Friday, January 24, 2014

New York, London, Paris

Fiction

The Wrong Quarry by Max Allan Collins.  Another excellent entry in Collins's Quarry series featuring hired killer Quarry.  Quarry follows another assassin to discover the intended victim and sell Quarry's own lethal services to solve the victim's impending doom.

Last Train to Paris by Michele Zackheim.  Young woman in 1935 travels to New York City and gets journalist job.  Then takes work in Europe followed by love affair and terror and "heart-wrenching decision."

NonFiction

New York City Restaurants: 2014 by Micheline Guides.  Page 133 says, "Those who wax poetic on the virtues of the perfect roast chicken need look no farther."

Let's Go London Oxford and Cambridge by Beatrice Franklin and William Locke.  "The student travel guide."  I presume that means lots of coverage of bars and cheap hotels.  Page 123 says, "Lodging options in Cambridge are notoriously bad.  There are few affordable rooms near the town center, and overpriced, occasionally sketchy bed and breakfasts fill the area to the north and south of town."

Large Print

Standup Guy by Stuart Woods.

River Road by Jayne Ann Krentz.

The Death Trade by Jack Higgins.

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd.

Fear Nothing by Lisa Gardner.

Munich


Thursday, January 23, 2014

Jan-Philipp Jhumpa Connelly

Fiction

A Well-Tempered Heart by Jan-Philipp Sendker.  International best-seller by a German dude.

Audiobooks on CD

The Gods of Guilt by Michaell Connelly.  12 hours on 10 CDs. Another Mickey Haller novel.  I enjoy this series.

The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri.  13 hours on 11 CDs.  Two brothers in 1960s India. 

Yikes! That's a Big Pile Of NonFic.

NonFiction



The Sh!t No One Tells You by Dawn Dais.  "A guide to surviving your baby's first year."

Calm Mama Happy Baby by Derek O'Neill and Jennifer Waldburger.  "Practical tools for choosing calm over stress no matter what is happening with your child."

Taste of Home Slow Cooker Cookbook: 431 hot and hearty classics by editor in chief by Catherine Cassidy.  Recipes to make food.

Successful Social Media Marketing In A Week by Nick Smith.  Page 79 says. "MediaPost states that 83 per cent of Pinterest users are female."

Outdoor Adventure Manual: essential Scouting skills for the great outdoors by Chris James.  Page 25 says, "Deciduous of coniferous?"  Page 99 says, "Wild Boar."

Take One Pot: super simple recipes to cook in one pot by Georgina Fuggle.  More food cooking directions.

Experimenting with Babies by Shaun Gallagher.  "50 amazing science projects you can perform on your kid."  Meh.

American Whiskey and Bourbon & Rye by Clay Risen.  Woo- Hoo!

Dog Shaming by Pascale Lemire.



ACT 367 in Just 7 Steps by Maria Filsinger and Shaan Patel.  Study.  Test.  Hope for best.

Everythign Kids' Learning Activity Book by Amanda Morin.  Page 77 is Grocery Store Scavenger Hunts.  Sounds like a bad idea.

Talk With Your Kids by Micahel Parker, M.Ed.  "Conversations about ethics and 103 other things that really matter."

Cozy Knits: 50 fast and easy projects from top designers by Tanis Gray.



Timelines of Science: ultimate visual guide to discoveries that shaped the world editor-in-chief Professor Robert Winston.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Another Lansdale? Another Abbott? An Oates?

Made Up Stories

Dangerous Women edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. Stories by Joe R. Lansdale, Megan Abbott, Lawrence Block, other people I have never read.  Because we don't already have shelf fulls of those first three.

Perfect by Rachel Joyce.  This cover reminds me of The Bell Jar.  Not sure what the story is about.  Something about a 11-year-old suddenly seeing adult realities. Or something. Joyce is English.

The Dead and Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley.  This title reminds me of one of Lee Goldberg's Monk novels that is partially set in the Parisian catacombs.  I was reading one of the 39 Clues novels aloud to Boy #2 and they went into the catacombs as well.  I've never been to Paris but was in the Frankfurt airport for a couple hours.  Yeah, I know it is a different country.

Carthage by Joyce Carol Oates.  Is Oates so experience and skilled she barely even revises anymore? She writes so much I wonder if all that experience has things falling right together.  Or, when she does end up in stuck she can quickly surmount the problem.  I've been intending to read her book on boxing.

Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan.  Another historical novel by Horan who hit it big with Loving Frank.  This has Robert Louis Stevenson as a main character.  I listened to Kidnapped a few years ago.  That is a good tale.

Worthy Brown's Daughter by Phillip Margolin.  I don't think I've read any of this guy's novels.  None of the titles are familiar.  Margolin's glasses frames do not surround his lenses.

Large Print

Prince of Risk by Christopher Reich.  I just read a blog post today by someone attended a book talk by Reich and did not enjoy the talk at all.

Bellman and Black by Diane Setterfield.  I think this is kinda sci-fi/fantasy/horror.  Or, maybe not.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Charles Manson Had A Son?

NonFiction

Manson: the life and times of Charles Manson by Jeff Guinn.  Yep, Charles Manson, Jr. committed suicide in 1993.  "Even though he called himself Charles White, taking the last name of his mother's second husband, Charles Jr. was well aware of his real father's identity.  It apparently troubled him greatly."

Parenting Your Powerful Child: bringing an end to the everyday battles by Dr. Kevin Leman.  Page 181 says, "Conner was ecstatic."

Real Estate Handbook, eighth edition by Jakc P. Friedman, PhD. MAI, CPA, CRE, ASA, et al.  "COvers virtually every aspect of buying and selling, understanding mortgages, analyzing real estate investment opportunities" and so on.

Annie Bell's Baking Bible by Annie Bell.  Page 87 has a photo of coffee.  I'm out of coffee.  I should make a coffee run.

Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir: the essential reference guide by John Grant.  This is a really neat book.  724 pages of film descriptions ending with Zyzzyx Rd from 2005. 

Splash Retrospective: 20 years of contemporary watercolor excellence edited by Rachel Rubin Wolf.  Neat collection of watercolors.  Very neat.