I’m not sure if I replied to this thread, but I’ve listened to “Spaceman” by Mike Massimino, “Code Girls,” “An Astronauts Guide to Living on Earth,” by Chris Hadfield, “Apollo 8,” by Jeffery Kluger, “The Enemy of the People,” by Jim Acosta, “The Mueller Report,” and “Doing Justice” by Preet Bharara.
Currently, the Chris Hadfield book.
Got an offer from Simon/Schuster Glose app for one free book from a list.
Picked Patricia Cornwell’s “Body of Evidence.” It’s been awhile since I was willing to read anything by her (I understand fiction, but her plots had started to seriously lose credibility.)
Decided to give her another try & find I had missed the duo of Dr. Kay Scarpetta & Lieutenant Pete Marino.
Latest book club pick was anything set in NJ or by an NJ author. I tried a few that didn’t hold my interest, wound up re-reading Elmore Leonard’s “Glitz”, set primarily in an '80s Atlantic City. (I think it was made into a TV movie not long after the book came out.)
Love Elmore Leonard’s crime novels - Stick, Rum Punch, Get Shorty, Killshot, Freaky Deaky, La Brava, Out of Sight - His ear for dialogue is spot on, and his POV narration style is excellent. But not for the easily triggered, snowflakes or SJWs. BTW, he also wrote westerns - 3:10 to Yuma and Hombre are probably the most well-known.
I have a terrific reading recommendation.
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore.
Tells the true life horror of radium poisoning before the hazards were well known by luminous watch hand painters in New Jersey in the early 1920’s.
I heard a story about this on the radio. Sounds horrifying and fascinating.
Currently reading Steve Twomey’s Countdown to Pearl Harbor (sic) The Twelve Days to the Attack.
It imparts a couple lessons we can appreciate today.
One is to not trust the experts.
Two is that government oversite is a good thing when you can’t trust the experts.
I would amend that to “don’t blindly trust the experts.” Sometimes they know what they’re talking about.
Right now I’m reading a book club pick that I’d read a few years back - “The Forsaken” is about Americans who left Depression-era US for the promise of work in the Soviet Union’s ambitious 5-year plan. Caught up in the Stalinist Terror, few survived. The failure of the Roosevelt administration, the media, a few celebrities (Paul Robeson does not come off well) who may have had the ability to appeal for the Americans’ return and did nothing is just heartbreaking, and the description of the Gulags, the show trials and mass murder are horrifying.
The book is a broad description of Stalin’s era, attempts to follow two of the young American men who survived. Some of the episodes are evocative of stories you hear about North Korea, the Khmer Rouge and Venezuela. Pretty intense read about a historical episode that may be unknown to much of the public.
Sure in an informative age.
Back then…They really didn’t, that makes the material so compelling.
Stalinist Russia was severely ■■■■■■ up.
Just finished “Red Famine”
Which details how Stalin screwed over the Ukrainians and helps to put into context the divide between pro Russian and pro Europe forces in Ukraine today.
Almost finished John Hodgman’s “Medallion Status”, and then can’t wait to start “Olive, Alone” by Elizabeth Strout.
I loved her books in the beginning. They got progressively more weird and became, it seemed to me, almost exclusively about Lucy (?) and Marino. Have you tried Linda Fairstein?
She is a former prosecutor, isn’t she? Not yet, but now her name is on my list. Will have to look for her in the library.
Yeah, my screen on my phone crashed awhile back, and I’ve lost many texts, at least one phone number and that Cornwell book. Oh, well, at least it was a free book.
Yeah, she started out very credible as a woman who once worked for a Dr. Marcella (last name?), M E in Virginia. The K S about cyberstalking was excellent.
Lucy got annoying, though (running through an office where formaldehyde containers are being transported? “Just being Lucy”? Really?!
Finally lost my patience with the one where the severely malformed, acid blinded brother of a French syndicate figure escaped from a van of prisoners headed to Death Row in Huntsville, Texas.
Got too sure of herself I guess. Will go looking for one of Ms. Fairstein’s books, thank you.
Amelia Bedelia Bakes Off by Herman Parish, illustrated by Lynn Sweat.
I subscribe to Audible.
I’m currently listening to “Endurance, A year in Space,” by Scott Kelly.
Started this book as part of my effort to rid myself of ignorance of early 1800’s US History.
So far it is quite good.
The Bible
Conflict of Visions
Gunman’s Rhapsody
Yes, she was a NY prosecutor. I’ve really enjoyed her books, although the last couple have added a little politics into the mix, which I’m not crazy about. I’m reading Devil’s Bridge right now, and there is a very thinly veiled Al Sharpton in it. Hopefully that will not last.
Sue Grafton’s books were good, as well as Marcia Muller (Mueller?). Just a couple more suggestions. 
I’m reading this one now. Got it for all of $1 in used book section of my local library.
It’s really more questions than answers about such issues as
Could there have been exploration of the New World before Columbus? There is strong evidence in favor of that, as examples artifacts found with Asian influences in the art, posing the question of could Japanese or Chinese have made it across the Pacific to Mesoamerica?
Who were original north, meso, South Americans? What were their origins & influences? Shows evidence of Egyptian & various African possibilities.
Would highly recommend to everyone who loves mystery and/or history.
