Michelle’s Comments (group member since Dec 08, 2021)

Michelle’s comments from the On The Same Page group.

Sometimes when there aren't any other options you should just stay crazy.”
― Craig Johnson, Depth of Winter

#108. Depth of Winter. Sheriff Longmire is in pursuit of his daughter’s kidnapper. He has outrun his usual backup and so must collect a new posse along the way. 4 south of the border stars. Audiobook. Mystery.

#109 Hip-Hop Is History New by Questlove. I am in no way the target audience for this book. I don't have a particular interest in this genre of music but I was curious. I enjoyed the audiobook thouroughly. Not only did I know more than I thought about hip hop but I learned a couple of things about the genre that made me appreciate it more. Read by Questlove it was like getting an insiders guide to hip hop. Questlove's enthusiasm and love of hip hop was contagious. Kudos to Questlove as a historian as well. He not only mastered his subject but placed it appropriately into history. Well done. Excellent audio performance. 4 music makes memories stars. Audiobook. Nonfiction.

#110. An Evil Heart. Sheriff Burkholder solves another local murder but uncovers a lot of evil along the way. Painters Mill should really offer some free anger management courses as a public service project. 3 that is one twisted little town stars. Audiobook. Mystery.

110 books/11024 pages

Current
The Right Stuff ebook
The Blonde Identity Audiobook
Of Human Bondage ebook

it is true that how you come to history has everything to do with how history comes to you.”
― Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, Music Is History

Congrats Lillie! Great challenge even if the publishing industry didn't get on board. What is wrong with those people.

It was. There were so many layers. I won't forget it.

Alondra wrote: "Michelle wrote: "Great month Alondra! Glad to see you enjoyed S.A.Crosby. I’ve enjoyed everything of his that I have read."

Thanks, Michelle. I am ready for Razorblade Tears 😁"

Razorblade Tears was my favorite.

Great month Alondra! Glad to see you enjoyed S.A.Crosby. I’ve enjoyed everything of his that I have read.

Bill wrote: "Michelle wrote: "Halfway there! Next up The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe."

As I recall, this was fascinating. I hope you enjoy."

Thanks Bill! I’m looking forward to it.

Memories, even your most precious ones, fade surprisingly quickly. But I don’t go along with that. The memories I value most, I don’t ever see them fading.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

#106. Never Let Me Go. In spite of its apparent quietness this book delivers a shocking image that will ensure it remains in memory long after the book is complete. 4 pretty sure this book will never let me go stars. ebook. Fiction-Modern Classic.

#107. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. A journalist’s drug fueled rampage through Las Vegas in pursuit of a story and/or the American dream. 2 obviously it has gone down in history as a great time but I felt like the designated driver stars. ebook. Fiction? (I hope). Classic??????

107 books/

Currently
The Right Stuff ebook
Depth of Winter Audiobook

Buy the ticket, take the ride.”
― Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Halfway there! Next up The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe.

On a different note. I’m hazy about the details but I’m pretty sure I’m finished with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson.

After receiving an assignment to report on a desert motorcycle race, a reporter and his “attorney “ embark on a drug fueled journey to Las Vegas which results in much mayhem and destruction and somehow the discovery of the American dream. At least I think that’s what happened I’m honestly a little vague.

I think I would have appreciated this book more if I had been high. Unfortunately that’s not my thing so I’ll do the best I can with this review. I googled the book and the author and I read all about Roman a clef and Gonzo journalism. While that gave me some appreciation of the intent of the author, I still have trouble seeing this as much more than a long drug induced paranoid rant. There were a few nuggets of political and societal commentary interspersed throughout but I’m not sure they were profound enough to justify the rest. The only way I can see this as a classic that everyone should read is in the sense that On the Road by Jack Kerouac is a classic. As a period piece which imparts a sense of the period from a specific viewpoint. So back to Gonzo journalism I guess the author was successful. Unfortunately a drug user’s high is seldom fully appreciated by the sober people who witness it.

2 this book was a trip - literally stars.

Quotable

No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride...and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well...maybe chalk it up to forced consciousness expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten.”
― Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Too weird to live, too rare to die!”
― Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run, but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant.”
― Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

You took too much man, too much, too much.”
― Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro completed.

Three young people grow up together and form bonds which will carry into their future. In their case the future will be brief and is set by society into a certain path which they do not at first fully understand. Their behaviors, while typical of youth, have a disastrous effect on the relationship and they struggle to repair it in time.

This book is devastating. On the surface it is a simple story but underneath it is commentary on so much life, relationships, humanity, science, human dignity. The reader learns to read this book with the same numb detachment the main characters use to consider their future. Otherwise it is too much. Even then the horror comes across the reader in waves. Suffice it to say this book will stay with me forever.

4 some things you can’t unread and don’t really want to stars.

Quotable

What I'm not sure about, is if our lives have been so different from the lives of the people we save. We all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through, or feel we've had enough time.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

It never occurred to me that our lives, until then so closely interwoven, could unravel and separate over a thing like that. But the fact was, I suppose, there were powerful tides tugging us apart by then, and it only needed something like that to finish the task. If we'd understood that back then-who knows?-maybe we'd have kept a tighter hold of one another.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

I saw a new world coming rapidly. More scientific, efficient, yes. More cures for the old sicknesses. Very good. But a harsh, cruel, world. And I saw a little girl, her eyes tightly closed, holding to her breast the old kind world, one that she knew in her heart could not remain, and she was holding it and pleading, never to let her go.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

“I half closed my eyes and imagined this was the spot where everything I'd ever lost since my childhood had washed up, and I was now standing here in front of it, and if I waited long enough, a tiny figure would appear on the horizon across the field and gradually get larger until I'd see it was Tommy, and he'd wave, and maybe even call.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

“Forgiveness, which takes you back to the person you were and lets you reset them. Hope, which exists in a future in which you are new. Forgiveness and hope are miracles. They let you change your life. They are time-travel.”
― Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time

#102. . The Ministry of Time. Written from the perspective of a young woman participating as a guide to the modern age in a time travel experiment, this time travel novel turns the time travel trope on its ear. It is funny, thoughtful and above all well written. My only criticisms are that both the time travel terrorist plot and the mechanics of the time travel should have been fleshed out a little more. 4 I know a book is good when I can’t stop thinking about it and when it adds to my TBR (Rogue Male) stars. ebook. SciFi-Time Travel.

#103. . The Olympian Affair. The latest in Jim Butcher’s new series. I hate to say it but I’m not overly impressed. I liked the cats and the dueling but the multiple POV’s and the long complicated battle sequence bored me. 3 I’m sorry Mr. Butcher but I have read Dresden and this was no Dresden stars. Audiobook. Fantasy.

#104. When the Sky Fell on Splendor. Oh Emily Henry I want so much to like you but something always gets in the way. This was a YA sci-fi book written apparently before Emily Henry came into her romance writing fame. I loved the beginning of the book; a tight friend group and an alien encounter (think Stranger Things) and amazingly less angst than in her adult books. Unfortunately the ending fell apart and left me confused. 3 were there aliens in this book or like all the other Emily Henry books am I the victim of bait and switch stars. Audiobook. YA-Sci-fi? maybe? who knows.

#105 The Western Star. The past and the present collide and set Sheriff Longmire on a dark path. 5 death on the Longmire express stars. Audiobook. Mystery

105 books/10728 pages

Currently:

Never Let Me Go ebook. Difficult but compelling.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Audiobook. Is this what the 70’s were like?
Of Human Bondage ebook. I always seem to have a book that just hangs around and won’t get finished.This is that book.


A leader who was conscientious and intelligent about doing nothing would be better than most,”
― Jim Butcher, The Olympian Affair

Trees teach us patience, but grass teaches us persistence.”
― Craig Johnson, The Western Star

@Ann @Lillie We're just feeding your TBR. We wouldn't want you to run out of books to read.

Coming soon Bill

Congratulations on finishing the list!!!! Loved your letter to Mr. Dickens but are you sure you weren't reading Dr. Suess? Were they in a bottle on a poodle eating noodles?

Currently reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Alondra wrote: "Michelle wrote: "So I'm reporting back. Lea is right the list was 60 books not 50 which is kind of a problem because I was feeling good about 33 out of 50 but now less good about 33 out of 60. I do..."

I liked the list of 60 not so much the list of 50. A lot on the second one were ones that I probably will not read but who knows if they pop up on enough lists I may change my mind eventually.

Alissa wrote: " BOOK 105

Finished another BOTM-owned book and a buddy read with Lindsey!

Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

[bookcover:Margo's Got Money Troubles|19953..."

Glad to hear that you enjoyed Margo as much as I did. That book was more than it appeared in so many ways. Really funny that you mentioned Macho Man Randy Savage. That was exactly who I pictured too.

Bill wrote: "Michelle wrote: "Whew! made it through Selected Stories by Alice Munro.

An extensive selection of Alice Munro's short stories thr..."

A master definitely!

So I'm reporting back. Lea is right the list was 60 books not 50 which is kind of a problem because I was feeling good about 33 out of 50 but now less good about 33 out of 60. I don't know why. Also I checked out the second list 50 books from the past 50 years and I am terribly behind there with only 18 out of 50 read. This is madness!

Ioana wrote: "I realize that this is Michelle's "home" and you can do anything you want here, but you 2 are too much. For the rest of us and our sanity, please stop 🤣🤣🤣
Now I need to search not for one, but 2 "m..."

Hey Lea ramped it up. I'm not taking all of this one.