October, 2017: What Are You Reading Now?

I'm reading Dear Pope Francis: The Pope Answers Letters from Children Around the World by Pope Francis.

I'm reading H.L. Mencken On Religion; quite a contrast, I'll bet!

Trying to finish Queens of the Conquest but I've been reading for a month and I'm STILL not finished. I think I'm near the giving up point.

I'm about a third of the way through I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong, one of the Royal Society's book prize shortlist for 2017. I never knew microbes could be so interesting.

Practice to Deceive
Ann Rule
3.5/5 stars
This is the true crime story about the murder of Washington state resident James Stackhouse. Stackhouse was murdered in 2003 during the Christmas holidays outside his home and this is the story of the investigation and the eventual murder trial. Rule writes in detail about the murder and the multiple possible characters involved in the crime which took several years to solve and go to trial. Though the book is complete in regards to the trial, there was (is) still a lingering question about the motive of the defendants and a possibility that another person was involved in the murder. Hard to put down.

*This was my first Ann Rule book and it has gotten mixed reviews -mostly from people who love her books. I look forward to reading more of her because if this was her worse book, the others must be really good.

Finishing up Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal. I had a hard time getting into (which is surprising, because I've always loved de Waal) but I started enjoying it once I got under way. Interesting look not only at animal intelligence but at the human ego surrounding animal cognition studies.

I finished a non-fiction book I first heard of here. I Contain Multitudes was a very readable summary of the most recent studies into the interactions of microbes with the rest of life illustrating their ubiquitous nature, often benefitting, sometimes harming.

Currently reading Dead Wake.

8 - I really liked that one. I listened to it and it kept me captivated, especially since I couldn't flip to the end and see who lived!

>8 BellaFoxx: On my list to read.

This morning I started 10% Human- How Your Body's Microbes Hold the Key to Health and Happiness and will be diving back into it for the rest of the day. I've been doing a lot for my personal microbiome the last 5 years and now I want to know if there's anything more I can do. Also some suggestions for my dad who has an autoimmune disease and went through long, intense antibiotic courses this year.

I'm reading The Candidate: Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail by Noah Richler.

Coincidentally, all 3 books I'm reading now are nonfiction. And I normally don't read more than 1 book at a time. They are: Theft by Finding: Diaries by David Sedaris, Life After Life by Raymond Moody and When in French: Love in a Second Language, a memoir of love and language by Lauren Collins.

>13 framboise: Sedaris' book is on my TBR list.

I finished a book Broke and Patriotic, a real eye-opener! Interviews with 63 poor and patriotic Americans revealed an attitude and rational I could have never predicted or imagined.

My husband gave me Bats A World of Science and Mystery a couple years ago and I'm just getting around to reading it now. Interesting and has some great photography.

Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life

I happily dwell in the dirt.

Started The Geology of Britain for a course I'm doing.

I have 2 on the go at the moment.
Come, tell me how you live is a memoir by Agatha Christie of her life while on archeological expedition with her husband. That's on audio in the car and is full of humour. Her trying to buy a hat was brilliantly observed.
And in dead tree format, I'm reading The Shepherd's Life. He got off to a bad start, describing himself in such as way as to be exactly that type of boy in class that made my school years a severe trial. I'm not sure I'm warming to him much as we progress. I sense a chip on the shoulder.

>19 Helenliz: Adding the Christie book to my list. Thanks for the recommendation.

Reading Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race and was surprised that it starts with WWII since the movie seems to only encompass the space race though I am enjoying it.

I'm reading The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel.

Update on >19 Helenliz:. Finished Come, tell me how you live I really enjoyed. I listened to it and the CD had an annoying habit of pausing when it changed track, be that mid sentence or not. The pauses didn't always make sense.
I hadn't realised that Agatha Christie such a lively person, with a keen sense of humour and a fine line in self deprecation. The joke is as often on her as anyone else.
It was somewhat sobering to hear of places like Alleppo and Raqqa which are, no doubt, completely unrecognisable.

That Bats book is pretty dry, so I'm interspersing it with Great Naturalists edited by Robert Huxley. It's fab.

Ann rule is great, especially if your a vampire fan. :)

The Day The World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland
by Jim Defede
4/5 stars
This is the true story of the passengers of the 38 jetliners that were forced to land in Gander, Newfoundland on 9/11 when the US air space was closed and all planes were diverted away from the US. Defede tells an inspiring story of a community that opened their arms to all the passengers (including the animals on the planes) that could not return home.
Though I distinctly remember 9/11 and that horrible day, I had never heard of the community of Gander, who truly countered the horribleness of that disaster. This is definitely a wonderful read and is an inspiration to others.

I finished Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music. The title describes the book accurately. I might not always agree or understand the choices of what to include and the interpretations, I did agree with most and found it a very interesting sociological analysis of American sex and race.

I finished The Shepherd's life I can't recommend it and I'm not sure why I persevered through to the end.

The Pride of the Yankees: Lou Gehrig, Gary Cooper, and the Making of a Classic
Richard Sandomir
3.5/5 stars
When I was young, I fell in love with black and white films, mostly James Cagney films and The Thin Man series which led me into other films from the 30's and 40's including The Pride of the Yankees. When I found this book, I was excited to read about the making of the film. Who didn't cry at the end of this film when Gehrig/Cooper says his memorable line - "I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." Sandomir does a nice job relating what is known about Gehrig and his death- unfortunately there is a lot of gaps in the story. No complete footage of the famous line was ever found if even recorded. There are even gaps in the story of the making of the film but still it was an interesting book about Gehrig, his relationships with his wife and mother and the making of the film and Sam Goldwyn’s involvement in getting the film produced. Definitely a book for film fans. I have ordered the film from the library since I haven't seen it in years and I think that it needs to be seen if you read the book or are contemplating reading the book.

I'm reading Stuart Maconie's The Pie at Night but am hampered by the tiny print!

I'm reading Voyage of the Northern Magic: A Family Odyssey by Diane Stuemer for a book club discussion.

Dragon by the Tail by John Patton Davies, Jr.
China in the '30s to '50s by an Old China Hand.

Started Tamed: Ten Species that Changed Our World by Alice Roberts, about the domestication of certain animals and plants by humans.

Finished City Farmhouse Style, which just reinforced my opinion that you cannot put farmhouse style anywhere but a farmhouse.

>32 SChant: That looks interesting, but in case anyone else is searching for it Amazon has the title as 'Tame', even though the cover image shows 'Tamed: ..."

I've finished The Jews of Dubrovnik: a Walk Through Space and Time from the Early Days to the Present by Vesna Miovic. This is a book I bought in Dubrovnik during the recent vacation in Croatia I took with my wife. By happenstance, the studio apartment my wife and I rented during our three days in Dubrovnik was on the street where, in the 15th through 17th centuries, the Jewish ghetto was located. The Synagogue dating back to those times is still there within the rooms of an old house as it always has been, and is now part museum as well. At any rate, this book is a brief but very interesting history of Jewish life in this fascinating city.

I also finished Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream: True Tales of Mexican Migration by Sam Quinones. This is an enlightening, interesting and very well written book about the real causes and results, told in both societal and personal terms, of the constant movement of Mexicans across the border to the U.S. Highly recommended.

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
Erik Larson
5/5 stars
Larsen is one of my favorite non-fiction authors and he does not disappoint in this book about the sinking of the ocean liner, Lusitania during WWI.
In 1915, WWI was raging in Europe but the United States still had not become involved. Submarines had evolved and now were roaming the oceans aiming at non-military and military watercraft. The Lusitania was on its way to Liverpool filled with non-military men, women and children and though there were warnings about submarines, many passengers were not concerned or did not know about the warnings and thought that their ship would have an escort during the most dangerous part of the trip.
Larsen does a wonderful job describing the time period, the passengers and the crews aboard the submarine and the ocean liner. He also discusses the games Churchill was possibly playing. Was he using the situation to get the US to enter the war? And what was President Wilson’s reluctance to enter the war and who was distracting him from his job.

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race
Margot Lee Shetterly
4/5 stars
This is the wonderful untold true story of the 4 African-American women mathematicians who broke barriers by working as human computers at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Hampton, Virginia. Starting with a shortage of staff to help during WWII at the lab, these smart, college educated women proved that they were reliable and as smart as the other women and men at Langley. Shetterly discusses the time period and the racial tensions going on in that era, all in the context around what was going on at Langley with the building and designing of aircraft for WWII and including their part in the space race. This book really fleshes out the story of these women and the lengths they and their families had to go to work in those industries and the sacrifices that they had to make to have a better life. A true inspiration to all women.

I'm reading Hostages to Fortune: The United Empire Loyalists and the Making of Canada by Peter C. Newman.