Hi CR, no I have not. But I'm putting the book on my TBR list. Thank you for the recommendation!!

Hi CR, Emerald Mile is fascinating. It's about the Colorado River, the Grand Canyon, water management, the history of the West, the Hoover Dam, nature, crazy people who love nature.... I really enjoyed it!

Dear CR, I totally understand. I am in a similar funk too. Maybe it's the cold gray weather we get in the PNW this time of year. I was looking forward to Like a Mother but at the end, I thought, "Meh." I was also looking forward to Michelle Obama's book, "Becoming." I felt let down by it because it didn't stick in my brain either. I did enjoy Hisham Mattar's book "The Return" and Kevin Fedarko's "The Emerald Mile." Both were non-fiction.

Hi CR, That's too bad about the book. I enjoy true crime also. One true crime book I recently finished was David Grann's "Killers of the Flower Moon." Horrifying but really interesting. It's well-written. I got it because I really enjoyed his other book, "The Lost City of Z." That was a fascinating non-fiction book!

Hi CR, haha. You can call me E-dog anytime! :)

Hi CR, I just love Joan Didion. One of my favorite essay collections is her Slouching Towards Bethleham. I'd love to write like her. One other essay collection I'm currently enjoying is Hampton Sides' Americana.

Hi CR, When our book club met recently, we had fun reviewing some of the books we have enjoyed over the years. 1) Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art – by Carl Hoffman 2) Being Mortal -- by Atul Gawande 3) Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West -- by Hampton Sides (I think we have loved all of Hampton Sides' books) 4) Five Days at Memorial -- by Sheri Fink 5) Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst -- by Robert Sapolsky We are currently reading The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East -- by Sandy Tolan Although it was written in 2006, it's still really relevant.

Hi CR, "Future Crimes" certainly was eye opening for me. It made me a bit paranoid and made me aware of how vulnerable we are. I recommended it to my book club since we tend to read dense non-fiction books routinely as a group.

Hi CR, no I haven't read Ted Rall's book yet. It looks good! I usually read non-fiction tomes, not so much graphic novels. Another book that is peripherally related to Snowden and how our personal data is being monitored and used that was an interesting read -- In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives by Steven Levy. I also read a book you recommended on this blog: Future Crimes by Marc Goodman. Thanks for that recommendation!