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Just finished a really great page turner: "The Nature of Fragile Things" by Susan Meissner. Recommended if you like mystery
I liked that book too, it was quite different than what I was expecting when I read the synapse, but good.
Finished "The Three Sisters" by Heather Morris. The beginning was interesting, but went downhill quick. The characters were based off real-life people and there were photos included in the back of the book. Overall, was disappointed in it.
I just began Kristin Harmel's latest book "The Forest of Vanishing Stars". It is much more violent than her previous books and not my style, but because I bought it.... I feel compelled to finish it.
Zucked : waking up to the Facebook catastrophe / Roger McNamee, c2019, Penguin Press, 302.3028 MCNA.
Subjects
Zuckerberg, Mark, -- 1984- -- Influence.
Facebook (Electronic resource) -- Social aspects.
Online social networks -- Political aspects -- United States.
Disinformation -- United States.
Propaganda -- Technological innovations.
United States -- Politics and government.
Summary
"If you had told Roger McNamee even three years ago that he would soon be devoting himself to stopping Facebook from destroying our democracy, he would have howled with laughter. He had mentored many tech leaders in his illustrious career as an investor, but few things had made him prouder--or been better for his fund's bottom line--than his early service to Mark Zuckerberg. Still a large shareholder in Facebook, he had every good reason to stay on the bright side. Until he no longer could. Zucked is McNamee's insider reckoning with the catastrophic failure of the head of one of the world's most powerful companies to face up to the damage he is doing. It's a story that begins with a series of rude awakenings. First there is the author's dawning realization that the platform has empowered some very bad actors. Then, even more unsettling, he finds that Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg are politely unwilling to share his concerns. And then comes the election of Donald Trump and a parade of horrific news about Facebook's role in the 2016 election. To McNamee's shock, Facebook's leaders continue to duck and dissemble, viewing the matter as a public relations problem. Now thoroughly alienated, McNamee digs into the issue. Soon he and a dream team of Silicon Valley technologists are charging into the fray to raise consciousness about the existential threat of Facebook--and, more broadly, the persuasion architecture of the attention economy--to our public health and to our political order. Zucked is both an enthralling personal narrative and a larger tale of an unmoored business sector inadvertently creating a political and cultural crisis with new tools that summon the darker angels of our nature. Like Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window, Roger McNamee happened to be in the right place to witness a crime, and it took him some time to make sense of what he was seeing and what we ought to do about it. The result of that effort is a wise, hard-hitting, and urgently necessary account that crystallizes the issue definitively for the rest of us."--Dust jacket.
Length
336 pages ; 2 appendices, bibliographic essay (good for further reading), index
A nuts & bolts view of Zuckerberg, Facebook, an ethos that worships success above all else. An attractive black hole, powerful enough to trap light.
I recently joined a book club so I'm reading things that I don't usually read, which is (so far anyway) more lift than drag!
I recently finished "Something To Live For" by Richard Roper (aka "How Not To Die Alone") and I thoroughly enjoyed this look into the life of a British council person who is in charge of processing the bodies of people who have died alone.
I am now reading "From Afar" and it is about the three wise men of the bible, and so far it's interesting.
Prior to joining the book club, I read (and just wrapped up) "The Virgin's Lover" which is by Phillipa Gregory and is about Queen Elizabeth 1 and Robert Dudley. I LOVED that book but of course I would since I am fascinated by the Tudors and since I enjoy reading Phillipa Gregory.
Just finished The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister. She wrote "The School of Essential Ingredients" about an adult cooking class and the students, and their stories. Very sensual approach to cooking, and life.
The Scent Keeper is about the magic of fragrance and how they conjure up memories, and moods. Really, really well done and now I want to make cardamom bread.
This reminds me of a book that I read a few years ago, called The Yokota Officer's Club. It was about a childhood spent on Yokota Air Force Base and the author's dad was an officer and her childhood was in the 1960s there. WOW, what are the chances, right? I mean, that's my life.
Every chapter was titled with a scent. I had totally forgotten that the pool area, where I took swimming lessons, smelled like chlorine, Coppertone, and cigarettes. As soon as she said that, I was quickly taken back to that time. It was amazing actually.
Just finished The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister. She wrote "The School of Essential Ingredients" about an adult cooking class and the students, and their stories. Very sensual approach to cooking, and life.
The Scent Keeper is about the magic of fragrance and how they conjure up memories, and moods. Really, really well done and now I want to make cardamom bread.
Prior to joining the book club, I read (and just wrapped up) "The Virgin's Lover" which is by Phillipa Gregory and is about Queen Elizabeth 1 and Robert Dudley. I LOVED that book but of course I would since I am fascinated by the Tudors and since I enjoy reading Phillipa Gregory.
Thank you for sharing this. I find many of Philippa Gregory's books really really good! My favorite so far was The Other Boleyn Girl. I also enjoyed The Boleyn Inheritance and The Constant Princess.
The Queen's Fool was not as good.
I also read The Lady of the Rivers at the beginning of this year which was a real dissapointment . The White Queen, next book of the series was better. The Red Queen is already sitting on my shelf
Did you read her Wideacre trilogy. It has nothing to do with kings and queens but is a terrific story!
I recently joined a book club so I'm reading things that I don't usually read, which is (so far anyway) more lift than drag!
I recently finished "Something To Live For" by Richard Roper (aka "How Not To Die Alone") and I thoroughly enjoyed this look into the life of a British council person who is in charge of processing the bodies of people who have died alone.
I am now reading "From Afar" and it is about the three wise men of the bible, and so far it's interesting.
Prior to joining the book club, I read (and just wrapped up) "The Virgin's Lover" which is by Phillipa Gregory and is about Queen Elizabeth 1 and Robert Dudley. I LOVED that book but of course I would since I am fascinated by the Tudors and since I enjoy reading Phillipa Gregory.
This is why I love my book club, I read books I would never have picked up in a million years, & enjoyed them.
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And I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
. The White Queen, next book of the series was better. The Red Queen is already sitting on my shelf 
