Book Nook Cafe discussion

Use this thread to tell us about the new books you have just acquired.

What interesting books did you pick up from the library, online or book store?

Does your library give book recommendations or lists? We would love it if you shared with us.

We'd like to hear all about it!

Today I purchased on Amazon for $3 is the complete 3 volume series on Kindle

The American Experiment: The Vineyard of Liberty, the Workshop of Democracy, and the Crosswinds of Freedom-----James MacGregor Burns

The Pulitzer Prize–winning author’s stunning trilogy of American history, spanning the birth of the Constitution to the final days of the Cold War. In these three volumes, Pulitzer Prize–­ and National Book Award–winner James MacGregor Burns chronicles with depth and narrative panache the most significant cultural, economic, and political events of American history. In The Vineyard of Liberty, he combines the color and texture of early American life with meticulous scholarship. Focusing on the tensions leading up to the Civil War, Burns brilliantly shows how Americans became divided over the meaning of Liberty.

In The Workshop of Democracy, Burns explores more than a half-century of dramatic growth and transformation of the American landscape, through the addition of dozens of new states, the shattering tragedy of the First World War, the explosion of industry, and, in the end, the emergence of the United States as a new global power.

And in The Crosswinds of Freedom, Burns offers an articulate and incisive examination of the US during its rise to become the world’s sole superpower—through the Great Depression, the Second World War, the Cold War, and the rapid pace of technological change that gave rise to the “American Century.”

For my Amazon First reads I selected

West with Giraffes---Lynda Rutledge

An emotional, rousing novel inspired by the incredible true story of two giraffes who made headlines and won the hearts of Depression-era America.

“Few true friends have I known and two were giraffes…”

Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave.

It’s 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to deliver Southern California’s first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo. Behind the wheel is the young Dust Bowl rowdy Woodrow. Inspired by true events, the tale weaves real-life figures with fictional ones, including the world’s first female zoo director, a crusty old man with a past, a young female photographer with a secret, and assorted reprobates as spotty as the giraffes.

Part adventure, part historical saga, and part coming-of-age love story, West with Giraffes explores what it means to be changed by the grace of animals, the kindness of strangers, the passing of time, and a story told before it’s too late.

Alias, the Burns trio will be a good resource, i believe. Good buy.

The Rutledge novel sounds interesting--what a story. Enjoy!

madrano wrote: "Alias, the Burns trio will be a good resource, i believe. Good buy.

The Rutledge novel sounds interesting--what a story. Enjoy!"

For $3, how could I not buy it. Darn you Amazon !!! LOL..

Yes! Deals too good to pass up.

I got this eBook from the library to read with a few friends. It's a memoir.

Negroland----Margo Jefferson

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award

Winner of the Heartland Prize

A New York Times Notable Book

One of the Best Books of the Year: The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Time, Vanity Fair, Marie Claire, Time Out New York, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Kansas City Star, Men’s Journal, Oprah.com

Pulitzer Prize–winning cultural critic Margo Jefferson was born in 1947 into upper-crust black Chicago. Her father was head of pediatrics at Provident Hospital, while her mother was a socialite. In these pages, Jefferson takes us into this insular and discerning society: “I call it Negroland,” she writes, “because I still find ‘Negro’ a word of wonders, glorious and terrible.”

Negroland’s pedigree dates back generations, having originated with antebellum free blacks who made their fortunes among the plantations of the South. It evolved into a world of exclusive sororities, fraternities, networks, and clubs—a world in which skin color and hair texture were relentlessly evaluated alongside scholarly and professional achievements, where the Talented Tenth positioned themselves as a third race between whites and “the masses of Negros,” and where the motto was “Achievement. Invulnerability. Comportment.” At once incendiary and icy, mischievous and provocative, celebratory and elegiac, Negroland is a landmark work on privilege, discrimination, and the fallacy of post-racial America.

This sounds like a very interesting book, Alias. I look forward to reading your comments about this one.

I've jumped right into Zeyn Joukhadar's The Thirty Names of Night, which Alias posted about not too long ago, new books. I lucked out & got it immediately. And am intrigued.

There is a dual timeline of stories about immigrants to NYC from Syria. One is from the early 1900s, a diary written and hidden in the walls of a decaying building which was once in what might be called "Little Syria" in NYC. The (as yet) unnamed trans young adult has found the diary, so we read it with him, as well as learn about his life, as he transitions. Included in his time line are visits from his late mother, who died in a fire the police label accidental.

The recurring theme in most of the Main Character's lives are birds. This is the angle i really like and find intriguing. I'm eager to see where this heads. The descriptions of birds and art about birds and their feathers are very good.

madrano wrote: "I've jumped right into Zeyn Joukhadar's The Thirty Names of Night, which Alias posted about not too long ago, new books. I lucked out & got it immediately. And am ..."

I'm glad to know the book lists are useful and people enjoy them.

I don't curse you for nothing, Alias. :-)

Seriously, as i have no other place to learn about new books than your lists & what folks share here, it's a relief to have so many please me as i read.

library book The Lost Man by Jane Harper ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

That is a nice review of a book you truly enjoyed, Sandy. It sounds as though the land itself is a character. Thanks for sharing.

I finished two books in the last few days. I really liked both, so it was almost nonstop reading here. However, i alternated between the two because one made switching gears easy.

Studying with Miss Bishop: Memoirs from a Young Writer's Life is poet Dana Gioia account of his interaction with five poets &/or writers. What made it easy to move to my other book was that each writer is given one chapter and i needed time to think about what i had learned. The six were as follows: Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Fitzgerald, John Cheever, James Dickey and Ronald Perry.

Had Gioia titled the book "Studying with" any of the others, i would have passed it up. However, Bishop's poems are ones i like reading, so thought i'd learn more about her. Actually, i really didn't learn much about her but it was still a pleasant chapter.

While reading his chapter about Fitzgerald, a man who is better known for his translations of Greek and Roman classics (The Odyssey and The Iliad), i was moved by some of the points and stories related. There was a story or two from Fitzgerald which really moved me. Best of all, i learned more in this chapter (admittedly, i knew little previously) about epic poetry and reading it. I share (at length, i fear) the most important point.

“He required us to learn every character in each poem. This assignment not only included the major figures but every soldier, shepherd, sailor, slave, or shade who appeared, even momentarily, from Aietes and Eurymedousa to Medon and Tehoklymenus—hundreds of names and characters. Though we complained at the time, in retrospect, this demand was a clever tactic to teach epic poetry. There is a temptation to read verse narrative as quickly as prose. But narrative poetry is more compressed than prose fiction, and details bear more weight. Fitzgerald slowed down our reading not only by compelling us to take careful notes but also by forcing us to differentiate characters and places.

Cheever has never called to me but after reading what Gioia wrote, i feel more drawn to trying some of his stories. Overall, i felt he came across as someone i would have liked to discuss literature--and i don't say that likely as i usually feel intimidated by the mere idea of discussing same with an author.

One extremely surprising bit of info i learned was how many poets have spent careers in businesses. For instance, Gioia himself worked almost 20 years at General Mills. He mentions others who worked years in insurance, engineering firms and on.

It is a short book & most of the stories (essays?) were under 20 pages. So, inbetween chapters, i read a book John mentioned recently, Cay Rademacher's The Murderer in Ruins, which was a complete break. Set in 1947 Hamburg, the favorite part of the mystery for me was the description of how Post War Germans lived through that winter. The bombed out buildings and bunkers which were their hovel-homes are well described, as was the biting cold. The mystery was fine and i was disappointed to learn that it's the first in a planned 3-part trilogy, but those images is what will stay with me.

Great that the recommended book worked out for you! One of the better examples of scene-setting I've run across; I have the second one as well (qualifies for one of my 2021 challenges). I like the fact that the material in the first book cover different writers, so as not to seem bogged.

I'm going to take the opportunity to throw in a couple of suggestions as folks here have indicated these themes are of interest...

The Apparitionists: A Tale of Phantoms, Fraud, Photography, and the Man Who Captured Lincoln's Ghost revolved around a trial, although that aspect doesn't come directly into play until later in the book. I think folks here would really appreciate it for the historical information regarding spiritualism and photography.

A couple of books that combine travel with literature: The Trip to Echo Spring and A Skeptic's Guide to Writers' Houses.

madrano wrote: Cheever has never called to me but after reading what Gioia wrote, i feel more drawn to trying some of his stories...."

Many years ago I read his The Stories of John Cheever
It was so long ago, I honestly don't recall them anymore. I should revisit them one day.

I also read his son's book, Selling Ben Cheever: Back to Square One in a Service Economy---Benjamin Cheever I thought it was good. Similar topic to Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America
I do recall one job was selling computers and another was for H&R Block. However, I think he failed the test. I could be wrong. I read it a long time ago.

John, you know i'm a sucker for travel & lit! I'm not sure i want to handle the one about alcoholic writers, as my mom never recovered from her bout with the drug. However, as you probably recall, Cheever, after he finally went into treatment never drank again. I applaud that success because it's clear from Gioia's book that people were always offering him wine and other alcohol. I'm sure that's tempting.

As an avid visitor of writer's homes, i have added Anne Trubek's book to my search. We don't always get a sense of authors from their early homes but often we learn much. To be honest, though, we visit non-author's homes (Jim Thorpe, Amelia Earhart, etc.), too. It's an opportunity to see how they lived and what locals want visitors to know.

Thanks for the note about this one!

Alias, i'm glad you shared that book of Cheever's stories. Since seeing the Burt Lancaster movie based on Cheever's The Swimmer, i've meant to read it. Now i can easily locate it. Thanks.

Two of Cheever's three children are writers. However, it was the non-writer who visited Stanford with his father, allowing Gioia, author of the book i read, to meet and entertain Cheever for a week. I knew about daughter Mary's book because it was about her father but was unaware of son Ben's. Interesting topic, i'm adding it to my TBR.

Early this morning i finished Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder, a book from a list Alias shared with us. This is the first by T.A. Willberg, who lives in Malta, but knows London well. Marion Lane is training to be a Private Detective in an agency which is based in underground tunnels post WWII, 1958. One of the detectives has been murdered and Lane finds herself in the midst of the "locked room" mystery. I doubt i'd read more in a series but i basically liked the straight-told story and characters.

madrano wrote: "Early this morning i finished Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder, a book from a list Alias shared with us. This is the first by T.A. Willberg, who lives in Malta,..."

Thanks for letting us know about the book! Doubt it's for me.

It was one of those books which sound more fun than it was.

Presently i'm reading Celia Anderson's The Cottage of Curiosities. I cannot recall where i heard about this book but after the Marion Lane book, i was tired of quirky characters. This isn't quite like that and i'm liking it, now at the halfway point.

The premise is that a 50-something year old Grace just found out she was adopted, including a letter her birth mother wrote her. She heads to Cornwall, where the letter was from, even though she's learned the woman is now dead. Grace has an ability to read the memories of others who are near her when they think of those memories. She spends much effort trying to stop those insights. And on.

Looking this book up just now, i see that it is a sequel! This explains one aspect of the book which i didn't find as engaging as i thought the author wanted me to be. Old letters.

ANYway, i'm still enjoying the book. It makes me want to buy a house on a coast. :-)

madrano wrote: "It was one of those books which sound more fun than it was.

Presently i'm reading Celia Anderson's The Cottage of Curiosities. I cannot recall where i heard abou..."

Sounds interesting - thanks for bringing it to our attention!

The football season is nearing its end, so my free weekends of reading jags are in danger. I'm lucky my husband also likes to read, at least. ANYway, the point is i managed to finish the book i wrote about earlier today.

In all i liked the way Grace used her ability to feel the memories of others to help those who were beginning to lose memories. She found a nice community there & fit in well. There is one story line which just seemed added to make problems, which did nothing for the story, imo, but overall, i liked most of the book.

I will not be going back to read the first book, 59 Memory Lane, nor read any subsequent novels if there is a series. Still, it was nice to visit. And reminded me of bits of our travels in Cornwall and the rest of the UK.

Last weekend i was looking at my decades-long TBR list, thinking surely i could eliminate titles. I could. More importantly, i decided to see if i could even locate some titles from my library. Sure enough, i could.

In the early 2000s Ian Sansom wrote & became published with what was intended to be the first in a series, The Case of the Missing Books. I see there are only 3 more books at this point, the last published in 2010. However, he has a couple of other new series.

This particular book is a story of Israel Armstrong, hired from London to be the librarian in a small north Ireland town. Upon arrival he learns the council has closed the library & he will be the mobile librarian...once he finds the missing 15,000 books! While the story is funny (big city/small town bits) there were times when it was tedious. However, halfway through, it was more endearing, as we learn about locals & how 1970s IRA changed lives.

madrano wrote: "Last weekend i was looking at my decades-long TBR list, thinking surely i could eliminate titles. I could. More importantly, i decided to see if i could even locate some titles from my library. Sur..."

On our day trip cruise excursion in Northern Ireland, our tour guide mentioned that at the height of the troubles even close relatives wouldn't come to visit, let alone tourists, so she's incredibly grateful that there are excursions for her to guide now!

I suppose now is a good time for me to admit that I sometimes pick a TBR book I feel I won't be able to get into so that I can start it, then DNF it, and cross it off the list. Never say never, however, as a few have turned out okay.

I purchased a book that is on sale today for the Kindle $2.

The Hour of Fate: Theodore Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and the Battle to Transform American Capitalism by Susan Berfield

It seemed like no force in the world could slow J. P. Morgan's drive to power. In the summer of 1901, the financier was assembling his next mega-deal: Northern Securities, an enterprise that would affirm his dominance in America's most important industry-the railroads.

Then, a bullet from an anarchist's gun put an end to the business-friendly presidency of William McKinley. A new chief executive bounded into office: Theodore Roosevelt. He was convinced that as big business got bigger, the government had to check the influence of the wealthiest or the country would inch ever closer to collapse. By March 1902, battle lines were drawn: the government sued Northern Securities for antitrust violations. But as the case ramped up, the coal miners' union went on strike and the anthracite pits that fueled Morgan's trains and heated the homes of Roosevelt's citizens went silent. With millions of dollars on the line, winter bearing down, and revolution in the air, it was a crisis that neither man alone could solve.

Richly detailed and propulsively told, The Hour of Fate is the gripping story of a banker and a president thrown together in the crucible of national emergency even as they fought in court. The outcome of the strike and the case would change the course of our history. Today, as the country again asks whether saving democracy means taming capital, the lessons of Roosevelt and Morgan's time are more urgent than ever.

John, that is funny. Maybe i should try that as well. As i mentioned, my list is decades old, so some interests have passed (because they were, in fact, fleeting) and others are no longer relevant, since my "babies" are in their 30s/40s. No grandchildren ahead, so really, no need for childrearing books, regardless of how highly they were praised.

Don't be surprised if i follow your footsteps.

Alias, that sounds as though it would be a good story. That Berfield could fit into a book a bit over 300 pages is remarkable. I appreciate notice of the title.

Btw, i'm now reading one from my DL, a rereading, actually of Richard Henry Dana Jr.'s Two Years Before the Mast: A Sailor's Life at Sea.

Amazon was running a Kindle deal "Spend $25, get a $6 voucher" deal recently. Could I resist? Only briefly. An item of note among the qualifiers was The Gran Tour: Travels with My Elders. I liked Dear Bill Bryson: Footnotes from a Small Island, so purchased his second book A Chip Shop in Poznań (yet unread).

John wrote: "Amazon was running a Kindle deal "Spend $25, get a $6 voucher" deal recently. Could I resist? Only briefly. ."

John, the Ben Aitken book sounds fun. As long as he doesn't make all old people sound wise. I know too many who are not!

Enjoy your books.

Perfect gif, Alias! Now you know how we feel!

Having worked my way through my last book (Two Years Before the Mast: A Sailor's Life at Sea), i was eager for something light. I found it in a book we mentioned on another thread here, Daddy Long-Legs: A Comedy in Four Acts, written in 1912 by Jean Webster. It was a delightful epistolary novel. A trustee at an orphanage will sent Jerusha Abbott to college, asking only that she write him monthly to tell her about her experiences.

It is understood that he read some of her writing & believed she could be a published author once she knew received a quality education. Her letters are exuberant, innocent and just what one would like to read--her experiences with other teens her age, about life as an orphan who spent her entire life in an institution and the glories of having some control over her life.

It was quite short, around 180 ebook pages. However, i felt somewhat cheated because Jerusha (who changes her name to Judy, not the one selected by the orphanage) mentions drawings she's included but they were not in my edition. *sigh* My imagination will have to suffice.

madrano wrote: Daddy Long-Legs: A Comedy in Four Acts, written in 1912 by Jean Webster. It was a delightful epistolary novel. A trustee at an orphanage will sent Jerusha Abbott to college, asking only that she write him monthly to tell her about her experiences...."

That does sound like a prefect change of pace book.

It was. As well it was one of those new-to-me authors (from one hundred years ago!) that i mentioned on another thread. I just found out there is a sequel, published in 1915. In this one one of the college roommates of the letter writer in the first book, is the one wielding the pen, Dear Enemy.

In this one Sallie McBride writes to many different people, unlike the earlier book, where only "Daddy-Long-Legs" was addressed. I'd like to read this one for another change of pace someday.

John listed Chasten Glezman Buttigieg's autobiography, I Have Something to Tell You in his Best of 2020 list, so i wanted to read it. Chasten is known as being the husband of 2020 Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. In so many ways his is the story of many raised in rural small town USA with fishing and family stories. The story is related in his own words, which is quite refreshing. This makes the story even more authentic, imo.

I'm not one to read spouse bios but i must say of those i've read, this is the first that made the author seem as though i was in the room with him. His jokes--corny & sad--could be heard in my ear, as it would have been in conversation. Nothing about the book was ultra smooth, as is sometimes the case. I liked it and am glad i read it. I hope he'll write an update once they leave D.C., since i know Mayor Pete is now a member of Biden's cabinet!

madrano wrote: "John listed Chasten Glezman Buttigieg's autobiography, I Have Something to Tell You in his Best of 2020 list, so i wanted to read it. Chasten is known as being the..."

Authentic is a good description!

:-)

Today i began Hideo Yokoyama's Prefecture D. It a collection of four novellas, apparently written about the Japanese police at the time (1998) of his well known (but unread by me) Six Four, although i'm not sure why. The first story, "Season of Shadows" was very good. I liked how Yokoyama scattered bits that would help more observant readers figure out why one police officer was refusing to retire, as a verbal contract demanded.

Now i'm really looking forward to the others!

madrano wrote: "Today i began Hideo Yokoyama's Prefecture D. It a collection of four novellas, apparently written about the Japanese police at the time (1998) of his well known (bu..."

Sounds like an interesting read! I'm working on the other Seishi Yokomizo mystery currently available in English: The Inugami Curse; so far, I prefer The Honjin Murders.

I look forward to reading your thoughts on Inugami, John.

Earlier this month i was looking through my computerized TBR list & found one that sounded appealling. I got an ebook version & am reading it now. Shomeret read & reviewed it a few years ago, which is how it ended on my list.

Absolution by Murder is the first in Peter Tremayne's series about a 7th century Irish nun, Sister Fidelma. In this first one a synod is being held at Whitby between the Roman & Celtic Christian churches when a participant is killed. I'm not far into it and am just skimming past the dozens of names she shares, knowing they'll eventually winnow down to a few. While this list of people probably helps if one knows the history of early England & Ireland, i'm asea. Still, the book is well written & calls me.

I'm amazed at how i flew through the above book. Part of the pleasure was learning about the early Roman & Irish branches of what is now the Catholic Church. The other bit of fun, of course, is seeing if i've figured out whodunit. I did not.

I read an e-version from Overdrive. I was rather torqued when i got to the end of the book & found what author Tremayne meant to be the Foreword (he even mentions that fact). Why did they do that? The book would have run smoother for me if i had understood some of those facts from the onset. Shame on them!

Only thing I can think of is that the ebook composer mistakenly read the heading Foreward as Afterword? I almost never figure out the murderer myself, so don't even usually try.

This could be the case, John. The author even makes the point readers will better understand the story if they know those facts. It's disappointing no matter how it happened. I'm going to be more careful in the future. This time it was obvious but i've read another book or two where i felt the afterword was supposed to be the Foreword.

I imagine i will try this series again, so i'll remember to check that out first thing.

I've moved blithely along from one new-to-me mystery to another. Earlier this week Barbara reviewed the second in a mystery series by Elly Griffiths, at which point she mentioned The Crossing Places. I may not be able to put this one down, as it's about an archaeologist who lives near a sea-marsh. I'm a fan of the occupation and fell in fascination with bogs and marshes when we were in the UK in '17.

Ok, i see the error of my ways now. Elly Griffiths, whose name i did not know, has authored a number of mysteries. It seems the one i am waiting for from my library's queue is a different series from the one i read yesterday.

Yes, i read it all in one day. I don't recall the last time i did that. As i mentioned, i like archaeology, so i was already quite invested before beginning the reading. What a joy to learn this was the first in a lengthy series of 14! I've got some enjoyable reading ahead.

And, judging by the titles, several are at places we visited and wondered about while we were in the UK. Hurrah. I liked the two main characters and look forward to seeing if they continue throughout the books. But i must pace myself.

Since Horatio Clare's Down to the Sea in Ships: Of Ageless Oceans and Modern Men was a success, I used a PayPal credit to order a copy of his A Single Swallow: Following An Epic Journey From South Africa To South Wales. While I was at it, decided to apply the balance of the credit towards Antal Szerb's (said-to-be-humorous) novel The Pendragon Legend.

That Szerb novel sounds interesting but i'm surprised it is humorous as well. I will eagerly await your post about it, John.

Both Barbara & PattyMac reviewed Elly Griffiths's The Stranger Diaries, introducing gay Sikh British detective Harbinder Kaur. The mystery is set in what we call high school in the US. Clare, a teacher, has lost a dear friend, murdered violently. The story progresses from there and includes a Gothic short story whose author the teacher is researching.

On another thread i discussed mysteries that call to me due to the topic/career of the main characters. I stated they were not particularly well written or constructed. As it happens, this mystery is written by one of those authors. It is a contrast to her other series (Ruth Galloway, forensic palentologist).

While the Galloway is presentable and the mystery serviceable, this book goes beyond that. What i'm stumbling to say is that i felt i felt fully engaged in this mystery. Perhaps it was the Gothic angle but i don't think so.

ANYway, i am eager to read the next in the series, The Postscript Murders, which just came in today. Good timing.

Well, i just gobbled up the above-mentioned Elly Griffiths mystery featuring Harbinder Kaur, British police officer. It was a fun romp with many mentions of older mysteries & how they fall out of favor. Several of the new to the series characters were engaged readers, so there was mention of a number of books and even the Aberdeen, Scotland, annual book fair.

This is the latest in the series of two books and was just released this month. Poor Deb will now have to wait some time before there will be another. While i enjoy her series about forensic paleontologist Ruth Galloway, they don't compare to the deeper brain cell uses of this Kaur series. Oh well...it's not as though there aren't plenty of series when i get in a mystery mood (as i appear to be in at present). Heck, even Griffiths herself has a whole other series i haven't tried, The Stephens & Mephisto Mystery Series, beginning with The Zig Zag Girl.