn Waites
Set mostly in Newcastle and featuring a former journalist with a tragic past, this book was dark and extremely violent but compulsively readable.
Tinker Tailor Soldier SpyJohn le Carré
Classic spy novel featuring George Smiley, who has been retired from the service but is asked to look into the possibility of a Soviet mole. Very well written with memorable characters, realistic situations, and lots of tension and intrigue. Listened to the audio version which was excellently read by Frank Muller.
A Prayer for the City
H.G. Bissinger
The author was given complete access to Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell during his first term and the book shows the inner workings, both the good and the bad, of running a big city.
Good Reads
The President's VampireChristopher Farnsworth
Another fun combination of monsters, mayhem, and conspiracies. Pure escapist entertainment. Listened to the audio version read by Bronson Pinchot who put just the right amount of snark and ham into the performance.
Snobbery with ViolenceMarion Chesney
Historical mystery set in Edwardian England. Pretty lightweight but the likable characters, English house party plot, and narration by Davina Porter made it a fun listen.
He Who Fears the WolfKarin Fossum
Though this is the second book translated into English featuring Norwegian Detective Inspector Sejer this was really more of a psychological suspense tale than a police procedural. The actual plot is a bit weak but the book really shines with its insights and descriptions of characters with mental illnesses.
The Sweet and the DeadMilton Burton
Lots of local color, an interesting lead character, and a bit of romance made this a solidly entertaining yarn featuring an undercover operative trying to infiltrate "The Dixie Mafia" in 1970.
DissolutionC.J. Sansom
Debut historical mystery set during Henry VIII's reign. Lord Cromwell has decided that all monasteries should be dissolved and when one of his agents is murdered he sends Matthew Shardlake, a true believer in the reformation, to investigate. Great period detail but I never really warmed to the main character.
This Book Is Overdue!Marilyn Johnson
I found this to be an interesting look at how libraries and librarians are keeping up with technological changes and are still relevant in this age of Google and instantaneous data. I especially enjoyed the sections on the archivists though could have done without the whole virtual libraries in Second Life parts. The author clearly loves libraries and her infectious style and the stellar narration by Hillary Huber made the audio an enjoyable listen.
OK Read
City of BonesMartha Wells
The search for ancient relics propels the plot in this fantasy novel that had all the elements for a really good read but the over description of every little detail of the setting ultimately made this a bit of a chore to get through.
What I Read in November 20114875. Chickenhawk, by Robert Mason (read 3 Nov 2011) This book. published in 1993, tells of the year (1965-1966) the author spent as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. It was a book I did not especially savor (he dedicates it to his wife and son, but tells of his whoring!), but it simply tells of the rough time that he and the 'grunts' he flew in and out of combat had. He obviously was a superb helicopter operator, since he lived! The part of the book highest in interest for me was when he came home and the PTSD he went through. He is very deprecatory of the war and though his detestation thereof is understated I found his arguments against the war unanswerable.
4876. All Too Human A Political Education. by George Stephanopoulos (read 8 Nov 2011) This book came out in 1999, when Clinton was still president. I found the book extremely readable and high in interest. George met Clinton in 1991 and the book tells of the exciting 1992 campaign. Then the book in great detail tells of George's time in the White House--full of pressure and tension. I was surprised that many of the issues back then were similar to present day political issues, but the Republicans, even after their great victory in 1994, were less united than they are now. The account of Dick Morris's role in 1995-1996 working for Clinton is full of interest--how George despised him but some of what Morris did not help Clinton. The book is a bit short on the events of 1995 and even shorter on 1996. George left the White House at the end of 1996--and was of course dismayed by the Lewinsky affair, as was everybody. A very good book, and George is obviously a very able man. I am glad I read this book, even though it is 12 years old. It is still pertinent and informative.
4877. Chickenhawk Back in the World Life After Vietnam, by Robert Mason (read 13 Nov 2011) Well, after reading Chickenhawk on Nov 8 I had to read the sequel thereto, this book. It tells of the author's struggles after Vietnam and of being offered a chance for some big money if he would help smuggle three and a half tons of marijuana from Colombia into The U.S. Some of the ship talk is not exciting but the account of the trip and their being "busted" in South Carolina with all the marijuana on the ship is full of interest. They had a judge trial but he found them guilty and the author was put in prison at Eglin AF base in Florida. His account of his time in prison (a prison for non-violent criminals) is well-told and of much interest. A highpoint of the book is his relating that his book, Chickenhawk, would be published and the great reception the book received. I found this extremely poignant. Shortly after the book was famous Mason went to prison--not a bad place comparatively speaking, but despite the amenities no one could want to be there. I found this book consistently interesting, even though loaded with foul language, and I am really glad I read it.
4878. The Long Way Home An American Journey from Ellis Island to the Great War, by David Laskin (read 16 Nov 2011) This book is by the same guy who wrote The Children's Blizzard, which I read with appreciation in 2005, and this book is a carefully researched book on twelve immigrants from Europe who came to the USA and were soldiers in France in the Great War. The accounts of their lives in the old country and when and how they did in the US when they got here is full of interest, since I often think of my grandparents and what it was like for them to come here--for many they tried to reconstitute their European milieu in the USA, some knowing very little English. So when these men went to war it was for some very difficult. All of this was of great interest. The accounts of their time in France did tend to pall, at least for some of the accounts, though some were really harrowing--and fatal. The accounts of what happened to those who came back were also very interesting--how they reacted. There is also in the book an account of four South
Dakota Hutterites who were imprisoned in Alcatraz because they were conscientious objectors. When I finished the book I saw that there was much of interest related, and one cannot but admire all the research the author did.
4879. 11/22/63 A Novel, by Stephen King (read 23 Nov 2011) Though most fantasy turns me off I have long considered reading one book by Stephen King and now I have read his latest book--the first book of his I have read. It is a time travel account wherein Jake Epping, a guy in Maine, enters a time travel tunnel back to 1958 with the object of preventing the assassination of JFK. The prose is decidedly pedestrian rather than shimmering, and the story is of course impossible. I have enjoyed some time travel fantasies--Replay, by Ken Grimwood (read 10 Mar 2004) comes to mind--but most time travel is so impossible that one can't abide it. In his book each time one goes back to 1958 and no matter how long one stays when one returns to now only two minutes have elapsed. So Epping is in the 1950's and 1960's before he was born--but in those times he is the age he was when he went into the time tunnel. I admit the book is at times exciting and one is eager to keep reading, but it is too long and I was not enthused by the final chapters. But King is right politically and is right to feel 99% certain Oswald acted alone and there was no conspiracy. See Case Closed by Gerald Posner (read 31 Dec 1993) and Reclaiming History by Vincent Bugliosi (read 24 Aug 2007) as to the correctness of that view. I must conclude King's book was not worth the week I spent reading it--though the reading was not a chore but rather enjoyable at times--and I have no plan to read anything else by King.
4880. The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes (read 24 Nov 2011) (Man-Booker prize for 2011) This won the 2011 Man-Booker Prize so I read it. It is the 32nd such winner I've read. The first prize was given in 1964 so there are about 12 such winners I have not read. This book is slim, is laid in London, and tells of a not wholly admirable guy who as a young man has Veronica as a girl friend. They after a frenzied time together break up and he marries Margaret, and then after a time and a child they divorce.. 40 years later he is left as a bequest a diary of Adrian, a friend of his while at school. Veronica has the diary but refuses to give him the diary--and there is a surprising and dramatic ending, which made the book. It is an elegantly written book, even though the central character 8 not an overly moral guy. I have read worse Booker winners.
4881. Citizens of London The Americans Who Stood with Britain in its Darkest, Finest Hour, by Lynne Olson (read 27 Nov 2011) This is 2010 book, telling of London during World war II, and of John Winant, Edward R. Murrow, and Averell Harriman, and of their time there during the war. The book says much good of Winant, who was U.S. Ambassador to Britain during the war, succeeding Joe Kennedy as such. There is a lot about the private lives of these three men--all were adulterers, sad to say. Near the beginning of the book the author says Hoover only carried 5 states in 1932, but actually he carried 6, and the author also says Harry Hopkins was a "native" of Grinnell, Iowa, whereas as most of us know Harry Hopkins was born in Sioux City, Iowa. I found these small but obvious errors led me to think the author was not too fussy about getting things right so this affected my view of things she said about events. She paints a gloomy picture of the events which resulted in victory in World War Ii and so I found the book not enjoyable reading--whereas I like to think of 1945 as a great year. So the book for me was not enjoyable reading and I am not sure how accurate her facts are.
4882. 1776, by David McCullough (read 30 Nov 2011) When this book came out in 2005 I decided I did not have to read it since it covered such a well-known time. But since every one of the other books by McCullough :
1769. Mornings on Horseback, by David McCullough (read 12 Mar 1983) (National Book Award biography prize in 1982)
1770. The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914, by David McCullough (read 21 Mar 1983) (Book of the Year) (National Book Award history prize for 1978) (Parkman Prize for 1978)
1774. The Great Bridge, by David McCullough (read 11 Apr 1983)
1776. The Johnstown Flood, by David G. McCullough (read 15 Apr 1983)
2458. Truman, by David McCullough (read 30 Aug 1992) (Pulitzer Biography prize for 1993) (Parkman Prize for 1993)
3528. John Adams, by David McCullough (read 18 Jan 2002) (Pulitzer Biography prize for 2002)
I have read was such a great book and so enjoyed, I decided I should read this one too. It tells well of the momentous events of 1776 so far as they were related to George Washington. The telling begins with Washington taking command of the army in July 1775, of the siege of Boston, then of the time in New York(with nothing to cheer about or to glorify Washington), and culminating in the victories of Trenton and Princeton. There were dolorous times to come still, but the worst days were over. The story is well told but not super-interesting to me altho McCullough has a lot of detail not usually found in the accounts of that time. Not at all a bad book, especially for one not too well acquainted with the events of the Revolution in 1776.
Like evey month, Noember had its ups and downs.
These are from October and November.....Shanghai Girls - Lisa See. Two teenage sisters in Shanghai are married off to American men in repayment of a debt their father owed to the mens' family. Their journey to the US is dangerous and troubled, as is their adjustment to life in a new world. An okay read but nothing special. B-
State of Wonder - Ann Patchett. A medical researcher travels to the Amazon jungle to find out what happened to her coworker who died after being sent down there earlier to investigate the work being done by a doctor whose research was funded by the company they work for. I started out not wanting to read this book, and not liking it much at first, but as I got deeper into the story and deeper into the jungle, and then later as I discussed it with friends, it turned out that I liked it very much after all. A-
Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case - Debbie Nathan. There's a lot of evidence in this book that would have one believe that the original story of Sybil was a mass of fabrications and lies. True or not, the original story was fascinating and true or not, this book also held my interest. B+
Dark Places - Gillian Flynn. A woman whose brother is in prison for murdering her mother and sisters years ago becomes involved with a group of true crime enthusiasts who are trying to prove that the brother is innocent. Even though Libby witnessed the crimes and testified against her brother in court, she begins to wonder if her memories are real. I enjoyed this book, but it reminded me of why I don't read a lot of mysteries. It's always about "who done it" and if you read closely, you probably can figure it out early on. At least I did. B
Mildred Pierce - James Cain. A big juicy read set in Los Angeles in the 1930s where Mildred divorces her ne'er-do-well husband, opens her own business, sleeps around, fails to see how evil her daughter is, succeeds in running a chain of restaurants until.......well, read the book. It's much better than the movie, but it was good to be able to picture Joan Crawford in some of the important scenes. There's some really good atmospheric writing here and now I can add the word "varlet" to my vocabulary. A.
Fiction Ruined My Family - Jeanne Darst. A mostly funny memoir from a former St. Louisan whose father moved the family to New York where he intended to write the Great American Novel and support them in the style to which they hoped to become accustomed. But that never happened. Instead the father stumbled through life, the mother drank too much, and Jeanne herself became an alcoholic. None of this sounds very funny, and although it was painful to read at times, I did enjoy Darst's skewed way of looking at the life she lived. My favorite line comes when her mother sneaks vodka into her bottle of contact lens solution which her father mistakenly squirts into his eye. On being accused she says, "We don't do drugs, sweet pea. We're from Ladue." (You might have to be from St. Louis to appreciate that!) A-
Mod
Pretty full reading month, Schmerguls!
Mod
I read 8 books in November, which is a lot for me considering that in November, I moved home from the beach, a major ordeal, spent a week at my daughter's with two little ones around, and went back to the beach for Thanksgiving with the family there.
Two books were audios. Most were very light reads so don't be too impressed!
When the Emperor Was Divine 4 - stars
I listened to the audio of this book which was well-done.
I was rather put off by the lack of names of the four people in the family. I found it very disconcerting and an unnecessary writing "device". A gimmick is more like it. I think the lack of names distracted from the story.
Otherwise, this was a good if albeit short account of life in an internment camp. It just seemed to skim the surface. I wanted more.
The Affair 4 - stars
Looks like Lee Child may be back on track again after his last two books which were duds. This was a solid thriller and I was glad to spend time with Reacher again. It was interesting to recall how things were done in the days before cell phones and computers were used as they are today.
One minor annoyance...I wish Child would stop writing so many directions. Three blocks this way and a mile that way and so on --- gets tedious after a while.
Girl in Translation 3 stars
I listened to this book on CD and thought it was marginal in that respect. The accents came and went, with seemingly no reason. One minute Kim had a heavy accent, the next minute she barely had any! Not only was this distracting, but it was also confusing.
Now, about the story itself...I do not think this book added anything new to this genre of fiction. It was just more of the same about the immigrant experience. Nothing original, nothing different.
This book also reinforced my dislike of child narrators.
And then what does the author do but fast forward 12 years and tie everything up neatly!!!
Also, unless I missed it, there was never any explanation given for how Kimberly and her mother were allowed to come to the U.S. and why they were allowed to stay.
Patterns in the Sand 2 stars
I have read two books in this series and that is enough. This book was just too improbable and contrived. I will not be visiting this beach village again.
Her Royal Spyness 4 stars
A good romp through upper crust London society in between the wars. Good period details that were woven into the story rather than "applied" to it. Looking forward to the rest of the series.
The Litigators 4 stars
Although a bit slow at times, this was ultimately satisfying. I have no doubt that all the machinations of which Grisham wrote were accurate, much to my dismay. He did not paint a pretty picture of litigators.
Angelina's Bachelors: A Novel with Food 3+ stars
A book with food and recipes and the opening of a restaurant. Set in Sout Philly (yes "Sout")! What could possibly be wrong with that?
Pictures of You 4 stars
I listened to the audio of this book and found it quite well-done. The story was thought-provoking and original, with well-defined main characters, just three of them. Not at all predictable, as it could have been.
To get the links you just have to click EDIT on your original post and copy it.
Mod
I know. But I do not want to devote one extra moment to this endeavor! Enough is enough.
LOL. You are too funny, JoAnn.Yes, I understand you POV on this, but as they say, it is what it is.
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Readers and Reading
Books mentioned in this topic
Shanghai Girls (other topics)Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case (other topics)
Mildred Pierce (other topics)
State of Wonder (other topics)
Fiction Ruined My Family: A Memoir (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
H.G. Bissinger (other topics)C.J. Sansom (other topics)
John le Carré (other topics)
Karin Fossum (other topics)
Marion Chesney (other topics)
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