Author: ekkarn

Let’s Talk Action Thrillers!!

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 Thoughts about the Action Thrillers that I have Read and those I Still Read!

I guess I started reading action thrillers back in the early 1980s, when a work colleague introduced me to the works of Clive Cussler and his hero Dirk Pitt! My first encounter with Mr. Pitt was in the book Raise the Titanic. I quickly went back and read his previous books and continued to follow Dirk’s adventures for several years. The novels always had a good mix of history and action.

At the same time I started to read The November Man novels from Bill Granger. The November Man books were James Bond and Jason Bourne type novels with an intriguing character. I followed this series for many years reading most of the twelve books in the series.

During this period, I also read most of Robert Ludlum;s action thrillers, along with books from David Morrell like The Brotherhood of the Rose and The League of Night and Fog. Richard Hoyt was another author whose action thrillers I enjoyed. His character was James Burlane.

I also read several of the John LeCarre George Smiley novels I know for sure that I read The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and I may have read another but I’m not sure.

More recently the three action thriller series that I have followed, though I am way behind on all of them are the Mitch Rapp novels of Vince Flynn, Brad Thor’s Scott Harvath novels and Alex Berenson’s John Wells series. I have enjoyed all the books in these series, but over the last few years, I have read fewer and fewer of these types of books. At this point I think I will just have to just pick up one of the recent books, read it, and then go back and read the earlier one. It seems that if I don’t do that, I will just keep putting off reading books that I like!!!

One action thriller series, that I have kept up with pretty well, is the James Rollins Sigma Force series. The latest book in that series is The Bone Labyrinth, which is number 11 in the series. I have read all of the books except the first book Sandstorm and the two most recent books The 6th Extinction and of course The Bone Labyrinth. I have both of those books checked out of the library right now and Sandstorm has been on my TBR pile forever!!

Prior to starting the Sigma Force Series, Rollins wrote several standalone thrillers like Subterranean, Excavation and Deep Fathom all of which were great reads

Hey I forgot the Gabriel Allon books from Daniel Silva.and what about the Bob Lee Swagger books fromStephen Hunter, those are good too!! Can you say too many books too little time!!

Now I haven’t even touch on the suspense and psychological thrillers that I have read…….that’s for later now it’s back toThe Forgotten Room by Lincoln Child. Child is half of the writing team of Preston & Child whose Pendergrast series I also have read!! Hmm, that reminds me that the Pendergrast series is up to Book 15 and that I am only on book 7 …..argh!

So who is your favorite action thriller character????? Hmm, maybe Mitch Rapp, no John Wells…….

 

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Pretty Girls: Karin Slaughter – Her Ho. 1- Yes, Sir!

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Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

So it seems that I oftentimes avoid reading stand alone books written by authors whose series are among my favorites. This was the case with Karin Slaughter’s stand alone novel Pretty Girls, which was released in September of 2015.

However, when I saw that the Kindle Edition was on sale for $3.99 the other day, I thought now is the time! All I can say is Wow! What a fool I am!! And bring on William Kent Krueger‘s Ordinary Grace!

I guess one of the reasons that I avoid stand alone novels is that I’m afraid that they won’t measure up to the series that I love! In the case of Karin Slaughter that series is the Grant County/ Will Trent Atlanta series. Hmm, let’s see Pretty Girls not only measured up it may be the best book that Karin Slaughter has written, and at least one of my top favorites of her books.

The Story

The story revolves around two events. One the 1991 disappearance of the teen-aged Julia Carroll and the second is the murder of millionaire Paul the husband of Claire Carroll Juila’s sister. When Julia disappeared the Carroll family was torn apart Claire’s sister Lydia turned to drugs to ease the pain, While their parents marriage fell apart and their father eventually committed suicide. Claire forced Lydia out of her life after Lydia accused Paul of attempting to rape her!

After Paul’s death Claire discovers that her husband had a secret life that involved rape, snuff films and stalking women including her sister Lydia. Soon Claire asks Lydia to help her unravel all of Paul’s mysteries and the sisters are pulled into a very dark and dangerous world that may provide closure to their sister’s disappearance, but it may also cost them their lives!!

Praise for Pretty Girls

“Searing, searching, soulful: a major achievement…Every Karin Slaughter novel is a cause for celebration — but simply put, Pretty Girls is the finest novel of her career.” (Kathy Reichs, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Speaking in Bones)

“Unique in voice, brilliantly plotted…an uncompromising depiction of pure evil…Slaughter has managed the most difficult of feats–to tell a gripping, page turning

crime story…. Fiction doesn’t get any better than this.” (Jeffery Deaver, New York Times-bestselling author of Solitude Creek and The Skin Collector)

Final Thoughts

Read this Book!! Like the above authors said – it doesn’t get much better than Pretty Girls. I think that I read this book about as quickly as any book I have ever read! I literally couldn’t put it down or turn the pages fast enough!! Five Stars for Book 10 of 2016, which should have been read back in 2015!

Links

Author’s Website
Facebook
Save the Libraries
Amazon
Goodreads

About Karin Slaughter

Karin Slaughter (born January 6, 1971) is an American crime writer. She has written 25 novels, which have sold more than 40 million copies and have been published in 120 countries. Her first novel, Blindsighted (2001), was published in 27 language and made the Crime Writers’ Association’s Dagger Award shortlist for “Best Thriller Debut” of 2001. Wikipedia

Visit Karin Slaughter Page

 

Jason Marsalis – Vibes the Marsalis Way!!

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Jason Marsalis :Vibraphone Born: March 4, 1977

 

So a while back I came across the album In a World of Mallets by Jason Marsalis. I listened to the album because the lead instrument was a vibraphone and not because of the name Marsalis. In fact I didn’t even make the connection until today, when I was reading about Jason, who is celebrating his thirty-ninth (39) birthday today. I read that Jason was in fact the youngest of the famous Marsalis family ,led by father Ellis and includes brothers Wynton, Bradford and Delfeayo!. I felt a little better about not knowing who he was after I read at All About Jazz that…..

(Jason) Marsalis is the mostly “unknown” part of one of jazz music’s first families, but is spot-on with his artistry on In A World Of Mallets.

About Jason Marsalis

Jason Marsalis has been throughout his career has primarily been a drummer and percussionist.He started his musical career playing with the Marcus Roberts Trio in 1995. In 1998 he became a founding member of the highly successful Los Hombres Calientes. Jason was with the band which features Latin jazz rhythms flavored with Brazilian and Afro-Cuban soul for the first two albums and then left in 2000 before the band received its first Grammy nomination to focus more on the work of the Marcus Roberts Trio. This was around the time that Marsalis began playing vibes. During this period he was recorded playing the vibes with clarinetist Tim Laughlin and drummer Shannon Powell. In addition he began leading his own band, playing vibes

Marsalis stayed busy over the next few years. He spent part of the time in Japan. He spent another helping his hometown of New Orléans. As he aided the city’s recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.You can read his complete biography here

 

About In a World of Mallets 

IIn a World of Malletsn a World of Mallets was released in March of 2013. The album rose to number 1 on the CMJ Radio Charts. The album also won an Offbeat Magazine award, a New Orleans music magazine, for best Contemporary Jazz Album. On the album Marsalis plays marimba, glockenspiel, tubular bells, vibraphone, xylophone. Supporting Jason on the album are: Will Goble: bass; David Potter: drums; Austin Johnson: piano. Matt Collar at AllMusic writes…

 

…. Marsalis leads them through a handful of his own original compositions (and some by his band mates) that reveal his own bent toward mixing urbane classical themes, bluesy swing, and contrapuntal post-bop sections. In that sense, tracks like the epic “Blues Can Be Abstract, Too,” and the jaunty “Blues for the 29%ers,” bring to mind work of his brother’s Wynton and Branford. This is especially true when the band moves back and forth, doubling up the time between phrases in a kind of fractured, slightly outré post-Thelonious Monk swing style. Which isn’t to say this is avant-garde music.

However, there is kind of a cerebral, yet playful classical aesthetic at work on In a World of Mallets. This is perhaps best displayed on the opening and ending cuts, “Discipline Discovers a World of Mallets,” and “Discipline Gets Lost in a World of Mallets,” in which Marsalis layers his vibes and bells and various percussion instruments to create a kind of chamber jazz sound Full Review

Final Thoughts

Well, that explains, why I didn’t really like this album that much the first time I heard it! At first, I thought the album was a little more avant garde than what I usually listen to. However, I did listen to the album more closely today and found I liked several of the tracks. Although, I thought that at times the music was a little too carnival sounding for my taste. But I will reserve final judgment though  until I’ve listened to the album a few more times. So that I don’t say I don’t like it.  Then need to eat my words, like I’ve done many times before!!!

So Happy Birthday, Jason Marsalis!!  Let’s listen to Jason and the Vibes Quartet perform “Ballet Class” from In a World of Mallets!

Orphan X – Gregg Hurwitz – Book 9 of 2016

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Gregg Hurwitz – New Evan Smoak series is off to a great start with Orphan X ****

Gregg Hurwitz is one of those authors whose books I read sporadically and when I  do read one of his books, after I finish it I usually say “Can You Tell me Edward, why you don’t read every Hurwitz book when it comes out?? To which I answer simply no – which is better than omitting I am a fool!! So when I recently saw that Hurwitz had started a new series and the first book Orphan X would be released soon, I knew I’d be a fool again not to read it!! Having just finished it the other day – I can say I am thankful I am not an old fool and bring on book 2 of the Evan Smoak series!!

In Evan Smoak Gregg Hurwitz has created a fantastic new character Evan is a…..

…. man with skills, resources, and a personal mission to help those with nowhere else to turn. He’s also a man with a dangerous past. Chosen as a child, he was raised and trained as part of the off-the-books black box Orphan program, designed to create the perfect deniable intelligence assets—i.e. assassins. He was Orphan X……

But after many assassinations and other operations Evan broke with the program and went off the radar, when he was asked to kill another Orphan, Evan became that Nowhere Man helping those who can’t help themselves. In Orphan X, soon after saving a young girl and her sister  from an evil cop Evan attempts to  help another woman Katrin, who has a mob hit team out to eliminate her. Evan soon discovers that he, and not Katrin is the hit team’s target. He is now faced with the task of beating a hit team composed of operatives who are as good as he is!!

From then on the action is fast and furious and the pages flew by. Here’s what author Tess Gerritsen writes about the book……

“Orphan X is the most gripping, high-octane thriller I’ve read in a long, long time. Hang onto your seat because Gregg Hurwitz will take you on a dizzying ride you’ll not soon forget

The first book that I read by Gregg Hurwitz was The Kill Clause, which featured  U.S. Marshals Service operative Tim Rackley. That series was composed of four books of which I read the first two. I told you I sporadically read Hurwitz books. Actually, the third book in that series Troubleshooter has been on my TBR shelves forever!! The point is that these books were great and I was disappointed when the series ended even though I hadn’t  read all the books. It also may be a reason that I didn’t read any of Hurwitz’s stand alone books until 2007! Foolish me!

 Bottom line: I will not miss the next installment of the Evan Smoak series and you shouldn’t either! In addition, I promise to read more of Gregg Hurwitz’s stand alone novels, and maybe even go back and read those last two Tim Rackley novels and you should join me!!

Links for the Further Exploration of the Novels of Gregg Hurwitz

Author’s Website
Author’s Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Amazon

In this short video Gregg Hurwitz talks about writing Orphan X

Thoughts About Mindfulness and Mystical Morning..

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Lead to New Directions for My Blogs and a Mystical Morning Commute!

The other morning while meditating my mind turned toward my blog and I thought of my blog in relationship to my body mind and spirit. Much of what I try to do during the day is directed at one of those three aspects of life. Whether it’s trying to enrich and keep my mind sharp by reading, exercising and eating right to help my body and meditating and listening to New Age music to lift my spirit, the actions I take revolve around these aspects of life. Anyway what I am going to try for a while is to keep this blog oriented toward the rejuvenation, and revitalization of my mind, body and spirit,

As part of this shift, the music discussions on this site will be mostly about New Age music and maybe some jazz. But knowing that my musical explorations of other genres including Americana, blues and progressive rock won’t stop, I will be discussing those explorations at FreeWheelin’ Music Safari!

Now with the above thoughts swirling around in my head I visited some new sites like MindBodyGreen and BodyMindSpirit Guide both of which I believe I will be visiting more often in the future. I also visited a site that I have visited often in the past Tiny Buddha. While I was at Tiny Buddha the following post caught my eye……..

30 Simple Mindfulness Practices to Help You Focus and Be Present

I thought the article presented some  good practices to help become more mindful. As a result of reading this post I decided that this morning I would do two things. First, I was going to listen to some New Age music on my way to work and secondly, I was going to try to be more aware of my surroundings. So as I was driving, I was attempting to view things as if it was the first time I saw them, rather than the six hundredth million time!! I must say that it made for a pretty interesting trip and I don’t think it’s too bad around here!!

The music that I listened to was the album, Mystical Morning by German composer and keyboardist Uwe Gronau. I have had this album in my music rotation since its release back in October of 2015 and I like it more and more every time I listen to it! Here is a little background about Uwe from his biography at his website…….

Gronau was born and raised in the Rhineland in northwest Germany, and grew up in Dusseldorf and Bocholt (where he currently resides) which is only a couple of miles from the Dutch border. “In the ‘70s and ‘80s the Netherlands were more involved in the evolution of jazz, pop, rock and soul than Germany, so I profited from this situation and heard much great music.” Uwe began playing piano at age six and grew up immersed in music as the son of a choir-leader, orchestra-conductor, music-school teacher and piano instructor.
In his early years Uwe studied classical music, but soon became passionate about jazz and rock artists such as Brian Auger, Keith Emerson, Patrick Moraz and Refugee, and Joe Zawinul and Weather Report. As Gronau got older, his musical tastes expanded to include Supertramp, Jethro Tull, Gilbert ‘O Sullivan, Keith Jarrett, Sting, Peter Gabriel and Dream Theater. When Uwe was 14 he began to play in a series of bands and built a reputation in the area for his musicianship and professionalism. One thing that always set Gronau apart from many other musicians is that from the beginning and continuing to today, Gronau has always played original material and has never covered compositions by others. In college, Gronau majored in music, German and theater-science. Read More
The music on Mystical Morning is varied and always interesting. A review of the album at CDBaby says it better than I can…..
This German keyboardist explores all that and more on his Mystical Morning album which he says is “positive, celebratory music that is like sunshine pouring onto a new day.” He specially has a ball playing his Hammond B-3 organ, most noteworthy on his tribute to Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake & Palmer (“Letter to Emerson”), a fast-paced piece bubbling with energy. That organ shows up several other places including the most prog-rock tune, “Over the Bridge,” which has a full-bodied arrangement featuring lots of varied sounds including synth, acoustic guitar and horns. These pieces are balanced with some softer piano-dominated numbers including two versions of the piano and acoustic-guitar “Shy” (one with drums and one without). In fact about half of the 15 tunes are rocking (with drums or forceful percussion) and the other half are fairly soft which keeps it interesting. Gronau has always been known for making music that keeps the listener guessing and fascinated as to where he will head next. He somehow captures the spirit of the great rock albums of the Seventies and Eighties, but with modern sound exploration that is fresh and invigorating.  Read Full Review
My favorite track is the aforementioned “Letter to Emerson”, but this morning ” A Day in Sri Lanka” and the title track “Mystical Morning” fit the mood of the morning! Mystical Morning is Uwe Gronau’s sixth full album and while I have not explored his full back catalog I have listened to and written about hos release Thoughts of Tomorrow and you can read what I wrote about that album here.
So with the help of the music of Uwe Gronau and a little mindfulness it was a Mystical Morning!!!
Here is the title track from Mystical Morning

The Death Relic – Chris Kuzneski

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The Death Relic by Chris Kuzneski helps me pleasantly procrastinate! 

So yesterday morning I was all set to write a nice post about how it was the first day that I had done my Kundalini, Weights and Band morning exercise routine in about a month. I was going to writing about how I made it through the routine with a minimal amount of coughing and even was able to end with a nice 15 minute meditation. Then I’d write how I was able to make a nice strawberry, blueberry, banana smoothie and sit down and read with no grandchildren to babysit! The reading part was what did me in The Death Relic  by Chris Kuzneski took over and wouldn’t let me breakaway. Even though the pages were flying by time was still marching on, and I was not writing!! I finished just before lunch and I still hadn’t written anything….I’d done some laundry and the dishes, but no writing!! Then it was afternoon and I rationalized that I shouldn’t really write about the morning now! Before I knew it, it was four o’clock and time to go pickup up Oliver at the sitters and take him to his mommy, who works in Cherry Hill.  Bottom line was that I had successfully put off writing all day and I continued to procrastinate all night until it was time to turn in. So while I am not going to write any more about the exercising or meditation from yesterday morning, I will tell you a little about The Death Relic.

The Death Relic (Book 8 of 2016) ****

The Death Relic is book seven in the Jonathan Payne and David Jones series from Chris Kuzneski and it’s a good one! Well all three of the ones that I’ve read so far a have been excellent!! I love the way that Kuzneski always blends history into his novels. In this adventure the reader learns a little about the Spanish conquistadors and the Mayan and Aztec civilizations. and is treated to a modern-day mystery!

The action starts when Maria Pelati an Italian archaeologist whose specialty is early Christianity is offer a job with a famous archaeologist who has made a recent find in Mexico. Soon after meeting her new employer Terence Hamilton he is kidnapped from the hotel where Maria is staying. When Maria returns to her room see finds that it has been vandalized and her passport has been stolen. Frightened and alone she turns to old friends Payne and Jones for help. Jonathan and David are soon on their way to rescue the fair Maria and if things go well maybe David can rekindle his hot romance with Maria!! But soon the question becomes who kidnapped Terrence and why?  Searching the back of Terrence’s car they find, various Mayan artifacts and a crate full of weapons, including AK-47s! Stuck between them is an envelope with a diary telling of the destruction of the Mayan’s world by  the Spanish!! But the question is how does it all tie together??

Bottom line: The Death Relic is a strong four-star book for me. I love the characters of Jonathan Payne and David Jones but of which are vividly drawn. Maria Pelati is a character who Payne and Jones have met before in the book The Sign of the Cross (Book #2 of the series) and many loose ends tied up from that book are wrapped up in The Death Relic. You don’t really need to read The Sign of the Cross to enjoy The Death Relic. I had read  the book, but it has been so many years since I had read it that I only have vague memories of the book, but Kuzneski does a good job of filling the reader in on what happened. Anyway, the book and the series comes highly recommended so – check it out!! As for me I have not yet read The Plantation book one in the series so yesterday I bought the e-book at Amazon for $4.99 – how could I pass it up!!

Author Lisa Gardner pretty much sums up the way I feel about Chris Kuzneski’s books….

“Chris Kuzneski has mastered the art of the quest novel, bringing to life lost treasures, exotic locales,and fresh conspiracies”

 

Preparation for the Next Life, by Atticus Lish

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Preparation for the Next Life – Atticus Lish (****)

 

One of the Reading Challenges that I created for 2016 was to read more literature the goal I set was 24 books. The challenge includes books classified as general fiction, along with classics that I should have read, New York Time Bestsellers and Award-Winning books.   Since there are four subcategories I made it six books for each subcategory!  Preparation for the Next Life by Atticus Lish is the seventh book I’ve finished in 2016 and it’s the first in the subcategory of award-winning books. The book won the 2015 Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction. In addition to that award the book was also among the ….

New York Times Best of 2014
Wall Street Journal’s Best of 2014
Vanity Fair’s Best of 2014
Publishers Weekly’s Best of 2014
BuzzFeed’s Best of 2014

Needless to say, it is a damn good book. Christopher Kennedy author Ennui Prophet provides a much better summary of the book than I can…..

An illegal Chinese immigrant meets a broken American warrior, and the great love story of the 21st century begins. The intersection of their paths seems inevitable, irrevocable. Their story: tender, violent, terrible, and beautiful. Atticus Lish’s prose, lyrical and taut, sentences as exact and indisputable as chemical formulas, is trance-like, evangelical in its ability to convert and convince its reader. Preparation for the Next Life is that rare novel that grabs you by the shirt and slaps you hard in the face. Look, it says. It isn’t pretty. Turn away at your own risk. In case you haven’t noticed, the American Dream has become a nightmare. Atticus Lish has your wake up call. He has created a new prototype of the hero, and her journey provides us with a devastating perspective on the “promised land” of the post 9/11 U.S., where being detained is a rite of passage and the banality of violence is simply part of the pre-apocalyptic landscape. 

Yes the story of Zou Lei and Brad Skinner was at times horrifying. In Zou Lei’s case it was a WAS a wake up call to read about the way that illegal immigrants to our great nation have to live and the private hell that many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans live in. Neither life is a bed of roses but somehow these two found love and with it hope for a new beginning. But the more you read of Zou Lei’s troubles to become a legal citizen and Skinner’s deteriorating mental condition you know that new beginning may just not happen!

Bottom Line: If you like typical love stories then this book is not for you because as the New York Times says Preparation for the Next Life  is “perhaps the finest and most unsentimental love story of the new decade”.  I kept hoping that love was going to conquer all and our two heroes would live happily ever after, but the new nightmarish American Dream got in the way. But if you want a glimpse into the worlds of illegal immigrants and veterans suffering from PTSD, you will be hard pressed to find a better book. Frankly, I wouldn’t wish there lives on anyone and you have to admire anyone who can survive the ordeal of living in the poorest sections of 21st century New York City.

Review for the Further Exploration of Preparation of the Next Life by Atticus Lish

New York Times: Preparation for the Next Life, by Atticus Lish

The Guardian: Preparation for the Next Life by Atticus Lish review – a debut of unsettling power

A Sunday Music and Reading Challenge Update!

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A Busy Week – A Trip to Princeton Record Exchange, Two Books Finished and Books added to my Reading Challenges!

Last week was a busy one. My wife has been sick all week, most likely the result of kissing sick babies! Anyway I worked my two weekday and weekend shifts at Target, but since Oliver’s momma was home recovering from thyroid surgery I only babysat  on Friday!

On Wednesday afternoon, Nick and I went to The Princeton Record Exchange, where I bought ten new albums! I have listened to several of them since then and they have all been really good! I wrote a post the other night about five of the albums and will be writing soon about the other five. On Friday three of the albums were the soundtrack for my commute to Paulsboro. They were The Wallace Roney Quintet, the Mack Avenue Super Band Live at Detroit Jazz and the latest release from Ben Paterson For Once in My Life. All three were great. I particularly like the Ben Paterson album its an organ trio album!

So what else has been happening!

I have finished two books in 2016 The first was Linda Fairstein‘s Entombed. This 2005 release is book #7 in Fairstein’s Alexandra Cooper series. It is the first Alex Cooper book I’ve read but it won’t be my last! The book fits into two reading challenges. First its author is obviously a women and secondly it was on a TBR shelf!! The second, which I actually finished this morning was David Guterson’s The Other. I hope to write about them later today or tomorrow.

So to stay on pace to reach my goal of 60 books I need to finish three more books this month. I am almost 40% through In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam by Robert McNamara.and almost half finished Boost Your Brain: The New Art and Science Behind Enhanced Brain Performance by Majid Fotuhi, M.D. Ph.D. Both have been highly enlightening!

The other night as I was looking for new books to read I thought about the Body Farm Series from Jefferson Bass It seems that I’m always reading a new Bill Brockton book in the early months of the year, at least over the last several years. I did a search at the library and found that a new book titled The Breaking Point had been released back in June of 2015. So I requested it at the library and picked it up on Tuesday!

After that I was looking at award winning books and found Preparation for the Next Life  by Atticus Lish which won the Pen/Faukner Award for Fiction so I requested that book also and picked IT up on Friday!

Finally, I spotted an article at Philly.com Report: DASH Diet Best Overall Eating Plan…..

TUESDAY, Jan. 5, 2016 (HealthDay News) — For the sixth year in a row, a panel of health experts has named the heart-healthy DASH diet the best overall eating plan, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2016 Best Diets ranking.

The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet was designed to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels by limiting fats, red meat and sugar in favor of healthy grains, poultry, low-fat dairy and nuts, the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute says.

“Our rankings put hard numbers on the belief that no one diet is ideal for everybody, but the best food plans overall are sustainable,” Angela Haupt, senior health editor at U.S. News & World Report, said in a news release from the media company.Read more

Hmm, lowers blood pressure and cholesterol levels sounds good to me…..so it was off to the main branch of my library system to find The Dash Diet for Hypertension: Lower Your Blood Pressure in 14 Days – without Drugs by Thomas Moore,M.D. There are also several ebooks with recipes and eating plans for the diet that are cheap on Amazon that I will be exploring!!

So these are the five books that I will be reading for my reading challenges over the next several weeks……

Currently Reading Reading Challenge From
In Retrospect – Robert McNamara Nonfiction Library
Boost Your Brain – Majid Fotuhi Nonfiction Ebook
Preparation for the Next Life – Atticus Lish Award-Winners Library
The Breaking Point – Jefferson Bass RGranddad’s Mysteries Library
The Dash Diet – Thomas Moore Nonfiction Library

Hopefully, I can finish three books before the end of the month! Wish Me Luck!……

P.S, Oh, and two nights this week and one afternoon I did a new yoga sequence “New Beginnings” that I found in this month’s Yoga Journal (A subscription to Yoga Journal was a Christmas gift from my wife). For most of the week I have felt really good! Today I feel a little funky but hopefully. I can avoid catching the virus that my wife and daughter caught!!

Reading Challenges for 2016

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Renaissance Granddad’s 2016 Reading Challenges!

Well last year was the first time that I set a goals for both the overall number of books that I was going to read in the year and the types of books. I signed up for three reading challenges: Cloak and Dagger, Historical Fiction, and Nonfiction and created one of my own Science Fiction. While I kept track of the number of books I had read for each challenges I never posted at the websites where I had signed up for the challenges. I guess I should have but I was one of the few men who signed up for the challenges, so I felt kinda alone and funny posting! Also I’m lazy and a loner so it was easier just to post about the books I was reading here!

Anyway this year I have created my own reading challenges. There’s no way I want to make a commitment to read a large number of any one time of book i.e. I am not going to read thirty or forty classic books because that will cut down on the number of mystery books that I have time to read!! So I decided to create several reading challenges.

As I started to create my reading challenges I knew I wanted to read more literature and general fiction and maybe less murder and mayhem books! I also wanted to read more classic literature. Earlier in the month I came across this post at List Challenges  300 Books Everyone Should Read at Least Once. When I checked the books that I had read on this list I discovered that I have only read 30 of the listed books. So I feel that I need tp read books from this list. Therefore, I created my 2016 Literature Reading Challenge. The subcategories that I created are: General Fiction, Classics, NY Times Bestseller list and Award-winners. These categories allow me to read some contemporary fiction, some books that are on the current bestseller lists and some that have won awards like the Pen-Faulkner Award or the Pulitzer Prize. I also want to read some of those classics that I have avoided all these years!! I want to read 6 books from each of the 4 subcategories for a total of 24 books in the reading challenge!!

My second challenge is my mystery/thriller challenge. The two subcategories in this challenge are RGranddad’s Mysteries or the mysteries and thrillers that are books in the series that I read or books from my favorite authors. The second subcategory is Women Mystery Book authors. I have many books by female authors like Linda Fairstein, Sara Paretsky and Dana Stabenow on my TBR shelves that I haven’t gotten around to reading. I thought this would be a good way to make myself read these books. I know I will enjoy them!! I plan to read 10 books from each subcategory or 20 books total!

My final two challenges are a nonfiction challenge and a science fiction challenge. I would like to read ten nonfiction books. After reading The Politics of Deception my current read is In Retrospect by Robert McNamara both deal with history of the 1960s, I have enjoyed both books so I think that many of the nonfiction books I plan to read will deal with the history or politics from 1960 to the present! Of course there will also be some self-help, anti-aging and happiness books mixed in among those reads! Finally, I really did enjoy those Science Fiction books I read in 2015 so I would like to continue to read a few books from that genre! So the 16 books in these challenges added to the books from the other two challenges bring the total for the 2016 Renaissance Granddad Reading Challenge to 60 books!! Whoa!!

Here’s the breakdown! Wish Me Luck!! Bye – I’m off the read now!!

The 2016 Renaissance Granddad Reading Challenge TBR Library Total Goal
2016 Literature Reading Challenge
General Fiction 0 0 0 6
Classics 0 0 0 6
NY Times Bestseller List 0 0 0 6
Award-Winners 0 0 0 6
2015 Mystery/Thriller Reading Challenge
Rgrandad’s Mysteries 0 0 0 10
Women Mystery Book Authors 0 0 0 10
2016 Nonfiction Reading Challenge 0 0 0 10
2016 Science Fiction /Fantasy Challenge 0 0 0 6
Totals 0 0 0 0
0 60
2016 TBR Pile Challenge 0 25

P.S. I love to hear about anyone else’s proposed 2016 reading challenges!!

 

Reading Challenge Update – Late December 2015

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With 51 Books Read RGranddad Reaches His Overall Goal!

With the end of 2015 two days away, last night I finished the 51st book I’ve read for the year The Politics of Deception JFK’s Secret Decisions on Vietnam, Civil Rights and Cuba, thereby reaching the lofty goal of 5I books I set at the beginning of the year! Overall, it is the most books that I have read in a year since 2009!

Now while I did meet the overall goal for books read, I did fall short on two reading challenges. I only read nine of eleven nonfiction books and nine of twelve books for the science fiction reading challenge!! But considering last year I only read seven nonfiction books, and only one science fiction book. So I did read more books from those two genres!!

Now the other reading challenge I had was the TBR reading challenge, I fell short on that challenge also reading only 16 books from my TBR pile.The goal was to read 25 books from the pile! But I do think that in 2014, I  didn’t read any books from my TBR pile. Well on second thought I may have read one or two books that I had lying around!

Overall I thought it was a pretty awesome reading year. At the end of the year I will create a page with all of the books! Book 51’s review will be coming shortly and maybe I can find a short book to read so that I can hit 52!!

2015 Reading Challenge Stats

Reading Challenge From TBR Pile Buy/Library Total Goal %complete
2015 Nonfiction Reading Challenge 3 6 9 11 82%
2015 Cloak & Dagger Reading Challenge 7 20 27 23 117%
2015 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 3 2 5 5 100%
2015 Science Fiction/Fantasy Challenge 4 5 9 12 75%
No Reading Challenge 0 65 1 0 100%
Totals 16 51 51 100%
2015 TBR Pile Challenge 16 25

The question is now, what will the four challenges be for 2016 – I’m thinking that the core three Cloak & Dagger, Nonfiction and Science Fiction may stay the same, with maybe an alteration to make the challenge more specific. Maybe the Science Fiction will be Nebula or Hugo award winners, while the Nonfiction may be biographies! The Cloak & Dagger Challenge may be female authors!

The fourth category  I think is going to be a Classics Reading Challenge. You know all those books that I was supposed to read in English class, but somehow managed to avoid!! Anyway, I have a few more days to think about them. For now I can enjoy the fact that I had a really fine reading year!!