What have you read recently? 2009 -2020

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Just finished "The Dutch House " by Ann Patchett . It is a great read .A story of a house and the family that lived there . I could not put it down .One of Ann Patchett's best.
 
Lighthouse Island, by poet Paulette Jiles, is good, It is a mix of quest and love story set in a dystopian world ravaged by climate change 200 years in the future.
 
I am trying to make up for a year of less reading then normal.

I've recently read 2 excellent Michael Connelly books that I really liked:

The Late Show: Introduces a new and interesting heroine, Detective Renee Ballard. Really good and suspenseful plotting. https://smile.amazon.com/Late-Show-Michael-Connelly-ebook/dp/B01MYDJB6R/ref=sr_1_1?crid=RL1XZ8G2BWI4&keywords=the+late+show+michael+connelly+book&qid=1577725765&sprefix=the+late+show%2Caps%2C212&sr=8-1

The Fifth Witness: After a banker is murdered, criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller defends a woman whose house is being foreclosed on. The book is copyrighted 2011, so after the housing debacle. https://smile.amazon.com/Fifth-Witness-Mickey-Haller-Book-ebook/dp/B0047Y17P2/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2PKX6ZMIAFFO4&keywords=the+fifth+witness+by+michael+connelly&qid=1577725812&sprefix=the+fifth+witness%2Caps%2C200&sr=8-1
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Also now reading a book about primitive times (40,000 years ago). I read the authors book Clan of the Cave Bears many years ago. This second book in the series The Valley of Horses follows the lead character out of her Neanderthal tribe (she is Homo Sapien) to a new area in search of people like herself. Fascinating to think of our ancient roots. https://smile.amazon.com/Valley-Horses-Bonus-Content-Children-ebook/dp/B00466HQ06/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=valley+of+the+horses&qid=1577726196&sr=8-1
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Einstein's Telescope is a nicely presented lay view of modern day cosmology. A lot of fascinating but not intuitive physics. All the Dark Matter and Dark Energy, what is that about? https://smile.amazon.com/Einsteins-Telescope-Matter-Energy-Universe/dp/0393338010/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2ALNZPO7JV9YR&keywords=einstein%27s+telescope&qid=1577726444&sprefix=einstein%27s+tel%2Caps%2C214&sr=8-1
 
The Things They Carried. I had a “wow” moment when I finished that book. Something honestly came over me, very surreal experience. Highly recommend it.
 
"The Great Leader" by my favorite author Jim Harrison who recently passed away.
 
Moemg said:
Just finished "The Dutch House " by Ann Patchett . It is a great read .A story of a house and the family that lived there . I could not put it down .One of Ann Patchett's best.
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Totally agree. One of the best books I read this year. I will be recommending it to our bookclub. Also just finished The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.....again really good and I don’t know how I missed it before
now.
 
Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. Read 1st two, both short (150p) but fun and different. Also read The Cloud Roads by her as well. Have the next volume (The Serpent Sea), but haven't started it yet.

Liked "Crossover" by Joel Shepherd and planning to get the next in the series.

+1 for "The Late Show" by Connelly and all the stuff from Blake Crouch.

If you're looking for non-fiction "The 4 percent universe : dark matter, dark energy, and the race to discover the rest of reality" by Richard Panek is a very interesting read, even for us non-scientist types.
 
I am reading Grisham's "The Guardians " . How this got to be a best seller is beyond me ?I used to love his books but the last one was a dog and this is so-so .Grishman ,It is time to retire before you totally ruin your legacy . Let Al Macy take over mystery .
 
Been reading the Joe Pickett series from CJ Box. Fun, easy, entertaining books. Makes me want to visit Wyoming for some hunting, fishing, and hiking.
 
"The Summer of 69" is an interesting semi-autobiographical novel by the guy who wrote "Home Alone" and dozens of other children's and young adult books.. He was a less than mature ne'er-do-well through his teens. Smoking dope, gobbling LSD, and worrying about the draft. But he can write. He saved this one about a memorable summer until both his parents were dead and wouldn't read it. I identified with him in some respects so I enjoyed the book.
 
I don’t have the book any longer to read the author blurb. Home Alone stood out but maybe it was the screen play.
 
"Overdiagnosed" by Dr. H. Gilbert Welch.

Presents the view that patients should know and weigh the risks vs benefits of screening, preventative treatment, and diagnostic workups when there are no symptoms.

It came at the perfect time for me since I moved and had to change my primary care dr. who is a lot more interventionist than my last one.
 
Moemg said:
I am reading Grisham's "The Guardians " . How this got to be a best seller is beyond me ?I used to love his books but the last one was a dog and this is so-so .Grishman ,It is time to retire before you totally ruin your legacy . Let Al Macy take over mystery .
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I need to apologise to Grisham . The book did get much better but it should not take 150 pages until it catches your interest .
 
I am reading THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK by Kim Richardson. It is wonderful and based on true history during the WPA days. JoJo Moyes, THE GIVER OF STARS, has a book on the same subject that I will read next. Moyes is under scrutiny for plagiarism.
 
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SAY NOTHING: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

A fabulous read on the Troubles and exquisitely written. I read it in preparation for a trip to Northern Ireland this summer.

If you ever wonder how regular people descend into sectarian violence in their quest to right a wrong, this is the read.
 
donheff said:
I don’t have the book any longer to read the author blurb. Home Alone stood out but maybe it was the screen play.
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Because I love the late John Hughes, I looked this up. Todd Strasser, who wrote Summer of ‘69, did write the Home Alone novelization based on the movie and John Hughes’s screenplay. Mystery solved!
 
While we were in the Florida Keys last week, I read three books

The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey by Rinker Buck - a true story about a 60 year old journalist and his brother who, in 2011, drove a team of mules and a covered wagon over what remains of the Oregon Trail - 2000 miles from Missouri to Oregon. It was probably the first wagon in over a hundred years to have made the trip.

Lords of the Horizon: A History of the Ottoman Empire by Jason Goodwin - I have never known much about the Ottomans; it was good to expand my historical horizons.

Capitalism in America: A History by Alan Greenspan and Adrian Wooldridge - exactly as you would expect from the title.


I have now started on Ron Chernow's biography of Ulysses Grant.
 
Spook Street By Mick Herron

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/...-impressive-new-work-in-spy-fiction-1.2947615

Spook Street: The most impressive new work in spy fiction: Welcome to Slough House, “the administrative oubliette of the intelligence service,” where the “slow horses” – aka those British spies who are damaged, broken or simply useless – are put out to grass. Slough House provides the hub for Mick Herron’s Jackson Lamb spy novels, of which Spook Street is the fourth, a series that is by some distance the most impressive new body of work in spy fiction.
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Rianne said:
I put a hold on "Slow Horses." Spook Street was not available yet, on Libby.
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Spook Street was/is the first of the series that I've read.....one of the drawbacks of thrift store/library bookstore shopping...you get what you can take.

Be interested in your opinion of Slow Horses.
 
Moemg said:
I need to apologise to Grisham . The book did get much better but it should not take 150 pages until it catches your interest .
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I just finished it, and I agree. Knowing I could expect it to be slow at the beginning made it better, and I even enjoyed it from the start.

So, thanks for that (and for the plug).
 
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