A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life by Brian Grazer (320 pgs, MP3)

G: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Brian Grazer is the co-founder of Imagine Entertainment with Ron Howard (Opie). He shares his personal story discovering his own curiosity and developing a life long pattern of asking questions of many interesting people. It can be a bit repetitive and perhaps you will think you did not hear the complete stories of the many interviews (curiosity conversations). I believe the point was about the importance of being curious and how it can help develop you as a creative person.

Amazon:

For over thirty years, Academy award-winning producer Brian Grazer has been holding what he terms "curiosity conversations." In these conversations, Mr. Grazer sits down with an individual outside of the movie industry to discover how he or she "sees the world." It is curiosity to which Mr. Grazer credits his success and in A Curious Mind, he explains the value of this overlooked and undervalued characteristic and shares how readers can incorporate curiosity into their own lives.

Daring Greatly by Brene Brown (MP3 8.5 hrs)

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead (complete title)
G: Do you know adults who can't seem to take the next step, whatever that may be in their lives? Whether you are in your twenties or sixties, change can be uncomfortable. It's hard to put yourself out there when things have become easy or static as is. I only have this as an MP3 at this time.

Amazon: Every day we experience the uncertainty, risks, and emotional exposure that define what it means to be vulnerable or to dare greatly. Based on twelve years of pioneering research, Dr. Brené Brown dispels the cultural myth that vulnerability is weakness and argues that it is, in truth, our most accurate measure of courage.

Whole - Rethinking the Science of Nutrition by T. Colin Campbell (MP3 11 hrs, 328 pgs)

G: This book had very good information but was a bit dry with all the facts. I would recommend it if you are familiar with his writing style and liked it or are concretely interested in the topic. Keep in mind, sometimes I read a book that I would enjoy more at a different time.

In The China Study, T. Colin Campbell (alongside his son, Thomas M. Campbell) revolutionized the way we think about our food with the evidence that a whole food, plant-based diet is the healthiest way to eat. Now, in Whole, he explains the science behind that evidence, the ways our current scientific paradigm ignores the fascinating complexity of the human body, and why, if we have such overwhelming evidence that everything we think we know about nutrition is wrong, our eating habits haven’t changed.

Descent by Tim Johnson (CD 11.5 hrs only)

G: Descent was an exciting story which kept me going to the end. The author is sharing information from several perspectives. It reminded me why I always tell my kids not to hike alone, but alas, there was a brother and sister together and then everything went askew.

Amazon: The Rocky Mountains have cast their spell over the Courtlands, a young family from the plains taking a last summer vacation before their daughter begins college. For eighteen-year-old Caitlin, the mountains loom as the ultimate test of her runner’s heart, while her parents hope that so much beauty, so much grandeur, will somehow repair a damaged marriage. But when Caitlin and her younger brother, Sean, go out for an early morning run and only Sean returns, the mountains become as terrifying as they are majestic, as suddenly this family find themselves living the kind of nightmare they’ve only read about in headlines or seen on TV.

Geraldine's Excuses

To catch up on my long summer list and get the blog up to speed, I am going to shorten my writing and try to give the best from Amazon and other reviewers. Please feel free to ask me about any and I will relay what I can remember. I did a lot of house painting this summer so I burned through audio on my MP3.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan (416 pgs, MP3 15 hrs) ***

G: I loved this book. It was a different war story or maybe because it seemed so because it was in a different setting than usual. Some might compare it to Unbroken, which not a bad thing. It was moving, I stayed connected and could not put it down. This book is based on the historical building of the Thai-Burma death railway in 1943. The Japanese commanded POW's to work in unspeakable conditions and to the point of death to meet a deadline. The main character is an Australian surgeon who protects those under his command. This is a "Don't Miss - Read" on my list.

Amazon: In The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan displays the gifts that have made him one of the most acclaimed writers of contemporary fiction. Moving deftly from a Japanese POW camp to present-day Australia, from the experiences of Dorrigo Evans and his fellow prisoners to that of the Japanese guards, this savagely beautiful novel tells a story of the many forms of love and death, of war and truth, as one man comes of age, prospers, only to discover all that he has lost.

“The book Richard Flanagan was born to write.” —The Economist 

“A supple meditation on memory, trauma, and empathy that is also a sublime war novel . . . Pellucid, epic, and sincerely touching.” —Publishers Weekly

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Macquire (416 pgs)

 G: Note - Even School Library Journal questioned the YA rating. There is a bit of sexual explicitness and language. Although the Tony Award musical "Wicked" was based on this book, the complete story is much darker, deeper and thought provoking. The story touches on idealism, politics, religion and realtionships.
School Library Journal - YA? Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West, has gotten a bum rap. Her mother is embarrassed and repulsed by her bright-green baby with shark's teeth and an aversion to water. At college, the coed experiences disapproval and rejection by her roommate, Glinda, a silly girl interested only in clothes, money, and popularity. Elphaba is a serious and inquisitive student. When she learns that the Wizard of Oz is politically corrupt and causing economic ruin, Elphaba finds a sense of purpose to her life - to stop him and to restore harmony and prosperity to the land.

Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea (MP3 4.5 hrs, 269 pgs)

G: This is a super easy read. The characters are younger (5th grade), and a new teacher to their school soon becomes their favorite. The mix of personalities is typical and the young students grow exponentially when they become involved with the special needs class. (Warning - there is the use of the word "retard" by a troublesome student.) This book was a blip on my radar due to the wonderful book "Wonder". A sweet read.

School Library Journal - Gr 4-6–Seven fifth graders at Snow Hill School in Vermont learn a variety of life lessons, not necessarily from their textbooks, when they start the school year off with their new teacher. Short chapters are actually brief narratives by individual students and sectioned off by each month of the school year, beginning with September. From the students' distinct voices readers come to understand the different personalities and backgrounds that define them. 

Between The World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (152 pgs, 3 CDs)

G: "This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it." Ta-Nehisi Coates.
The author is writing a letter to his young son as he addresses racism through historical events and his own family memories, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris. He describes what it is like to be black in the past and in today's America.

Amazon: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the single best writer on the subject of race in the United States” (The New York Observer

“The powerful story of a father’s past and a son’s future . . . Coates offers this eloquent memoir as a letter to his teenage son, bearing witness to his own experiences and conveying passionate hopes for his son’s life. . . . This moving, potent testament might have been titled Black Lives Matter.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)