pontalba

Oh, gee whiz frankie, I didn't think to say it was ok..... Very glad you both have! Thanks for the best wishes! I actually thought I'd go back and link previous book blog threads in the second post. But when I am more awake. lol Thanks Julie, Millard really is an exhaustive researcher, I have her book on Teddy Roosevelt too, River of Doubt also. I almost feel like getting to it right away, but I don't want to read them too close together.

Finished Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard, Dangerous Instincts by Mary Ellen O'Toole, Ph.D. and Alisa Bowman last night, and Hit Me by Lawrence Block tonight. Small reviews on my book log/blog here. Not sure what is next. I think possibly Invisible by Paul Auster. My husband just finished it.....

Yesterday and today turned out to be excellent reading days. I finished Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard last night. Infuriating, outrageous and so well researched and written, Destiny of the Republic chronicles the ascendancy to the Presidency of the United States by James A. Garfield and his tragic and untimely assassination. He didn't want or seek the position, it was thrust upon him, quite literally by the political waves around him. In the style of the time, he did not even campaign after he was nominated. It was considered beneath the dignity of the candidate to stump around the country begging for votes. What a wonderful concept, and profound contrast to today. However dirty politics were just as dirty, possibly a slight bit dirtier than they are today. A different brand of dirt I'd venture to say. Millard goes over in excruciating detail the medical "treatment" that Garfield received, which was in fact more a factor in his death than the bullet wounds themselves. A fascinating piece of history I was not familiar with in the least. It kept me totally wound up from front to back. If you are a history buff, you must read this! 4/5 I also managed to finish another book last night...Dangerous Instincts by Mary Ellen O'Toole, Ph.D. and Alisa Bowman. The sub-title is "Use an FBI profiler's tactics to avoid unsafe situations." That may be tooting it's own horn a bit much, but it does contain some great common sense advice for getting out of, or really managing NOT to get into dangerous situations. Her methodology is precise and to the point. The book is also interspersed with fascinating stories of O'Toole's FBI career as a profiler. She interviewed many of the serial killers of the last several decades, playing a pivotal role in their captures, and interviews. If you like lists, this is a great book for you. Recommended 3.5/5 Just finished a little while ago the newest Lawrence Block, Hit Me.....another in the Keller series. This is the series that introduced me to Block's writing. He has a direct and straight from the shoulder prose that states the facts. Keller is a hit man, but he is trying to quit. He has a wife and child now, living in post-Katrina New Orleans and doing ok for himself. Block tells Keller's stories in a sort of series of novellas.....they connect, and refer to each other, but could stand independent of each other. This one started off a bit slowly for me, but came up to speed about a third of the way through, and really delivered. Recommended. 4/5

I checked "normal kindle" meaning the original, with keyboard. Not a touch model. We both have one, and we also have one Kobo, but don't use it anymore. It became difficult to download as it was the time Borders was actually breaking up. I'd be hard pressed to say exactly where it even is at the moment.

As far as a murder is concerned the book (I just finished) mentioned above, Dangerous Instincts, Use An FBI Profiler's tactics to avoid unsafe situations by Mary Ellen O'Toole gives a chilling stastistic. Our of 14,000 murders (in the U.S.) about 1,700 (or so) were committed by someone the victim knew. Not A Stranger!

Destiny is verra frustrating, makes one realize both how much some things have changed, while others are exactly the same, maybe worse!

You are more than welcome! Glad to be of service.

I will say the trailer we saw at the movie theatre was pretty funny. I heard many snorts when Cruise pretended to be macho.

One thing I'll say annoyed me about the whole brouhaha of Fifty Shades is the fact that so many people feel they should/must apologize for being offended, or not being offended by the sexual content. We are all different. Have different tastes in everything, and if someone likes, or doesn't like whatever.....so what! But the major item that annoyed me was when people (some rather self-righteously, some not) said, Oh, I'd never read that trash. Well, trash is in the eye of the beholder IMHO. The old (garage/boot) sale motto comes to mind. One man's trash is anothers treasure. The writing was repetitive, and schoolgirl(ish), but the character was not much more than a High Schooler after all. In a way (I know I'm reaching) the dialogue was true to the character. Well, one from the 1950's anyhow. Oh well, mini-rant over. LOL

That is great Inver, what a neat surprise. Lily, in the end, yours is the most sensible approach. Athena, medications certainly can play havoc with our systems, good luck with balancing out everything! I'm stuck weight-wise, haven't really stuck to the diet, but at least I'm not gaining even more. /phew/ The rain here has been so bloody awful, dark(ish) most of the time, and just weird.

Black, hot tea, no milk or sugar.

Julie, I wanted to mention a book I'm reading, Dangerous Instincts, Use An FBI Profiler's tactics to avoid unsafe situations by Mary Ellen O'Toole, Ph.D. You might like it, some interesting anecdotes about serial killers are given too. A lot of what she says is common sense. I have no hard and fast rule as to when I stop reading an uninteresting/boring/graphic/irritating book, it varies from a few pages in to half way through. I'm fickle like that.

Well, I imagine Cruise is pretty amusing as Reacher. In a way I'd like to see the film, but I can't stand Cruise, so am skipping it. drat. It's done nothing but RAIN here for about a week. We had to postpone a trip to Houston on account of the terrible driving conditions. Fortunately, we were able to do so.

I'm still reading Destiny of the Republic, A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard. I'm about half way through, and really, it is infuriating. All the danger signals, all the mismanagement is simply appalling. I've also picked up Dangerous Instincts, Use an FBI Profiler's tactics to avoid unsafe situations. by Mary Ellen O'Toole, Ph.D. and Alisa Bowman. Lots of good advice, a great deal of which, at my age seems common sense. But as common sense is not all too common.............

Most of the family members...? /shiver/ Sounds scary.

pontalba's 2012 reading list pontalba's 2011 reading list pontalba's 2010 reading list pontalba's 2009 reading list pontalba;s 2008 reading list pontalba's books read list (2007) I only started keeping track/lists in 2007. Drat. Wish I'd started way sooner. Oh well, it is what it is, and here 'tis. btw, I'm cateline on Goodreads.

I like the way you think! Oh yeah! Many duplications. And, the heck of it is that we have our books listed on Library Thing, but sometimes when I check whilst out, some books don't seem to show. grrr Plus, when we married, we already had our own libraries, and since our taste is so similar, there are a couple of hundred duplications already! Oy. You know, the trouble with the kindle, for me at least, is that I completely forget I have some books on there, and I don't have them listed on LT either. So, I have to depend on my somewhat faulty memory......../sigh/

I read the trilogy, and found enough story in it to enjoy. I always say it really is just a story of redemption. carm, very, very sorry to hear of your loss and troubles. I read The Passage year before, and The Twelve last year. Now I feel as though I need to go back and reread as my mind is boggled! lol I really liked both, but need to straighten out exactly who did what to who, when.

Oh! The mental picture! lol That is it, exactly.

pontalba's 2013 Reading List JANUARY Dangerous Instincts by Mary Ellen O'Toole, Ph.D. and Alisa Bowman 3.5/5 Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard 4/5 Hit Me by Lawrence Block 4/5 Invisible by Paul Auster 4/5 Borrowed Time by Robert Goddard 4/5 Outlander by Diana Gabaldon 5/5 The Bridge Over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle 3/5 Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer 3.5/5 FEBRUARY The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry 4/5 The Music of Chance by Paul Auster 5/5 Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster 5/5 The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson 2/5 The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster 5/5 The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa 4/5 Asset by Jonathan Orvin 4/5 I could Pee on This by Francesco Marciuliano cute MARCH Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos De Laclos 4/5 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark 2.5/5 The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin 5/5 Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter (unfinished, only read 44%) 1.5/5 Dark Shadows: The Salem Branch by Lara Parker 2.5/5 Dark Shadows: Angelique's Descent by Lara Parker 3/5 Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 4/5 APRIL Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel 5/5 Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel 5/5 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 4/5 Lord John and the Zombies (novella) by Diana Gabaldon 4/5 Garment of Shadows by Laurie R. King 3.5/5 The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber 1/5 (only managed 25%) Morgue Drawer Four by Jutta Profijt 3/5 MAY All That Is by James Salter 4/5 the long-legged fly by James Sallis 4/5 Morgue Drawer Next Door by Jutta Profijt 3/5 Killing Trail by Charles Allen Gramlich 5/5 The Last Day on Earth by R.M. Allinson 4/5 Morgue Drawer For Rent by Jutta Profijt 4/5 Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor 5+/5 Replay by Ken Grimwood 5/5 Death Will Have Your Eyes by James Sallis 5/5 Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez 2/5 The Man Who Folded in on Himself by David Gerrold 3/5 JUNE The Rook by Daniel O'Malley 4.5/5 Mary, Queen of France by Jean Plaidy 2.5/5 Dust Angel by Jutta Profijt 3/5 Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan 1.5/5 (read 50% only) Six Years by Harlan Coben 4/5 Speaking From Among the Bones by Alan Bradley 5/5 The Lolita Man by Bill James 5/5 The Night Gardner by George Pelecanos 5/5 Night Bus by Giampiero Rigosi 4/5 The Lost Rocks (The Dare Stones and the Unsolved Mystery of Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony) by David La Vere 4/5 Her Majesty's Spymaster by Stephen Budiansky 4/5 Past Caring by Robert Goddard 4/5 JULY If The Dead Rise Not by Philip Kerr 4/5 An Unexpected Guest by Anne Korkeakivi 4/5 The White Queen by Philippa Gregory 5/5 The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory 4/5 The Kingmaker's Daughter by Philippa Gregory 5/5 World War Z by Max Brooks 5+/5 Ratlines by Stuart Neville 4/5 AUGUST The White Princess by Philippa Gregory 4/5 By the Time You Read This by Giles Blunt 3.5/5 Blood Will Tell (A Medical Explanation of the Tyranny of Henry VIII) by Kyra Cornelius Kramer 3/5 The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory 3/5 Felicia's Journey by William Trevor 2/5 (read about 2/3rds, meh) Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 5/5 Adaptation by Malinda Lo 3.5/5 SEPTEMBER The Infatuations by Javier Marias 4/5 Death of an Englishman by Magdalen Nabb 2.5/5 By Blood by Ellen Ullman 5/5 Close to the Machine: Technophlia and its Discontents by Ellen Ullman 5/5 OCTOBER Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett 4/5 A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams 5+/5 All Souls by Javier Marias 3.5/5 The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham A Daughter of Warwick by Julie May Ruddock 4/5 Village of the Damned aka The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham 5/5 Others of My Kind by James Sallis 5/5 Livia: First Lady of Imperial Rome by Anthony A. Barrett An American Spy by Olen Steinhauer 4/5 NOVEMBER Under the Dome by Stephen King 5/5 Half (200 pages) of Titus Groan by M. Peake 1/5 ...wild about Harry by Deno Seder 3/5 Dirty Love by Andre Dubus III 5/5 House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III 5+/5 The Preacher by Camilla Lackberg 3.5 DECEMBER The Penultimate Truth by Philip K. Dick 4/5 Purge by Sofi Oksanen 3.5/5 The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt 4/5 When She Woke by Hillary Jordan 3/5 Hostage by Robert Crais 4/5 Lucky 'person of dubious parentage' by Charles McCarry 3/5 * Booked to Die by John Dunning 3/5 The Bookman's Wake by John Dunning 3.5/5 Pines by Blake Crouch 4/5 Wayward ( #2 in the Wayward Pines series) by Blake Crouch Dusk and Other Stories by James Salter 5/5 The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch 3/5 Exit Vertigo: Part I : A Wayward Pines novella by Jordan Crouch (brother to above Blake Crouch) 4/5 *Apparently the filter on the site changes some words. The word that it has changed means an illegitimate child or a really unscrupulous person. 'Tis a puzzlement.

Hi Dex. I've read his Keller series, and a few of the Matthew Scudders. They all seem to stick with the one narrator/character, not different viewpoints. I really enjoy Block's writing. He is direct and to the point, somewhere I believe I referred to his writing as noir with humanity. I still think that fits. Happy reading!

Ordering..... Looks good, thanks.

/groan/ Sorry to hear that Sof. Hope all are mo' bettah verra soon. Ouch! That's no fun. Ice is wonderful, almost a magical healer. Amazing really. Sending healing vibes.

That sounds like real progress Ooshie. I've ordered a DVD. /fingers crossed/

I've seen the adverts for the film, and really, the only reason I'd like to see it is that the tiger is absolutely gorgeous! It's been so long since I read Rebecca, but I do know I loved it. I should reread. /sigh/