What have you been reading?

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In the past month, I've read five books and am halfway through a sixth.

The first two, "After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal About Life and Beyond" by Dr. Bruce Greyson and "With the End in Mind: Dying Death and Wisdom in an Age of Denial" by palliative care specialist Kathryn Mannix, were "emotional" reads, full of real-life stuff.

Next was "Mrs. Poe" by Lynn Cullen, a fictionalized tale of the alleged affair between the married Poe and Frances Osgood. a poet with a husband of her own. The author sprinkles appearances by real-life historical figures into the book. and it's both entertaining and, at times, distracting.

Time to return to reality with English monarchs. I really enjoyed "Victoria's Daughters" by Jerrold M. Packard, although the tendency of European royals to have the same given names and intermarry sometimes makes it hard to follow the storyline. "Prince Albert: The Man Who Saved the Monarchy" by A.N. Wilson offered some great information about the Prince Consort but could get bogged down in too much detail about more trivial facts. I don't about the wallpaper in any of the castles.

"Mind Over Meds" by Dr. Andrew Weil exams how patients ask for and doctors unnecessarily prescribe pills to cure ailments that could be at least greatly relived through lifestyle changes. This one hit home. When I questioned a specialist about the side effects of the cortisone injections he recommended for bursitis, he quickly lost interest in suggesting any other alternative. Spoiler: I declined the shots, did some physical therapy, alternated heat and ice packs, and the bursitis went away.

I am half through "The Chain" by Ted Genoways. It's an inside look at packinghouses, how the employees are treated, how the meat is handled, what led to strikes that tore apart communities, the effects of plant closures on small towns where those jobs provided employment security for generations of workers. Everywhere I've lived in Iowa has been the site of or close to Hormel facilities, which are featured prominently,
 
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Callender Girl said:
I am half through "The Chain" by Ted Genoways. It's an inside look at packinghouses, how the employees are treated, how the meat is handled, what led to strikes that tore apart communities, the effects of plant closures on small towns where those jobs provided employment security for generations of workers. Everywhere I've lived in Iowa has been the site of or close to Hormel facilities, which are featured prominently,
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Contemporary times....or historical info too?


I read 3-4-5 books a week..... mostly fiction.
Tho I have found there is often much truth in fiction.
 
Artichoke Lover said:
Come share and what books you you have been reading lately!

Lately I’ve finished A Tale of Two Cities, The Scarlet Letter, Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter), and Fantastic Beasts and Where Too Find Them.

I’m currently reading Dear Evan Hansen(Novel), Dracula (Bram Stoker), and The Maze Runner.

I’m about to start The Silmarillion. I’ve heard that is pretty dense so I don’t know if I’ll manage get all the way through it though.
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Oh man, Yes the Silmarillion its VERY dense. I barly got though it. I am reading C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy
 
Callender Girl said:
@aart, "The Chain" has both historical and contemporary. It includes the founding of Hormel, which was still pronounced to rhyme with "normal," by George A. Hormel, through modern times; the name has since been changed so the emphasis is on the second syllable.
I read the first 100 pages in one sitting.
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Sounds good, I ordered from our statewide system.
Many of the fictions I read are based on true stories/history.
 
Let me know what you think!

I read fiction more often than my last few books would indicate.

I will read anything and everything by the late Rosamunde Pilcher, and I've enjoyed all the William Kent Krueger's works that I've read so far.
 
aart said:
...
Tho I have found there is often much truth in fiction.
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Too true.

I've finally gotten around to starting David Drake's Patriots. He is a sci fi author I haven't read yet, but his author's note is worth the book regardless of how the book goes.

"Some years ago I thought that by studying history I'd learn the truth about what happened in the past... The trouble with history survey courses is that they only have space to tell you that X did Y and the result was Z. That may well be correct, but it leaves you with the impression that X did Y to achieve Z. More often than not it turns out that X didn't imagine Z, and chances are he/she didn't even intend to do Y..."

The book will tell the story of Vermont just before the American Revolution, ending with the capture of Fort Ticonderoga. "Vermont" is a planet colony in the book.

Usually the source of the ideas and/or world view isn't as deliberate but it is often perceivable.
 
In the past week, I've read "Strays" by Britt Collins and Malcolm Gladwell's "Talking to Strangers."

"Strays" is a true story of a homeless man who rescues a lost cat and travels across the country, the two of them inseparable and helping each other.

Gladwell's book is subtitled, "What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know" and examines what happens when we misinterpret or fail to properly communicate with others.

I've never read any of Butler's books, but the premise of the "Patternist" series looks interesting. I used to read a lot of classic science fiction.

Lately, I've been delving into a lot of British history -- although I also have a still-unread one on the Romanov sisters.
 
Callender Girl said:
"The Chain" has both historical and contemporary.
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Contemporary as in published in 2014 and depressingly similar to "The Jungle" written in 1906. I imagine that a current documentary would not be much different. SMH.
One thing I found rather interesting is that antibiotics as a food animal growth stimulant was discovered by observing chickens 'eating' poop....tho how that discovery was then used also in hogs(and maybe other food animals) and created widespread MRSA in both livestock and humans. Also pinged a 40yo memory of where I used to work at a plastics plant in a town that also had some kind of slaughter facility, carloads of hispanics would be seen where I stopped in the morning for coffee.
Just googled that slaughterhouse, it's still there and running and under the eye of PETA.
 

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