Song of Susannah - Stephen King (The Dark Tower, Bk. 6)

 I took a big, long break from Stephen King, but I'm glad I came back with this one. I love how meta King is in some of his books, but this one really takes the cake. LOVE it! This was a great book, assuming you liked the others in the series. 

I, The Jury - Mickey Spillane (The Mike Hammer Collection, Bk. 1)

 I know it's old, but this was just completely ridiculous. The MC is needlessly violent and weak-willed, he just fucks everything. His response to any kind of wall, or setback, or stubborn person who doesn't immediately tell him what he wants to know is to threaten to beat them up and then they just cave? Does the author seriously think the world works that way? He just runs around and kills several people but because he's a police liscenced PI, it's ok. They just let him go on his merry way. What even? 

Solving the mystery was convoluted and didn't really make much sense, yet despite the "why" being out of reach the "bad guy" was super obvious from the very beginning. This book was bad! Just absurd.

The Whisper Man - Alex North

 This one was a recommendation from another writer, so I was honestly expecting a little more. The story was ok, the writing was ok, the pace was ok, the "surprise" was ok.  Overall, the whole book was just ok.

Don't Know much about History: Everything you need to know about American history but never learned - Kenneth C. Davis

I think I know a fair bit about American history. I did fairly well in my HS American history class and have been reading more detailed accounts of various events since then, but a general refresher never hurt.  This book also included recent history that had not yet occurred when I was still in high school, so it details events I experienced but having them all put together in a single timeline really puts them into perspective.  At the time, I did not realize how impactful much of those lived experiences would be.  It also goes over the 80's in much detail, which generally got left out of history books because it was too recent to get to in class, but too far for me to remember/experience. Regan really was an awful man! Jeeze!  I would recommend this book to anyone, young or old, either because you will soon encounter this stuff in class and having a slight head start always helps or because I know you don't remember much from your history class.  

Some notes I took from this book: 

"America has always had a love affair with simple solutions to complex problems. Indians on good land? Move 'em out! You want Texas? Start a war with Mexico! Crime problem? Bring back the death penalty! Prayer in schools will solve the moral lapse in the nation! Bussing school children will end racial segregation. The solutions always seem so simple when politicians proclaim them. Masses take up the cry and laws are passed with an outpouring of irresistible popular support. The problem is that these broad solutions rarely work the way they are supposed to." (section discussing the 18th Amendment) Does that sound familiar?

"The easy-going rules of the day meant that investors only had to put down 10-20% in cash to buy stock. The rest was available on cheap credit. The Federal Reserve fed the frenzy with artificially low interest rates set by old-line republicans beholden only to their corporate pals. The banks loaned millions to feed speculative schemes. The American public was in enormous debt and their 'wealth' was all on paper." (section discussing the Great Depression) Does that sound familiar?

"Although people thought of the 1990's as the decade of economic prosperity, 11 states experienced increased poverty. In terms of weekly wages, census data showed that most gains were made by those already earning the most with the lower wage-earners making much smaller gains. In other words, the rising tide lifted all boats, but some boats were lifted a little higher. Or as one of the pigs in George Orwell's Animal Farm put it, "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." Most shocking of all was the fact that child poverty remains one of America's most stunning failures. Overall, the nation's official child poverty rate fell to 16%, which is still above the lows of the late 1960's and 1970's when it was around 14%. Even with reduced childhood poverty, the United States lags behind most other wealthy nations. America's poorest children have a lower standard of living that those in the bottom 10% of any other (industrialized) nation except Britain. And in a country whose political leadership routinely said, "No child will be left behind." American infant mortality rates ranks 33rd in the world, only slightly better than Cuba's.   18% of women in America received no prenatal care. 14% of children have no medical care." (PS: I believe this was written before the ACA was enacted and I would like to know if these stats are still accurate. As of 2020, America ranked 33/37 in infant mortality. As of 2021: 6.3% of women didn't get prenatal care, 5.0% of children don't have insurance healthcare. The US is currently ranked 64/186 in maternal mortality, the lowest of any first world nation.)