Book Chatter

Sunday Matters

School is out. It’s a good feeling. The Girl will be taking some classes for independent study but they won’t start until after production week for Oliver. There’s volleyball camp sprinkled in there too but doable.

Summer session started at the university. It’s a much slower pace here at work than say fall or spring semester but we really don’t get a break like the professors do. I’m okay with it though. The campus is pretty empty and very pretty this time of year.

Right Now:

Coffee. Church. In that order.

This Week:

We have to figure out drop off and pick up for volleyball camp but it will all work out. I’ve got life group on Tuesday and book club on Thursday. Production week for Oliver doesn’t start until June 11th so we’ve got a little more time to prep for that. I love it when they are actually in the theatre.

Reading:

My book club pick, A Truck Full of Money was a DNF for me. It just didn’t pull me in. Right after it I picked up Go Ask Fannie which did pull me in. The review should post this week. I just started Other People’s Houses. I wasn’t all that into it at first but it’s growing on me.

Watching:

Fear the Walking Dead took a break last week so I will be watching it tonight.

It’s been shared by several media sources that Andy Lincoln (Rick) from The Walking Dead will not finish out season 9. I don’t see how the show can continue without him! Do you?

Roseanne. Ugh. I kept watching the reboot because of how much I loved the old shows but this season has been so painful to watch. I tuned in, hoping to see some of what made the show popular years ago but this season has been nothing but politics on parade. And then the Tweet and the cancellation that followed. She has a lot of supporters and plenty of critics. Not sure what this will all mean since another TV personality just pulled a “Roseanne” and still has her show on the air.

Making:

I’ve been craving spaghetti and meatballs. I still haven’t figured out a good gluten-free alternative for the breadcrumbs. Sometimes I use potato flakes and sometimes toasted GF bread but the texture is off. Maybe I will make a batch and hope for the best.

Grateful for:

Great books. This week I was surprised by two books I picked up. I figured they would be kind of light and fluffy based on their covers but they were surprisingly meaty. As they say… don’t judge a book by its cover.

On that note, what book has surprised you recently? In a good way, or bad?

A Truck Full of Money
By Tracy Kidder
Random House, 9780812995244, September 2016, 288pp.

The Short of It:

If you are into the start-up culture and enjoy seeing ideas comes to fruition, you will find something of value in this read.

The Rest of It:

This is the story of Paul English, a kinetic and unconventional inventor and entrepreneur, who as a boy rebelled against authority. Growing up in working-class Boston, English discovers a medium for his talents the first time he sees a computer. As a young man, despite suffering from what would eventually be diagnosed as bipolar disorder, he begins his pilgrim’s journey through the ups and downs in the brave new world of computers. Relating to the Internet as if it’s an extension of his own mind, he discovers that he has a talent for conceiving innovative enterprises and building teams that can develop them, becoming “a Pied Piper” of geeks. ~ Indiebound

If you paid attention to the title of this post, you’ll see that this was a DNF (did not finish) for me . This is a rarity, especially when it comes to a book club pick, which is what A Truck Full of Money was to me. I try really hard to finish all book club selections but I just could not get past the 45% mark on my Kindle.

It’s well-written, so it’s definitely not the writing that caused me to eventually give up. No, I believe it was the subject matter. I work in Information Technology. I am surrounded by programmers and application developers but within the higher education sector so I expected to be somewhat enlightened to this new world of start-ups but I was bored people! Bored out of my mind.

At one point, Paul English becomes heavily involved in philanthropy and this part interested me because when someone is in possession of that much money, and we are talking quite a bit of money, it’s admirable when they choose to support charitable causes.

Kidder goes back into English’s childhood and here again, I was kind of pulled in only to be pushed away again. It just wasn’t enough for me to keep reading but he was the founder of Kayak.com and battled bipolar disorder to get to where he is today so I’m not really sure what didn’t work for me because his story is certainly compelling.

Have you read A Truck Full of Money? If so, let me know your thoughts.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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