Staff Picks: Audiobooks
Good Grounds June Picks
Thanks to the eight of us that shared in person and the one person who shared their recent reading by email. We had a good group this month.
Don’t forget to complete a few logs (at least 3) for the adult summer reading club. You can pick up paper logs at the libraries but this year it is super easy to enter online. I did it myself today. Go to the website and click on Summer Reading Club and then go to Adult SRC. Each time you read a book (anything read after June 3 counts) you enter it in this online log. You can also fill one out for attending a program, so 7 of you from this last Good Grounds should get credit for attending. A library card number is not required for this. After 3 entries, you are eligible to win one of 3 Nooks that will be given away. If you don’t want one, save it for Christmas and give it to somebody else. Happy reading, everyone. Hope to see you all on July 20.
My Picks
The Body in the Library /Agatha Christie. Refreshing easy read that left me thinking, I like the book character Miss Marple better than movie character.
Iron Thunder : the battle between the Monitor & the Merrimac, a Civil War novel/Avi. Juvenile. Fictionalized version of the battle between the Iron Clads, with historical pictures and prints interspersed in the text.
A Savage Thunder : Antietam and the Bloody Road to Freedom/Jim Murphy. Juvenile. Non-Fiction written by respected juvenile history author. Murphy is no fan of George McClellan.
Now reading, Pearl of China : a novel/Anchee Min. Fictionalized account of Pearl S. Buck to explain her writing about China.
Picks from the Group
Cutting for Stone : a novel/Abraham Verghese. Long complex saga involving immigration, love and betrayal and family relationships.
Unbroken : a WWII Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption/Laura Hillenbrand. Fascinating new novel by the author of Seabiscuit : An American Legend. This novel goes in an entirely different direction and leaves people with thoughts about war and torture. Extremely popular. 10 copies owned by APL.
A Singular Woman : the untold story of Barack Obama’s mother/Janny Scott. Biography of the President’s mother, S. Ann Dunham.
Fortune’s Favorites/Colleen McCullough. 878 page fiction book set in Rome. You get a good sense of what is meant to be a Roman. Thumbs up.
Tales of the Black Widowers/Isaac Asimov. Mystery book of short stories with straight, easy writing. APL owns Banquets of the Black Widowers (WW) and The Return of the Black Widowers (SE.) Also mystery and detective series, 1980s era.
The Social Animal : the hidden sources of love, character and achievement/David Brooks. Author who also writes Op Ed for the New York Times and he recently gave the Commencement speech at Rice University. This book using fictional characters to show the broad implications of brain behavior and learned and instinctive behaviors. A heavy read but well worth it.
On, Off/Colleen McCullough. A mystery involving serial murder that is a “fast, good read.”
Summer/Karen Kingsbury. Found on the “summer” reading display at WW, this is Christian fiction that involves a newlywed couple and a reality show.
The Summer of Katya/Trevanian. 1983, a love story set in the Basque countryside. This has a shocking, tragic ending. Also, by the same author, Elizabeth read Shibumi : a novel. This was originally written in 1979 and republished in 2005. It is a thriller/suspense fiction.
Look Homeward, Angel : a story of the buried life/Thomas Wolfe. Elizabeth thinks this is a fictional autobiography and too wordy to be enjoyed.
Two previously reviewed books, The Outliers : the story of success/Malcolm Gladwell and The Help/Kathryn Stockett. The latter is a book club favorite. APL owns 58 copies!
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie/C. Alan Bradley. Mystery as seen through the eyes of an 11 year old girl (an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison.) Also in this series are The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag : a Flavia de Luce Mystery and A Red Herring without Mustard.
The Red Garden/Alice Hoffman.
The Sixth Man/David Baldacci. Newest Baldacci, with a long waiting list but “worth the wait.” Two characters from previous books resurrected in this story. Not written in legalese.
The Simple Truth/David Baldacci. 1998 Baldacci with heavy emphasis on the legal aspect of the story, involving the Supreme Court and false imprisonment.
Now reading, The Greater Journey : Americans in Paris/David McCullough. A new McCullough study of scientists and artists who went to Paris and brought back knowledge that changed America.
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Good Grounds May Picks
It was good to get back to our book group, after being gone last month. I thought I’d mention that I enjoyed the library’s new copy of Book Page. There was a good review of a new thriller book by Marcus Sakey called The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes. He previously wrote The Blade Itself and Good People.
My Picks
Rascal by Sterling North. Biographical novel of a young boy and his pet raccoon. The boy has a tough life but doesn’t whine about it and his treatment of his pets is not sentimental. I enjoyed this tremendously.
Midnight Tunnel: A Suzanna Snow Mystery by Angie Frazier. (juvenile) Slow to start but logical and ultimately enjoyable. I’m talking it up at schools as a good alternative to Nancy Drew.
Picks from the Group
Treasure by Clive Cussler. Enjoy Cussler as an alternative to David Baldacci. There are 69 readers waiting for Baldacci’s new novel, The Sixth Man.
A Widow’s Story: A Memoir by Joyce Carol Oates. Read and reviewed previously. This was a thumb’s down, mostly.
Muffins and Mayhem: Recipes for a Happy (If Disorderly) Life by Suzanne Beecher. Autobiography of the creator of DearReader.com.
A Lesson in Secrets: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear. A woman sleuth ala 1932 Scotland Yard. Really enjoyed this.
On, Off by Colleen McCullough. Murder mystery about a serial killer. “Loved” the book.
We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen. English translation from Danish. A historical novel that follows 2 families of sailors from the mid-1800s to the end of WWII. An excellent read. 678 pages.
Ape House Sara Gruen. Reality TV and bonobos enter into this plot. Joyce likes Gruen’s writing style. She also wrote Water for Elephants, which we’ve looked at before
Bones: A Forensic Detective’s Casebook by Henry Scammell and Dr. Douglas Ubelaker. Available by Interlibrary Loan. Previously reviewed - fascinating non-fiction about forensic breakthroughs.
Strange Business by Rilla Askew. Available by Interlibrary Loan. Short stories about small town Oklahoma. Interesting but “rough” writing.
The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement by David Brooks. This book builds on recent advances in neuro-science. It talks about how the mind works and the subconscious with 2 “ideal” people. NPR reviewed this book and was on the bestseller list.
Time Spike by Eric Flint and Marilyn Kosmatka. Another time-travel Science Fiction book from Flint. This time an Illinois maximum prison is transported to the Jurassic period. The modern people don’t do too well in their adjustment!
Blasphemy by Douglas J. Preston. This author is known for his high tech thrillers. This one takes place in Arizona and has spies and scientists in it. Tech talk with nuclear physics and computers.
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are by Ann Druyan and Carl Sagan. An exploration of what it means to be human.
How about that for variety! Thanks for coming, everyone. I hope to see you next month—June 15. I’m now reading Agatha Christie’s A Body in the Library. The murder wasn’t in a public library. Whew!…Laureen
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Man driving 75 mph while reading novel - YouTube
The right way to enjoy books in your car: Audiobooks, traditional and downloadable.
The wrong way:
Scary, eh?
Have you ever seen anything like this? Comment below and tell us your story!
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