Weekly Reading Thread: July 3-9

Last week I read The World Played Chess by Robert Dugoni. This was a tough read for me as I lost 5 classmates in the Viet Nam war. Before their 20th birthday. But it was excellent. 5/5 stars.

I just started 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard. *No one knew they'd moved in together. Now one of them is dead. Could this be the perfect murder?*

I realized I have been doing this thread wrong really... though I suppose you ladies don't really care. LOL. I mean, based on the dates, I think I should have been sharing at least some of the books I noted in the last thread in this one, and the ones I finish between July 3-9 in next Sunday's thread.

I want to at least finish Dr Brene Brown's Daring Greatly this week .

Finished a couple.
First was Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh. Gave it 4/5 stars. Enjoyed it, but it wasn’t at all what I expected.

Then I just finished Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan. If you like Hallmark movies, this is pretty much a Hallmark in book form. In fact the main character is a writer for Hallmark like movies 😀. This was a super enjoyable quick read and just a lot of fun when you’re in the mood for some light entertainment.

I read “Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt. It was recommended on this thread by a number of posters. I liked it more than I expected to! A quick read but very enjoyable.

I finished two books since last week, I think. I also have THREE started. 

I finished Ruddy Gore by Kerry Greenwood, which is one in the Phryne Fisher series. I'm reading them in order and really enjoying them. They're about a young wealthy British woman who lives in Australia in the 1920s and who solves mysteries. Apparently it's also a TV series...? I need to look for that.

I also finished The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley. It was okay. Kind of predictable in how the story played out, although the ending was a surprise. It's very creepy in places. A quick read.

I finished Before She Was Found by Heather Gudenkauf; I enjoyed it. I've now started The Dutch House by Ann Patchett.

Ugh! That was one of my first reads picks. Well at least it didn’t cost me anything and Inknow to give it a miss.

I don’t remember if I included it last week or not, but I read The Change by Kirsten Miller and it was so good. Great feminist revenge fantasy, fast paced with a mystery. Really enjoyed it 4/5 (enjoyment level was 5/5 but that doesn’t make it great literature lol).

I just finished Memphis by Tara M Stringfellow, about 3 generations of black women in Memphis. I listened to the audiobook and it was superb. I will say that if moving between characters and timelines within a story bother you then give this one a pass. Otherwise, I highly recommend it. 5/5

I’m currently reading the memoir Crying in H Mart and listening to Remarkably Bright Creatures.

I read an older one this weekend while at our camp.  Sooly by John Grisham.  Sad, but I liked it and it held my attention enough to finish it in 24 hours. 😄. I would have preferred a different ending, but I think that with a lot of books. I do accept it is not my ending to make. Hahaha.  😉

A Month in the Country by JL Carr. I read this for the Close Reads Podcast. I was surprised as it was written in 1980, as it reads as a much earlier book. An excellent companion to Tess of the d'Urbervilles - this slim volume is also a beautiful remembrance of a summer in the English countryside. I suspect it will marinate and more meaning will bubble up the more it is contemplated. 3.5/5 stars



Brood by Jackie Polzin. It was a novel that read like a memoir. It felt disjointed and I never quite connected. 2.5/5 stars


The Last Checkmate by Gabriella Saab. My IRL Book Club book. I always know I’m in trouble with a book when I am actively skimming but found that I was for this book. I did appreciate the appearance of St. Maximilian Kolbe. 2/5 stars


The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict. I learned about the disappearance of Agatha Christie a few years ago but had no more information. I really enjoyed learning more about this episode, though found that the first-person viewpoint of Agatha in those sections was better than the third person viewpoint that features her cad, I mean husband. 3/5 stars.


Planet Narnia by Michael Ward. I'm not sure how much I agree with the "nobody discovered this fact until me" genre generally, but this is an interesting framework for the Narnia books, and I thought he made his case well. Adds context to "The Discarded Image" as well. A reminder that I should read "That Hideous Strength" and "Miracles.” I learned about this theory (and book) from the Lamp-post Listener Podcast, and they incorporate the idea into their discussions of the Narnia books a lot. This is one of my “toothbrush reads” whilst brushing my teeth. 4/5 stars.


Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery One that I’ve read many times and will many times. 5/5 stars.


The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafik.

A lovely historical fiction about Cyprus, the partition, love, trauma, and loss. With just a touch of magical realism, which, though I'm not usually a fan very much works in this one. Content warnings abound. 4/5 stars.

You will enjoy this one!

This simultaneously made me giggle and say ugh at the same time. What a way for this to work out!

Three more for me this week, but it was a struggle. I didn't want to pick ANYTHING up. Is it bad that I only read because I needed to keep up with my Goodreads challenge (150 books which equals 2 a week)?

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes. 4 stars. I'm sure most here already read this one about a group of women who are part of the Packhorse Library project during the late 1930s. It was a quick and enjoyable enough read.

Where the Grass is Green and the Girls are Pretty by Lauren Weisberger. 4 stars. This one was pretty slow at the beginning and I didn't care for either main character for the majority of the book. It's about a famous female newscaster whose family is involved in the college admissions scandal. Told mostly from her perspective and that of her stay-at-home mom Type A sister. I had a hard time identifying with either woman as they were so image-conscious.

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson. 4 stars. Ironically my daughter picked this one up out of our bookcase and read it while she waited for me to finish Giver of the Stars. We didn't even realize that the topics were the same until she was giving me a synopsis of her thoughts after she finished. I wasn't going to read it yet (as we own it and I had a few more library books), but so many here have liked it and I'm tired of picking up books that are duds and needed something that would be a quick read. For the few that maybe haven't read it, it's also about the Packhorse Library project, but told from the perspective of a woman who was born with a genetic condition that gives her blue skin.


Only one more book left from the library so will at least attempt that next "My Year Abroad" by Chang Rae Lee. Ten books are in my library hold queue so hoping a few of those become available soon.