Weekly Reading Thread: February 19-25

I finished the Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison that was recommended here. It was very thought provoking. 4 stars on Goodreads.

A good reading week…………..


A STRANGER IN OUR HOUSE (FEB ‘23 - 4 STARS) BY SARAH A. DENZIL
DESCRIPTION: Everything has fallen into place for the Aiken family. Tired of the city, Aaron and Meera relocate to the idyllic village of Little Crake along with their two children, Noah and Uma. Until fifteen-year-old Noah wanders alone into the forest. For three days, a search party combs the woods. Until he finds Noah alive, hiding in the hollow of a tree. Once a studious and gentle boy, Noah becomes a troublemaker at school. He withdraws from his family, sleepwalks at night, and creates eerie sketches of Dark Valley Forest. This new version of Noah is harsh and cruel—a complete stranger. A mother knows when something is wrong with her child. She knows the boy who came back from the woods is not their son.

REVIEW: A favorite author of mine. Previous books were FInd Her (‘22 - 5 Stars), My Perfect Daughter (‘22 - 5 Stars), The Housemaid (‘21 - READ ‘22 - 4 Stars), Little One (‘21 - 4 Stars), The Liar’s Sister (‘19 - Read ‘21 - 4 Stars); Only Daughter ('19 - 4 Stars); Silent Child ('17 - 3 Stars); and a series One for Sorrow, Two for Joy and Three for a Girl (5, 4 & 4 Stars).

This book is written in the form of diary entries, news articles & text messages. Jumps right in with the kidnapped boy being found; definitely different for me. The creepiness starts early in this tale, which I love. Local legendary folklore black dog’s history coming to light in a spooky forest. Definitely more of a possession/spirit-type book than a kidnapping story.


SHELL GAME (‘22 - READ FEB ‘23 - 3 STARS) BY BLAIR BRAVERMAN.
DESCRIPTION:  A gripping debut novel about a survival reality show gone wrong that leaves a group of strangers stranded in the northern wilds. When the cast wakes one morning to find something has gone horribly wrong, fear ripples through the group. Are the producers giving them an extra challenge? Or are they wrapped up in something more dangerous? Soon Mara and the others face terrifying decisions as “survival” becomes more than a game.

REVIEW:
Lots of reviews very unhappy with the ending. I’m giving it a shot because I’m a big CBS Survivor fan and 2Pea *birukitty loved it and gave 5 stars. Also a sale price of $1.99; reg 14.99 made me push the button. At 35% writing is very descriptive; not a lot of dialogue. Tedious to read descriptions of everything in the woods/forest. I’m getting bored with nothing happening. At about 50% the plot started to move along which kept me reading. I agree with all the comments about the ending; the one MAIN question never gets answered. So disappointing but at least I knew it was coming.


LYING BESIDE YOU (CYRUS HAVEN SERIES BK 3) (FEB ‘23 - 4 STARS) BY MICHAEL ROBOTHAM.
DESCRIPTION:  As a boy, Cyrus Haven survived a family massacre and slowly pieced his life back together. Now, after almost twenty years, his brother is applying to be released from a secure psychiatric hospital—and Cyrus is expected to forgive Elias and welcome him home. Elias is returning to a very different world. Cyrus is now a successful psychologist, working with the police, sharing his house with Evie Cormac, a damaged and gifted teenager who can tell when someone is lying. Evie has gone back to school and is working part-time at an inner-city bar, but she continues to struggle with authority and following rules.
When a man is murdered and his daughter disappears, Cyrus is called in to profile the killer and help piece together Maya Kirk’s last hours. Police believe she was drugged and driven away from the same bar where Evie is working. Soon, a second victim is taken, and Evie is the only person who glimpsed the man behind the wheel. But there’s a problem. Only two people believe her. One is Cyrus. The other is the killer.

REVIEW :
First two books in the Cyrus Haven Series were Good Girl Bad Girl (‘19 - Bk 1) & When She Was Good (‘20 - Bk 2) which both received 4 stars and I was hoping the series would continue. Other books were When You Are Mine (‘22 - 5 Stars) & The Secrets She Keeps (‘18 - 4 Stars).

Author does a good job of reminding the readers of the characters from 2+ years ago. Love the writing and how he keeps the reader interested in the mystery along with getting you more involved with the recurring characters’ lives. Can’t wait for book 4.


Happy Reading !

I read Exiles by Jane Harper; thanks to pjaye for mentioning Harper had a new book out. This was the third in her series about Aaron Falk, an Australian police officer. I enjoyed it so much, I went back and re-read the first two books in the series, The Dry and Force of Nature. They're all good, and should be read in order. Harper also has two excellent stand-alone novels.

mnmloveli If you liked the premise of this book you should try Stranded by Sarah Goodwin.  It has a similar story line.  I liked it, didn't love it, but it definitely kept me reading to see how it ended!  Also The Last One by Alexandra Oliva has a Survivor reality show type theme.

I was excited when I first saw the title and read the first blurbs, then I read some reviews and there were mentions of 'possessed puppets' and 'haunted dolls' and very quickly realised this wasn't going to be for me either.
I don't mind a bit of creepy ghost stuff in a book, but not full on silly horror.

I just finished Someone Else's Shoes by Jojo Moyes. I'm not a huge chick lit fan, so this was just so-so for me.

I am going to start a Freida McFadden book soon - interesting, her books are published by Hachette Books and they are not available in the Bridges Overdrive Kindle library or at my public library. They are available as Kindle books and are quite popular and highly rated. Her latest is a sequel to The Housemaid (which is currently on sale for 99 cents in the Kindle store). The sequel is The Housemaid's Secret. Those are my next two reads. She is a practicing physician who specializes in brain injury and all of her books are above four stars at Amazon. Anybody familiar with her books?

I read the Housemaid and didn't like it much.
I don't like books about the coercive control of women, particularly not when it is presented in such an extreme way with bizarre punishments.
I also don't like when the authors make women complicit in the abuse and make them willing to trap other women in order to escape themselves.

It's the very opposite of chick-lit (where women are friends & help each other) let's make the women as bad as the arsehole husbands. No thanks.

I’m reading Abundance A novel of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Naslund. She also wrote Ahab’s Wife.

I’m looking forward to this book. It doesn’t come out until 4/4 in the U.S. She’s one of my favorite authors. Now I’m hoping I won’t be disappointed.

I read Love On The Brain by Ali Hazlewood.
Bee is sent to work on a project at NASA with Levi who she hasn't seen since their grad school days and she thinks he always disliked her.
Cute rom com.
My husband stode in line to meet Ali and get her signature for me.

I read tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, and really like it. I didn't think I would when I started it. 5/5

also read Love on the brain 4/5. She's starting to get very predictible now though. All her books have the geeky hunk, and geeky girl, and somewhere a cat is involved, and his best friend did it.

I resisted...hard, but finally read It ends with us by Colleen Hoover 5/5 and it Starts with us 4/5

I read The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath for book club. It was a bit better than OK, I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. I did find it very interesting how mental health was dealt with in the late 50's early 60's. It's also troubling that not a whole lot has changed. Some changes yes-but not nearly enough.

I've only read one book by Neil Gaiman - The Ocean At The End Of The Lane. 
It was the audiobook version read by the author, and he has such a great voice to listen to and the writing was beautiful and lyrical...I enjoyed listening to it, however I have no idea what the book was about...it was like someone reading me a story in a foreign language.
So the "must be on LSD" vibe seems to just be him rather than the specific book your DGD was given.

He seems like a nice guy though and he says lots of intelligent and insightful things:
 - "Go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here"
 - "May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself"

I can understand why a teacher would like him and recommend his books and he seems to be a good/appropriate author for a 16yo.

If you are a swimmer, I would predict you would love this book - it's like the author is in your brain!! It was my favorite read of 2022. If you are not a swimmer, I will be interested in your thoughts on the book - much of the allure to me was how vividly the author was able to describe the smells, the sounds, the awareness of other swimmers in the pool, what we think about when swimming, etc. But I also thought the story was very good. Report back, please!