VictoriaPL's 2016 Reading - part 3

Welcome to my 3rd thread! Happy Summer!
Photo is from a vacation we took a few years ago to Folly Beach. This is the Morris Island Light. There are better photos of it, this is just one I had handy. I took about 100 photos of just it over the week there, different times of day, etc. I even captured the Sullivan's Island Light in the distance one evening, which took forever to do but was really fun - trying to count and anticipate the light and clicking the shutter button.

I have already met my goal for this year - 40 books. Now I'm just hanging out here like a bum and thinking about next year!

previous thread:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/220695

1. Boooooks Innnn Spaaaaace
(Generally, Space Program history but could be some Sci-Fi)

1. The Time it Takes to Fall by Margaret Lazarus Dean 1.17.2016
2. Wheels Stop: The Tragedies and Triumphs of the Space Shuttle Program, 1986-2011 by Rick Houston 2.23.2016
3. Ice by Shane Johnson 4.19.2016
4. What's It Like in Space?: Stories from Astronauts Who've Been There by Ariel Waldman 5.6.2016 **LTER BOOK**
5. Grimspace by Ann Aguirre 8.14.2016
6. Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly 12.30.2016

2. WWII books, Fiction

1. The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck 1.10.2016
2. Vienna Prelude by Bodie and Brock Thoene 2.21.2016
3. Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys 3.12.2016
4. Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman 3.21.2016
5. The Book of Aron by Jim Shepard 3.30.2016
6. Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke by Anne Blankman 4.7.2016
7. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah 5.23.2016
8. The Beast's Garden by Kate Forsyth 6.2.2016 *audiobook*
9. The Girl from the Paradise Ballroom by Alison Love 6.21.2016 **LTER BOOK**
10. Songbird by Walter Zacharius 6.24.2016
11. The Blood of Others by Simone de Beauvoir 7.4.2016
12. The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure 7.6.2016
13. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys 7.28.2016
14. The Scent of Secrets by Jane Thynne 7.29.2016 *audiobook*
15. Trapeze by Simon Mawer 9.18.2016
16. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein 11.8.2016
17. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink 11.22.2016

3. WWII books, non-fiction

1. Dancing with the Enemy: My Family's Holocaust Secret by Paul Glaser 1.23.2016
2. Ludwika: A Polish Woman's Struggle to Survive in Nazi Germany by Mr Christoph Fischer 3.31.2016
3. Vera Gran: The Accused by Agata Tuszynska 4.15.2016
4. The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom 4.29.2016
5. Love in the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Eric Larson 5.13.2016
6. Americans in Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupation by Charles Glass 5.20.2016
7. The Unfree French: Life Under the Occupation by Richard Vinen 6.8.2016
8. Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris by David King. 8.11.2016
9. Avenue of Spies by Alex Kershaw 8.29.2016

4 YA

1. The Raft by S.A. Bodeen 2.2.2016
2. I Remember You by Cathleen Davitt Bell 2.6.2016
3. Renegade by J.A. Souders 3.10.2016
4. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly 8.25.2016

Did Not Finish
Beautiful Creatures
The Accidental Highwayman

5. Hard Habit to Break
(Serial fiction I'm in the midst of)

1. Junkyard Dogs by Craig Johnson 1.30.2016 Longmire #6
2. Hell is Empty by Craig Johnson 2.25.2016 Longmire #7
3. As the Crow Flies by Craig Johnson 4.10.2016 Longmire #8
4. Sycamore Row by John Grisham 6.19.2016 Jake Brigance #2
5. The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter 9.26.2016 Will Trent #8, Sara Linton #12 (with @jonesli)
6. Blind Sight by Carol O'Connell 10.26.2016 Mallory#12 (with @jonesli)

6. Shiny!
(Unplanned reads that must happen NOW)

1. Silent Joe by T.Jefferson Parker 1.21.2016
2. Crazy Love You by Lisa Unger 3.3.2016
3. Angel Fire by Lisa Unger 3.18.2016
4. Gray Mountain by John Grisham 3.25.2016
5. Force of Nature by C.J. Box 5.1.2016
6. Submergence by J. M. Ledgard 8.23.2016
7. Napoleon's Pyramids by William Dietrich 11.1.2016
8. Inferno by Dan Brown 11.3.2016 *audiobook*
9. A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams 11.15.2016
10. Angel Time by Anne Rice 11.27.2016

7. Other Non-Fiction

1. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer 2.26.2016
2. Introverts in the Church by Adam S. McHugh 3.15.2016 (with cbl_tn)
3. Tough Without A Gun: the Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart by Stefan Kanfer 7.29.2016
4. 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers by Jim Dwyer

Did Not Finish
Evolution of the Word: The New Testament in the Order the Books Were Written by Borg, Marcus J.
The Anthropology of Turquoise: Reflections on Desert, Sea, Stone, and Sky by Ellen Meloy

8. Other Fiction

1. The Continental Op by Dashiell Hammett 1.5.2016
2. a land more kind than home by Wiley Cash 1.26.2016
3. The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte by Syrie James 4.22.2016
4. The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey 4.26.2016
5. The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh 5.20.2016
6. Tokyo Girl by Brian Harvey 7.5.2016 **LTER BOOK**
7. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick 7.14.2016
8. All She Ever Wanted by Patrick Redmond 7.19.2016

Ruminations on Next Year

Talk Dewey to Me -or- Just Dewey It - a Dewey category of 10 books
ROOT - Read Our Own Tomes, my TBR shelf and auxiliary bag need to be whittled down.
ILL - I borrow through ILL a lot. Might be fun to make its own category and track where they come from.

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread! That's a lovely beach to be hanging out. The ILL tracking sounds as if it could be fun!

Hi Victoria : Happy New Thread! I think I will join you in reading the new Mallory novel in September. I think I still need to read the last one though.

Happy new thread! Congrats on finishing your challenge and enjoy your free reading!

Happy New Thread! I'll be waiting to see what you think of the "turquoise" book. it sounds interesting.

Thanks everyone!
>13 lsh63: Yes! Let's read it together. I can wait a bit if you need time to read the other.
>15 dudes22: Doesn't it? I read a review someone had posted and was so glad to see my library had a copy. It sounds like a warm-weather book. I am looking forward to it.

Hot new thread for hot new month! Hope the second half of the year is as enjoyable as the first.

Happy New Thread! Thanks for bolding the statement about moving the thread!

Happy new thread! The topper picture is beautiful, looks like the place to be in summer. And congrats on reaching your goal already now! I took a BB from your second thread, Songbird.

Glad you are going to hang out here for the rest of the year, Victoria.

Happy new thread! And congrats on getting to (your first) goal this early!

Congratulations on completing your challenge and also on your new thread with a beautiful header!

It's fun to start thinking about next year.

>17 mamzel:, >18 thornton37814:, >19 Chrischi_HH:, >20 DeltaQueen50:, >21 -Eva-: & >22 VivienneR:
Thanks everyone!

41. The Blood of Others by Simone de Beauvoir 7.4.2016



Plot Summary from Wikipedia:
In German-occupied France, Jean Blomart sits by a bed in which his lover Hélène lies dying. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn about both characters and their relationship to each other. As a young man filled with guilt about his privileged middle-class life, Jean joins the Communist Party and breaks from his family, determined to make his own way in life. After the death of a friend in a political protest, for which he feels guilty, Jean leaves the Party and concentrates on trade union activities. Hélène is a young designer who works in her family's confectionery shop and is dissatisfied with her conventional romance with her fiancé Paul. She contrives to meet Jean and, though he initially rejects her, they form a relationship after she has had an abortion following a reckless liaison with another man. Caring for her happiness, Jean tells Hélène he loves her even though he believes that he does not. He proposes and she accepts.
When France enter the Second World War, Jean, conceding the need for violent conflict to effect change, becomes a soldier. Hélène intervenes against his will to arrange a safe posting for him. Angry with her, Jean breaks their relationship. As the German forces advance towards Paris, Hélène flees and witnesses the suffering of other refugees. Returning to Paris, she briefly takes up with a German who could advance her career, but soon sees what her countrymen are suffering. She also witnesses the roundup of Jews. Securing the safety of her Jewish friend Yvonne leads Hélène back to Jean who has become a leader in a Résistance group. She is moved to join the group. Jean has reconnected with his father with the common goal to liberate France from Germany. His mother however is less impressed by the lives lost to the Resistance. Hélène is shot in a resistance activity and during Jean's night vigil at her side, he examines his love for Hélène and the wider consequences of his actions. As morning dawns, Hélène dies and Jean decides to continue with acts of resistance.

Thoughts
A No-Man-is-an-Island kind of book. Lots of talking and little real action - how our behavior affects others and what responsibility we hold for those in our sphere of relationships. Some of the beginning was difficult to follow, it was almost stream-of-consciousness and I found it confusing. Towards the middle it evens out into proper dialogue and description and I found it easier. The angst wears you out.

>24 VictoriaPL: I have had a French language copy of this book since I was twenty. Someday I will get to it. I'll admit that the description made it more attractive to me, so maybe I'll get to it soon - as soon as I feel like a challenge.

>25 RidgewayGirl: Read it when you are in the mood for some angst, that's all I have to say, LOL.
Why is it that we hold on to books unread for so long?

In case there's a book apocalypse?

>27 dudes22: Betty, Maybe. Maybe...

42. Tokyo Girl: A Frank Ryan Mystery by Brian Harvey 7.5.2016 **LTER BOOK**



"There was a fish in my bed. And not just any fish. Sunshine, Akiko's favorite koi, had been opened from gills to tail, the guts artfully arranged on the sheet... His insides were dusted with golden scales. If a fish could commit hara-kiri, it would want to look like this, artful and obscene." (quoted from an advanced reader's copy)

Frank thought with all these millions of people he could hide out from his troubles in Toyko. But it seems that even in the midst of a national crisis, like the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the yakuza still have time to notice a piano-playing, jazz-loving gaijin.

I love noir and jazz and many things Japanese. I knew Tokyo Girl would be a fun read. And it was fun and fast. It manages to keep the tone rather light during the adventure, but I'm not sure why it's called a mystery because there's not much sleuthing. All in all, an enjoyable few hours spent with Mr Harvey. I'm grateful to the LibraryThing Early Reviewer's program for the opportunity.

>29 VictoriaPL: You liked it a bit better than I did. I really liked the first book, Beethoven's Tenth, which had an actual mystery that Frank unraveled. This seemed like a let-down after the first one.

>30 cbl_tn: Yes, while there was no real mystery, the scenery was enjoyable.

43. The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure 7.6.2016



You didn't turn down work in wartime. Any fool knew that.

Lucien Bernard is becoming desperate. He hasn't had any real work since the Germans came to town. His wife, Celeste, has grown sullen raising rabbits on their balcony for meat. And Adele, his mistress, has taken up with another man who provides her with the things she needs when she's not in bed. Although he's had some success, he has not yet had an opportunity to design a true masterpiece, a building that will leave his mark on Paris. Lucien's new client, the wealthy Monsieur Manet, will open doors with the Germans, his designs will be approved and and his buildings will become a reality. But there's a little side project Lucien must be willing to do in Manet's various apartments. Small renovations really, just to create some space large enough for a person or maybe two...

Wow! Just wow. This one wrapped its pages around me and didn't let go. It was a one-sessioner.
I truly loved it.

>32 VictoriaPL: - Sounds fascinating - BB for me.

>33 dudes22: Hi Betty! Hope you enjoy it.

>32 VictoriaPL: And another one for the wishlist!

>35 VivienneR: Hi Vivienne. Thanks for stopping by!

Happy belated thingaversary and congrats on meeting your goal already!

Took BBs for The Nightingale, The Beast's Garden and The Paris Architect.

>37 LisaMorr: Thanks Lisa!

The Paris Architect sounds very intriguing!

>39 mathgirl40: Hi Paulina! Let me know your thoughts if you decide to check it out!

Just reserved The Paris Architect at the library. Thank you!

>41 pamelad: Hi Pam! Hope you enjoy it!

Just checking in here!

>43 thornton37814: Hi Lori! Thanks for stopping by!

44. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick 7.14.2016



"This fellow -" Joe closed the book, turned it around to study the back cover. "Abendsen. I don't blame him. He writes this fantasy, imagines how the world would be if the Axis had lost"...
"I have to turn the bacon." She slid away from him and hurried back to the kitchen.
Following after her, still carrying the book, Joe went on, "And the U.S. comes in. After it licks the Japs. And after the war, the U.S. and Britain divide the World. Exactly like Germany and Japan did in reality."

The Man in the High Castle is a Hugo Award-winning alternative history. Amazon recently turned the property into a series, of course, the resulting work bears only a passing resemblance to the written novel. I love films and television based on Dick's works. The way he approaches identity, both real and perceived, self-evaluation, self-doubt and paranoia just really speak to me.
I really liked the way he wrote the Japanese in this novel. Their speech and thought pattern were so distinct, I could almost hear it. I didn't think the Germans were nearly as so well done. I enjoyed the story even though I don't think I have the entire picture Dick painted. Questions remain, but what is it they say - always leave them guessing? I know this one will be in my head for some time to come.
Although Dick is most known in Sci-Fi circles, this is one work that can be read by non-Sci-Fi readers.

45. All She Ever Wanted by Patrick Redmond 7.14.2016



"Love isn't just an emotion; it's a surrender. The ultimate surrender of power. If you love someone you give them the power to hurt you more than anyone else can."

Tina adores time spent with her father out on the boat, just the two of them. She loves her father more than anything. That is, until her father unexpectedly leaves the family without a trace. Tina hardens her heart and, to protect herself, creates the perfect outer shell. Rebranded as Chrissie, she takes a job in the film industry. While on a shoot she briefly falls for a bartender, Jack, who lives on a boat and brings back to her the very essence of her father. One day when Jack's remarks hit too close to her tender core, Chrissie runs from him. She latches onto rich and handsome Alexander, an actor, who seems to morph himself into anything she needs him to be. But he can't be Jack and that's a problem for Chrissie. Which is a problem for Alec. Which becomes a problem for Jack.

Like the proverbial train wreck that you can't look away from, you just know this entire situation is going to bad. Really, really bad. It's a fast-paced psychological read. I found myself examining my own relationships with family and friends while reading this one, it really made me think. I was glad when it ended though because all the raw emotions on the page between Chrissie and Alec and Jack was just exhausting.

>46 VictoriaPL: Sounds like a good one!

46. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys 7.28.2016 w/ christina_reads



Amazon description:
Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.
Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously-and at great risk-documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives.

Back in March of this year I read Salt to the Sea. I was so impressed with Sepetys writing, I knew I had to read this sister-book, Between Shades of Gray. While I knew that it was well researched and it was a very moving account of what some Lithuanians endured during the war, it didn't resonate with me as Salt did. In Salt the passages were written from multiple points of view. The reader was inside everyone's head. Here, we only have the situation in Lina's context. Also, I really did not care for the flashback techniques that were employed. I found them very jarring and did not enjoy the perspective I think they were meant to provide. This by no means put me off Sepetys, she is so very gifted and I look forward to reading more by her.

47. The Scent of Secrets by Jane Thynne 7.29.2016 *audiobook*



Amazon description
The colorful, lively streets of Paris come as a welcome relief to Clara Vine after the dour countenance of Berlin, where bunkers and bomb shelters are being dug, soldiers march the streets in their high boots, and Jewish residents rush to make it home before curfew. Though Clara is in Paris to make a film, her true work is never far from her mind. Approached by a British intelligence officer, Clara is initially confounded by his request: Get close to Eva Braun and glean as much as she can about the Führer’s plans and intentions. Clara has already established friendships with several high-ranking Nazi wives, but Eva Braun is another matter altogether. Hitler keeps his “secret” girlfriend obsessively hidden, fiercely guarding their relationship as well as Eva’s delicate psychological state. From the gilded halls of the decadent City of Light to the cobbled, quaint streets of Munich, and even to the chilling, rarefied air of the Berghof, Hitler’s private mountaintop retreat, Clara flirts with discovery at every turn—and a dangerous, devious plot unfolds.

In short: I loved this book! I should probably apologize to the folks who share the streets with me, as I was just enraptured by this story while I was driving in my car. And a disk-change always came at the most inopportune moment. But truly, Jane Thynne knows how to hook a reader. This is not high-brow literary, hoity-toity fiction. This is pure popcorn and it is so much fun! The Pink Carnation books would be very similar to this if they were placed in the WWII era.

My only negative is that this episode is in the middle of the series and now I have to back up and start from the beginning before I can go forward.

Looking forward to the forthcoming reviews.

48. Tough Without a Gun: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart by Stefan Kanfer 7.29.2016



Ah, Bogart. His silver-spoon beginnings, his long years climbing up into the spotlight, his penchant for actresses (he married FOUR) and the public's enduring fascination with the take-no-guff characters he portrayed. This is the third biography of Bogie that I've read, so much of it is familiar to me. There's a bit more detail on the studio politics and his final days and some theories about why so many people (like me!) still find him captivating even today. I found it to be a so-so read. I was bored in places and well and truly irritated with all of the name-dropping (mostly in the context of either who was having an affair with who or who was addicted to what substance). I would say if you've read other biographies of Bogart then you can probably skip this one. If you like just books about classic Hollywood then you'll probably enjoy this one too.

>51 VictoriaPL: Every time I see Humphrey Bogart mentioned, I always think back to that episode on The Brady Bunch where Peter was imitating him -- "pork chops and applesauce."

>52 thornton37814: Ha! I am a huge Bogie fan!

JULY RECAP

48 books read in 2016 so far. 8 books in July

Favorite book of the month: The Paris Architect.
The Scent of Secrets was a close second.

A disappointing beginning to August, I DNF'd The Anthropology of Turquoise: Reflections on Desert, Sea, Stone, and Sky by Ellen Meloy. I really, really wanted to love this one. Turquoise is my color, it's my birthstone. Half my wardrobe, sandals and nail polishes are Turquoise. It needles its way more and more into my decorating accents in my house. I love it. But I did not love the book. More then a hundred pages in and we have barely any mention of the color or the stone. I was so tired of reading about the author's childhood, all the pools she had swam in, the porn she found in her hotel room and her love for the California of years gone by. I just could not go on.

>54 VictoriaPL: Yeah, I fail to see how some of those experiences you listed fit in with the anthropology of turquoise. Sorry to hear that book was a disappointment. Hope the next one is better!

Trying to catch up.

I read The Man in the High Castle in college and remember enjoying it quite a bit. It might have been my first real introduction to alternative history stories.

>55 rabbitprincess: >56 andreablythe: Thanks for stopping by for a catch-up. Sorry, I haven't been on very much in the past week. I am reading (though the Olympics are putting a dent in my page count) and I hope to have some more reviews soon!

It was the annual sale of our local literacy association this weekend so RidgewayGirl and I went to check it out today. I came home with a few things.

The Reader by Bernard Schlink
I Still Dream About You by Fannie Flagg
A Century of Noir Thirty-two Classic Crime Stories
Monkeewrench by p.j. Tracy
Live Bait by p.j. Tracy
The River Runs Free by Bodie and Brock Thoene
48 Days to the Work You Love by Dan Miller

>58 VictoriaPL: Is that the sale I went to with you all that time? If so, that's a small haul.

We were so good, Lori! I only walked out with nine books, so I am feeling very restrained.

So fun to see you Victoria!

Hurray for book sales! Looks like a satisfying haul.

>59 thornton37814: Lori, yes, the same sale. Truth be told, the crush of people was tremendous. I like a more laid-back browse.
>60 RidgewayGirl: Yes! I enjoyed it!!

Hi Victoria : You know my eyes zeroed in on A Century of Noir , I'm curious if there are any authors I don't know about in the collection, I love when I find out about authors I don't know about, especially in the noir genre.

Pj tracy looks familiar, I think on Judy's thread. I'm off to investigate.

>63 lsh63: Hi Lisa, when I get home I'll look and let you know the authors.

49. Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris by David King 8.11.2016



"The last five years of world war had desensitized many people who had lived through the Holocaust, the ferocious fire-bombing raids, and an array of horrors that left between fifty and sixty million people dead. One of the trial's low points was when Dupin protested that "human life is sacred" and the audience laughed."

Investigating smoke from Dr. Petiot's property, authorities were startled to find discarded German uniforms, suitcases and corpses everywhere. Some bodies were whole, others had been dis-articulated and were stewing in quick lime, others were smoldering in the furnace. Were the victims Gestapo, collaborators, spies or unsavory elements like gangsters and whores? Or, did the Doctor promise rich Jews that he could get them to safety in South America and poison them under the guise of immunization shots, while pocketing the money found hidden in their clothing? Or, was the doctor innocent entirely, framed by the Gestapo while they held him in prison for eight months?

I've read many books about Paris during the Occupation, yet I've never heard of Dr. Petiot. Quite amazing, as his case was on the level of O.J. Simpson-type fame. The chaos of the city at that time was really the perfect opportunity for a killer to operate undetected. And while I do think Dr. Petiot's defense team did bring up salient points in their case about chain-of-evidence, I believe he was guilty. I found myself remarking how similar the case was to modern cases today. We haven't come as far as we think. It was also interesting to learn of the differences between the French legal system and our own. I think this book would appeal most to those who enjoy true crime books other than those who are interested in the WWII genre.

50. Grimspace by Ann Aguirre 8.14.2016



"Part of me aches, like this is my fault, like I'm the butterfly whose wings create hurricanes. I try to push it back. But It's hard to escape the feeling that my life has become a curse, a thread that ought to have been snipped at Matins IV, and that I'm only going to keep causing pain until I have the good sense to die. But even if that's the case, I'm just not selfless enough to fix it."

Amazon.com description
"As the carrier of a rare gene, Sirantha Jax has the ability to jump ships through grimspace-a talent which makes her a highly prized navigator for the Corp. Then a crash landing kills everyone on board, leaving Jax in a jail cell with no memory of the crash. But her fun's not over. A group of rogue fighters frees her...for a price: her help in overthrowing the established order."

Although at first I thought the jumper-pilot set-up was similar to the film Pacific Rim with the Jaeger pilots, I was able to shake that off pretty quickly. This is excellent Space Opera and, for me, the best I've read in a long time. I was so caught up in the descriptions and events that I found myself thinking about the book often while I was doing other things. I will definitely be reading the next book!

So much going on here, first I've taken book bullets for Death in the City of Light and Grimspace. I have read another series by Ann Aguirre and I really liked it. Sorry to disappoint Lisa, but I haven't read anything by p.j. Tracy - yet. I do have the Monkeewrench series on my wishlist. And, of course, A Century of Noir certainly caught my attention.

>67 DeltaQueen50: Hmm now that's funny, I usually get my BB 's from you or Kay. I really should make note of these things when they occur.

>65 VictoriaPL: BB! It's in the public library's Overdrive audio collection so I've added it to my Overdrive wishlist.

>67 DeltaQueen50: I came to Grimspace from a review that Wolfy did.

I think LT recommended Monkeewrench to me. I had it saved from the library but then they discarded it. So I was happy to see it at the sale. I’m not in any hurry. Maybe we can plan a group read.

>69 cbl_tn: Carrie, I need to learn to use Overdrive.

I'll post a photo of all the stories in the Noir book

Apologies for the terrible photography. Here are the stories in A Century of Noir

>66 VictoriaPL: Glad you enjoyed Grimspace. I was worried that the romance angle might be too much for me when I read it but was okay with it in the end as it never overpowered the story. Will be happy to continue with the series also.

>72 AHS-Wolfy: Wolfy, I kind of viewed the connection with March kind of like Jax would experience it. So when their link was strongest, during flight or high emotion, sex, etc, we got the more descriptive sections. And when their link was low it was not really mentioned as much. But that's just me.

Victoria, thank you for posting a pic of the stories from your A Century of Noir book. I see a few authors I am unfamiliar with so that will be fun investigation for me!

>74 lsh63: Yay!! A nice way to try out "new" authors.

I also thank you for posting the table of contents for A Century of Noir. There's a nice mix of authors, many I know and a few that I don't and will have to investigate.

>76 DeltaQueen50: Hi Judy! The hunt for new authors is always fun. I hope you enjoy!

I've been wanting to get into some of the "city" noir books, but I think this might be a better way for me to start. So a BB for me.

>78 dudes22: Whoo Hoo!! I hope you enjoy it Betty!

>60 RidgewayGirl: >62 VictoriaPL: You both showed great restraint. Sorry it was so crowded this time. I guess it is becoming more popular now.

>80 thornton37814: Lori, someday Kay & I will return the favor and come up to shop for books in your neck of the woods!

>81 VictoriaPL: Carrie and I are looking forward to it. McKays and/or White Pine Books are waiting on us.

I'm excited, too! Definitely both bookstores, but I've heard so much about McKays that I'd really like to see it.

>83 RidgewayGirl: McKays is definitely better overall -- bigger selection and stuff. However, White Pine Books often has better prices if it has the book you seek. You have a much better chance of finding the book at McKays.

51. Submergence by J.M. Ledgard 8.23.2016



Submergence is two stories woven together that only briefly touch. Through alternating passages we learn about Danny, who studies the ocean through math, and James, a British spy captured by the Somalis. Danny's tale is all about her studies in the deep ocean. The passages with James are largely about the lack of water and his captivity in the dry desert. Sometimes it is unclear if you are in the past or the present, it can be disorientating, but at times you feel that Danny and James are disorientated too. If you only like linear story telling, you should stay away. I like a bit more resolution in my fiction so I wasn't thrilled with this how this one petered out. It left me mostly feeling Meh.

52. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly 8.25.2016



Wikipedia description
Revolution is a young adult historical fiction novel by Jennifer Donnelly about a girl named Andi Alpers who is struggling with drugs, thoughts of suicide, and the way her family has fallen apart after the death of her ten-year-old brother. When her father takes her with him to Paris on a business trip to ensure she works on her school thesis, Andi discovers a journal written by a girl her age, Alexandrine Paradis, two centuries earlier which has its own tragedies inside. Revolution was an Amazon Best Book of the Year (2010) and honored by Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal; the audiobook version received a 2011 American Library Association Odyssey Honor.

Wow! This one knocked my socks off. The best YA I've read in some time.
Teenage angst, music, Paris, DNA testing, more music, The Terror, young love, catacombs, raves (with more music) and time travel! What a rollercoaster. A very meta ride, for those of you who like that kind of thing. I certainly do. You might want to keep YouTube or Spotify handy to listen to the music references. I really enjoyed this one all the way through and I will be reading more of Donnelly.

53. Avenue of Spies by Alex Kershaw 8.29.2016



It was no surprise to me when I was chosen to receive a copy of Avenue of Spies by Alex Kershaw by LibraryThing Early Reviewers. I've read other books that contained the tale of Dr. Sumner Jackson, his wife Toquette and their son Phillip, so I was a good fit. Most notably: Americans in Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupation by Charles Glass and Doctor to the Resistance: The Heroic True Story of an American Surgeon and His Family in Occupied Paris by Hal Vaughan.

Dr Jackson and his family lived in very close quarters to the properties occupied by the Nazi regime in Paris. While the SS and other factions were practically beside their door, their home became a drop-off for the Resistance. To avoid the German take-over of the American Hospital, Dr Jackson and Toquette (who worked also as a nurse) had to keep it at capacity, which sometimes took creativity. They also hid downed Allied flight crews on the grounds of the facility and, if that was being searched, at their home. After they were eventually captured by the Germans, Dr and Mrs Jackson helped innumerable internees at the camps they were sent to. This is a family that gave much. While Toquette and Phillip survived the war, Dr Jackson drowned when Allied pilots strafed his prison ship, mistaking it for escaping Germans. He tried to save others to the very end.

This book did have a small section with info I had not encountered before about Phillip's testimony against several Nazi officers at their trials. I wish there were more about that. He found it very troubling being around these men again after having escaped death at their hands yet he had the bravery and fortitude to keep himself together during cross-examination.

I thank the LTER program for the opportunity to read this book, I enjoyed it. I recommend it if you are interested in reading more about the Jackson family or if you have an interest in Occupied Paris.

54. Frozen Solid by James Tabor 8.29.2016 *audiobook*



Amazon.com Description
The South Pole’s Amundsen Scott Research Station is like an outpost on Mars. Winter temperatures average 100 degrees below zero; week-long hurricane-force storms rage; for eight months at a time the station is shrouded in darkness. Under the stress, bodies suffer and minds twist. Panic, paranoia, and hostility prevail.
When a South Pole scientist dies mysteriously, CDC microbiologist Hallie Leland arrives to complete crucial research. Before she can begin, three more women inexplicably die. As failing communications and plunging temperatures cut the station off from the outside world, terror rises and tensions soar. Amidst it all, Hallie must crack the mystery of her predecessor’s death.
In Washington, D.C., government agency director Don Barnard and enigmatic operative Wil Bowman detect troubling signs of shadowy behavior at the South Pole and realize that Hallie is at the heart of it. Unless Barnard and Bowman can track down the mastermind, a horrifying act of global terror, launched from the station, will change the planet forever—and Hallie herself will be the unwitting instrument of destruction.
As the Antarctic winter sweeps in, severing contact with the outside world, Hallie must trust no one, fear everyone, and fight to keep the frigid prison from becoming her frozen grave.

I think I might have had a higher rating for this book had I read it instead of listened to it.
Tabor's prose is highly descriptive. He'll tell you every single item of clothing and gear that the person has on, each and every step taken during a procedure. The minutia might be okay reading but in audio format it's like a one-way conversation with someone who just doesn't know to stop talking when you've obviously had enough.
Meh. I'm always on the lookout for a good Thriller but I think I've had my fill of Tabor.

>87 VictoriaPL: I requested that one but won a different book. I'll watch for it at the library.

>89 cbl_tn: Carrie, you and I request many of the same books, LOL. Maybe on my next trip to TN I can bring it up for you.

AUGUST RECAP

6 books read: lowest tally of the year to date. I felt like I was getting nowhere.

Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris by David King
Grimspace by Ann Aguirre
Submergence by J.M. Ledgard
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
Avenue of Spies: A True Story of Terror, Espionage, and One American Family's Heroic Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Paris by Alex Kershaw
Frozen Solid by James Tabor

Favorite book of the month: Toss up between Grimspace and Revolution.
Least favorite book of the month: Frozen Solid

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Plans for September:
102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers by Jim Dwyer
Trapeze by Simon Mawer

D and I will be traveling for a week or so mid-month and we are taking two audiobooks with us. I'm so excited. We did the same on our last road trip and Todd McLaren, the voice actor, was really excellent. We had such a great time listening to him.
The Conquering Sword of Conan by Robert E. Howard.
The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian by Robert E. Howard

Also pre-ordered and expected to arrive late in the month:
Blind Sight by Carol O'Connell another Mallory novel!!
The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter another Will Trent novel!!
I'll be reading these in tandem with @jonesli but I've forgotten which one we are reading first. Send me a reminder, Lisa!! LOL.

Enjoy those books by your favorite authors. I hope they're both excellent. The only downside is that you'll finish them with the knowledge that you will now have some time to wait for their next novels.

>92 RidgewayGirl: Yes, always the way it is, LOL. Thanks.

Enjoy your trip! :)

Hi Victoria! We said we would start with The Kept Woman since we are such Will Trent fan girls. I'm hoping for a little Lena versus Sara intrigue , since they have such a history and maybe Angie causing trouble.

It Happens In the Dark is on my September reading list so I should be caught up with Mallory very soon!

Have fun on your trip. I hope to take two shorty trips in October.

>94 rabbitprincess:, >95 lsh63: Thanks!
>95 lsh63: yes, I think Angie will cause trouble!

>54 VictoriaPL: I'm sorry this one didn't work out, Victoria. I do love a good ice station thrill. I would also likely listen to it on audio. So, based in your review, I'll give it a pass.

However, if you want a good ice station thrill ride that defies logic, but is good action packed fun, check out Ice Station by Matthew Reilly. Deception Point by Dan Brown is another goodie.

Road trips are so much fun! I've never managed to travel with someone who wanted to listen to the same book I wanted, though, so it's been music most of the time. :)

>97 brodiew2: I have read Deception Point but I don't remember my impressions from it, LOL.

>98 -Eva-: Aw, you need to find an Audiobook buddy! It's so much fun. After that first one, I began to understand what it was like listening to the old serials with a family sitting around the radio.

55. 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers by Jim Dwyer 9.1.2016



There are so many chaotic moments about 9/11 that you struggle to comprehend as actual reality.
An officer stationed at a door whose duty was to watch for falling bodies and flaming debris and to tell civilians when it was okay to run to safety. A thousand firefighters sharing four radio channels, who did not hear the warning to get out when it was a surety that Tower 1 was going to come down. People who walked down 80+ flights of stairs only to reach a courtyard with blood dripping down the windows. An $11/hour rent-a-cop who stayed at his post on a skylobby, waiting for rescue workers to come retrieve all the bodies around him. A 911 dispatcher talking to a man trapped on the floor above the impact point describing the floor melting and the ceiling coming down. A worker at the Marriott who was talking with a coworker in the lobby and, in that instant, there was only swirling dust and his friend had disappeared.

All that data is overwhelming and I could not keep everyone distinctly in my mind. Was he the guy in stairwell A with his friend? Which tower was this again? I know that I could not do as well collecting the stories of thousands of individuals and collating dozens of them into one narrative picture, so it makes this a hard book to rate. But there is so much to learn about humanity in the chaos and there are lessons to take away from what didn't work out on that day.

I hope you all have a lovely long weekend!!
I don't know how many books I'll get done. We are painting the kitchen and the hallway. We'll see.

Have fun painting!

Hope you didn't get paint on the books!

>103 VivienneR: Ha! Nope. Didn't even pick up a book all weekend.

Have a great weekend, Victoria!

56. Trapeze by Simon Mawer 9.18.2016



Amazon description (edited for length)
Barely out of school and doing her bit for the British war effort, Marian Sutro has one quality that makes her stand out—she is a native French speaker. It is this that attracts the attention of the SOE, the Special Operations Executive, which trains agents to operate in occupied Europe. Drawn into this strange, secret world at the age of nineteen, she finds herself undergoing commando training, attending a “school for spies,” and ultimately, one autumn night, parachuting into France from an RAF bomber to join the WORDSMITH resistance network.
But there’s more to Marian’s mission than meets the eye of her SOE controllers; her mission has been hijacked by another secret organization that wants her to go to Paris and persuade a friend—a research physicist—to join the Allied war effort. The outcome could affect the whole course of the war.

I had high hopes for this one. It's hard to put my fingers on it, but the magic just wasn't there for me.
It was decidedly Meh. Subdued and almost stoic, like Marian herself. I don't think I will bother with continuing in the series.

>106 VictoriaPL: Sounds like it is safe to avoid that one.

>106 VictoriaPL: - I read this earlier this year and although I enjoyed the story of the French Resistance, I too felt that Marian was a rather one-dimensional.

>108 dudes22: Hi Betty! Oh good, it wasn't just me, LOL.

>106 VictoriaPL: I read the sequel, Tightrope, as well, and Marian never became real. Too much beautiful, damaged, femme fatale, too little character.

>110 pamelad: Thanks Pamela, I don't feel bad about not reading it now.

Me neither.

57. The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter 9.26.2016 Will Trent#8, Sara Linton#12 (with @jonesli)



Amazon description
With the discovery of a murder at an abandoned construction site, Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is brought in on a case that becomes much more dangerous when the dead man is identified as an ex-cop. Studying the body, Sara Linton—the GBI’s newest medical examiner and Will’s lover—realizes that the extensive blood loss didn't belong to the corpse. Sure enough, bloody footprints leading away from the scene indicate there is another victim—a woman—who has vanished and who will die soon if she isn’t found. Will is already compromised, because the site belongs to the city’s most popular citizen: a wealthy, powerful, and politically connected athlete protected by the world’s most expensive lawyers—a man who’s already gotten away with rape, despite Will’s exhaustive efforts to put him away. But the worst is yet to come. Evidence soon links Will’s troubled past to the case and the consequences will tear through his life with the force of a tornado, wreaking havoc for Will and everyone around him, including his colleagues, family, friends—and even the suspects he pursues.

One of my all-time favorite series. If a book has Will Trent in it, I am there. He is so beautifully broken.
If you thought you've seen Will come undone before, you ain't seen nothing yet, as they say! Wow.
Most of Will's baggage comes from his long, dysfunctional relationship with his wife, Angie Polaski. While Angie has been here and there throughout the series, this is a full-on, Angie-centric novel. She is not my favorite character in Slaughter's books, in fact, she's a ways down the list but learning a great deal of her backstory gave me more of an appreciation for her. And I do think being in Angie's headspace for awhile knocked some of the shine off Sara Linton.
This novel has the pace of a bullet and I was tearing through pages trying to keep up. Karin Slaughter is a grand puppet master and she knows well how to pull on the string of tension. She excels at keeping you on your toes for a sustained period of time. You come away from her books a bit tousled and dazed. I'm sure I'll be digesting this one for awhile.

Victoria that is a wonderful review of The Kept Woman. Angie is a despicable character but getting so much of her back story does make you realize why she is the way she is. Now I need Sara to deal with Lena, they have unfinished business also. It was great to read this with you, even though I got carried away lol.

I've never recovered from disliking Sara Linton in the first few Slaughter books. But I read her last stand-alone novel and liked it quite a bit.

>115 RidgewayGirl: Pretty Girls? I have yet to read that one. Thanks for the reminder!

Yes, Pretty Girls. Slaughter is good at creating strong, flawed female characters.

I'm working on my 2017 challenge categories.
If you've followed my thread this year and you know my favorite genres, can you guess my categories by these hints? Some of these are new for me but I've talked about doing them next year.

FIDELITY
ANTIQUITY
ADVERSITY
AVAILABILITY
CURIOSITY
NOBILITY
IMMATURITY
NUMERALITY
COMMUNITY
MOBILITY

Will the first category include books about dogs?

>119 mamzel: interesting comment, mamzel. I thought of adultery and the like which sparked thoughts of fidelity related to vinyl records. This is fun word association. :-p

Will curiosity involve cat related mysteries?
Mobility - travel memoirs?
Immaturity - humor fiction?

Is ADVERSITY related to books about WWIi?
NUMERALITY series books?
AVAILABILITY new library books?
IMMATURITY young adult?

ANTIQUITY - classics?
COMMUNITY - group reads?

You guys are good at this!

>121 lsh63:
ADVERSITY is WWII
IMMATURITY is YA
>122 japaul22:
COMMUNITY is Group Reads

Curiosity & Nobility are probably a stretch and therefore harder to guess.

Of course now I see NUMERALITY is A Dewey Decimal category right?

I'm working on my categories too....

>124 lsh63: You are on a roll Lisa! NUMERALITY is a Dewey category!

Is FIDELITY going to be a category for favorite authors, or for on-going series?

>126 DeltaQueen50: Judy, you have nailed it!

I thought NOBILITY would be stories about kings and queens - historical fiction?

>118 VictoriaPL: You would post the guessing game while I'm tied up in Mississippi and then playing catch-up. So for my sake, I'm going to post your categories and the ones to which you've said someone got it.

FIDELITY - On-going series/favorite authors
ANTIQUITY
ADVERSITY - WWII
AVAILABILITY
CURIOSITY - SPACE & SCI-FI
NOBILITY
IMMATURITY - YA
NUMERALITY - Dewey
COMMUNITY - Group Reads
MOBILITY

Now - let me see if I have any guesses

MOBILITY - e-books? (or maybe audiobooks)
ANTIQUITY - Historical Fiction
CURIOSITY - Dickens? (as in The Old Curiosity Shop)
AVAILABILITY - Maybe books sitting in your house unread (the stash)
NOBILITY - No guess on this one

Ooh - this is fun.

My guess for Curiosity would be book bullets or something new. Basically a book or series you aren't familiar but are curious about.

I haven't read any space-related books in awhile but, starting later this month, or perhaps early in November, I plan to read Hidden Figures, about the black women mathematicians who helped with the space race. A swim mom was telling me about it and it looks good.

>131 lindapanzo: Hi Linda! I've had my eye on Hidden Figures too!
I was planning to make it my first read of 2017. The movie comes out in January.

I have been off my reading game. Real Life has gotten in the way. I had lunch with RidgewayGirl today and she reminded me that I hadn't answered about my categories. I apologize! Kay guessed that CURIOSITY was Space books and she's correct! Space Program and Sci-Fi, actually.

>132 VictoriaPL: I'm not in any hurry to read it so maybe I'll start late this year or early in '17.

I hate when RL gets in the way of reading but it happens. It could be my own life that's getting in the way or, in spring/fall when my favorite hockey and baseball teams are in the playoffs.

I've been reading a lot of light, fluffy books lately, though I did finally get to, and finish The Girls of Atomic City, which was very good.

>134 lindapanzo: that would be awesome to read it with you!

I had so much fun at lunch today. We have to get together more often.

>136 RidgewayGirl: I did too. Always do. Yes!

I missed out on the guessing game, but I already love the categories!

>139 VictoriaPL: Thanks Eva! I'm working on my planning thread over at the 2017.

>139 VictoriaPL:
I want to get started on mine too, but I haven't decided if I'm going to be "poetic" with my categories, or use my usual "prosaic" categories. :)

>140 -Eva-: It's all good!

58. Blind Sight by Carol O'Connell 10.26.2016 Mallory #12 (with @jonesli)



Review coming soon!

59. Napoleon's Pyramids by William Dietrich 11.1.2016



"What will they do if they catch us?"
"Before, just rape and kill us. But now that you have shot his camel, I suspect they will rape us, strip us, stake us to the desert, and use scorpions to torment us while we die of thirst and sun. If we're lucky, a cobra will find us first."
"You didn't tell me that before I fired."
"You didn't tell me that you were going to hit the camel, not the man."

From Publishers Weekly:
Starred Review. At the start of Dietrich's superb historical thriller, his swashbuckling hero, American Ethan Gage, who's living in Paris during the waning days of the French Revolution and was once apprenticed to Benjamin Franklin, wins a curious Egyptian medallion in a card game. Soon after, he's set upon by thieves, chased by the police, attacked by bandits, befriended by Gypsies, saved by a British spy and then packed off to join Napoleon's army as it embarks on its ill-fated Egyptian campaign. There the story really heats up. Once in Egypt, Gage finds himself beset by evildoers bent on stealing the mysterious medallion. As in previous novels like Hadrian's Wall and Scourge of God, Dietrich combines a likable hero surrounded by a cast of fascinating historical characters. Riveting battle scenes, scantily clad women, mathematical puzzles, mysteries of the pharaohs, reckless heroism, hairsbreadth escapes and undaunted courage add up to unbeatable adventure rivaling the exploits of George Macdonald Fraser's Harry Flashman. Readers will cheer as the indomitable Gage floats off in a runaway hot-air balloon, hard on the trail of his next exotic undertaking.

This one promised to be a frolicking adventure and it did not let me down there. So many epic locations were included as backdrops to our tale. I liked the characters, Gage, Napoleon, even General Dumas - the tale felt like one of Alexandre Dumas' Musketeer romps. I was very aware of the author's pacing. Some passages would be hell-for-leather and then there would be a long chapter of talking and explaining. I loved the occasional witty banter. I was bored several times but I always came back, which I guess is something. I'm not sure if I'll read more the in series or not.

60. Inferno by Dan Brown 11.3.2016 *audiobook*



Barnes and Nobel
Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon awakens in an Italian hospital, disoriented and with no recollection of the past thirty-six hours, including the origin of the macabre object hidden in his belongings. With a relentless female assassin trailing them through Florence, he and his resourceful doctor, Sienna Brooks, are forced to flee. Embarking on a harrowing journey, they must unravel a series of codes, which are the work of a brilliant scientist whose obsession with the end of the world is matched only by his passion for one of the most influential masterpieces ever written, Dante Alighieri's The Inferno.

Dan Brown's novels for me are a guilty pleasure. I'm not saying he is a literary master - there are things that get on my nerves about his books. Like the tendency for character A and character B to have a dialogue and then go have the exact same conversation with character C. As if we readers didn't get the info dump on the first go. But I stick with his books because I love the scenery. I love the history. I love the art. Sometimes the characters do unexpected things. But I don't really care about the plot so much as the setting. I really enjoyed the time spent exploring Venice and I hope one day to see Italy... rest assured I will think about Dan Brown while I am there!

Hello VictoriaPL!

>143 VictoriaPL: I am familiar with Dietrich, but has been ages since I read or listened to one of his. I look forward to your thoughts. Is this one in a series or a stand alone?

>145 brodiew2: It appears to be the 1st in the Ethan Gage series.

61. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein 11.8.2016



Amazon.com:
Oct. 11th, 1943-A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it's barely begun.
When "Verity" is arrested by the Gestapo, she's sure she doesn't stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she's living a spy's worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution.
As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage, failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy?

I have an abiding affection for the WWII genre. And that was the only thing that got me through this book. I almost Nancy Pearl'd it. I wasn't interested in the long passages about the airplanes and the flights and the airfields. But I persevered and got through to the Resistance and the Gestapo and that was the only way I made it through.

62. A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams 11.15.2016



Review coming soon!

>148 VictoriaPL: As I sit here shivering in my office (heat not on yet), I'm wishing I was on that beach with warm weather.

>149 thornton37814: It was kind of odd reading a beach book in the heart of November....

>147 VictoriaPL: Oh no, you didn't like Code Name Verity! *sobs* But I do take your point...it's slow to get going, and there is a lot of aviation info if you're not particularly interested in it. But I loved the relationship between "Verity" and her best friend Maddie, and that's what made the book so compelling for me.

>151 christina_reads: Hi Christina!! No, I just didn't connect with them at all. We will have to agree to disagree on that one.

>147 VictoriaPL: - Phew, it's not just me then. I remember being incredibly bored through a good portion of the book.

>144 VictoriaPL: Hi there. Interesting comments about Dan Brown, but if/when you get to Italy, I suggest you don't use Dan Brown's books as a guide. That would be a very good way to get very lost! :)

>154 sirfurboy: Ha! Do you think the Italians are recognizing lost Americans as 'the Dan Brown effect' ? LOL.

It wouldn't surprise me :)

I am stunned to discover that I haven't been about on the threads since June. So much to get caught up on! I did a bit of skim reading to get caught up. Happy to see "your socks were knocked off" Jennifer Donnelly's Revolution. That was a solid 4 star read for me! Also loved seeing the preview ideas for your 2017 challenge unfolding! Sounds like you and I had similar experiences reading William Dietrich's Napoleon's Pyramids. I loved the idea - I am such an Indiana Jones kind of fan! - but Napoleon's Pyramids seemed to be lacking something and I see I only gave it 3 stars.

... all caught up!

>157 lkernagh: Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Holidays Victoria !

Have a great Christmas, Victoria!

>159 lsh63:, >160 DeltaQueen50:. Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to you Victoria:

63. Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly 12.30.2016 read with lindapanzo



"Katherine Johnson's role in John Glenn's flight had made her somewhat of a celebrity in the local community and among the small national network of black engineers and scientists, but she remained modest about her work. "Well, I'm just doing my job," she would say, implying and I'm assuming that you are, too."

"Out of that global audience, four hundred thousand NASA employees, contractors, and military support watched with particular interest, seeing in the craft that approached the Moon the measure of a screw, the blueprint of a hatch, the filament in a circuit, the fulfillment of a promise made by a president who hadn't lived to see it carried out. They dotted the globe, those who had worked on Project Apollo, those who had made possible the day that had come... Katherine Johnson divided her attention between the weekend leadership conference being held by her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, and the fortunes of the Apollo 11 astronauts on their way to becoming the three most solitary beings in the history of humanity. As she watched the delicate dance of physics that propelled the Apollo capsule forward towards the Moon, her mind's eye superimposed equations and numbers upon each stage of the craft's journey, from launch to Earth orbit, from translunar injection to lunar orbit."

"Math was either right or wrong, and if you got it right, it didn't matter what color you were."

If you've been following my reading, you know I just love NASA history, especially the Apollo program.
When I saw a trailer for the upcoming film Hidden Figures (which you can find here:(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK8xHq6dfAo), I got SO excited. And even more so when I discovered that it was based on a book.
In 2012 I read Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo and learned that we have female girdle-makers to thank for the spacesuits that allowed the United States program to do EVAs in the vacuum of space. Now, here was a book that focused on the women who made the calculations necessary to put astronauts into space. Not only women but, in large part, black women.
In a time when white men were trying to set foot on the moon, black men and women were just wanting to use the same indoor restrooms and cafeterias. It was a defining moment, most certainly.
Now, social issues and the civil rights movement are not really my cup of tea, so, while I found the book certainly informative and a good history lesson, it wasn't exactly griping. I struggled with getting through it but it did pick up for me towards the very end.

I was wondering when I saw the ads for the movie if it was based on a book. Hopefully, this will be the last BB I take this year.

I hope the movie is more exciting than the book! Happy New Year! And I'll see you on Monday.

>166 VictoriaPL: I'm certain the movie will be good.
Happy New Year! See you soon.

Happy New Year!

Hidden Figures is one I'm planning to read early on in 2017. :)