Laurel’s Comments (group member since Dec 30, 2013)

Laurel’s comments from the All About Books group.

13. Plague Land: A Novel
5 stars. Criticized for being too modern in tone, it worked for me. Black humor and over-the-top characters and it was just what I needed after The Goldfinch.

336 p.

Total: 4,755 p.

Still way behind this year, but I guess I've just been doing other things. The yard and garden becomes a priority in the summer. Also I've gotten distracted by "shiny" books - books that weren't part of my plan. Ha ha. I think I'm just going to declare the plan abandoned - except for the "bird" theme. I'm doing 5 books for a book talk at MLA in October. I think I have that list set unless one of the 3 I haven't read yet turns out to be a dud. Will include The Goldfinch and The Nightingale. The other three I'm looking at are The Plover, The Ravens (3rd of a trilogy, so I have to read the first two, of course), and The Hummingbird which doesn't come out until September, but I have a digital ARC.

John, I sent a message a long time ago - sorry you didn't get it. The book I recommended is Red Sparrow - it seems similar to others you have read, and I liked it very much.

Arghhhhh! This is on my "to read someday" list, but I've got way too many things waiting now as it is. My reading should free up around October...

Best of the month:
January - Me Before You 4 stars
February - The Cuckoo's Calling 5 stars
March - Red Sparrow 5 stars
April - Three 4 star reads this month, but the one I know will stick with me is The Goldfinch
May - Plague Land: A Novel 5 stars
June - Stormbird 4 stars. This is under my reads for July, but I did finish the audiobook in June.
July - (for now) The Nightingale 4 stars. (Yes, I'm on a bird theme this year....)
August -
September -
October -
November -
December -

Best of the year:

Received and sent.

Do you send reminders? I'll do Sept. 14 - something Welsh for Owain Glyndwr day...

I'll second The Odyssey. I've had it checked out from the library for awhile, but need some further incentive to read it.

Sure, why not. I don't seem to be making much progress with any of my goals, so might as well read something someone else picks out...

Loved Suite Francaise and have recommended it to several book clubs. Currently listening to Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale and I keep thinking of how much better Suite Française was.

Forgot to mention, I am eager to start The Land of Dreams which is the first of a trilogy, but the 3rd book is The Ravens and the setting is Minnesota which would be awesome for the library conference. I am also in the middle of Raven Black which has been languishing, so I need to finish that one, too.

It seems to be all I can do lately to keep up with my f2f book club. The only goal I've made any progress on is the bird title theme because I have to book talk on that at the Minnesota library conference in October. I only have to do 5 books for that, but I want it to be the best 5, and not necessarily do books like The Goldfinch that everyone has already heard about. I'm currently listening to The Nightingale and I'll finish it, but I think I am just not a Kristin Hannah fan. The book club book for this month was A Constellation of Vital Phenomena which I still need to finish, and I'll start on Life After Life which is for next month, but waiting to get the audio from interlibrary loan. I listened to Stormbird and finished it in June, but I was co-reading the book and got behind, so still need to finish that. And if I manage all 4 of those this month, I will be doing well!

Mine would probably be Braveheart. I saw it in the theater, and loved it so much I bought the DVD. BUT, I haven't been able to bring myself to watch it since then.

I'm in! But have to finish Stormbird and Raven Black first.

Have just started a couple of new books, so will be reading those into June:
Raven Black and then continuing the series with White Nights

Listening to Stormbird on audio.

Still haven't read Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

And next month's f2f book club book is A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

Colleen, I did like Year of Wonders. I thought her sense of time and place is wonderful, and beautiful language. However, I thought the ending was a bit too unbelievable.

I have this from the library, but I have some other books to finish first. Glad to hear folks are enjoying it.

I'm one who sometimes gets behind in the posts, and nominations are done before I even see them. I like the method in another group - collect nominations, then have a poll where members can vote for up to six books, and then a final vote on the top six or however many.

LOL, Greg! I admit I turned next to something of a "comfort food" author for me - Jan Karon. I don't read a lot of "inspirational" fiction, but I just love Father Tim and all the wacky characters of Mitford.

Well, I cast my vote for Dillon!