Book: House of Morgan

 Book: House of Morgan

Author: Ron Chernow

Pages: 832

This is my 270th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

The House of Morgan is a panoramic story of 4 generations in the powerful Morgan family and their secretive firms that would transform the modern financial world.  Tracing the trajectory of JP Morgan's empire from its obscure beginnings in Victorian London to the financial crisis of 1987, acclaimed authero Ron Chernow paints a fascinating portrait of the amily's private saga and the rarefied world of the American and British elite in which they moved - a world that included Charles Lindbergh, Henry Ford, Franklin Roosevelt, Nancy Astor, and Winston Churchill.  A masterpiece of financial history - it was awarded the 1990 National Book Aware.  It is a compelling account of a remarkable institution and the men who ran it.  It is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the money and power behind the major historical events of the last 150 years.

I have been working on this book all month - picking it up here and there as I could.  Listening to it on a long car drive to make a big dent as well.  IT is an enormous read, but not surprising for Ron Chernow.  I have read a lot of his books.  He is a great writer and very well researched.  This one was a bit dry - mostly because I do not care that much about banking.  I read it as part of a reading challenge, and glad I tackeled it.  My husband attends a JP Morgan Healthcare Conference that brings together Healthcare giants and Biotech each year.  JP is still very influential all these years later.

Stars: 4 

Book: W0rldtr33 Vol 4

 Book: W0rldtree Vol 4

Author: James Tynion

Pages: 144

This is my 269th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

In 1999, Gabriel Winter received a message from the future that changed the course of everything, leading him to build plans without plans to stop the darkest possible eventualities from coming to pass.  Now, Ellison and the surviving members of the w0rldtr33 gang must race to prevent ANGEL from restarting the internet - and ending the world as we know it.  All roads lead to San Francisco.  All roads lead to the Undernet.

The latest installment in the w0rldtr33 universe.  This was the shortest of the graphic novels.  i am really enjoying the series.  

Book: W0rldtree Volume 3

 Book: W0rldtree Volume 3

Author: James Tynion

Pages: 152

This is my 268th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

50 years later, the planet is barefly hospitable.  The Undernet has won.  Ellison Lane believes he finally has all thepieces to give humanity another shot at a future.  But a terrible angel stands in his way - an angel with tattoos all over her body, and a decades-long grudge against the w0rldtr33 gang.

I missed reviewing this earlier in the month.  3rd book in the W0rldtr33 installment.  Continuing an interesting dystopian future take on the world.

Stars: 4

Book: The Ghost and the Dead Librarian

 Book: The Ghost and the Dead Librarian

Author: Cleo Coyle

Pages: 384

This is my 267th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

As a young widow, Penelope moved ack to her quaint Rhode Island town to give her young son a safer home and her aunt's dying bookshop a new life.  Using her late husband's insurance money, Pen polished the store into a local treasure.  But her updates did more than attract new customers.  They roused a dead private eye from his big sleep.  With Pen's affection for hardboiled detective stories, it's no surprise she's developed a fondness for the wisecracking yet oddly likeable spirit.  Sure, Jack's cold spots are exasperating, along with his proclivity for putting noir fiction in the cozy section.  But murder was Jack's business in life, and his PI skills come in awfully handy when the body of an eccentric librarian is found amid the bookshop's aisles.  For years, Dory jokingly called herself "The Dead Librarian" because of her hobby of collecting and writing local obituaries.  Now, in death, she's discovered with her own eerily pre-written obit.  Was it a suicide note? Jack and Pen say no and their certainty takes them from a ghost town's ancient cemetery to a posh Newport mansion.  When another body drops, a mysterious stranger makes Pen a shocking offer, one that may change her life - and Jack's afterlife.  But unless Jack can help Pen prove who "checked out" the librarian, a ruthless killer may close the book on her.

Stars: 3.5 

Book: The Family Upstairs

 Book: The Family Upstairs

Author: Lisa Jewell

Pages: 384

This is my 266th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Be careful who you let in.  Soon after her 25th birthday, Libby Jones return home from work to find the letter she's been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am.  She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London's fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions.  Everything in Libby's life is about to change.  But what she can't possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well - and she is on a collision course to meet them.  26 years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying.  When they arrived, they found a healthy 10 month old happily cooling in her crib in the bedroom.  Downstairs in the kitchen lay 3 dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note.  And the 4 other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.

This was a pretty good book.  Truth be told - I accidentally read the second on in this series first, so I knew a bit about where it was going.  Second book makes a bit more sense now as well.  There is good character development and I was interested in seeing where it was going.  That is a theme with Lisa Jewell books - "where the heck are you going with this" is a continuous thought.  

Stars: 4 

Book: Snowglobe

 Book: Snowglobe

Author: Soyoung Park

Pages: 384

This is my 265th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Enclosed under a vast dome, Snowglobe is the last place on Earth that's warm.  Outside Snowglobe is a frozen wasteland, and everyday, citizens face the icy world to get to their jobs at the power plant, where they produce the energy Snowglobe needs.  Their only solace comes in the form of 24 hour television programming streamed directly from the domed city.  The residents of Snowglobe have everything: fame, fortune, and above all, safety from the desolation outside their walls.  In exchange, their lives are broadcast to the less fortunate outside, who watch eargerly, hoping for the chance to one day become actors themselves.  Chobahm lives for the time she spends watching the shows produced inside Snowglobe.  Her favorite? Goh Around, starring Goh Haeri, Snowglobe's biggest star - and, it turns out, the key to getting Chobahm her dream life.  Becasue Haeri is dead, and Bhobahm has been chosen to take her place.  Only, life inside Snowglobe is nothing like what you see on televiion, Reality is a lie, and truth seems to be forever out of reach.

This was a pretty good book.  I found this book for about $2 at Ollie's and figured why not.  It ended up being quite entertaining.  It was a cool dystopian future book.  I liked the main character, and the story moved along at a good pace.  IT had a satisfying ending.  There is a second book so I am going to read that one to see where the author takes it.

Stars: 3.

Book: The Midnight Train

 Book: The Midnight Train

Author: Matthew Haig

Pages: 304

This is my 264th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

No one can change the past, but the Midnight Train can take you there.

The chance to re-live the moments that meant most.

To see what kind of person you really were.

For Wilbur his best days were with Maggie, the love of his life.  On his honeymoon in Venice.

Before he gave it all away.

He wishes he could go back and live differently.  But to do so risks everything.

This was a really great book.  I enjoyed the Midnight Library and was glad to see another come out in this vein.  It was a cool concept and a fun read.  Kept me entertained from beginning to end.  Glad I read it.

Stars: 4.5