June Checkpoint for the TBR Challenge

I am proceeding up Pike's Peak at a very relaxed pace. My goal is 12 books and I have read 6. I do hope to reach the top before it snows.

My two linked books are A talent for War and The Cassandra Project which were both written by Jack McDevitt. The latter book was cowritten by Mike Resnick.  There are current science fiction novels which are so vague and mysterious as to be almost  considered as literary fiction. There are current  science fiction novels which leave one wondering if having a Ph. D. in astrophysics would help to understand them. Then there are Jack McDevitt's books which tell a good story and in which the science is not too complicated to understand. The Cassandra Project tells about an investigation of intriguing hints that the US landed on the moon before the landing with Neil Armstrong, and that the US and Russia kept this a secret from everybody. I found this to be a real page turner. I have read many of Jack McDevitt's books and I highly recommend them.

The book that has been on my TBR pile the longest is The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington. I must have bought this book in the 90's. I found it to be a fascinating story of the changes in American life brought about by the automobile.  It is also the story of the decline of the wealthy Amberson dynasty and the unrealistic expectations of George Amberson Minifer, the last of the Ambersons, who cannot seem to see that the world around him is changing. Many years ago, I saw the movie based on this book and directed by Orson Welles, but I was so intrigued by the book that I watched the movie again. Welles stayed quite faithful to the book. Possibly George Amberson Minifer is a bit more likable in the movie than he is in the book where he is a truly obnoxious character. This book was worth the wait.