On My Kindle

I try to read daily and although I like a wide range of topics, unlike music, I am presently devoting most of my time to fiction. The books I have read recently and my grade follow.

Really nice Civil War story of two Massachusetts teens joining the Union forces and ending up at Gettysburg.  The relationship between the two brothers is explored as is the black woman who tends to their home and widowed father. If I were an emotional sort who laughed outloud or cried when reading (I don't) I would have cried with this one.  A-

Story of a plane that crashes and the ensuing investigation.  Stock characters, stock bad guys, not even worth taking to the beach.  D+

Latest sailing maritime story by S. Thomas Russell.  It continues the story of Captain Charles Hayden and the adventures of the HMS Themis.  I haven't a clue as to why I like this stuff.  I am somewhat embarrassed but it certainly helps put me to sleep at night. B

This was my first Sci-Fi futuristic vampire/creature book and while not entirely successful was divergent enough.  It was a whopping 788 pages and took me forever.  It is supposed the first of a trilogy, and yes, I suppose I'd get the next one due out next year, but nothing I'm jumping up and down to read.  C+  

Pretty good story, but again, rather stock characters.  I call it reading-by-numbers:  the pretty lab scientist, the peppy funny assistant, the pressure from the CDC to find an answer to the growing problem of people going crazy.  Ok read but the writing is rather shallow.  B      

My second zombie apocalypse book and likely my last.  It was actually a pretty good read and I liked the chracters (while they lasted) and the plot.  A company of soldiers defending themselves on a mission to rescue (yes, a pretty scientist) from a New York population that has become infested with a virus where they want to eat you.  B-   

Just started this one and looking forward to it.  I don't know if it can beat the GREATEST dog story in the world, The Art of Racing In the Rain, but I read that right after Missy died, so I might be little biased.  

I don't know why this book stays with me like it does.  I suspect it was becasue it was suggested to me from a friend in England right after Missy died.   It was just what I needed evidently.  Thanks Karen for recommending it.  A

WAITING TO BE READ:

This one has won a few awards and has a very strange premise. 

One Second After is a take on survival after some nuclear exchange.  Again, I don't know why I was drawn to it other than perhaps a different take on the whole apocalyptic thing.  I read (and watched) Cormac McCarthy's The Road, which was an excellent book on the subject.  Profoundly moving.  That's the story of a father and son traveling to the East Coast after an unspecified conflagration in hope of finding life. Of course we all go ape whenever the power goes out, I can't imagine what we would all do if everything went out, forever.     

Confession:  I have started this twice and put it down twice.  I WILL finish it one of these days.

Well, there you have it.  One's reading stand is a little like the voting booth, it explains so much of us, I think, so I'm a bit wary showing you what is on my book list.  Yes, I am into escapist/entertainment at the moment but I also have some biographies I want to get around to.  I am especially interested in a couple of books that came out in the past 2 years, one on Thomas Jeffersona and the other on George Washington.  I am looking forward to those simply becasue I need to flesh out these old fogey guys who we have a bland knowledge of.  I understand old George was actually quite a character and a bit of a rake in his youth.  The infighting amongst the founding fathers sounds like fun, too.  Along the same vein, Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin about Lincoln's cabinet members sounds good, too.