So What Are You Reading?
I know there was a thread for this awhile ago but couldn’t find the newest one. I’ve started listening to books again and am wondering what you’re reading these days. I’m currently listening to The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer, a story told through alternating voices in present day and Nazi-occupied Poland. Not even 1/2 way through but enjoying the listen.
Bessie 'Treasure Islands'. All about offshore banking and how we're all getting screwed over by corporations and the ultra wealthy with all the shenanigans going on and how countries look the other way, including one of the worst offenders - The US.
MeisterNJ 
DancerLifeTipping Points: How to Topple the Left's House of Cards --by-- Liz Wheeler
very good read
CBGB I also listen to audio book, books on CD. I am almost done with Anna Karenina Basic story line is good but there is a lot of detail about nothing important(in my opinion). 30 CD's/38Hrs.
I am working off of my "To Be Read" list this year.
happycamper Happy camper, is it your personal list or a list from Goodreads or something similar?
4catmom Currently reading Nick by Michael Farris Smith. It's the prequel to Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Not sure what I expected, but it's ok so far. Hard to get into, very war-heavy beginning. Has taken a few twists and turns I didn't expect. Quick read.
Htown Resident @Bessie, it is my personal list. I keep adding books to the list but then get different books from the library, not sure why I do that.
Last three Audible books I listened to were by Dan Simmons.... he mostly does historical fiction with a supernatural twist.
Black Hills... follows the life of a Lakota from the time he was possessed by Custer's ghost as a 12 year old while Custer lay dying at Little Bighorn through the 1930's when he was the chief blaster at Mount Rushmore with a grand plan to blow it all to bits.
The Abominable- follows the exploits of a group of climbers who attempt to summit Everest in the 1920s. Nazi bad guys and Yeti provide the conflict over and above that of the mountain itself.
The Flashback - near-futuristic dystopia about the economic collapse of America and occupation by the Japanese with a vision of restoring Shogun culture. Much of American society are addicted to Flashback, which is a drug that lets you re-live certain memories in your life... somewhat derivative in that respect to Minority Report or Strange Days.
All of them were very well written and I recommend each of them as well as Simmons's earlier work, most notably Carrion Comfort.
ianimal Black Horizon by James Gripando. Inspired by the Deepwater oil spill, this takes the reader to a scenario of an oil spill off of Cuba and how the US is blocked from assisting due to the embargo.
For reals Hard Case Crime novel by Stephen King called Later . Like The Sixth Sense a kid sees the ghosts of dead people before they move on , but with a twist . They must tell him the truth when questioned . Part crime , horror , and coming of age story it was a good one day short read , can't imagine the audio book would take much longer . If you liked his last HCC book Joyland you will probably like this one .
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54798175-later
97XBAM I am about to start reading Unified: How our unlikely friendship gives us hope for a divided country --by-- Senator Tim Scott & Congressman Trey Gowdy
from Amazon>>>>>>
In Unified, Senator Scott and Congressman Gowdy, through honesty and vulnerability, inspire others to evaluate their own stories, clean the slate, and extend a hand of friendship that can change your churches, communities, and the world.
97XBAM- have that stashed away until I finish Dreamcatcher.
Are you a “Constant Reader” also?
Blackcat "In The Closet of The Vatican" - Power, Homosexuality, Hypocrisy -- Frederic Martel
Whoa.
Unveils the reasons behind the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI
"Do You Feel Like I Do" - from the one and only Peter Frampton .
Amazingly my library had it in so I did not need to buy it :)
AJMS excellent book. Trey Gowdy and Tim Scott would get my vote.
reading now
Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
the life story of Jayber Crow, barber of Port William
nice read about small town America. it's glories and decline.
up next
There There by Tommy Orange
What does it really mean to be an Indian/Native American/American Indian/Native? Orange's vivid debut novel allows a unique cast—ranging from teenagers to elders—to pull this question apart even as they add a modern layer of complexity:
Hadenough I just started listening to "Sandman - Act One" on Audible. It's based on a DC Comics character/storyline but the presentation is far, far superior than your typical audio book.
Rather than having a single narrator drone on for the entire book, altering its voice, for better or worse, for different characters... this production has different voice actors for each role... plus sound effects and score.
It suggests to me what listening to serial radio broadcasts in the '40s and '50s would have been like if they had been allowed to be R-rated.
I'm only 90 minutes in, but its been amazing so far.
@Hadenough That's a great book. I read it when I was in high school and loved it. One of the best baseball books ever.
Flemmer I’m not currently reading it, as I finished it a month or so ago, but by far the best book I read this year is Last Chance Texaco, the Rickie Lee Jones autobiography. Very interesting story, and absolutely *beautifully* written. Loved it.
Monty Killing Patten - Bill O'Reilly. Fascinating view of one of America's greatest generals. All of the Killing series books are written in a style that makes for interesting and enjoyable reading. Most of the books I read are non-fiction and some can take some effort to complete.
Plus, history is being rewritten constantly. Read three books on the same topic or event and it's common to find disturbing variations among the authors take. I've always enjoyed US and World history and have read several accounts of the same events as the Killing Series and consider this series to be accurate portrayals.
On TV O'Reilly impresses me as a bit on the vainglorious side - but that personality does not appear at all in the Killing series - Killing Patton is coauthored by Martin Dugard.
Greenie recently finished Perfect Soldiers by Terry McDermott
The hijackers, who they are, why they did it.
about the hijackers of the planes on 9-11. this is from the back cover
"With a reporter's exacting discipline and a novelists sense of story, McDermott illuminates the lives of the men who attacked us on 9-11. It is a tour de force that demands to be read" Peter Bergen
now reading
Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles
set at the end of the Civil War, about an itinerant fiddle player, a ragtag band of musicians with whom he travels trying to make a living, and the charming young Irish lass who steals his heart.
Try Jalopy by Wes Verde,. a local writer. You can find elements of the area in his storyline.
I recently finished "Agent Josephine", from the Hackettstown FPL. I knew that Josephine Baker had moved to France to escape prejudice and the Jim Crow era laws, but I hadn't known how much of a force she was during World War II, that is, until I read this book.
She was an agent of France, gathering intelligence, passing information and gathering friends in high places in other countries. When she came down with a severe infection, her hospital room provided the perfect undercover meeting place in which to plan and exchange information. She always had said that the US would join the war, and when it did, the war would be won not long after. She traveled from place to place to entertain the troops, of all the allied countries, refusing to perform in front of segregated crowds. Unfortunately, she found that upon returning to the US to perform (at others request), she was unable to get a hotel room in NYC even, due to her husband being white and she being black. She was buried with military honors, and some of the documents pertaining to her service were only declassified in 2021 or so. Quite the force of nature, and a great read.
By the way, can someone please bump the "Museum in Hackettstown" thread? I tried to post, but even though nobody has posted to it in a while, it still says that I can't post until someone else does. Thanks in advance!
Phil D. 
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