Follow
Share
Read More
GladImhere, I forgot to mention the latest Dan Brown novel I've read:  Origins.   It's a tech thriller, addressing the big question of what happens if/when AI segues into independence and makes decisions for itself, overriding or ignoring the intents and programming of its creator.   I read another novel on the same principle but can't remember the name right now.

I think AI progression beyond human control might be the new science fiction focus.

https://danbrown.com/origin/
(1)
Report

Cozy mysteries are quite fluffy - easy reading! Just google for them and you will find a big selection.
(3)
Report

Thanks CW and GA. Some fluff recommendations? There I would be completely lost!

GA, those sound like excellent recommendations. Seems I read a Margaret Truman once, a very long time ago.
(1)
Report

Gladimhere, I haven't read While Justice Sleeps, but it sounds like a good one for my collection (one can NEVER have too many good books!).   And I'm really impressed with Stacey Abrams.

Have you read any of Margaret Truman's political thrillers?  And yes, she's a presidential daughter who knows DC in and out.   I've read probably almost all of hers, some of them 3 or 4 times.  Her talent clearly progresses after the first few books, and the complications heighten the mysteries.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/1559.Margaret_Truman

Evelyn Anthony is another political writer, but I haven't read any of her books for years, not deliberately, but b/c they're in my "storage" library and I just forgot about them.    Hers are more international, if I remember correctly.

And yet another good mystery writer was Alistair MacLean.  His novels were set in different countries, adding an international intrigue to the plots.   If you've seen Guns of Navarone, Force 10 from Navarone or Ice Station Zebra, you've seen movie adaptations of his novels.  Geopolitics seems to be a strong theme in his novels, and always with one spy who's integrated him or herself into US action teams.

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/m/alistair-maclean/
(1)
Report

Library e-books are the best! thing! ever! You can download tons of stuff (well, up to your limit anyway) and there's absolutely no reason for regret if you find a book isn't worth finishing.
You might want to add some fluff to your reading list for those times when you can't concentrate on anything deeper.
(3)
Report

Just finished While Justice Sleeps, a political thriller, never read one before it was quite good!

I must get my library card reactivated with weeks of recovery coming up so I can explore the digital options available. Seems there is quite an extensive digital library lending site with a valid card.

Any recommendations anyone? I enjoy mysteries, thrillers and the like the best. Might have to see what Dan Brown has available. Haven't read anything of his in a long time.
(1)
Report

I am halfway through Nomadland; I bought the book after seeing the film reviews. I think it’s terrific. The sense of place is amazing. I feel I am there with these travellers, and am in awe of their bravery and resilience.
(2)
Report

Just started Anxious People, have enjoyed Fredrik Backman before and hope this one is good too
(1)
Report

Bit of a knight's move thought, but Margaret's post reminded me of Mary Renault's throwaway comment on the Ancient Roman historian Curtius - "...an unbearably silly man, with access to priceless sources now lost to us."

Harsh? I am in no way qualified to judge. But in any case the point is this crushing remark was part of the author's notes on The Persian Boy, the second volume of her Alexandriad trilogy, and a book I will never tire of re-reading.
(0)
Report

Ooh, Alva. I envy you reading it for the first time!
(1)
Report

The Witch Elm by Tana French. While I almost always like her books, I had avoided this. Something about the title (hee hee). But it is good, especially if you kind of like a protagonist you don't much like, telling his story in the first person. I can't figure out where it's going 1/3 the way through.
(1)
Report

A Plain Account of Christian Perfection by John Wesley
(3)
Report

There have been a couple of times in my life where I've felt as though I've read everything of interest in my library and I'm approaching that place again, several of the books and series I have sampled lately have warranted one star ratings or I've tossed them aside without finishing; I try to ration the authors I know I can count on but I can read much faster than they can publish. Last night I pulled out TLOTR - it's been a while but I've read it so often I can open any page and immediately sink into the story, and although I like some parts better than others for me it has never gotten old (I still shed a tear or two when Frodo doesn't get his happy ending).
(2)
Report

Follow the River, a book I read years ago and my daughter remembers as well. About an woman who was captive of the Shawnee in the 1700s, who makes her way home after escaping activity. By an author James Alexander Thom, it is based on a true story. Enjoying it again.
(1)
Report

My reading has become more serious as I have returned to school and this time fully online. Many universities are offering either free courses or even free degrees for seniors. I am enjoying learning apart from any pressure to get a job, etc, but just learning for the sake of what I am interested in. Have a nice day.
(4)
Report

I love reading and listening to audiobooks. I am also a member of Goodreads which list the books I have read and my reviews. In all my books that I have read there is one that I read three times. It’s “The Wednesday Letters” by Jason F. Wright. I like this question and the responses. Thanks.
(2)
Report

Has anyone read The Vanishing Half ? I’ve had it on hold and am supposed to pick it up tomorrow
(0)
Report

Currently reading The Children's Blizzard, by Melanie Benjamin. It's a historical novel based on a massive blizzard that hit in January 1888 in the Dakota Territory. The weather had been mild earlier in the day, and children went to school without their warmest coats. The blizzard hit just as school was letting out. It profiles what two different teachers did at their respective schoolhouses.

Melanie Benjamin has written some excellent historical novels. My favorite was The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, about the wife of fellow PT Barnum attraction General Tom Thumb. I just love this book.
(0)
Report

I am reading Iris Murdock's Bruno's Dream on Kindle, my Ancient Egypt for Dummies intermittantly, along with the GOOD mystery, Apple Tree Yard and a few poem a day of Jane Kenyon, a gathering of her poems in her last book named Otherwise. I am a bit of a book and reading maniac, so there's that. I seldom have this many going at once, but often have two going at the same times.
(0)
Report

Glad,

Sounds interesting!
(1)
Report

Looking for my next read. Maybe The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

While shopping came across Secrets at the Big House.
There were ghosts and there were secrets at the BIG House. The space between the walls of The BIG House were charged with the anguish of ever-present unhappiness. It was a different kind of haunting.Time changes many things, but it does not change our memories.This is a true story of descent from wealth and social standing. By necessity, it is also the story of my mother, a petite socialite of uncommon beauty, who subjected her children to unspeakable..

Thinking about it.

Decided on The Kind Worth Killing
(1)
Report

Ancient Egypt for Dummies.
(3)
Report

Lindar90, I have read the 3 books of the trilogy by Stieg Larson and enjoyed the 3 of them. There is also a 4th book written after his death... Can't remember the name of the author now... But l read that too.
(0)
Report

I have just started reading a book by Rolf Sellin about setting boundaries. In Italian the title sounds like "sensitive people can say no. Facing other people's need without forgetting yourself".
(3)
Report

I just finished Stillwater girls. It was good.

Now reading After Alice fell. Also, good.
(1)
Report

Thank you for this discussion section about books. I'm very much fond of books.
My new books name is "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," a thriller novel by Stieg Larsson
(2)
Report

Snow by John Banville. Detective Mystery.
(2)
Report

The Bell Jar. Sylvia Plath Read it at university. Slightly autobiographical. Not an entertaining book.
(1)
Report

Shadow Box, Luanne Rice. Very good so far. Another kindle freebie.
(1)
Report

Matthew Arnold
Growing Old
What is it to grow old?
Is it to lose the glory of the form,
The lustre of the eye?
Is it for beauty to forgo her wreath?
—Yes, but not this alone.

Is it to feel our strength—
Not our bloom only, but our strength—decay?
Is it to feel each limb
Grow stiffer, every function less exact,
Each nerve more loosely strung?
Yes, this, and more; but not
Ah, ’tis not what in youth we dreamed ’twould be!
’Tis not to have our life
Mellowed and softened as with sunset glow,
A golden day’s decline.

’Tis not to see the world
As from a height, with rapt prophetic eyes,
And heart profoundly stirred;
And weep, and feel the fullness of the past,
The years that are no more.
It is to spend long days
And not once feel that we were ever young;
It is to add, immured
In the hot prison of the present, month
To month with weary pain.

It is to suffer this,
And feel but half, and feebly, what we feel.
Deep in our hidden heart
Festers the dull remembrance of a change,
But no emotion—none.
It is—last stage of all—
When we are frozen up within, and quite
The phantom of ourselves,
To hear the world applaud the hollow ghost
Which blamed the living man.
(3)
Report

Start a Discussion
Subscribe to
Our Newsletter