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I've just finished the latest Nicci French novel The Last Days of Kira Mullan and wow, what a page turner!!
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If you count "audio" as reading, and extrapolate it to documentaries... I just watched an award-winning documentary called "The Birth Gap" by Stephen Shaw (for free on YouTube):

"After years of working as a data scientist, Stephen J. Shaw uncovered a striking global pattern: in country after country, birthrate decline was following nearly identical paths, yet no one had connected them to a common underlying factor. What began as a personal quest — to better prepare his own teenage children for the new era ahead — grew into a nine-year investigation across 24 nations, combining hard data with human stories. His motivation has been simple: to bring awareness to this silent crisis of falling birthrates before it reshapes our societies beyond repair."

These reason people need to pay attention to this issue is that it is not going to be easily solved and it involves (currently) all countries except sub-Saharan Africa, which is slightly behind the rest of the world, but is on the same trajectory nonetheless.

Knowing the impact of this issue may help young people to better plan their careers (teaching? forget it: in Japan schools close amost daily), small business (old people don't spend money), and plans for marriage and childrearing.

One fact supported by the math and data is that the longer a woman waits to have children (approximately 27), the higher the likelihood she never will. The "window" of opportunity is much sooner and shorter than previously believed, for various reasons.

Another short YouTube video I thoroughly enjoyed was "A Mediocre Samurai Describes Real Life in Historical Japan". It is a reading from an actual samurai's diary/memoirs from the 1800s with some visuals and graphics but it's mostly audio.


And this one:

"Japanese Castaway Gives First Description of USA (1852) // Incredible Story of John Manjiro", which I found so interesting because of how terrible his own Japanese people treated him (and each other) and how well the Americans treated him -- a total and "exotic" stranger. He had nothing bad to say about them. Read from his own words from his diary and memoirs.
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One of the rare "good things" about aging is that you become so forgetful you can start over on those books you loved a few years ago. While cwillie is a huge fan of Nicci French I myself am a fan of Tana French (unaware if they are related). Her police procedurals are the best I have ever read (take place in Dublin for the most part. I stopped after the fabric shop at a used book store I am unfamiliar with, after re reading The Witch Elm (her stand-alone) and asked for the mystery section. Proprietor said theirs was "small" and I said "Do you have Tana French" and he said "Oh, she's my favorite, the only one I ALWAYS read, and I have ALL of hers". So we had a good talk.
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I like Tana French too Alva!
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I just got Jonathan Cahn's latest book,
the Avatar: the return of the Ancients & the future of America.

I think it's a continuation of his previous book 'Return of the Gods'.
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"Get It Done When You're Depressed" by Julie Fast & John Preston....Wonderful book if you problems with depression! This my 3rd time reading it over the years.
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I have found a few old copies of Victoria Holt books at a local thrift store and they're hanging around. I read most of these when I was a teen and always loved the gothic / mystery / romance of them. They are an easy read and can read a page or two when mom is sleeping or watching TV.
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@LSUPixie

I like the old Victoria Holt book too. She used to also write under the pen-name Jean Plaidy too. She wrote some interesting books that were royal historical fiction.

Currently when I get the chance to read, I'm discovering the work of Phillippa Gregory. I love it.
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