Books in 2020

Yep.  If it's the end of the year, then it must be time for the 2020 wrap-up:  Let's begin, shall we?  We'll start with books read.

Vanishing in the Haight - Max Tomlinson - 2.75

Stay - Allie Larkin - 3.5

The Boy from the Woods - Harlen Coben - 3.5

Button Man - Andrew Gross - 3.25

Captivating in Love - Jennifer Skully and Bella Andre - 3.75

Born Standing Up:  A Comic's Life (audiobook) - Steve Martin - 3.0

The Dreamer - Sheldon Siegel

The Sun Down Hotel - Simone St. James - 3.25

Its Not PMS, It's You - Rich Amooi - 3.5

The Things We Cannot Say - Kelly Rimmer - 3.5

Park Avenue Summer - Renee Rosen - 3.625

Last Boat out of Shanghai - Helen Zia - 3.5

Three Hours in Paris - Cara Black - 3.0

Big Lies in a Small Town - Diane Chamberlain - 3.625

Darling Rose Gold - Stephanie Wrobel - 3.25

The Second Chance Supper Club - Nicole Meier - 3.5

The Two Lila Bennetts - Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke - 3.5

Freedom Lost - Chandra Ingram

Dream Beach - Linda Gunther

Cerberus - A.J. Silverberry - 3.25

The Closer You Get - Mary Torjussen - 3.5

The Yellow Bird Sings - Jennifer Rosner - 3.5

On Safari to Stay - Mike DeGregorio

Just Another Silly Love Song - Rich Amooi - 4.0

Tell Me More - Kelly Corrigan - 3.0

Love Is A Rebellious bird - Elayne Klasson - 3.5

The First Emma - Camille di Maio - 3.75

The Plum Tree - Ellen Marie Wiseman - 3.5

The Narcissism of Small Differences - Michael Zadoorian - 3.0

Fire by Night - Alina Sayre

Stranger in the Lake - Kimberly Belle - 3.0

The Giver of Stars - JoJo Moyes - 3.625

He Could Be Another Bill Gates - Donna Levin

My Sister's Grave - Robert Dugoni - 3.5

The Book of Lost Names - Kristin Harmel - 3.75

Musical Chairs - Amy Poeppel - 3.0

Paper Wife - Laila Ibrahim - 3.25

Side Trip - Kerry Lonsdale - 3.5

Sold on a Monday - Kristina McMorris - 3.625

A Little Bit of Grace - Phoebe Fox - 3.625

Charming Falls Apart - Angela Terry - 3.25

The Dutch House - Ann Patchett - 3.0

What You Wish For - Katherine Center - 3.5

The Orphan Collector - Ellen Marie Wiseman - 3.625

The Light in the Hallway - Amanda Prowse - 3.375

Finding Chika - Mitch Albom

The Swap - Robyn Harding - 3.75

The Order - Daniel Silva - 3.5

The Party - Robyn Harding - The Order - 3.25

Coal River - Ellen Marie Wiseman - 3.25

Dear Edward - Ann Napolitano - 3.375

A Door Between Us - Ehsaneh Sadr - 3.25

Let's Talk - Art Rios - 4.0

The Good Sister - Sally Hepworth - 3.5

Between the Lines - Jodi Picoult & Samantha van Leer - 3.0

The Final Out - Sheldon Siegel

Trading Secrets - Rachael Eckles 

White Collar Girl - Renee Rosen - 3.5

The Uncanny Valley Girl - Stephen Howser

The Vanishing Half - Britt Bennett - 3.25

The Chain - Adrian McKinty - 3.5

A September to Remember - Carole Bumpus

The Story of Arthur Truluv - Elizabeth Berg - 3.5

63 books

20,346 pages

The 63 compares to 80 last year.  Part of the difference comes from not being in the car to listen to the audiobooks (where would I go?).  And part comes from being home.  Interestingly enough, it was harder to read while at home than it is to be out and about.  Tough to explain.

In the next few days I will list my new authors and ratings that are 3.5 or higher.

Some Quick Ratings

Hello, all.  I have been extremely remiss in keeping you up-to-date on the books I have recently read.  And by "recently" I mean in the last 4 months!  Plus I've got year-end posts coming up over the next couple of weeks.  So I'm just going to give you ratings.  I will also asterisk the authors that will be Zooming into our book club.  If you have any interest in seeing them live, let me know, and I will send you the schedule of appearances.  

In order of reading:

The Orphan Collector - Ellen Marie Wiseman - 3.625

The Swap - Robyn Harding* - 3.75

The Order - Daniel Silva - 3.5

The Party - Robyn Harding* - 3.25

Coal River - Ellen Marie Wiseman - 3.25

Dear Edward - Ann Napolitano - 3.375

A Door Between Us - Ehsaneh Sadr* - 3.25

White Collar Girl - Renee Rosen* - 3.5

The Vanishing Half - Britt Bennett - 3.25

I also read Finding Chika, by Mitch Albom, and Trading Secrets, by Rachael Eckles.  Unfortunately, I failed to give them a rating at the time of reading and can't remember all of these months (weeks?) what rating I intended to give them.  I did like them both, though.

My only disappointment was Lisa Wingate's The Book of Lost Friends.  I absolutely loved When We Were Yours.  But I couldn't get through this one.  I gave it a pretty fair chance - 86 pages.  But when my son-in-law, Joe, gave me a book that he highly recommended (a review will be upcoming), I jumped at the chance to put TBoLF down.  And here's the crazy part...it has a 4.21 rating on Goodreads with almost 34,000 ratings! That is a very high score.  I can't explain it.  I guess it just is what it is.

On the Trail of Delusion, by Fred Litwin - Everything You Wanted to Know about Jim Garrison and His Take on the Assassination of JFK

Everybody knows that Jim Garrison, the DA in New Orleans from the early 60s to the early 70s, claimed that the Warren Report was inaccurate and set out to prove his theory.  But what he did during his investigation is mind-boggling.  Fred Litwin has done an amazing job of giving us a detailed account of the time Garrison spent trying to discredit the Warren Report.  Here are just a few of the highlights:

1.  He claimed that Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby, and several others were part of a homosexual ring that were responsible for the assassination.

2.  He linked co-conspirators based, in part, on how close they lived to each other.

3.  He ultimately said it wasn't the Oswald-Ruby group but, rather, anti-Castro Cubans who were unhappy with how the Bay of Pigs incident was handled.

4.  He blamed LBJ, claiming that he benefited the most from the assassination.

5.  He said the Dallas police were involved.

6.  He targeted certain individuals whose lives were ruined by the attention they got.  (One of them, Clay Shaw, was found innocent in 54 minutes.  And it only took that long because the jurors had to queue up for the bathroom!)

7.  He said that the dismissal of any further prosecution against Clay Shaw by the Supreme Court was due to a conspiracy consisting of top-level military authorities and our intelligence agencies.

8.  Garrison came out with his first book in 1970, called A Heritage of Stone.  He wrote several others.

9.  He was interviewed by Playboy, which led to one of the biggest circulations Playboy has ever had.

10.The bulk of the book concerns the JFK assassination.  But the last part explores some quirky side notes, including an explanation of how Oliver Stone, in his 1991 movie, JFK, made Garrison out to be a hero.  Kevin Costner played the title role.

There were parts of the book that dragged for me a little.  But the original documents and quoted passages are outstanding.  In college I took a history course that only looked at original documents.  And I still remember (many decades later!) how that positively affected my enjoyment of the class and the impact it had on me.  That was a really neat part of the book.

Let me wrap up by saying this:  If you are looking for a comprehensive tome on Jim Garrison and all of the efforts he made to tell us what really happened re JFK's assassination, complete with a whole slew of original documents and actual conversations, then I strongly recommend you pick up a copy of On the Trail of Delusion, by Fred Litwin.  It's all you will need to understand Jim Garrison and his many machinations. 

 

Tiny Blunders/Big Disasters, by Jared Knott - You Have to Read It to Believe It

Sometimes all it takes for a book to reel me in is a great concept.  And Jared Knott's Tiny Blunders/Big Disasters definitely has that.  This book has it all:

1.  Something for everybody - politics, the military, science, medicine, and loads of history, including one story from 2500B.C.!                             2.  Tremendous research 

3.  Tons of near misses 

4.  Great introduction

5.  Cool pictures (and not too many of them to take away from the stories)

(On a personal note, the 82nd Airborne is mentioned a couple of times. That was my brother's unit.  In fact, he was in a plane on the ground during the Bay of Pigs incident.  The battle ended before he could be sent.)

The book has 30 sections.  But this is misleading because many of the sections have multiple examples of how a tiny blunder led to a big disaster.  I'm going to just give you a couple of them to whet your appetite. These stories, along with so many others, just made my jaw drop.  To whit:

1.  We've all heard how the security guard, Frank Wills, came across evidence that exposed the burglaries at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in 1972.  And, of course, Nixon ultimately resigned because of the fallout.  But do you know how Wills found out what had happened (you're not going to believe this!)?  The burglars put tape in the door from the garage leading to a staircase so they wouldn't get locked out.  But, guess what?  They placed the tape across the lock horizontally instead of vertically.  Wills could see the tape.  Are you kidding me?  And, on top of that, the local police were called but were not available.  So plainclothes detectives, who were shabbily dressed, were sent, and the lookouts on the roof didn't think anything of it because they were not in uniform.  Wow!

2.  We all know that WW1 started because Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungry was assassinated.  Did you know that the driver of the car that held the assassin took a wrong turn?  That's what put the assassin in a position to shoot Ferdinand.

3.  It is commonly held that WWII started in 1937 in a confrontation between Japan and China.  What you may not know is that one of the Japanese soldiers left the battlefield to go to the bathroom and got lost in the woods on the way back.  The Japanese assumed that the Chinese had taken this soldier and demanded to be allowed to search for him. The Chinese said no.  This was the start of the second Sino-Japanese War.

And, by the way, Mrs. O'Leary's cow did NOT start the Great Chicago Fire.

You will also be able to read about great sibling rivalries and their consequences on world history; and the time zone that prevented a military victory; and the assassination that took place because a bodyguard and U.S General did not attend a theater production (guess who?); and a Civil War battle that could have changed the outcome if orders had not been dropped in a field; and...

I have to stop here, even though I don't want to.  Every section (and every sub-section) is just so darn interesting.  You will be mesmerized by Tiny Blunders/Big Disasters or my name isn't The Book Sage!

                                                                                                            

Hi all. Wanted to let you know that I will be working at Recycle Bookstore in downtown Campbell starting this weekend. My shifts will be Friday from 4:30-8:30 and Sunday from 10-6. Come by and say hello. And, if you are interested, I will be happy to recommend some books to buy - both used and new. Recycle is loaded with great books. And if you haven't had an opportunity to see Recycle, I'm pretty sure you will enjoy your visit. It's at 275 E. Campbell Avenue (408-370-3514). See you there!

Let's Talk, by Art Rios - A Very Important Book

Let me start this review by saying that not only is Let’s Talk a well-written and interesting book, it’s also an important one.  The cover reads:  LET’S TALK…ABOUT MAKING YOUR LIFE EXCITING, EASIER, AND INTERESTING.  Art reinforces this goal repeatedly throughout the book.  He does it in such a way that it’s a  frequent reminder but doesn’t beat you over the head.

What did I like about this book, you ask?  Everything, is the answer.  Let me list the Top 10 reasons (not in any specific order):

1.   It's very readable.  Self-help books can tend to be dry.  Let's Talk is definitely not.

2.   There is quite a lot of humor.  For example, on the first page of the book he says "I'm a trial

      lawyer - no, wait!  Don't close the book!  There are bits like this periodically thrown in.

3.   There are meaningful quotes at the beginning of each chapter.  They set the stage for what

      follows.  And what I found particularly effective was how he quoted such a wide variety of 

      people - from Buddha to John Lasseter to Cicero to Jack Nicklaus…and the list goes on.

4.   I like that his goal is to create dialogue instead of preaching to us.  He does this, in part, by

      reminding us on several occasions that we can click on his website - RiosTalks.com.

5.   He makes a lot of cultural references that are just flat-out fun.  At one point, he says that

      the one wine lunch and happy hour go together like “mac and cheese, Batman and Robin,

      rum and coke, chips and salsa, and Scooby and Shaggy.”  Are you kidding me?  Scooby

      and Shaggy?  How cool is that?

6.   There are 15 chapters in Let’s Talk.  But Art identifies the 2 that are the most important -

      Gratitude and Kindness.  I couldn’t agree more.

7.   I really connected with his chapter on Power Vision.  This is another name for The Law of

      Attraction.  If you are not familiar with this concept, first introduced to us by Esther and 

      Jerry Hicks, take a look.  I think you will find that it just might resonate with you, too.

8.   Art gives us 3 takeaways at the end of each chapter, which act as a great summary of what 

      we just read.  But don’t make the mistake of avoiding the content of the chapters.  You will 

      need that in order to receive the most impact. 

9.   Chapter 13 - Two Ears, One Mouth - hit me hard.  It’s about listening.  When my wife and I 

      have been with people, we always compare notes to see if they asked the second

      question.  Think about how many ask the first question in such a way that they don’t really 

      care about the answer.  They are probably more Two Mouths, One Ear than the reverse.  

      It's so important to listen, not just talk.  But, sometimes, that’s hard to find.

10. In the Kindness chapter, Art gives us 20 ways to show kindness.  I STRONGLY urge you

      and me and everybody to pay close attention to this list.  We all need to be reminded of

      how important this is to us, our families and friends, and the world at large.

In case you haven’t figured it out by now, I think this is a terrific book.  I am anxiously awaiting

#2.  I will be at the front of the line to pick up my copy.  Do yourself a favor and get your hands on Let’s Talk.  This is a book that actually makes a difference.

Some Mini-Reviews & and Some News Items

First of all, I've got some news reports for you.  I will follow that up with 3 very short reviews.

1.  Warner Brothers has purchased the rights to The Alice Network.  We know that buying the rights doesn't always mean that the project will come to the big or little screen.  But it sure is a good story, and it would be great to see it produced.

2.  Reese Witherspoon's production company is bringing Where the Crawdads Sing to the big screen.  This is one of the few books I've read in recent years that has gotten a thumbs up from everybody I know who has read it.

3.  Kerry Lonsdale's book, Side Trip, has a pretty unique surprise in it. She is going to have a meeting designed to give readers a chance to ask questions...and they/we WILL have questions!  The event is called Kerry's Tiki Bar, and is scheduled for October 1, 4:00PST.  You can go on her website to get the link.

And now 3 mini-reviews:

1.  The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett.  I have liked a lot of Patchett's books (especially Bel Canto) but haven't been crazy about the most recent ones.  TDH has gotten a ton of high ratings.  I liked it well enough but didn't love it.  Interestingly enough, Joni and I started listening to the audiobook (narrated by Tom Hanks) quite a few months ago.  We liked it but turned it in because we wanted to listen to Ronan Farrow's Catch and Kill (which we couldn't get through).  We never went back to the audiobook, but I decided to read it based on some glowing reviews from friends of mine.  The best I can say is that I'm not sorry I read it.

 

2.  Charming Falls Apart, by Angela Terry.  This is a debut novel for Angela.  And I liked it a lot.  I definitely recommend it and look forward to her next one, whenever that hits the circuit.

3.  The Light in the Hallway, by Amanda Prowse.  This is an author that I had never heard of until recently.  And she's written almost 30 novels and novellas!  I discovered her on a FB book group page.  I saw several members raving about her books.  I went back and forth with them and finally decided I would read one of her books and make up my own mind.  I picked this one based on recommendations and Goodreads ratings.  Anyway, although this was a very long-winded explanation, the bottom line is that I definitely liked it.  I would probably read others by her but don't feel the need to run out and do that.