“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read”- A. Lincoln
Several years ago I decided waiting until December each year was too long a time between posts that share favorite reads among MillersTime readers. So I started asking in May/June for books you’ve read so far in the year that have particularly resonated with you. And since some of our memories are not quite as sharp as they once were, the idea of having a midyear call for your favorites and a midyear post, I hope, will be useful to all and will continue to be a regular feature here.
Unlike in previous years, I plan to only have one midyear post and will do that in the beginning of July. So you have over the next month to get me your favorites so far this year. I will send a couple of reminders, but I don’t want to nag or plead. So even if you just want to give the titles and wait until December for your longer contributions and explanations, at least send me a list before the end of June. That way, others will have some reading options for the second half of 2018.
I ask that you send me a few that have stood out for you so far, and if you have the time, add a sentence or two of what was particularly appealing. Send them to my email (Samesty84@gmail.com).
Thanx in advance.
Amanda said:
I loved The Power by Naomi Alderman. A powerful commentary on gender and power, if you don’t mind that it is using a science fiction plot to get the point across.
Cindy Olmstead said:
Sorry, Richard. Did not mean to ignore you. Have just finished two books well worth adding to your list.
1. Red Notice by Bill Browder, true story of his investment company’s challenges doing business in Russia. He still is living and has taken up the humanitarian fight to expose the corruption in Russia under Putin due to the treatment he and his colleagues received in early 2000s.
2. Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Life, Death and Hope in Mumbai Undercity: written by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Katherine Boo. It is her research told through the dramatic story of families striving toward a better life in Annawadi, a make shift settlement in the shadow of the luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport. All characters are their real names.
John Dietsch said:
Hi Richard,
Call me a glutton for punishment, but I must recommend “Shattered,” J. Allen & A. Parnes’ searing analysis of Clinton’s disasterous campaign. None of my liberal and progressive friends thought she would win – I clung to the vague hope that people like the Obamas, LeBron James and even Bernie would drag her across the finish line – and this book, in riveting detail, explains why they were right. The book also shows how the Trump campaign – for all its crudity and craziness – was surprisingly effective and focused, in no small part because it closely tracked and capitalized on that of Sanders.
To get away from this depressing story and our even more dismaying current situation, I also must totally recommend CJ Sansom’s Shardlake series, chronicling the adventures in political intrigue, murder and Tudor society of lawyer Matthew Shardlake, his rough and ready assistant Jack Barak and his friend, the Moorish doctor Guy Melton.
Someone remarks to Shardlake, “you have known all the great ones,” to which his reply, “that has its disadvantages,” is a complete understatement.
With clients like Cromwell, Cranmer and Queen Katherine Parr, Shardlake keeps getting plunged into the rough churning waters of religious strife, contending with his nemesis, Sir Richard Rich (also a real person), while trying to keep away from the baleful eye of King Henry VIII. While even Rich concedes Shardlake is courageous and loyal, his tenacity and almost obsessive search for the facts continually lands him and Barak in trouble. The fact that Shardlake is handicapped – he’s hunchbacked – makes things even more difficult as he moves from courts to palaces to prisons, often in London, a vital place, but a place with offal underfoot and pisspots being emptied from above.
Sansom is a terrific and to me, irresistible writer, and each book in the series is better than its predecessor.
Start with the second, Dark Fire. The rest are Sovereign, Revelation, Heartstone and Lamentation. Hope they’ll be more!