pontalba

Oh, I'm so sorry about your Aunt. Sending comforting hugs. Also hope your flu is completely gone! I had it last year, and it's nothing to fool around with! I absolutely loved the first several of Laurie R. King's Mary Russell books.......but was discouraged when King started leaving Holmes pretty much out of the equation.

Oh, Gaia! Scary for you, to say the least. :( The security is always ramped way up after an attack like that. Afterwards is probably the absolute safest time to be there. As far as Trumps attack, I can understand why he did it, hate it, and yet if a stand isn't taken Assad will just do it more, and worse. He violated the treaty for at least the second time, and having gotten away with it before, he felt he was free to do as he chooses. I can hardly believe the war has gone on so long as it is. Imagine bombing your own people! He is definitely a war criminal, and needs to be dealt with.

Still watching ST:TNG also, Gaia! Only on season 2 though. We watched Hunted, so far only one season, but I believe another is in the making. Probably won't be available over here for a year or so though. Good spy story about a woman that is betrayed, takes off a year, then comes back to find out who the culprit is. Very twisty, one never knows who or what to trust.

I was generally disappointed in it. Very different from Stephen Kings 11/22/63. I enjoyed SK's version. This was a retelling, and not a good one. Not a complete one by any means. I found it too dry, and impersonal. There were only a few poignant moments. Here is a link to a C-Span vid of a talk the author gave in Washington, D.C. It makes the book sound more interesting than it is. https://www.c-span.org/video/?315872-1/kennedy-lived

I'm about a third of the way through The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. It's taken me 10 years to get to it, but I'm loving it!

Husband had never seen Star Trek: TNG! We're watching, into the second season. We also watched the first ep of The Expanse. Wasn't sure at first, but we will continue.

We visited an Estate Sale this morning, and managed to find a few books....someone there liked history and spies. The History of Hollywood (Florida) 1920-1950 by Virginia Elliott TenEick OSS Against the Reich (World War II Diaries of Colonel David K. E. Bruce edited by Nelson D. Lankford Churchill and Secret Service by David Stafford (a lovely autograph and inscription by the author) Apparently this book was owned by an American connection of Churchill, there is an address sticker with their name on the spine. The Churchills Pioneers and Politicians England ~ America ~ Canada by Elizabeth Snell Five Days in London May 1940 by John Lukacs The Silent Game The Real World of Imaginary Spies by David Stafford Roosevelt and Churchill Men of Secrets by David Stafford Wild Bill Donovan (The Spymaster who created the OSS and Modern American Espionage by Douglas Waller Red Mafiya How the Russian Mob has invaded America by Robert I. Friedman

The only one of Flynn's I've read is Gone Girl. Liked it a lot. I have the other two, but have procrastinated reading them, mostly due to comments like yours. Will eventually though. BTW, had to get a new library card, couldn't find mine....of course I did about a week after I'd paid the 3 USD to get a new one...lol. Anyhow, I've used it to borrow a couple of e-books, it's pretty neat. Thanks for the encouragement.

Yays! Also, I just saw that they are bringing Harry Mudd back.

. Glad you enjoyed it..... I've got his The Child, it just arrived.

The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz. 2/5 (if that, I'm being kind) I really wanted to love this addition to the excellent Millennium series by Steig Larsson. Instead I only made it to 33%, cringing most of the way. The factoids are all there, but Lagercrantz's addition lacks the heart that Larsson put into his characters. They are cardboard, the plot is formulaic in the extreme, and I couldn't have cared less about their fates. Not recommended.

Yay! . We are also watching ST:TNG, only in the first season.

It threw me at first hearing......"he's gone to hospital", instead of "he's gone to the hospital". We, Americans, always insert the "the" naturally. Also "pissed" over here means angry, not drunk.

Also read Crossover (STNG) by Michael Jan Friedman 4/5 for what it is. A great combo of the old and the new of Star Trek. Brings back Bones and Scotty, not to mention centering around Spock and his Reunification mission. Nicely done. If you are a Star Trek fan, you'll enjoy it, otherwise.....maybe not. Have started Paris Nocturne by Patrick Modiano. Unreliable narrator, stream of consciousness.

I am not much of a fan of Alternative History stories. In any time frame, recent or not. But I was drawn into reading one about President John F. Kennedy. Why? /sigh/ Darned if I know. I suppose the mystique of the Kennedy Years, plus I remember vividly the horror of seeing the ZapruderTape, and the Warren Report. Not to mention the days long, seemingly endless television coverage of the flight back to Washington D.C., and the funeral. God, the funeral. Anyhow, the idea of what Kennedy might have managed with a second term, how the country would have prospered under a second Kennedy term was practically irresistible. /more sighing/ So. If Kennedy Lived: The First and Second Terms of President John F. Kennedy: An Alternate History by Jeff Greenfield 3/5 I'd have preferred a more personal story, not what I found to be a bit cut and dried notion of Kennedys political life/possibilities. And to be honest rather Pollyanna(ish) in conclusions. The majority of the names were familiar to me, but for someone not around then they came way to fast and furious to be effectively integrated into the story. There was a bit toward the beginning, and I'll paraphrase, that spoke of how thankful they were for the rain and bubble top that day, that the alternative (the truth) would have been too awful to contemplate. This reminds me of time travel stories where someone goes back to right a wrong, and either enable what happened, or Time readjusts to bring about the same results. I love time travel tales, but this alternative history story doesn't move me to search for more like it.

Right you are! As I mentioned in the thumbnail sketch above, it's the second of his I've read. I just ordered a third..... The Child. /humming/ Thanks, Gaia! It sorta feels as though I'm getting back in the groove. I've been pretty lucky in finding stuff lately. I was on a slump for a long time. /phew/

The Nightwalker by Sebastian Fitzek 5/5 Chilling. Twisted. Loss of self. Treachery. Cross, double-cross. Keeps the reader guessing until the very end......and past. As with the only other Fitzek book I've read ( Therapy ), I read this one in one sitting. Fortunately I'd already eaten. Recommended, but be sure to have dinner first.......

Said nutjobs should have to endure what those people endured, if only for a day. Anna, great reviews. I read the Shirer book ages ago, extremely informative. Re a Western selection, have you read True Grit? The latest film followed it quite closely.

Well.......truth be told, I haven't. Somehow I'd acquired the first and third of the series, without the second. Soooooo...hadda buy the in-between, for balances sake. heh Also finished Margaret George's latest. Can't wait for the rest of the story! The Confessions of Young Nero by Margaret George 4.5/5 Admittedly, I'm nitpicking a bit with a 4.5 rather than a full 5, but while I loved her Nero, I wondered if perhaps George was going a teeny bit overboard in her cleansing of his reputation. I do, though, fully believe that ancient historians have blackened his name beyond all recognition, and I hate the unfairness of those past historians. I understand that for the most part they were thinking of their own necks and survival of same, but there was a rule of conscience that they ignored. Anyhow. I loved Georges recitation of Nero's life, and the reasons he was the way he was. She brings him to life and her method of inserting outside narrations occasionally is enlightening and very telling. The "other half" so to speak. George brings a wonderful humanity to Nero, and I anxiously look forward to her second book on Nero. Highly recommended.

Got it, am reading it, love it!

I hardly notice it. I'm usually so immersed in the story, it doesn't register.

I've ordered "Confessions of Young Nero" by Margaret George in hardback, and as Amazon allows the buyer to preview a book on their Kindle, I've read the first 5 chapters. Can't wait to get the book in hand to read it!

I've read it twice, 10 years apart, enjoyed both times.

I'll be sure to post when I've read it.

Amazon has Pillars of the Earth on kindle sale for 1.99 USD today.