EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club discussion
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The Last Book I Read Was...
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(last edited Aug 15, 2020 12:16AM)
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Aug 14, 2020 11:20PM
I finished reading Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass. Also, I finished Selected Poems by Emily Dickinson.
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Finished the last Kate Daniels novel, by Ilona Andrews
Magic Triumphs - My review is more for the series overall than for the book, and small spoilers are hidden. My review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3499168234
I finished reading The Sportswriter by Richard Ford.
My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This was a great start to Ilona Andrews's new spin off urban fantasy trilogy -
Iron and Magic - also could be read as #9.5 in the Kate Daniels series My review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3500998639
I read Blankets
by Craig Thompson. It's an autobiographical coming-of-age graphic novel.My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I've enjoyed all the Graham Brack novels I've read so far, and the second in the Master Mercurius historical mystery series is another winner. Untrue till Death takes place in the Netherlands in the 17th century, full of murder and intrigue with the author's trademark humour.
4.5★ Link to my Untrue Till Death review
Anthony Horowitz's popular Magpie Murders has another fan. Two mystery novels in book. Loved it!
5★ Link to my Magpie Murders review
Finished Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress series
Here are links to my reviews for the rest of the series -
#1 Halfway to the Grave 2.5 ☆
#2 One Foot in the Grave almost 3 ☆
#3 At Grave's End 3 ☆
#4 Destined for an Early Grave 3 ☆
#5 This Side of the Grave 3 ☆
#6 One Grave at a Time 3 ☆
#7 Up from the Grave 3 ☆
Given the average GR rating, I had expected to give these better marks. Maybe they fared worse in comparison because I had just finished the Kate Daniels books. But these initial books didn't have much of any world building. I liked Bones, even though his speech is filled with cliches of British slang, and was initially annoyed by Cat. Many reviews for the first book compared it to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." I've never watched that show. Instead, this series felt like HBO's "True Blood" show, especially in its later years.
I finished Independence Day by Richard Ford. Independence Day won the Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 1996, becoming the first novel ever to win both awards in a single year. It is the second book in a series of four.
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I think most mystery readers are familiar with Daphne du Maurier. I just read Jamaica Inn, a suspenseful "it was a dark and stormy night . . ." thriller.
4★ Link to my "Jamaica Inn" review
Interviewing The Dead by David Field is the first in his Carlyle & West Victorian Mystery Series. London, 1892, ghosts of plague victims - what?? A doctor and a preacher join forces to investigate.
3★ Link to my "Interviewing the Dead" review
Best book I've read in a while. Definitely recommend it for hopeless romantics like me and for people who appreciate quality literature.
You can check my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finally finished The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
after 10 days!Here's my first ever 1 star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Succubus Blues #1 by Richelle Mead - immortals in Seattle are under attack and even being killedMy review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3523192178
As a nostalgic break from the 21st century, I revisited the well-loved children's classic The Velveteen Rabbit Or, How Toys Become Real written by Margery Williams Bianco nearly a century ago. What an excellent visit that was!
5★ Link to my Velveteen Rabbit review with a few illustrations from the original 1922 edition.
In spite of the title, After The Carnage is NOT a grisly thriller but a mixed collection of short stories by talented indigenous Aussie author Tara June Winch, who won the prestigious Miles Franklin award for her latest novel, The Yield. These are urban, international, and varied.
4★ Link to my review of After the Carnage
Richelle Mead's
Succubus on Top #2 which can be read as a standalone.My review- www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3524937453
Samantha Power's autobiography
The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir
I was a bit disappointed, and this contributed to a month of reading urban fantasy.
my review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3394535000
Hamlet, it is the first time I read Shakespeare properly in English. My only contact with Shakespeare beforehand was a "decaff" version of Romeo and Juliet in high school for my English class as a non native and it was a disservice towards Shakespeare.After reading Hamlet properly I can see that the beauty of Shakespeare it's not his plots but his language.
Succubus Dreams #3 by Richelle Mead - big improvement from #2My review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3528407334
Succubus Heat #4 by Richelle Mead - mysterious disappearance and infiltration of an extremist groupMy review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3530352130
I always enjoy Louise Penny's excellent Chief Inspector Gamache series and just finished Glass Houses, where many consciences are troubled.
4.5★Link to my "Glass Houses" review
Succubus Revealed #6 by Richelle Mead - the conclusion of the seriesMy review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3533449614
I recently read The Burgess Boys by one of my favourite authors, Elizabeth Strout. When your sister needs you, back in the hometown you so happily escaped, what's a man to do?
4★ Link to my Burgess Boys review
I also just enjoyed another delightful escapade with The Honourable Phryne Fisher, the luscious sleuth created by Australian favourite, Kerry Greenwood. 1920s Melbourne is where Miss Fisher investigates a Murder on the Ballarat Train.
4★ Link to my review of Murder on the Ballarat Train
I finished reading Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948.
My Review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My Review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I started a new UF series by the husband-wife team, Ilona Andrews.
Burn for Me kicks off their Hidden Legacy series. The bookcover is horrendous, hiding an action packed mystery in an alternate universe. The social components are what I find interesting.My review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3536883944
By Ilona Andrews
White Hot #2 in the UF Hidden Legacy series (ignore the bookcover).My review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3538509866
Wildfire by Ilona Andrews - #3 in their Hidden Legacy seriesMy review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3540190571
Both by Ilona Andrews, their Hidden Legacy series -from a new POV
Diamond Fire #3.5 - transition novella from Nevada's to Catalina's POV for a jewelry heistMy review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3541736441
Sapphire Flames #4 or #1 Catalina's trilogy for an investigation of 2 arson murdersMy review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3541737797
Martha, Martha, Martha! (with apologies to The Brady Bunch). Martha is a hot/cold muddled mess in Sorrow and Bliss, the most wonderful new book by Aussie author Meg Mason.
5★ Link to my review of "Sorrow and Bliss"
Finished reading The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson.
I had binge read Ilona Andrews' UF Hidden Legacy series because they had just released the latest installment a few weeks ago.
Emerald Blaze is #5 My review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3543531238
I just read The Wonder by Emma Donoghue, It's a wonder what strange things people believed in old Ireland. (Not that we're any wiser today.)
3★ Link to my review of "The Wonder"
Rowland Sinclair risks his beautiful yellow Mercedes S-Class and his life on the "Killer Track" speedway in 1934 Sydney in Give the Devil His Due by Aussie favourite Sulari Gentill.
4.5★ Link to my "Devil" review
Patricia Briggs'
Moon CalledI usually avoid werewolf stories but decided to try this because of the high ratings from my GR friends. It's a good start, and in hindsight, I like having a main character with her atypical ancestry.
My review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3552085188
Blood Bound by Patricia BriggsFor an urban fantasy book, I found a few scenes to be quite scary.
My review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3554570641
My first Ann Cleeves book was the terrific The Darkest Evening, #9 in the "Vera Stanhope" series. I know and love Vera from television and am now a fan of her original self, albeit a little late.
5★ LInk to my "Darkest Evening" review
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