Sunday, January 5, 2020

Book to be rid of (2019)!

Once again I am trying to get rid of 100 books over the next few days. Since I can barely part with any book I am listing them with a 1 line comment on each one!

LIBRARY

TIME - the year in Review - 2007 - So much has happened since then!

Farmer Buckley's Exploding Trowsers - New Scientist - weird stuff but so what - I am old and grumpy!

A Separate Peace - John Knowles - read summaries - too vile and depressing - this is actually a library copy which we lost - got them a new one and then found.

The Royal Wulff Murders - Keith McCafferty - a murder mystery fly fishing mood book which drags on forever - I did not finish. Actually sent to me by Maxine - sorry Macky.

I, Steve - Steven Jobs in His Own Words - visionary jerk and asshole - products very frustrating to use.

My Husband's Sweethearts - Bridget Asher - could not get into this book.

Todd Borg - a self published writer from the Tahoe area who sells books at quilt shows (obviously the first place to seek books. I enjoyed the Tahoe setting and characters but after several books found the plots sometime to thin or contrived so I only read a few.

The Heat - Todd Borg

Tahoe Death Fall - Todd Borg

Tahoe Silence - Todd Borg

The Night - Todd Borg

Corrupted Science - Fraud, ideology and politics in science - John Grant.

Summer of Pearls - Mike Blakely - a nice but pointless novel of a summer in the 1870s. Good mood piece.

Destiny and Power -Jon Meacham - biography of George H W Bush - a gift of Dan and Carrie - I tried but could not get into it.

Infants and Mothers - T Berry Brazelton - Baby development - gotten when Alex was little - now with grand kids (at least the first 5) beyond these stages I am passing this on.

A Child is Born - Lennart Nilsson - famous old book on in utero development but see last comment.

What If? - Robert Cowley, ed. - a collection of essays which sometimes ramble more then they speculate or extrapolate.

Origin - Dan Brown - typical Brown material.

Dragon - Michael Crichton - early work - entertaining but not great.

Sex With Kings - Eleanor Herman - Second copy of this book - am keeping one. Very interesting - makes the points that Kings were forced into loveless politically motivated marriages. They had mistresses and this was actually accepted and reasonable. Some mistresses were very well treated and respected - others not so much. Prince Charles got caught in middle of changing times - he had to marry a virgin but his extramarital behavior was not acceptable. I actually felt a little sorry for him.

The Way Things Work V1 - fun book but I will use the internet from now on.

The Puzzle Instinct - Marcel Danesi - I like puzzles more than I like reading about them.

Why Popcorn Casts So Much at the Movies - Richard McKenzie - One of Dan's MBA textbooks - it has some very interesting points to ponder.

Osxana's Journey - Grace Devnich - story of a pioneer woman and the travails of living in an earlier age.

Sailors, Waterways and Tugboats I have known - Fred Godfrey - nice but written in a young adult mode.

Everybody Always - Bob Goff - book by a lawyer advocating social justice and respect - does anyone else see the contradiction?

A Northern Light - Jennifer Donnelly - a mashup of a murder mystery and a coming of age for a young girl in 1906. Includes shades of feminism which seem unlikely. I read this book but did not like it. Turned out we were on vacation with other couples and Sue had read it along with her high school students. I raised many objections and Sue finally put me in my place - she turned to me and said "I said I read it - I didn't say I liked it!"

SIRS34

The Rising Sea - Clive Cussler +... - NUMA files - usual fare.

The Romanov Ransom - Clive Cussler +... - Sam and Remi Fargo adventure.

Atlantis Found - Clive Cussler - Dirk Pitt adventure.*

The Haunted Season - G M Mallet - Book looks intriguing - Ive tried 3x to get into it but I bog down - I give up.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot - very interesting story of growing up black and poor, struggling to make ends meet, urban poor, black culture, and medical science. There is an interesting conflict in the book. Was Mrs. Lacks treated the way she was because she was black - or because it was the 1950s?

Target Rabaul - Bruce Gamble - Now I read a LOT of WWII literature (and watch the History Channel) but this book was just too much detail for me (and it is the third volume of a set!)

So here are the first 32 books I am "passing on" (I cannot say "getting rid of" - too harsh)! 32 down, 68 to go.

Monday Dec. 23, 2019 AD.

1 comment:

  1. Say what?! Four years later, a new blog post! Congrats on writing AND on "passing on" some books that you no longer need. I actually read one book on your list - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - and I really enjoyed it (I borrowed it from the library, though). Do you donate all your old books to your library? That's what I do with ours (although we don't collect too many books in the first place).

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