karspeak (Karen) is reading...

Discussions75 Books Challenge for 2018

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karspeak (Karen) is reading...

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2drneutron
Déc 28, 2017, 5:43 pm

Welcome back!

3karspeak
Déc 28, 2017, 7:33 pm

Thanks!

4thornton37814
Déc 28, 2017, 10:04 pm

Happy 2018 reading!

5FAMeulstee
Déc 31, 2017, 10:06 am

Happy reading in 2018, Karen!

6The_Hibernator
Déc 31, 2017, 12:45 pm



Happy New Year! I wish you to read many good books in 2018.

7karspeak
Modifié : Déc 31, 2017, 1:16 pm

>4 thornton37814: >5 FAMeulstee: >6 The_Hibernator: Thanks, and Happy (almost) New Year!!

8PaulCranswick
Jan 1, 2018, 4:02 am



Happy New Year
Happy New Group here
This place is full of friends
I hope it never ends
It brew of erudition and good cheer.

9karspeak
Jan 3, 2018, 10:30 pm

1. The Boy Who Loved Too Much
Amazon's synopsis: "The poignant story of a boy’s coming-of-age complicated by Williams Syndrome (WS), a genetic disorder that makes people biologically incapable of distrust." The author spent five years researching Williams Syndrome and following the lives of Eli, a boy with WS, and his mother. The writing and content of this book was excellent. The author expertly interwove the science of WS and the struggles of Eli and his mother. I read this book because a friend of mine has a son with WS, and because, as a speech pathologist, I work with kids who have a variety of disorders.

10karspeak
Modifié : Jan 8, 2018, 8:56 pm

2. The Queen of the Tearling (friend rec)
I enjoyed this fantasty novel with a strong female protagonist, good character building, and good world building. It is the first in a trilogy, but the reviews of the third book are quite abysmal, unfortunately. Various readers who loved the first two books felt that the ending was terrible and various characters were abandoned by the author or watered down. So, I think I will stop after this book and not continue with the trilogy.

11RBeffa
Modifié : Jan 6, 2018, 10:29 pm

>10 karspeak: I remember my daughter being quite enthusiastic about this one (enough so that I should have a look at it one day) and then she dove into the second one. I don't recall if she said anything after the first. I'll try to remember to ask her.

Did this work OK as a standalone read? I hate when series collapse.

ETA: My daughter thought the story went downhill in the 2nd book and the 3rd book so bad that she didn't finish - read the end and hated it. So I think you made the right decision to stop!

12qebo
Jan 7, 2018, 9:09 am

Thanks for dropping by my bookless thread. :-) I actually had this thread starred but I've been visiting in sporadic bits...
>1 karspeak: Looks interesting. Did you learn anything surprising or helpful?

13karspeak
Jan 8, 2018, 7:25 pm

>11 RBeffa: It’s nice to hear that your daughter agrees with abandoning the series! I don’t think the first book is worth reading as a stand alone, since the reader is definitely left hanging at the end, with an impending war looming over the queen and her country.

14karspeak
Jan 8, 2018, 7:29 pm

>12 qebo: The genetics bits were quite interesting. Williams Syndrome is caused by a deletion of 26-28 genes, much fewer than most syndromes. This has been a huge boon to genetic researchers, helping them isolate the functions of those specific genes. I hadn’t realized how incredibly difficult it was for scientists to figure out what most genes do. Mapping the genome was apparently the easy part.

15karspeak
Modifié : Jan 14, 2018, 11:59 pm

3. The Girl at the Baggage Claim
I love books that explain cultural differences. And this one, which explores American vs. Asian cultural differences, is particularly good. The author doesn't just outline the differences, but she undertakes an in-depth and academic exploration, using art and various other examples. The author was a lecturer for the William E. Massey Lectures in the History of American Civilization at Harvard University in 2012. She is intelligent, articulate, and a good writer.

16qebo
Jan 15, 2018, 10:55 am

>15 karspeak: I especially like seeing my assumptions through someone else's eyes.

17karspeak
Jan 15, 2018, 12:47 pm

>16 qebo: Definitely

18karspeak
Modifié : Jan 17, 2018, 7:39 pm

4. A Square Meal
This nonfiction book, per this Amazon snippet, is an "in-depth exploration of the greatest food crisis the nation has ever faced—the Great Depression—and how it transformed America’s culinary culture." This book won a James Beard Award for culinary writing. I thought this might be a folksy collection of "make-do" recipes. On the contrary, it is a very thorough and well researched account of the government's attempts, and more often their avoidance of, feeding its malnourished or starving population. People, especially children, were developing scurvy, rickets, pellagra, etc. from poor diets. Vitamins and calories had just been "discovered" a few decades earlier, so this was the chance for nutritionists to tell Americans what their diets should look like (on a very slim or nonexistent budget) to avoid various diseases. People wanted to just feed their kids cornmeal mash, for example, because it was filling, but it didn't have certain vitamins, etc. This is how the first version of the food pyramid (although it was just 5 food groups--milk, fruits and vegetables, grains, fat, protein) came to be. It was designed to keep people from STARVING.

This book was also an excellent look at the warring politics and mindsets of the day. Many politicians and many American people were averse to giving out food because they thought it would be well nigh impossible for people to go back to working after having "been on the dole." It was interesting to see the historical roots of today's welfare/freeloader debate.

19karspeak
Fév 21, 2018, 12:51 am

5. Deer Hunting with Jesus
The liberal journalist-author returns to his hometown of Winchester, Virginia, and writes about the working class people of his city. He explains various ways they are being screwed over, and he explores why they remain politically conservative even though it seems to be against their self interests. He gets pretty rant-y by the end.

6. Modern Romance
An entertaining enough exploration of what dating is like now that online dating has exploded and cell phones have become a crucial part of peoples' social lives. A friend of mine found it quite informative, but I thought much of it was pretty self apparent.

7. Food: A Cultural Culinary History
This was an audiobook of a Great Course on culinary history. It was well done, and the speaker was particularly engaging.

8. Adventures in the Anthropocene
In this NF book the author travels the globe--to villages in Africa and the Himalayas and the Amazon and throughout South America, to see how global climate change is affecting humanity. The author tries to put a positive spin on things, that humanity will rise to the challenge, but it's just flat depressing.

20karspeak
Modifié : Avr 1, 2018, 4:15 pm

9. Rhapsody (husband rec)
This was an entertaining fantasy book, but it is the first in a verrrry long series, so I will stop with this one.

10. Little Fires Everywhere (book club selection)
This is currently the "13th most read book on Amazon." I liked it but didn't love it. I could appreciate what the author was doing with having similar issues (deciding about keeping a baby, making sacrifices for your child) play out in the lives of several very different characters, and intertwining those threads, but I never really warmed to or connected with any of the characters.

21karspeak
Mar 11, 2018, 1:17 pm

We have spring break coming up in a few weeks, so I am hoping to get some reading done then!

22karspeak
Modifié : Avr 1, 2018, 4:15 pm

I was able to read four books on our spring break trip (San Rafael Swell--Bryce--Zion--Grand Canyon), since we did lots of driving!

11. The Hidden Life of Trees
This NF book about trees was excellent. The author anthropomorphized trees too much, I thought, but besides that, his insights were fascinating. Recommended.

12. Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget (book club selection)
This is a well-written memoir by a woman who decides to finally get sober in her late thirties. But it was a bit too much navel gazing for me. Recommended only for readers with a particular interest in alcoholism, etc.

13. Lost on Planet China
This is a tongue-in-cheek but also very honest travelogue of China by J. Maarten Troost, who also wrote The Sex Lives of Cannibals. It was published in 2009. To summarize, he found China very, very polluted and growing at a frenetic pace. Umm, well, yes. Although he included some history and background research into his travels, I didn't find much insight at all into Chinese culture. It was more of a Lonely Planet travel guide account, with some humor thrown in. I did appreciate that he was very good at gauging the touristic worth and enjoyment of each specific travel experience. I am always a bit slow to discern exactly where my foreign travel experiences fall on the genuine/informative/enjoyable travel spectrum.

14. The Food Explorer
This biography was just published this year. It is about David Fairchild, who in the 1890's and early 1900's traveled the globe under the auspices of the US Dept of Agriculture to find new crops for American farmers. He also oversaw a few proteges who continued his work after he got married and settled down. We owe to Fairchild the dates grown in California, the grapes used to make California raisins, and the introduction of Egyptian cotton to the US, to name just a few. His main protege, a man named Meyer, introduced many crops, as well, including the eponymous Meyer lemon. That pretty much summarizes the main points of the book for me, besides learning that the initial shipment of cherry trees from Japan to Washington DC had to be burned because they were infested with various foreign insect pests. The second shipment thankfully passed inspection. I don't think I'd recommend this book, since it didn't have that much interesting information overall, and I didn't particularly like Fairchild.

23karspeak
Avr 17, 2018, 11:49 pm

I skimmed or ditched three books: The Power, which was very disappointing; On Trails, which was too random for me; and Flat Broke With Two Goats, which I thought was terrible.

24karspeak
Mai 8, 2018, 6:12 pm

15. Homegoing (book club)
Enjoyable but didn't "wow" me. I kinda felt like it was Roots modernized.

16. Drawdown
This was a fantastic NF book which analyzed and ranked, via a complex formula, how good possible "solutions" are for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. I have read so many depressing books on climate change, but this was a nice change since it focuses exclusively on what can be done, what maybe could be done, and what is already being done.

I found out last week that we will be moving from Denver to Ft Walton Beach area of Florida. We had hoped to move to Santa Fe, but that fell through, alas. I hate moving, hopefully it will go pretty smoothly!!

25karspeak
Juin 25, 2018, 12:47 pm

Whew, okay, our movers came and loaded our stuff in Denver, and now we are in Florida, although we can't move into our rental house until Sept. Life is an adventure, right?

17. If You Only Knew: A Women's
Fluff chicklit, the writing was decent.

18. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir
I listened to this as an audiobook. I thought it was an interesting enough memoir, but I don't see why so many people point to this as an explanation of or as providing insight into why Trump won the election. But perhaps it's because I grew up around and have known many low income families, of various ethnicities and backgrounds, including lots of "rednecks." I also think the author overstates the influence of scotch-irish/hillbillies in southern white culture. His hillbilly relatives did immediately remind me of some neighbors I had growing up in North Carolina, and, sure enough, my mom confirmed that they were originally from the Kentucky mountains. My mom also said that growing up in Michigan, the term "hillbilly" was used to refer to any white people from the south, since they were the main group of white southerners who had immigrated to Michigan for the industrial jobs. So perhaps the author was similarly confused about poor southern whites vs. the more specific subgroup of hillbillies? Anyway, I enjoyed it, and my favorite part was hearing the author's descriptions of the outrageous things his grandmother used to say to him. I can't quote her here, or this post would be flagged for inappropriate content, but that woman had a way with words!

26karspeak
Modifié : Juil 1, 2018, 7:18 pm

19. The End of Plenty
This NF book explores climate change and environmental issues, along with population growth projections, from the agricultural perspective. The author's degrees are in agronomy and journalism, and he has reported on agricultural matters for National Geographic and various other scientific magazines over the years, from around the world. So he brought a depth of knowledge along with good writing, which is always a bonus. Recommended.

27karspeak
Juil 15, 2018, 10:45 am

20. Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging (friend rec)
Humans evolved to be part of a tribe, working toward the tribe's wellbeing and survival, even at the risk of one's own life. Junger has a wide ranging discussion of how modern society, with its social isolation, is impacting us. Why is PTSD a bigger problem now than it was after WWII? Why do some people, both soldiers and civilians, miss being in war torn countries? Why has there been a rise in mass shootings? Junger avoids making simple explanations for these issues, and his writing is excellent. I think he had some good points, and I always like it when books (intelligently) explore human psychology through evolutionary biology.

28karspeak
Juil 17, 2018, 12:14 pm

21. Magpie Murders
This was a fun and well written murder mystery. It was a modern whodunnit surrounding an Agatha Christie whodunnit.

29karspeak
Août 12, 2018, 7:41 pm

22. The Best Cook in the World
A well-written elegy to the author's mother's cooking. Recommended if you like reading books about food. There are a few recipes from this book I want to try, too!

23. American Gods
I really enjoyed this creative and well-written epic, which imagines gods from various past cultures living in the modern US, having been brought over by immigrants of that faith, etc.

30karspeak
Août 28, 2018, 10:21 pm

24. War for the Oaks (sister rec)
This was a cute and likable urban fantasy. The main character is a singer and guitarist in a rock band, and she gets tangled in the affairs of the fairy world. The tone and plot flowed very smoothly through the whole book. Again, it was cute, but not in a saccharine way.

25. Best. State. Ever.
Dave Barry visits a lot of kitschy Florida attractions (Gatorland, etc) so you don't have to. I read this since I just moved to Florida. The book was entertaining enough, but it seemed too short. He should have visited a few more places to round out the book a bit.

26. The Way of Kings
I've had mixed experiences with previous Brandon Sanderson books (he's a fantasy writer). But this book, the first in the Stormlight Archives series, was very good. The world building and character development and the plot development were all quite good, and he clearly has a complex, interwoven story arc in mind. It was a bit long, so I did skim parts here and there. Alas, there are 10 books planned for this series, with only the first 3 published. I do NOT have the attention span for that long of a series, but I will give the sequel a go. Recommended if you like fantasy.

31karspeak
Modifié : Sep 4, 2018, 1:36 pm

27. Words of Radiance
This is the second book in the Way of Kings fantasy series by Brandon Sanderson. Enjoyable.

28. The Third Plate
This is a NF book by a chef who delves deeply into the question of what he should be serving at his environmentally friendly restaurant, which is situated on a nonprofit farm and education center funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. He points out that the farm-to-table movement in restaurants doesn't really seem to have made a significant change in how the American people eat, or in the American agricultural system, which he sees as a failure of high-end chefs, and of the current farm-to-table philosophy. His resulting investigation is by turns fascinating, when he interviews cutting edge (environmentally speaking) chefs, farmers, fishermen, and breeders, and boring, when he drones on about various environmental topics. I can't really give an easy summary of this book, since some many of his points were interwoven or complex. It is far more in-depth and nuanced than, say, Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, and it also adds many significant developments and ideas. Despite the boring parts, I'd recommend this for those who have strong environmental-food interests.

32karspeak
Sep 28, 2018, 4:03 pm

29. Binti: The Complete Trilogy
The novella Binti won both a Hugo and a Nebula. It was a lovely story, as were the other two novellas in the trilogy.

30. Mating in Captivity
This was a very articulate, nuanced, and thoughtful NF book about sex (which she broadens and calls "eroticism") within relationships. The author Esther Perel has an international background, which helps her to highlight some of the puritanical and other biases that Americans tend to bring with them into relationships. This was an especially well done book, recommended.

33karspeak
Oct 4, 2018, 6:58 pm

31. The State of Affairs
This NF book about affairs is also by Esther Perel. As in her previous book, the cardinal word to describe her writing and perspective is "nuanced." She discusses affairs from all angles, all perspectives, using various examples from individuals and couples she has counseled over the years. Why are people unfaithful, how are people unfaithful, what are the different ways it can affect a relationship? I'm not on board with her last few chapters, but this book was still definitely worth the reading, since it makes the reader carefully and deeply consider what is an extremely black and white topic for most people.

34karspeak
Modifié : Oct 30, 2018, 10:50 pm

We're finally about settled into our house in Florida, and Hurricane Michael veered east of us, so I finally have had the chance to read more.

32. Educated: A Memoir
Much has been written about this book on LT. Her memoir reminded me quite a bit of Glass Castle, but with a lot more physicality, as well as her remarkable university education.

33. Circe (book club selection)
This novel is an imaginative telling of the myth of Circe, daughter of Helios and Odysseus' lover. I enjoyed it, but I thought Song of Achilles was better.

34. Pawn of Prophecy
35. Queen of Sorcery
36. Magician's Gambit
37. Castle of Wizardry
38. Enchanters' End Game
The above five books comprise the Belgariad fantasy series. I read this in high school, and it stood up to a re-read, more than 2 decades later. There is good world building and plot development, but the characters in the series are what distinguish it from other fantasy-quest type books. It was quite entertaining as an audiobook.

39. The Late Talker (professional development)
This is a very approachable book for parents who are concerned that their child is a late talker, or for parents whose child struggles to talk. This book explores childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), a frequent cause of speech problems in young children. CAS is a speech disorder caused by a difficulty with planning and coordinating the movements of the mouth needed to produce speech.

35karspeak
Nov 12, 2018, 11:23 am

40. Burn Bright
The latest entry in Briggs' Alpha and Omega series (paranormal adventure/romance). It was okay, but not very memorable.

36karspeak
Nov 14, 2018, 9:43 pm

41. Less
I really enjoyed this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. The main character Arthur Less is a likable, tender-hearted, almost bumbling, 49-year old gay man who is a little known author. His boyfriend of many years decides to marry someone else, so Arthur decides to travel overseas so as to miss the wedding. This novel could so easily have been a cold, sarcastic take on life and one man's folly and foibles, but instead it is simultaneously funny, insightful, and caring, embracing Arthur as part of the mess that is humanity. Enjoyable.

37karspeak
Déc 14, 2018, 8:54 pm

42. The Woman in the Window (book club selection)
This was a pretty good thriller about a psychologist with agoraphobia who believes she has witnessed a crime through her window. The actual plot twists and turns didn't completely wow me, but I was very impressed with how the writer kept me interested in the woman's inner turmoil and emotional issues. This was a clear homage to noir films, and the psychological aspects were so well done. The author has revealed in interviews that he has bipolar disorder, and it took many years before he found the correct diagnosis and then treatment.

43. The Swerve
This won both a National Book Award and a Pulitzer. Why did the western world finally emerge from the Dark Ages? I was taught in school that it was because ancient Greek and Latin texts were rediscovered, leading to a cultural rebirth. But I never understood how ancient texts could really create a huge mental shift. This book does a convincing job of explaining exactly how this all happened, and it seemed to be the result of one particular text, Lucretius' On the Nature of Things. Recommended.

I've also been skimming the Dresden Files series (about a wizard detective) for fun. I won't count them, since I skip parts, but it's been fun to see the world building and plot development in each book, as well as being entertained by the fast pace of action. My sister raves about the "plot arc" of this series.

38karspeak
Jan 2, 2019, 11:17 am

44. Lilac Girls (book club selection)
This was yet another WWII novel with female protagonists. I had already read enough of those to last me a lifetime, I think. Book clubs tend to love these types of books since there is clear good vs. evil, with female heroism and dramatic true historical events. Code Name Verity remains my favorite of that genre.

My 2019 thread is here. I am jumping over to the Club Read group for 2019, but I'll still be following many of the 75ers threads. Happy reading!!

39RBeffa
Jan 2, 2019, 12:44 pm

Hope the new home is a good fit. The 75ers are a bit overwhelming and I feel rather disconnected myself. I perk up at times but mostly just lurk outside of my own thread. I've starred your new thread to watch