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What have you just read? Opinions, recommendations, reviews Part 2
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Sandysbookaday (taking a step back for a while)
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Dec 21, 2021 03:41PM
Finished the ⭐⭐⭐.6
The Girl Upstairs by Georgina Lees This is a good character driven debut novel, and I will certainly be reading Lees next book. https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/... https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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Finished
The Quiet Americans
a couple of days ago. This book was a pleasant surprise. I pretty much chain-read espionage books, whether spy novels or biographies or whatever. But when I started this one—a broad history of the origin & first few decades of the CIA—I didn’t have high expectations. I think I expected it to be a bit jingoistic. And the author’s unapologetic disdain for Communism & socialism reinforced that expectation. But then, a couple of chapters in, I realized I was reading quite a critical, unflinching look at the often scandalous, often pitiful history of the agency (and of American adventurism abroad, generally). It’s a book that’s clearly founded on an admiration for the American ideal, and is also quite honest about the ways that the CIA has failed to live up. I can recommend it on several levels: the characters are interesting, the history is illuminating, and the analysis is thought-provoking.My review
Also finally finished The Name of the Wind, almost exactly two years after I started. (To be fair, I put it down for quite a long while, right after the pandemic began.) I enjoyed it more than I had expected to. It's not at all my normal kind of book—I don't read a lot of long fiction, and I don't read any fantasy. But [a] my kids (and several friends) read it and loved it, and [2] I went to grad school with Pat Rothfuss. So I was pretty curious. That was enough to get me to start it. The quality of the storytelling was enough to get me to finish, and honestly, I think I might start the second one now. I may even end up one of those people who complains about Rothfuss' incredibly slow pace in releasing the third. We'll see.
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Glad you enjoyed it spoko, despite the long reading interval! Several of my friends love the book, but the length makes me put it off. I'll need to read it when I have a lot of spare time!
My review of The Harlem Hellfighters: When Pride Met Courage by Walter Dean Myershttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished the ⭐⭐⭐⭐.3
The Silent Conversation by Caro Ramsay https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
Tamara wrote: "I read The Last Hours by Minette Walters.The novel is the first in a historical trilogy about the Black Death in 14th Century England. The research was impressive, b..."
So many reviews make a similar complaint but although I would say the pacing isn't perfect I loved the characters.
Absolutely loved both of these:The Poetry of Pablo Neruda
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
(If you enjoyed the classic film, the book is even better.)
Finished wrapping up my 2021 year in review. Another awesome one thanks to my GR friends!My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished wrapping up my 2021 year in review. Another awesome one thanks to my GR friends!My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished
. A short and impactful one on the vietnam war. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My review of Jane Darrowfield and the Madwoman Next Door by Barbara Ross
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished the ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
The Cranberry Inn by Barbara Josselsohn https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
I have about 5 books to review by the end of the year. Not sure how that will turn out!https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
One of my favourite series, here is the latest Reacher. 
by Lee Child3 stars: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Marriage Test by Suzanne Redfearn is another of the Amazon Original Stories by well-known authors. This test isn't like anything else I've ever heard of!
3.5★ Link to my review of The Marriage Test
I didn't know Iris Apfel's story at all, but Mª Isabel Sánchez Vegara has told it well in the Little People BIG DREAMS series. From childhood, Apfel marched to her own drum, became a fashion icon, and encouraged children everywhere to follow their passions.
4.5★ Link to my review of Iris Apfel
Just read Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4355783963
Gosh this is a good series. 
by Elizabeth StroutHere is my review, 5 stars: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished the ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Road Leads Back by Marci Bolden. I just loved this and can't wait to read the next in the series. https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My review of The Age of Caesar: Five Roman Lives by Plutarchhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Good historical fiction mysteries combine entertainment and history. When Gods Die by C.S. Harris does exactly that in Regency England (early 1800s). 
4★ Link to my review of When Gods Die
I hope little girls everywhere will be inspired by the Notorious RBG! Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a recent addition to the Little People BIG DREAMS series for children. What a woman she was!
5★ Link to my Ruth Bader Ginsburg review with illustrations and more
My last review of the year: 
by the inspiring Charlie MackesyHere is my 5 star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Read The 7 Secrets of the Prolific: The Definitive Guide to Overcoming Procrastination, Perfectionism, and Writer's Block and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1282057099
My last reviews of 2021:Poetry-
Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid by Nikki Giovanni
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Essays-
The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays by Esmé Weijun Wang
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and a fantastic memoir-
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finished two books just in time for the end of 2021.Wasn't too impressed with The Scarlet Letter but Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days was absolutely wonderful
Read my first two books of 2022:The Book of Dragons by E Nesbit, reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4427119697
and
volume 3 in N K Jemisin's trilogy, The Stone Sky - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4415009215
My review of Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism by James W. Loewenhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My first book for 2022: The Hunger Angel by Herta Müller, translated by Philip Boehm.A powerful and compelling narrative about life in a labor camp in the Soviet Union in 1945 by the winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Read The Map of the Known World by Steven Smith and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4445763147and
Eye of the Witch by Dana E Donovan - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4455884067
A little girl finds a penpal at The Mailbox in the Forest. Author Kyoko Hara shows how to make friends in unlikely places.
3.5★ Link to my Mailbox in the Forest review with several illustrations
Sequoia National Park is a perfect setting for the thriller Vanishing Edge by Claire Kells, where glam-campers have - yep - vanished!
3★ Link to my Vanishing Edge review
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