Re: What Have You Read Lately? (2024 Edition)

[spork]

Holly, by Stephen King. Disappointing. I thought the writing and plot were clunky, despite the villains being a semi-retired married pair of cannibalistic professors. I'm currently waiting for King's Mr. Mercedes to arrive at the public library, which I think introduces many of the characters who appear later in Holly.

[nebo113]

Working my way through Massie's biography of Catherine the Great:  history, politicals, sex, whodunit, intrigue, murder.  A good read!

[hmaria1609]

Working my way through Massie's biography of Catherine the Great:  history, politicals, sex, whodunit, intrigue, murder.  A good read!

I read and own the hardback edition of the biography. I also enjoyed his biographies of Peter the Great and Nicholas and Alexandra.

[Sun_Worshiper]

I finally got a Kindle and have set it up to borrow books from my library. The system for borrowing ebooks seems a little clunky and the titles may be limited, but I managed to borrow one book that has been on my list, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. I'm looking forward to reading it.

[Puget]

I finally got a Kindle and have set it up to borrow books from my library. The system for borrowing ebooks seems a little clunky and the titles may be limited, but I managed to borrow one book that has been on my list, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. I'm looking forward to reading it.

Does your library have the Libby app? If so, that makes it very easy to borrow e-books and send them to your kindle. You just check them out in the app on your phone, then hit "read on kindle" and it takes you to the Amazon page where you can click one button to send it to your kindle. I've never tried to interface with the library directly on my kindle, but the Libby way is easy peasy.

[Sun_Worshiper]

I finally got a Kindle and have set it up to borrow books from my library. The system for borrowing ebooks seems a little clunky and the titles may be limited, but I managed to borrow one book that has been on my list, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. I'm looking forward to reading it.

Does your library have the Libby app? If so, that makes it very easy to borrow e-books and send them to your kindle. You just check them out in the app on your phone, then hit "read on kindle" and it takes you to the Amazon page where you can click one button to send it to your kindle. I've never tried to interface with the library directly on my kindle, but the Libby way is easy peasy.

Thanks for the tip! I downloaded the app and will try it out this afternoon.

[Puget]

I finally got a Kindle and have set it up to borrow books from my library. The system for borrowing ebooks seems a little clunky and the titles may be limited, but I managed to borrow one book that has been on my list, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. I'm looking forward to reading it.

Does your library have the Libby app? If so, that makes it very easy to borrow e-books and send them to your kindle. You just check them out in the app on your phone, then hit "read on kindle" and it takes you to the Amazon page where you can click one button to send it to your kindle. I've never tried to interface with the library directly on my kindle, but the Libby way is easy peasy.

Thanks for the tip! I downloaded the app and will try it out this afternoon.

Excellent! It is also great for audiobooks.

[FishProf]

Also check out Hoopla.  I have an account through my library and the catalogs are different.  Some things are available on one that aren't on the other, and some things are available NOW in one and a two month wait on the other.

[hmaria1609]

Some public library systems offer Libby and Hoopla to patrons. There may be titles available on one but not the other depending what your local public library has access.

Also if you enjoy reading graphic novels, check out Comics Plus! It offers digital comics, graphic novels, and manga for all ages.

[Sun_Worshiper]

Awesome! Thanks to you both, FishProf and hmaria!

[hmaria1609]

From the library: A Ruse of Shadows by Sherry Thomas
New and #8 in "The Lady Sherlock Series"

Awesome! Thanks to you both, FishProf and hmaria!

You're welcome!

[Parasaurolophus]

I may as well report June before I forget and it all piles up again:

Mark Witton - Recreating an Age of Reptiles: Basically just a dive through some of Witton's art from about ten years ago, with accompanying commentary. It's always a pleasure, but if you've read his blog there's nothing particularly new. It's interesting to see this as the precursor to The Palaeoartist's Handbook, however!

Sarah Ockwell-Smith - Ready, Set, Go!: A Gentle Parenting Guide to Calmer, Quicker Potty Training: Does what it says on the tin. I think this is one of the better ones out there, from the perusing (and reading) I've done. Shrug.

Kevin Hearne and Delilah S. Dawson - Kill the Farmboy: One of my friends, a local librarian, recommended it. Hearne and Dawson clearly had a lot of fun reading it. I had none reading it. They think they're being clever, but it's all just tiresome. I was going to give up ten pages in, then my partner pointed out that our librarian friend loves it so I couldn't. What a slog.

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Service Model: Another new novel! Basically, imagine a world with Jetsons-style service robots doing all the work, except that they're not the brightest bulbs (and not sentient). Then imagine the humans disappear. There's a lot of robots being stupid, because our protagonist is a stupid robot. It was, as ever, a joy to read. The first hundred pages or so are especially hard for an author to pull off, but Tchaikovsky does.

[nebo113]

Working my way through Massie's biography of Catherine the Great:  history, politicals, sex, whodunit, intrigue, murder.  A good read!

I read and own the hardback edition of the biography. I also enjoyed his biographies of Peter the Great and Nicholas and Alexandra.

I feel like Massie took a quantum leap from the "Grand Duchess of the young court" to the woman who overthrew her husband.  Yes, she had her three strong supporters. But I feel as if I am missing something important about her moving from "young court" to overthrowing Peter.

[spork]

Holly, by Stephen King. Disappointing. I thought the writing and plot were clunky, despite the villains being a semi-retired married pair of cannibalistic professors. I'm currently waiting for King's Mr. Mercedes to arrive at the public library, which I think introduces many of the characters who appear later in Holly.

I finished Mr. Mercedes. Better than Holly, but a far cry from Raymond Chandler or Dennis Lehane.

[apl68]

A History of the Amish, by Steven M. Nolt.  Just what it says--a history of the Amish sects of North America from their 17th-century beginnings to early 1990s, when the book was published.  It does focus strictly on the Amish, with treatment of other German-speaking Pietist sects only where they relate to the story of the main subjects.

Nolt's treatment is very straightforward and workmanlike.  He covers a lot of obscure church associations and doctrinal controversies of a sort that often seem trivial to outsiders, but would have meant a great deal to the people involved at the time.  It's a worthwhile study of people trying very hard to find viable answers to the perennial Christian challenge of retaining their identity in a wider world that has never truly been friendly to New Testament values.

This book is too old and worn to be a good candidate for addition to our library's collection.  It does make me wonder whether perhaps some of our Amish romance fans--these and other "bonnet" romances with historical settings are quite popular here--might appreciate a more recent popular work on the Amish.  I can't help suspecting, though, that these readers are probably much more interested in the Amish world as a safe setting for romantic fantasies than in the actual people and culture.