If your care giving duties allow you time to read.....................I'm interested in what book you are in the middle of or just finished or have waiting on your bedside table.
I'm reading "Total Control" by David Baldacci
It's a crime/thriller drama. Quite compelling.
If you can't find the time to read, you should try. It helps to escape from it all in a good book.
Melanie Benjamin has written some excellent historical novels. My favorite was The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, about the wife of fellow PT Barnum attraction General Tom Thumb. I just love this book.
Harsh? I am in no way qualified to judge. But in any case the point is this crushing remark was part of the author's notes on The Persian Boy, the second volume of her Alexandriad trilogy, and a book I will never tire of re-reading.
I must get my library card reactivated with weeks of recovery coming up so I can explore the digital options available. Seems there is quite an extensive digital library lending site with a valid card.
Any recommendations anyone? I enjoy mysteries, thrillers and the like the best. Might have to see what Dan Brown has available. Haven't read anything of his in a long time.
You might want to add some fluff to your reading list for those times when you can't concentrate on anything deeper.
Have you read any of Margaret Truman's political thrillers? And yes, she's a presidential daughter who knows DC in and out. I've read probably almost all of hers, some of them 3 or 4 times. Her talent clearly progresses after the first few books, and the complications heighten the mysteries.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/1559.Margaret_Truman
Evelyn Anthony is another political writer, but I haven't read any of her books for years, not deliberately, but b/c they're in my "storage" library and I just forgot about them. Hers are more international, if I remember correctly.
And yet another good mystery writer was Alistair MacLean. His novels were set in different countries, adding an international intrigue to the plots. If you've seen Guns of Navarone, Force 10 from Navarone or Ice Station Zebra, you've seen movie adaptations of his novels. Geopolitics seems to be a strong theme in his novels, and always with one spy who's integrated him or herself into US action teams.
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/m/alistair-maclean/
GA, those sound like excellent recommendations. Seems I read a Margaret Truman once, a very long time ago.
I think AI progression beyond human control might be the new science fiction focus.
https://danbrown.com/origin/
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3810.Best_Cozy_Mystery_Series
I've enjoyed almost everything by Charlaine Harris, especially Sookie Stackhouse, Auroa Teagarden and Lily Bard
The Stephanie Plum series by Jan Evanovich is old and I don't know if they've stood the test of time but when I read it I would actually laugh out loud.
I very much enjoyed the China Bayles series by Susan Wittig Albert
If you like cat mysteries the Joe Grey books by Shirley Rousseau Murphy are fun
Another easy read is the Miss Julia series by Ann B. Ross
I've been on a bad book streak lately. You know that feeling when you finish a book and say to yourself, well, theres a few hours I can never get back. 🤔
Novel by Eric Van Lustbader
I got the book from a “Little Free Library” in my neighborhood. Take a look at www.littlefreelibraries.org. There may be one near you. Take a book. Leave a book.
The descriptions of life in the country, on a ranch or farm, are so diametrically opposite from life in a heavily populated metropolitan area that I find myself relaxing as soon as I pick up one of the magazines, some of which I've read twice.
I understand why Dad read them so faithfully; they were soothing and while not necessarily absorbing, they redirected attention from tense books, or political issues plaguing the country, or pandemics. They reminded him of better days, and of less friction that our modern life seems to entail. I'm really enjoying these magazines and decided to keep them instead of donating them. I can read them every year or so, or especially when I get neurotic.
It was unsettling to read about using Lysol on the patient (actually, I more than cringed!), but the tenacity of the family in dealing with the situation was inspiring.
I wonder if people would buy magazines which addressed only negative situations. We read about that daily online!
It comes across loud and clear that the trade association management and the journalists aren’t actually living it. I once asked a guy who was well connected in wool production, if any of the Board would ever have washed a woolen jumper and dried it flat, after several articles about how much better wool was than any of the synthetics. He thought for several seconds, then said ‘probably not’. It would be reassuring to feel that the powers that be do actually know about the problems in the industry!
Anyway that’s enough. I’m glad that someone finds it so pleasurable and relaxing to read about, and particularly glad that the someone is you, Garden Artist!
I love those magazines too. I live in the country and it brings back many memories of years gone by with my family. We were very close growning up.
Don't let anyone take away your pleasure of reading upbeat stories. In a world of negativity and stress it is great to have some good reading that is postive.