The Next Good Book
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 so i like to read- 

friends often ask for book suggestions so i created this site in 2014 to help me think about what i read and pass it on.  

I hope you find many good books here!


e-mail-thenextgoodbook5@gmail.com

where the crawdads sing by delia owens

1/30/2019

1 Comment

 
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Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
368 pages

What’s it about?

 Six-year-old Kya lives in a isolated marsh off the coast of North Carolina.  It is 1951 and her family slowly disintegrates.  Remarkably she manages to eek out a lonely existence in an old shack in the marsh by herself.    She is called "the marsh girl" and most of the people in town think of her as "white trash"  She slowly learns to avoid people.  This is Kya's story.

What did it make me think about?
 I thought Kya's situation was sad and then I was quickly drawn into the plot.
​
Should I read it?
 So this book received so many great reviews and I have been looking forward to reading it for so long.  It is part mystery, part love story, part a nature book, and part a survival story.  While I thought it was a good book with a good plot- I did not love it like some readers did.  Maybe my expectations were just too high.  It is well worth reading but this book did not knock me off my feet....

Quote-
​​" Just like their whiskey, the marsh dwellers bootlegged their won laws- not like those burned onto stone tablets or inscribed on documents, but deeper ones, stamped in their genes.  Ancient and natural, like those hatched from hawks and doves. When cornered, desperate, or isolated, man reverts to those instincts that aim straight at survival.  Quick and just.  They will always be the trump cards because they are passed on more frequently from one generation to the next that the gentler genes.  It is not a morality, but simple math.  Among themselves doves fight as often as hawks."

If you like this try-
My Sunshine Away by M.O. Walsh
Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller
The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers
Love and Other Consolation Prizes by Jamie Ford

8 stars
1 Comment

the tattooist of auschwitz by heather morris

1/20/2019

0 Comments

 
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The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
254 pages
 
What’s it about?
Lale Sokolov is a 25 year-old Slovakian Jew when he is forcibly transported to the concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau.   It is April of 1942 and Lale will survive for 2 ½ years in the camp.  
 
What did I think?
So I found myself stuck at the airport with no book and the cashier at the bookstore highly recommended this to me.  This was basically a love story set in a horrible time and place.  I myself intentionally try to be selective when reading books about the holocaust.  At one point are we turning the misery of others into entertainment? And yet, we should not forget- so there is the conundrum….  
 
Should you read it?
This was a love story, a story of what one will do to survive, and a story of triumph. If you are looking for a quick book about the holocaust then this is a fine choice.  
 
Quote-
“Lale and Leon’s daily lives are still being dictated by the arrival of transports from across Europe.  AS spring becomes summer, they do not stop coming.
                  Today the pair is working with long rows of female prisoners.  The selection process is taking place a small distance away.  They are too busy to pay attention to it.  An arm and a piece of paper appear before them, and they do their job.  Over and again. “
 

If you like this try-
 ​Among the Living by Jonathan Rabb
​The Book of Aron by Jim Shepard
​The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck
​
Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave

​
7 stars

0 Comments

the sound of things falling by juan gabriel vasquez

1/19/2019

0 Comments

 
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The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vasquez
270 pages
​

What’s it about?
Antonio Yammara is a young attorney living in Bogota, Columbia.  While reading the paper one day he comes across an article about a young hippo escaping from the zoo.  It takes him back to an earlier time in Bogota.  A time of violence and turmoil.  “And on one of those days, while following the hunt in the papers, I found myself remembering a man who’d been out of my thoughts for a long while, in spite of the fact that there had been a time when nothing interested me as much as the mystery of his life.”
 
What did it make me think about?
This book was a look back at the recent history of Bogota.  It highlights what the violence of the drug wars (and Pablo Escobar in particular) did to a whole generation of young people coming of age in Columbia in the 1970’s.

Should I read it?
This is a beautifully written novel about the aftermath of violence.  It speaks of a particular time and place but it is applicable across place and time.  It is well-paced but on the slow side.  I would recommend this for readers who are looking for a literary, thoughtful book.
​
Quote-
“Experience, or what we call experience, is not the inventory of our pains, but rather the sympathy we learn to feel for the pain of others.”

If you like this try-
The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon
​The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
​​The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner

8 stars
0 Comments

lethal white by robert galbraith

1/13/2019

0 Comments

 
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Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
647 pages

What’s it about?
This is the fourth book in the Cormoran Strike detective series and I have enjoyed them all.  The series is written by Robert Galbraith- aka J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame.  In the third book of the series we continue to follow Strike and his trusty sidekick Robin along as they unravel the clues to a mystery.

What did it make me think about?
Ms. Rowling seems to have a love for long novels and this is no exception.   In Ms. Rowling's case- she is easily forgiven.  Her novels may be long but they are never boring.  Cormoran Strike is a complicated hero and we continue to root for his success.  I must say I am also rooting for Robin...

Should I read it?
Yes!  If you are a fan of detective novels (or just a page turner) then you will enjoy this one. 

Quote-
"'No', lied Strike, because he knew what if felt like to have your personal details strewn across the newspapers.  It was kindest, if at all credible, to pretend you hadn't read it all, politest to let people tell their own story."

If you like this try-
The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz 
The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney
The Trespasser by Tana French
Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller

9 stars
0 Comments

a terrible country by keith gessen

1/7/2019

0 Comments

 
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​A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen

What’s it about?
This novel follows Andrei from the United States to Russia.  Andrei is an aspiring academic specializing in Russian Literature.  As no career prospects are panning out, he answers his older brother's call to come to Russia and help take care of his 90 year old grandmother for a short time.  We watch Andrei try to assimilate into a very new Russia. 

What did it make me think about?
Why have I not heard more about this book?  I have read so many books on the Soviet Union, but not many on life in Russia more recently.  This fictional novel was a fascinating glimpse into a country that seems to always be striving towards a new type of society.

Should I read it?
I highly recommend this book and am very surprised that it has not garnered more attention.  The characters are magnificent and it is a novel that is illuminating as well as thought provoking. Plus Keith Gessen writes with a deadpan style that allows his humor to shine- and I always love that. This one will be high on my list for 2019.  Nice to start the year out with such a good book!
​
Quote-
“His parents had come from the Soviet Union, as mine had, and at around the same time.  Like many of us, he’d grown up speaking Russian, and like many of us he’d inherited his parents’ ambivalence toward the country they’d escaped.  Our parents had been so skeptical of Russia, so fearful of the Russians, that they had uprooted their lives, put everything in boxes, and gone to the post office dozens of times to ship their books to America, just to get away.  But they also remained bound to Russia by a million ties of memory and habit and affection.  They watched Russian movies, shopped at Russian stores, and preferred Russian candy.”

“More to the point, would I be able to stay in Moscow indefinitely?  On the one hand it was appealing. I didn’t care that much about good coffee. And I liked the food. But the daily grind of life was something else.  Just to do anything, to get my skates sharpened, to get a library book-to get from one part of the city to another- was an unbelievable hassle.  What in New York took twenty minutes, here took an hour.  What in New York took an hour, here took pretty much all day.  It wore you down. The frowns on the faces of the people wore you down.  The lies on the television too, after awhile, wore you down.”

9 stars
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    “Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”
    ― Charles William Eliot
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     ratings

    1 to 2- I did not enjoy this book.
    3 to 4- I found some aspect of this book redeeming but would not recommend it.
    5 to 6- I really enjoyed something about this book (characters, plot, meaning etc.) but it was uneven. Some aspects were stronger than others.
    7 to 8- It was a good book.  I liked lots of aspects of this book.  I would recommend it.
    9 to 10- I was sorry to turn the last page.  I highly recommend this book!
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