{"id":13853,"date":"2024-09-04T10:06:04","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T14:06:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/?p=13853"},"modified":"2024-10-23T10:23:42","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T14:23:42","slug":"readers-notebook-9-4-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/2024\/09\/04\/readers-notebook-9-4-24\/","title":{"rendered":"Reader’s Notebook, 9\/4\/24"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, August was quite a month when it came to reading. I finished seven books last month. And that was with a vacation, the Olympics, paying more attention to baseball (at least some of the time), and watching the US Open mixed in. I guess I used my free time wisely. Also I read some very enjoyable books that kept me engaged and turning the pages.<\/p>\n

Here are the last four from that run.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman<\/a>
\nOne of my sisters-in-law had this with her when she visited last Christmas and without asking her about it, I added it to my reading list. When I checked its status at the library there was a 30+ week wait for it. Yowsa. I placed my hold and waited until early August when my name hit the top of the list.<\/p>\n

Worth the wait. It is a fun, entertaining, thoughtful, charming, at times poignant book.<\/p>\n

A group of four residents at a British retirement community start a club where they dive into cold cases for fun, hoping to find clues the police missed and bring the proper people to justice. Hey, big surprise, the group stumbles into a real murder in the process! Then another. And another. Working on their own, and sometimes in concert with the police, they eventually solve all the mysteries. Naturally the cold case they started with ends up tied to the new ones they are looking into, with a surprising connection to their group.<\/p>\n

The end got a little messy, as Osman unravels all the threads he\u2019s spun, including several that intentionally led in the wrong direction. That is the tiniest quibble. And perhaps I was just reading too fast as I raced to get to the resolution. I\u2019m looking forward to more adventures with the gang from Cooper\u2019s Chase.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

She Rides Shotgun – Jordan Harper<\/a>
\nIt\u2019s been quite awhile since I read a super-dark book. Like cringey dark. I\u2019m not sure if this officially qualifies – it\u2019s not into Daniel Woodrell territory, for example – but it did make me a little uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

This centers on the heart-warming story of a dad reuniting with his estranged 11-year-old daughter and them forging a new relationship.<\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s not quite that simple. Nate has been in prison and, just before being released because of a technical error in his conviction, kills a higher-up in one of the prison\u2019s Nazi gangs. Then he kidnaps his daughter, Polly, from her school because he knows she is being targeted by the Nazis as part of their plan to destroy his life in retribution. After grabbing his daughter, Nate finds her mother and new husband murdered by the Nazis. They flee both the Nazis and the police, who think that Nate is responsible for the murders. Then Nate teaches Polly how to be a badass and she helps him rob Nazi stash houses and whatnot to earn a measure of revenge.<\/p>\n

And it keeps getting darker from there.<\/p>\n

I think I would have loved this story 10\u201315 years ago. Now, though? Not so much. Not just because of the wrongness of teaching your 11-year-old how to choke people out. There were some strange parts of the book where my question was less where was the story headed than what drugs was Harper using when he wrote those chapters.<\/p>\n

Again, I might just be getting old. I\u2019m going to give another of his novels a shot at some point, as he\u2019s got a lot of notice for taking up the banner of noir lit.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Pine Tar Game – Flip Bondy<\/a>
\nWould you be shocked I raced through this book, about the Royals-Yankees rivalry at large and a certain 1983 baseball game in particular, in about 36 hours? I have vivid memories of the Pine Tar Game<\/a> – I was at my grandparents\u2019 home, watching with my grandfather. He took a nap after the game and when we woke, first thing he did, before lighting his traditional cigarette, was look at me, shake his head, and say, \u201cThat damn Billy Martin\u2026\u201d – but it was still fun to relive that day in great detail. It was also cool that one of the greatest rivalries of its era got a full accounting. Since it was a league championship series rivalry, it has largely faded into history outside of Kansas City.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Carrie Soto Is Back – Taylor Jenkins Reid<\/a>
\nFinally, another book my sister-in-law directly recommended to me and that I saved until the US Open. Fine timing! This is focused on the greatest (fictional) women\u2019s tennis player of all time, and her return to the game after a younger player ties her record for most majors won. Along the way Carrie Soto reconnects with her father, who had been her coach but from whom she became somewhat estranged late in her career. She has to deal with the realities of being nearly 40 and attempting to compete in major tournaments. And she gains a love interest on his own comeback trail.<\/p>\n

Every aspect of this story is predictable. Reid has such a great, breezy yet compelling style of writing that it doesn\u2019t matter that every twist and turn is telegraphed from chapters away. You keep turning pages anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, August was quite a month when it came to reading. I finished seven books last month. And that was with a vacation, the Olympics, paying more attention to baseball (at least some of the time), and watching the US Open mixed in. I guess I used my free time wisely. Also I read some very enjoyable books that kept me engaged and turning the pages. Here are the last four from that run. Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman One of my sisters-in-law had this with her when she visited last Christmas and without asking her about it, I added it to my reading list. When I checked its status at the library there was a 30+ week wait for it. Yowsa. I placed my hold and waited until early August when my name hit the top of the list. Worth the wait. It is a fun, entertaining, thoughtful, charming, at times poignant book. A group of four residents at a British retirement community start a club where they dive into cold cases for fun, hoping to find clues the police missed and bring the proper people to justice. Hey, big surprise, the group stumbles into a real murder in the process! Then another. And another. Working on their own, and sometimes in concert with the police, they eventually solve all the mysteries. Naturally the cold case they started with ends up tied to the new ones they are looking into, with a surprising connection to their group. The end got a little messy, as Osman unravels all the threads he\u2019s spun, including several that intentionally led in the wrong direction. That is the tiniest quibble. And perhaps I was just reading too fast as I raced to get to the resolution. I\u2019m looking forward to more adventures with the gang from Cooper\u2019s Chase. She Rides Shotgun – Jordan Harper It\u2019s been quite awhile since I read a super-dark book. Like cringey dark. I\u2019m not sure if this officially qualifies – it\u2019s not into Daniel Woodrell territory, for example – but it did make me a little uncomfortable. This centers on the heart-warming story of a dad reuniting with his estranged 11-year-old daughter and them forging a new relationship. Well, it\u2019s not quite that simple. Nate has been in prison and, just before being released because of a technical error in his conviction, kills a higher-up in one of the prison\u2019s Nazi gangs. Then he kidnaps his daughter, Polly, from her school because he knows she is being targeted by the Nazis as part of their plan to destroy his life in retribution. After grabbing his daughter, Nate finds her mother and new husband murdered by the Nazis. They flee both the Nazis and the police, who think that Nate is responsible for the murders. Then Nate teaches Polly how to be a badass and she helps him rob Nazi stash houses and whatnot to earn a measure of revenge. And it keeps getting darker from there. I think I would have loved this story 10\u201315 years ago. Now, though? Not so much. Not just because of the wrongness of teaching your 11-year-old how to choke people out. There were some strange parts of the book where my question was less where was the story headed than what drugs was Harper using when he wrote those chapters. Again, I might just be getting old. I\u2019m going to give another of his novels a shot at some point, as he\u2019s got a lot of notice for taking up the banner of noir lit. The Pine Tar Game – Flip Bondy Would you be shocked I raced through this book, about the Royals-Yankees rivalry at large and a certain 1983 baseball game in particular, in about 36 hours? I have vivid memories of the Pine Tar Game – I was at my grandparents\u2019 home, watching with my grandfather. He took a nap after the game and when we woke, first thing he did, before lighting his traditional cigarette, was look at me, shake his head, and say, \u201cThat damn Billy Martin\u2026\u201d – but it was still fun to relive that day in great detail. It was also cool that one of the greatest rivalries of its era got a full accounting. Since it was a league championship series rivalry, it has largely faded into history outside of Kansas City. Carrie Soto Is Back – Taylor Jenkins Reid Finally, another book my sister-in-law directly recommended to me and that I saved until the US Open. Fine timing! This is focused on the greatest (fictional) women\u2019s tennis player of all time, and her return to the game after a younger player ties her record for most majors won. Along the way Carrie Soto reconnects with her father, who had been her coach but from whom she became somewhat estranged late in her career. She has to deal with the realities of being nearly 40 and attempting to compete in major tournaments. And she gains a love interest on his own comeback trail. Every aspect of this story is predictable. Reid has such a great, breezy yet compelling style of writing that it doesn\u2019t matter that every twist and turn is telegraphed from chapters away. You keep turning pages anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-13853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-books"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13853"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13860,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13853\/revisions\/13860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}