Book 28 of 2013 – Tess Gerritsen – The Silent Girl
Note to Self: DO NOT PUT OFF READING TESS GERRITSEN BOOKS! Which is what I did with her book The Silent Girl, which sat on my bookshelf for a long time before it became Book 28 of 2013!
Category: Books
Book 25 of 2013 – Breaking Point – C.J. Box
So the other night, while the “Lost Boys” that populate Dave Eggers What is the What, were in Atlanta and Kansas, I took a side trip to Saddlestring Wyoming and read another one of Joe Pickett’s adventures. Book 25 for the year is Breaking Point, the 13 th in C.J.Box’s great series and it’s another good one. I had checked the book out a couple of weeks ago, but I got immersed in two other books and it sat on the shelf. Finally, a few nights ago I picked it up and I don’t think I set it down until I was done! Box can really tell a story with believable characters and suspense that doesn’t let up!
Farewell, Dorothy Parker, Hello old me? (Book 22 of 2013)
Once upon a time I knew a young man who was semi-literate. He read books by Alexander Solzhenisten, John Fowles, Norman Mailer and James Baldwin among others. He loved the Marx Brothers and read about George S Kauffman, Alexander Woolcott and the rest of the members of the Algonquin Wits, including Dorothy Parker. But through the years as that young man aged, he found escape from the drudgery of work not in great literature, but in mysteries and thrillers, not that they aren’t good reads, but hey, saving the world from serial killers and nuclear annihilation isn’t the same as questioning the meaning of life!
Book 19 of 2013 – Misadventures of a Garden State Yogi
As I browsed the library shelves a couple of weeks ago, i couldn’t pass up a book titled Misadventures of a Garden State Yogi, and I’m so glad I didn’t! Brian Leaf’s wonderful book, subtitled My Humble Quest to heal my Colitis, Calm my ADD and Find the Key to Happiness has become Book 19 for 2013. As I read the back cover of the book a quote from Kathryn Buid, author of The Women’s Health Big Book of Yoga pretty much sums it up!
Books that “Rocked Your World”!
This morning is was thinking about reading and books that “Rocked your world”, well maybe not rock your world, but those that opens your eyes, maybe make you see the world in a new light. Books that touch you! One of the first books of mine that came to mind was, Jonathan Kozol’s Death at an Early Age. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve read but I remember at the time, this book revealed conditions that I really didn’t know existed and I remember being so touched by Kozol’s actions! Just recently that’s what Stones into Schools did for me. It smacked me in the face with the conditions that people live under in both Pakistan and Afghanistan and their need for and their thirst for education particularly for their daughters! The Imperial Cruise did it, too, by opening my eyes to US actions both in Hawaii and the Philippines!
Book 17 of 2013 – The Imperial Cruise – James Bradley
In 1905 Theodore Roosevelt sent the largest diplomatic mission in US across the Pacific to Asia. The mission was led by his Secretary of War William Howard Taft and the group included his daughter Alice. James Bradley’s book about this mission The Imperial Cruise is Book 17 of 2013. During the trip Taft on Roosevelt’s behalf negotiated a series of secret agreements – which were unconstitutional – that laid the groundwork for future Japanese actions over the next 30-40 years. The details of these agreements remained secret until after Roosevelt’s death and really have been absent from history books.
Book 16 of 2013 Parnell Hall’s – Stakeout
There are several mystery characters in mystery series that make me laugh, but two stand out first there’s Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum and secondly there’s Parnell Hall’s Stanley Hastings. Stanley’s latest caper Stakeout is Book 16 of 2013.. Stakeout is the 18th book in the series that I started reading in 1991! Like all the others this one is a fine caper, which had me out laughing out loud on more than one occasion! The Washington Post Book World says this about the series:
An Unexpected Surprise on a Trip to the Library – A Book Sale!
When I was thinking this morning about last Thursday night’s visit to the library, where the spring book sale was in progress, my thoughts went to the old Dorothy Parker quote. When asked by Franklin P Adams to use horticulture in a sentence, she responded “You can lead a horticulture, but you can’t make her think!”. Now my thought was slightly different, it went something like, you can lead a book junkie to a book sale but you can’t expect him to come home empty-handed! Alas, Edward did not, but I did limit myself to spending only $5.00! Here’s what I brought home! 
Amazing Grace – Jonathan Kozol – I really enjoyed Fire in the Ashes, which told the story of many of these children 25 years after the events in this book. I thought I’d like to visit with them back then! 
Three Cups of Tea Greg Mortenson and David Liver Relin likewise I thought I would like to go back and read the book that started Mortenson’s mission and all the controversy!! 
Kidnapped in Yemen One Woman’s Amazing Escape from Captivity – Mary Quin – this one just looked very interesting …From the back cover: Mary Quin has written a harrowing account of surviving one of the most serious kidnappings of the past years. Showing her native grit, Quin bested her kidnappers and lived to write this fine book’ Peter Bergen, CNN Terrorism analyst author of the Holy War, Inc: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden 
Altar of Eden – James Rollins – since this is not a Sigma Force novel I skipped over it but have always wanted to go back and read it, maybe now I will!! 
In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam Robert S. McNamara – one short paragraph told me that this is a book told by the ultimate insider that I want to read! Unlike a certain President who shall remain nameless, McNamara admits his mistakes as he writes:
Book 14 0f 2013 – James Lee Burke – Creole Belle
I have feeling that if I were an English major or at least more literature literate, I would love the great novels of James Lee Burke even more than I do presently! Creole Belle is the 19th Burke novel featuring Dave Robicheaux and is Book 14 for 2013 this one took a while to read, mainly because it is rather long (528 pages) and I got distracted by a couple of other books, but when I came back and picked it up about midway through, I zipped right through it, especially over the last two hundred or so pages. Like all the other books it’s a whopping good read!!
