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So Many Books…So Little Time? Here Are 34 Recent Favorite Reads

16 Saturday Jul 2022

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Favorite Books of "MillersTime" Readers, Favorite Reads, Fiction Read, Nof Fiction Reads

A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read.” A. Lincoln

I’m pleased to post this list of 34 titles that were particular favorites to MillersTime readers and contributors over the past few months. (Note: contributors were limited to submitting just one title for this post, and one book was cited by two different contributors). The breakdown between female and male contributors favored females (23-11).

As has been the trend over the past few years, there were slightly more non fiction (NF) than fiction (F) titles (18-16). Also, almost half of the fiction titles were historical fiction (HF).

As always, the value of the list comes from the comments each contributor makes about her or his choice of a favorite read. And even if you don’t know the individual who cited a particular book, I think there’s value in reading all of the comments.

Enjoy the list, I think you’ll find a least a few that might appeal.

As always, this type of posting can only happen because of your willingness to participate.

Thanks to all.

Recent Favorite Reads – Alphabetical by First Name of Contributor

Abigail Wiebenson – A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende (HF). I loved it.

Anita Rechler – The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson (NF). I am not the most likely person to be drawn into a book that takes a deep dive into basic science. FWIW CRSPR could have been a drawer in my refrigerator for storing lettuce. (Well, not really.) For a novice, Isaacson makes the science of gene editing accessible. What kept me engaged were the human stories of people driven by camaraderie, curiosity, competition, collaboration, capitalism. I ‘read’ the book on audible.

Barbara Friedman – American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin (NF), is a fascinating biography of the brilliant theoretical physicist, the man who made the Manhattan Project (and the bombs) happen. He was caught up in the McCarthy Trials – was he a member of the Communist Party? – and ended his career as the head of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. There were heroic as well as tragic aspects of his life. The book is very much worth a read.

Charlie Atherton – When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut (NF), a National Book Award finalist and rated by the NY Times as one of the ten best books of 2021. I must admit that I am usually a reader of fiction, crime fiction, but I most enjoyed the author’s combination of personal details from the lives of eminent scientists and mathematicians, many of which were undoubtedly fictitious, coupled with readable descriptions of ideas produced by the greatest minds of the modern era.

Chris Boutourline – Anxious People by Fredrik Backman (F) (author of A Man Called Ove). I read this after my wife started it and then put it down after 40 pages or so. She said that the transcripts of the police interviews of witnesses weren’t making sense and, that, overall, she just wasn’t enjoying it. Since it is an upcoming  read for my book club I read it all the way through. The gist of the story is that a bank robbery goes bad, and the bank robber takes the attendees of a condo open house hostage while trying to figure out what to do next. Early on the novel does feel disjointed as the witness statements reveal more about those recounting than about the robber. Best not to say much more, other than I told my wife that I thought she’d be rewarded by picking up where she left off, and, after finishing it, she agreed. Suicide is one of the numerous themes the novel touches upon.

Cbris Rothenberger – The Four Winds by Kristen Hannah (F). This is the story of Elsa, unloved by her family, a hasty marriage, and abandonment by her family. The Dustbowl, Great Depression become the backdrop to the story of Elsa’s survival. Starvation and desperation punctuate this book.   She leaves for California with her children in search of a better life and there endures the battle between the “haves” and “have nots,” a nation divided, and the rising up of migrant workers in her struggle to survive. 

This book was a  sad and difficult, but an illuminating read of an era that I knew little about. It puts a spotlight on the land, on love, the definition of hope and heroism, and a country in crisis.  It is a very powerful story that has stayed with me and is a portrait of that time in our history as seen through Elsa’s eyes.

Chuck Tilis – Thou Shall Innovate—How Israeli Ingenuity Repairs the World by Avi Jorisch (NF). A compendium of inspiring vignettes describing the incredible  contributions “Israelis” created to improve the lives for all human-kind.  Israelis in quotes as most inventions were due to the collaboration between Jews and Arabs. I liken this book as the sequel to Start Up Nation. Each story stands on its own and can be read one at a time at any pace. 

Cindy Olmstead – The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (HF). Historical novel about JP Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle de Costa Greene, the Black American woman who hid her identity to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books and artwork for JP Morgan’s new Pierpoint Morgan Library. This is the story of an extraordinary woman known for her intellect, style (famous for her hats), and ability to mingle in society’s upper circles to accomplish what she knew she had to do. Excellent read!

David Stang – Hair of the Dog to Paint the Town Red: The Curious Origins of Everyday Sayings and Fun Phrases by Andrew Thompson (NF), a lawyer obsessed with finding out the truth about over two hundred Idiomatic expressions and how they were derived. Thompson’s persevering scholarship traces the roots of several terms in his book as far back as the Fifteenth Century. For curious minds this book is a truly fascinating read.

Donna Pollet – Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatje (HF). Given the most recent headlines about the uprising and collapse of the government in Sri Lanka, this novel written in 2000 characterizing an earlier and turbulent civil war of unrest, murder, and kidnapping will evoke interest. The writing is compelling, and the characters are multi-dimensional with absorbing back stories. Anil, a forensic pathologist called in by an international organization, teams up with Sarath, a local government official and archeologist to investigate a series of murders in violation of human rights. Their investigation leads to the discovery of an unidentified victim and becomes a mission to find justice for him and the countless other nameless murdered. It is a story of personal tragedy, individual integrity, and the spirit of human resilience.

Elizabeth Lewis – Walk with Me: A Biography of Fannie Lou Hamer by Kate Clifford Larson (NF). With its copious footnotes, this biography reads more like a thesis than a popular account of the life of a remarkable woman whose presence in and command of the Civil Rights Movement spanned much more than is popularly known. It is frightening, uplifting, and far too relevant for the faint of heart.

Elizabeth Tilis – Lily’s Promise: How I Survived Auschwitz and Found the Strength to Live by Lily Ebert (NF). The story of a Holocaust survivor from Hungary and her great-grandson Dov who used social media to track down the family of the GI who gave Lily a banknote on which he’d written “Good luck and happiness” the day she was liberated.

Ellen Kessler – Prison Minyan by Jonathan Stone (F). I recently read & enjoyed this novel. It is modeled after Otisville State Prison in Otisville, NY (Michael Cohen, personal atty for Trump before he started talking, went there). The book is very entertaining and often amusing. The rabbi conducting the minyan is one of three rabbis in prison! The characters are stereotypical in some ways, and there are some serious ideas to consider, but I enjoyed the book for the humor most of all. I have recommended it to some friends, and all of them have told me how enjoyable it is. A perfect vacation book!

Ellen Miller – The Twilight World by Werner Herzog (HF). The German filmmaker Werner Herzog’s first novel tells the story of a Japanese soldier — Hiroo Onoda — who defended a small island in the Pacific for 30 years after the end of World War II. It is an absolutely remarkable and mesmerizing story, from both how Herzog met Onoda to the long hours they spent together unraveling Onoda’s story. We learn how Onoda survived in the jungle and fought the enemy as he had been instructed by his superior officer in 1944, just as the Japanese troops began to withdraw from the island. He ignored repeated pleas to surrender throughout the years, thinking they were ‘enemy’ tricks.

Herzog brilliantly adds some details to the story, which are purely fictional, to fill in the blanks of the actual story and to keep the reader engaged. This is an unusual book, an unbelievable and unknown story brought to life by Herzong’s storytelling and literary talents.

Fran Renehan – The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (F) who also wrote A Gentleman in Moscow, which was one of the best books I have ever read. I think his writing is superb. This story is about a young boy just released from a detention center. He finds his brother, and they set off to find their mother. However, two other boys arrive on the scene that have escaped from the same institution. The stories are twisted, and there are way too many segues for me. But I still could not put it down. 

Fruzsina Harsanyi – The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss by Mary-Frances O’Connor (NF). This amazing book by a neuro-scientist shares groundbreaking discoveries about how our brain handles grief and provides a new paradigm for understanding love, loss, and restoration.  During the past 10 months I have read a lot of fiction and non-fiction about grieving, and this is by far the most helpful.  

Garland Standrod – H of H Playbook by Anne Carson (F). Anne Carson is an eccentric and quite original poet and translator of ancient Greek texts, and for her translations, she uses modern language and contexts to bring out the depth and wit of the piece involved. H of H Playbook is a facsimile edition of her translation, with illustrations, of Euripides play Herakles. Anne Carson is also well known for her translations of Sappho and of the Oresteia.

Hugh Riddleberger – Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill by Sonia Purnell (NF), author of best selling A Woman of No Importance.  Well written, exploring the life of Clementine Churchill…once again confirms my belief that women are so much better in most things.  Devoted to Winston, without her, most likely Britain would have fallen. His loyal advisor and critic, a complex woman.  Worth a read.

Jane Bradley – Empire of Pain:  The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Kee (NF).  This extraordinary history of the family and the marketing strategy at the heart of the opioid crisis helps you understand, and support, the movement to drop the Sackler name from the museums and galleries whose benefits so many have enjoyed.

Jeff Friedman – The Fall of Robespierre by Colin Jones (NF) provides a detailed, hour-by-hour account of the coup that ended Robespierre’s reign in 1794. The history alone is gripping, but the book also offers fascinating insights into the nature and fragility of political power.

Jesse Maniff – In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson (NF). Set in Nazi Germany in 1933 and told from the perspective of the American ambassador’s family, this book was a terrifying reminder of what can happen when fringe beliefs become normalized in the pursuit of maintaining power.

Judy White – The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman (NF). I had read this some years ago and re-read it last winter, enjoying it again. The author becomes very involved with all the players in a real-life drama involving a Hmong family, whose young child has seizures that cannot be controlled, and the doctors and social workers who try to help.  She (the author) is able to understand where each of these people is coming from and convey their positions beautifully, no easy task.  The author, too, plays a role even as she observes. An all-time favorite — I’ll probably read it again in a few years.  

Kate Latts – Hands down the best book I have read in the past few month is The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray (HF). There are three interwoven true stories about the women who were inspired by the legacy of Marquis de Lafayette and his castle in the French countryside. One of the  stories set in the late 1700s chronicles Lafayette’s wife throughout their 34 year marriage and his journey to become a beloved hero. The second story is set during WWI and features the real life woman who created the Lafayette Foundation as she travels between NYC and France establishing Lafayette’s castle as an orphanage. The third story is set in WWII and focuses on a young woman who grew up the orphanage and joins the resistance movement during German occupation. The book is not short, but very good.

Kathleen Kroos – The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (F). This book has huge juicy secrets right up until the end. 

Larry Maknson – Walking the Bowl: A True Story of Murder and Survival Among the Street Children of Lusaka by Christ Lockhart & Daniel Mulilo Chama (NF). An absorbing, immersive look at the lives of street children in Lusaka, Zambia. The book is a result of a multi-year anthropological study of the slum-dwelling kids, but it reads like a novel as it follows the lives of its four main characters. An absorbing read.

Marsha Harbinson – In the City of Bikes: The Story of The Amsterdam Cyclist by Pete Jordan (NF), It’s a fascinating history of cycling in Amsterdam & especially interesting to read of the cycling resistance to the Nazi occupation in WWII.

Martha Curtin – Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, (HF). I recently read this historical fiction novel that explores life from the perspective of Koreans who emigrated to Japan during WW2. The book is presented in three parts, representing 3+ generations, but is a quick read due to it being well written.  This rich time in history offers personal stories from so many perspectives… I’m hooked on historical fiction from this era. 

Mike White — The Rose Code by Kate Quinn (HF).  I don’t read much fiction but really enjoyed this novel, based on real events and people, about the codebreakers in England during World War II.  Hard to put down; many twists and turns in the plot.  Judy liked it too.

Mary L – Damon Runyon Omnibus by Damon Runyon (F). I finally finished 500 pages of Damon Runyon short stories which I’ve been sampling for four years.  They are funniest when read one at a time as a pause between longer books.  Available on-line in Australia:  https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks11/1100651h.html

The natural habitat of Harry the Horse and Nathan Detroit is the  neighborhood of Manhattan where I was born. I even found a reference to the hospital where that occurred in one of the stories. Runyon’s stories are all in the present tense which makes them even livelier than they naturally are. I marvel that a man born in Kansas (Kansas!) could capture the ethos of 1920s/30s New York. Set aside all your modern concerns about sexism and representation and go to Guys and Dolls-land.  This guy says the book can do.

Meg Gage – The Weight of Ink, Rachel Kadish (HF). A remarkable story that weaves an interconnected tale of two women: one a Jewish survivor of the Spanish Inquisition and a refuge from Amsterdam, who in London manages to become a scribe for a blind rabbi; the other a jaded and ailing London historian who has a deep personal and professional connection to Jewish history.  The story and the connection of the two main characters is launched when a huge trove of 350 year old original Jewish letters and documents is found in the course of the renovation of an derilict mansion outside London. The book took Kadish over 10 years to write, which resulted in a deeply researched and poignant story with plot threads involving the likes of Shakespeare and Spinoza.  Amazing details about life in London just before and during the plague — I felt like I was there!  One of the most compelling books I’ve read in years.

Richard Miller – The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss by Mary-Francis O’Connnor (NF). Recently, I came across what has truly been the most insightful explanation of anything I’ve read in connection with the topics of loss, grieving, and grief.  O’Connor writes about what happens in our brain when we experience loss and why grief and grieving are so powerful. In helping us understand what science has recently learned about these issues, she shows us a new perspective and a new way to think about these powerful issues. O’Connor writes that The Grieving Brain is in no way an ‘advice book,’ yet for me it offers so many new insights on these subjects that I will return to it many times and will certainly recommend it others.

Romana Campos – I just finished The Night Watchman (F) by Louise Erdrich and really enjoyed it.  Can you fact check this, but I believe it won a Pulitzer Prize (Ed. Yup. 2021). So what did I like about it? Cultural perspective. The conversations that take place inside the homes and the workplaces of individuals and families make you feel like you’re sitting at the kitchen table with family, and you find out what’s important and relevant from the perspective of that person, that family, and that community’s lived experience. 

Sam Black – Breaking the Age Code by Becca Levy (NF). Levy, a professor at Yale, develops the evidence that common American stereotypes about “senior citizens” are inaccurate and are quite different from the way society views these citizens in some other countries.  Moreover, she builds the case that when society believes these things, senior citizens go along, to their detriment, and that these beliefs actually increase illness and death rates.  So be warned!

*** *** ***

On a slightly different note, since there are so many books available and we have so many choices, I am curious about how each of you came to read the book you cited. If you have a few moments, please let me and others know in the Comment section of this post how you chose this particular book as well as generally how you go about picking the books you read. That may give all of us ideas of how to find good reads and not spend time on books that are not worthy of our reading time.

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What Books Have You Enjoyed the Most This Year?

27 Saturday Nov 2021

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 1 Comment

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Favorite Reads, Favorite Reads in 2021, Millerstime, MillersTime Readers Favorite Reads

“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read.” A. Lincoln

As I have done for the past 12 years, I am asking for a list (anywhere from one to as many as six) of the books you’ve most enjoyed reading in 2021.

There is no definition to the kind of book which you might add to this list. They can be fiction, non-fiction, science fiction, science, mystery, romance, hobbies, children’s books, etc. I am just looking for what you truly enjoyed this past year (old or new books) with the thought that others might get some ideas for their reading in 2022.

Even if you think others may recommend a particular book that you liked, please include it on your list. Some folks like to know that more than one or two MillersTime readers have enjoyed a given title.

Also, if you want to include any of the books you cited in the 2021 Mid-Year post of favorites, feel free to do so.

Send me your list (Samesty84@gmail.com) with the title, author and whether the book is fiction (F) or non-fiction (NF). Please take the time to include a few sentences about the book and particularly what made this book so enjoyable for you.

For many of the contributors and readers of this annual list, it is the comments that are what’s most important about MillersTime Favorite Reads each year.

Please send your list by December 20. Then I can post the results by January 1.

Thanks in advance.

*** *** ***

To see previous years’ lists, click on any of these links: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015. 2016. 2017. 2018 Mid-Year, 2018, 2019 Mid-Year. 2019. 2020, Mid-Year 2021.

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A Potpourri of Books on Plant and Animal Consciousness

25 Tuesday May 2021

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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by David P. Stang, May 15, 2021

[Ed. Note: Because this post was far too long to include in any of the MillersTime Favorite Reads lists, I am posting it here for those readers who have interest in this topic as well as in David’s personal experiences with telepathic communication with animals.]

Many decades ago when I first began to read ancient Buddhist texts in English translation I became quite curious about what the sage old Buddhist authors meant when they employed the term “Sentient Beings.”During my high school and college years I remember being taught that only human beings can be considered to possess consciousness. The Skinnerian Behaviorist writings asserted that the most intellectually advanced animals are capable of nothing more sophisticated than a simple reflex derived from “operant conditioning”.

Part of the reason why I became so confused about the meaning of the term “Sentient Beings” was that I got sucked into believing that B.F. Skinner knew what he was talking about. One magical and unforgettable day about a couple of decades ago I was enriched by an epiphany concerning the consciousness of animals and how we are capable of relating to and communicating with them. This sudden understanding occurred during a visit to the home of my good friend, Dan Dreyfus, who lived in McLean, Virginia. Dan was very bright, earned a Ph.D., and whose cognitive reasoning was consistently quite exceptional. Yet I discerned that neither his doctorate nor his well-honed cognitive and empirical skills constitute the energetic essence of his feeling vibrantly connected to creatures of Nature.

My friend Dan, in order to expose me to how he connects to and communicates with such lovely creatures, took me out on his patio and asked me to sit very still. Then he went inside and came out with food for the birds, squirrels and chipmunks. As he sat down in his chair the birds dropped down from the trees, perched on his arms and wrists and ate the seeds out of his hands. They also flew down to feed on those that had fallen to the patio floor next to his feet. Then the squirrels scampered down from the branches above and ate seeds out of the cup which my friend held firmly against the trunk of the tree.

After he had finished feeding the birds and the squirrels my friend noticed that a chipmunk had arrived on the scene. Dan poured some seeds into the palm of his right hand and sat down holding his hand about three inches above the patio’s red brick floor. The chipmunk headed straight for the hand holding the seeds then stopped dead in its tracks as he noticed my presence. Dan said to the chipmunk, “Don’t be afraid. He won’t hurt you. He’s just a spectator. Now come and eat your seeds.” The chipmunk trotted over to my friend, rubbed his nose against his forearm, then hopped up on my friend’s wrist and ate contentedly out of his hand. The little furry creature filled his mouth with seeds until his cheeks puffed out like little balloons. Then he hopped down and scampered over to the edge of the patio to masticate his mouth full of seeds.

Just then about seven or eight of the birds who had just previously eaten their fill re-landed on the fence at the edge of the patio chirping away as they looked down at my friend. Facing the birds Dan said, “Did you have a good feed?” He then looked at me and said, “They have returned just for the company. They do it all the time.”

He told me that several days each week a wild Fox in his neighborhood walks to the edge of his patio while he is sitting in his chair. The fox will simply stand there and look at my friend and he at the fox. Dan told me that this communion with the wild animals means a lot to him. He said, “I really feel connected to these critters and they to me. I talk to them and they understand me. You can imagine what a transformational effect my experiences with these wild creatures has had upon me.”

As I reflected upon this astounding experience it occurred to me that without a shadow of a doubt both wild and tame animals as well as humans are sentient beings.

I began to wonder if other forms of life could also be considered sentient beings. This curiosity resulted in my discovering a number of fascinating books which shed much light on my longtime quest to understand the nature of sentient beings and their diverse interconnections. I’ll discuss each publication briefly below in the form of mini-book reviews. But having read most of them over the past at least eight or ten years and begun to experiment with communicating with non-human sentient beings I became quite interested in learning more about their consciousness and our consciousness of them and the realities of how we communicate with each other.

What I discovered is that there are a number of different ways of learning about and communicating with non-human sentient beings. First, we exhibit an intensifying curiosity about them. We observe them. We read about them and we ask ourselves a number of questions concerning them. This often becomes a subject-object undertaking. By this I mean that we employ our analytical minds in the exploration of a particular object such as, for example, a dog or a cat or a horse or a cow. Then we make mental notes about what we observe as we continue our intellectual quest to learn more. Now if we become fanatically curious and therefore obsessively pursue our investigations we can spend nearly a decade earning a PhD and doing postdoctoral studies pertaining to our animals or plants of choice. There are a multitude of scientific or quasi-scientific academic disciplines of various sorts that focus on animal behavior, cognition and other faculties. There are yet comparatively few academic investigators of plant consciousness as many scientists remain persuaded that no plant possesses any kind of sensibility equivalent to an animal brain. Accordingly, they are persuaded that plants neither possess what could be called a mind or are capable of any kind of complex thought.

While some of us who are less academically inclined tend to prefer relating to animals than intellectualizing about them. Everyone who has ever had a pet of any kind quickly learned to appreciate the day-to-day experience of relating to that animal. Yet academic scientists who become fond of the animals they study usually go out of their way to prove that what they hypothesize about such animals is irrefutably empirical, avoids all subjectivity and is experimentally replicable.

Then there are psychically gifted human beings who were born with, and came to further develop, an ability to communicate telepathically with animals. They prefer to ask the animals to explain themselves telepathically rather than conduct laboratory experiments to find their answers. Beginning with the next paragraph we will briefly explore several  books written by authors devoted to all kinds of sentient beings  with a focus on the nature of the connectedness between humans and other types of living organisms.

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The Books Most Enjoyed by MillersTime Readers Midyear 2019

21 Friday Jun 2019

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 2 Comments

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"Books Most Enjoyed By MillersTime Readers", Best Books, Book List, Favorite Books, Favorite Reads, MillersTime Readers Favorites, Reading List

“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read.” – A. Lincoln

As always, this post would not be possible without the participation of friends (and friends of friends) who have taken the time to share with me and others titles and comments about what you are reading and enjoying. Think of it as a ‘community’ of readers even if some of you do not know each other. I thank you all for responding to my ‘gentle reminders.’

This 2019 mid-year list is comprised of the favorite reads of 53 adults and 5 small children (10, 8, 6, 3, and almost 2 years of age.) Surprisingly, at least to me, this year nonfiction choices lead fiction 54% to 46%, a reversal of every previous compilation over the past 10+ years. Fifty-seven per cent of the contributors are female, 43% male, a typical breakdown.

I’ve organized the post in three ways:

I. The Books that have been cited by multiple readers are listed first.

II. Next, the Contributors are listed alphabetically by first name — to make it easy if you are looking for the favorites of someone you know — with the titles and authors next and then any comments they made about those books.

III. Two Spread Sheets for quick reference and in case you want to print out either list for future use:

Spread Sheet #1 – Listed by the Contributor’s Name, then Title, Author, & Fiction/Nonfiction

Spread Sheet # 2 – Listed by Book Title, then Author, Contributor, & Fiction/Nonfiction

Also, at the end of this post, I’ve linked to the Midyear and Final lists from 2018, just in case you need more suggestions than those in this Midyear post.

Enjoy.

I. Titles that appear on more than one reader’s Favorites’ List.

Fiction (F):

  • Beartown, Fredrick Backman
  • Before We Were Yours, Lisa Wingate
  • Beneath the Scarlet Sky, Mark Sullivan
  • Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng
  • The Lost Man, Jane Harper 
  • Machines Like Me, Ian McEwan
  • The Heart’s Invisible Furies, John Boyne
  • Washington Black, Esi Edugyan
  • The Weight of Ink, Rachel Kadish
  • Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens

Nonfiction (NF):

  • An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago, Alex Kotlowitz
  • Bad Blood: Secrets & Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, John Carreyrou
  • Becoming, Michelle Obama
  • Born a Crime, Trevor Noah
  • Educated, Tara Westover
  • K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, Tyler Kepner
  • Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder & Memory in Northern Ireland. Patrick Radden Keefe,
  • The Library Book, Susan Orlean
  • Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing, Robert A. Caro

II. The 2019 Midyear Favorite Reads

(Alphabetically by Contributor)

Continue reading »
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The Books Most Enjoyed by MillersTime Readers in 2018

29 Saturday Dec 2018

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 5 Comments

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"Books Most Enjoyed By MillersTime Readers", Books, Fiction, Nonfiction, Reading

“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read.” – A. Lincoln

This list of favorite reads is comprised of the books most enjoyed in 2018 by 71 adults and five children. Forty-one of them (suggested by thirty-one people) are now on my ‘to read’ list for 2019. (The only way I can read that many, along with other books that will no doubt come to my attention throughout the year, is to fulfill a long considered ‘plan’ of spending a winter in Alaska in front of a fire place. Please don’t mention this to Ellen.)

For the first time since compiling this list (10 years ago!) nonfiction leads the fiction 53% to 47%. Last year those percentages were reversed, and I’m not sure what accounts for the change (aging contributors?). Our youngest participant is almost 18 month’s old; the oldest is approaching the century mark. The rest of you are mostly between the ages of 35- 75. Fifty-five percent of you are women; forty-five percent are men.

While I don’t expect all 76 of you will read all the way through this list (though anyone who does can claim it as a favorite book for next year, assuming you are delighted by the list), know that there is a tremendous amount of information here. Thus, I’ve organized it in several ways, hopefully to make it user friendly:

Section I. The most frequently cited titles (three or more times) are listed first.

Section II. Next, the contributors are listed alphabetically by first name — to make it easy if you are looking for the favorites of someone you know — with the titles and authors next, and then any comments made about those books.

Section III. Finally, there are also two spread sheet lists (see links below) included as easy, searchable references for you to see the titles, authors, and MillersTime contributors in summary form:

List#1 – Organized Alphabetically by Book Titles – fiction precedes nonfiction

List #2 – Organized Alphabetically by Contributors’ Names – fiction precedes nonfiction

I. Titles That Appear on the Favorites’ List Three Times or More:

Fiction (F):

  • Beartown by Fredrik Backman
  • Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
  • Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
  • Love and Ruin by Paula McClain
  • The Overstory by Richard Powers
  • Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
  • Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
  • The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
  • Transcription by Kate Atkinson
  • Us Against You by Fredrik Backman

Nonfiction

  • American Wolf by Nate Blakeslee
  • Becoming by Michelle Obama
  • Beneath a Ruthless Sun by Gilbert King
  • Educated by Tara Westover
  • Heartland by Sarah Smarsh
  • Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
  • Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
  • Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
  • Strangers in Their Own Land by Arlie Hochschild
  • The Bad-Ass Librarian of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer
  • The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis
  • When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
  • Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas

Continue reading »

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Calling for Books You’ve Most Enjoyed in 2018

18 Sunday Nov 2018

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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Audible Books, Books Most Enjoyed by MillersTime Readers in 2014, Favorite Author, Favorite Books, Favorite Books of "MillersTime" Readers, Favorite Books Read This Year

“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read”- A. Lincoln

Year 10

Once again it’s that time of year — when I request you share with other readers of MillersTime your most favorite books read over the past 12 months.

Here are a few guidelines that may help in drawing your list and in making my compilation easier:

1. When I ask for your Most Favorite Reads of 2018, I’m seeking fiction and/or nonfiction books that stood out for you above all you’ve read in the past year. What have been the most enjoyable, the most important, the most thought provoking, the best written, the ones you may go back and read again, the ones you reread this year, and/or the ones you have suggested others read?

2. You are welcome to send just one title or as many as meet the criteria in #1 above.

3. Feel free to repeat any titles that you submitted earlier this year for the 2018 mid-year review, particularly if, on reflection, the book(s) still meets the standards above.

4. In order to make the list most useful, please do the following:

* List the title, the author, and indicate whether it is fiction (F) or nonfiction (NF).

* Consider writing a sentence or two, or more (but not an essay), about why a particular book was a favorite for you. Many MillersTime readers seem to be interested in that information.

5. Don’t be concerned about whether others will have the same book(s) on their lists. If we get a number of similar titles, that’s just an indication of the power of a particular book/author.

6. Your books do not have to be ones that were written and/or published in 2018, just ones that you read over the past year.

7. If you have a child/children/grandchild, etc. who enjoys reading or being read to, feel free to include their current favorite book(s), along with the age of the child.

8. If you have listened to a book(s) in one of the various audio formats, Books on Tape, CDs, Audible, etc., and if they meet your definition of books “you’ve enjoyed the most in 2018,” please include those on your list also. Be sure to identify which ‘books’ on your list were ones you enjoyed audibly.

* Send me your list in an email (Samesty84@gmail.com) by Dec. 16th  so I will be able to post the entire list by Dec. 30 as we will be on a trip (surprise) starting the 31st. (If you send me your list sooner than Dec. 16, you may be able to avoid my constant email reminders to do so. and that will also allow me more time to put the entire list together.)

To see previous years’ lists, click on any of these links: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015. 2016. 2017. 2018 Mid-Year.

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The Books Most Enjoyed by MillersTime Readers Mid-Year 2018

30 Saturday Jun 2018

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

"Books Most Enjoyed By MillersTime Readers", 2018 Mid-Year Favorite Reads, Books, List of Favorite Reads, Reading

“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read.” – A. Lincoln

This post, one of my favorites, is only possible because so many of you have taken the time to share with me and others titles and comments about what you are reading and enjoying. What you will see below is truly the result of cooperation between a community of readers and friends, even if many of you do not know each other.

The 2018 mid-year list is comprised of the favorite reads of 63 adults and 2 children. Fiction leads the nonfiction 57% to 43%, similar to last year, and there are titles for readers with wide ranges of interests. Our youngest participant is now 11 month’s old; the oldest is 96+. The rest of you are mostly between the ages of 35- 75. Sixty percent of you are women, 40% are men.

While I don’t expect everyone will read all the way through this list (anyone who does and likes it can claim it as a favorite book for next year), know there is a tremendous amount of information here. I’ve organized it in several ways, hopefully to make it more user friendly:

I. The most frequently cited titles (three or more times) are listed first.

II. Next the contributors are listed alphabetically — to make it easy if you are looking for the favorites of someone you know — with the titles and authors next and then any comments made about those books.

III. Finally, there are also two spread sheet links included as easy, searchable references for you to see the titles, authors, and MillersTime contributors in summary form:

List # 1 – Organized alphabetically by book title, fiction precedes nonfiction 

List #2 – Organized alphabetically by reader/contributor’s name, fiction again precedes nonfiction

Enjoy.

I. Titles that appear on the Favorites’ List three times or more

Fiction (F):

  •      Beartown, Fredrik Backman
  •      Beneath a Scarlet Sky, Mark Sullivan
  •      Manhattan Beach, Jennifer Egan
  •      Sing, Unburied, Sing, Jesmyn Ward
  •      The Great Alone, Kristin Hannah

Nonfiction (NF):

  •      Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders & the Birth of the FBI, David Grann
  •      Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder & One Man’s Fight for Justice, Bill Browder

For me, as always, the strengths and value of this mid-year’s list have more to do with what contributors say about a book than the number of times a book may be listed. Often, a book listed only once or twice is one I most want to read in the next six months or coming year.

A reminder: this list is not meant to be the best books published in 2018, but rather what the title of this posting states — The Books Most Enjoyed by MillersTime Readers Mid-Year 2018.

And, of course, I take responsibility for any inaccuracies or mistakes in the posting of your names, the titles, the authors, and your comments. Please do let me know about errors so I can correct them quickly and easily (especially if I have not listed you and any books/titles you have  sent to me.)

Feel free to share this post with others — family, friends, book clubs, etc., and start now with keeping a list for the second half of 2018.

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Four Recommended Books

18 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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"Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu" by Joshua Hammer, "Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan's Disaster Zone" by Richard Lloyd Parry, "Lab Girl", "Lab Girl" by Hope Jahren, "the Sound of a Wild Snail Eating" byElisabeth Tova Bailey, Books, Favorite Reads, memoris, non-fiction

Rather than wait until I do a mid-year round up of readers’ favorite reads for the first half of 2018, I thought I’d mention four books that I’ve recently read and thoroughly enjoyed and might have interest for others.

All four are from suggestions by MillersTime readers, and all four are non-fiction, generally my reading of preference.

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren (NF) – Recommended by Ellen Hoff & Suzanne Stier.

Ellen H. wrote: “ A pure research scientist who writes well about her own adventures in science, her life, and, fascinating to me, bits of botany. If you are interested in botany, skip her struggle with mental disorders. If you are not interested in botany, some fascinating bits on her curiosity and fascination with pure research and asking new questions, and the struggles facing research scientists in finding funding and developing a lab.”

Suzanne S. wrote: “This book goes at the top of my list. It is a combination of science about trees and plants and a memoir by Hope about her journey as a scientist and her relationship with a man named Bill…who is her soul mate/twin/co-conspirator…The book is serious and funny and well written. A must read for all.”

Me: I listened to Hope Jahren’s narration of her book and that added immeasurably to my enjoyment as I felt she was basically talking directly to me. Certainly the best memoir I have ‘read’ in years. If you read and enjoyed H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, one of my favorites from last year, you’ll certainly enjoy Lab Girl. If you didn’t read Macdonald’s book, you now have two wonderful books in store for you.

Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan’s Disaster Zone by Richard Lloyd Parry (NF) – Recommended by Ellen Miller.

Ellen M.: “This is the story of the Tsunami that on March 11, 2011 hit the northwest coast of Japan, killing more than 18,500 people. It focuses particularly on the personal stories of several families and one community focusing on accountability for deaths in one school. It is heartbreaking.”

Me: I ‘resisted’ reading this exploration of the consequences of the Tsunami, doubting it would be of interest to me. How wrong I was. The author does a brilliant job of not just describing what happened but also of going inside the Japanese culture to give insights and understandings into a world that is often closed to outsiders.

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tiva Bailey (NF) – Recommended by Melanie Landau.

Melanie: “Fascinating, meditative. Account of minutely observing a tiny snail while bed ridden and ill.”

Me: Snails? Another account of something I never thought I’d have interest in. Wrong again. A wonderful story/memoir and most enlightening both about the author and about these little creatures.

Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer (NF) – Recommended by Abigail Wiebenson.

Abigail wrote: “A totally fascinating story of saving thousands of ancient manuscripts in Mali which becomes entangled in the jihadi movement all of which the author describes with spell-binding dexterity.”

Me: Despite a totally misleading title, I found myself immersed in a true tale about so much I never knew, not only about manuscripts and the written word but also about the jihadi incursions and exploits outside of the middle east.

**                   **                   **                   **                   **

If you are not already keeping track of books you’ve enjoyed/are enjoying, please consider doing so. In June, I will ask for books readers have most enjoyed over the first half of 2018, which I will then post in July.

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The Books Most Enjoyed by MillersTime Readers in 2017

29 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Best Book List, Books, Favorite Reads by MillersTime Readers in 2017, MillersTime Readers Favorite Books, Most Enjoyable Reads 2017


“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read.” – A. Lincoln

Once again the MillersTime “best books roundup” is my favorite post of the year. It’s a labor of love and is only possible because so many of you take the time to send in what books you have enjoyed over the last 12 months. I’m indeed indebted to each of you and offer my heartfelt thanks to all of you.

The 2017 list is comprised of the favorite reads of 82 adults and 10 children. Fiction leads the nonfiction 56% to 44%, similar to last year. Our youngest participant is almost five month’s old; the oldest is 96. The rest of you are mostly between the ages of 35- 75. Fifty-eight percent of you are women, 42% are men.

While I don’t expect everyone of you will read all the way through this list (anyone who does can claim it as a favorite book for next year), know there is a tremendous amount of information here. I’ve organized it in several ways, hopefully to make it more user friendly:

I. The most frequently cited titles (three or more times) are listed first.

II. Next the contributors are listed alphabetically — to make it easy if you are looking for the favorites of someone you know — with the titles and authors next and then any comments made about those books.

III. Finally, there are also two spread sheet links included as easy, searchable references for you to see the titles, authors, and MillersTime contributors in summary form:

List # 1 – Organized by book titles 

List #2 –  Organized by reader/contributor’s name.

I. Titles that appear on the Favorites’ List three times or more:

Fiction (F):

  •      A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles
  •      America’s First Daughter, Stephanie Dray
  •      Days Without End, Sebastian Barry
  •      House of Names, Colm Toibin
  •      Manhattan Beach, Jennifer Egan
  •      Salvage the Bones, Jesymn Ward
  •      Sing, Unburied, Sing, Jesymn Ward
  •      Small Great Things, Jody Picoult
  •      The North Water, Ian McQuire

Nonfiction (NF):

  •      Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, Neil deGrasse Tyson
  •      Born a Crime, Trevor Noah
  •      Evicted, Mathew Desmond
  •      Grant, Ron Chernow
  •      Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance
  •      Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann

For me, as is true every year, the strengths and value of this year’s list have more to do with what contributors say about a book than the number of times a book may be listed. Often, a book listed only once is one I most want to read in the coming year.

A reminder: this list is not meant to be the best books published in 2017, but rather what the title of this posting states — The Books Most Enjoyed by MillersTime Readers in 2017.

Please forgive my endless prompting for your submissions, though the results, I hope, may have been worth the reminders. (Late additions — please feel free to send them — will be posted as they arrive, without any snarky comments from the editor.)

And, of course, I take responsibility for any inaccuracies or mistakes in the posting of your names, the titles, the authors, and your comments. Please do let me know about errors so I can correct them quickly and easily.

Feel free to share this post with others — family, friends, book clubs, etc.

Enjoy.

II. The 2017 List of Favorites:  

(alphabetical by reader’s first name):

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Books Favored by MillersTime Readers – Jan.-July 2017

22 Saturday Jul 2017

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 1 Comment

“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read”- A. Lincoln

Here are all, in one place, the 2017 mid-year favorite books by MillersTime readers. There are 205 titles, 115 fiction and 90 nonfiction. Fifty readers contributed to this wonderful list.

The first eight below ‘arrived’ in the last week or so and were not in earlier posts. They are followed by all the ones I posted earlier.

Enjoy.

Final Additions to the List:

Kathleen Kroos:

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (F).

Setting Free the Kites by Alex George (F).

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson (NF), my summer project…

Charles Tilis:

Giant of the Senate by Al Franken (NF) is likely a “must read” for progressives and a “never read” for conservatives. Senator Franken exposes the seedier side of politics today with a unique combination of wit and self-reflection of which both are needed to remain sane in today’s polarized environment. He does bring to life the rigors of big-league politics with the need for fundraising and impact on families. One thing is clear though—Senator Franken has the chops to aspire to greater office.

Land Wayland:

The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston (NF), about the 10 day visit in 2015 to the (non-Mayan) City of the Monkey God by a team of archaeologists, film makers, photographers and writers who traveled to a lonely, lonely, lonely area of Honduras called La Mosquitias, where no human has been seen for about 500 years…a city, indeed an entire civilization of 30,000–100,000, was abandoned due to the arrival of a parasite that causes the lips and nose to develop huge ulcers and eventually causes the person’s face to erode or waste away. The infection is exceedingly difficult to (1) detect and (2) treat and 8 out of 10 team members got it (they all survived) but it will never be out of their system, as it waits for a breakdown in their immune system to finish the job.

Before they walked away, the inhabitants carefully placed their entire civilization’s cache of sacred objects, including a number of sculptures of monkeys, in the main square.  And even though these these items would be worth millions of dollars to tomb-raiders, they were still in-situ 500 years later.  No one had been there.

What they found in 2015 is like all of the best jungle exploration stories of all time—even better. Beautiful quiet rivers surrounded by towering mountains and riotous jungle with bugs and butterflies and dragonflies and frogs never seen before.  Strange noises all night long including the sounds of big animals moving through the camp. They had multiple encounters with 7 foot jaguars and 6 foot deadly aggressive fer-de-lance snakes. It rarely stopped raining. And there were no paths of even the smallest kind and every step had to macheted into submission  There were deep quicksand pits, and thousands of serious big stinging ants waiting on trees to drop off onto your skin, and ticks, ticks, ticks and deadly spiders, spiders, spiders. And the ground was very literally covered with cockroaches at night. You could get lost 15 feet in the jungle from your group. The most important piece of equipment each person carried was their cell phone with a GPS  system that was accurate within one foot  Without it on and working (double checked) you did not dare step 3 inches outside the camp boundaries.

This is a book to read while seated in a chair with its legs in buckets of bug killer, covered with three layers of the finest grade bug netting, every part, every part, every part  of your entire body slathered in DEET, breathing through grade 7 nose filters and wearing swim goggles to keep the deadly no-see-ums out of your eyes, having blood samples drawn every hour to pick up the first signs of kidney or liver failure, and tuned by radio to the priest or rabbi back home who is sending constant prayers up in your behalf because the doctor;s are praying you don’t come back and bring stuff with you that will destroy their hospital’s  plan for dealing with exotic infectious diseases. And no I don’t exaggerate  nearly enough.

Elizabeth Tilis:

All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda (F). Your yearly mystery thriller a la Girl on the Train, Gone Girl, etc, but with a twist – the story is written backwards!

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty (F). A fun, light and quick read. I also enjoyed the HBO miniseries based on the book that came out this winter.

David P. Stang:

House of Names by Colm Toibin (F).

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (F).

(Please see the Guest Post: Thank You George Saunders & Colm Toibin, wherein David Stang delves into aspects of these two outstanding novels that were not evident to me when I read them.)

Brandt Tilis:

The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse by Tom Verducci (NF). It’s almost like reading a Moneyball sequel 15 years later after most teams caught up to that line of thinking.  How do the smartest Front Offices stay on the cutting edge of building a winner? As a bonus, we get to see the stories behind the characters that broke the Cubs’ curse (not just Theo Epstein but also Joe Maddon, Anthony Rizzo, Kyle Schwarber, etc). You don’t have to be a baseball fan to like this book, but you probably have to have enjoyed the Cubs’ run last year. There is some “Smartest Guys in the Room” BS that goes along with the book when reading it through the prism of some of the Cubs’ struggles this year, but that existed in Moneyball too.

Dixon Butler:

Ike and McCarthy by David A. Nichols (NF). The McCarthy era poisoned American life from 1950 – 1954. This book provides a thorough and quite readable history of Eisenhower’s role in bringing this reign of anticommunist demagoguery to an end. It transformed my view of Eisenhower.

Edan Orgad:

The North Water by Ian McGuire (F) is an incredible book to listen to. I hope they make a movie. Great recommendation (h/t EllnMllr).

 Previously Posted:

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Final Edition: MillersTime Readers Favorite Books Mid-Year 2017

15 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Favorite Reads, Mid-Year Listing of Favorite Reads, MillersTime Readers Favorite Books

“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read”- A. Lincoln

Here are all, in one place, the 2017 mid-year favorite books by MillersTime readers.

The first ten in this list were not in earlier posts. They are followed by the ones I posted earlier.

Enjoy.

New Additions to the List:

Jane Bradley:

I’ve enjoyed many of the same books already listed by others, including:

The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston (NF).

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (NF).

Between Them: Remembering My Parents by Richard Ford (NF). [audiobook]

A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel by Amor Towles (F). [audiobook]

Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag (F). [audiobook]

Swing Time by Zadie Smith (F).

Moonglow by Michael Chabon (F). [audiobook]

Two biographies that have captivated me are Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (NF) [audiobook]; and Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt by H.W. Brands (NF), which I’m still reading.

A novelist new to me this year is Rachel Cusk, author of a trilogy about a British writer whom we get to know mostly through her encounters with others.  The first two novels in the trilogy are Outline by Rachel Cusk (F); and Transit by Rachel Cusk (F), and I’m looking forward to the third.

Chris Rothenberger:

This year I have read many of the books written by Lisa See, a Chinese-American author of historical fiction.  She has written numerous books highlighting stories about Chinese characters and culture, and illuminating the strong bonds between women.   Her stories are in depth and fascinating and shine the light on little known topics, and a culture that proves fascinating.  Her research is impeccable, and deep, including travel to China to remote areas to research her stories. She has won numerous awards and is a NY Times Bestselling author.  The books are both engaging and characters well developed; at times the stories are painful and sad, but culturally revealing.

Books I’ve read so far are: Sun Flower and the Secret Fan,   Shanghai Girls, Dreams of Joy, China Dolls by Lisa See (All F).

Killing the Rising Sun by Bill O’Reilly & Martin Dugard (NF). It’s a story every American should read.   Like his other books, it does not disappoint.  The background of the dropping of the Atomic Bomb to end WW2 is riveting, and the sequence of events carefully shared.  I learned volumes about our history, as I have in his other books.

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly (F). It’s the story of 3 women whose lives converge during WW2.  It highlights actual events in US and Germany during the wartime and provides a different perspective about war through the female viewpoint whose lives were impacted by war. Their destinies converged around Ravensbruk, Hilter’s Concentration Camp for women. The story is based on the lives of real people and highlights love, redemption and years of secrets.

Garland Standrod:

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani (F). A novel about a man’s fascination with the garden of an eccentric Jewish family in Italy just prior to WWII. The novel’s tension results from the knowledge by the reader that the family will end up in a concentration camp. Published some time ago but an Italian classic.

Robert Lowell: Setting the River on Fire by Kay Redfield Jamison (NF). Thus study, although overlong, is a fascinating study of bipolar disease combined with poetic genius, by the author of An Unquiet Mind.

Linda Rothenberg:

I loved The Rent Collector by Camron Wright (F).

Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift (F) was good.

Let There Be Water by (NF) is a good read.

Dave Katten:

I just wrapped up 3 audiobooks I’d been working on all year:

Americanah by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie (F) was another read in my quest to understand/fathom race in America, esp. blackness in America. I actually prefer fiction as the vehicle for that, over non-fiction, since fundamentally I’m looking for stories over data (which is not typical for me). Anyone who reads this should get the audiobook version, just so they can hear the narrator’s delightful Nigerian-American English, as well as the correct pronunciation of Igbo.

I didn’t like Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance (NF) at first and put it on pause for some time. Most people I talked to said the first part was the most interesting, but I was more taken by the middle/final parts. Again, the stories here are more interesting than the data, but Vance does a good job of weaving them together. As a side note, I thought it was interesting that his advisor at Yale law was Amy Chua, she of the Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, who convinced him to write the book. I think I saw a joint interview with them in The Atlantic. However, while I expected to come away with more empathy for rural working class folks, I found the internal contradictions that Vance lays out to be really frustrating, rather than relatable. That is unusual for me.

I picked up The Idiot by Elif Batuman (F) because I heard it was about a college student studying linguistics at an elite private school in the mid-90s, which is *almost* me. It was surreal – I was interested, I was engaged, but the plot didn’t really develop. Nobody wanted anything, everything just happened, for no discernible reason. Then the protagonist’s freshman year was over. There were a few insights on the immigrant experience, but overall, things just “were” or “happened”, but I still wanted to finish. Not typical for me.

Lydia Hill Slaby:

How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barret (NF). I’ve been reading and enjoying this one. Otherwise, it’s been a quiet year in Lake Wobegon.

Chris McCleary:

I strongly recommend folks check out Andrew Mayne (the most recent book of his that I read was Orbital (F), and I gave it 4 of 5 stars. It was a sequel to an earlier novel: Station Breaker (F). He has written a wide variety of books, across genres, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every single one of his books that I’ve read (I think I’ve read his entire bibliography except two so far).  So I’d like to recommend folks check out anything by him.

Jim Kilby:

Bad Blood by John Sanford (F). Murder mystery.

Fatso. Story by and about Art Donovan (NF). Ex Baltimore Colt lineman. “When Men Were Men.”

Uh-Oh: Some Observations From Both Sides of the Refrigerator Door by Robert Fulghum (NF). The guy who learned everything he needed, in kindergarten.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (F). Life through the eyes of an African intellectual.

The Greatest Stories Never Told by Rick Byer (NF). The real strange true history, about how the world’s events unfolded.

Five Easy Decades by Dennis McDougal (NF). How Jack Nicholson became the world’s biggest movie star.

General Richard Montgomery and the American Revolution: From Redcoat to Rebel by Hal T. Shelton (NF). A book that would only interest me about Gen. Montgomery, a friend of George Washington, killed in the Revolutionary War, and an  ancestor of my mother.

Gabi Beaumont:

Faithful Place (three stars) and The Secret Place (four stars) both by Tanya French and both (NF).

Currently reading Into the Water by Paula Hawkings (F) which I would recommend, but so far it is about 3 stars.

Bina Shah:

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer (F).
 

The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison (F).

Tanya Chernov Smith:

I only have one recommendation that isn’t a “how-to-get-your-baby-to-sleep” guide:

The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert (NF). At a time when American politics have many of us considering life off the grid, this true story of a mountain man provides a special brand of comfort. Eustace Conway left his comfortable suburban home at 17 to move into the Appalachian Mountains, where he has since lived off the land. A charismatic and romantic figure, both brilliant and tormented, brave and contradictory, restless and ambitious, Conway has always seen himself as a “Man of Destiny” whose goal is to convince modern Americans to give up their materialistic lifestyles and return with him back to nature.

Kathy Camicia:

Madness, Rack, and Honey by Mary Ruggle (NF).   This was a NYTimes rec for the previous year. The author is a poet and her observations are written in a beautiful style and language.

The Best American Essays 2016  Ed.  by Jonathan Franzen (NF). Not the best year but they are always good; not that many from the New Yorker

Landscapes by John Berger (NF).  My favorite art critic who recently died. A collection of his essays on art, travel and the world.

A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women by Siri Hustvedt (NF). Very interesting essays on art and feminism by this author who is also a novelist and scholar. The second half of the book focuses on neuroscience and perception.

Known and Strange Things by Tegu Cole (NF). This is my favorite book of essays, and one I recommend highly. If you aren’t familiar with the author, it will be worth your while. He writes for the NYTimes Sunday magazine on photography and art. The book includes other topics such as travel, literature, history and politics.

Novels:

Commonwealth by Anne Patchett (F). Good.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (F). Good.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (F). Very good and still creepy.

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff  (F). Very good.

Any Human Heart by William Boyd (F).  Excellent.

The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster (F).  Excellent but not for everyone; post-modern

The Little Red Chairs by Edna O ‘Brien (F).

The Blue Guitar by John Banville (F). Good and always a pleasure to read.

The Secret Chord by Gerald Brooks (F). Very good.

The Making of Zombie Wars by Aleksandar Hemon (F). OK, but the author writes so well that I will read anything from him.

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Even More Mid-Year Favorite Books (#16-29)

07 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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Even More Favorite Books, Mid-Year Favorite Reads, MillersTime Readers Favorites

“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read”- A. Lincoln

Not wanting to wait until December to report what books various MillersTime readers are enjoying so far this year, here is the third posting of mid-year favorites which adds 15 more to the two previous posts (1st: Ellen and My Favorites and 2nd: 15 from MillersTime Contributors)

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Inspired by Your Favorite Books…

25 Wednesday Jan 2017

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Audible Books, Books, Fiction, Goodreads, Nonfiction

“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never read”- A. Lincoln

Each year I identify at least 12 books to add to my ‘to read’ list from the annual Books Most Enjoyed by MillersTime Readers. I generally split them between fiction and nonfiction. Some I choose because several of you have suggested them, some because of the description a reader has written, and some because of the topic (often something I might never have chosen on my own).

The twelve for 2017 (plus two audible books for the treadmill)

Fiction:

The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

2nd Person Singular by Sayed Kashua (suggested by the oldest contributor to the list – 95 years old).

Between Riverside & Crazy (a play) by Stephen Adly Giurgis

Nonfiction:

I Will Bear Witness by Victor Kemperer

Strangers in Their Own Land by Allie Russell Hochschild

The Half Has Never Been Told by Edward E. Baptist

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

White Mountain: Real & Imagined Journeys in the Himalayas by Robert Twigger

I Survived Series by Lauren Tarshis (suggested by the youngest contributor, now eight years old).

Audible Books:

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

PS:

To date I have kept my New Year’s resolution to put books I have read on Goodreads as soon as I’ve completed them. Also, as a backup, I am keeping a list of books read in “Notes” on my computer, along with a few sentences on each as I’m continuing to suffer from CRS.

So far in January, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and can highly recommend The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough, The North Water by Ian McGuire, War & Turpentine by Stefan Heretmans, Do Not Say That We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thiel, The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between by Hisham Matar, and Moonglow by Michael Chabon.

Finally, I’d love to know how various readers have used the annual favorites’ list. Have you chosen books from it, and if so, what makes you chose those particular ones? You can leave a note in the Comments’ section of this post or let me know in an email: Samesty84@gmail.com.

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Obama: The Importance of Books

18 Wednesday Jan 2017

Posted by Richard in Articles & Books of Interest, Escapes and Pleasures, The Outer Loop

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Books, Michiku Kakutani, New York Times, President Obama, Reading, The Importance of Books

 

President Obama in the Oval Office on Friday during an interview with Michiko Kakutani, the chief book critic for The New York Times. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

President Obama in the Oval Office on Friday during an interview with Michiko Kakutani, the chief book critic for The New York Times. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

While we await the ending of one Presidency and the beginning of the next, let me draw your attention to an article in the New York Times that describes the importance of books in President Obama’s life and in his presidency.

The article provides a unique (and I think) wonderful insight into the character, intelligence, intellectual curiosity, and thoughtfulness of Barack Obama. It’s an interview more revealing than that of any other president that I can recall in my lifetime. Whether or not you like him or his politics, this interview provides us a glimpse into a centered individual who has found a way to bring a balance to his life, to his family, and to one of the hardest jobs in the world.

First read the article:

Obama’s Secret to Surviving the White House Years: Books

And if you want to know even more, you can also read the ‘lightly edited’ transcript of the interview:

Transcript: President Obama on What Books Mean to Him

For those MillersTime readers who spend a portion of their lives with books, you’ll find much of interest in this article and no doubt a few books to add to your reading list for the coming year.

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The Books Most Enjoyed by MillersTime Readers in 2016

01 Sunday Jan 2017

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 3 Comments

books1-539x303“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never read”- A. Lincoln

The MillersTime year-end “best books roundup” is my most visited post of the year. It’s a labor of love and is only possible because so many of you took the time to send in your favorite reads of the year. A sincere thanks to all of you

The funny thing is I didn’t read as much this year as in previous years, which was something a number of you said also. My major excuse was that I got ‘lost’ in baseball as my heroes the Red Sox were in the ‘hunt’ the entire 162 game season (not counting the disastrous playoffs). But I digress. Not sure about why others read less (though not my wife); some of you grumbled that you simply didn’t find as many memorable books or were having trouble remembering the titles you did read.

Nevertheless, 80 of you sent your lists and descriptions for a total of 380 books. Fiction lead the nonfiction 56% to 44%. Only a few books had much consensus (When Breathe Becomes Air, The Warmth of Other Suns, Hillbilly Elegy, Alexander Hamilton, The Nightingale, The Neapolitan Novels, The Sympathizer), and many of those were published prior to 2016.

Our youngest participant is almost 8 years old; the oldest is 95. (Maybe now that our children and grandchildren are reading we can have a special children’s subcategory next year?) The rest of you are mostly between the ages of 35- 75. Fifty-eight percent of you are women, 42% were men.

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