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What Are You Reading - Part Deux
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R.
(last edited Dec 18, 2017 04:47AM)
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Dec 15, 2017 11:35AM
Just started reading Toni Morrison's first novel, The Bluest Eye, and after the first chapter I'm already entranced by the beauty of Morrison's language and Pecola Breedlove's predicament.
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I enjoyed watching Celeste Ng's characters try to deal with the Little Fires Everywhere that they lit without considering the consequences.
4★ Link to my review
I am reading The Dog Stars. It is for bookclub. I think if I wasn't reading it for club I may not try to finish it. I like the genre, but I can't find the plot.
Happy 75th Birthday to acclaimed Aussie author Helen Garner! To celebrate, Text Publishing has released two collections of short works (which I love). Stories: The Collected Short Fiction is classic Garner Real people, loving, fighting, hurting.
4.5★ Link to my review
Book Concierge wrote: "
A Gentleman in Moscow
– Amor Towles – 5***** and a ❤
Well this book cements Amor Towles in my list of favorite authors. I love the Count and the way h..."
He is certainly one of my favorite authors. Have you read his other book Rules of Civility? That is wonderful too!
I am currently reading another Ruth Rendell book, The Child's Child, which is very different from the mysteries that I am used to reading from her.
I finished Everything Here is Beautiful. 5 stars . My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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Rio Grande Fall – Rudolfo Anaya – 2**
Book two in the Sonny Baca mystery series is set during the Albuquerque NM Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. I like magical realism, in general, but this series has gone too far. I wasn’t interested and all the spiritualism detracted from the plot (what little there was of it).
LINK to my review
Finally read a Kent Haruf novel, and I have to say, Our Souls at Night was as good as I'd hoped. I wanted to throttle their kids, though!Our Souls at Night 5★ Link to my review
Today I'm going to start reading The Good People by Hannah Kent. Absolutely loved her book Burial Rites, so have really been looking forward to this one.
I finished The Deal of a Lifetime. 4 Stars . My short review of this short but affecting novella: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finally read Wonder after seeing the movie. 5 Stars. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Angela M wrote: "I finally read Wonder after seeing the movie. 5 Stars. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."Haven't seen the movie yet but the book was 5*s for me also.
PattyMacDotComma wrote: "Finally read a Kent Haruf novel, and I have to say, Our Souls at Night was as good as I'd hoped. I wanted to throttle their kids, though!Our Souls at Night and Eventide now ...
Love, Life And Elephants – Daphne Sheldrick – 4****
Subtitle: An African Love Story. This is a wonderful memoir that takes the reader from Sheldrick’s birth and childhood through her teen years, and first love, on to the love of her life, David Sheldrick, and the work they accomplished together. She writes in a frank and open manner, describing her missteps as openly as her triumphs.
LINK to my review
Christmas in Harmony – Philip Gulley – 3***
If the Christmas Eve service has become a burden, why not take Dale’s suggestion of a Progressive Live Nativity Scene. What could possibly go wrong? With Dale in charge … a lot. Funny and tender, but Sam always finds the true meaning of Christmas. A lovely holiday read.
LINK to my review
After loving Aussie author Jane Harper's debut novel, The Dry, I was really looking forward to her second one, Force of Nature, which takes place in the wet.
3.5★ My review
I finished The Largesse of the Sea Maiden: Stories.4 stars. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I read The Runaway Children. 3.5 stars rounded to 4. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I've just finished Jacob M. Appel's sometimes funny, sometimes touching contemplation of suicide in Millard Salter's Last Day.
Link to my review
Imaginary Men – Anjali Banerjee – 1*
Lina Ray is a professional matchmaker in the San Francisco bay area who has yet to make her own match. But after blurting out news of her own (imaginary) engagement to save herself from a match to an Indian “bachelor from hell,” she has to find her prince in two months, so the family matriarch can approve the match. It’s chick-lit with a cultural nuance. A fast read. Total mind candy.
LINK to my review
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A Man Of His Own – Susan Wilson – 3***
Three people connected by one dog, this is a kind of romance novel with a twist. There’s plenty of drama with three characters who are all emotionally fragile, and yet somehow are “guided” by this remarkable animal. That synopsis sounds trite and predictable, and in a sense the book is that, but I have to say that I was entertained and engaged by the story.
LINK to my review
I'm a sucker for short stories, and some of these were good. Pure Hollywood: And Other Stories by Christine Schutt, who has won prizes for other works.
3.5-4★ Available on NetGalley until March Link to my review
Chris wrote: "I am reading The Dog Stars. It is for bookclub. I think if I wasn't reading it for club I may not try to finish it. I like the genre, but I can't find the plot."I was having the same trouble with a book my book club was reading. So I gave up. Should have finished it like you did! I can't remember the name of it.
Finished reading Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. Fabulous novel by a great American writer and Nobel Prize winner.
LINK to My Review.
I finished Obama: An Intimate Portrait: The Historic Presidency in Photographs. 5 stars . My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Just finished reading The Amazon LegacyIt's about Amazons, slaves and Greek gods. Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished #18 Kissing Christmas Goodbye. Question is what can I read for fun when I've finished #28!!!!Reading The Chilbury Ladies' Choir which is nothing like I expected but it is very good!
I just started reading
, it was given to me by a mentor who thought right now is a good point in my life to read if I had never done so. And boy, was she right! I am absolutely hooked as well as using it to compare to my life because I just graduated the university and will be starting my entry-level career job in the next few days.
Stephanie wrote: "I just started reading , it was given to me by a mentor who thought right now is a good point in my life to read if I had never done so. And boy, was she right! I am ab..."I thoroughly enjoyed it as well, Stephanie! But for some reason I haven't read any other Coelho book — will have to change that!
I'm currently reading Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race
by Margot Lee Shetterly and am really enjoying it. There are some technical parts but they help to understand the times and the work these women were working on.
Queen of the Air – Dean Jensen – 4****
Subtitle: A True Story of Love & Tragedy at the Circus. This is a love story, a tragedy to rival Shakespeare, a history of early twentieth century America, and a thrilling adventure. Lillian Leitzel and Alfredo Codona were the biggest stars in the early twentieth century Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. I was completed engaged and enthralled by their story.
LINK to my review
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Mr Miracle – Debbie Macomber – 2**
Book ten in the Angels Everywhere (a.k.a Angelic Intervention) series. Harry Mills is on his first assignment on earth and he rather smugly believes he’s got it all covered. But he didn’t quite count on human emotions. It’s a cheesy Christmas romance, and the plot is what you’d expect from that genre. It’s not great literature, but it’s perfect for the season.
LINK to my review
Hillbilly Elegy – J.D. Vance – 4****
Subtitle: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. Vance is a former Marine, a graduate of Ohio State and Yale Law School. But getting to his current place in life was a struggle, given his family upbringing. He is brutally honest looking at his life and at the culture of the working poor. He reviews government policies, and offers insight into how the working poor, themselves, might take steps to give the next generation a fighting chance. This memoir is both brutally honest, and movingly tender.
LINK to my review
Born a Crime – Trevor Noah – 4****
Trevor Noah had a white Swiss German father, and a black Xhosa mother, at a time when such a relationship was punishable by up to five years in prison. This is his memoir of growing up under Apartheid and the years as it was being dismantled in South Africa. Honest and interesting.
LINK to my review
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The Winter Garden Mystery – Carola Dunn – 3***
Book number two in the Daisy Dalrymple series has our heroine traveling to Occles Hall to research her latest article for Town and Country on England’s country manor houses. Lady Valeria is none too pleased at this intrusion, and even less so when Daisy finds a body buried in the winter garden. A satisfying cozy mystery with an intrepid heroine, set in 1920s England.
LINK to my review
I'm reading Beyond the Summit: An Everest adventure and Romance and A Spoonful of Poison. Finished the last two books yesterday so I have 2 books read in 2018.
The Alchemist – Paulo Coehlo – 3***
This is Coehlo’s international best-selling classic tale of an Andalusian shepherd boy’s quest to find his own Personal Legend. It’s an allegorical fable about find your true self, wrapped in an adventure tale, with a little romantic interest added. I found it entertaining but not particularly inspiring.
LINK to my review
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The Birchbark House – Louise Erdrich – 4****
What Laura Ingalls Wilder did for the pioneer families in 19th century plains states, Erdrich has done for the Native Americans in this same time period. Omakayas is a seven-year-old Ojibwa girl living on Lake Superior’s Madeline Island. The novel covers the four seasons of 1847. I was fascinated by this story of the life of the Native Americans during this time period.
LINK to my review
I've just started the Lance Underphal series by Michael Allan Scott. Totally out of my usual genres - I don't read much crime fiction - but the added aspect of the psychic Lance gives an extra layer of interest. I am on the second book and am liking the regular characters, so I'll probably continue through whatever are the next ones he comes up with. First in the series is The Dark Side of Sunset Pointe and the second is Flight of the Tarantula Hawk. Warning: adult content and language.
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