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What Are You Reading - Part Deux
I'm glad so many of you loved Orphan Train as much as I did. It was my first 5 star for 2015. Anyone who hasn't read it should but it's strange because it's not hugely astonishing or wonderfully anything in particular but yet I couldn't put it down and I so enjoyed it. I guess what I'm trying to say is it's the kind of book you invest yourself into the characters and their stories and you don't want to put it down until you know what will happen to them.
I loved Orphan Train and would call this one of those quiet novels. Like you said Karen M, it gets under your skin. As I also mentioned, I have read all of this author's books and I really enjoyed all of them Aren't there some authors and books you wish you could read for the first time, huh?
I am halfway through The Girl on the Train and I think the movie rights were already sold. It is a really good read and keeos one guessing. I expect to also begin rereading Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen in anticipation of reading her newest book, First Frost, which has some of the same characters.
Picked up my reserve copy of First Frost, a sequel to Garden Spells this afternoon so I hope to quickly reread Garden Spells and then First Frost. I also just finished The Girl on the Train and began reading The Twin's Daughter.
I read
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson this weekend. Really amazing book. Very atmospheric and unsettling. She is such a fantastic writer.
Waiting for the blizzard of 2015, I finished rereading Garden Spells and whereas I rated it with 3 stars in 2007, this time around I loved it and give this book 5 stars. Fans of alice Hoffman and Isabel Allende will enjoy these authors.
Stephen wrote: "Fans of Jane Eyre should read the strange but very good The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde."That's next on my list :) Does Fforde reference any other books that may be useful to know?
The Secret Piano by Zhu Xiao-Mei – 4**** Subtitled: From Mao’s Labor Camps to Bach’s Goldberg Variations, this is a memoir that speaks about the irrepressible human spirit and the power of music and art to elevate and inspire. I was completely fascinated and couldn’t put down Zhu’s recollections of her time in China. The book did bog down somewhat for me after Zhu arrived in Paris, but it’s still a good read.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Patricia wrote: "I'm almost finished with Tell the Wolves I'm Home, I love this book!"Absolutely agree - a marvelous book.
Astrid wrote: "Stephen wrote: "Fans of Jane Eyre should read the strange but very good The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde."That's next on my list :) Does Fforde reference..."
The Eyre Affair (and the other books in the series) is FULL of literary references. Some are rather subtle, but the more books you've read, the more you will notice them.
I'm reading the first book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Ok so I guess it was my mistake but I saw what I thought was a new book for Lucinda Riley and sent for it from Amazon.UK. They didn't have it here in the US. So last night I climbed into bed to look through some of my book titles and chose this title. Guess what - this was a reprint with a new title and..................in addition to the forecasters telling us NJ would have a blizzard and we got 3 inches here, I am not a happy camper today.
I'm a decent way through John Irving's Until I Find You and so far it's not making nearly as good of an impression as A Prayer for Owen Meany or The World According to Garp did.
I became to glued to the TV with the blizzard that didn't in NJ that I haven't read very much. I'm reading Three Lives and Hope You Guess My Name: A Thriller.
Nancy from NJ wrote: "Ok so I guess it was my mistake ..."I feel with you, Nancy! Why do they DO that? Both titles are usually equally acceptable and it just causes confusion, especially nowadays when people from all over the world are discussing books with each other, e.g. on Goodreads
Annalie wrote: "Nancy from NJ wrote: "Ok so I guess it was my mistake ..."I feel with you, Nancy! Why do they DO that? Both titles are usually equally acceptable and it just causes confusion, especially nowada..."
I think they should put somewhere (I read everything - maybe on the page with the copyright date) that this title has been changed. I also think if the book is a sequel, prequel or a # in a series that should also be noted especially in the front. Since I'm, such a stickler for reading books in order it really annoys me to be halfway through a book and find out there's been one before this one.
Karen M wrote: "I became to glued to the TV with the blizzard that didn't in NJ that I haven't read very much. I'm reading Three Lives and Hope You Guess My Name: A Thriller."Yeah - how'd you like that BLIZZARD. it came and went. Intersting to watch DeBlasio explain why the city shut down yesterday. Then again in Boston a friend just told me they had 30 inches.
I am probably the oldest one here cause I can remember when Mayor Lindsay in the winter of 1969, I think< failed to pull out the snow ploughs. I remember even in Manhattan where I lived then, there were inches and inches of snow for a whole week.
After several reads, I ditched The Songmaster by Di Morrissey, an Australian author. Now it has joined my bag to be donated books.So, as I continue to read The Twin's Daughter, which reminds me of The Thirteenth Tale in tone, I just plucked Palisades Park from my book closet. Set in NJ although I never visited this amusement park, it should be fun to read about this area. The book is written by Alan Brennert, a favorite author since I read the time travel book, Time and Chance and Moloka'i.
Nancy: I also remember Mayor Lindsay and the mess that winter but than again they seem to have issues in one boro or another every winter. Wasn't it Staten Island last year that was the boro the snowplows "forgot" or maybe it another boro.Well, I finished Three Lives by Gertrude Stein and sadly I cannot recommend it. I had read The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas and that was really interesting so I was surprise that I really didn't care for her writing style in this one. Have moved on to The Custom of the Country.
Karen M wrote: "Nancy: I also remember Mayor Lindsay and the mess that winter but than again they seem to have issues in one boro or another every winter. Wasn't it Staten Island last year that was the boro the ..."Funny that you mentioned Staten Island since we lived there for 10 years before moving to NJ. I thought then and even now that this is the forgotten boro and since they put up the Verazano Bridge, the island has been flooded with homes.
Nancy: I have friends on Staten Island who say they'd like to secede from New York because they are so ignored. Actually we hear the same thing from time to time from South Jersey too. Maybe they should get together and become the 51 state! I can sympathize with them since we in Jersey seem to get picked on by people in other states but that's okay, we are a great little state.
I do remember talk about seceding some time ago. I doubt it will ever happen. I taught at one of the high schools which was very much like a suburban high school but other areas are more citified.
I have been on a reading roll. Last night I began reading The Memory Box by Eva Natiello at 9:00 and put the book down at 4:30. If I didn't keep falling asleep, I probably would have read this in one day. So instead today I will read the rest of the book. About 50 pages. Talk about a roller coaster ride. I also began First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen. This is the sequel to her first book, Garden Spells. As I enjoyed the first book so am I enjoying First Frost. it's nice to be back with the Waverly family.
I finished Gone Girl. I liked it but I knew one of the key plot point before I started reading it. It would have been more shocking if I wouldn't have known.This morning I started Pet Sematary.
Good luck with Pet Cemetary. When I read this book our daughter was very young and the plot and outcome of this novel was so horrific to me that I stopped reading Stephen King for a long time.
Just finished Miracle on 49th Street by Mike Lupica (4 out of 5 stars)
Just finished Everything I Never Told You. Loved it. It's about a family in crisis in 70s Ohio. Racism. Secrets. I'm going to start Absolute Fear today. Love this author and series.
Chris wrote: "Rachel Marie wrote: "Chris wrote: "Currently reading The Fifth Mountain. I loved The Alchemist but for some reason have never read another Coelho book since, so I'm finally g..."I thought un some way it wasn't bad but it make me not want to really read one of his books... It felt like it went on and on.
Kokeshi wrote: "Just finished The General of the Dead Army by Ismail Kadare
In the 1960s an Italian general goes to Albania to repatriate fallen soldiers..."
Added it to my to read list!
I just noticed something must have gone wrong because i see 2014 postings as unread from January... I thought it were January 2015 posts!!
Shary wrote: "Just finished Everything I Never Told You. Loved it. It's about a family in crisis in 70s Ohio. Racism. Secrets. I'm going to start Absolute Fear today. Love this aut..."
Shary - Everything I Never Told You was my #1 read for 2014.
I just started reading Das Sterben der Bilder ("The death/dying of images") and I read the first third almost in one go, so I guess that means I kinda like it :)It's set in Vienna in 1906 and tells the story of a serial killer who arranges his victims like famous paintings.
I'm going to start reading The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein today.
Jeane wrote: "I thought un some way it wasn't bad but it make me not want to really read one of his books... It felt like it went on and on. "Yeah, for me The Fifth Mountain wasn't terrible, it just wasn't an incredible experience like The Alchemist was. I'm going to be reading Veronika Decides to Die soon, so hopefully that one has some of the same appeal. I've heard good things about it.
The weather served as a good excuse to spend most of the weekend indoors reading. We had close to seven inches of snow here, which wouldn't have been so bad were it not for the wind that kept windchills below zero. Read The Good Ghouls' Guide to Getting Even by Julie Kenner on Friday (finished in one day), and read Lady Susan by Jane Austen on Sunday. Also spent most of Saturday and part of Sunday reading A Passage To India by E.M. Forster, which I've not yet finished.
Jackie wrote: "I'm going to start reading The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein today."One of my favorite books! I even bought a copy of it after I read it so I can read it again. (I get most of my books from the library or the library booksales.)
Just started The Giver today. So far I'm loving it! (Only 5 Chapters in)
Luke wrote: "Just started The Giver today. So far I'm loving it! (Only 5 Chapters in)"The Giver has 3 other books associated with this first book. They seem independent of each other until you read the 4th book. I hope you will read all of them.
Just started reading Joshua's Island. 15% in and loving it. Young adult story about bullying and surviving in middle school.
Luke wrote: "Ok, thanks Nancy!"Let me know your thoughts when you finish The Giver.
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens – 4**** This is a classic tale of resurrection and redemption set against the backdrop of the French Revolution. It wouldn’t be Dickens without a huge cast of supporting characters, several twists in the plot, secret identities, unexpected connections, and long discourses wherein the characters expound on various issues, while the reader is anxious for the action to continue. But don’t let that dissuade you. It’s a marvelous story and the last hundred pages just flew by for me. Frank Muller does a wonderful job performing the audio book.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I'm halfway through the first chapter of Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. So far it's good. I'm excited to see what will happen, it has kind slightly unsettling undertones.
I am currently reading Unbecoming by Rebecca Scherm for a book group from GR. I am also reading The Mask Carver's Son by Alyson Richman for another book group at GR. Both books to far are very good./
i dropped a few books since i wasn't doing much reading and went to the library to get a small list. books i am reading now:
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and
. Books i will be reading:
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and
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I finished and enjoyed The Art of Racing in the Rain, I'm now onto Toby's Room by Pat Barker.
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The Next Best Book Club
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Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...