Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
ABOUT BOOKS AND READING
>
What are you reading or what books have you read or heard about? (Part TWELVE) Ongoing general thread.
Werner wrote: "Barb and I started on the third Jade del Cameron book, The Serpent's Daughter today as our next "car book." This particular installment of Suzanne Arruda's series takes Jade to Moroc..."Werner, enjoy the mystery book. I think it's great the way you use the time spent in the car to listen to audio books. I should do that more often.
Thanks for explaining about the toolbar. I probably wouldn't have noticed but now that I know about it, I can make use of it.
Nina wrote: "Where is the toolbar?"Right above the name of the group. It has:
"goodreads" "My Books" "Browse" & such on it.
I just finished The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2015 edited by Rebecca Skloot. It was quite a trip around the world in a variety of different disciplines: caving, disease, conservation, & many more. I gave it 4 stars here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Jim wrote: "I just finished The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2015 edited by Rebecca Skloot. It was quite a trip around the world in a variety of different disciplin..."Jim, I'm exhausted just THINKING about the amount of information Skloot's book. Even your review had my mind whirling. I don't know how you can digest all that information! I guess the answer is that you are very interested in those areas. I can't make myself WANT to read stuff like that.
Joy wrote: "I think it's great the way you use the time spent in the car to listen to audiobooks." Well, actually, Joy, I refer to ours as "organically powered audiobooks." :-) I just get a paper book and read it out loud to Barb myself. That system might not work for anybody else, but it works for us. I'm not sure if our car actually has the technology to play books on cassette or discs, though I suppose it does if we'd ever make an effort to hunt for it (and figure out how to use it). But we've never felt the desire to do so!
Werner, it's great that you have the stamina to read a book aloud for any length of time. I've been wanting to read some chapters of God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (by Kurt Vonnegut) to my husband, but the thought of keeping up my energy for several pages out loud simply discourages me from even trying.You really should try to learn how to use your car's CD player. It can be very useful. But I suppose it would be nice to hear a real live human read a story to me. I could stop and ask the reader questions and discuss each line, one at a time, if I'd want to. Maybe your method had advantages I hadn't thought of. LOL
Joy H. wrote: "Jim, I'm exhausted just THINKING about the amount of information Skloot's book...."I generally read 2 of the articles each day, so I had time to think about each one & even do a little side research when indicated. I found it an interesting buffet - a taste of many areas. It's not as if I was studying each subject in depth. In some cases, I have read other articles or books that complimented these articles, but some were new ground to me. That's part of the charm of this series of books.
Joy, the car came with a manual, so I'm guessing that the instructions for the CD player would be in there; and I'm sure it's pretty self-explanatory, anyway --probably essentially the same as the one on the computer. So whenever the use for it arises, we should be in good shape to get it going!
Jim wrote: "I generally read 2 of the articles each day, so I had time to think about each one & even do a little side research when indicated....." Jim, I guess if you take it a bit at a time, it's easier to enjoy and digest. Reading your review seemed like a wallop of information! LOL
Werner wrote: "Joy, the car came with a manual, so I'm guessing that the instructions for the CD player would be in there; and I'm sure it's pretty self-explanatory, anyway --probably essentially the same as the ..."Oh, Werner, I'm not good with manuals! I hate having to figure out how to change the clock-time on our car clock or on our new stove's digital clock. Give me an old-fashioned analogue clock anytime!
Good luck with that manual! LOL
Joy, you and I are up the same alley and I feel it's a miracle that I am able to function with this new computer. I had to hunt all over the screen to find "new" so I could compose a message. It is just learning all the new ways to do things I have been doing for years the old way. But, I am learning and I do have a good teacher. The other day I read the Obit of Frank Sinatra, Jr. Did you know he was kidnapped from a hotel in Vegas at the age of nineteen? His father paid the ransom of 240,000.
Thanks, Jim. I see now but I just didn't know what it was called.
Nina, I do remember when Sinatra's son was kidnapped. I wonder if they ever caught the kidnappers.Like you, I find it hard to adjust to changes in technical procedures. We just have to keep doing our best.
I am reading "The Girl in the Spider's Web" Lisbeth Solendar novel continuing from the trilogy by Sting Larasson. Have any of you read it? Or the earlier ones?
I wouldn't read another book by him (Stieg Larsson). There was too much about the first book that I didn't like.
PS-Here's my review of Stieg Larsson's _The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo_:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I've read all 4, Nina. As I wrote in my review of the last one, all things considered, Lagercrantz took on an almost impossible task & did a very credible job of it, but it wasn't without its problems. My review is here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Joy, you don't have to read any more of Stieg Larsson's books as he is dead. I agree that his books were definitely not for everyone and I would have doubted that I would have picked it out but the first book was given to me and I got hooked. I think partly as I had an adventure travelling about Sweden and I seem to enjoy reading books set in places I've been. Also, Jim I am looking forward to reading your review of the fourth book but don't wish to do so until I have finished reading it. So far, I agree with what you mentioned above.
Nina wrote: "Joy, you don't have to read any more of Stieg Larsson's books as he is dead. I agree that his books were definitely not for everyone and I would have doubted that I would have picked it out but the..."Nina, I have read only one of his books, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Even if he were alive and wrote 10 more books, I wouldn't read one of them. Not my cup of tea.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond narrated by Grover Gardner was a 4 star book. It's a bit long (even the abridged version!) & a bit dated since it was first published in 1997, before the gene mapping nailed down historic migrations so much more accurately. I reviewed it here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Jim wrote: "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond narrated by Grover Gardner was a 4 star book. It's a bit long (even the abridged versi..."Sounds like interesting reading, Jim. I might try it.
PS-Ed might like it too.
Have you seen the film, "The Danish Girl"?(which was adapted from the book: The Danish Girl)
If so, how did it end?
I finished the audio book today. I'm wondering if the film's ending is the same as the book. I didn't like the ending.
See my review at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I haven't read "The Danish Girl," but just saw it advertised on Amazon. And is the movie out already? Update on my health problems/ saw the pain dr this morning and he thinks I have a fracture in my lower back so I must have a bone scan on Monday and possibly an MRI after that to determine where the fracture is located. He is hoping it is not on the spinal column but must be certain. So if I am not on Goodreads next week you will understand why. Wish me luck.I need to do something to help relieve the pain.
Nina wrote: "I haven't read "The Danish Girl," but just saw it advertised on Amazon. And is the movie out already? ..."Yes, Nina. The DVD is now available from Netflix. I should receive it after I mail back my current one.
Nina wrote: "... Update on my health problems/ saw the pain dr this morning and he thinks I have a fracture in my lower back so I must have a bone scan on Monday and possibly an MRI after that to determine where the fracture is located. He is hoping it is not on the spinal column but must be certain. So if I am not on Goodreads next week you will understand why. Wish me luck.I need to do something to help relieve the pain. "Nina, sorry to hear that you have a fracture. I will be sending good thoughts your way and thinking of you. I hope you will mend quickly.
It's so easy to fall. Sometimes, no matter how careful we are, we manage to trip and fall. And to make matters worse, at our age we need help getting up, even if we're not hurt much. I do hope you're going to be alright.
Thanks, Joy. I will be all right eventually; just need to hang in there.
Barb and I both are praying for you in the meantime, Nina!
The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson was fantastic. I've read other books on the history of computing, but never one that covered the journey so well. He really brought the people to life & showed how innovation isn't a single person with a great idea, but groups building on the shoulders of giants collaboratively. I gave it 5 stars in my review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Jim wrote: "The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson was fantastic. I've read other books on the history of com..."Ah, I recently finished listening to Walter Isaacson's book, Steve Jobs. If the Hackers book is as good as the Jobs book, it must be good. Isaacson does a good job.
The only trouble I had reading the Jobs book was that I was unfamiliar with the tech talk at certain parts of the book. However, I still got a good idea of Job's personality.
I probably would have similar trouble with the Hackers book, Jim. But you, being in the tech field, probably devoured every bit!
RE: The Thunder of Captains by Dan Lynch While searching for ideas on what to read next and scouring my overly-long "To-Read" list, I found this book and decided to try it. I borrowed it from our public library yesterday and started reading it today. I'm not sure I will be able to stick with it, but I hope I will. I'm hoping it will draw me in. This is not the usual type of book (about Civil War battles) that I like to read.
Funny how we happen to come across certain books. That's always been interesting to me, a sort of private "etymology" of book discovery.
See my partial review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I hadn't checked Isaacson's other books, but thought he was a bit of a Steve Jobs fan-boy. Thanks for letting me know about that. There is a rather large hole in "The Innovators" that I mentioned in my review. On the downside, Isaacson didn't get into business networks & security at all, a gross oversight. Unix dominated networks at first & Novell had a huge presence in the late 80s, but a user had no rights on either network unless specifically granted by knowledgeable techs & businesses paid dearly for them & their support. Neither had a good desktop, if they had one at all. IBM's OS/2 was far better than Win 3.1, but IBM didn't push it nor scale their servers for small businesses. Apple ignored small business & never attracted application software due to their proprietary architecture. Microsoft (MS) sold an easy to use desktop interface that anyone could network & write apps for. Any PC could act as a server & it didn't take much knowledge to set up, so most consumers & small businesses went to Windows. Security was an afterthought until the late 90s, after the WWW connected them all. We've played hell trying to implement decent security ever since, but applications kept us locked in to this OS for all its faults. Still, Microsoft now has over 90% of the desktops compared to a mere 5% by Apple & Linux has even less.
He also didn't discuss how Microsoft often came out with innovations ahead of Apple, but did so a bit too early & didn't make them usable enough. For instance, Microsoft had a tablet & gave it up before Apple made its iPad. It's a bit bewildering. Microsoft had ebooks way before they were cool (Y2K) & they officially quit supporting them & their reader 5 years ago, just when ebooks really came into their own.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microso...
It's a shame, because I have quite a few books in .lit format. Luckily, Calibre converts them to other ebook formats easily.
Well, I have not been reading many books this year but I did finish Panther in the Sky. Quite long but an excellent historical novel about Tecumseh, the Shawnee chief who tried to unite many Indian tribes against the white invaders.James Alexander Thom is a historical fiction writer who does excellent research on his books. The ideas and culture and feelings of this period (1770 to 1813) spring to life. Review coming soon.
Well, my science fiction reading may be on hiatus for a while. I seem to be craving a return to history and historical fiction----which is another favorite genre.I have started No Graves As Yet. It is the beginning of a five volume series about World War I. Anne Perry has written many historical mysteries and her knowledge of history is serving her well in this book. Anne Perry really knows her stuff in creating the details of a historical period and good characterization. I have read a lot about World War II; but I do not know nearly as much about World War I. So far, the book is very entertaining and thought provoking.
Jim wrote: "...Neither had a good desktop, if they had one at all. IBM's OS/2 was far better than Win 3.1, but IBM didn't push it nor scale their servers for small businesses. Apple ignored small business & never attracted application software due to their proprietary architecture. Microsoft (MS) sold an easy to use desktop interface that anyone could network & write apps for. Any PC could act as a server & it didn't take much knowledge to set up, so most consumers & small businesses went to Windows. ...... Microsoft often came out with innovations ahead of Apple, but did so a bit too early & didn't make them usable enough. For instance, Microsoft had a tablet & gave it up before Apple made its iPad. It's a bit bewildering. Microsoft had ebooks way before they were cool (Y2K) & they officially quit supporting them & their reader 5 years ago, just when ebooks really came into their own."
It's interesting to see how each company went in different directions. Steve Jobs made some bad choices in the beginning. For example, his NEXT cube computer failed. But he didn't give up. Jobs finally got it right when he went in the direction of the iTunes, iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. I understand the "i" stands for Internet or Information. (They had a meeting about choosing names and that idea won out.) One of Steve Job's big talents was in making theatrical presentations of his new products. You might say he was a "marketing genius".
"10 Lessons From Steve Jobs That Every Marketer Must Learn":
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/10-...
"Steve Jobs: 7 Lessons from a Marketing Genius":
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=...
This month, my Fans of British Writers group is doing a common read of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Black Arrow, and I'm taking part. This is a real blast from the past for me, since I read the book in junior high school. Usually I don't reread books for common reads, if I've previously read them. But in this case, I've been meaning to reread it anyway; I've never reviewed it, and when one of my Goodreads friends panned it a couple of years ago, I thought it deserved a reread so that I could write a review from a fresh and more adult perspective. I'd forgotten a great deal of the specifics of the plot (though I actually well remembered quite a bit of dialogue, and specific incidents, as well as the general premise and overview). I'm already pretty enthralled; in many ways, reading something one last read some fifty years ago is a lot like reading a new book, and Stevenson starts with the action right out of the gate.
Mary JL wrote: "Well, I have not been reading many books this year but I did finish Panther in the Sky. Quite long but an excellent historical novel about Tecumseh, the Shawnee chief who tried to uni..."Mary JL, I don't know if this is a coincidence or not, but one of the characters in The Thunder of Captains (about the Battle of Saratoga) is named Panther. I've just begun to read it.
Thanks for telling us about _Panther in the Sky_. I enjoy historical fiction and the Native-American genre sounds interesting. I've added the book to my keep-in-mind shelf.
Mary JL wrote: "...I have started _No Graves As Yet_. It is the beginning of a five volume series about World War I. Anne Perry has written many historical mysteries and her knowledge of history is serving her well in this book. Anne Perry really knows her stuff..."Mary JL, we have another coincidence here! I recently watched a documentary about Anne Perry, a writer I know very little about. (I haven't read anything by her.) The documentary is called "Anne Perry: Interiors" (2009).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1403119/?...
"Anne Perry's name does not only stand for the crime-ridden Victorian world of her novels. It is also attached to a murder that took place when she was only 15. The story made it to the big screen in the 1990s - the film "Heavenly Creatures". The documentary ("ANNE PERRY - INTERIORS") accompanies the writer and offers a uniquely intimate insight into the world of one of the most intriguing figures of the literary genre. "
http://www.amazon.com/Anne-Perry-Inte...
"Anne Perry is one of the leading authors of our time. She specialises in crime novels and is famous worldwide. But her books hide a very real tale of murder and everlasting regret. This insightful documentary reveals the genius and challenged mind behind the tome of her work."
The documentary includes her brother who helped do historical research for her books. Very interesting view behind the scenes. Anne Perry seems to have a very strong, serious personality. The documentary shows how she writes curled up in a sort of recliner with paper and pen. Another person is shown transcribing Perry's hard-to-read handwriting onto type-written copies.
PS-Anne Perry was an accomplice in the murder of her friend's mother. She spent time in prison for the crime. She was only a teen-ager at the time. Evidently, the mother was trying to separate the two friends and the daughter resented it.
PPS - Here's the trailer for the Anne Perry documentary:"Anne Perry: Interiors" (2009)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1403119/?...
PS "10 Lessons From Steve Jobs That Every Marketer Must Learn":
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/10-...
"Steve Jobs: 7 Lessons from a Marketing Genius":
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=...
Werner wrote: "This month, my Fans of British Writers group is doing a common read of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Black Arrow, and I'm taking part. This is a real blast from the past for me ... in many ways, reading something one last read some fifty years ago is a lot like reading a new book..."No doubt about that! I hardly remember the stuff I read a few months ago! LOL
Enjoy _The Black Arrow_, Werner.
I've been listening to the audio version of A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert "Believe It or Not!" Ripley by Neal Thompson.It's much more interesting than I thought it would be!
See my review so far at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
PS - Here's Robert Ripley's Wiki page:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_...
It shows his picture and his poor teeth. The audio-book says that Ripley was always ashamed of his appearance. What a shame!
PPS - Below are 2 links to pics I took of
Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum
in 2007 in Florida (St. Augustine):http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1837...
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1837...
Unfortunately, I don't remember much about it.
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
Books mentioned in this topic
Everything All at Once: How to Unleash Your Inner Nerd, Tap Into Radical Curiosity, and Solve Any Problem (other topics)The Lincoln Highway (other topics)
Everything All at Once: How to Unleash Your Inner Nerd, Tap Into Radical Curiosity, and Solve Any Problem (other topics)
We Are All Stardust: Scientists Who Shaped Our World Talk about Their Work, Their Lives, and What They Still Want to Know (other topics)
Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Bill Nye (other topics)Bill Nye (other topics)
Stefan Klein (other topics)
Mary Roach (other topics)
Bill Nye (other topics)
More...
I've been critical above of Goodreads' new format changes, and I think justly so overall. But in fairness, I should mention one change I actually like. Before, the Goodreads toolbar at the top of the page or frame became hidden if you scrolled a ways down the page; to use it, you had to scroll back up to the top, or use the "back to top" button at the very bottom. Now, no matter how far you scroll, the toolbar follows you --or perhaps more accurately, it remains stationary, but the page unrolls beneath it without making it change position in relation to the current screen-- and you can click on options from it from anywhere on the page. (Handy!)