What have you read recently? 2009 -2020

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Just finished Whiskey Sour - A Thriller (Jack Daniels Mysteries). It features Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels investigating a serial murder. There's plenty of humor mixed in with the gory parts. I enjoyed it enough that I'll continue with the next book in the series. This was my free loaner for May in the Amazon Kindle Owner's Lending Library, one of the benefits of being an Amazon Prime member.
 
Yes. i meant to say that Ernest and his second wife (the one with parents in Arkansas) were the bad eggs and Hadley, the first wife, was the good one. Everything I have read about Hadley points to her being just a really nice human, always choosing to see the good in everybody.

When about halfway through The Paris Wife, I found the webpage for the museum in Piggot and read through the timeline posted. The book included many, if not all, of those events, i.e. when Hadley lost a valise containing all of Ernest's work up to that point.

I plan to re-read A Moveable Feast, Hemingway's autobiography about his years in Paris.....and also, visit the AR museum. The book was checked out yesterday at our public library. While I don't want to spend the next year of my life reading about Hemingway, it's like a bad trainwreck that is drawing me in...

Yes, 63,000 acres of farmland. When telling a friend about that a week or so ago, he did not believe me. My friend thought he had a big farm (and he does by Arkansas individual owner standards) until hearing that. :)

Ernest bequeathed royalties for A Sun Also Rises to his first wife. I read that came to about $30,000/year.
 
Just finishing with "Salvation on Sand Mountain" about the religious snake handlers in the south.
 
Killing Kennedy by Bill O'Reilly and 11/22/63 by Stephen King. Two interesting takes on the same story. Also finally read one of my "someday" books, Exodus by Leon Uris.
 
ohyes said:
Yes. i meant to say that Ernest and his second wife (the one with parents in Arkansas) were the bad eggs and Hadley, the first wife, was the good one. Everything I have read about Hadley points to her being just a really nice human, always choosing to see the good in everybody.

When about halfway through The Paris Wife, I found the webpage for the museum in Piggot and read through the timeline posted. The book included many, if not all, of those events, i.e. when Hadley lost a valise containing all of Ernest's work up to that point.

I plan to re-read A Moveable Feast, Hemingway's autobiography about his years in Paris.....and also, visit the AR museum. The book was checked out yesterday at our public library. While I don't want to spend the next year of my life reading about Hemingway, it's like a bad trainwreck that is drawing me in...

Yes, 63,000 acres of farmland. When telling a friend about that a week or so ago, he did not believe me. My friend thought he had a big farm (and he does by Arkansas individual owner standards) until hearing that. :)

Ernest bequeathed royalties for A Sun Also Rises to his first wife. I read that came to about $30,000/year.
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ohyes, thanks for posting about this. I also went to the Piggott website and read that timeline. Very interesting. It also seems that one of Pauline's sisters, maybe Virginia, was in love with Ernest. I have never been much attracted to Hemingway as an author or a person, and I agree with your assessment of him in his marriages. One wife that might have been fun but was clearly a step down in some ways from the 1st 2 was #3, Martha Gelhorn. Hemingway was a full on adventurer, and I guess his wives appreciated that in him.

Ha
 
ohyes said:
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. Historical fiction about Ernest Hemingway's marriage to Hadley. If you are remotely interested in Hemingway and his time, this is a wonderful read.

I am ready to plan a road trip to the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum in Piggott, AR, although I am disappointed in how those two behaved. Hadley is the nice guy.
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I read this, too, and liked it even though I have never been a Hemingway fan. I found it interesting that Hemingway would probably never have had his much vaunted Paris period if not for the income of first wife Hadley's trust fund. I think he did love her best of all his wives, but at the time could not forgive her losing that valise full of his manuscripts.

Right now I am reading Philippa Gregory's "The Kingmaker's Daughter". She wrote "The Other Boleyn Girl" and "The Red Queen" and "The White Queen". This novel is a racy, fictionalized account of the daughters of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, and full of fifteenth century intrigue.
 
UNVEILING THE RETIREMENT MYTH by Jim Otar (excellent, refreshing look)

Retirement Portfolios... By Michael Zwecker (dull, verbose)

Now reading a couple of very interesting Christian books. The Gospel of Thomas by Lynn Bauman. And 'Wisdom Jesus' by Cynthia Bougeault.

'On Walden Pond' is on tap.
 
Just finished "Tender is the Night" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I loved Fitzgerald's use of language and style of writing when I was in college. I suggested this book, which I hadn't read, as one of our book club readings. 40 years later I wasn't quite so impressed with his writing but all in all it was a worthwhile read. The book club discussion helped me to like it a little bit more.

Just started Michael Pollen's "Cooked".
 
donheff said:
I thought I read about Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry, by Helaine Olen, here but a search doesn't turn it up. If I saw it in another thread, thanks for the hint. It is a good expose of the inanity of the Kiyosakis, Ormans, the get rich quick gurus, and the brokers, advisors and other financial services denizens who pretend to be on our side..
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I got it from the library. I say "don't bother". The problem I have with it is that I never paid any attention to these personal finance celebs, so hundreds of pages describing where they came from, what they say, and why it's all BS is a "so what?" for me. And Olen goes into a long chapter on the horrible shaft that women get at every turn. Maybe all true, but I could hardly stay awake. Maybe it'll turn around in the last two chapters :), which I have yet to read.
 
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator - Edwin Lefevre

I am reading Reminiscences of a Stock Operator. I am about 25% through the book. I have to post this quote:

After spending many years in Wall Street and after making and losing millions of dollars I want to tell you this: It never was my thinking that made the big money for me. It always was my sitting. Got that? My sitting tight! It is no trick at all to be right on the market. You always find lots of early bulls in bull markets and early bears in bear markets. I've known many men who were right at exactly the right time, and began buying and selling stocks when prices were at the very level which should show the greatest profit. And their experience invariably matched mine--that is, they made no real money out of it. Men who can both be right and sit tight are uncommon. I found it one of the hardest things to learn. But it is only after a stock operator has firmly grasped this that he can make big money. It is literally true that millions come easier to a trader after he knows how to trade than hundreds did in the days of his ignorance.
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator - Edwin Lefevre
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I just finished The Eighty Dollar Champion by Letts. It was very good, if you like horses or animals. I hate to give much of the story away, but it's a fun read and true story.
 
I read Colin Dexter's The Way Through the Woods. This was published in 1992 and is the best Inspector Morse that I have read so far as I make my way through Dexter's novels.
 
Reading Fire by Sebastian Junger, (author of The Perfect Storm), primarily about smoke jumpers in Idaho......frightening & fascinating.
 
Handbook of Self-Regulation, Second Edition by Vohs & Baumeister

I have been reading books on willpower recently, with an aim to improving my efforts to resist spending temptations and stay under budget. I am currently in the midst of the Handbook of Self-Regulation, Second Edition. A few years ago, I read the first edition this book and liked it, so I thought I would work my way through the revised second edition. It's a bit on the technical side, so I don't think anyone would consider it easy reading, but it contains a lot of thought-provoking concepts that might be of interest to others on this site.
 
Finishing up 'Endgame', a biography of Bobby Fisher by Frank Brady. Very good read. Helps to fill in a lot of the holes in the life of the reclusive chess champion. Can still remember my early teen years watching the Spassky/Fisher match on TV, hard to believe the game of chess could create so much drama.
 
Yesterday I finished up "The Black Box" by Michael Connelly... A Harry Bosch installment
 
I just finished this one: Amazon.com: The Keeper of Lost Causes: The First Department Q Novel (A Department Q) (9780452297906): Jussi Adler-Olsen: Books

It was suspenseful and very well written plus the plot made sense. But I would probably not recommend it unless you can tolerate some depressed characterizations. It seems that the there is a genre of police procedurals nowadays where everyone is very harried and/or depressed. Mix that in with madmen, torture, and other abnormalities and you get to feeling you might be the only relatively happy person on the planet. Maybe that is why people like this sort of book? :)
 
Dearie, the new biography of Julia Child. She was an interesting person with an interesting life.
 
I am reading The View from Penthouse B by Elinor Lipman. It's a nice light, funny Summer read. It's got a little Bernie Madoff in it, which is an interesting twist.
 
SumDay said:
I am reading The View from Penthouse B by Elinor Lipman. It's a nice light, funny Summer read. It's got a little Bernie Madoff in it, which is an interesting twist.
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I'm hoping her books can also be for guys but I'm not sure. This book has a lot of holds on it. So I requested her book My Latest Greivance from the library. If you think it's not a good choice or someone else does, let me know as I'm a slow reader so I like to make somewhat sure of my choices. :)

P.S. I really like Sue Grafton's books with Kinsey Milhoune as her main character. Lots of humor in these books too.
 
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I am reading "The Unwinding" by George Packer. Reminds me of all the little people who paid the price for the unregulated Wall Street casino, we have learned nothing from the experience, and how another credit crisis looms on the horizon.
 
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