What are you reading the week of August 22, 2020?

Fred appears to be a very busy bee, so I decided to start the thread.

Continuing to enjoy ~

1st Case
by James Patterson
(OverDrive audio)

Finished Redemption's Blade by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Enjoyed it.

Added Trust No One by Debra Webb to my rotation.

Still reading:
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction July/August 2019
Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 164
Ballistic
Winds of Marque

I'm still reading The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar. I'm liking it a lot more than I thought I would after the rough start I had caused by Busy Brain.

I'm about halfway through A Deadly Shade of Gold, the fifth book in John D. MacDonald's classic and delightful "Travis McGee" series.

Moved from California to New Mexico. Haven't read anything. Looking forward to getting back to my audiobook, The First Mrs. Rothschild and my hard copy book, Plexus.

Finished the interesting novel of historical fiction, The First Mrs. Rothschild.

Next up for listening is a Stephanie Plum novel, Takedown Twenty.

I finished The Color Of Air by Gail Tsukiyama, which was a very good story of community in 1935 Hilo, Hawaii.

Now I’m deep into Michael Connelly’s latest Bosch book, The Night Fire.

I finished the unexciting Black Sunday by Thomas Harris and will be starting Neil degrasse Tyson's Astrophysics for People in a Hurry once I've finished my housework for the day.

>4 rocketjk: Love me some Travis McGee! Sad that the older series often don't get as much attention. That one is part of The Good Old Stuff.

The only problem I have with that series is that the gimmick of using a color in each title sort of made them all run together, as the titles seldom had much (if anything) to do with the plot.

Just finished The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth. Wow. See my full review at https://www.librarything.com/work/22975362/book/188479096

Coming down with something way, waaaaay less demanding -- Miss Julia Takes Over.

Enjoying ~

What I've Done
by Melinda Leigh
Series: Morgan Dane (#4)
(Kindle-Audible combo)

>9 LyndaInOregon: I know what you mean about the titles, although in A Deadly Shade of Gold, at least they are chasing around after gold figurines! At any rate, I've only been reading about ol' Travis at the rate of about 1 or 2 books per year. Given everything else I read (and my advaced age), the plots of this series don't stick with me in much detail, anyway. But I do enjoy them very much as I'm reading them.

Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies
J.B. West
5/5 stars
J.B. West was the Chief Usher of the White House from 1940’s in which he worked for the Roosevelts until his retirement a year or so into the Nixon’s’ first term in the White House. His role (along with his staff) was to assist in the daily lives of the president and his family which included planning social events, renovations to the White House (and each President’s wife had their say so in those changes) and supervising the staff. Each President had a budget for the White House but that did not cover all their expenses which they then had to pay for themselves. This was well written and a wonderful look at the Presidents’ wives and their roles in the lives of their husbands and country.

Finished listening to Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovitch.

Next up for listening is a short story collection, The Heaven Of Animals by David James Poissant.

I finished A Deadly Shade of Gold, the fifth book in John D. MacDonald's highly enjoyable "Travis McGee" series. Next up for me will be Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery by Leon F. Litwack, an evidently very detailed (570 pages) history of Reconstruction that was recommended to me by a friend who is closing in on her PhD in American History.

Finished Trust No One by Debra Webb. Wound up liking it OK though it was touch and go for a while.

Added Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book to my rotation.

Bambi: A Life in the Woods
Felix Salten
4/5 stars
This is the original tale of Bambi written by Felix Salten and the source material for Disney's film. Bambi grows up in the wild with his mother and other animal friends while trying to avoid the danger from other animals and hunters. I thought this was wonderfully written and enjoyed the illustrations and I felt it was a pretty realistic depiction of life in forest for the animals.

I had decided to read this book after reading The Queens of Animation by Nathalia Holt who talked about the book being an allegory of the treatment of Jews in Europe. According to Wikipedia - " ... it was subsequently banned in Nazi Germany in 1936 as "political allegory on the treatment of Jews in Europe."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bambi,_...."

Finished Elderhood which I heard of first here on LT. It is an excellent treatise on the state of the American medical system particularly as it relates to the elderly. Medicine and society's treatment of the elderly may be disturbing, but many of the stories of elderly people exhibiting adaptability and courage were uplifting. The book is a battle cry to treat aging as an important stage of life demanding respect.

>18 snash: Have you read Being Mortal? It was also an excellent look aging and healthcare.

>19 Copperskye: No I haven't. I'll have to add it to my TBR. Thanks

Reading Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville.

Just started The Devil and Webster, which was given to me. Nice character development in the POV character, but it has taken 100 pages to set up what appears to be the major conflict within the book.

>18 snash: & >19 Copperskye: Yes, Being Mortal and Elderhood are excellent companion pieces, with just enough differences in perspectives to keep them from being redundant. Both informative and well written.

New weekly thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/323791