An Attempt to Catch-Up on My August-November Reads
Ok so while I haven’t posted on this blog, I have been fairly active in the various aspects of my life that I discuss on this blog. And while I can’t catch up on everything in one post, I will try to hit a few of the highlights and then try to catch up over the next week or so.
Back in the middle of August, I was having a hard time writing new posts, so I started a new blog A Sixties Man, because,well, that’s what I am! I was born in the 1950s, was raised in the 60s and now I’m in my mid 60s!
Anyway, I started that blog and wrote a few posts about the Sixties, but I found that the majority of the posts were very similar to the posts that I was writing here. Ultimately I found it hard to post there, too. So now I’m back but like I said there’s a lot to catch up on! Maybe the place to start is what has been happening in the world of Renaissance Granddad.
In September my three-year old granddaughter Zoe started pre-school. Before that happened my schedule was babysitting on Monday and Wednesday and sometimes Friday. On Tuesdays and Friday I worked at Target in the morning. So many weeks I had Thursdays of as well as Tuesdays and Friday afternoon. Which provided enough free time to write.
But once Zoe started school I have been picking her up at 10:30 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and then babysitting on Tuesday and Friday after work. And while it’s a pretty easy job, considering she naps for two hours In The afternoon, it’s still time out of your day from 10:30 until six. Then after I come home make dinner and eat my Brain is fried. As a result, I don’t feel like posting. And as a result there is a lack of posts all around!!
Ok so now you know some of the reasons for the lack of posts so now let’s get back to catching up!!
The Books I Read in September, October and November
I have continued to read at a record pace over the last two months. My last post about a book that I had finished was The Samaritan by Mason Cross. Which is the 35th book I read this year. Since then I have read 21 additional books. That brings the total number of books I have read in 2017 to the unbelievable total of 56. That is only four books short of what I thought was an unreachable goal of 60 books for the year.
Books I Read Between September and November
| No. | Title | Author |
| 56 | Ancillary Justice | Anne Leckie |
| 55 | ReWiring Tinnitus:How I finally Found relief from the Ringing in My Ears | Glenn Schweitzer |
| 54 | The Brain Warrior’s Way:Ignite Your Energy and Focus Attack Illness and Aging Transform Pain into Purpose. | Daniel and Tana Amen |
| 53 | Sacrifice Fly | Tim O’Mara |
| 52 | The Great Gatsby | F Scott Fitzgerald |
| 51 | Chosen for Power | Kathleen Brooks |
| 50 | Crack Your Good Girl Code:Secrets To Reclaiming Your Feminine Power | Joy Balma |
| 49 | Choose Happier How to be happy despite your circumstances, history or genes | Jem Friar |
| 48 | Prador Moon | Neil Asher |
| 47 | Ararat | Christopher Golden |
| 46 | Head Strong:The Bull tproof Plan to Boost Brainpower, Increase Focus, and Maximize Performance-in Just Two Weeks | Dave Asprey |
| 45 | The Secret Race:Inside of the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs | Tyler Hamilton |
| 44 | Sulfur Springs | William Kent Krueger |
| 43 | Born to Run:A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen | Christopher McDougall |
| 42 | Mrs Saint and the Defectives | Julie Lawson Timmer |
| 41 | White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide | Carol Anderson |
| 40 | Paradise Island | C.J. Box |
| 39 | Night of the Living Demon Slayer | Angie Fox |
| 38 | The Secrets She Keeps | Michael Robotham |
| 37 | Winterlong | Mason Cross |
|
36
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You are Not Your Brain:The 4-Step Solution for Changing Bad Habits, Ending Unhealthy Thinking, and Taking Control of Your Life |
So those are the books that I read over the last two months and it s a pretty diverse group. This is the genre breakdown of the books.
| Nonfiction | 9 |
| Science Fiction/Fantasy | 3 |
| Mystery/Thriller | 6 |
| General Fiction | 2 |
| Classics | 1 |
| 21 |
Nine Nonfiction Reads
Six of the nine nonfiction books that I read, were self-help books. Three dealt with health, particularly brain health,. While two books dealt with happiness and one with the ringing in my ears!!
Racing was the subject of two of the nonfiction books. The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton exposed Lance Armstrong’s doping in the Tour De France. While Born to Run centered on ultra-marathoning!
Finally the last nonfiction book I read is White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide. This book is one of the shortest and best books about the history of race in our country It should be reburied reading for all!!
Two Science Fiction and Fantasy
Two of the sci-fi/fantasy books took me foreign worlds. In Neil Asher’s Prador Moon I visited his Polity Universe again , while Ancillary Justice was my first visit to Anne Leckie’s Ancillary world. I will be returning to both!! The third book Night of the Living Demon Slayer took me on a trip to New Orleans as the Demon Slayer battled a voodoo chieftain.
Three Books by Favorite Authors
Three of my favorite authors wrote three of the mystery/thriller books I read. Two of the books are parts of a series C.J Boxes Paradise Valley and William Kent Krueger’s Sulfur Springs. Paradise Valley is the explosive conclusion to Box’s Highway Quartet, which recounts Cassie Dewell’s final confrontation with the Lizard King, a long-distance trucker who is also a serial killer. Sulfur Springs is the 16th Cork O’Connor book and it finds Cork in Sulfur Springs Arizona, a long way from Cork’s beloved Minnesota homeland. Cork and his new bride Rainy Bisonette are on a quest to find Rainy’s son Peter , who may have killed a noted drug dealer!
The third book by a favorite author is the Secret She Keeps by Michael Robotham. Michael takes a break from his Joe O’Laughlin series to give us a terrific standalone novel. The lives of two very different women are on a monumental collision course!
New To Me Mystery Authors
The three other mystery/thriller books I read are all by authors who are new or nearly new to me. The first book I read was Winterlong. Winterlong is book three in the Carter Blake series from Mason Cross. This is the author that is nearly new to me. In say nearly new because I read the first two book in the series in July and August of this year. I then read Winterlong in late August.
Christopher Golden (Ararat) and Tim O’Mara (Sacrifice Fly) are authors whose books I am reading for the first time. Ararat is a thriller, while Sacrifice Fly is a mystery. In Ararat a young couple investigates what appears to be Noah.s Ark in a cavern on Mount Ararat. The kicker is that one of the passengers is a demon that is hell-bent on reeking havoc on the investigators!
Sacrifice Fly is book #1 in the Raymond Donne series from Tim O’Mara. Raymond Donne is an ex-policeman who is now a school teacher. Ray begins his investigating, when one of his young students has been absent from school and no one has seen him, When Ray visits the home of the student’s father with whom the boy had been living, he discovers the murdered father. As Raymond gets deeper into the case, he starts to ruffle feathers of a lot of people and gets ,well, in over his head!!
General Fiction Reads
Finally I read two books that can be label as general fiction.The first was Mrs. Saint and the Defectives by Julie Lawson Timmer. The second one was Chosen for Power by Kathleen Brooks. Neither of the books are typical reads for me. The first one was very good and the other one was a book.
Mrs Saint is a busybody! At least according to Markie a young divorced mother, who after discovering her husband not only cheated on her but also lost all of the family savings, leaves her hometown and moves in next door to Mrs Saint. Mrs Saint has a collection of people who do things around the house for her. Some are very defective, but Mrs Saint looks past that. But soon Mrs Saint is telling Markie what she and her son should be doing and driving Markie crazy. But as the story develops Markie’s attitude begins to change with positive results for her family! It is an uplifting book!!
Finally I read a Classic
The final book that I read is one that I should have read s long time ago The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I don’t think I need to tell anyone about the book. It is sufficient to say it is a classic for good reason!!
