What Are You Reading Now?: 3/28/2026.

Currently working on Dust. Of Monsters and Mainframes and Appeasement will follow.

Moving on to the start of the new month with An Army in Crisis and Carl's Doomsday Scenario.

Just got back to The Yellow House: A Memoir by Sarah M. Broom, a family history about an African American family in New Orleans.

I'm listening to Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin, and I'm currently without a paper book to read. I can't seem to get into any story on my TBR shelves.

I'm still reading and loving Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao.

I'm two-thirds of the way through Kalevala which I'm enjoying, but I do have to take it in small doses or I become lost. The poem switches points of view often. It's easy to forget that the narrator has switched from the author telling a story to a character in the story telling a story.

Currently reading a cozy mystery Vice and Virtue by Libby Klein.

Hi all, I’ve forgotten to post here for the last several weeks. A few days ago I finished Buckeye by Patrick Ryan which was long but a really good historical, family saga.

Now I’m enjoying This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page which is not as fluffy as the cover would lead you to believe.

Jaws – Peter Benchley
Book on CD read by Erik Steele
4****

UPDATED: 23 June 2025

A great white shark is terrorizing the residents of a Long Island community that relies on summer visitors for its economic health. Political concerns seem to have sharper teeth than the great white, however.

I've read this book three times previously, and the rating is based on my first impression. The first time was shortly after it was published (before I saw the movie). I read it again in the mid-1980s and found it just as suspenseful and terrifying. (Benchley has since gone on to study and try to save this endangered species.)

I listened to the audio this time around, capably narrated by Erik Steele. I was struck by how long it takes for the shark hunt to happen, and how much time is spent on the political and marital difficulties that Sheriff Brody has to navigate before he even gets out on the water. Also, there is a significant plot involving a mafia-like loan "shark" that was thankfully cut from the movie. I didn't think it served the basic plot at all.

I would probably only rate it three stars today, but I’ll leave my rating as it was when I first read it. I am reminded, though, in this 50th anniversary of the movie being released, how great the film version is. Spielberg really tightened the plot, removing extraneous subplots that detract from the shark's menace, and crafting a marvelously suspenseful film. As I recall, when I saw it in the theater I watched most of it with my feet up on the (empty) seat in front of me ... lest a shark grab my ankles from below ...

Anvils, Mallets & Dynamite: The Unauthorized Biography of Looney Tunes
Jaime Weinman
4/5 stars
Wonderful book about the history history of the Looney Toons cartoons. Books On Entertainment

Another slightly early post of the new thread.

The new thread is up over here.