The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion
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GETTING TO KNOW YOU
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<closed thread>What are you currently reading?
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Jayme(theghostreader)
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May 30, 2015 08:48PM
I finished "The Garden of Evening Mists' and starting ""Beauty and the Werewolf
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In the middle of
Speed reading in order to post it before the Spring Challenge ends
A Dose of Murder by Lori Avocato – ZERO stars Terrible. A rip off of the Stephanie Plum series but not nearly so well written (and THAT’s saying a lot). This “heroine” is simply TSTL. Well, at least it fulfilled a couple of challenge requirements.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
To Live & Die in Dixie by Kathy Hogan Trochek – 3*** Former Atlanta police officer Callaghan Garrity runs The House Mouse, a professional maid service, and also dabbles in private investigation. This is a fast-paced, well-plotted cozy mystery. I like Callaghan – she’s intelligent, resourceful, strong, and professional.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Murder Past Due by Miranda James – 3*** Librarian Charlie Harris is well known in Athena, Mississippi, not least because he walks his Maine Coon cat, Deisel, around town on a leash. When a home-town boy turned famous author returns for a reception, however, Charlie finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation. This is a decent cozy mystery, with a likeable main character.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Book Concierge wrote: " Murder Past Due by Miranda James – 3*** Librarian Charlie Harris is well known in Athena, Mississippi, not least because he walks his Maine Coon cat, Deisel, a..."
Was thinking about reading, your review do you mean you figured it out early, did it ruin it?
True Grit by Charles Portis – 5***** 14-year-old Mattie Ross hires Marshall Rooster Cogburn to track the man who killed her father. As Mattie tells the tale we see her outmaneuver, out bargain, and outsmart the hard men and women she encounters. Her indestructible vitality and basic innocence by turns amuse, horrify and touch the reader. Donna Tartt does a fine job narrating the audio book.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Andy wrote: "Book Concierge wrote: " Murder Past Due by Miranda James – 3*** Was thinking about reading, your review do you mean you figured it out early, did it ruin it?"
I did figure it out early. And, no it didn't ruin it. Read my full review and mention that...
For me, a 3-star rating is a perfectly acceptable book.
Serena by Ron Rash – 5***** In 1929 George Pemberton brings his new wife, Serena, back from Boston to North Carolina, where they plan to make their fortune in timber. Lady MacBeth has nothing on Serena. I can’t remember when I loved reading a book about a character I disliked so much. Serena is fascinating. I liked how Rash incorporated the history of the era, giving the novel a strong sense of time and place. Phil Gigante does a wonderful job performing the audio book.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Until the Real Thing Comes Along by Elizabeth Berg – 2** I really wanted to like this. I’ve read a number of Berg’s books and liked them all. She has a gift for dialogue and for letting the reader into her character’s lives and motivations. But … Patty’s complete inability to move on with her life just irritates the heck out of me. I didn’t care what happened to her. I WAS interested in the story with her parents, and wish Berg had explored that storyline.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finished "Beauty and the Werewolf" and starting "Dog Eat Do" by Lauren Berenson
No! I Don’t Want to Join a Book Club by Virginia Ironside – 3*** Subtitle: Diary of a 60th Year, which pretty well sums up the (non)plot of this charming little novel. Marie Sharp is turning 60 and she’s a little cranky. She’s perfectly content with her age and doesn’t need advice on how to look and feel younger, thank you very much. This was slow to get started, but the diary style grew on me, as did Marie. I think I recognized several of my own friends in her.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Jaws by Peter Benchley – 4**** A great white shark is terrorizing the residents of a Long Island community that relies on summer visitors for its economic health. I've read this book twice previously, and the rating is based on my first impression. I listened to the audio this time around, capably narrated by Erik Steele. I was struck by how long it takes for the shark hunt to happen, and how much time is spent on the political and marital difficulties that Sheriff Brody has to navigate before he even gets out on the water.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished "Dog Eat Dog" and will be starting "Wicked" by Sara Shepard
The Princess Bride by William Goldman – 2.5** Subtitle: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure. Author William Goldman should have followed his father’s lead … read (write) only the good parts. The central story is a swash-buckling adventure love story sure to delight. But all the asides and modern-day travails of the author just irritated me no end.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert – 5***** The novel spans decades, from the birth of Henry Whittaker in 1760 to his daughter Alma’s old age in 1883. I struggle with expressing how this novel moved me – and frustrated me. Alma’s life is both tediously boring and exceptionally adventurous. I found her fascinating and was entirely engrossed in her story. But for all her scientific vision, Alma seems completely blind to human relationships. While I have a few quibbles with the work, I still give it 5 stars. The audio book was wonderfully performed by Juliet Stevenson.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Plainsong by Kent Haruf – 4**** In this gentle, unassuming yet impactful novel Haruf introduces us to several residents of the small town of Holt, Colorado. With little in common but the realities of a hard life, these seven people hesitate to reach out to one another, but find comfort when they succeed. There are scenes of tenderness that took me by surprise, and some violent scenes that had me nearly breathless with worry. The prose is crisp and clean as the winter air in the Great Plains. The story is at once simple and profound.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
In This Sign by Joanne Greenberg – 4**** The novel follows a deaf couple – Abel and Janice – through their lives from shortly after WWI to the mid 1960s. When their daughter is born Hearing, they begin to rely on her to be their ears and voice in a world they barely understand. Margaret struggles to find her own life in the face of the duty she feels to help her parents. Poignant and thought-provoking.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finished "Wicked" and started "A Kiss in Time" by Alex Flinn.
Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasen – 3*** Hiaasen takes readers to the Ten Thousand Islands, of Southwestern Florida to follow a possibly bi-polar woman taking revenge on a telemarketer by leading him and his mistress on an “ecotour.” She’s being followed by her lecherously obsessed former boss, who is being followed by her ex-husband and her son. They encounter a half-Seminole and a college coed who wants to be held hostage. This is typical Hiaasen: zany antics, colorful phrases, quirky characters, and women who always outsmart the men. Lee Adams does a fine job reading the audio version. It’s all great fun, and a fast, enjoyable read.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Children of God by Mary Doria Russell – 4**** In this sequel to The Sparrow , Emilio Sandoz returns to Rakhat to face the consequences of that initial human contact. Once again, Russell gives us a morality play wrapped in science fiction. It’s a fascinating story, deeply spiritual (as the title suggests), but which lacks the impact of her first book. Anna fields does a marvelous job performing the audio version.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson – 3*** This is a very good historical mystery which features a real person, writer Josephine Tey. The story is fictional, but Upson includes some factual elements which lend a real sense of the time and place. The mystery is well thought out and sufficiently complicated to keep the reader guessing. I’ll definitely read more of this series.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finished "A Kiss In Time" and starting "Hair of the Dog" by Laurien Berenson.
Mary Poppins Comes Back by P L Travers – 3*** I read these books when I was about nine or ten years old. I reread the first book about 15 years ago and was struck with how mean and unpleasant Mary Poppins is. I had no such reaction this time, although Mary Poppins is certainly a stern taskmaster at times, not to mention vain. But I just loved the adventures she and the children had! Sophie Thompson does a marvelous job narrating the audio version. Like many children’s books, this one lends itself easily to being read aloud.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is the third Tufa novel, a sort of fantasy/Appalachian series that's hard to describe. Honestly, I shouldn't like these books, they're not really my kind of reading. But I love them. The writing is solid and sometimes beautiful, the concepts creative, and I just can't get enough of the people. I read them and then listen to the audios, because the narrator, Stephen Rudnicki, is really good, too.
Sullivan’s Island by Dorothea Benton Frank – 2** I know that Frank writes chick-lit, beach books, so I wasn’t expecting great literature, and my expectations were met. The problem I had with the book comes from Frank’s attempts to tell two stories: the contemporary story of Susan’s failing marriage, and the 1963 story of Susan’s childhood. Neither story is sufficiently fleshed out to be satisfying, and I wish she had chosen one or the other to tell. Still, it’s a fast read, and I liked the relationship between Susan and her sister, Maggie.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Sabriel by Garth Nix – 4**** What an extraordinary fantasy adventure! I love that Nix chose for the hero a young woman – Sabriel – who is smart, resourceful, courageous and determined, if inexperienced and sometimes rash. The plotting is wonderfully complex and full of danger. I don’t know if I’ll read any more in the series (this kind of fantasy is just not my genre of choice), but I’m glad I read this one. Tim Curry is nothing short of fantastic performing the audio version.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo – 4**** This is a gut-wrenching tale of brotherhood, loyalty, duty, love, courage and forgiveness set during World War I. I loved the close bond between the brothers, and applauded their mother’s moral courage in the face of adversity. I was familiar with the horrors of trench warfare and the brutal realities of a long siege, but I still cringed with fear and anxiety as I read about these young men (hardly older than boys) and what they faced. My heart about broke for Tommo and Charlie; I certainly didn’t see that end coming.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
In a Strange City by Laura Lippman – 3*** January in Baltimore can only mean one thing – the annual visit to Edgar Allan Poe’s final resting place by the Poe Toaster. This is a well-crafted mystery with a little literary history thrown in. But the key to any mystery is the strength of the plot. Lippman gives us a number of interesting suspects, several inter-related plot twists, and an opposing police detective to keep things interesting. What I really like about the series, though is Tess Monaghan. I’ll definitely keep reading this series.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Currently reading this as part 1 for the Outfoxed task (15.2) I was just lucky to be able to include this since it is an odd-numbered book in a series! Enjoying it so far, a nice light read after I finished Jurassic Park
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – 5***** and a ❤ This is a singularly powerful novel that has touched generations of readers in the 50-something years since it was first published. It is a novel of personal integrity and courage, and shines a light on a particular time and place in America’s history. The characters, even the minor ones, are richly drawn; Lee peoples this small town with a wide range of personalities, strength, weaknesses and ethics. My favorite book of all time. Sissy Spacek capably narrates the audio version.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Emma: A Modern Retelling by Alexander McCall Smith – 3*** This is book 3 in the Austen Project series, wherein authors take on Jane Austen’s classic novels, reimagining the scenarios in contemporary times. In this outing, Mini Coopers replaces carriages, and cappuccinos take the place of tea, but the characters, relationships and basic scenarios remain the same. I enjoyed this light romantic comedy, but it is not as good as the original. The audio version is capably performed by Susan Lyons. She has good pacing and sufficient skill as a voice artist to differentiate the various characters.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys – 2** Rhys tries to explain the reasons behind the madness which afflicts Bertha/Antoinette, Rochester’s wife in Jane Eyre. I wanted to like this. I had heard much about the novel over the years and more than one friend whose opinion I trust raved about it. But it just didn’t do much for me.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill – 3*** An engaging mystery featuring Dr Siri Paiboun, the 72-year-old chief coroner of Laos. He struggles to arrive at the truth despite a barely equipped morgue, and the efforts of the Party officials to deliberately derail his investigations. I’ll read more of this series.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson – 3*** Ursula Todd is born on a snowy night in February 1910 …over and over again. Sometimes she remembers how things turned out in a previous life, other times she seems totally unaware that she has been here before. I was fascinated by how Atkinson would explore a small change – taking this path rather than that lane, for example – and the effects of that decision. However, I did find the constant rebirths somewhat repetitive. Finella Woolgar does a fine job performing the audio version.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Big Little LiesSo far this is a good fit of a book for me because the characters and plot have similar themes to my work as a teacher. All the nonsense and bickering between parents about their perfect children can lead to murder.
Anne of Windy Poplars by L M Montgomery – 3*** I love Anne Shirley – who wouldn’t, she’s so optimistic, kind and straightforward. However, book four in this series is written in two distinctly different styles – epistolary and third-person narrative; and I felt that switching between these two styles detracted from the book. I think I may have reached my limit with this series, but I can’t bring myself to rate it lower than 3 stars, however, because I like Anne so much, and I did enjoy her efforts at matchmaking.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finished "Ready Player One" and starting "The Last Suppers" by Diane Mott Davidson
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman – 2** Gaiman is a talented writer and I appreciate his skill in crafting the story, but this just wasn’t the book for me. I do applaud Gaiman’s superb narration of the audio version – I believed he was a 7-year-old boy, and a middle-aged man; he was convincing as 11-year-old Lettie Hempstock and as evil Ursula Monkton.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished "The Last Suppers" and starting "Killer Pancake" also by Diane Mott Davidson.
The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton – 4**** In 1855 a gang of thieves carried out an elaborate scheme to steal a shipment of gold from a moving train. This is Crichton’s fictionalized novel based on what is known of the truth, with a good deal of conjecture and embellishment. What a rollicking good story! I was entertained from beginning to end.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer – 4**** WOW. I was expecting a true crime story, but got an expansive history of the LDS church, and it’s history of violence. Fascinating, frightening and totally engrossing. Krakauer is a good journalist and his research shows, but where he excels is in writing a gripping narrative. Scott Brick does a fine job narrating the audio version.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finished Killer Pancakeby Diane Mott DavidsonDiane Mott Davidson and starting The Main Corpseby Diane Mott Davidson
Not Becoming My Mother by Ruth Reichl – 5***** and a ❤What a wonderful tribute to a mother’s love and lasting gift to her child. Reichl narrates the audio book herself and she is magnificent. She conveys humor and compassion, frustration and pride, and above all a great love for her mother who helped make her what she is – and is NOT – today.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard – 5***** Gripping, fascinating, and informative, Millard’s novel clearly shows that she is on a par with Erik Larsen and Laura Hillenbrand when it comes to writing history with the pace of a thriller. A few short months into his presidency, James A Garfield was shot at close range by a delusional office-seeker. The bullet didn’t kill Garfield, however, his physicians did, by repeatedly introducing infectious agents into the wounds. Paul Michael does a superb job narrating the audio version of this book. He has great pacing, and skill as a voice artist to differentiate the many male characters.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Nights of the Red Moon by Milton T Burton – 2.5** Caddo County (TX) Sheriff Bo Handel’s coffee-and-newspaper morning is interrupted by the discovery of the local minister’s wife’s body on the parsonage front yard – with three bullet holes in her back. Things get complicated quickly. I like the characters a lot, and I like Burton’s style of writing, but I think the plot got away from him. Still, I’d be willing to try another of his works.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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The Seasonal Reading Challenge
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