PAMELA'S 50 BOOKS READ IN 2015

[Jill]

Pamela......here is your new thread for books read this year and the sample format. Happy reading!

Our Required Format:

JANUARY

1. by Winston S. Churchill
Finish date: January 2015
Genre: (whatever genre the book happens to be)
Rating: A
Review: You can add text from a review you have written but no links to any review elsewhere even goodreads. And that is about it. Just make sure to number consecutively and just add the months.

[Pamela]

JANUARY

1. by Margaret Leech (no photo)
Finish date: January 6, 2015
Genre: American History, History
Rating: A
Review: In this Pulitzer Prize Winner published in 1942, the city of Washington, D.C. is the central character and plays host to a supporting cast of major and minor figures of the Civil War who march endlessly in and out of the city, its' private homes and public buildings. Their stories are fascinating, but it is Washington itself that captivates as it changes from a small southern town to the war capital of the Union.

[Pamela]

2. by Andy Weir
Finish date: January 9, 2015
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: A
Review: Excellent. Fast Paced. Great Story. Good Science.

[Jill]

Don't forget the author link after the photo, Pamela. Thanks.

[Pamela]

Is that what you mean, Jill?

[Pamela]

3. by William Martin
Finish date: January 11, 2015
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating:B
Review: Excellent historical fiction as is everything by William Martin. This story of General Washington is told chapter by chapter by first person accounts of people who knew him (historical and fiction) in their own words and gives a very strong sense of reality to the whole.

[Jill]

Yes, Pamela. I should have given you an example but you are right on track. Thanks.

[Pamela]

4. by Walt Whitman
Finish date: January 14, 2015
Genre: American History, Memoir
Rating: C
Review: Written in prose, this memoir of Whitman's time as a volunteer in the hospitals of Washington is as beautiful as some of his finest poetry. He speaks so tenderly and lovingly at times of these men, many of them as they lay dying, that you stop thinking of them as soldiers and think of them only as the wounded sons of the nation they truly were.

[Pamela]

5 by Nathaniel Rich
Finish date:January 15, 2015
Genre: Science Fiction, Post-apocalyptic
Rating: C
Review: When I bought this book, I was buying and reading stacks of financial and economic books and had grabbed this one up too. So imagine my surprise when it turned out to be a climate change disaster novel instead and a fairly good one, too. Not great and more than a little weird but interesting. Mitchell is a mathematician hired to predict disaster scenarios and their outcomes and becomes just a little paranoid as a result. He also tends to get prepared for everything. So when he sees a modern artwork called the "Psycho Canoe", he buys it and it turns out to be the ultimate bargain. As I said, it's an interesting book.

[Pamela]

6. by Anthony Doerr
Finish date: January 18, 2015
Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction
Rating: A
Review: Imagine being young, blind and finding yourself alone in a walled medieval city on an island occupied by the Nazis and bombed by the Allies. That's the premise; what happens made this one of the best books of 2014/2015.

[Pamela]

7. by Stephen King
Finish date: January 20, 2015
Genre: Fiction
Rating: C
Review: I should preface my next statement by saying I am a long time fan of King but have not read him in awhile. I liked it up until the very end which I thought was disappointing and amazingly dumb.

[Pamela]

8. by Stephen King
Finish date: January 21, 2015
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B
Review: This one was better than Revival, but still not up to the 5 star writing I expect from Stephen King.

Citation: by Stephen King

[Pamela]

9. by Emily St. John Mandel
Finish date: January 23, 2015
Genre: Science Fiction, Post-apocalyptic
Rating: B
Review: I am a fan of post-apacalyptic and dystopian lit and this is a nice example of it. A band of actors and symphony members travel the countryside about 15 years after the disaster that has decimated the world population. They give performances of Shakespeare and hold concerts. Through their eyes we see the devastation and through their individual stories we piece together what has happened. The characters are tied together by a dead Shakespearian actor, a young girl present on the stage the night he died, his son, and a dark graphic novel about a space station.

The difference in this post apocalypse is how gentle it is. Things happen at a remove. Screams are heard in the distance. Fires are seen burning on the horizon and death is alluded to, but seldom seen up close. The main charcter has a "horrible time" she cannot even remember. I like my apocalyptic novels to be truly apocalytic. Nevil Shute's On the Beach where he brings mankind to an end. Or Lucifer's Hammer with its' civilization destroying meteor and Alas, Babylon which leaves a small town in Florida to face the horrors of nuclear devastation and isolation. Something that makes you really face up to what you would do if the lights went out.....permanently.

Citations: by Nevil Shute
by Larry Niven
by Pat Frank

[Pamela]

10. by Ian Mortimer
Finish date: January 27, 2015
Genre: History, non-fiction
Rating: B
Review: It is exactly what it says it is. This very interesting book is written like a travel guide and when finished you feel like throwing it in your suitcase just in case your next flight finds you stranded in the 14th century instead of Atlanta. Very entertaining.

[Pamela]

FEBRUARY

11. by Deborah Crombie
Finish date: February 3, 2015
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B
Review: British mystery series which I started on the 11th book. Interesting plot around a unique subject matter of English narrowboats and a mummified infant's body in a wall. Good suspense, not too gory, easy read.

[Pamela]

12. by Victoria Finlay
Finish date: February 5, 2015
Genre: Art
Rating: A
Review: Interesting facts about color pigments surrounded by beautiful paintings. Something you will enjoy over and over.

[Pamela]

13. by Eric Schlosser
Finish date: February 12, 2015
Genre: American History, History, non-fiction
Rating: A
Review: The story of the Damascus Accident is bad enough but the history of nuclear accidents from the Manhattan Project until the present will make you lie awake nights literally staring into the darkness. It's both fascinating and horrifying.

[Jill]

I read the book noted below and it scared me to death. They had no idea what would happen when they dropped that first bomb.....would it alter the Earth's axis, set the atmosphere on fire or crack the world. And they never gave a thought to radiation sickness. As Oppenheimer said as the bomb exploded, " "Now I am become death, the shatterer of worlds".

by Peter Wyden

[Pamela]

I've always thought the decision to go ahead in spite of those uncertainties a terrifically irresponsible one. I know they felt more than reasonably sure none of it would happen but it still seems pretty arrogant. The dangerous side of science: having built it, the temptation to see it used is just too great. Unfortunately, our maturity is not always up to our scientific ability.

[Jill]

You and I are in total agreement on this issue, Pamela. You might want to read the book I noted above later. It chilled my soul.

[Pamela]

I will definitely add it to the tbr list where I have a few more on the same subject, Jill.

[Pamela]

14. by Christopher Isherwood
Finish date: February 15, 2015
Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction
Rating: B
Review: Based on the diaries Christopher Isherwood kept while he lived and worked in Berlin during the last years of the Weimar Republic, these stories were the basis of the musical Cabaret. These stories are, however, very much more than that. They are the tale of a life that is ending; one that is coming to an end on many different levels. The city is changing and the people in it are changing too. Isherwood is writer, narrator, and character in his own tale as he moves from part to part through the lives of several different people in different social classes. Through it all is a constant small feeling of unease that gradually becomes outright fear by the last story. The characters sense it, Isherwood knows it, and we, the readers, sense it also. Christopher Isherwood left Berlin in 1933 as Hitler came into power and he published these stories in 1939. Readers then must have had some idea of what would happen to characters like these people and we,the modern day readers, certainly know. By the end of the book, the urge to scream "Leave. Leave Now" is strong indeed.

[Pamela]

15. by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Finish date: February 17, 2015
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B
Review: I liked this author's first book Half a Yellow Sun very much and this one is just as good. This time it takes place half in Nigeria and half in the United States. One character emigrated there and now is returning home and the other character has been living in Nigeria. Friends and lovers before, they must now readjust to the changes they find in each other.

Citation: by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

[Pamela]

16. by Brian Greene
Finish date: February 21, 2015
Genre: Science, non-fiction
Rating: C
Review: I'm not really sure how much of this I actually understood. The idea of an endless number of Mes(sp?) typing reviews in an unlimited number of universes up, down, sideways or parallel seriously freaks me out. It also makes me oddly excited and happy to think of all of us doing things in such a weirdly shaped almost unthinkable way. Sort of like all those monkeys typing away until they come up with Hamlet. I don't even like Hamlet. Couldn't they come up with MacBeth? Still, in an ever expanding universe, who knows. Bring it on. After this one, I'm up for anything.

[Pamela]

MARCH

17. by Jack McDevitt
Finish date: March 3, 2015
Genre: Science-fiction, post-apocalyptic
Rating: B
Review: It's 700 or so years in the future and all that makes up our present has crumbled into indecipherable ruins. What civilization exists has very little technology, no books and seemingly no desire to learn much of anything either. They have a legend about a place called Haven, the repository of all lost knowledge and this is the story of an attempt to find it.

[Pamela]

18. by Jill Jonnes (no photo)
Finish date: March 25, 2015
Genre: History, non-fiction
Rating: B
Review: Fairly self-explanatory. It's a book about the building of the Eiffel Tower and the World's Fair for which it was built. The book was very interesting, full of odd facts about some well known personalities. The best parts were about Eiffel and his Tower, the arguments it caused, the lawsuits, and the way everyone changed their minds once it was finished.

[Pamela]

19. by James Van Pelt
Finish date: March 27, 20215
Genre: Science Fiction, post-apocalyptic
Rating: B
Review: There is basically one thing that makes this particular book stand out from the general run of the mill dystopian lit. It posits a possible unrecoverable ending for the human race due to environmental factors. Otherwise, the story moves rather slowly and could use a good editor.

[Pamela]

APRIL

20. by Paula Hawkins
Finish date: April 2, 2015
Genre: Fiction, Mystery
Rating: D
Review: This was an all too predictable mystery. Nothing thrilling about it at all.

[Pamela]

21. by Elizabeth Brown Pryor (no photo)
Finish date: April 13, 2015
Genre:American History, Biography, History, non-fiction about the south
Rating: B
Review: A personal portrait of an enigmatic man based on letters to friends, relations and family members. Each chapter contains letters followed by historical analysis from Ms. Pryor. This is very good history and gives a much different perspective on R.E. Lee's character than the usual offerings.

[Pamela]

22. by Philip Roth
Finish date: April 27, 2015
Genre: Fiction, Alternative reality
Rating: C
Review: First off, I'm not a fan of Philip Roth but I keep giving him a try since he's supposed to be one of America's best, and I am a fan of alternate realities. The Plot Against America is not bad and it's not really good either. Lindberg becomes president, makes a pact with everybody to avoid war and subtly begins to persecute the Jewish citizens of America. All of this is explained through the eyes of 9 year old Philip Roth. Mr. Roth lets the plot kind of fall apart at the end because ....I don't know why.


A better version of this was written in 1935 by Sinclair Lewis. Called It Can't Happen Here. There are no Nazis, but it still shows what a home grown version of
fascism would look like in the USA.

Citation: by Sinclair Lewis

[Jill]

Good work, Pamela. I like you varied choice of topics.

[Pamela]

Thanks, Jill. I wish I was better about keeping track of dates. Half the time I just mark them read in my general list with the year and it's tough to remember what month I actually finished.

[Jill]

You are doing a pretty good job.....if you get it in the wrong month, it won't matter as long as you read it.

[Pamela]

Well, that's nice to hear. At my age, it's getting to the point where I'm grateful I recognize that it's a book. :)!

[Jill]

Don't feel alone!!!!

[Pamela]

MAY

23. by Kazuo Ishiguro
Finish date: May 2, 2015
Genre: Fiction
Rating: C
Review: I am a great fan of Kazuo Ishiguro. Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans are personal favorites. This one not so much. The writing is wonderful, the premise is a good one; but somehow it doesn't quite come together for me as his other works do. Without giving too much away here, I thought I was supposed to feel a moral dilemma over the ultimate fate of the schoolchildren in this book. The problem was that I didn't. Ishiguro presents them as so resigned to their fate and so detached from the natural reality of the world around them that I never could finally think of them as completely human just like me.

Still, I have not been able to stop thinking about this book and the numerous questions it raises. That alone makes it a very important one. Add to it, the calm and beautiful way in which Kazuo Ishiguro unfolds a story and it's a work not to be missed.

Citations: by Kazuo Ishiguro

[Pamela]

24. by Charles Glass
Finish date: May 11, 2015
Genre: American History, History, WW11
Rating: B
Review: Very well done history of the American colony who remained in Paris during the occupation. Interesting stories about the many writers, politicians, millionaires, entertainers, etc. that made up this community, some known but most unknown to modern readers. Probably the most interesting section is the one about Slyvia Beach and her partner, the owners of Shakespeare & Company the American Bookstore and original publishers of James Joyce's Ulysses. In addition, there are many other worthwhile stories of a perilous time.

Citation: by James Joyce

[Jill]

I read that book a couple of years ago and really liked it. A very strange time in Paris!

[Pamela]

I was fascinated by the stories and especially by the size of the American community. I had no idea it was so large. Somehow you just imagine that everyone gets repatriated once the war breaks out unless they happen to be married to a French national. So I was surprised that so many decided to stay throughout the war.

[Pamela]

25. by Carol Rifka Brunt
Finish date: May 18, 2015
Genre: Fiction
Ration: A
Review: The reason I didn't write a review about this book the first time around is because I didn't have any idea what to say. I still don't. Yet I really liked this book. I also really have issues with it it. One, I don't like June, the main character and narrator. I'm supposed to but I just don't. She just feels so endlessly sorry for herself. Two, she lives in New York and she wanders all over the place alone and no one ever seems to know or care where she is. Even in today's world, that's unrealistic for a middle class teen. And three, she's in love with her uncle...really. Well, she thinks she is and she certainly wants to be.

It's only after I reminded myself umpty times that she's very young, that I began to make sense of this book and enjoy it. June is enormously self centered and we only meet Finn(uncle) after he is dead from AIDS but he was obviously a wonderful person and their relationship a good one. She is devastated by his loss and even more so when she discovers that she was not the only person in his life. It is the growing relationship betweeen her and Finn's lover Toby that makes this book such a good one.

Normally I don't go in for teenage Angst but this is a lot more than that. It's a very good story of how the young can be led to compassion.

[Pamela]

26. by John Ferling
Finish date: May 2015
Genre: American History, History, non-fiction
Rating: A
Review: John Ferling is a professor emeritus of history at a university about two hours north of where I currently live so something of a local hero but mainly a hero for the superb way he makes the American Revolutionary War come alive. Two of his previous works, A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic and Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence, have the distinction of being the only history books to actually make me tear up.

Independence is every bit as good, while not producing quite as much emotion. It gives a rundown of all the major characters involved on both sides of the Atlantic and shows the developement of the political philosophy that led this country to demand Independence over the 40 odd months before July 1776. It's cause and effect as near as can be had without being there.

Citations: by John Ferling

[Pamela]

JUNE

27. by Diana Gabaldon
Finish date: June 2, 2015
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, Time Travel, ChickLit
Rating: A
Review: Third in the series. Claire discovers Jamie survived Culloden and manages to return to Scotland after 20 years apart. Adventures galore.

[Pamela]

28. by Diana Gabaldon
Finish date: June 5, 2015
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, Time Travel, ChickLit
Rating: A
Review: Fourth in the series. Claire and Jamie are now in America. Brianna decides to come also and warn them of impending doom. Roger follows Brianna. Are you amazed at all the people who can travel through time? Me too.

[Pamela]

29. by Diana Gabaldon
Finish date: June 7, 2015
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, Time Travel, ChickLit
Rating: A
Review: Compared to the others, this one is ordinary. Apparently just like life in the 18th century. Lots of sitting around hoping the house won't catch on fire and wondering how or if we can make penicillin. Still good writing though and lots of sex.

[Pamela]

30. by Diana Gabaldon
Finish date: June 9, 2015
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, Time Travel, ChickLit
Rating: A
Review: Moving along, everybody is older but pretty much the same thing keeps happening to them. Claire heals everybody on the Ridge 6 times over and then gets herself kidnapped. Jamie rescues her but only after....well, you get the picturee. Brianna and Roger have to go Back the Future. (Wow, great title!)

[Pamela]

31. by Diana Gabaldon
Finish date: June 12, 2015
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, Time Travel, ChickLit
Rating: A
Review: Oh thank God, action at last! The American Revolution has started and now everyone is in America. Well, except for Brianna and Roger who are in the Future. Jamie, Ian, Clair, and Fergus are fighting for the Rebels. John Grey, his brother, and Jamie's son (surprise, surprise) fight for the British. Everybody is having a great time, including the reader.

[Pamela]

32. by Diana Gabaldon
Finish date: June 2015
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, Time Travel, ChickLit
Rating: A
Review: Outlander orgy. What can I say? Time travel is bad science but absolutely no one can resist the idea of it and it makes a great literary device. The romance here is terrific. The hero is gorgeous and as incredibly brave as a hero should be and the heroine is beautiful, smart and resourceful. The history is good and the novels are well written. What more could anyone want? Plus there is a witch and kilts! Winners all around.

[Pamela]

33. by Vivien Shotwell
Finish date: June 2015
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance
Rating: D
Review: I am sorry to say, here's an example of bad historical fiction and bad romance too. Or maybe I should just say bad fiction because I've read reviews that say the opera parts are spot on. I don't know about that part because I don't know enough about opera, but when I read historical fiction I want to see whether or not it interests me enough to follow up and learn about the person or era factually. This book about Anna Storace, Mozart's prima buffa didn't make me want to do that. It didn't even make me want to learn more about Mozart!

The characters were basically one dimensional and the fictionalized account of the affair between the two was barely noticeable and came mainly toward the end of the book. In fiction, people who break marriage vows must either mire themselves abjectly in guilt and despair over sinful love or blaze with passionate lust across torrid pages while they burn bridges behind them. They don't giggle and simper and cry a little while they wave goodbye. For heaven's sake, these folks were dramatic artists. Surely they knew how to conduct a worthwhile affair!

[Pamela]

34. by Lisa Turner
Finish date: June, 2015
Genre: Mystery
Rating: C
Review: I have summarized both books in the following review but to clarify, this is the first book in a Southern mystery series featuring Det. Billy Able of the MPD. It's well written, has good local color about Memphis, a tight little crime novel that's not unpleasantly gory.

[Pamela]

35. by Lisa Turner
Finish date: June, 2015
Genre: Mystery
Rating: C
Review: I read both of these because I grew up in Memphis and am always on the lookout for "take me home again" books. They did the trick. Both had good Memphis color and the stories were fast paced, easy reads, well drawn characters, with fairly believable action. You can't really ask too much more of a simple mystery than that. I hope she writes some more.