Union County Library discussion
What I'm Reading Now
Have to get in just a couple more Holiday-themed reads ... 'Tis the Season!
The Christmas Dare – Lori Wilde – 2**
Two immature people with lust in their hearts, but somehow think this is love. There are some nice steamy sex scenes to distract from all the drama of Kelsey’s unhealthy relationship with her narcissistic mother. I think Wilde was trying too hard to be “relevant.” Just give me schmaltz (and sex)… that’s all I’m looking for when I pick up books such as this.
LINK to my full review
--------- * * * * * * * * --------
The Santa Klaus Murder – Mavis Doriel Hay – 3***
This is a classic locked-room mystery. There are plenty of suspects, not only family members, but two male guests, as well as Sir Osmond’s private secretary and other staff members. It moves a bit slowly by today’s standards for the genre, but I was engaged and interested throughout.
LINK to my full review
The Ship Of Brides – Jojo Moyes – 3***
In 1946 some 650 women embarked on a six-weeks long journey to Great Britain, leaving Sydney harbor aboard the HMS Victorious, a royal navy aircraft carrier. The women were married to British service men whom they’d met when those men were briefly stationed in Australia during WW2. This is fact. Moyes own grandmother was one of those women and her story inspired this novel. I enjoyed this story, though I thought it was a bit too long.
LINK to my full review
I finished writing my year in review.2023 on Goodreads
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
You Sound Like a White Girl – Julissa Arce – 3.5***
Arce came to the USA from Mexico as an eleven-year-old. She learned English, excelled at school, finished college, and was hired by Goldman Sachs. But she never felt that she fit in. Her take on this is that the white people in power will never allow brown and black people to actually assimilate in the USA culture. Arce gives many examples of ways in which white people have harmed indigenous populations, but the tone of her arguments was so angry and uncompromising that it turned me off. She has some valid points to make in this book, but in the end, I think “she doth protest too much.”
LINK to my full review
Before the Coffee Gets Cold – Toshikazu Kawaguchi – 4****
A particular coffee shop in a Tokyo back-alley has been serving customers for more than one hundred years. More than the coffee, the shop offers a unique experience – the chance to travel back in time to a particular moment. This was just a delightful surprise. I quickly became invested in each character’s life and his or her reasons for traveling.
LINK to my full review
I read Day
. Surprised to be an outlier . 3 stars . My review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Last Ride of the Pony Express – Will Grant – 4****
Subtitle: My 2,000-mile Horseback Journey into the Old West. The Pony Express was a fast-paced horseback ride to carry the mail in the era before railroads had been completed linking the East and the West coasts of the USA. Grant decided to ride the same trail from St Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California to better understand the challenges and joys encountered by the pony express riders. I was completely fascinated by his account. And I learned a few things about the history … and myth … of the Pony Express.
LINK to my full review
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens – 3.5***
Decades ago, I read a children’s classic abridged version; I’ve also seen at least one of the film adaptations; I figured it was time to get to the original. It’s typical Dickens in that there are many characters and many hidden relationships between them, which will eventually be revealed and explain the seemingly “random” encounters. I enjoyed watching Pip mature from a child to a young man, and I loved his brother-in-law Joe Gargery. On the other hand, I thought Dickens gave too little attention to the women. Miss Havisham and Estella would be ideal main characters but were relegated to supporting roles.
LINK to my full review
The Case of the Missing Servant – Tarquin Hall – 3.5***
This debut novel was just delightful! Puri is a marvelous character, and I want to follow the series just to get to know him better. But the supporting cast is also wonderful. As Puri and his team travel from the swanky Gymkhana Club to the slums of Dehli, and from a desert oasis to a distant mine, the reader gets a view of modern-day India that is colorfully vivid. I’ll definitely read more from this author.
LINK to my full review
I finished Falling Through the New World
. 4 stars . My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir – 5***** and a ❤
Earth is threatened with an extinction-level event. Ryland Grace has just awakened from a coma while aboard a spaceship sent to fix the problem. But the rest of the crew is dead and now he has to do it all alone. Or does he? The book jacket promises “an irresistible interstellar adventure” and that is exactly what Weir delivers.
LINK to my full review
The Queen Of the Tambourine – Jane Gardam – 3***
This slim novel is written in epistolary style, as Eliza Peabody writes letters to her former neighbor. The novel won Britain’s Whitebread Award for Best Novel of the Year in 1991, but it missed the mark for me. I liked it but didn’t love it.
LINK to my full review
Royal Flush – Rhys Bowen – 3***
Book number three in Bowen’s “Royal Spyness” series of cozy mysteries, starring Lady Georgiana Rannoch, thirty-fourth in line to the throne. I like this cozy series. Georgie and her best friend Belinda are quite the pair. And I like the historical background that Bowen weaves into her plots as well.
LINK to my full review
in my pile this morning: Aunt Jane of Kentucky, by Eliza Calvert Hall; Dearest Friend, a life of Abigail Adams, by Lynn Withey; Oregon: this Storied Land, by William G. Robbins; and The Cold Millions, by Jess Walter
The Sandalwood Tree – Elle Newmark – 3.5***
A good historical fiction tale framed by the British leaving India as that country gained its independence. Newmark captivated me with this dual story line of relationships and the difficulties two people might have as a result of different cultural backgrounds, family expectations, and emotional trauma suffered by one or both of the parties.
LINK to my full review
I read The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
.5 stars . My review : https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Midnight Howl – Clare Hutton – 3.5***
This is the fifth entry in the Poison Apple series of middle-school books dealing with various paranormal phenomena. Each book can easily be read as a stand-alone work, however. I’m not a great fan of paranormal genre, but this one is light on the paranormal and focuses more on the relationships between the kids. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the story. At its core, this is a story of friendship, loyalty and compassion.
LINK to my full review
Red Berries, White Clouds, Blue Sky – Sandra Dallas – 3.5***
In this novel, suitable for middle-school children, Dallas focuses on one Japanese-American family and their experiences inside the WW2-era internment camp near Ellis, Colorado. Dallas deals well with this episode of USA’s history. She shows how ill-equipped the camps were for the influx of residents, and details the efforts made by the Japanese-Americans to improve the conditions, and form their own governing groups within the camps. I liked how she showed the different attitudes and coping mechanisms that people employed.
LINK to my full review
The Lifeboat – Charlotte Rogan – 3.5***
In the summer of 1914, newly married Grace Winter and her husband Henry, set sail from London back to America. But after an explosion aboard ship, Grace is hurried aboard a lifeboat that is over capacity. As days go by with no sign of rescue it becomes clear that not all (if any) will survive. Grace is not a completely reliable narrator. There are times when I felt Grace was a weak woman content to let the wind blow her where it will. And other times when I felt she was manipulative and scheming. But then again, we have only Grace’s word for what happened.
The Perfume Thief – Timothy Schaffert – 4****
This was a marvelous heist caper thriller, featuring interesting characters, several twists and turns and the atmosphere of Paris on the verge of world war. I found it fascinating and exciting and when it was over, I wanted to start it again to catch what I’m sure I must have missed.
LINK to my full review
Old Bones – Douglas Preston & Lincoln Childs – 3***
First book of the Nora Kelly series. An expedition to find the “Lost Camp” of the infamous Donner Party goes awry quickly. The body count rises as a major spring storm threatens to strand the expedition members. Preston and Childs are great thriller writers. They keep the reader turning pages with short sentences and chapters. I really liked Nora and will read more of this series.
LINK to my full review
Ander & Santi Were Here – Jonny Garza Villa – 3***
This is a YA gay romance featuring two very likeable young men facing serious life decisions. Oh, the intensity of young love. The passion and fierceness of the feelings. I really liked these two young men. My only complaint: the language here (significant use of the ‘F’ bomb) and the sexual content seem more adult than YA. It’s a beautifully told love story, but Villa could have done it with much less swearing and graphic sex.
LINK to my full review
The Good Thief’s Guide to Paris – Charles Ewan – 3***
Book two in the Good Thief mystery series, has author and thief Charlie Howard in the City of Lights. I really enjoyed the first book in this series, but this one fell flat for me. Oh, I still like Charlie and I like the way he thinks. I enjoyed the introduction of Victoria, his agent; she really added a lot to this episode. One thing I expect of mysteries is that the conclusion answers all my questions, and this one did not. Though he did set up the next in the series rather nicely, so I’ll probably read more.
LINK to my full review
The Viscount Who Loved Me – Julia Quinn – 4****
Book two in the Bridgerton series focuses on Anthony. This is a typical Regency romance. It’s so hot between the pages that the current August heat wave feels positively cool. Devilishly handsome, and very rich, gentleman meets and seduces a chaste and vulnerable young woman. Sparks fly. Multiple orgasms are had. True love results. What’s not to like? A quick read that sets my pulse racing. Perfect escape.
LINK to my full review
Rosemary – Kate Clifford Larson – 4****
Subtitle: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter. Intent on building a political dynasty, Joe and Rose Kennedy insisted on keeping their oldest daughter’s intellectual and developmental delays a secret from all but a few close friends. Larson does a fine job of detailing Rosemary’s life, and that of the Kennedy family. Their ups, downs, successes and tragedies have been chronicled frequently, but little has been known about Rosemary.
LINK to my full review
On my favorite for the year list Rednecks
. Once again, Taylor Brown does not disappoint .5 stars .https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Bombay Time – Thirty Umrigar – 4****
Umrigar’s debut novel focuses on the residents of a particular middle-class apartment building in Bombay. Umrigar’s writing is full of the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of this vibrant community. Several scenes are shockingly brutal – abject poverty, violence, pestilence. And then there are scenes of loving tenderness – a new baby, a man’s love for his wife, the devotion between a mother and daughter.
LINK to my full review
The Paris Daughter – Kristin Harmel – 3***
There are a number of historical threads woven into this melodrama: the Nazis penchant for stealing art, the role of the French Resistance, the many Jewish families who sent their children into hiding, and the post-traumatic stress survivors had to deal with. In general, Harmel’s story kept me interested, but I thought the writing was just okay. I guessed the central plot point VERY early in the book and noticed the foreshadowing as a result.
LINK to my full review
I read Gin, Turpentine, Pennyroyal, Rue
. 4 stars . My review : https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
All the Days of Summer – Nancy Thayer – 3***
A novel that explores what a woman’s “second act” might look like. Like most of Thayer’s novels, this feature a woman in her middle years, finding new purpose as her children are leaving the nest. Heather Willette rents a cottage on Nantucket for the summer to think on what her next chapter of life might look like. But, of course, there are bumps in the road. Will everything work out? Well, there are no pretty ribbons tied around a perfect ending here, but there is positive movement and hope for a splendid future. A totally enjoyable read.
LINK to my full review
Small Things Like These – Claire Keegan – 5*****
Gosh but Keegan packs a lot into a small volume! There is not a wasted word or extraneous thought. Furlong’s inner struggle is evident in the way he behaves and the things he thinks about as he walks the streets of town on a snowy evening. When he makes his decision, he acts on it, deliberately, quietly, resolutely. He is confident he is in the right, and that gives him some comfort despite the possible (probable) consequences.
LINK to my full review
A Curious Beginning – Deanna Raybourn – 4****
Book number one in the Veronica Speedwell mystery series, set in Victorian England. Veronica is quite the heroine! An independent woman with a healthy appetite (and attitude) regarding her own “physical needs” and a no-nonsense approach to solving problems. Veronica doesn’t need much but her wits, her butterfly net, and a sharp hatpin, but she forms a partnership with the enigmatic “Stoker.” I look forward to more books in the series to see how their relationship fares.
LINK to my full review
The Little Italian Hotel – Phaedra Patrick – 3***
This was mostly predictable, but I didn’t care. It was exactly the kind of “coming of middle age” adventure I wanted to read as an escape. The characters are interesting and sometimes surprised me, and the setting was gloriously depicted. I felt as if I were in Venice or Florence. And I loved the food descriptions! A fun, fast, enjoyable read.
LINK to my full review
I read Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz
. A difficult, but must read. 5 stars . My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The War That Saved My Life – Kimberly Brubaker Bradley – 5*****
Ten-year-old Ada lives in a one-room apartment with her mother and younger brother. Ada, however, has never left the apartment. She has a club foot and her mother doesn’t want anyone to see Ada. So, she sits at her window and watches the neighbors. She has no friends. She’s never attended school. Still, when her brother Jamie, reports that the children of London are to be sent to the country due to the war with Germany, Ada makes up her mind to go with him. This is a marvelous story of courage and tenacity. Bradly doesn’t sugarcoat the difficulties Ada faces, from her abusive mother, to her ignorance of things we take for granted, to the anger and fear that sometimes overwhelm her. But Ada is a very strong girl. And with perseverance, she will overcome the poor start she’s had in life.
LINK to my full review
Weather Girl – Rachel Lynn Solomon – 3***
This was a cute rom-com with an underlying serious issue. Ari is a charming young woman who has achieved her dream of becoming a TV meteorologist. But she sometimes struggles to maintain her on-screen persona; she suffers chronic depression, although therapy and medication help. I liked the way Ari and Russell interacted; they seemed genuine, with real-world challenges, and recognizable coping mechanisms.
LINK to my full review
I listened to This is the Story of a Happy Marriage
.4+ stars rounded up. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies – Alison Goodman – 4****
Set in Regency England, this is a delightful romp! The Colbrook sisters – Lady Augusta “Gus” and her twin, Lady Julia – are up to any task, it seems. They are intelligent, determined, resourceful and certain of their course. They move from crisis to crisis with a sense of purpose and quick-witted improvisations. I particularly appreciate that Goodman has given us women of a certain age, who would most often be ignored. The book ends on a bit of a cliff-hangar, and I hope Goodman is a fast writer, because I can hardly wait to find out what the sisters get up to in the next episode.
LINK to my full review
I read Out of Ireland: A NovelOut of Ireland: A Novel. 4 stars . My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Everything That Rises Must Converge –Flannery O’Connor – 3.5***
This collection of short stories was published posthumously, after O’Connor died at age 39 from complications of lupus. I like Southern literature, and particularly Southern Gothic literature. The dark themes explored in such works intrigue and interest me. O’Connor excelled at this. While her characters may be blind to their (and others’) faults, the author gives the reader a clear view.
LINK to my full review
Velvet Was the Night – Silvia Moreno-Garcia – 4****
This is the third book by Moreno-Garcia that I’ve read and by far my favorite. In this work she does NOT include paranormal, horror, or magical realism elements. Rather she writes a wonderful noir crime novel based on historical events in Mexico, with interesting characters, multiple twists and turns in the plot and an unlikely partnership that I’d love to see again.
LINK to my full review
I read American Mother
. Brutal and gut wrenching , but out of grief can come good. The story of James Foley, an American journalist who was beheaded in Syria in 2014. His mother Diane tells the story in connection with one of my favorite writers, Colum McCann . Difficult, but important to read . 5 stars . My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Ursula Under – Ingrid Hill – 3***
I don’t remember why I put this on my TBR list, though I suspect it was a recommendation from my local indie bookseller back in 2004. Having finally read it, I wonder why I kept it on the list for so long. Hill does have some strikingly original and beautifully written passages in the book. And those fed my love of literary fiction and kept me turning pages, hoping for more of this. But it was a slog to get through. It took me over a month to finish it, because I kept putting it aside for other books that required less brain power to enjoy.
LINK to my full review
Lessons In Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus – 4.5**** (rounded up)
Elizabeth Zott is a chemist, but in 1960s America her intellect is not valued, which is how she winds up hosting a TV cooking show. This is basically a fairytale, with many improbable coincidences and a strong heroine. I loved it. Now, excuse me while I sharpen my pencils.
LINK to my full review
Feelings: A Story in Seasons – Manjit Thapp – 4****
What a lovely and remarkable graphic novel! Thapp explores one young woman’s feelings over the course of a year, from the highs of a sunny summer day to the doldrums of a gray winter. The artwork is beautiful and evocative. The text is spare and poetic.
LINK to my full review
Classified As Murder – Miranda James – 3***
Book two in the series featuring librarian Charlie Harris and his Maine coon cat, Diesel. When an eccentric millionaire with a rare-book collection dies under mysterious circumstances, Charlie Harris gets involved in the investigation. I figured out the culprit fairly early, but it was still fun to watch the characters put the clues together.
LINK to my full review
I read Mercury
. 4 stars for this compelling, character driven family drama. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
How Moon Fuentez Fell In Love With the Universe – Raquel Vasquez Gilliland – 3***
This is a pretty typical enemies-to-friends-to-lovers scenario. It’s also a YA coming-of-age book that deals with bullying, body-image, and self-confidence. The up-and-down, on-and-off romance drove me a little crazy, but it’s part of the package for this genre. At least Gilliland had the couple get to know each other over several months before they acted on their attraction.
LINK to my full review
Union County Library
Books mentioned in this topic
The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness (other topics)The Legend of the Bluebonnet: An Old Tale of Texas (other topics)
The Lost Book of First Loves (other topics)
The Stand (other topics)
The Maid's Secret (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
S.K. Waters (other topics)Amanda Cassidy (other topics)
Emily St. John Mandel (other topics)
Say When – Elizabeth Berg – 3***
I love how Berg writes about relationships. There are a lot of ups and downs here as the characters navigate the aftermath of one partner’s stated wish for a divorce. Griffin is the narrator, so we get less of Ellen’s thinking than of his. There are some heartbreaking scenes, and some very humorous ones (Griffin deciding to get a part-time job as a mall Santa leads to many of these).
LINK to my full review