What are you reading or what books have you read or heard about? (Part TWELVE) Ongoing general thread. Showing 651-700 of 2,793

[Jim]

It's not really SF, Joy. I get into that a bit in my review. The whole Mars thing is just a setting like his town in Something Wicked This Way Comes. Oh, he has thin air & desert scenery, but never says anything about the lower gravity & rockets are about as easy to build as a car. The whole Mars thing is just a setting for him to get into exploring human nature & such.

[Jim]

Strongarm by Dan J. Marlowe wasn't very good. Horrible dialogue, so I barely gave it 3 stars here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "It's not really SF, Joy. I get into that a bit in my review. The whole Mars thing is just a setting like his town in Something Wicked This Way Comes. Oh, he has thin air & desert scen..."

Hmm, Jim, I'll have to give it some consideration. Thanks for telling me. I'll try the sample. Meanwhile, I'm trying to catch up on all the items waiting for me, CDs and digital stuff too. Seems I'm always behind the eight-ball. :)

[Joy H., Group Founder]

RE: The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents by Ronald Kessler (Read by Michael Bybee.)

Today I streamed this audio-book from my public library.
It was fascinating to see behind the scenes!
I couldn't stop listening, even though it's almost 7 hours long!

[Joy H., Group Founder]

PS - I just learned that the book described in my previous post (Message # 654) is part of the "Overdrive" service. The definition of "Overdrive" is below:
===============================================
"OverDrive is a free service offered by your library or school that lets you borrow eBooks, audiobooks, and more from their digital collections. Every OverDrive collection is slightly different because each library or school staff picks the digital content they want for their collection.
"All you need to get started with free digital titles from OverDrive is an internet connection and a library card or student ID."
Above is from: http://help.overdrive.com/customer/po... [Learn more at that link.]
============================================

I found it very easy to use.

[Jim]

I'm glad you've figured out how to use the library's audio books, Joy. It opens up a huge range of books. 2 of my libraries use Overdrive. The other uses OneClickDigital which I don't like nearly as much.

[Jim]

I finished The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly last night. It's 18th in reading order, Harry Bosch #14, & Mickey Haller #2, but also has Jack McEvoy in it & a mention of Cassie Black, although it doesn't mention her by name. It's awesome the way he weaves his universe together. I gave it 4 stars in my review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "I'm glad you've figured out how to use the library's audio books, Joy. It opens up a huge range of books. 2 of my libraries use Overdrive. The other uses OneClickDigital which I don't like nearly a..."

Yes, Overdrive is great. I'm going to see if Eddie can manage it for his own use.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "I finished The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly last night. It's 18th in reading order, Harry Bosch #14, & Mickey Haller #2, but also has Jack McEvoy in it & a mentio..."

Jim, in your review, you wrote: "As usual, it's a twisty tale of murder. There are a lot of loose plot threads floating around, but they'll be woven in eventually." I'm not sure I could keep track of all those twists. Too much like work. :)

[Jim]

I'll be damned if I know why or how American Housewife: Stories by Helen Ellis wound up in my queue. This is a chick book (I'm not) & I don't indulge in mind altering drugs. I must have been in a really quirky mood. Since the alternative is aliens or early onset dementia, I'll go with quirky. If you live in the city & are a female, you'll probably like this more than I did. That I liked it at all is a testament both to the writing & the narration. As far out as it was for me, I still gave it 3 stars in my review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "I'll be damned if I know why or how American Housewife: Stories by Helen Ellis wound up in my queue. This is a chick book (I'm not) & I don't indulge in mind alterin..."

Just the word "housewife" turns me off! As I read somewhere once, "the only thing domestic about me is that I live in a house."
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/...

[Jim]

LOL, Joy.

Did anyone see the GR post about 16 classics from high school? It's here:
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/6...

One of them, The Handmaid's Tale, wasn't published until long after I was out of high school, but the rest were available. I've read a dozen of them, but didn't appreciate a few as well then as I do now. To Kill a Mockingbird is the one I appreciated the most both as a teen & an adult. The mark of a true classic, IMO.

As an adult, I reread a handful of them. My rating on The Martian Chronicles, The Outsiders, Macbeth, & several others hasn't changed. At least I managed to get through The Great Gatsby, but I couldn't get through A Tale of Two Cities again. Barely managed it the first time. Dickens' writing is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "LOL, Joy. Did anyone see the GR post about 16 classics from high school? It's here:
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/6..."

The Pearl Buck book is the one I liked best.

See my review of Atwood's Alias Grace.
The audio book read by Elizabeth McGovern is wonderful!
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

PS-I'm afraid I didn't appreciate The Great Gatsby
PS-I couldn't get into Beloved. IIRC, the time-shifts bothered me.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Nina]

Thanks for the great info on Overdrive to Jim and Joy. I am now a member but it wasn't easy. First of all I have library cards for both a library in MO and one in KS also and when I googled them asking to be part of Overdrive they both returned messages saying they were not a part of it. Not to be daunted I called the library in MO where I most frequent and the young man was most helpful. I must back up as when I tried to do all this on my own ignoring the fact that they said they were not a part I did get as far as Overdrive asking for my library card number and Pin number but there was nothing anywhere on the screen indicating where I could get a Pin number. Thankfully, the young man on the phone just asked for my library card numbers and then gave me a Pin number. After that I worked my way for over a half or was it really more like an hour to find how to do the rest so in spite of both libraries telling me NO way to Overdrive, I persisted and actually downloaded a book that is our Dec book club selection. Yeah! Now all I have to do is figure out how to send it back before the due date. Anyway, thanks again for alerting me to this.

[Jim]

Great, Nina. You shouldn't have to send the book back, though. It should just delete itself or possibly quit working in the OverDrive app. Then you just delete it. No need to return it, though.

[Nina]

I had to read "The Iliad," and "The Odyssey" in college and other classics but don't remember what I was assigned in high school. Must not have been memorable. I was impressed later on that my husband to be said he read those books in high school in Greek.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Nina, I'm glad to hear that you managed to get Overdrive at your library. It pays to be persistent!

About returning Overdrive items, I noticed that while I was listening to one of my Overdrives, there was a box to check if I wanted to "return" the other one which I had already listened to. It seems to be a good system.

However, since all books are not available as Overdrive at each respective public library, it takes a bit of searching to find the books that are. To do this, I search Overdrive to find a book and then I go to my own library online to see if they have it. Hope this makes sense.

[Nina]

Thanks Joy I appreciate all the help I can get for any new digital involvement that I happen to be experiencing at the moment.

[Jim]

The Cutting by James Hayman was a good, easy murder mystery. I gave it 4 stars in my review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Nina wrote: "Thanks Joy I appreciate all the help I can get for any new digital involvement that I happen to be experiencing at the moment."

You're welcome, Nina. We learn as we go. There's no end to it! LOL

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "The Cutting by James Hayman was a good, easy murder mystery. I gave it 4 stars in my review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

I don't like those words: "fairly twisty mystery". LOL I usually get lost in the twists and turns. Years ago I was able to follow mysteries/detective stories by the following authors:
Robert B Parker and Lawrence Sanders. Really enjoyed them!
I even enjoyed the Bond books by Ian Fleming!
Nowadays I avoid mysteries because they get too complicated or because they are just plain dull. Just wondering who did the murder doesn't motivate me.

[Jim]

Unseen Diversity: The World of Bacteria by Betsey Dexter Dyer only got 3 stars from me. I was expecting to give it more & if the first half had been as good as the last half, I would have. I reviewed it here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Thanks for posting, Jim.

Have you read The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee? I listened to parts of it but found it too complicated in parts. I'd like to know what you think of it.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

PS-GR member, Clif, gave a good review of it ("The Gene") at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jim]

Joy H. wrote: "Thanks for posting, Jim.

Have you read The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee? I listened to parts of it but found it too complicated in parts. I'd ..."

No, I have a hold on it at the library for the audio book, though. I read Clif's review on the general book page & it was one the reasons I decided to read it. I hadn't realized he was a member here, too!

It sounds as if it would be understandable to me. It's been nominated for the October read in the Science & Inquiry group, too. It brings together several subjects I've been fascinated by in recent books. One is sexuality which is perceived as a binary option, but we're finding out that it isn't in many cases. Of course, the nurture vs. nature debate is another since I have generations of alcoholics/addicts in my family.

You bring up a good issue about complications - it's a fine line depending on the prior knowledge we bring to a book, the need, & the medium. In "Unseen Diversity" which was written just for audio, Dyer discusses how various bacteria 'eat' & gives the base chemical equation for some, but happily says she won't attempt to balance them. It wouldn't have added much to my understanding of the process & would have just obscured the point she was trying to make in an audio book. It might have been interesting in print where it could be studied or skimmed over. In the context of her point, we really don't care how many of each atom or molecule is being used - just what the final product is & whether the reaction is exothermic or endothermic. And, if the latter, what the power source is.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: " ...It sounds as if it would be understandable to me...."

RE: The Gene: An Intimate History
Jim, the parts of the book which were difficult to understand were the parts which describe the chemical make-up of DNA, genes, and chromosomes and how those are constructed, e.g. the double helix, various chemical names, proteins, etc. My eyes glazed over at those scientific details, especially the chemical names.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

PS - RE: _The Gene: An Intimate History_

I keep wondering how the scientists are able to figure out exactly how the genes are constructed and what their make-up is. They must use powerful microscopes and I think they mentioned ex-rays. I can't understand how they can know so much about such infinitesimal things.

[Jim]

I'm not sure either. They're way beyond direct observation of my small things in many cases. Here is a short few bits on how DNA is looked at now.
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/whoam...

Just remember that it's always evolving as our tech gets better & we know more. Some things we used to be sure about we now find aren't so. For instance, I was taught all viruses had a protein shell decades ago, but now that the tech is available to explore the microbial world better, they've found that many don't. They've also found that 1/3 of our DNA is actually from viruses & believe that only about 10% of it is used in building us. That may change in the future, though.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "... Here is a short few bits on how DNA is looked at now. http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/whoam... ..."

Jim, thanks for the interesting link. You can get lost when you go there. :)

I found (deciphered) (lol) the following bit of info:
===============================================
"How do scientists look at chromosomes?"

"A chromosome is a single, very long strand of DNA, tightly coiled up. (The largest ... contains about 8000 genes while the smallest ... contains less than 300. ...)

In all, you have 23 pairs of chromosomes in most cells of your body. You can see them under an ordinary microscope, but you would not be able to distinguish individual genes."

FROM: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/whoam...
==============================================

It's interesting that chromosomes can be seen with an ordinary microscope.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

PS - I found the following "easy-to-understand" info about chromosomes, genes and DNA:
===========================================
"What is the difference between a chromosome and a gene?"

Think of it this way:
DNA is in genes. Genes are on chromosomes.
All cells in the human body, except red blood cells, contain chromosomes.

FROM: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/...
===========================================

[Jim]

You never looked inside of cells in school, Joy? I did & so I guess took it for granted. Any microscope capable of giving a good view of bacteria can easily see inside large protozoans, IIRC. I think that's 750x-1000x, but my school had microscope that went higher than that. There are various stains that can make the parts of the cell pop out better, too. I was fascinated by it. Back then they were just getting the idea that mitochondria were once bacterial cells that moved in to become part of the host. I don't think they thought that about chloroplasts yet. They do now since they've found separate DNA in them & can trace it to blue-green bacteria.

My current microscope only goes up to 200x (along with 10x & 60x), but I can hook it to my PC, so it's even neater in a lot of ways. It's great for looking at wood, fungi, & bugs & it only cost $60. Opens a whole new world to look at.

I've always liked genetics, too. I did 2 term papers on breeding fruit flies (drisophila melanogaster, IIRC) in school. I think they only have 6 chromosomes & the features those change are pretty obvious even to the naked eye. The standard one was in 9th or 10th grade & I used its results to do another for my senior project in Adv Bio using a variety of contaminants to see what genetic defect rates they caused. It was pretty crude, but interesting. It's all fascinating to me.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "You never looked inside of cells in school, Joy? I did & so I guess took it for granted. ... It's all fascinating to me. ..."

No, Jim. I never looked at cells through a microscope. I still can't understand how scientists discover which gene does what, especially when there are so many different genes. [Humans have over 22,000 genes. They certainly aren't labelled. :)

The following page is pretty good but I get lost somewhere around the middle. :)
"DNA Basics": http://genetics.thetech.org/ask/ask293

[Jim]

I think they determine what a gene does by sequencing a whole bunch from similar people or animals & look at what is different & the same between them in many cases. Most of our DNA is very similar to other mammals & even other orders. I believe we share over 96% with chimps. That's why a fish gene would work in a tomato.

Here's are 2 pretty good primers on methods.
https://www.quora.com/How-do-scientis...
http://www.yourgenome.org/facts/how-d...

It would probably help to understand more about proteins & general chemistry to really get a handle on it. I always found organic chemistry confusing due to all the similarities. I have more questions than answers about this myself.

Another really cool advance is that they're now looking into making CPUs for computers using DNA since they're approaching size limits. Real cutting edge stuff that brings a lot of disciplines together.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/artic...

Getting disciplines together has been a big issue for years. I recall Heinlein writing about it in one of his books from the 1950s. There's just too much for anyone to know too much about many disciplines & it's only gotten way worse in the past 60 years.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "I think they determine what a gene does by sequencing a whole bunch from similar people or animals & look at what is different & the same between them in many cases. ..."

Jim, that sounds very logical. A good explanation!

Thanks for the links. They are excellent. I'm saving them on a special WordPad doc which I've developed for myself. When I find clear explanations, I copy and paste them to study later, along with the links. I'll check those links out soon.

I'm going to send the link about DNA and computers to my son. He works with chips. The page explained the following:
=============================================
"Biologically, the well-known function of DNA is to code for functional proteins that are the expressed form of hereditary, genetic information. But in the past few years, the discovery that DNA can conduct an electrical current has made it an interesting candidate for other roles that nature did not intend for this molecule. In particular, DNA could be useful in nanotechnology for the design of electric circuits, which could help to overcome the limitations that classical silicon-based electronics is facing in the coming years."
FROM: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/artic...
============================================
Imagine... "DNA can conduct an electrical current! So many possibilities.

[Jim]

I just finished The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester & gave it 4 stars in my review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
It was a blast from the past in many ways, but pretty amazing & even inspiring. I don't remember many older books with such a nasty main character.

[Nina]

Jim, I enjoy reading your reviews. Yours are so much better than the ones I read in the NY Times reviews.

[Jim]

Thanks, Nina!

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "I just finished The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester & gave it 4 stars in my review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... It was a blast from the ..."

Good science fiction review, Jim. You made me look up the meaning of "synesthesia". :) I had heard of it but I had forgotten the meaning. Thanks for posting!

DEFINITION: Synesthesia is a condition that happens when a sense, such as sight, triggers another sense, like smell, at the same time. For someone with synesthesia, each letter of the alphabet might have a different odor.
FROM: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary...

[Jim]

Thanks, Joy. It was an interesting old one, a classic with warts.

[Nina]

I love that explanation, Joy. I will keep that in mind. I do believe it happens. And to answer your question, do I get nervous having a party. I can't call it nervous but I do have a bit of stress at the just before time getting all the food in order and otherwise I try to just enjoy myself with my guests and hope they are doing the same.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Nina, I hope your party will be a big success!

[Nina]

Thanks, me too.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

I found the audio CDs of the following books by browsing the audio-CD shelf at our library.

A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life by Brian Grazer
Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior by Jonah Berger

I started listening to the above audio-CDs and was drawn in by the thought-provoking quality of both books. They both introduce new perspectives and new ways of looking at life. See my reviews at:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Nina]

Jim are you the one I need to thank for my getting "Dark Horse" on Netflix. Both my husband and I loved it.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Nina wrote: "Jim are you the one I need to thank for my getting "Dark Horse" on Netflix. Both my husband and I loved it."

Nina, sounds good. Think I'll try it. (Dark Horse)
"The inspirational true story of a group of friends that decides to breed themselves a racehorse, who grows into an unlikely champion."
https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Horse-Jan...
https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Dark-Ho...

[Jim]

Hmmm... You're welcome, but I don't recall seeing it or mentioning it. Are you sure it wasn't someone else?

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "Hmmm... You're welcome, but I don't recall seeing it or mentioning it. Are you sure it wasn't someone else?"

Nina and Jim, I looked back and saw that, on Jan. 1, 2016 in this group, Werner had mentioned the book, The Dark Horse (1981) by Rumer Godden.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

But the movie, "The Dark Horse" (2015), doesn't seem to give credit to Godden:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4137902/?...

So I surmise they aren't related.

[Nina]

No, I am not sure Jim. I thought it was you but perhaps because of the fact that it was a story about a horse and a good one. You might like to watch it if indeed you know nothing about it. Now I am curious as to how I even heard about it. In any case, both my husband and I as I said truly enjoyed seeing it. Inspirational and a relief from ISIS happenings.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Speaking of horses, at an amateur art exhibit at our library yesterday, there was a touching painting of a young girl nuzzling her head against the head of a horse. I wish I had had my camera with me.

There was also an excellent painting of a jockey hunched forward on a horse. The painting views him and the horse face-on during a race, both looking straight into the picture. It was full of energy. Amazing!

[Jim]

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey knocked my socks off. 5 stars!!! I saw the first season of "The Expanse" on TV & liked it, but heard the book was even better. They were not kidding. Far better & the show didn't spoil it at all. Next season might, so read this now. Here's my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...