Book Lovers Come On In

 Well, of course, one has to like this little short book about Nathan Glad.  He was born with a rare disease where his bones just break.  He cannot walk, but he can use his arms and hands. I heard about this book from my Sister-in-law, Shauna, who serves with him on a mission. He is positive, grateful, and happy; all of which he has reasons to NOT be those things. I enjoyed it and was glad to learn about Nathan Glad.  4 stars.

  True story of a medical student during WWII during a training exercise, he becomes ill and dies. For about 11 hours, he is deceased and is led by God (Jesus?) to hell and to heaven.  He sees the kind of lives the people are living in those areas. He is led back to his body and even tho he was sent to the morgue, a medical assist discovers he is alive. I give it three stars.  Just not really my thing, although I believe in God, the afterlife, and encounters of this sort.  

 This is the second time I've listened to this book.  I LOVED it the first time, since it was all new and I didn't know about baseball at all. This time around, it wasn't as fresh or entertaining, but it is definitely a good look at growing up in the 1950's.  Doris grew to love baseball from her father and the book is based around that love.  But, it's also about a country growing up and changing.  Doris is a big part of that as history in America changes; first integrated school in Alabama, Sputnik and being humiliated by the Russians, Her beloved baseball teams moving to the West.   It's a fast, easy listen, but I doubt I'll listen again.  Too many other great books to listen.

  I had listened to it before, but I listened again.  I was just as shocked as I was the first time.  It's an incredible story of a good guy gone bad.   Nothing - no one - matters when it involved making money and earning more.  And, yet, he lived like a poor person; same old clothing, scruffy apartments.   Ross Ulbricht sold drugs, money, body parts, guns, fake id's, passports, anything contraband on the dark web.  His site was called The Silk Road.  He paid money to have people who betrayed or stole from him murdered, although no proof of any murder could ever be found.  He maintained it and eluded capture for about three years. When caught, he was sentenced to two lifetimes and 40 months in person.  When I finished listening to it, I was like - yeah, he's not out luring more young people to the horrific site. But, then in a twist, he was set free by our very bad president, Donald Trump.  True was promised the vote of the libertar...

 WOW...just WOW!  Fantastic book.  About a subject I knew absolutely NOTHING about! Well, of course, I knew about WWII, but I had no idea that the Japanese took over the small island of Java, which is part of Indonesia and was, at that time, ruled by the Dutch.   When the Japanese invaded the island, the Dutch people were rounded up and put in camps, much like the European concentrations camps; little food and water; disease, and in this case, a terrible MEAN Japanese camp director.  The abuse was so hard to read about - making them stand out for roll call, and if anyone messed up, he would start all over, he would slap the women and children.  He got so angry one time, that they had no food or water for three days!  (No men were in this camp, but were in another camp on the island.) I give this 4.5 stars.   As a side note, Bonnie Rawson told me that the book was written by the author of Slow March of Light; a book I read earlier about a friend we...

 YA Novel about a young girl going to live with friends on Martha's Vineyard for a summer.  It's a very quick read and involved a mystery. At the end, the most unlikely person was the guilty person, so it seemed a little hokey.   I give it 3.5 stars.