Bred Any Good Rooks Lately?

Grant87

Here's everything I read in July:

• Wizard and Glass, Stephen King
• The Gray Man, Mark Greaney
• Timeline, Michael Crichton
• Shutter Island, Dennis Lehane

I really enjoyed everything I read in July. It took me a little bit to get into a rhythm with Wizard and Glass, but I ended up loving it. The three thrillers I read were all outstanding as well.
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My August TBR:

• Wolves of the Calla, Stephen King
• Pines, Blake Crouch
• Wayward, Blake Crouch
• The Last Town, Blake Crouch
• World War Z, Max Brooks (didn't get to it in July, so I'm rolling it over to August)

GNTLGNT

Dimetrodon

Kurben

You got it!! Most people think its closer related to reptiles than to mammals but thats very wrong.

Hedda Gabler

I knew Dimetrodon and you know why? Because I had a kid who at the age of 4 knew every dinosaur and facts about them and talked about them constantly. Movies and books and documentaries. He took it all in. 

He is also the kid who took a deer bone to preschool and told these very rapt preschoolers that it was a dinosaur bone found where OJ SIMPSON MURDERED HIS WIFE. 

🤣😄🤣oh my god. The teacher kept me after to tell me and she said it took everything in her not to laugh!

 Those poor kids. A lesson in muuuurder. 

GNTLGNT

Kurben

Am deep in Vicomte de Bragelonne now. Amazing how much was left out. Almost criminal to shorten a book that much. Original ca 2000 pages and my swedish translation about 4-500 pages.And when its a french author like Dumas or Verne or some more recent its difficult to be sure of the quality of the translatkion. s it complete, unabridged?  or is two thirds cut off to make it easy for twelve years old to follow too? You never know. 

Hedda Gabler

I finished Don Quixote.  Whew. That was a focus workout but I liked it. 

Kurben

Reading The Rise And Reign Of The Mammals by Steve Brusatte. He's an american thats hold a professorship in Edinburgh, scotland. I like him cause he is a good storyteller. He has a good feeling for how to tell a complex story and make the parts stick tohether. Just enough of family trees and illustrations to make points clearer. If you want to go deeper on the subject with all the names, groups, and so on i recommend Donald Prothero or Tom Kemp but if you want a welltold chronological narrative on how the mammals came to be hes your man. Elsa Panciroli is an alternative but i, personally, prefer his narrative style to her. 

Kurben

Have read Day Of Reckoning by Jack Higgins. He seems to be a big name but must say it was a disappointment. long story told short; Tough guys ex wife murded by a mafia don. Demands revenge, rounds up a few buddies and you can guess the rest. Really can not recommend. This was one of the books i got from the second hand store in big deal, 5 books for 5 US dollars. If one of the books is a keeper it is a win. So far 2 are keepers, two go back to the store and one i havent read yet. It is strange that big names can write so totally free of oxygen and still be bestsellers. We have examples in Sweden too. No wonder that some worry that AI will take over bookwriting. I wouldn.t be surprised if a wellprogrammed computer could come up with something similar.

Kurben

reading 1942 by Robert Conroy. It is an alternate history starting in the premise that Japans attack on Pearl Harbour was even more successful (which it could have been) meaning that more ships and the oil storage reserves was eliminated too. It is not an unlikely premise since it was in the original plan for the attack. It would make the ships that did survive more or less immobile since they could not be refueled, nor could any new arrivals be refueled. This total success leads in the book to a follow up decision by japan to invade Hawaii before USA had had the chance to build storages again. Hence the name of the book which alludes to the invasion by Japan in Hawaii in early 1942. Well told from many perspectives on both sides big and small and with characters you can relate to. 

Kurben

Reading Rising Sun by Robert Conroy. An alternate history novel. Conroy specialises mostly in two areas, Alternate history novels from WW2 or American civil war.. This is, like 1942, based on the war in the Pacific. But here the premise is a bit different, Pearl Harbor went like recorded history but instead of the almost miracolous big victory at Midway that battle ended in a big disaster which sunk the remaining carriers the US had in the Pacific. The problem with this book compared with 1942 is not in its premise, which is a very possible one, but in its characters which is not as engaging as in 1942. Not meaning that the book is bad or boring to read just that its not as good as 1942. Read about half, perhaps it pick up toward the end.

Kurben

Starting a reread of Winds Of War. A really good WW2 historic novel by Herman Wouk. One of few that really try and basically succeed to write about the whole conflict, the war in the pacific, the prewar feeling, the europe scene and perspectives from many different countries including the US, UK, Germany, France and Russia and including the Holocaust. I have got an ex in english now. When i first read it it was a translation to swedish. Will be interesting to see if there is differences. But usually the translations from english are quite good. 

Lou_Sytsma

Holly by Stephen King. Short and sweet - loved it.

Hedda Gabler

Demon Copperhead — Barbara Kingsolver

good. Long winded at times but such great writing. 

Hedda Gabler

Went to library to turn in book and they had a free cart. 

I came home with:
dance with Me — Shirley Maclaine
Carole king — a memoir
John Waters— Role models
’Tis Herself — Maureen O’Hara
CS Lewis A Life


all free. Anyone want to take a guess which one interests me the most? 

FlakeNoir

Hedda Gabler said:

Went to library to turn in book and they had a free cart. 

I came home with:
dance with Me — Shirley Maclaine
Carole king — a memoir
John Waters— Role models
’Tis Herself — Maureen O’Hara
CS Lewis A Life


all free. Anyone want to take a guess which one interests me the most? 

Oh God that's hard. Role Models? Or Dance with Me?

GNTLGNT

...I'm saying John Waters....and why books?....if it was a free cart, I'da taken the damn cart!.....

Kurben

I'm going on fumes here!! There has been some delivery mishap with Holly so kts not out in the stores yet as planned. Arrrrgggghh! Everyday i check on the internet site or call but no, it has not arrived yet. Soon they say. i'm starving here.....

Hedda Gabler

You guys know me too well.  John Waters it is. 

Kurben

Started War and Remembrance, the continuation to Winds of War. They are really one story with the same characters heginning shortly before the war and ending shortly after it. Both are really thick. In sweden, when they were translated, they were published as 4 books and each original split in two to get them to a more normal length and also, of course, to make more money.
But  i'm hoping to get my hands on Holly soon and then it will have to wait in line.

Hedda Gabler

GNTLGNT said:

...I'm saying John Waters....and why books?....if it was a free cart, I'da taken the damn cart!.....

It could be a pretty handy cart for something. 

Kurben

Holly has arrived!!! Finally. Will pick it up tomorrow.

not_nadine

Yay!
 I just started it myself. 

Grant87

I'm about halfway through it. Mostly enjoying it so far.

Kurben

When i picked up Holly i just so happened to pick up another book, Grim by Sara Bergmark Elfgren. A swedish author that i've read before and liked. I guess you can say her genre are gothic mysteries set in present time. Often have a supernatural touch. Her main characters are often reens or early 20,s so i guess they would be classified as YA but i seriously dont see any difference elsewise. The books seem very adult to me. Granted, no sexscenes, but i sincerely hope it takes more than that to be adult.