Albany Public Library discussion

Greetings summer readers!

This week we're going back in time to explore stories from the past. Tell us if you are reading any of these titles and what you think of them!

Also, let us know if you have titles we should add to your SRC reading records!

Fiction Selections:
American Spy
The Stationery Shop
My Name is Mary Sutter
Fruit of the Drunken Tree
The Water Dancer
The Moor's Account
The Huntress
The Nickel Boys
Homegoing
The Chelsea Girls

Nonfiction Selections:
The History of Here: A House, the Pine Hills Neighborhood, and the City of Albany
Blacks in the Adirondacks: A History
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
City of Dreams: The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York
The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America
The Hudson Valley: The First 250 Million Years: A Mostly Chronological and Occasionally Personal History
March: Book One
Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy
O Albany!

My husband and I have been using The Hudson Valley: The First 250 Million Years... as a read-aloud during the quarantine. It's sparked some good discussion about our local history.

Rebecca Angel wrote: "My husband and I have been using The Hudson Valley: The First 250 Million Years... as a read-aloud during the quarantine. It's sparked some good discussion about our local history." That is a great idea! It seems like the type of book better broken down in small bites.

A blast from the past, but all too relevant still:
Just finished James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time.

I finished The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, and Me and White Supremacy By Layla Saad

Just finished Everything You Want Me to Be, which was OK as a mystery. Definitely not a blast from the past, though.

Finished The Twyborn Affair this week, which is technically a blast from the past but felt pretty timeless.

Just finished The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin, which I didn’t like the first time I tried it, but loved this time. I also forgot if I mentioned that I finished The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert last week, too.

I read “Driving While Black” by Gretchen Sorin. After watching the movie “Green Book” I wanted to learn more about this cultural anomaly and I was horrified at my own acquired responses to clothing and cars owned by my neighbors from the next town while I was growing up. I’m so glad I read this book and ashamed that I had to make such a substantial attitude adjustment.

I didn’t know the theme for this week and went back to the past anyway with When Will This Cruel War Be Over, from the Dear America series. I also finished Bright Lights, Big Ass by Jen Lancaster.

I read Such a Fun Age this week which is not so much a blast from the past, although I guess it takes place a few years ago 😂

Just finished reading the power of habit dandy Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime.

I did not read it this week, but I enjoyed The Book of Lost friends as A Blast from the Past. I used the Redsquared app to track the 11 books I've read so far, but I think I prefer this group to see what others are reading and to find recommendations. I just finished The Two Lives of Lydia Bird and have started So You Want to Talk About Race.

I read The Secrets She Kept by Brenda Novak and listened to Recursion by Blake Crouch this week.

Jaybee wrote: "I did not read it this week, but I enjoyed The Book of Lost friends as A Blast from the Past. I used the Redsquared app to track the 11 books I've read so far, but I think I prefer this group to se..." Hey Jaybee, no problem! We'll check what titles you've logged in ReadSquared and make note of them on our Goodreads spreadsheet so you'll be all set.

Welcome!!!

Thanks to all who commented this week! Your SRC logs have been updated!

And I just want to note that I'm so impressed with what you've all been reading... you're putting me to shame! I've been sticking with the light and fluffy (when not reading book club books), while you've really been digging in to some heavy topics. I love it.

Hi! I'm joining late but I read Free Food for Millionaires this week.

So many good books on this list!
Just finished Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton.

Eileen wrote: "Hi! I'm joining late but I read Free Food for Millionaires this week."

Hi, sister! Your book as been added. Welcome to the group!

And Jen, I've added your book!

Anne C wrote: "Greetings summer readers!

This week we're going back in time to explore stories from the past. Tell us if you are reading any of these titles and what you think of them!

Also, let us know if you..."

Rebecca Angel wrote: "My husband and I have been using The Hudson Valley: The First 250 Million Years... as a read-aloud during the quarantine. It's sparked some good discussion about our local history."

I think I would like to read a history of the Hudson Valley. Thank you for mentioning this - Sarah

Just completed The Price of Salt by Claire Morgan (Patricia Highsmith).

This weekend I read A Divided Loyalty by Charles Todd.
Inspector Ian Rutledge has returned for WWI, but it is hard to return to civilian life. The war has changed England. Rutledge's investigations explore the mystery at hand and also they explore the way everyone and everything is different. Soldiers are unemployed, families have many losses. Villages and whole communities are mourning and rebuilding gradually. Frequently Rutledge is challenged by issues related to what we call PTS. This novel is a complicated story set in an English village (With a stone circle). Rutledge is challenged by fact pattern he discovers -should he not dig too deep? Are some things better left alone?

I finally finished The The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. It is a sort of Blast from the Past as the prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy. It is the story of Coriolanus Snow who was president in the Hunger Games. I also finished two by Australian authors - Ten Days in Paradise by Annie Seaton and Second Chance Café by Susanne Bellamy. Both are fun stories set in Australia.

Thanks Anne! I realized I commented on the wrong thread initially! 🤦🏼‍♀️

I’m reading Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid. Can’t put it down once I start :)

Read Savannah Breeze this weekend, which is only a blast from the past if you consider the time when only about half of the population had cell phones as the past.

Very fun beach read. Although Goodreads calls this a mystery, it was more of a caper. You find out what happens at the very beginning, and most of the book is trying to get the person who did it.

Susan wrote: "Read Savannah Breeze this weekend, which is only a blast from the past if you consider the time when only about half of the population had cell phones as the past.

Very fun beach r..."

I have added all the books up to this point!

I also finished The Turn of the Key and The Book of Speculation this week!

Hello! This past week, I have read: "The Silent Patient", "The Wedding Sisters", "Modern Lovers", and "You will know me". I am also working my way through, "So you want to talk about Race". The fiction books, I can finish rather quickly but I have been taking my time with "So you want to talk about race". I want to understand, internalize, and practice the message of the book.

I've read a few from the list in the past, but here were mine from the week that qualify as "blasts from the past".

The Phantom Twin,
Becoming Muhammad Ali
The Water Dancer

@ Samantha and Alicia Great Job! You have completed the APL SRC Challenge 2020

More details will be announced later in the summer about T-shirt pick ups

Kelly wrote: "I also finished The Turn of the Key and The Book of Speculation this week!"

@ Kelly Would you recommend Turn of the Key? Sometimes I like Ruth Ware's books and other times I can't finish them.

Kate wrote: "@ Samantha and Alicia Great Job! You have completed the APL SRC Challenge 2020

More details will be announced later in the summer about T-shirt pick ups"

Thank you! <3

I am putting this book under the Blast from the Past week because it is so old - I finally read Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics . Fun, but with some things that will make a current day reader cringe. Are this book's characters Orlando and Jimmy Ozio really Mario and Andrew Cuomo?

Susan wrote: "I am putting this book under the Blast from the Past week because it is so old - I finally read Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics . Fun, but with some things that will make a curren..."

@ Susan Ok, I have added your book

Related to one of the books on the list, I recently read Big Black: Stand at Attica, it's a graphic novel that's available through Hoopla that gives a first-hand account from a guy they called Big Black who survived the seige and worked on prisoner reform after he was released.

Alicia wrote: "Related to one of the books on the list, I recently read Big Black: Stand at Attica, it's a graphic novel that's available through Hoopla that gives a first-hand account from a guy they called Big ..."

Got your book recorded!

For Week 4 I read two books. The first was Salvation Lost (Book 2 in the Salvation series) by Peter Hamilton, which leaps back and forth across several centuries with intertwining plot lines, where the story taking place in our more recent future (2200) may explain events further out where a humanoid species is being pursued by a threatening alien race. I enjoyed this second installment, but the first one blew me away by offering a very kinetic and mind-bending tale, so this one was a slight let down, but only slightly.

The second book was Mind of My Mind (Book 2 in the Patternist series) by Octavia Butler. Its been a while since I read the first book in this series (Wild Seed), which focused on the power struggle between two African immortals, one who overtakes other’s bodies, killing them in the process, the other a healer who can also transform into any animal. This one picks up in 1970’s America, further exploring this power struggle, chiefly through the antagonist daughter, who will mature into her own unique powers challenging her father.

@ Rich I have added your books.