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One of my New Year resolutions is to read a book in 2017.
Hope you get better responses than mine, Anabel.
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Whatever book aida's writing this week. 
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My favorite from the view of being a page turner was Before the Fall by Noah Hawley. Couldn't put it down.
Really loved the audiobook Born With Teeth, a memoir by Kate Mulgrew. She's got such a fantastic voice.
Also really loved two theatre related hooks - Hamilton the Revolution because HAMILTON and The Swcret Life of the American Musical, which is a brilliant look at the structure and history of the form.
But my absolute favorite book was the first novel written by my ten year old son. It's 8 chapters - one page per chapter - about two escaped slaves who meet a Union army troop and it is my favorite book ever. At least until he finishes his second, which is titled Courage of the Centaur.
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Quite inspiring: A self-help book by a Norwegian paratrooper:
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Posted: |
Jan 8, 2017 - 5:27 AM
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By: |
Tall Guy
(Member)
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two more excellent 2016 books, novels based on actual (and related) events:
The Noise of Time (Julian Barnes)
A young Shostakovich was transformed from hero to outcast by a single condemnation of his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtzensk District. Stalin had attended and walked out in disgust and apparently wrote the Pravda review himself. This novel attempts to interpret Shostakovich's mental state during that time, when he spent every night with a bag packed and sleeping in the corridor of his apartment building so that his family might be spared when the secret police came for him. This was one of three terrible periods for him, along with the late 40s and the early 60s. I imagine he had more to worry about than being forced to ape a temp track.
The Conductor (Sarah Quigley)
The story of Shostakovich's 7th symphony and how it may have won the war  is, or should be, well-known in musical circles such as this one. However, the events and personalities that led up to the historic performance are less famous, and this book follows the conductor Karl Eliasberg, as he is commissioned to put an orchestra together capable of playing the demanding piece at a time when all the potential players were either at war, or at home starving.
Both books are bold attempts to flesh out the terrible events of that period in that location, and I'm very pleased to have them in my Shostakovich library. Fact remains stranger and more terrifying than fiction.
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Best book I read this year was 'The Sparrow' by Mary Doria Russell, a sci-fi novel about first contact. It has a mostly as compelling sequel 'Children of God' (one or two threads I found a bit of a slog).
The best book I read that was published this year is a history of Star Trek 'The Fifty Year Mission'. I devoured both volumes.
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Man, those were the days! I hope your son keeps writing. 
