All things books and reading thread - 2016

[sivyaleah]

Wah! 

I have to send my Kindle back to Amazon. it stopped showing page numbers and the percentages read.

At least they are giving me a new one once they receive the used one but now I haz nada, except my phone and reading a book on a phone IS NOT A GOOD SUBSTITUTE! 

 

[Winchester]

That's terrible, Laurie! I hope it won't be long til you get your new Kindle. I remember a few years ago, my Nook died and it wouldn't take a charge anymore. I had to get a new one. I actually had to go to library for books! 

I'm starting to read more on my iPad now. I have a couple library books downloaded onto the iPad using Overdrive, which is what my library uses for their EBooks 2 Go app. It's the same as on my Nook, but I think the iPad lasts longer on a battery charge than the Nook does. 

So now I have the Nook and the iPad Air 2 and the Kindle app on both of them. It works.

 

[stewball]

I finished all 600 pages of The King's Curse. It was a bit of a struggle and there were days of didn't read at all.
Now I'm reading a book called 'The Collector' by Nora Roberts. Very readable. Started it Monday night and I've passed half way.
I wonder who collects what. She's keeping it dead secret.

 

[ginny]

I don't read books often but this one really caught my eye, and it's a very interesting.  I'm not far into it yet.  "A Mind of Your Own" by Kelly Brogan, MD.  So far it talks about how some people are wrongly diagnosed with mental disorders.  One person in particular was simply low on B12.  Once that was corrected, the "psychiatric problem" (whatever it was) went away.  Then there's the inevitable corruption at work in the FDA and the pharmaceutical companies, which I knew about already to some degree. It is a whistle blower book. So, if you love the medical establishment, this book is not for you.   

Doing the kind of work I do, I have to wait for those inevitable down times, and that's the perfect time to read.  But this book is not to be read in a day.  There's a lot of info to digest.  I highly recommend it. 

 

[jcat]

I'm way behind here! I've recently finished R. Allen Chappell's Navajo Nation mystery series (5 books), which were mediocre and can't compare to Tony Hillerman's Leaphorn/Chee books or his daughter Anne's Spider Woman's Daughter and Rock With Wings. Also several true crime books: Burl Barer's A Taste For Murder, Caitlin Rother's Then No One Can Have Her, Jack Olsen's Give a Boy a Gun: The True Story of Law and Disorder in the American West, as well as William C. Costopoulos's Principal Suspect: The True Story of Dr. Jay Smith and the Main Line Murders, which prompted me to reread Joseph Wambaugh's Echoes in the Darkness about the same case. This weekend's reads included Shirley Rousseau Murphy's Cat Shout for Joy: A Joe Grey Mystery and The Cat, the Devil, the Last Escape.

 

[Winchester]

Anybody interested in Cozy Mysteries? Here's a website you might like:   http://www.cozy-mystery.com/ 

 

[reversedpolarit]

I've not read much since I handed in my dissertation in early February and I probably won't have time until after I graduate at the end of May, I've got quite a back log to worth through... I started Things To Make & Do in the 4th Dimension in February and haven't made a whole lot of progress. 

 

[Margret]

 
Anybody interested in Cozy Mysteries? Here's a website you might like:   http://www.cozy-mystery.com/ 

Yes, I'm very interested in cozy mysteries.  Thank you.

Well, I finished A Wicked Chill, by A. W. Hartoin.  Very satisfying.  Our 15 year old heroine, Matilda, has succeeded in keeping her sister, adopted brothers, and adopted aunts safe, has had her first kiss, and is two steps closer to being reunited with her parents.  There is obviously a good deal more yet to come, but it hasn't been written yet.

Since my mother's death a couple of months ago I find myself wanting to re-read old favorites, or new books in series that are old favorites -- comfort reading.  So I've been re-reading I Dare, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, and have now switched to Ghost Ship, by the same authors.  These books follow the adventures of Clan Korval, in their popular Liaden Universe.  Highly recommended series; start with A Conflict of Honors.  Best place to buy is Baen Books.  Electronic format, no DRM, reasonable prices.  Unless, of course, you can find print copies in a used book store, or borrow from the library.

Margret

 

[DreamerRose]

I just finished Sue Klebold's book A Mother's Reckoning.   She is the mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the Columbine shooters. Her grief for her son and the massacre are palpable, yet I found the book somewhat off-putting. She goes to great lengths explaining what a horror the event was to her and how it affected her life and her husband's life. But there was a whiff of rationalization; it was like she was looking for an excuse for what her son did. In the end, there is no excuse and no reason. It's probably better to read this book with the thought of bad things happen to good people.

 

[Margret]

 
I just finished Sue Klebold's book A Mother's Reckoning.   She is the mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the Columbine shooters. Her grief for her son and the massacre are palpable, yet I found the book somewhat off-putting. She goes to great lengths explaining what a horror the event was to her and how it affected her life and her husband's life. But there was a whiff of rationalization; it was like she was looking for an excuse for what her son did. In the end, there is no excuse and no reason. It's probably better to read this book with the thought of bad things happen to good people.

I haven't read this book yet, but I live in the Columbine Valley (for which the high school was named).  My minister was the first clergyperson on the scene, and I have been very aware of some of the issues.

A friend of a friend was on her way to work when she heard about the shootings on the radio.  Her son had just dropped out of Columbine H.S., over her objections.  When she heard the news she immediately headed home, thinking how awful it was that her son was at home watching the coverage, while his friends were in danger and possibly dying.  When she got home (early in the "incident," when they still thought the shooters were targeting jocks) she found her son sitting on the carpet in front of the television, pounding his fists on the floor, shouting "Yes!  Yes!   Kill them all!"  That was when she finally found out why her son had dropped out.  It seems that the jocks, who generally had well-to-do parents and their own cars, thought it was funny to graze the kids on bikes with their cars.  Columbine had a major bullying problem, which was a definite part of what led to the shootings.

Klebold and Harris left many messages online indicating that they planned something violent; other kids reported this to the police, in advance, and the police ignored them.

My minister was afraid that he might be asked to conduct the funeral for either Klebold or Harris (I forget which) because the parents had briefly gone to our church.  He had done some counseling of those parents.  They'd known their son had mental health problems and been trying desperately to get help for him, which was denied to them because he was a minor and there were rules against medicating minors.  (Compare to today, when any kid who acts like a kid can be put on Ritalin on a teacher's whim.)  And after the shootings, someone actually asked me whether the shootings had been caused by one of the shooters being on antidepressants.

In the aftermath of the shootings, there was a proposal to extend anti-hazing laws to cover high school bullying.  It didn't pass, in large part because of opposition by parents who said that bullying was necessary to prepare kids for the realities of adult life.  For some reason I think those parents were the parents of bullies, not of kids who were being bullied.  Why not prepare kids for the adult reality that assault and battery gets you charged with a crime?

A local church planted trees, one for each person who died at Columbine H.S. that day, including the shooters.  An angry parent came in the middle of the night and dug up two of the trees.  Ironically, one of the trees he dug up was the one intended for his son -- he didn't do his homework first.  This was the same father who, when the school allowed friends and family to make tiles in honor of their dead that would be displayed at the high school, with only the restriction that, because of separation of church and state they not be religious in nature, insisted on making blatantly Christian tiles and insisting that they be displayed.

Other parents lost their children.  The Klebold and Harris families lost even the happy memories of their children, swallowed up by the horror of what they'd done.  I can't imagine how painful that must have been.  If Mrs. Klebold wants to work out some of her grief by publishing a memoir, I say more power to her.  It's normal to look for reasons, even when there aren't any.  Look at the people on this site who blame themselves when their cats die for no good reason, even for old age!  In the case of the Columbine shootings there were, in fact, a number of reasons, including a climate where bullying was tolerated if not encouraged, a legal system that denied parents access to adequate medical care for their son, and police who ignored warnings.

Also, it's been seventeen years now since the shootings.  The survivors are adults.  My feeling is that Sue Klebold may have wanted to offer as much of an apology as possible for what her son did.  This can be very touchy work.  I have a friend whose grandmother was murdered and my friend found the body.  After the murderer was caught and convicted his mother sent my friend's family a note of apology, which must have been very difficult for her.  And my friend's reaction?  "The gall of that woman!  How dare she?!"  Mrs. Klebold may have thought that it would be easier for the survivors and families to hear an apology after so much time has gone by.  I doubt that she thinks the apology is likely to be accepted, though some of the families may surprise her.

Margret

 

[DreamerRose]

The book was clearly cathartic for Sue Klebold, and I hope it helped her in her journey. She covered the bullying in detail. The bullying must have created an atmosphere of fear and victimization at the school. Eric Harris, the other shooter, did receive therapy and was on psychiatric meds, but he was probably a psychopath and meds didn't help him.

Sue wrote letters to all of the victims' families and to the survivors. Some were generous in their replies.

Sue's son was depressed but covered it up and no one knew. She now spends her time educating people about suicide and mental health.

 

[Margret]

The book was clearly cathartic for Sue Klebold, and I hope it helped her in her journey. She covered the bullying in detail. The bullying must have created an atmosphere of fear and victimization at the school. Eric Harris, the other shooter, did receive therapy and was on psychiatric meds, but he was probably a psychopath and meds didn't help him.

Sue wrote letters to all of the victims' families and to the survivors. Some were generous in their replies.

Sue's son was depressed but covered it up and no one knew. She now spends her time educating people about suicide and mental health.

I'm glad to hear it.

Columbine was deeply traumatic for the entire community.  This is Jefferson County, widely known in Colorado for having some of the best public schools in the state.  People move here specifically for the schools.  We had no idea this kind of thing could happen, until it did.  It destroyed the illusion that our kids are safe at school, that we can protect them by living in a good school district.  Granted, it was an illusion, but in some ways it was a necessary illusion.

Do you remember the Oklahoma City bombings?  (Sorry, rhetorical question.  Of course you do.)  After 9-11 I was concerned that there might have been day care centers in the twin towers, because good employers at large companies provide such things for their employees.  But, no.  There weren't.  The World Trade Center had been threatened before, and was the focus for several protests; they knew it was a potential target, and they learned from the Oklahoma City bombings.  Day care had been moved out of the towers.  It was nearby, but not resident in the towers.

In the same way, police departments all over the country learned from the mistakes that were made at Columbine.  Now, when students make threats on line, police take it seriously.  Now, when something like this happens, and kids call 911 to say that they have an escape route and plan to use it, the cops don't tell them to remain in place, as they did to the kids in the library at Columbine, getting many of them killed.

But some things haven't changed.  The culture of bullying remains in place, and in many places it is institutionalized.  There was a young woman at Columbine, a cheer leader.  She had been the girl friend of the football team captain, but had split up with him.  He hadn't taken it well, and had harassed and stalked her, so she had gotten a court order requiring him to stay away from her.  After the shootings, when the Columbine H.S. kids were moved to a different high school to finish out the year, she went to the principal at the new high school to inform him of the court order and of the need to arrange their class schedules to accommodate that order, and the principal told her, "That's okay.  Just don't tell anyone about it and I'll see that it doesn't go on your permanent record."  (Emphasis mine.)  To the girl's credit, she talked it over with her parents and wrote a letter to the newspaper about it.  The courts don't take kindly to having their orders deliberately undermined by third parties.

And I apologize. 

  To get things back on track, read any good books lately?

Margret

 

[Kat0121]

We were living in Aurora at the time of the Columbine shootings. It was awful. DD was only 4 when it happened. 

I'm back into Outlander which is going better now that Claire has met Jamie. Frank was getting on my nerves. 

 

[rubysmama]

 
I just finished Sue Klebold's book A Mother's Reckoning.   She is the mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the Columbine shooters. Her grief for her son and the massacre are palpable, yet I found the book somewhat off-putting. She goes to great lengths explaining what a horror the event was to her and how it affected her life and her husband's life. But there was a whiff of rationalization; it was like she was looking for an excuse for what her son did. In the end, there is no excuse and no reason. It's probably better to read this book with the thought of bad things happen to good people.

I haven't read it yet; I have it on hold at the library as an e-book.

 
I'm back into Outlander which is going better now that Claire has met Jamie. Frank was getting on my nerves. 

I've finished the first 4 Outlander books.  I'm on the wait list for the 5th one at the library. I'm enjoying the books, and like the characters and want to know what happens next. I find them a bit too violent, but that was what it was like, I suppose, during that time.

 

[Kat0121]

I finished Outlander last night so I put the second book, Dragonfly in Amber on my Kindle and started it. I wasn't prepared for how it starts and I'm not crazy about it yet but I'll give it time. While I was reading, Sophie came in to snuggle. Now that I have that game on the Kindle for her, she thinks everything on there needs to be swatted so she kept swatting the book and turning the pages. 

  I put her game on so she could play and she stopped. When that game is on, she wants ME to tap the mice while she watches them run across the screen. She's so silly. 

 

[stewball]

Yes, I'm very interested in cozy mysteries.  Thank you.

Well, I finished A Wicked Chill, by A. W. Hartoin.  Very satisfying.  Our 15 year old heroine, Matilda, has succeeded in keeping her sister, adopted brothers, and adopted aunts safe, has had her first kiss, and is two steps closer to being reunited with her parents.  There is obviously a good deal more yet to come, but it hasn't been written yet.

Since my mother's death a couple of months ago I find myself wanting to re-read old favorites, or new books in series that are old favorites -- comfort reading.  So I've been re-reading I Dare, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, and have now switched to Ghost Ship, by the same authors.  These books follow the adventures of Clan Korval, in their popular Liaden Universe.  Highly recommended series; start with A Conflict of Honors.  Best place to buy is Baen Books.  Electronic format, no DRM, reasonable prices.  Unless, of course, you can find print copies in a used book store, or borrow from the library.

Margret

I'm very sorry for your loss.

 

[stewball]

I've just started a book called Before Jamaica Lane by Samantha Young.
So far so good.

 

[Margret]

I'm very sorry for your loss.

Thank you.  I'm coping.  Taking a bit of extra Zoloft, lots of B vitamins.  Good days and bad days, you know how it is.  She was an incredible woman.  I will miss her forever.  She would have turned 98 this month.

Margret

 

[jcat]

I decided to reread all the Joe Grey books and am up to Cat Laughing Last (#7 of 19).

 

[Mamanyt1953]

OK,..I've gotten addicted to Thriftbooks.com, and am currently ordering all my old favorites at VERY good prices.  Currently, I'm ordering the old Mary Stewarts...reading Moonspinners again, and have My Brother Michael waiting on my bedside table for its turn.  Not sure which ones I'll order next, but I do know that will be in the group.  I am patiently waiting for In My Own Hear's Blood to come out in paperback, as I can't afford the hardcover edition.  The Outlandish Companion can be ordered second hand at a good price, though.  Do I want the Lord John books?  I don't know.  I read one of them years ago, and although it was amusing, it didn't catch me like the Outlander serise did.  LOTS of authors on the "To Buy" list...about another 500 books.  Dear Goddess...I need more bookcases...I need more ROOMS!