Friends Sharing Book Love discussion
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Book Reviews
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Books You’re on the Fence About - 2023
Careless Love - Peter Robinson -(England)
Alan Banks series Book #25
3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
"The Edge of Summer" by Erica George - YA Romance.
Didn't really work as I had expected, but the whale-related parts were awesome.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
In the Frame – Helen Mirren – 3***
Subtitle: My Life in Words and Pictures. I don’t read many “celebrity” memoirs, but I love Helen Mirren, so was interested in reading her autobiography. Looking at her as a young woman, leading a rather nomadic lifestyle with a theatre troupe in Africa and across the USA, as well as in the UK, gives me a completely different perspective on her as a woman. What a free spirit! What tenacity and courage and drive! Brava!
LINK to my full review
Death in Room 7 - K.J. Emrick - (Australia)
Pine Lake Inn Series Book #1
3★
Review:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Gone The Next - Ben Rehder - (Texas)
Roy Ballard series Book #1
3 stars
Review:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Cold Silence by Toni Anderson 3 1/2-StarsA serial is auctioning off the way to torture a victim
My Review
"Should I Tell You?" by Jill Mansell
A decent one-time read, though not the best by this author. Mainly for romantic-drama fans.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Things I’ve Been Silent About – Azar Nafisi – 2**
Azar Nafisi is probably best known for her earlier memoir Reading Lolita In Tehran . In this book she looks are her life, growing up in Tehran. I had high hopes for this memoir. Nafisi is clearly an intelligent and strong-willed woman. But I really didn’t connect with her story. Her parents come off as seriously flawed, but she seems to easily forgive her father’s transgressions, while blaming her mother for everything. By the end of the memoir, she seems to have come to a more mature understanding of her parents’ marriage and of their individual strengths and successes, as well as their failings. But I was just tired of it.
LINK to my full review
Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger – Lisa Donovan – 3.5***
Donovan is a chef and award-winning essayist who has worked in a number of celebrated restaurant kitchens throughout the South. This is her memoir. Her passion and focus has been on desserts but she knows her way around the entire kitchen. Her journey from Army brat to single mother to just-another-restaurant-worker to pastry star is interesting, and she tells her story with insight and honesty.
LINK to my full review
I just listened to The Caretakers
A very uneven experience for me. My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Interior Chinatown – Charles Yu – 3***
Yu’s inventive novel won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2020; he uses a second-person narrative voice and writes as if this were a screenplay. Personally, I found the structure off-putting. It seemed to me that Yu was trying too hard to be clever. Be that as it may, he had a pretty good story to tell, and eventually I came to appreciate his message.
LINK to my full review
My 3 star review of: Miss Aldridge Regrets
by Louise Hare.This was an enjoyable historical mystery and character journey.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My 3 star review of The Finalists
by David Bell:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The author layers multiple themes as the story focuses on the challenges students face in order to get an education as well as the lengths colleges will go to in order to receive donations from wealthy donors.
I just listened to Nine Lives
I’m still trying to decide what I thought about that ending. My 3.5 star review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Buried - C. J. Carmichael - (Oregon)
Twisted Cedars Mystery Book #1
3 Stars
Review:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I'm now able to post my 3 star review of a cozy mystery:Death by Bubble Tea
by Jennifer J. Chow.https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I loved Jamie Ford’s other books, but The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
. Didn’t really work for me. My three star review:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
How the Penguins Saved Veronica – Hazel Prior – 3.5***
Veronica McCreedy is an eighty-five-year-old woman who is inspired by a documentary on penguins to visit Antarctica. After all, she can’t leave her fortune to her recently discovered grandson, as he is an unemployed pot-smoker! The plot is outlandish and unrealistic but completely engaging and heart-warming. Veronica reminds me of many other cranky, outspoken elderly main characters (Ove and Olive Kitteridge, to name two). Everyone learns a lesson or two about cooperation and teamwork, and about opening one’s heart to the possibility of love.
LINK to my full review
The Secrets They Keep - Emerald O'Brien - (Missouri)
3 Stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Faith wrote: "My review of Reputation by Sarah Vaughanhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."
It does sound like good advice though:)
Carol wrote: "Faith wrote: "My review of Reputation by Sarah Vaughanhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."
It does sound like good advice though:)"
Yes, but no one in the book followed it.
Faith wrote: "Carol wrote: "Faith wrote: "My review of Reputation by Sarah Vaughanhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."
It does sound like good advice though:)"
Y..."
LOL! I guess no one would have bought it if they had.
The Heron's Cry - Ann Cleeves - (England)
Two Rives series Book #2
3.5★
Review:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I didn't dislike the story...I found the main character "wanting". I look forward to other reviewer's opinions.
An Amish Christmas – Cynthia Keller – 2.5** (rounded up)
A family living the American dream in North Carolina discovers they’ve lost everything. With little more than the clothes on their backs, they head for a family’s home in Maine, only to crash their car in the midst of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where they learn what’s really important in life. It’s a sweet, and somewhat sappy, holiday story.
LINK to my full review
Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda – Becky Albertalli – 3.5***
The story of this high-school drama centers on Simon Spier, a gay 15-year-old, who’s not yet out to his family or friends. Ah, the drama of high school relationships. There’s a lot to digest here, from family dynamics to first love to what it means to be a true friend, and Albertalli handles it pretty well. I can see why this would be a popular YA title for any teen.
LINK to my full review
"The Museum of Ordinary People" by Mike Gayle 
Didn't work for me as it has for so many other readers. :(
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Three stars for
by Ian McEwanDefinitely on the fence, but many others would really appreciate this novel.
My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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Friends Sharing Book Love
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Beach Read by Emily Henry
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...