Welcome to bookchat where you can talk about anything...books, plays, essays, and books on tape. You don’t have to be reading a book to come in, sit down, and chat with us.
I know there are many of you who like me have a number of books that you are hoping to read in the near future. You may have them stacked beside the computer, near your bed, on a special bookshelf, or in a queue on your e reader.
Deciding which one to read next is a pleasure. Choosing one book from the pile to go with you on a trip is also fun. Which one will it be? Fluff, biography, a mystery?
I don’t always remember who first recommended a book to me, but I know that several of the books on my To-Be-Read pile are there because someone at Bookflurries told me about them. I thought I would share some of the books that are on my stack and hope you will share yours. Maybe some of my choices will end up later on your TBR pile, too. I am sure I will add some of your suggestions to mine.
First up will be the four books I have ordered that will arrive in early September because I know they will be on the top of my stack.
A Bitter Truth (Bess Crawford Series #3) by Charles Todd
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
When battlefield nurse Bess Crawford returns from France for a well-earned Christmas leave, she finds a bruised and shivering woman huddled in the doorway of her London residence. The woman has nowhere to turn, and, propelled by a firm sense of duty, Bess takes her in. Once inside Bess’s flat the woman reveals that a quarrel with her husband erupted into violence, yet she wants to go home—if Bess will come with her to Sussex.
What Bess finds at Vixen Hill is a house of mourning. The woman’s family has gathered for a memorial service for the elder son who has died of war wounds. Her husband, home on compassionate leave, is tense, tormented by jealousy and his own guilty conscience. Then, when a troubled house guest is found dead, Bess herself becomes a prime suspect in the case. This murder will lead her to a dangerous quest in war-torn France, an unexpected ally, and a startling revelation that puts her in jeopardy before a vicious killer can be exposed.
An Ordinary Man: An Autobiography by Paul Rusesabagina, Tom Zoellner
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
The remarkable life story of the man who inspired the film Hotel Rwanda
Readers who were moved and horrified by Hotel Rwanda will respond even more intensely to Paul Rusesabagina's unforgettable autobiography. As Rwanda was thrown into chaos during the 1994 genocide, Rusesabagina, a hotel manager, turned the luxurious Hotel Milles Collines into a refuge for more than 1,200 Tutsi and moderate Hutu refugees, while fending off their would-be killers with a combination of diplomacy and deception. In An Ordinary Man, he tells the story of his childhood, retraces his accidental path to heroism, revisits the 100 days in which he was the only thing standing between his “guests” and a hideous death, and recounts his subsequent life as a refugee and activist.
Fever Season (Benjamin January Series #2) by Barbara Hambly
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
Benjamin January made his debut in bestselling author Barbara Hambly's A Free Man of Color, a haunting mélange of history and mystery. Now he returns in another novel of greed, madness, and murder amid the dark shadows and dazzling society of old New Orleans, named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times.
The summer of 1833 has been one of brazen heat and brutal pestilence, as the city is stalked by Bronze John—the popular name for the deadly yellow fever epidemic that tests the healing skills of doctor and voodoo alike. Even as Benjamin January tends the dying at Charity Hospital during the steaming nights, he continues his work as a music teacher during the day.
When he is asked to pass a message from a runaway slave to the servant of one of his students, January finds himself swept into a tempest of lies, greed, and murder that rivals the storms battering New Orleans. And to find the truth he must risk his freedom...and his very life.
A False Mirror (Inspector Ian Rutledge Series #9) by Charles Todd
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
Hampton Regis, a small harbor town on the southern coast of England, is a most unlikely place for violence. Yet, one spring morning, a man is found on the strand so severely beaten that he slips in and out of consciousness. The prime suspect? His wife's jilted lover, who served with Rutledge in the recently ended Great War but who left the Front under a cloud. Badly wounded, yes, but did someone also cover up cowardice?
Rutledge is called on to prove the innocence of a man he dislikes and distrusts. But the deadly triangle also stirs up memories of the woman Rutledge himself loved and lost when he went to France to fight. His doubts about the accused and himself only deepen when the victim of the beating mysteriously disappears, with no body to be found.
I have finished some good books this week so I must decide which new books to begin reading.
Sitting beside my computer I have several good ones. Which one should I read next?
1. The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies... all three stories are in one book and they are the last ones on my challenge list for this year:
Fifth Business
The Manticore
World of Wonders
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
Who killed Boy Staunton?
Around this central mystery is woven a glittering, fantastical, cunningly contrived trilogy of novels. Luring the reader down labyrinthine tunnels of myth, history, and magic, The Deptford Trilogy provides an exhilarating antidote to a world from where "the fear and dread and splendour of wonder have been banished."
2. A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
The view was colossal. Below us on every side mountain surged away it seemed forever; we looked down on glaciers and snow-covered peaks that perhaps no one has ever seen before, except from the air.'
Feeling restless in the world of London's high-fashion industry, Eric Newby asked a friend to accompany him on a mountain-climbing expedition in the wild and remote Hindu Kush, in north-eastern Afghanistan. And so they went - although they did stop first for four days of climbing lessons in Wales - becoming the first Englishmen to visit this spectacular region for more than half a century. Newby's frank and funny account of their expedition to what is still amongst the world's most isolated areas is one of the classics of travel writing.
3. What There Is to Say We Have Said: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and William Maxwell ed. By Suzanne Marrs
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
For over fifty years, Eudora Welty and William Maxwell, two of our most admired writers, penned letters to each other. They shared their worries about work and family, literary opinions and scuttlebutt, moments of despair and hilarity. Living half a continent apart, their friendship was nourished and maintained by their correspondence.
What There Is to Say We Have Said bears witness to Welty and Maxwell’s editorial relationships—both in his capacity as New Yorker editor and in their collegial back-and-forth on their work. It’s also a chronicle of the literary world of the time; read talk of James Thurber, William Shawn, Katherine Anne Porter, J. D. Salinger, Isak Dinesen, William Faulkner, John Updike, Virginia Woolf, Walker Percy, Ford Madox Ford, John Cheever, and many more. It is a treasure trove of reading recommendations.
4. The Raven Queen by Jules Watson
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
She was born to be a pawn, used to secure her father’s royal hold on his land. She was forced to advance his will through marriage—her own desires always thwarted. But free-spirited Maeve will no longer endure the schemes of her latest husband, Conor, the cunning ruler of Ulster. And when her father’s death puts her homeland at the mercy of its greedy lords and Conor’s forces, Maeve knows she must at last come into her own power to save it.
5. Wings of Fire… Dragon Short Stories by several of our favorite authors such as Martin, DeLint, McCaffrey, Cherryh, Le Guin, Novik, Zelazny and many others ed. By Jonathan Strahan and Marianne Jablon.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
Dragons: Fearsome fire-breathing foes, scaled adversaries, legendary lizards, ancient hoarders of priceless treasures, serpentine sages with the ages' wisdom, and winged weapons of war... Wings of Fire brings you all these dragons, and more...
6. The Painter of Battles by Arturo Perez-Reverte
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
Andrés Faulques, a world-renowned war photographer, has retreated to a tower overlooking the Spanish coast, where he paints a vast mural incorporating the indelible images of conflict he’s witnessed in his lifetime.
One night, an unexpected visitor interrupts his solitude. As Faulques struggles to recall the face, the man explains that he was the subject of an iconic photo taken by Faulques in a war zone years ago–a photo that destroyed his life. “And why have you come looking for me?” asks Faulques. The stranger answers, “Because I’m going to kill you.”
7. Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 by Michio Kaku
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
Imagine, if you can, the world in the year 2100.
In Physics of the Future, Michio Kaku—the New York Times bestselling author of Physics of the Impossible—gives us a stunning, provocative, and exhilarating vision of the coming century based on interviews with over three hundred of the world’s top scientists who are already inventing the future in their labs. The result is the most authoritative and scientifically accurate description of the revolutionary developments taking place in medicine, computers, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, energy production, and astronautics.
8. Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos Eire
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
Winner of the 2003 National Book Award, Nonfiction.
9. The Elephant to Hollywood by Michael Caine
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
When he was in his late fifties, Michael Caine believed his glamorous, rags-to-riches Hollywood career had come to an end. The scripts being sent his way were worse and worse. When one script really disappointed, he called the producer to complain about the part. The producer said, "No, no, we don't want you for the lover, we want you for the father." Salvation came in the unlikely form of his old friend Jack Nicholson, who convinced him to give acting one more shot.
What followed was not only an incredible personal transformation but also one of the most radical comebacks in film history. Learning to accept his new role both on camera and in his own life, Caine went on to win his second Oscar, be knighted by the queen, and deliver some of his best performances to date. Now he shares the spectacular story of his life, from his humble upbringing in London's poverty-stricken Elephant and Castle, his military service, touching marriage and family life, and lively adventures with friends, to legendary meetings with fellow stars, forays as a restaurateur, and hilarious off-screen encounters from his glittering five-decade career. Caine brings his gift for storytelling and his insider's view to a tale that is funny, warm, and deeply honest.
10. Enigma: The Battle for the Code by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
...This fascinating account relates the never-before-told, hair-raising stories of the heroic British and American sailors, spies, and secret agents who faced death in order to capture vital codebooks from sinking ships and snatch them from under the noses of Nazi officials. Sebag-Montefiore also relates new details about the genesis of the code, little-known facts about how the Poles first cracked the Luftwaffe’s version of the code (and then passed it along to the British), and the feverish activities at Bletchley Park, Based in part on documents recently unearthed from American and British archives—including previously confidential government files—and in part on unforgettable, firsthand accounts of surviving witnesses...
11. The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
The Greater Journey is the enthralling, inspiring—and until now, untold—story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, architects, and others of high aspiration who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, ambitious to excel in their work. After risking the hazardous journey across the Atlantic, these Americans embarked on a greater journey in the City of Light. Most had never left home, never experienced a different culture. None had any guarantee of success. That they achieved so much for themselves and their country profoundly altered American history.
12. The Art of Fiction by John Gardner…a re-read
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
John Gardner's brilliant distillation of famous lectures and notes for the fiction workshops.
What great books should I be adding to my pile?
Diaries of the week:
Write On! The narrator's bias
by SensibleShoes
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Thursday Classical Music OPUS 49: Music Apocalypse!+*
by Dumbo
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Note a new series:
ArkDem14 will be doing The Magic Theater 3:00PM Sunday.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
plf515 has a book talk on Wednesday mornings early.
sarahnity’s list of DKos authors
http://www.dailykos.com/...