20/80 Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
“Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder” is the sub title and it was written in 2005. It’s a lot to take in, but important things to think about and act upon.
14. The Stand by Stephen King
Yes, I get the irony. And, yes, it was a little uncomfortable reading this now in light of everything going on, but I felt a commitment to see this through. This is the originally published version (Doubleday) and later in the series I will read the "Complete and Uncut" version, but for now I wanted to read the book that made me fall in love with King as an author. This is a masterpiece, and I laughed at the funniest parts, sobbed at the saddest moments, and rode the journey with these characters. King's writing is brilliant in this (just see the paragraph written from Kodak, the dog's, point-of-view) and his story is (as he calls it) an American Tolkien vision (ala Lord of the Rings). If for some reason you haven't read this, you should. It will convince you that while King excels at horror, he really excels at telling stories.
Sooo glad you got to go to your library before it closed. My county headquarters library is only a couple miles from my home & the halfway mark to my job so I am in there a lot. I knew a few days before that our library system was closing on 3/15 but a couple days before that I had a very close family member pass away so the 2 days before the library closed was spent with family & making final arrangements so I didn't get to stop by to stock up. I only had two books out at the time (and one of those was a cookbook, lol). And absolutely nothing at home to read. Finally broke down & bought 2 books at the Dollar Tree, lol.I picked this one up from the library just before they closed, so it is on my to-read list for the near future.
Funny story that I know other readers would appreciate - until last year, I was working for the local newspaper as the reporter covering the community I live in. In that job, I made a lot of helpful contacts in our town and in a lot of government institutions, from the library board up to the city commission. Well, when our governor scheduled a press event and news started leaking out that a bar/restaurant closure order was coming, one of those contacts who got a preview of the full order the governor was going to be issuing later in the day sent me a quick text letting me know it was going well beyond restaurants and bars to include gyms, movie theatres, museums... and libraries. He knows how much I read, had run into me a handful of times at each of our two local library branches, and thought I might want to make one last trip before they closed. So by 10am, I'd gone to the branch in our town and checked out a half-dozen titles in addition to picking up 4 inter-library loans that had come in. By noon, I was at the other branch I frequent, in the next town over, because they had two of the Outlander titles that weren't available at my branch, and I was there when the librarians got the call that they would be closing at 3pm until further notice. I told my contact that I owe him a beer when this is all over because if I'd got the news from the governor's 1pm press conference, I wouldn't have had nearly as much time to gather a good selection of titles from my to-read list. (And the best part is, due dates are suspended for the duration so I have plenty of time to read through my stack!)
This is the only book I've ever read in my entire life that gave me nightmares, and I loved it. I kind of want to reread it just to see if it has the same impact now as it did 25 years ago, when I read it for the first time.
4) The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
After a tainted seafood buffet leaves the bride and groom out of commission, Olive and Eathan pretend to be married so the Hawaiian honeymoon doesn't go to waste. Enemies-to-lovers trope. SUPER cute, fluffy, and everything you could want from a rom-com. (If you finish and want a similar vibe, read Roomies.)
13. Night Shift by Stephen King
And the King reread goes on. This is the first Stephen King short story collection and it is a doozy! Many of the stories were published elsewhere, and some are new to this collection. Some of the stories have been made into full-length movies ("Children of the Corn", "Trucks", "Lawnmower Man") while others are clearly precursors for other stories ("Jerusalem's Lot" and "One for the Road" for "'Salem's Lot"; "Night Surf" for "The Stand"). All in all a wonderful collection.
14. The Stand by Stephen King
Yes, I get the irony. And, yes, it was a little uncomfortable reading this now in light of everything going on, but I felt a commitment to see this through. This is the originally published version (Doubleday) and later in the series I will read the "Complete and Uncut" version, but for now I wanted to read the book that made me fall in love with King as an author. This is a masterpiece, and I laughed at the funniest parts, sobbed at the saddest moments, and rode the journey with these characters. King's writing is brilliant in this (just see the paragraph written from Kodak, the dog's, point-of-view) and his story is (as he calls it) an American Tolkien vision (ala Lord of the Rings). If for some reason you haven't read this, you should. It will convince you that while King excels at horror, he really excels at telling stories.
Thanks! I just put Roomies on my wish list for the library. I also read "The Unhoneymooners" and enjoyed it. Kind of predictable, but I loved it.
15. The Long Walk by Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman)