Reading Q3 2022

 I started a spreadsheet in 2003 to tally all the books I have read. For the first 8 years I averaged about 5-6 books per year. Then for four years it was about a book a month. Then it dropped to about 6-8 per year of the first four years of retirement. Since, in 2019,  I added my bucket list goal to read all the great books, I have read 23, 38, and 16 books. I also starting using Goodreads which allows for me to set goals. This year the goal was 30 books. I just finished #31.

Here are the ten books I have read in the third quarter of 2022.

Sycamore Row by John Grisham

I guess I like Grisham; this was the ninth book by him I have read since 2003. Sycamore Row is a legal thriller novel  published in 2014. I bought the paperback on sale at B&N. The novel reached the top spot in the US best-seller list. It follows the cases of lawyer Jake Brigance in fictional Ford County Mississippi. This book was preceded by A Time to Kill and followed by A Time for Mercy, both books I have read. There was a movie made from the first book with Matthew McConaughey as Jake.

I gave the book a rating of 3.0 (Great).

Florida's Space Coast by Wade Arnold

Published in 2009, this book gives a great history of where I have lived since 1979, and visited since 1958. We are the Space Coast because of NASA, which increased the small population of Brevard County by over 200,000 new residents. There are also lots of great historical photos since it is partly a picture book. I rated it 2.5 (Good to Great).

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

Published in 2005, I had seen the movie in 2007 before reading the book. I read that McCarthy had written the book as a screenplay first, and decided to put it out as a book. Both the movie, which won an Oscar, and the book are Excellent and I give this read a 4.0. This is the second book I have read by this author, the other being The Road. 

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner.

My Dad's favorite author but I had never read any of his novels. My bucket list of books to read included this novel from three separate lists. Also, Faulkner did win the Nobel Prize for Literature. But I always heard he was a tough read. As I was checking the book out I asked the librarian about it and she said I should get the Cliff Notes. She may have been right. This was book #49 in my bucket list.

The Sound and the Fury is a novel which employs several narrative styles, including stream of consciousness and was published in 1929. It is set in Jefferson, Mississippi, in the first third of the 20th century. The novel centers on the Compson family, former Southern aristocrats who are struggling to deal with the dissolution of their family and its reputation. I give the book a 3.0 (Great) and I may seek out other books by Faulkner. I think I started with the hardest one to read...

Two books by Mary Roach

Mary Roach is an American author specializing in popular science and humor. She was born in Hanover New Hampshire and has published seven New York Times Best Sellers. I have read six of them including these two in the last quarter. She is one of my favorite authors of non-fiction. I highly recommend her if you like to laugh. I got both of these books from the library

The first book I read was titled Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal (2013). If you don't know, the alimentary canal starts at the mouth and includes everything until you reach the two holes at the other end. Laugh as she discusses taste, smell, constipation, diarrhea, and things you might not want to know like why do farts smell. Very hilarious and I gave the book a 3.0 (Great).

The second book I read was titled Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law  (2021), her most recent, details the "curious science of human-wildlife conflict." Although it is not as funny as Gulp, it was a very interesting read. I gave the book a 2.5 (Good to Great).

Why Time Flies by Alan Burdick

I found this book at the library while looking for the Mary Roach books, and decided to give it a try. Why Time Flies: A Mostly Scientific Investigation, was published in 2017. In this witty and meditative exploration, award-winning author and New Yorker staff writer Alan Burdick takes readers on a personal quest to understand how time gets in us and why we perceive it the way we do. Sometimes it gets a little crazy, but it is a non-fiction presentation of a question I have asked "Why does it seem to slow down when we’re bored and speed by as we get older? " Too bad there is no answer as of yet although a lot of studies are presented. I gave the book a 2.0 (Good), and found it interesting. But maybe it was just a waste of time.

You Can Date Boys When You're Forty by Dave Barry

Since I was on a non-fiction kick with some humor added, I also picked this book up at the library. My first experience with Barry was an article he wrote about the exploding whales in the Northwest Pacific. This book, published in 2014, was not as funny but there were some parts that made me laugh out loud (someone should shorten that saying). I give the book a 2.0 (Good).

thirteen moons by Charles Frazier

This is a book I bought on sale many years ago and just never found the time to read it. Since I had set a goal for 30 books, I decided it was okay to leave my bucket list once in a while and read some of the books on my own shelves at home. I am glad I did.

thirteen Moons is a historical novel published in October 2006 by American author Charles Frazier, his second book after the award-winning Cold Mountain. Set in the mid-nineteenth century, the novel is loosely based on the life of William Holland Thomas, a Confederate Army officer during the American Civil War and Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians—the only white man to ever hold that position. 

As I was reading the book, I thought that it was complete fiction. It surprised me when I learned that it was base on some very interesting history. I give the book a 3.0 (Great).

The Log from the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck

I had seen this book when I was reading The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck in an anthology of novels and short stories from the library. I added to my bucket list and finally went back, being the 50th book I have read from the list. The list has grown to 211 books so I still have a ways to go.

The Log from the Sea of Cortez is an English-language book written by Steinbeck and published in 1951. It details a six-week (March 11 – April 20) marine specimen-collecting boat expedition he made in 1940 at various sites in the Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortez), with his friend, the marine biologist Ed Ricketts.

Although it is an interesting read of non-fiction, the best part is the eulogy for Ricketts as a forward to the book. I give the book a 2.5 (Good to Great). There is a lot of discussions on man and his environment and how the world works. Even back then, Mexico had agreements with Japan to fish for certain species which they pretty much did to the extinction of certain species.

Well, let's see how Quarter 3 goes...Again, I am always interested in new material to add to my list.