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pontalba's 2015 Reading List


pontalba

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Thanks, Gaia. :)

 

 

Sarah, re the Philippa Gregory book.....in a way it's a continuation, or more accurately an offshoot of the White Queen books.  It's the story of the last of the Yorks, Margaret Pole.  A good part, mostly, takes place in Henry VIII's reign. 

 

A few more books.......

 

The Drowning Pool by Ross MacDonald

The Death of Caesar by Barry Strauss

The Third Reich in History and Memory by Richard J. Evans

Refusal by Felix Francis

 

Ah, thanks. I`ve put Philippa G. on my ` get to at some point` list.   :smile:

 

I read The Drowning Pool a few years ago, can`t recall it at all at this stage, but hope you like it.  :D

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Ah, thanks. I`ve put Philippa G. on my ` get to at some point` list.   :smile:

 

I read The Drowning Pool a few years ago, can`t recall it at all at this stage, but hope you like it.  :D

 

Thanks, Sarah.  More MacDonald's were on sale on Amazon, and I purchased about 6 or 7 more. :D

At 1.99 USD, one can't go wrong!

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I have already read it in ebook form.  Last summer.....I just happened to see a hardback in the consignment store we sometimes frequent.  Hadda have it.  :D

Here is my review  of last July.  http://www.bookclubforum.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/12437-pontalbas-2014-reading-list/?p=400377

 

Ah, I didn't realize you'd already read it! Thanks for looking up the review for me. I think Koch is a ballsy writer for writing about characters whose morals are questionable, to say the least. 

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Ah, I didn't realize you'd already read it! Thanks for looking up the review for me. I think Koch is a ballsy writer for writing about characters whose morals are questionable, to say the least.

 

Agreed, plus think about it. Doctors are professionals that must, above all, be trustworthy. So are teachers. So Koch's characters are doubly reprehensible.

 

From politicians I wouldn't expect too much. :roll: and yet the brother was probably the most "honest". Nice touch.

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The Memory Box by Eva Lesko Natiello  3.5.5

 

A woman googles herself, using first her married name.  Finding only a few nondescript items she decides to google her maiden name.  Talk about Pandora's Box!  Finding that her sister has died 6 years previously.....how did she not know that?  Finding all sorts of very strange items in her memory box that is hidden in the back, top of the closet - Caroline is one confused suburban housewife.  Feeling like she is totally loosing her grip on reality, she fumbles her way to the truth.  But is it really the right truth?  Whose truth could it be?

 

Identity, memory loss, and lies make this tale twisted and ultimately rather creepy.  Frankly, I'm still sorting out the ending.

Fans of Gone Girl should find it......interesting.

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A delivery from Amazon and a trip to Barnes & Noble produced these goodies. :)

 

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro (an absolutely beautifully rendered cover and cover art convinced me I had to have it!)

The Fifth Gospel by Ian Caldwell

A Chain of Thunder by Jeff Shaara (A Novel of the Siege of Vicksburg)

Paddy Whacked by T.J. English (The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster)

Blood Moon by Garry Disher

The Dragon Man by Garry Disher

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The Memory Box does sound... Interesting :lol: I might look out for it in the library :)

 

You are getting so many books! There was a woman on a quiz show here who said she had 3,000 books at home in a personal library and I immediately thought of you!

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The Memory Box by Eva Lesko Natiello  3.5.5

 

A woman googles herself, using first her married name.  Finding only a few nondescript items she decides to google her maiden name.  Talk about Pandora's Box!  Finding that her sister has died 6 years previously.....how did she not know that?  Finding all sorts of very strange items in her memory box that is hidden in the back, top of the closet - Caroline is one confused suburban housewife.  Feeling like she is totally loosing her grip on reality, she fumbles her way to the truth.  But is it really the right truth?  Whose truth could it be?

 

Identity, memory loss, and lies make this tale twisted and ultimately rather creepy.  Frankly, I'm still sorting out the ending.

Fans of Gone Girl should find it......interesting.

This sounds interesting, I might have to look it up!

 

A delivery from Amazon and a trip to Barnes & Noble produced these goodies. :)

 

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro (an absolutely beautifully rendered cover and cover art convinced me I had to have it!)

The Fifth Gospel by Ian Caldwell

A Chain of Thunder by Jeff Shaara (A Novel of the Siege of Vicksburg)

Paddy Whacked by T.J. English (The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster)

Blood Moon by Garry Disher

The Dragon Man by Garry Disher

I hope you enjoy your new books :D!

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The Memory Box by Eva Lesko Natiello  3.5.5

 

A woman googles herself, using first her married name.  Finding only a few nondescript items she decides to google her maiden name.  Talk about Pandora's Box!  Finding that her sister has died 6 years previously.....how did she not know that?  Finding all sorts of very strange items in her memory box that is hidden in the back, top of the closet - Caroline is one confused suburban housewife.  Feeling like she is totally loosing her grip on reality, she fumbles her way to the truth.  But is it really the right truth?  Whose truth could it be?

 

Identity, memory loss, and lies make this tale twisted and ultimately rather creepy.  Frankly, I'm still sorting out the ending.

Fans of Gone Girl should find it......interesting.

 

That does sound very interesting, tis going on the wishlist! 

 

Enjoy all your new reads :)

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Agreed, plus think about it. Doctors are professionals that must, above all, be trustworthy. So are teachers. So Koch's characters are doubly reprehensible.

 

From politicians I wouldn't expect too much. :roll: and yet the brother was probably the most "honest". Nice touch.

 

That's right. I don't expect much if anything from politicians, but one has to be able to trust and have faith in one's doctor! (And as I've been watching Doc Martin, an English TV show about a doctor who's medical backbone is made of solid rock, I've started to think of doctors as gods... :D

 

The Memory Box by Eva Lesko Natiello  3.5.5

 

As you said... interesting! :D This is going on my wishlist! Thanks for the review! :smile2: 

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The Memory Box does sound...* Interesting I might look out for it in the library *

 

You are getting so many books! There was a woman on a quiz show here who said she had 3,000 books at home in a personal library and I immediately thought of you!

 

I think it's worth the read, yes. :) 

 

LOL  I remember an article in the New York Times, must be almost 10 years ago, she lived in an apartment in New York City.  She had 20,000 books!!  It may have been her, or another woman in NYC that when she moved from her apartment, the movers told her they'd have to charge her "library rates" as she had so many books. :D:readingtwo:

 

At present count we have 8,503 according to our accounts on Library Thing.  So, we've a way to go...... :giggle:

 

 

This sounds interesting, I might have to look it up!

 

 

I hope you enjoy your new books *!

 

Thanks, Gaia. :)

 

 

That does sound very interesting, tis going on the wishlist! 

 

Enjoy all your new reads *

 

Thanks, hope you enjoy it! :)

 

 

That's right. I don't expect much if anything from politicians, but one has to be able to trust and have faith in one's doctor! (And as I've been watching Doc Martin, an English TV show about a doctor who's medical backbone is made of solid rock, I've started to think of doctors as gods... *) 

 

 

As you said... interesting! :D This is going on my wishlist! Thanks for the review! :smile2:

 

I've seen Doc Martin advertised on Amazon.....I'll look it up. :)

 

You're welcome, hope you enjoy it too! :)

 

******no emoticons were harmed in the removal of same*****

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Some from an Estate Sale and Library Sale yesterday 3/20/15.

 

Trinity by Leon Uris

Countdown in Cairo by Noel Hynd

History of Czechoslovakia in Outline by J.V. Polisensky

The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation by Ladislav Holy

The Hittites by J.G. Macqueen

A Book of Luminous Things by Czeslaw Milosz

U.S.A. by John Dos Passos

Roots by Alex Haley

Lancelot by Walker Percy (signed, first edition)

Gate Keeper by Philip Shelby

The Time Detectives by Brian Fagan (How Archeologists Use Technology to Recapture the Past)

The Classical Greeks by Michael Grant

Runner by Thomas Perry

The World of the Scythians by Renate Rolle

The Aryans by V. Gordon Childe

Flood by Robert Penn Warren

On Borrowed Time by Leonard Mosley

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

The Barbarians of Asia by Stuart Legg

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I really enjoyed your review of The Memory Box. It sounds creepy and weird, in other words extremely interesting and a book I'm definitely going to look into. 

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Leaves Of Grass! I really must read that, I've come across many snippets of Walt Whitman's over the years (and its a fairly driving force behind one of my favourite books - Paper Towns), but I've never actually sat down and read that collection.

 

Enjoy all your new books!

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Have you read Roots before?

 

I don't think I have.....I saw the mini series on TV way back when though.  I have another copy around here somewhere, but this was a nice hardback. :)

 

 

I really enjoyed your review of The Memory Box. It sounds creepy and weird, in other words extremely interesting and a book I'm definitely going to look into. 

 

Thanks! :)  Yeah, creepy would cover it, although not excessively so. :D

 

I like this :).

 

I hope you enjoy all your new books!

 

Thanks, I giggled all the way through! "D

 

Leaves Of Grass! I really must read that, I've come across many snippets of Walt Whitman's over the years (and its a fairly driving force behind one of my favourite books - Paper Towns), but I've never actually sat down and read that collection.

 

Enjoy all your new books!

 

Thanks, Noll. :)

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Yesterday we took a small day trip over to the Gulf Coast, Bay St. Louis specifically.  It's a great little town with lots of restaurants and shops right on the beach.

We had lunch at our favorite of the restaurants and shopped a little.  Of course we had to hit the lovely independent book store.....almost the only one in the area.  Bay Books.  They have a good selection of new books, but most of what we were interested in, we already had.  Their used book shelves, there are about 6 bookcases of them, are quite varied.  I managed to find a few used ones.  :)

 

L.A. Requiem by Robert Crais

Philistines At the Hedgerow by Steven Gaines

My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira

Beyond Recall by Robert Goddard

Gladstone by Roy Jenkins

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We visited another Estate Sale this morning. :)

 

The Nature of Alexander by Mary Renault

Cleopatra's Sister by Penelope Lively

Moon Titer by Penelope Lively

An Unsuitable Attachment by Barbara Pym

A Very Private Eye (An Autobiography in Letters and Diaries)

Altered States by Anita Brookner

Undue Influence by Anita Brookner

Falling Slowly by Anita Brookner

The Ice Age by Margaret Drabble

Collected Poems by Robert Graves

Evelyn Waugh by Selina Hastings

U.S. Grant  American Hero, American Myth by Joan Waugh

Lee's Lieutenants by Douglas Southall Freeman

 

Instead of the "original" 3 books going, I now have dabbled in many more, it's just that nothing seems to stick lately. 

Too much Netflix.  The new toy. :D  We've now watched the first 4 seasons of the show Blue Bloods.  A show about the New York City police force.  One family.  Tom Selleck being the patriarch of the clan, and Police Commissioner. 

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More books :D! I hope you enjoy them all :). I'm glad you're enjoying Netflix. Sometimes I get a bit envious, of people who can watch so much TV show episodes in a short amount of time, I could never do that :blush2:. But I am happy that you are enjoying it :). Maybe you will get more into reading in a little while, until then I think it's very nice for you that you have found something new that you're enjoying :friends0:.

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