While Sick Most of the Week – A Book was Finished and Some Started…..
So I have been pretty much wiped out this week. I babysat for Zoe on Tuesday and at the end of the day I felt lousy! I was coughing pretty badly even though I didn’t feel that bad. Anyway it got progressively worse during the night and by morning I knew two things one that I would not be babysitting Oliver and the other I would have to visit the doctor. By late morning both my wife and I were sitting in MedExpress waiting to see the doctor. My wife has been sick longer and worse than I have been. She has had a wicked sinus infection with extreme pain! Anyway she had another sinus infection and I have bronchitis! Since then we have both gotten progressively better and hopefully by tomorrow or Monday I should be back close to normal!! Anyway through it all I have kept reading and even added to my to be read (TBR) pile!
What I’ve been Reading and Plan to Read…..
So what have I been doing with myself when I am not coughing my lungs up! I was able to finish In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam by Robert McNamara. It is book 4 for 2016 and I’m about a book off the pace required to meet my goal of 60 books!! I must say that after reading the book I have a new respect for the man. While he certainly believed that we were doing the right thing in fighting the war he realized that it was a no win situation and that believe lead to an ultimate rift with the administration and his leaving office. McNamara left office in February of the tumultuous year of 1968 so his leaving pretty much corresponding with me just becoming more politically aware, as I would turn 17 in October of ’68! So reading about all of what was going on in the Johnson years from someone who as on the inside was very enlightening!
I also started reading Michael Robotham‘s Edgar nominated book Life or Death. I love Robotham’s Joe O’Laughlin series but this is the first stand alone books of his I have tried! So far so good and if it lives up to the praise from Stephen King on the back of the book – it should be quite a read…..
“Life or Death is a nerve-racking thriller with the heart and soul missing from lesser crime and suspense novels. I couldn’t stop reading it, yet I didn’t want Audie’s story to end. Robotham is an absolute master.
Of course when I went to pick up the book at the library I couldn’t just walk in an get just one book, no I had to look around and come home with several additional books. Those added to my TBR pile include: Bloodline from Warren Murphy, Let Me Die in His Footsteps– Lori Roy and Dorothy Parker Drank Here by Ellen Meister. Why these books?
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Warren Murphy’s book caught my eye because I don’t think that I have read a book by Murphy since The Grandmaster, which he wrote with his wife Molly Cochran, way back in the mid 1980s! When I went to his website, I see that Warren pasted away back in September of 2015. Murphy was an amazingly prolific writer if you go to Goodreads you can check out the fifteen pages worth of books he has written or co-written. He is probably best known for as the creator of the Destroyer series. It appears that series is now about 150 books strong! The first 73 appear to have been written by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir! Oh by the way, The Grandmaster won the 1985 Edgar for Best Novel!!
Let Me Die in His Footsteps like Life or Death is nominated for the 2016 Edgar Award for best novel. Both should be pretty good reads! Finally, I am a fan of the Algonquin wits, – George Kaufman, Robert Benchley, et al and Dorothy Parker e only woman of the group – In this novel like its predecessor Farewell, Dorothy Parker finds the ghost of Dorothy….”haunting the halls of the Algonquin with her wit, wisdom and timeless irreverence. I thought Ms Meister did a good job of capturing the essence of Dorothy Parker in the first book so can’t wait to dive into this one!!
Finally, I don’t watch much TV my wife and I watch The Blacklist and Elementary and a few other shows but that’s about it. Last week between coughing fits, I did start to watch The Shannara Chronicles based on the books by Terry Brooks. I think the series is great and can’t wait for the next episode next week! While I have been aware of the Terry Brooks books since the 1980s when I saw his books fly off of the shelves at Waldenbooks where I worked part-time, I have never read any of them! Anyway, the first book The Sword of Shannara was only eight dollars for the Kindle version, so that one is now on the Kindle and I have read 20% of it!
So right now I’m reading Life or Death and The Sword of Shanarra with the other three books waiting!! Wish Me Luck as I try to catch up!! Right now I think it’s time for a nap!!
