Anonymous wrote:Just finished "Night Watch" by Jayne Anne Phillips. I can see why it won a Pulitzer Prize and I'm glad I read it, but it's a difficult read on a couple of levels. The narrative is convoluted (Faulkner is clearly an influence), and the tale set in the aftermath of the Civil War is absolutely brutal.

If you choose to give this a try, beware that there is a disturbingly graphic and gratuitous account of a sexual assault that I'd be better off not having read. I recommend you skip over it.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finished "Shadow Divers" by Robert Kurson, which is about shipwreck divers who stumble across a sunken German U-Boat off the coast of New Jersey. It was gripping and terrifying... one of those books that I stayed up late to read with the booklight on. The divers who poke around in these shipwrecks are pure adrenaline junkies. The descriptions of what happens to the human body when diving at those depths was enough to put me off scuba diving, period. Add to that the extreme danger of exploring in shipwrecks that could collapse at any second, getting the divers entangled in the wreckage with their air supply dwindling... yeah, no way. I'll stick to snorkeling. Anyway, HIGHLY recommend for anyone who likes adventure nonfiction, a la Into Thin Air.

50% of the way through Rumaan Alam's "Entitlement." I think it's going to be a DNF. A friend raved about it but I'm not getting much out of it.

I am a diver and a lot of people who get killed in wrecks make stupid mistakes. I’ve been in a number of wrecks where people die. It’s usually from preventable causes.

Here’s a hot tip, string a line. And don’t use an acetylene torch on the live ammo, even if it has been there since WW2.

I’m not going to get into specifics of that wreck but mistakes were made, mistakes that cost people their lives and that were avoidable.

But most people who die in scuba-related incidents have MIs under water, etc. it’s a pretty safe sport at the rec level.

PP you responded to. There were several moments in the book where was like DON'T DO THAT YOU DUMBARSE YOU'LL GET YOURSELF KILLED! Kurson builds up the suspense in such a skilled way.

I love adventure nonfiction because I am not a thrill seeker by nature. But I enjoy reading about the mindset and thought process of people who push the human body to the ultimate limits in pursuit of a dream--whether scaling Mt. Everest, exploring the depths of the ocean, running ultramarathons, etc. From the comfort of my couch, with a blanket and mug of tea, of course.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finished "Shadow Divers" by Robert Kurson, which is about shipwreck divers who stumble across a sunken German U-Boat off the coast of New Jersey. It was gripping and terrifying... one of those books that I stayed up late to read with the booklight on. The divers who poke around in these shipwrecks are pure adrenaline junkies. The descriptions of what happens to the human body when diving at those depths was enough to put me off scuba diving, period. Add to that the extreme danger of exploring in shipwrecks that could collapse at any second, getting the divers entangled in the wreckage with their air supply dwindling... yeah, no way. I'll stick to snorkeling. Anyway, HIGHLY recommend for anyone who likes adventure nonfiction, a la Into Thin Air.

50% of the way through Rumaan Alam's "Entitlement." I think it's going to be a DNF. A friend raved about it but I'm not getting much out of it.

I am a diver and a lot of people who get killed in wrecks make stupid mistakes. I’ve been in a number of wrecks where people die. It’s usually from preventable causes.

Here’s a hot tip, string a line. And don’t use an acetylene torch on the live ammo, even if it has been there since WW2.

I’m not going to get into specifics of that wreck but mistakes were made, mistakes that cost people their lives and that were avoidable.

But most people who die in scuba-related incidents have MIs under water, etc. it’s a pretty safe sport at the rec level.

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Anonymous wrote:I finally finished "The Last Thing He Told Me" by Laura Dave.
It is about a woman who has been married for one year. She has a 16 year old stepdaughter, whose mom died when she was little. One day the husband disappears. The wife and stepdaughter try to track him down. They eventually learn that he and the daughter had been in the witness protection program since the girl was 4.
The book never really grabbed me. I am not sure if that is because I only had small snippets of time every few days available to listen to it, or if the book was just plain meh. It was good enough that I kept going to the end though.

Thanks for ruining that one for us. 😳

Yeah, sorry. After I posted and re-read what I had posted I realized I probably gave a little too much detail. It was too late to fix it once I had already posted.
But there were lots of other mysteries to solve along the way in the book.

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Anonymous wrote:I'm reading Endurance: Shackelton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. It was recommended by a coworker and it's very good. I've had it on hold since mid-January and just got it from my local library.

Love this book!

Anonymous wrote:Finished "Shadow Divers" by Robert Kurson, which is about shipwreck divers who stumble across a sunken German U-Boat off the coast of New Jersey. It was gripping and terrifying... one of those books that I stayed up late to read with the booklight on. The divers who poke around in these shipwrecks are pure adrenaline junkies. The descriptions of what happens to the human body when diving at those depths was enough to put me off scuba diving, period. Add to that the extreme danger of exploring in shipwrecks that could collapse at any second, getting the divers entangled in the wreckage with their air supply dwindling... yeah, no way. I'll stick to snorkeling. Anyway, HIGHLY recommend for anyone who likes adventure nonfiction, a la Into Thin Air.

50% of the way through Rumaan Alam's "Entitlement." I think it's going to be a DNF. A friend raved about it but I'm not getting much out of it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I finally finished "The Last Thing He Told Me" by Laura Dave.
It is about a woman who has been married for one year. She has a 16 year old stepdaughter, whose mom died when she was little. One day the husband disappears. The wife and stepdaughter try to track him down. They eventually learn that he and the daughter had been in the witness protection program since the girl was 4.
The book never really grabbed me. I am not sure if that is because I only had small snippets of time every few days available to listen to it, or if the book was just plain meh. It was good enough that I kept going to the end though.

Thanks for ruining that one for us. 😳

Anonymous wrote:I finally finished "The Last Thing He Told Me" by Laura Dave.
It is about a woman who has been married for one year. She has a 16 year old stepdaughter, whose mom died when she was little. One day the husband disappears. The wife and stepdaughter try to track him down. They eventually learn that he and the daughter had been in the witness protection program since the girl was 4.
The book never really grabbed me. I am not sure if that is because I only had small snippets of time every few days available to listen to it, or if the book was just plain meh. It was good enough that I kept going to the end though.