Ray Bradbury - The Authors List

Ray Bradbury. The Authors List with 7 books of science fiction I've read over the years but mostly in the 1970's. The first novel was The Martian Chronicles I read as a young teenager and then again in 1971 while overseas. The next three I read while overseas too.

I loved all of his books both novels and short story collections. He was one of my main science fiction influences. The last book I enjoyed was his Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales I read in early 2021 during the pandemic.

Ray Bradbury books I've read:

• The Martian Chronicles, 1950 - Nov 1971
• The Illustrated Man, 1951 - Jan 1972
• Fahrenheit 452, 1953 - May 1972
• Dandelion Wine, 1957 - Oct 1972
• Something Wicked This Way Comes, 1962 - Dec 1974
• I Sing The Body Electric, 1969 - Jan 1982
• Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales, 2003 - Jun 2021

Rick Atkinson - The Authors List

Rick Atkinson. The Authors List with 6 books I've read. They are all books on American history and American wars in particular. The first book I read was a history of the Persian Gulf War written in 1993 and read in 1995. Then I read another book about the Gulf War in 2005. Ten years later I read his trilogy about World War II. In 2022 I started his series about the American Revolution and I should read the second book soon. I've always enjoyed reading books about history and he is a very good historian.

Rick Atkinson books I've read:

• Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War, 1993 - Dec 1995
• In The Company of Soldiers: A Chronical of Combat in Iraq, 2004 - Aug 2005
• An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, 2002 - Mar 2014
• The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1955, 2005 - May 2015
• The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945, 2013 - Mar 2016
• The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777, 2019 - Mar 2022

Murder at la Villette - #22

I just finished reading another Cara Black murder mystery novel set in Paris. Murder at la Villette published in 2024. 

This is the 22nd book of hers that I've read and I might just consider this to be a favorite.. this one really had me from the first page to the last. It is also the 21st book in the Aimee Leduc Investigations series. There is only one book in that series, the 2nd one, that I have not read. I read two other books from her Kate Rees WWII series.

I should track down that book I've missed from 2000 while waiting for her next book to come out.

Lawnmower Shopping

Becky and I went over to Home Debot to look at new electric lawnmowers. The woman at the lawnmower area was very knowledgeable and we were impressed. We looked at a few and came away thinking we will be getting a Ryobi self propelled electric mower that will run about $479. We didn't buy it at the time and will probably go over and pick one up early next week.

I had to go into the shed and make some room for it. When we get it someone from the store will load it into the car for me. It will be in a large box. Then when we get home I'll lower the box onto our two wheeler and roll it back to the shed. But first I needed to make some room and rearrange things because everything was stored away for the winter. We also had Sean and Ashely's baby wagon in the shed that they accidently left here last weekend. That takes up a lot of space too. Now I'm ready.

Kevin J. Anderson - The Authors List

Kevin J. Anderson. The Authors List with 8 of his science fiction novels I've read. Seven books were part of the Saga of Seven Suns series which I enjoyed and read over several months in 2016. I also read a Dune prequel he co-authored with Brian Herbert. Most of Anderson's books are spin-off novels including 20 for Star Wars, about another 20 Dune prequels and some X-Files novels.

Kevin J. Anderson books I've read. 

• Hidden Empire, 2002 - Nov 2016
• A Forest of Stars, 2003 - Nov 2016
• Horizon Storms, 2004 - Dec 2016
• Scattered Suns, 2005 - Dec 2016
• Of Fire and Night, 2006 - Jan 2017
• Metal Swarm, 2007 - Jun 2017
• The Ashes of Worlds, 2008 - Sep 2017
• House Atreides, (Dune Prequel with Brian Herbert) 1999 - Mar 2000

Dinner @ the PM

Becky and I walked down to the Parkside Meadow for dinner this evening. We caught a little bit of a rain shower on the way there especially just as we were getting ready to enter the restaurant. It was sunny on the way home.

We had a nice dinner. The dining room was pretty crowded with mostly old folks at some tables and families with kids at other ones. I had a nice fish fry and Becky had  a good beef on weck sandwich.

AAA Trip Planning Info

This morning Becky and I had an appointment at AAA with a travel consultant. Jayne was very knowledgeable and professional. She explained a lot to us but of course we used AAA twice before for our trips to Europe so we knew what we wanted and how to express ourselves. 

We let her know that we were interested in traveling to France and Italy. Maybe both or maybe one or the other.

We left our meeting the meeting with having had a positive experience and a stack of travel books, brochures and print outs. Most of the trips in the resources she gave us to take home were guided tours that usually would spend mostly one day in each place with occasionally a city where we would stay for two days. We're not quite sure we want to spend all of our time traveling between one place and the next.

She also emailed me a link to another AAA site that will be good for customizing trips. I'm looking forward to spending some time exploring that resource.

Grammie Let's Draw

The other day I was sitting in the kitchen with our 2 year old granddaughter Autumn when she looked up at one of Becky's drawings on the wall. Autumn said "Look, I like that." I told her Grammie made that artwork. Autumn then jumped off her chair and ran into the front room exclaiming "Grammie! Let's draw!"

Don DeLillo - The Authors List

Don DeLillo. The Authors List with 7 books that I've read. I came across this writer in 1985 after the publication of White Noise which was his eighth novel. Then I went on to read six more of his novels as they were published over the years. Probably my favorite of his novels is Underworld followed closely by Libra.

Don DeLillo books I've read. 

• White Noise, 1985 - Feb 1986
• Libra, 1988 - Jan 1989
• Underworld, 1997 - Apr 1999
• The Body Artist, 2001 - Apr 2001
• Falling Man, 2007 - Aug 2007
• Zero K, 2016 - Feb 2017
• The Silence, 2020 - Jan 2021

Dashiell Hammett - The Authors List

Dashiell Hammett - The Authors List. I've read six books by this author... all between 1981 and 1983. They included all five of his detective mystery novels and a collection of short stories. The Maltese Falcon was the first of his novels I read and it was also one of my favorite all time movies.

I loved his novels and wish he wrote more of them. Especially with Sam Spade and the Thin Man characters too.

Dashiell Hammett books I've read:

• The Maltese Falcon, 1930 - Jan 1981
• Red Harvest, 1929 - Apr 1981
• The Dain Curse, 1929 - Jun 1981
• The Glass Key, 1931 - Jan 1982
• The Continental Op, 1930 - Mar 1982
• The Thin Man, 1934 - Nov 1983