Weekly Reading Thread: October 2-8

My reads from the past couple of weeks:

I read Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney,and found it so forgettable that I was surprised to find it on my GoodReads list when I checked it just now! I'm not sure I could come up with the plot right now...dude with face blindness and his wife in a creepy house in Scotland. I ranked it 2/5 stars.

And yet, two weeks later I picked up Daisy Darker by the same author from library hold, having utterly forgotten that I'd read the other book by her, and enjoyed this one much more (4/5 stars.) It's a bit of an homage to And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. An estranged family meet at the crumbling family home of their mother/grandmother to celebrate her 80th birthday, and one by one start being murdered. I guessed the main plot twist about 15 pages in, but still enjoyed the atmosphere and the final reveals. It was a dark and stormy evening when I read it, which probably helped.

I also read The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes, a thriller published in 1913. It's in the public domain, and can be read on several free sites, and it's free for Kindle. I listen to an Alfred Hitchcock podcast and both the book and the movie are being discussed this month. The Lodger was the basis of one of his very early silent movies, perhaps his first thriller. The plot of the book is pretty different from the movie (better, I thought) about a married couple in severe financial distress who rent their upstairs rooms to a mysterious man with a stack of money, who they begin to suspect may be the serial killer who is stalking women on the streets of London. The ending is kind of abrupt, but otherwise I really enjoyed it.

Finally I read Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes. In this romance story, Evvie has been widowed for a year and is trying to figure out where she wants her life to go. She rents out her attached apartment to a friend of a friend, a major-league pitcher who has lost control of his throwing arm and fears his career is over. Both of these characters have a lot to work through before their friendship can turn to romance and maybe to commitment, and it's a nice journey to go on with them. I liked this one a lot, it was funny and touching without being sappy.

I am reading Notes on your Sudden Disappearance: A Novel

For much of her life, Sally Holt has been mystified by the things her older sister, Kathy, seems to have been born knowing. Kathy has answers for all of Sally’s questions about life, about love, and about Billy Barnes, a rising senior and local basketball star who mans the concession stand at the town pool. The girls have been fascinated by Billy ever since he jumped off the roof in elementary school, but Billy has never shown much interest in them until the summer before Sally begins eighth grade. By then, their mutual infatuation with Billy is one of the few things the increasingly different sisters have in common. Sally spends much of that summer at the pool, watching in confusion and excitement as her sister falls deeper in love with Billy—until a tragedy leaves Sally’s life forever intertwined with his.

Opening in the early nineties and charting almost two decades of shared history and missed connections, Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance is both a breathtaking love story about two broken people who are unexplainably, inconveniently drawn to each other and a wryly astute coming-of-age tale brimming with unexpected moments of joy.

I am enjoying this so far and am about 1/3 through it.

Currently reading The Winners by Fredrik Backman. I’ll hold off on my rating, but am very much enjoying it.

I’m about 1/2 way through THE WINNERS (The Beartown Series Bk 3) by Fredrik Backman which came out last week.  

Be ready to commit to this book; it’s 684 pages!

I do wish it was written closer in time to the other 2 books, which were 4&5 years ago. It took a little bit of time to start remembering all the characters and their connections.  

BY THE WAY, A Man Called Ove (by this author) is becoming a movie on 12/14/22 with Tom Hanks called A Man Called Otto. I can’t wait !

I’m about 1/3 into it as well and think it’s just beautiful so far. Heartbreaking yet funny, just like life.😊

I loved Hamnet and Maggie O’Farrell is one of my favorite authors.

How did I not know The Winners was out???

I am reading The Winners by Fredrik Backman, I was first on the reserve list at a library where my son lives. I loved the first two, so anticipate enjoying this one, too. I did do a little reading online about the plot and characters in the first two books so that I'm better able to remember them.

I finished "The Babysitter" by Joyce Carol Oates - I love her style of writing, so almost don't care about the storyline, this was a bit strange, but still enjoyed it. Also finished "All Your Perfects" by Colleen Hoover, which I picked up because I enjoyed a couple of her recent books, but this was a romance, which her earlier books seem to be, is not really my genre, so although I didn't hate it, I didn't really enjoy it.

I lost my Kindle when my siblings and spouses were here for a few days, and it's been two weeks since they left, and it has not appeared - it is absolutely LOST. I feel like a fish out of water without it, it almost gives me anxiety! I ordered a new one today. If anyone needs a new Kindle, there is a fabulous sale for about another eight days, I believe it is.

Just FYI....if you turn off the wifi on your Kindle (put it on airplane mode) your book won't fly back to the library. It will stay on your Kindle until you turn the wifi back on. -- And the really nice thing about this is that it *will* disappear from your library account so you're not keeping it from the next person who wants it. It goes off your library account, someone else can take it out, and you still have it on your Kindle. 

So frustrating. You'll find it one day in a drawer somewhere. Don't ask me how I know!

So is a Kindle much better than reading a book on your iPad? 

For me it is! My Kindle Oasis is much lighter than my iPad, it has buttons to turn the pages (you can still tap the screen if you want) and the pages can be turned with either your left or right hand, and it has no screen glare like an iPad does in certain light. The pages look just like the pages of a book. 

Really Red I am on a computer all day, and at night usually watch tv or mess around on my ipad. I could read on my ipad using the kindle app, but the screen is very harsh on my eyes. I have a regular ol kindle, not a fire, so it is e-ink technology. I ADORE IT. It adjusts light based on where I am and there is no glare. I can sit outside in the direct sun, or in bed with no lights on. I always preferred an actual book, but when the libraries shut down for COVID, it became my best friend!!!!! I get annoyed when I have to read a real book now. LOL.

here's a picture of mine in the dark: 
and here it is by the window: 
it just adjusts based on the available light and therefore, i love it long time. LOL

The book will stay until you turn airplane mode off to download more books.  

I don't even remember when I posted last, but here's the books I've read over the last month or two:

Book Lovers by Emily Henry. I really enjoyed Beach Read and DNF'd People We Meet on Vacation. I think I enjoyed Book Lovers, at least the first half, the best of all her books. 3.5-4/5

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John. It's kind of about time travel and pandemic, and more about the nature of what we would change if we could, and what price we would be willing to pay/risk to save another. An interesting read that is more of an intellectual exercise mixed with fever dream feel, but no emotional attachment to the characters or the outcome. 4/5 for the interesting ideas.

The No Show by Beth O'Leary. I love her books and this is my favourite. I cried at the end which I never do. I actually wanted to start reading it all over again. So good and heartbreaking in the best way. 5/5

The Club by Ellery Lloyd. A promising premise and a great start but in the end a very predictable thriller with ridiculously long inner dialogue monologues - quintessential telling instead of showing. 2.5/5.

Glass Houses by Louise Penny, #13 in the Inspector Gamache series. It's my comfort read. It was good but not great 3/5.

Bunny by Mona Awad. Not even sure how to describe this one - sort of Heathers meets the Craft in a fever dream. It's utterly bizarre and a potentially great pre-Halloween read, or you might utterly hate it lol. Just buckle in and enjoy the ride. 4/5

DNF'd:
The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley. I enjoyed The Guest List but the dialogue was so overwrought that I gave up on it very early.
The Long Weekend by Gilly Macmillan. It might be very good but I was reading it on the heels of 2 other thrillers and I realized 2 chapters in that I just wasn't in the mood.

I just got a ton of books from the library that became available at the same time, so I'm reading Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, Island Time by Georgia Clark, Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen, Finding Me by Viola Davis and It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey. I definitely won't have time to read them all by the time they have to go back, so not sure what gets picked and what gets (temporarily) turfed. I think Finding Me is non-negotiable but after that I'm not sure.
Anyone read these and have suggestions of something I should prioritize or give a miss?