Weekly Reading Thread - Week of Nov 2

I am in the middle of The Boleyn King by Laura Anderson. I have read it before, but it is part of a trilogy, and I just finished the second book and realized I had forgotten most of this one, the first. So I want to refresh my memory of it before I start the final book. I am excited for my next book, The Night Circus. I know, I am behind the times on this one, but I just found it at the used book store and with my store credit from trade ins, it only cost $1.75! I am also reading The Innocent by Posie Graeme-Evans. It is the first in a trilogy set during the reign of Edward IV. So far I am not warming to it, just a few chapters in and already 2 near rape scenes. But I got the whole trilogy for 25 cents each at a garage sale this summer, so if I give up on it, no big loss.

I finished Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein. I really enjoyed it. It's about two women's friendship during WWII.

I'm slogging my way through Love in the Time of Cholera. If it wasn't for reading group I'd ditch it. It keeps putting me to sleep!

I am also reading All the Light We Cannot See. I just started it and have not really gotten into yet. Even so, it's holding my interest. 

I finished two this week. Both were very good. 

First up, Unbroken. I know I am very late to the party on this one. Here is my review on GR: 

"I. Can’t. Even. Imagine.

While I plodded through the somewhat boring descriptions of the planes, engines and technical info at the beginning of Unbroken, my interest accelerated from 0 to 60 mph once the plane crashed. Even so, it was difficult to read because I had an idea of what Louie would endure. His resilience, honor and character were amazing. And I know that he is giving a voice to thousands of others, including many who did not survive. In my book, they certainly epitomize the word ‘hero.’

As a Christian, I truly appreciated his story of salvation, redemption and forgiveness at the end. Even so, I don’t think you need to be a Christian to be blown away by this book. It appeals across religious lines. How many superlatives can I use to describe this amazing biography? Easily one of the top 5 books I have read this year. 5/5 stars only because GR won’t let me rate it higher." 

Next up, I read Faithful Place. I had not read anything by Tana French yet and picked this up at Goodwill. I was glad I did. I really, really liked it. Without giving away anything, the title is the name of the part of town where the cop was raised. However, it's also a play on words, because his first serious girlfriend was his Faithful Place. I liked that connection. The book is as much about what happened to her as it is about dysfunctional families hanging by a thread. 4/5 stars. 

Lisa

I haven't read any of his books, but I have to admit that I really disliked the movie version of "Cloud Atlas" but I know lots of good books are ruined when they are made into films.
I am planning to read The Bone Clocks though.

Goodreads just released a list of the "it" books of 2014
The list is:
Landline by Rainbow Rowell
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel
I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

I've read "Landline" and I already own or can get from the library 6 of the others so I thought I'd make this my reading list over the next few months.
I just bought "I'll give you the Sun" and "The Bone Clocks" is the only one I'll have left to get.

Anyone read all of the "it" books yet?
Anyone else want to make this your "to-read" list?

I'm currently reading The Red Tent.  It's historical fiction based on the life of Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob, from the Old Testament.  It's very interesting.  I'd heard that it was good, but I'm impressed that the author developed the characters so well.

I have had this happen before with books.  Sometimes it just is not right timing.  I tried to read Memoirs of a Geisha several times and just couldn't do it, then I went on a cruise and read it in two days. So who knows why? LOL  On the other hand, I never did finish The Time Travelers Wife.

I read Anna Dressed in Blood and Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake.  Both pretty good YA.  I am halfway through Rick Yancey's The 5th Wave and it is excellent.  I also read Angelfall and World After by Susan Ee.  All YA, all really good.

Hey Everyone,
This is my first time adding my read for the week and I am late to the bandwagon but I read 50 shades of Grey this week and I couldn't put it down and no not because of the dominate/submissive scenes (they were sexy though lol) but I found Ana and Christian compelling and how their story evolved.

I am listening to the next book in the trilogy 50 shades of darkeron audio via YT because my library isn't open until Wednesday ugh. So far the book is quite good, hoping I learn more on why Christian is the way he is.

Definitely bookmarking this thread, there is a lot of good books I need to add to my reading list, TFS!

I didn't post last week so this is two weeks worth of reading.

The Drop by Dennis Lehane.  A mystery/crime novel, it started as a short story, is being made into a movie, and then was rewritten as a novel.  This one was okay.  3/5

Burn by Julianna Baggott.  This is the third in the post-apocalyptic Pure trilogy.  I liked this one a lot.  5/5

The Color Purple by Alice Walker.  This is one of those that I always meant to read.  I listened to it on audio, narrated by the author.  Very good.  5/5

God is an Astronaut by Alyson Foster.  Who would think that a book that included a space disaster, space travel and an extramarital affair could be so boring?  This is written entirely as a one sided email conversation - really detracted from the story.  2/5

365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne's Book of Precepts by R.J. Palacio.  This one is not a story.  It is a collection of quotes (one for each day of the year) with a few short essays/stories thrown in.  If you read Wonder by the same author this wraps up a few things in the story.  This might make a good gift book for a middle school graduation or confirmation.  4/5

I have read Invention of Wings, Big Little Liars, and We Were Liars and all are in my top 10 for the year. Enjoyed them! 

I have All the Light We Cannot See out right now and I think it will be my next book to read. I have Landline, Bone Clocks, and Station 11 on reserve and hope to get them sooner rather than later.

I started I'll Give You the Sun and I didn't care for it. I had several other books from the library so in all honesty I didn't give it much of a try and will probably go back to it. I would not even say that I read and gave up on it because I didn't read but maybe 25 pages. It was a time crunch thing.

But I would like to try to get more of these read too. I saw Goodread's Best Books of the year voting opened today and I always love seeing what they nominate and trying to read many of those.

If you have read Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty, please come over to the book club thread about it and add your thoughts!

I just finished All I Love and Know by Judith Frank for book club and it was amazing. Different and deep and honest. I loved it.From the description on Goodreads

Highly recommended. I'm now reading Yes, Please by Amy Poehler which is good so far!

No, That Night was my first read by Chevy Stevens. She did a good job of pulling me into the story, so I would be open to reading more by her if I find them.

Its in my queue. I'm reading Lila by Marilynne Robinson, then I'm reading Redeployment by Phil Klay. After those two The Good Lord Bird by James McBride and finally The Bone Clocks. I just found out today that both Klay and Robinson have been put on the shortlist for the national book award. Not that it matters much to me I just think its crazy that I was already planning to read both of them over the next few weeks.

I just started reading book 6 of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon "A Breath of Snow and Ashes" this week. I have to admit that the last book, "The Fiery Cross" was a bit sluggish, and that is difficult for me to say because I am just loving and adoring this series. I'm hoping this book picks things up a bit more. Still, I find the time period, the history, the medical things I'm learning from what was available then fascinating. Okay, I'm going to share some information I learned in the last book but just a bit of warning if you are squeamish skip this part: Did you know that they actually used to use maggots in wounds to help with the healing? I'm talking about really bad wounds. Yep, they did. Or rather there was a section in the book where Claire put maggots into a wound, and then closed it up with a bit of bandages dipped in honey. Apparently the maggots eat the dead flesh only, and not the healthy, living flesh. Those little suckers do the work for you, and it hurts less than digging in there with a knife to get the dead flesh out.

After a couple of days you open the wound up, scoop out the maggots and nothing but healthy, new growing flesh is left. Of course you then would have to disinfect that with some alcohol but it was fascinating at least to me to learn how Claire (who was a doctor) and then went back 200 years managed to figure out how to make do in those times and still use her medical knowledge. I guess maybe reflecting back on it "The Fiery Cross" wasn't as sluggish as I thought it was. I take it back.

I'm going to have to put down "A Breath of Snow and Ashes" sometime this month and pick up "All the Light We Cannot See" for our Peas book club, but I don't mind one bit, and that will only take me a week or so. It's a very slim book compared to the door stop volumes I've been reading (800+) pages with these Outlander books. No wonder the rest of you can write down multiple titles per week and I'm writing down the same book week after week

Debbie in MD.