Jennifer’s Comments (group member since Dec 03, 2021)

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

Desley (Cat fosterer) wrote: "Amy wrote: "I'm listening to the audio book of , which is indeed this rusty pinkish color. I've read a few of the later Agatha Raisin books ..."

I liked the first 20 or so of that series. The older Beaton got the more they felt phoned in. But I'll finish it because I only have two or so left - same with Hamish. :)

and another book goes on the tbr...

Joy D wrote: "Finished and enjoyed book #1 of 3 for February:

A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro - My Review"

I liked your review!

Good show both of you!

Lance wrote: "I started They Said They Wanted Revolution: A Memoir of My Parents but stopped at about 25% and won’t b..."

Well, at least it's off the shelf.

I'm with Laurel and Madeline and Alondra! We like having you here, Zora!

She's a credit to readers everywhere for sure. :-)

Glad you liked it -- this was your PIFM pick that "accidentally" also fulfilled the color challenge, wasn't it? So a good twofer!

It was. But I appreciated it because it lifted his grandson out of the one-dimensional role of "addict." It's very easy to view a dead addict as nothing more than that -- a hanger-on, a marginal person who is inherently weak, a drain on society, a criminal who got what was inevitable. Easy to dismiss. I've been guilty of that myself.

But my sig oth's son Michael got addicted by a prescription drug after a sports injury - before that he'd never even smoked pot, and didn't even hang out with his teammates (outside of their games) because they all did. He struggled with it, and had beaten it for several years, but it was like Churchill's black dog -- always there in the periphery. I'm not excusing him. He had every horrifying addict behavior there is for awhile -- crime, lying, stealing from his family, breaking their hearts. (In fact, it was because of the crime that I got to know him -- he was in jail, and was a trustee cleaning our building when we started talking to each other.)

I'm of two minds about Kindred's accomplishment. I think it's important to remember that there is always more to a person's story than the dismount -- particularly when so many addicted Americans got there because of prescribed opioids. But those "my kid is different" stories -- including the one I told about the incident in my own family above! -- also reinforce the stereotype that most addicts are "hangers on, marginal people, etc." because there's an implicit "don't lump my kid in with the rest of them" in all those tales. So those stories both help and hinder.

So I just looked over your list and saw that you have The King's General on it as an alternate! I have that around here somewhere. It's unusual to see any DuMaurier other than Rebecca (and occasionally Jamaica Inn) on anyone's list. A pleasant surprise!

1/28 through 2/4

163 The Riviera House
164 In Every Moment We Are Still Alive
165 Magical Midlife Invasion
166 Dance of the Winnebagos
167 Sorry I Missed You
168 Doggie Day Care Murder
169 Eden Mine
170 Righteous
171 Sister to Sister
172 Every Body on Deck
173 The Duchess: A Novel of Wallis Simpson
174 Dog Eat Dog
175 Hair of the Dog
176 Hot Dog
177 Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883

Good to know, Pam!

Wow, that's a ringing endorsement, Denise!!

No worries, Lauri, life happens. :)

Good to know, Gaylinn. I have coming up fairly soon and I just read and enjoyed .

It's on one of my year-long challenges for this year as well, Rhonda.

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, he realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Alone on this tiny ship that's been cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, it's up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance.

Part scientific mystery, part dazzling interstellar journey, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian--while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.

Project Hail Mary

Thirteen-year-old Anna, an orphan, lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople in a house of women who make their living embroidering the robes of priests. Restless, insatiably curious, Anna learns to read, and in this ancient city, famous for its libraries, she finds a book, the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky. This she reads to her ailing sister as the walls of the only place she has known are bombarded in the great siege of Constantinople. Outside the walls is Omeir, a village boy, miles from home, conscripted with his beloved oxen into the invading army. His path and Anna’s will cross.

Five hundred years later, in a library in Idaho, octogenarian Zeno, who learned Greek as a prisoner of war, rehearses five children in a play adaptation of Aethon’s story, preserved against all odds through centuries. Tucked among the library shelves is a bomb, planted by a troubled, idealistic teenager, Seymour. This is another siege. And in a not-so-distant future, on the interstellar ship Argos, Konstance is alone in a vault, copying on scraps of sacking the story of Aethon, told to her by her father. She has never set foot on our planet.

Cloud Cuckoo Land

I just read the description of that - sounds twisty!

Gaylinn, no worries, we’ll look for you when we see you! Feel better.

Karen wrote: "Here are my three authors for February:
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Siri Hustvedt
Claudia Rankine"

Karen, I messaged Lauri and haven't heard from her so I'm picking for you. If she comes up later and picks, feel free to go with whichever you prefer. I hope she's all right!

I'm picking Claudia Rankine for you!