Weekly Reading Thread: December 19-24

I need to participate in this thread. I have been more motivated to read lately. I am about 90 pages from the end of The Sanatorium. I haven't read a thriller like this in awhile and I'm racing through it. I'm greatly enjoying it. 

Next up will be either Michelle Obama's new book, or The Woman in the Library.

I read The Break by Katie Sise.

This is a bit typical trope lately in family dramas/thrillers. A postpartum woman has had a break with reality, and the reader is trying to figure out how much of her thoughts we can trust. There is an okay twist, but I wouldn't have missed anything if I never read it. 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 because I kept reading although I was tempted to quit.

I'm now reading The Resistance Girl. This about the WW2 resistance in Norway. A very different perspective. The author (Mandy Robotham) writes the scenes of bitter cold so well that I am grabbing an extra blanket over here in AZ. LOL. I really liked The German Midwife by her.

ETA: I have read 67 books, and my goal is 75. I will probably read 70 books. I'm not worried I won't meet my goal. It was a really busy year. 

Lisa

I read:

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli which is a historical fiction novel about three photojournalists (one woman and two men) during the Vietnam War. This was my first HF novel about the Vietnam War (I've read tons of books about WWII) and I really enjoyed learning more about it and especially this book in particular. I've been meaning to read more about this era in history for a long time. This novel focuses on the main character of Helen Adams, who quit college to come to Vietnam and cover the war after her brother was killed fighting in it. She soon meets Sam Darrow, an experienced photojournalist who takes her under his wing and teaches her the ropes. Joining them is Linh a Vietnamese man who works with Sam as his assistant. I really loved this book although I must admit it took me a little while to "get into it". But once I got past that it was amazing. The writer writes very descriptively which I like and I could easily imagine the sights and smells of Vietnam. It was also very well researched and is based on two female photojournalists who worked in Vietnam during the war. I gave it 5 stars on goodreads. 

Hide by Kiersten White which is a horror/thriller novel. I found this on the shelf at my local library. This is how it is described in the book jacket: "The challenge: spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and don't get caught. The prize: enough money to change everything. Even though everyone is desperate to win-to seize their dream futures or escape their haunting pasts-Mack feels sure that she can beat her competitors. All she has to do is hide and she's an expert at that. It's the reason she's alive and her family isn't..." This was a very quick read for me, and I enjoyed parts of it, but in the end it was a miss for me. For one thing there were 14 characters to keep track of with two characters with the exact same name-why? Even that I can handle-I adore novels like Outlander and it has a ton of characters. Here the problem was the characters were one dimensional. I never grew to care about any of them. In the end it wasn't scary at all to me-more like a YA sci fi novel. I gave it 3 stars on goodreads. 

Small Game by Blair Braverman is a debut novel about a survival reality show gone wrong. Oh boy! This was right up my alley. I love survival books and shows-like Naked and Afraid and Alone. Anyway the author was actually on Naked and Afraid (she completed 14 days) and has completed the Iditarod. Back to the book: 4 strangers and 6 weeks-whoever completes the challenge gets $100,000. The main character is named Mara and she teaches at a survival school called Primal Instinct. Whisked off by helicopter blindfolded to a secret location she meets her teammates. Things are going well until one morning the cast wakes up to find something has gone horribly wrong. Is the producer giving them an extra challenge? Or are they facing something a lot more dangerous? I really loved this book! I know I say that a lot. But this book I felt was written very well. The character development was good and I really loved how much detail was included regarding the survival aspects such as why a fish trap is better than a fish basket and much more. The only complaint I have is that the ending felt rushed-the author ended the book in one paragraph when I felt it would have been better to flesh out those details in a chapter. BTW-this was a common complaint on goodreads. I still gave the book 5 stars on goodreads. 

Currently I'm reading Cradles of the Reich by Jennifer Coburn. I'll review it next week. 

This week I finished:
The Forever Witness: How Genetic Genealogy Solved a Cold Case Double Murder by Edward Humes. It's a non-fiction, true crime novel about a young couple that were murdered in the 1987 and it was never solved. Then 30 years later a cold case detective gets involved with CeCe Moore a genetic genealogist and they work to solve the case using consumer DNA sites.
I'm really interested in DNA ancestry, I found all of this totally fascinating. 4 stars

Bad Gays by Huw Lemmey. I picked this up because it won the Goodreads best non-fiction for this year. It's about the bad homosexuals throughout history and both the cover and the title made it seem like it would be a fun & light-hearted look at these people, but no, it's actually very serious and reads more like a textbook...which was disappointing. because I wasn't in the mood for that. Quite dry and long winded in places and I got bored. Not one I'd recommend unless it fits into something you are studying. 2.5 stars...rounded up to 3 on GR.

I'm not accomplishing much reading this month. It's a tricky month--two years since my dad's final days and passing, and three years since they found cancer in a routine mammogram. I had my yearly mammogram today and it was fine, so that's a big load off my mind. I simply haven't been able to concentrate. I'm re-reading a few Dorothy L. Sayers mysteries and trying to start The Marriage Portrait because so many friends have raved about it. I'd like to finish the year with it!

I'm about 70% finished with The It Girl by Ruth Ware. I'm enjoying it.

I just finished "Lessons In Chemistry" for my book club tonight. I was very excited for this book, but pretty disappointed in it. I just could not connect with or like any of the characters. I will go back to reading "The Winners", which again, I was excited for, but it is just not doing it for me. I am hoping it gets better. I cannot give up on this book.

Omg, I've just spent 2 hours this morning finishing up Louise Penny's newest, A World of Curiosities. omg omg omg

My dd and I were waiting for this one forever. We stalked the library for months before it was published (end of November) and we ended up #2 and #3 on the waiting list! Go us. lol. Then we had to wait for over a week until it finally arrived at the library and was processed. The library bought 40 copies so we we got ours right away. Dd was able to get hers right before she moved 3 hours away, then she brought it here on Sunday when she came home for Christmas. She'd already finished so she's been urging me to "hurry up Mom so we can talk about it!" hahaha

And here's a good story... I can only read a regular book in bright light, preferably sunlight. Otherwise I need large print or a Kindle. Well A World of Curiosities wasn't available at first for Kindle, so my reading was going slowly. I mentioned all this to dd and then two days ago she said she was heading out to pick up something from Dick's. She came back and said she had an early Christmas gift for me. She said I HAD to accept it now and not wait till Christmas. It was a little light that you strap to your head, like a little miner's lamp or spelunking light. She said that she'd seen a lot of people on Tik Tok getting these for their parents who also couldn't read small print. It's PERFECT! I was able to read in bed for the first time in ages! And this morning I used it for the two hours I've been finishing this book. I had tried using a small flashlight but it was too much trouble to juggle the book and the flashlight, never mind the addition of my coffee in the morning. Best Christmas gift this year!

Anyway -- if you have read Louise Penny's other Inspector Gamache books of course you'll be reading this one. And if you haven't read the others, why not? Start from #1 though so you get to know the characters as we're introduced to them. 

This was SO good. A roller coaster from the beginning. Dd is still asleep this morning but I've been texting her "EEK" and "OMG" and "!!!!!!" and "ack" etc. hahahahaha