Home Archive by category "Books" (Page 20)

Category: Books

Weekly Update Part 1 – The Books

An Update of The Books I Am Reading and What’s on the Horizon!

So last week was as busy as I thought it would be! It started Monday with a short stint babysitting granddaughter Zoe. Then Tuesday at Target, Wednesday with Oliver, Thursday back to Target, Friday half-day with Oliver made longer by Da’s mistake of allowing Oliver and I to sit in the car for a few minutes, whereby he turned some light on that I didn’t notice, which left me with a dead battery, when I went to leave. Can you say those who don’t learn from the past, are condemned to repeat it! Anyway it  was back to Target on Saturday. Actually, it was pretty much a standard week wasn’t it….well, you can add in that by Friday I wasn’t feeling my best. I do believe that I have finally caught a milder version of the sinus and cold that his plagued my wife and daughter over the last two weeks. Anyway let’s recap what I did over the week past….. Read More

A Sunday Music and Reading Challenge Update!

A Busy Week – A Trip to Princeton Record Exchange, Two Books Finished and Books added to my Reading Challenges!

Last week was a busy one. My wife has been sick all week, most likely the result of kissing sick babies! Anyway I worked my two weekday and weekend shifts at Target, but since Oliver’s momma was home recovering from thyroid surgery I only babysat  on Friday! Read More

Reading Challenges for 2016

Renaissance Granddad’s 2016 Reading Challenges!

Well last year was the first time that I set a goals for both the overall number of books that I was going to read in the year and the types of books. I signed up for three reading challenges: Cloak and Dagger, Historical Fiction, and Nonfiction and created one of my own Science Fiction. While I kept track of the number of books I had read for each challenges I never posted at the websites where I had signed up for the challenges. I guess I should have but I was one of the few men who signed up for the challenges, so I felt kinda alone and funny posting! Also I’m lazy and a loner so it was easier just to post about the books I was reading here! Read More

Reading Challenge Update – Late December 2015

With 51 Books Read RGranddad Reaches His Overall Goal!

With the end of 2015 two days away, last night I finished the 51st book I’ve read for the year The Politics of Deception JFK’s Secret Decisions on Vietnam, Civil Rights and Cuba, thereby reaching the lofty goal of 5I books I set at the beginning of the year! Overall, it is the most books that I have read in a year since 2009! Read More

Peter James – You Are Dead

Peter James – You Are Dead – Roy Grace # 11  ****

Book 50 of 2015

Peter JamesPeter James  has written eleven police procedural novels featuring Brighton Detective Superintendent (DS) Roy Grace. The eleventh installment in this series is You Are Dead and the first book that I have read in the series. I can tell you it won’t be the last!! You Are Dead is the 50th book that I have read in 2015. I am now one book away from my goal!! Read More

Whistling Past the Graveyard and Amazing Grace……

Separated by 30 years but has that much changed…..

Yesterday, i finished Whistling Past the Graveyard, the 48th book that I have read this year! Three more to go to reach my goal of 51! I finished the 47th book Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation by Jonathan Kozol a few days prior and as I thought about the books, I began to see similarities between the books. The big dissimilarity is that Whistling Past the Graveyard is a novel and Amazing Grace is nonfiction. The other is that Whistling Past the Graveyard is set in 1963 Mississippi and the children whose lives Jonathan Kozol writes about live in New York City in some of the poorest neighborhoods in our nation. But they both deal with the lives of black Americans. One happens at the time that black Americans were gaining their civil rights and dealing with overcoming deep-seated prejudices and a part of our nation that was being dragged kicking and screaming into the 20th century. While the other  views the lives of children in 1993 NYC who may now have those rights but are still fighting for equal treatment in a highly segregated  New York. Read More

Reading Challenges – November 2015 Update!

Reading Challenges a November and 2015 Update!

As the end of November approaches, it’s time again to recap the books that I read this month and my reading plan for December.  Even though November has been a busy month, I have still managed to finish three books. First Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore, followed by Patrick Lee’s second book in the Sam Dryden series Signal and most recently Jonathan Kozol’s Amazing Grace:The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation. I finished Amazing Grace this evening, so I will try to write about it tomorrow. Read More

Signal – Patrick Lee’s Latest!

Patrick Lee Author of Signal

Signal – Patrick Lee (Sam Dryden # 2) ****

Patrick Lee has a penchant for writing thrillers with a bit of science fiction weaved into the storyline. His last two books Runner and  his current release Signal, both feature Sam Dryden and ex-special forces operative battling forces against advanced technologies. My first encounters with the works of Patrick Lee was the Travis Chase trilogy which included The Breach, Ghost Country and Deep Sky. In that series The Breach sends artifacts and people back and forth through a time portal. In Signal, Dryden confronts a machine that receives signals from the future! Read More

Secondhand Souls from the Mind of Christopher Moore!!

Secondhand Souls – Christopher Moore – Grim Reaper #2 – Book 45 of 2015

Christopher Moore may be very near the top of my list of authors that make me laugh out loud when I read their books!! His latest book Secondhand Souls certainly did that in many places! Secondhand Souls is the second book in the Grim Reaper series, that feature Charlie Asher and his daughter Sophie and a crazy cast of characters. From Goodreads.com….. Read More