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What Are You Reading - Part Deux
Powerful stuff. Sea Prayer by award-winner Khaled Hosseini is a tiny, beautifully illustrated must-read. Please read the review and share his message!
5★ Link to my review with several illustrations
The Cider House Rules – John Irving – 4****
I love Irving’s writing, and don’t know why this one languished on my TBR for so long. What I really like about the novel is how the characters are portrayed. The reader gets a clear idea of how Dr Larch came to his decision. The reader also clearly understands why Homer makes a different decision, how he struggles to love this man who is like a father to him, once he makes that decision. And the reader watches the painful separation that all parents face when they send their offspring out into the world to make their own way. How a parent’s hopes and dreams may not always be embraced by that child.
LINK to my review
I am closing this book We Have Always Lived in the Castle indefinitely. As the young people say, I am just not feeling it right now. I will read it another time.
I read Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen: A Novel. 3.5 stars. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Aussie author Kate Morton has produced another back-and-forth through time novel, The Clockmaker's Daughter, that's bound to be popular.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I'm reading The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna.
Finished Faithful Unto Death which as always was pleasure read. Now I'm reading The Secret Daughter of the Tsar: A Novel of the Romanovs which is a bit predictable and parts unbelievable but yet I'm enjoying the read.
The Handsome Man’s Deluxe Cafe – Alexander McCall Smith– 3***
Book # 15 in the popular No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series has the ladies investigating a case of amnesia. In the meantime, Mma Grace Makutsi has decided to open a new restaurant. I love this series. The cases the agency works on are less important in this series than the relationships between the characters. I feel like I’m spending time with old friends when I open one of these books and become immersed in their lives. They are my reading comfort food.
LINK to my review
Something in the Water by Catherine SteadmanA Psychological thriller worth it's weight in gold!
My Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
These are two great kids' non-fiction books about their favourite subjects: dinosaurs and sharks! And full of the facts they love to stun grown-ups with. I included lots of screen shots so you can see what you're getting and what kids are learning. (Be honest - you are learning, too.)The real books come with kits to build skeletons - good fun, I bet.
Monster Sharks: Megalodon and Other Giant Prehistoric Predators of the Deep
5★ and Jurassic Giants: T. rex and Other Prehistoric Predators
4.5★ My reviews with lots of pictures:
SHARKS:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
DINOSAURS:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe – Fannie Flagg – 5*****
This is actually the third time I’ve read this book and I love just as much now as I did the first time. Flagg does a marvelous job of developing these characters, and the reader feels the love between them. I was hooked from the beginning and engaged throughout.
LINK to my review
I'm reading 3 books. 
- a spooky book for October
- Fantastic non-fiction audiobook
- Making a start on this very long read!
I read The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter. 4.5 stars rounded up. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A Pulitzer prize-winner you don't have to be a literary genius to enjoy! Less by Andrew Sean Greer is a delight!
5★ Link to my review
I seem to only want to read lately which is not a bad thing! I will be starting an Agatha Christie, Three Act Tragedy.
How to Fall In Love With a Man Who Lives In a Bush – Emmy Abrahamson – 3***
Julia is a Swede living in Austria where she teaches English at Berlitz. One day, while waiting on a park bench she meets a smelly, dirty homeless man, Ben. This was a quick, fast read and mildly entertaining. I shook my head at the chances Julia took, but recognized what she saw in Ben. He was clearly intelligent, caring, giving and willing to work at the relationship. She, on the other hand, was pretty closed off to any change in routine, and visibly embarrassed by him. All told it’s a decent chick-lit, new-adult romance.
LINK to my review
50% Off Murder – Josie Belle – 3***
A typical cozy mystery where the lead amateur sleuth just cannot keep her nose out of police business, despite specific warnings to steer clear. There are plenty of suspects, including Maggie’s old high-school nemesis. I thought this was a bit formulaic, but maybe I’ve been reading too many cozies lately. The old rivalry with Summer Phillips irritated me no end; they’re 40 years old for heaven’s sake and they are STILL hashing out high school drama?! I figured out the culprit long before Maggie or Sheriff Sam Collins caught on. Still it was a fun, fast read and if another book in the series fits a challenge task, I’ll read it.
LINK to my review
I read The Travelling Cat Chronicles. 3.5 stars rounded up. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
HALLOWEEN! Click-Clack the Rattlebag is a satisfyingly creepy (and free!) short story by Neil Gaiman. Share with your friends and kids!
5★ My review with link to free story
Before We Were Yours – Lisa Wingate – 3.5***
This historical novel is based on a shameful episode in Tennessee history, when babies were sold for profit and powerful people looked the other way. I was engaged and interested from the beginning, but … Of the two time lines I much preferred the historical story arc set in Depression-era Tennessee. I did not care for the contemporary story arc featuring Avery and her uncertain / conflicting love interests. Most of the characters seemed to come straight from central casting. Still, our F2F book group had a lively discussion.
LINK to my review
The Monster of Florence – Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi – 3.5***
In the early 1980s the residents of Tuscany were terrorized by a serial killer every bit as brutal as Jack the Ripper. Known as the Monster of Florence, the psychopath was never caught. Preston and Spezi put their journalism skills to the test, and for their troubles, became the focus of criminal investigation themselves. There are some elements of the book that rival the best true-crime books, but in the end I was left feeling ‘meh.’
LINK to my review
Recently finished I’ll Be Gone In the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer as my True Crime October read by Michelle McNamara. I was actually in California in April when they finally found him. It’s unfortunate Michelle died before completing the book and being there when the killer was caught. Highly recommend if you like True Crime novels! Currently reading Helter Skelter as my second “dark” themed book for October, so far very interesting.
Lastly I’m also halfway through The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore and I’m obsessed! Such a great read!
A nail-biting mystery!The Girl in the Ice by Robert Bryndza
My Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I enjoyed Adrian Hyland's first novel, Moonlight Downs - intrigue in the outback with the feisty half-Aboriginal, half-white Emily Tempest. I'm a fan!
4.5★ Link to my review
I, Robot – Isaac Asimov – 4****
I’ve never been a great fan of science fiction but this book has been on my tbr for ages. The thread that weaves the chapters together is Susan Calvin, PhD – a specialist in “Robopsychology.” As the narrator relates Dr Calvin’s fifty years of experiences in the field, the reader gets a sense of the slippery slope humanity has embarked on by relying more and more on these highly intelligent machines. It’s fascinating, frightening, thrilling and thought-provoking.
LINK to my review
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Orhan’s Inheritance – Aline Ohanesian – 3.5***
The novel moves back and forth between 1990s and the last days of the Ottoman empire. There are not a lot of fiction books about World War I (as compared to WW II), and only a small number that deal with the Armenian genocide. So, this is an interesting and informative subject on which to focus. What people had to do to survive and how the trauma affected them forms the basis for a compelling story. It made me wonder when, or whether, one can ever let go of past wrongs. Must hate and rancor pass from generation to generation because one’s grandfather hurt the other’s grandfather?
LINK to my review
Ah, another good Aussie debut! Love seeing such good new talent. In The Nowhere Child by Christian White, Aussie Kim is told - surprise! - you're actually American Sandy!
4.5★ Link to my review
I read Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom. 5 stars. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mennonite In a Little Black Dress – Rhoda Janzen – 3***
The subtitle is: A Memoir Of Going Home. I’m not sure what I was expecting. One the one hand, Janzen is able to look at her life and the choices she made honestly and without (much) regret. She seems to genuinely like and cherish her family, and I really loved the relationship she had with her mother. On the other hand, I’m not so sure Janzen was truly over her husband’s having left for a guy he met on Gay.com. I enjoyed much of it and found her sense of humor about her own situation refreshing, but I didn’t love it.
LINK to my review
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Dark of the Moon – John Sanders – 3.5***
Book One in a new series featuring Virgil Flowers of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension; he only works “the hard stuff.” Sandford crafts a tight plot with several twists and turns, plenty of suspects, a little love interest, and a skilled, likeable lead detective. I like the way Flowers pieces together the puzzle. He’s deliberate and cautious, but aggressive when questioning a reluctant witness. He’s an astute observer and is careful when drawing conclusions. It certainly kept me guessing right up to the reveal.
LINK to my review
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The Next Best Book Club
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Authors mentioned in this topic
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