THE JAMES MASON COMMUNITY BOOK CLUB discussion
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WHAT BOOKS HAVE YOU FINISHED?
My review of Hawkes Harbor
by S.E. Hinton. What an excellent story (4.5 stars)https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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The book is a semi-autobiographical novel based on the author's committal to New York's Rockland State Hospital in 1941.
Good book. 4 stars
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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by Leslie MeierIn this newspaper reporter/amateur sleuth Lucy Stone fits a murder investigation into her busy life. The book can be read as a standalone.
Atmospheric cozy, 3 stars
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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by Benjamin PercyThis is the first book in the Comet Cycle Series, about the consequences of a comet passing close to the Earth.
Action packed thriller. 3.5 stars
My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A Psalm for the Wild-Built
by Becky Chambers. What a lovely surprise. (5 stars)https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The White Mountains
by John Christopher (Tripods #1) 3.5 starshttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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by Joan Didion (4.5 stars)https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."
Looks like a good book. 🌞
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by Starstruck: My Unlikely Road to HollywoodLeonard Maltin is an American film critic, film historian, and author. He writes about his history with movies and is very informative and interesting.
Good book. 4 stars
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Barbara wrote: "Bill wrote: "The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (4.5 stars)https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."
L..."
Excellent. I'm definitely going to read more of her works, both non-fiction and fiction.
Flung Out of Space: Inspired by the Indecent Adventures of Patricia Highsmith
by Grace Ellis (4.0 stars)https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary MantelMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Any revolution is chaos with the great possibility of civil war.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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by Alastair Reynolds"Revelation Space" takes place in the 26th century, when humans have achieved space travel and can journey vast distances in 'lighthugger' ships that fly at almost the speed of light.
Good story. 4 stars
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Today, I finished reading "The Flying Sikh: The Story of a World War I Fighter Pilot - Flying Officer Hardit Singh Malik" by Stephen Barker.
This is a fantastic story of a most remarkable man, an Oxford University graduate and one of only 4 Indians permitted by British authorities to join the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), who saw combat over the Western Front, and later enjoyed a career as a diplomat.
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by David Rosenfelt
Reluctant sarcastic defense attorney Andy Carpenter defends a man accused of a double murder.
Fun story. 3.5 stars
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way
by Bill Bryson (3.0 stars)https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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A Hiss Before Dying by Rita Mae BrownFarmer/amateur sleuth/pet mom Harry Haristeen becomes involved in the investigation of two deaths.
Not so mysterious but Informative about Virginia history. 3 stars
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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by Adrian TchaikovskyAn alien species called the Architect is destroying sentient life forms, including humans.
Good story. 4 stars
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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by Stuart TurtonA young woman named Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until the mystery of her murder is solved.
Complicated interesting plot. 4 stars
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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Secrets on the Fens by Joy EllisDI Nikki Galena' investigates a series of odd murders.
Artful mystery and police procedural. 3.5 stars
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Death At The Dolphin Death At The Dolphin by Ngaio Marsh 3.5 starshttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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by Charles ToddInspector Rutledge investigates the death of a man who fought in World War I.
Clever mystery. 3.5 stars
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Renegades: Born in the USA by
by Barack Obama & Bruce Springsteen (4.5 stars)https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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by Barack Obama & Bruce Springsteen (4.5 stars)https://www.goodreads.co..."
Looks like an insightful interesting book. 🙂
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by Robert RotsteinThe bulk of the story is about jury deliberations, told from the jurors' rotating points of view.
Good mystery/courtroom drama. 3.5 stars
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Second Man
by Edward Grierson (4.0 stars) Excellent courtroom drama. It was dramatized on TV in 1959 and starred... wait for it... James Masonhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A few days ago, I finished reading "The Night Fire" by Michael Connelly.
While I had heard of Michael Connelly prior to reading this novel, it was through an interview he gave on BBC Radio last month that I was so impressed with him as a writer that I borrowed this novel from the neighborhood library. It was FANTASTIC, very well-crafted, and full of dramatic tension.
I will be reading more of Michael Connelly's detective novels. The man can WRITE.
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While I had heard of Michael Connelly prior to reading ..."
I agree. Michael Connelly is a great mystery writer. 🙂
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by Marie-Renée LavoieA divorced woman - who was devastated by her husband's betrayal - finds her bearings and gets on with her life.
Good fun story. 3 stars
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq
by Hassan Blasim (3.5 stars)https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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by Andrea CamilleriMontalbano and his team investigate a bombing in Sicily.
Enjoyable story. 3 stars
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Girl Who Owned a City: The Graphic Novel
by O.T. Nelson (3.0 stars)https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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by E.J. CoppermanIn this 10th book in the 'Haunted Guesthouse' series, innkeeper/amateur sleuth Alison Kerby gets drawn into a buried car murder mystery.
Enjoyable book. 3 stars
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
While the Patient Slept
by Mignon G. Eberhart (Sarah Keate #2) 3.5 starshttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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THE JAMES MASON COMMUNITY BOOK CLUB
Books mentioned in this topic
The Skull Mantra (other topics)Murder With Chocolate Tea (other topics)
The Left Hand of Darkness (other topics)
The Good Neighbors (other topics)
Listen for the Lie (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Eliot Pattison (other topics)Karen Rose Smith (other topics)
Holly Black (other topics)
Amy Tintera (other topics)
Rachel Hawkins (other topics)
More...
For all its 1,050 pages, HENRY 'CHIPS' CHANNON: The Diaries 1938-43 is an engaging, highly informative, and entertaining account of life as experienced by a Conservative Member of Parliament (M.P.) spanning the period October 1, 1938 to July 25, 1943.
'Chips' was one of those obscure historical figures who had cast his star to that of the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. He was an unabashed and consummate social climber who was apprehensive about the efforts among a coterie of Conservative M.P.s, chief among them Winston Churchill and his protégé Anthony Eden, to upset Chamberlain's appeasement policies toward Nazi Germany.
In retrospect, one can see that the Munich Agreement as arrived at by Britain, France, and Germany in September 1938 (through which Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland region was ceded to Germany without any Czech input on the matter) brought Britain an extra year in which to re-arm against the growing threat to peace in Europe posed by Hitler. But at the time 'Chips' describes in these diaries, Chamberlain felt that Hitler could be held to his word when he asserted that he had no more territorial demands to make in Europe. Unfortunately, the afterglow of a preserved peace that prevailed over Europe after Munich was a short-lived one. For in March 1939, Hitler sent the Wehrmacht to occupy the remainder of Czechoslovakia and began the process of harassing Poland over transit rights for Germany through the so-called 'Polish Corridor' to East Prussia, in which Germany held a proprietorial interest. (Prior to November 1918, East Prussia and parts of Western Poland had been German.) Consequently, Britain and France made security guarantees to Poland, assuring it of their support should Germany attack Poland.
What I found most fascinating about these diaries is Chips' astute eye for detail, as well as his writing style, and his insights into himself and the lives of the various people with whom he had close relationships or knew slightly through his social contacts and connections as an M.P.