January 29, 2019

January 2019

"Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading."
 - Rainer Maria Rilke

And that's how I felt when starting off the new year. So good to see everyone after the holidays!
Here are the books we discussed:

To Sell is Human - Daniel H. Pink
An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good - Helene Tursten
The Golden Merra - Kevin Moore
Arbitrary Stupid Goal - Tamara Shopsin
A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles
Rules of Civility - Amor Towles
Fantasyland How America Went Haywire - Kurt Andersen
Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage and Manners - Therese Oneill
Astounding: Campbell, Asimov, Heinlein, Hubbard - Alec Nevala-Lee
Kingdom of the Wicked - Helen Dale
Donna Leon
Educated: A Memoir - Tara Westover
Good Poems for Hard Times - Garrison Keillor
The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity - Matthew Kelly
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret - Judy Blume
Judy Blume
Books and Books Key West
The Library Book - Susan Orlean
A Map of the World - Jane Hamilton
Wasted Calories and Ruined Nights - Jay Rayner

From Mary Lou in Maryland:

Booknotes Laura January 2019

Patricia Wentworth, She Came Back (1945); The Ivory Dagger (1950); The Silent Pool (1953); The Benevent Treasure (1953); Poison in the Pen (1953). These cozy British mysteries feature retired school teacher turned private detective, Miss Maude Silver. She lives modestly, dresses conservatively, knits, quotes Tennyson, and has a talent for evoking confidences from strangers. She is an object of reverence to her former pupils, especially Detective Inspector Frank Abbott of Scotland Yard. Her comfortable parlor is decorated with many photos of grateful clients and their children. The fact that she is reminiscent of Miss Marple on no way detracts from the charm of these novels.
Lynda Jones, Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker (2009). This delightfully illustrated National Geographic publication is subtitled “The Unlikely Friendship of Elizabeth Keckley and Mary Todd Lincoln.” The text is very simply written, but it outlines the life of the former slave who became Mrs. Lincoln’s friend and confidante, as well as dressmaker. It is based on Keckley’s autobiography, Behind the Scenes, or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House. Illustrations include photographs and portraits of the Lincolns and etchings from contemporary publications. The author describes Elizabeth Keckley as “self-taught, self-made, and utterly self-reliant.”

From the Lawton Any-Book Book Bunch in Oklahoma:

Books 

Ambrose, Stephen E. Nothing Like It In the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad (1863-1869). 
Atkinson, Kate. Case Histories. 
Backman, Fredrik. Beartown: A Novel. 
Ball, Edward. The Inventor and the Tycoon: A Gilded Age Murder and the Birth of Moving Pictures. 
Bernstein, Jamie. Famous Father Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein. 
Byatt, A.S. Unruly Times: Wordsworth and Coleridge in Their Time. 
Bryson, Bill. A Short History of Nearly Everything. 
Christie, Agatha. And Then There Were None. 
Coelho, Paul. The Alchemist. 
Conley, Garrard. Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family. 
Hogancamp, Mark and Chris Shelley. Welcome to Marwencol. 
Ishiguro, Kazuo. When We Were Orphans. 
Keller, Julia. A Killing in the Hills; Bitter River. 
Kirk, Shannon. Method 15/33. 
Koontz, Dean. The Forbidden Door. 
Lagerkrantz, David. The Girl in the Spider’s Web. 
Marsh, Henry. Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery. 
McEwan, Ian. Amsterdam; Black Dogs. 
Mundy, Liza. Code Girls. 
Paris, B.A. Behind Closed Doors. 
Robb, J. D. (Nora Roberts). Innocent in Death. #24 
Tey, Josephine. The Franchise Affair. 
Westover, Tara. Educated: A Memoir. 

Films and TV: 

Roma (available from Netflix/streaming). 

TV: 

Case Histories (available from Netflix/DVD and Amazon Prime/streaming for rent; also YouTube).


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