July AlphaKIT: K and A

July AlphaKIT letters are :

and

Remember to update the wiki here: http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/2016_Unofficial_AlphaKIT#July

Think I'll read America America by Ethan Canin and The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen.

Hoping to read:
Artifact - Gregory Benford
The Heroes - Joe Abercrombie
The Stockholm Octavo - Karen Engleman
Blue Lightning - Ann Cleeves

Yippee!

Now, what can I plan to read...?

I am planning on The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison and These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman.

I may be reading this one, anyway (though I need to double check my library):
Arkham Woods by Christopher Rowley.

Here are the ones I'm considering for July!

Boundary Waters by William Kent Kreuger
Coolidge by Amity Shlaes
Diva Frosts a Cupcake by Krista Davis
✔Earl's Bethrothal by Karen Tuft
✔For Cheddar or Worse by Avery Aames
Gilt by Association
✔Killer Look
Lady Risks All
Mind over Murder by Allison Kingsley
✔A Most Curious Murder by Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli
On Borrowed Time by Jenn McKinlay
Poisoned Prose by Ellery Adams
Secret Affair
Way of the Wicked by Ellery Adams
You Better Knot Die

>7 cyderry: wow, what a list!

Lots of A's but the only K's I can see on my TBR shelves are books by Francis King and Noel Kingsbury.

I have another option for A, but I had to request it via ILL. It sometimes takes a while to get those, so I may not get to it for July (but I'm hoping!).

Jaguar: Struggle and Triumph in the Jungles of Belize / Alan Rabinowitz

And a couple of options for K that also fit other challenges:
Mariana / Susanna Kearsley
The Firebird / Susanna Kearsley

Ha! The more I look, I find others...

Being Mortal / Atul Gawande
The Mysterious Affair at Styles / Agatha Christie
The Man Who Made Lists / Joshua Kendall (which could have also fit this month's DeweyCAT and I didn't realize till now!)

If any of you have a Russell and Holmes book waiting on the shelves, July would be a good time to read one of those books by Laurie R. King.

I might get back to reading my remaining books by Stuart Kaminsky. I put off finishing the Rostnikov series, as I am missing one in the middle (Tarnished Icons), and hate to skip it.

Alistair MacLean would be another good choice for this month.

I've just started a chunkster, "The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia", which should take me well into July.

I'm planning on reading Just After Sunset by Stephen King. Don't have anything on the radar yet for A.

I have lots of choices for A but only the audiobook of Kidnapped for K... I'll have to check out what the library has that appeals.

some of the 'A' books on my shelves/Kindle/iPod:
The African Queen
Atonement
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle
Augustus Does His Bit
The Art of Detection
At Large
Dragonfly in Amber
Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Svejk
Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye

I read On Writing by Stephen King

Finished Keeper of Lost Causes which was quite enjoyable. Look forward to reading more in the series.

I just finished a fabulous book, What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty.

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End / Atul Gawande
4 stars

Gawande is a surgeon and he decided to take a closer look at what people really want when they are dying. Medicine tries to fix everything, no matter the cost to the lifestyle of the person being “fixed”. But, people don't always necessarily want to go through what needs to be done to fix them, medically, when it compromises what is left of their life. Gawande looks at gerontology, as well as terminal illnesses. He visits nursing homes, assisted living homes, etc; interviews people in charge of these places, in addition to people who work in hospice care; he also interviews the people going through all this, and their doctors.

This is a very interesting book. In the end, one hopes that things will get better and not have everything so clinical, controlled, etc, which all takes away from quality of life.

I finished the 10th in the Italian mystery series featuring Inspector Montalbano, August Heat by Andrea Camilleri.

I read Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid which fits both the A (Annie) and the K for Kincaid and fit the GeoCat for Antigua.

I read America America by Ethan Canin.

>22 LittleTaiko: Is that the basis of the 1963 Eli Kazan film?

>23 leslie.98: - No, totally different things. The book was written after the movie. Weird that they have the same titles though.

I hit the A in both title and author this time: And thereby hangs a tale by Jeffrey Archer

I completed Just After Sunset by Stephen King.

August thread is up: http://www.librarything.com/topic/227052

I read a novella by Georges Simenon called Aboard the Aquitaine - it was in an omnibus called African Trio...

I finished The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams

>19 LibraryCin:, I read that one last year and I thought it was excellent.

I have read The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton, a double serve of K there!

>30 Roro8: I love Kate Morton!

I finished listening to the audiobook of Kidnapped...

The Man Who Made Lists / Joshua Kendall
3 stars

During the 19th century, Peter Roget grew up without his father and with a mother who smothered him. Both his mother and later, his sister, had some mental issues later in life. Roget loved classifying things and making lists. He was extremely smart and grew up to become a physician; his preference was to lecture and experiment. Throughout his life, he kept word lists, but it was only when he retired that he focused his time on writing and publishing his now world-famous thesaurus.

It was ok. I don't think I found it quite as interesting as the recent book I read on the history of the Oxford English Dictionary. Much of it was interesting, but there were also parts where my mind would wander. Overall, ok.

>31 cyderry:, Me too, I just bought The Lake House. Have you read that one?

Finished A Death in the Family by James Agee.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society / Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows
3 stars

2009 review: 3.5 stars

It is 1946. Juliet is an author, who starts receiving letters from various people who are part of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. She becomes good friends with them and decides to go visit them to learn more about the German Occupation of the Channel Islands during WWII, and to hear people’s stories in hopes of possibly turning those stories into a book.

It was good, but I can’t rave about it as other people have. Maybe I suffered from too high expectations? I’m not sure. I enjoyed the second half more after Juliet moved to Guernsey. It was also interesting to hear stories of the German Occupation. I have been to St. Peter Port as well, so I could (sort of, with a time difference) picture it in my mind, which was a nice bonus.

2016: review 3 stars. Audio. I pretty much agree with my original review of this book, but I'm rating it slightly lower this time around. I did feel that the book picked up about ½ of the way through, up to about ¾ of the way through, then if felt like it slowed down again. I listened to the audio this time, and it was done very well, with five different narrators. I guess the picking up in the second half was enough last time to up my rating to 3.5, but thinking back, I actually wonder if I did that because I thought I *should* like it more, as so many others loved it, but this time around, I feel like I'm being more honest, leaving it at a 3 star (ok) rating.

>36 LibraryCin: I agree with your three stars. I thought the story was going in one direction and then it changed entirely. I suppose it was because the original author became ill and her niece finished the book which ruined the continuity.

>37 VivienneR: Obviously, there are two authors, but I hadn't realized the circumstances for it!

Starting Cold Snap by Francis King.

COMPLETED Cold Snap by Francis King and The Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire by Doris Lessing.

I've gotten in two "A" reads this month: Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbott and After Midnight by Helen Nielsen. A "K" does not look likely, though.

I read this YA audiofile/sync summer free download. How it Went Down by Kekla Magoon.

Just finished Death of My Aunt by C.H.B. Kitchin hitting both K and A.

I have completed The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison for this month's AlphaKit.

>32 leslie.98: did you like Kidnapped? I enjoyed it, although the words sometimes confused me!

I am on the last pages of After Many Days, a nice collection of stories by L.M. Montgomery.

I have now completed my "K" read with These Broken Stars by Aimee Kaufman.

>45 fuzzi: I did enjoy it -- enough that I read the sequel (via audiobook) Catriona. The language in that one was much more Scottish! In fact, it impeded my understanding enough that I had to resort to my Kindle edition, which had endnotes explaining most of the more obscure Scot words and sayings.

I want to hang my head in shame - I only managed to get 4 books read. That's horrible for me.

Jaguar: Struggle and Triumph in the Jungles of Belize / Alan Rabinowitz
4.5 stars

In the early/mid 1980s, Alan Rabinowitz went to Belize to study jaguars in the wild. He was the first to do so. He found not only was he studying the animals, he was making friends with and learning about the local Maya Indians, and having to plead a case to the Belizean government to protect the area. He spent two years there.

I really liked this. I love animals, so learning about the jaguars was always interesting. It's extra interesting to be able to see the patterns of individual animals, which these kinds of studies do. This also confirmed for me that there are risks (for both human and animal) in these kinds of studies. There were also plenty of frustrating parts where Alan was confronting hunters, marijuana growers, even some of the Maya (who see nothing wrong with shooting any animal, for whatever reason), and having to plead with the government over and over, etc. There are so many obstacles for these animals (and every other animal) to overcome. It can be frustrating and heartbreaking.

One more under the wire:

Tillie Pierce: Teen Eyewitness to the Battle of Gettysburg by Tanya Anderson

Me too: Three Blind Mice and Other Stories by Agatha Christie.