oreneta aground (but missinaibi's afloat!): August 2015

Books read, 2018

14.8.18 w is for wasted. Sue Grafton. Fine
10.8.18 Anne Cleaves, White Nights. Good.
7.8.18 the Killing Floor, lee Child. Very violent, but a real page turner.
4.8.18 Raven Black, Anne Cleaves. Very good.
1.8.18 v is for vengance. Sue Grafton. Quite good.
28.7.18 The Godwulf Manuscript. Robert B Parker. Good.
27.7.18 U is for Undertow. Sue Grafton. That's better.
21.7.18 T is for Trespass. Sue Grafton. Creepy and unpleasant.
16.7.18 Yes, we (still) can, Dan pfeiffer. Really quite good.
15.7.18. S is for Silence. Sue Grafton. Good.
9.7.18 R is for Ricochet, Sue Grafton. Good.
2.7.18, Q is for Quarry, Sue Grafton. Good
22.6.18, Raising Cubby, John Elder Robison. Good.
17.6.18 The Mummy Case, Elizabeth Peters. Still good.
15.6.18 P is for Peril, Sue Grafton. Good, as expected.
13.6.18, Djibouti, Elmore Leonard. Ok
10.6.18 In the Shadow of Statues, a white southerners confronts history. Mitch Landrieu. Very good.
9.6.18 Up the Rhine and Down the Danube, Derek R Brown. Good.
8.6.18. My Antonia, Willa Cather. Lovely but for one section that was very racist.
6.6.18 O is for Outlaw, Sue Grafton. Good.
3.6.18. The Monk of Mokha, Dave Eggers. Fine.
1.6.18 The Cook8ng Gene, Michael Twitty. I got bogged down about halfway through and nearly quit, but pushed on and it was worth it.
1.6.18. N is for Noose, Sue Grafton. Very good.
30.5.18 Nemesis, Lindsay Davis. Sadly, the last in the series and the ending.....
29.5.18. Alexandria, Lindsay Davis. Good
27.5.18. M is for Malice, Sue Grafton. Excellent
24.5.18, Saturnalia, Lindsey Davis. Good.
22.5.18, The High Mountains of Portugal, Yann Martel. Excellent
21.5.18. The Long Way Home, Louise Penny. Good, an audio book, and they take soooooo long.
20.5.18 Ready Player 1. Ernest Cline. Not sure I'm the target audience, but it was very good.
19.5.18. Hyperbole abd a half, Alice Brosch. Ok. The pronoun 'I' gets a little boring.
18.5.18 The Billion Dollar Spy. David E Hoffman. Weirdly, a little dull.
14.5.18 A Full Life, Jimmy Carter. Fine. I, I, I, I
12.5.18 See Delphi and Die. Lindsay Davis. Good.
8.5.18 Today We Die a Little, the inimitable Emil Zâtopek. Richard Askwith. Very good.
5.5.18 The Tender Bar, Jr Moehringer. Meh.
4.5.18 The Commonwealth. Anne Patchett. Fine.
1.5.18 The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler. Audiobook. Apparently quite different from the original.
29.4.18. L is for Lawless, Sue Grafton. Not so good
22.4.18. Great Northern? Arthur Ransom. How did we never read this. So good. A lot of tension too.
19.4.18. Van Life, Rooster Huntington. kinda dull
19.4.18 Coot Club, Arthur Ransomed, excellent in every way
18.4.18, Scandal takes a holiday, Lindsay Davis. Good.
14.4.18. When Breath becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi. very good.
12.4.18 K is for killer, Sue Grafton. Good
11.4.18. Epic Measures, one doctor, 7 million patients. Jeremy n Smith. should have been dull, was utterly compelling,
9.4.18 6 months in Suday, James Maskalyk. Very good indeed.
7.4.18 Flat Broke with Two Goats. Jennifer MGaha. good
6.4.18, What If, Randal Monroe. Fascinating
4.4.18 The Accusers, Lindsay Davis, Good though this one was a little frustrating.
2.4.18 J is for Judgement, Sue Grafton, Good.
31.3.18 I is for Innocent, Sue Grafton. Good.
27.3.18 The Jupiter Myth, Lindsay Davis
25.3.18 The Picts and the Martyrs, Arthur Ransome, very good indeed.
24.3.18 H is for Homicide, Sue Grafton
24.3.18 Pigeon Post, Arthur Ransom. Lovely
22.3.18 A Body in the Bathhouse. Lindsey Davis. Good.
18.3.18 Apron Strings, Jann Wong. Good
17.3.18 Ode to a Banker, Lindsey Davis, good.
14.3.18 G is for Gumshoe, Sue Grafton, excellent
12.3.18 Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome, Marvelous indeed.
11.3.18 F is for Fugitive, Sue Grafton, very good again
10.3.18 American Rebel, Inside the world of an undercover Muslim FBI agent. Tamur Elnoury. Intense
10.3.18 Swallowdale, Aurthur Ransome. Marvelous
6.3.18 E is for Evidence. Sue Grafton, very good indeed.
4.3.18 The Grave is a Fine and Pleasant Place, Alan Bradley. Marvelous
1.3.18 The Danube, A river guide. Rod Heikell. Good, useful in parts.
28.2.18 Case Histories, Kate Atkinson. Better than it seemed it would be. Good in fact
27.2.18 Life on the Ground Floor, letters from the edge of the emergency room. James Masalyk. Very good indeed.
24.2.18 D is for Deadbeat, Sue Grafton. Very good
24.2.18 Slow boat to Europe, Trevor Charritt. Fine, not as informative as I would have liked.
21.2.18 One Virgin Too Many, Lindsay Davis, good.
15.2.18 Dragon's Time, Anne McCaffery and Todd McCaffery, a little confusing
11.2.18 Dragon's Kin, Anne McCaffery and Todd McCaffery. Quite good!
8.2.18 Hillbilly Elegy, JD Vance. Well written. Depressing
5.2.18 Two for the Lions, Lindsay Davis, fine.
29.1.18 The Ship who Sang, Anne McCaffery, Excellent
27.1.18 Crystal Line, Anne McCaffery, Excellent.
26.1.18 Killashandra, Anne McCaffery, very good.
24.1.18 Three Hands in the Fountain, Lindsey Davis, Good.
23.1.18 Crystal Singer, Anne McCaffrey. Very good.
21.1.18 C is for Corpse, Sue Grafton. Very good.
15.1.18 Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. Gail Honeyman. Very good indeed.
14.1.18 Bad Singer, Tin Falconer, fascinating, but took a long time to read as I had to keep going and listening to songs!!!
11.1.18 The Hangman, Louise Penny. Fine, not her best...too moralistic.
10.1.18 A Dying Light i Corduba, Lindsay Davis. Good.
7.1.18 Edward O Wilson, Letters to a Young Scientist. Good.
6.12.18 Born a Crime, Trevor Noah. Good, generally.
6.12.18 A Great Reckoning, Louise Penny. Very good.
5.12.18 Time to Depart, Lindsey Davis, Good.
2.1.18 Waterlog, A swimmer's journey through Britain, Roger Deakin. Marvelous.
2.1.18 The Gene, Siddhartha Mukherjee. Fascinating, but not compelling.

Books I ditched without finishing

The Widows on Malabar Hill, sujata Massey. Good basic story, really annoying flashback second storyline.
Robert B Parker, God Save the Child. Dislikable characters, too much mysogyny and too much description
The Children's Book. A. S. Byatt. She usally writes a brilliant ending which redeams the dull meandering book. Today it doesn't seem worth it.
Ka, John Rowley. Obtusely written chase saga. After a few pages i kept finding myself playing solitaire.
Enlightenment Now. Stephen Ponker. Wanted to read it, but it is so turgid. Uuuhhhghf
The Potlikker Papers, John T Edge. The book is fine, I'm just not that interested in the topic.
Travels with Herodotus, Ryszard Kapuscinski. Very good writing, but ultimately dull.
From Cold War to Hot Peace, an American Ambassador in Putin's Russia, Michael McFaul. Waaaaaaayyyyy too much detail and no big picture
What you're getting wrong about Appalachia, Elizabeth Catte. Undoubtedly she has some very strong points with which I would agree, but it is a book against another rather than about something. Also needs better editing.
Vagabonding. Rolf Potts. Politically adolescent and structurally patronizing
12.5.18 The Son. Phillip Meyer. If it says 'epic family saga', it's too long by half and entirely unbelievable.
The Shadow of the Sun, Ryszard Kapuscinsky. It was fine, but very old and not quite engaging enough for an incredibly busy time in my life.
Umami, Laia Jufresa. I just don't care enough to try to track the identity of the deliberately obscured multiple narrators, so many you forget who they are.
Wallflower at the Orgy, Nora Ephron. A book complaining about people being trite that is, in itself, trite. I just don't care
Founding Gardeners. I have to give up on Andrea Wulf, she takes a great idea and makes it boring. In this case, failing to discuss slavery within the context is at best, bizarre and definately takes away from her basic premis
Cycling Home from Siberia, Rob Lilwall, fine (just) till he brought in Jesus and American know how. Had enough of that lately.
The Communist's daughter, Dennis Bock. Sooo grim!
Dragon's Fire, Anne McCaffery and Todd McCaffery. So dark and not well written.
Chasing Venus, The race to measure the heavens. Andrea Wulf. Wanted to love it, but it was soooooo dull.
The Invention of Nature, Alexander Von Humbolt's New Nature. Wanted to love it. So badly. So depressing and still boring.
Artemis, Andy Weir. I thought the main character was a 14 year old boy. Nope, turns out SHE's a 25 year old. Shit writing, crap characters, uninteresting story.
A Coffin for Dimitrios, Eric Ambler. My husband loved it, it just didn't grab me.
Believe Me, Eddie Izzard. Terrible writing
I am Pilgrim, Terry Hayes. Too much very graphic violence

T. B. Read

Sarah Durants 5 novels
Charles Todd
Nero Wolf
Peter May
Walter Mosley
Scott and Bailey
Walender
The Paris Wife
Endeavour
Inspector Morris
Tennyson mysteries
Maigret
James Runcie
Grantchester books
Books by Louise Penny
Aunt Dimity
Love in a cold climate
Vassily Gorssman, all his books.
Tahmima Anam, The Good Muslim
Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Leila Aboulela The Kindness of Enemies
Ali Eteraz, Native Believer
Ausma Zehanat Khan, The Unquiet Dead
Saladin Ahmed, Throne of the Cresent Moon
Rabih Alaenddine An Unnecessary Woman
G.Willow Wilson, Alif the Unseen
Laila Lalami, The Moor's Account
WG Sebald
This is music...I have to get a Usman Riaz guitar cd
Elizabeth Hay’s Late Night’s on Air
Light Lifting by Alexander MacLeod
Diana Gabaldon
2007: Wolf Totem - Jian Rong (China)
2008: Ilustrado - Miguel Syjuco (Philippines)
2009: The Boat to Redemption - Su Tong (China)
Whale Music, Paul Quarrington (sp?)
The Magicians, a novel. Lev Grossman
Staring, how we look. Rosemarie Garland-Thomson
A Short History of Women, by Kate Walbert
A gate at the Stairs, Lorrie Moore
Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It, by Malie Meloy
Patricia Hampl, I Could Tell You Stories
Miller & Paola, Tell it Slant (the version with the anthology)
William Safire, The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time: Wit and Wisdom from the Popular "on Language" Column in the New York Times Magazine
William Safire, o Uncertain Terms: More Writing from the Popular "On Language" Column in The New York Times Magazine
Annie Dillard, The Writing Life
Edward P. Jones, The Known World
Embodied Visions, evolution, emotion, culture and film by Torben Grodal
Júlio Cortázar, Rayuela. In English or Catalan, sadly not Spanish yet.
W. James Popham, Transformative Assessment
The fixer, Bernard Malamoud
Life: a user's manual, David R. Godine
http://orenetaaground.blogspot.com/2009/05/show-some-lovin-mkay.html
Narrow road to a Far Province, Basho

oreneta aground (but missinaibi's afloat!)

Sunday, August 2, 2015

A very good day