The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion
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GETTING TO KNOW YOU
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<closed thread>What are you currently reading?
Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins – 2.5**
Book two in the Hunger Games trilogy. Fast-paced formula continues with the characters facing numerous challenges and struggling with whom to trust and which alliances to forge in order to survive and win. I thought Collins was stretching things out to fill the pages.
LINK to my review
I finished "The Summer People" and started "A,Girl's Guide To Moving On" by Debbie Macomber.
Trans-Sister Radio – Chris Bohjalian – 3***
The novel is told by four central characters: Dana, Allison, Carley and Will. One of them is transgender. Bohjalian tackles blended families, small town politics, prejudice, marriage, relationships, and the idea of “love conquers all” in this novel. The story forces the reader to examine (and re-examine) the labels we assign to people and the knee-jerk reactions we have to those labels. I was intrigued and it held my interest, but I don’t think it’s Bohjalian’s best effort.
LINK to my review
Finished:
- 3*,
- 4*,
- 3*,
- 4*Currently Reading:
A Game of Thrones - Kindle
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Last Lecture
Fludd
Ethan Frome – Edith Wharton – 4****
I love Edith Wharton’s writing. I love the way she explores relationships and unfulfilled desires. The tension is palpable, the yearning almost unendurable. The setting is Starkfield, Massachusetts, in winter; as if the reader needs a reminder of how depressing and lacking in color Ethan’s life is. Though I was reading in the midst of a summer heat wave, I felt chilled.
LINK to my review
I'm currently reading The Mystery of Ruby Lode- which isn't quite my usual thing, but it's okSparring with Charlie
City of the Dead
I've just finished:
Dogtripping: 25 Rescues, 11 Volunteers, And 3 RVs On Our Canine Cross-Country Adventure
Under the Never Sky
Alive In A Dead World
Days Without End – Sebastian Barry – 4****
Historical fiction that looks at America in the mid-19th century, through the eyes of Thomas McNulty, an Irish immigrant teenager. Beautiful, poetic, powerful writing that tugs at my heart and alternately disturbs me and cradles me in a loving embrace.
LINK to my review
Finished "A Girl's Guide To Moving On
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter – Erika L Sanchez – 4****
Fifteen-year-old Julia narrates this coming-of-age story set in Chicago. The novel opens shortly after her sister has died. Her mother and father are absorbed in their grief, and Julia feels smothered by their over-protectiveness. I really like Julia; she’s talented, bright, resourceful and tenacious. But she’s also a hurting teenager and risk for major depression.
LINK to my review
Finished:
- 5*,
- 3*,
- 4*Currently Reading:
White Masks
Doc
Lilac Girls
Death Goes on Retreat
Fried by Jury
On Hold (since I own them):
A Game of Thrones - Kindle
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Just finished:Sparring with Charlie: This book was Ok. I don't know much about the Vietnam war, and this gave me some information without being a 'war' book. His adventures in Vietnam are pretty tame (though more than I'd want to experience) but interesting just the same.
City of the Dead: Again, and Ok book. I like zombie books and Brian Keene's books, but he's a bit more visceraly descriptive than I prefer.
Room I've been wanting to get around to this book and found the perfect spot for it. I love books that involve making do with what you have, and this was spot on.
Harvest of Rubies: I would not have read this book if I hadn't already spent too much time looking for a book with an author's initals involving TA or GC. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. I'm not much for Biblical fiction, or any sort of Historical fiction in the Biblical time Era, but I liked this a lot.
About to start:
Starflight and Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean
The Terra-Cotta Dog – Andrea Camilleri – 3.5***
Book two in the Inspector Montalbano series has him solving a 50-year-old crime. Montalbano is a wonderful lead character. He doesn’t suffer fools gladly, nor sweat the small stuff. He’s intelligent, a loyal friend and is always ready to find the humor in a situation, no matter how dire. Camilleri populates the novel with an assortment of colorful characters that complicate Montalbano’s life. Interesting, engaging and entertaining. I’ll keep reading the series.
LINK to my review
Starting "Four Blind Mice" by James Patterson.
The Girl She Used To Be – David Cristofano – 2**
A young woman in Federal Witness Protection Program is surprised when a man calls her by her real name. On the positive side, Cristofano writes a fast-paced suspense filled story full of twists and turns. On the other hand … the plot stretches credulity too far and at the end I’m left just shaking my head and muttering “Huh?”
LINK to my review
The Girl She Used To Be – David Cristofano – 2**
A young woman in Federal Witness Protection Program is surprised when a man calls her by her real name. On the positive side, Cristofano writes a fast-paced suspense filled story full of twists and turns. On the other hand … the plot stretches credulity too far and at the end I’m left just shaking my head and muttering “Huh?”
LINK to my review
Finished:Starflight This was quick, fun YA Science fiction read. Quite enjoyable but not particularly memorable.
Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean I read this specifically to meet a challenge. It was an interesting read, even though it's out of my usual reading area. I learned a lot about the development of Florida.
Currently reading: White Space, Rebel Belle
About to start: It Takes a Witch and A Load of Hooey
Call the Midwife – Jennifer Worth – 4****
Originally titled: The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy and Hard Times . This was renamed to coincide with the popular television series. I think Worth did a good job of honestly relaying her experiences during the 1950s, serving as a midwife in London’s East End. There are some graphic scenes, but I felt they were honestly portrayed.
LINK to my review
Still Reading: Lilac Girls
Death Goes on Retreat
Started:
Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery
Tricky Twenty-Two
Bitter Grounds - Sandra Benítez – 4****
This is a sweeping historical epic covering three generations of two families in El Salvador: the wealthy land-owners, and the servants employed by them. Through these families the reader learns something of the history of El Salvador from about 1932 to 1975. I really enjoyed the way Benítez showed these two classes interacting. As much as they tried to remain separated, they were inextricably linked and their lives held many parallels. Winner of the American Book Award, 1998.
LINK to my review
Honeymoon With My Brother – Franz Wisner – 2**
When his fiancée dumped him five days before their wedding, Franz called on his brother Kurt to help him cancel the event. Nonrefundable airline tickets helped make the decision to take the honeymoon anyway. This should have been interesting, but I quickly grew bored. I found him self-absorbed and immature. His fiancée did the right thing when she bailed out.
LINK to my review
The Forgotten Garden – Kate Morton – 4****
In 1913 a 4-year-old girl is found alone on the wharf in Australia. In 2005, her granddaughter inherits a cottage in Cornwall from her grandmother, and sets out to solve the mystery of her grandmother’s origins. What a magical story. The action moves back and forth in time, from the late 1800s to 1913 to 1975 to 2005, and changes perspective from chapter to chapter. I was engaged and interested from beginning to end.
LINK to my review
I just finished Year of Wonders and rated 5 stars. It is historical fiction based on a true story a small village in the English country side devastated by the plague in 1665. This will be in the top ten of my favorites this season. Highly recommended
Lilac Girls – Martha Hall Kelly – 3.5***
Using three different narrators, the novel tells the WW2 story of the women prisoners held at the notorious Nazi prison camp Ravensbrück. Kelly used two real-life women: Caroline Ferriday, a New York socialite and Broadway actress, and Dr. Herta Oberheuser, a German physician who became the only female surgeon operating at the prison camp. The third narrator is Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager who is sent to the camp along with her sister, whose story is loosely based on that of a pair of sisters who survived the operations they underwent at Ravensbrück. It’s good historical fiction and a decent debut. I look forward to reading Kelly’s next book.
LINK to my review
Finished Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? and Continuing with "Four Blind Mice" by James Patterson
Finished:
- 4*,
- 4*Reading:
The House of the Spirits
The Double Comfort Safari Club
Passenger to Frankfurt
Currently reading The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope. For a little light reading, I just started Bowdrie's Law: Stories by Louis L'Amour.
Left Neglected – Lisa Genova – 3***
As she has done for other neurological disorders, Genova crafts a compelling story that educates and entertains. I felt Sarah’s frustrations as she worked with occupational therapists to try to regain some of her lost functionality. I empathized with her inability to let go of the high expectations she set for herself. I thought the book was interesting and informative, but not as compelling as some of her other works.
LINK to my review
Mrs Poe – Lynn Cullen – 2**
Historical fiction that focuses on the relationship between Frances Osgood, a poetess, and Edgar Allan Poe, and complicated by the attempts at friendship between Poe’s wife and Frances. Well, I wanted to like this. I just never really felt any love between them. I got tired of the longing and yearning and attempts to stay apart, only to be inextricably drawn together. I found the author’s notes at the end of the novel more interesting than from the novel itself.
LINK to my review
Book Concierge wrote: " Left Neglected
– Lisa Genova – 3***
As she has done for other neurological disorders, Genova crafts a compelling story that educates and entertains. I felt S..."
Wow! I have to read her other books, if they are that much better than this one. My rating for Left Neglected was 5* because of the importance of the topic and how truly engaging it was for me.
Finished:
- 4*Reading:
The House of the Spirits
Passenger to Frankfurt
Still Alice
Hey, Book Concierge, I just noticed that Still Alice is also by the same author as Left Neglected!
The Road – Cormac McCarthy – 3***
A man and his son wander a desolate and destroyed American landscape after some unnamed world-wide disaster has pretty much killed off most of the earth’s population and destroyed the environment. I don’t need a happy ending in order to appreciate and like a book. But I do need to feel some sense of purpose to the story, and I couldn’t figure out what McCarthy was trying to impart. Still, there is something about McCarthy’s writing that captivates me. I like his spare style. I like the way he paints the landscape so that I feel I am living in the novel (even if it’s a horrible place to be). I think he’s one of those author’s whose works I appreciate, even when I don’t particularly like them.
LINK to my review
My Cousin Rachel – Daphne du Maurier – 4****
Oh, what a tangled web we weave …. Wonderfully atmospheric, gothic psychological suspense. Rachel is flirtatious one moment, and standoffishly proper then next. She seems callously indifferent in one scene and then solicitous and concerned about Philip on the next page. She’s both captivating and infuriating!
LINK to my review
The Yearling – J – 4****
Rawlings’s 1938 Pulitzer-winning novel focuses on the boy Jody, his parents Ora and Penny Baxter, their neighbors the Forresters, and their hard-scrabble lives in central Florida in about 1870. As the fawn AND the boy grow to “yearling” status, they face difficult decisions that affect the family’s very survival. I loved the poetic way Rawlings wrote about the natural world; it reminded me of the many times I went camping with my father and brothers, and the lessons he imparted about plants, animals, nature, survival, hunting and fishing. I highly recommend this classic of children’s literature.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... to my review
Currently reading License to Quill. Shakespeare as James bond, complete with a sleek grey horse named Aston. It's ok, I guess.Just started Cross Fire, which isn't really my thing, but ok.
Just finished Lost Empire which I enjoyed thoroughly.
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The Seasonal Reading Challenge
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Island of the Blue Dolphins – Scott O’Dell – 5*****
This is fast becoming a classic of children’s literature. O’Dell has crafted an enduring story of strength, courage and resilience. Karana, a young Native American woman left behind on an island off the California coast when her tribe departs, is practical and brave, resourceful and creative. She works hard at survival, but she works “smart” as well. The book won the John Newbery Medal for excellence in children’s literature.
LINK to my review