🟣 :::READING THREAD::: Week of January 28th

I read The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow.

It's about the war on drugs (all the ABC agencies), Mexico, Columbia, gangs, corruption, and so much more.

It was one of the most violent and graphic books I've ever read, which got to be a bit much for me. However, I finished it (the plot was great as were the characters and the cat-and-mouse game between Adan Barrera and Art Keller). I will grudgingly admit that the violence was not gratuitous, due to the topic. There are more books with the same characters, and I'd love to read more about these people, but I simply can't. 4/5 stars, knocked down one for violence.

Lisa

I'm super looking forward to Heaven and Earth Grocery Store!  Enjoy!



I struggled with the first book which really slowed down my reading this week.



These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong. My Dh won this in a “blind date with a book,” and I loved the premise – Romeo and Juliet in 1920s Shanghai. Unfortunately, the writing is so bad that she didn’t really have control of her story – it kind of sprawled everywhere. I kept going as I was mildly curious as to where it was headed, but even though it ended on a cliff-hanger there is no way I’m picking up the next one. Having said that, the cover is so gorgeous. 2/5 stars.



West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge. My IRL Book Club book this next month. The story was interesting and a good journey tale, but there was a lot of cruelty around the edges of the story (thankfully not to the giraffes themselves,) so there was a reticence at times to get back to the book. 3/5 stars.

I loved it! I really enjoyed the email/transcript format. Janice Hallett is an instant buy for me (though I hated the Twyford Code).


I finished Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda 2.5 stars This was extremely dull, Lydia is a vampire but her life is very human. She has a job, an abusive mother and exists by drinking pigs blood. Literally nothing happens until the last few pages by which point I just didn't care.

This morning I finished Breaking Creed (2015), the first book in the Creed series by Alex Kava. Although some of it gave me nightmares, I loved it. I love the characters, I love the dogs and I love the short chapters. 4/5 stars. I also just realized that Alex Kava is a woman!

I've just started Yellowface by R. F. Kuang.

I had one dnf, Babel by R F Kuang. I read 112 pages before I gave up, so I feel like I gave it a good go but I just don't get the love for it.  

See, I knew it! Not quite cannibalism, but close enough....

I haven't been in this thread for quite awhile, so I'll catch up a bit....these are the books I've read this month, 2024.

I've been on a binge of the #1 Ladies Detective Agency books, by Alexander McCall Smith, which I started in December. This month I've read The Kalahari Typing School for Men, The Full Cupboard of Life, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, and Blue Shoes and Happiness, which are books #4, #5 #6, and #7. There are quite a few more, although I'm forcing myself not to go looking for #8 yet because I have too many other books I want to read. I've read the first couple books in this series years ago but for some reason I never continued the series. Not sure why they just clicked this time around, because I'm loving them! I need to look up the author because as a white man I want to know how he understands African women so well. lol. Surely he's lived in Africa, or he's married to an African. Anyway, they are fun books, and quick reads. 

My online book group read The Botanist's Guide to Flowers and Fatality as a group read, which is the 2nd of a two-book series. I'd never read the first one, The Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons, so I read that before I started Flowers and Fatality. They were okay. Also quick reads, but for me the middle of both books dragged on. I just wanted to get to the end to find out who the bad guy was. The main character was supposed to be this smart woman botanist, and although she did know a lot of about that subject she was pretty dumb when it came to taking risks. lol. Although isn't that the way it always is with some of these books? I spent my time between disliking her and reminding myself that it took place in the 1920s so she was a product of how that time viewed women. "Flowers and Fatality" also ended with a total cliff-hanger, so now I suppose I'll have to read #3 when it comes out.

I also read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins. This is the prequel to "The Hunger Games". The only reason I borrowed it in the first place was because I saw it on the "jump the line" section of my library. Otherwise there's a long waiting list. I did like "The Hunger Games" but I wasn't sure about the prequel. I started it thinking it might not get into it, but it was pretty good. Now I'm on hold for "The Hunger Games" since I haven't read that one in years. 

Embassy Wife, by Katie Crouch. I found this one on a random search one day though my library's online catalog. Since I'm married to a State Department guy, worked for State myself back in the day, and have lived overseas in the Embassy community in Africa, I thought this would be a fun book. It's about expat life in Namibia, and the whole time I was reading it I was thinking "this author MUST be in State or married so someone in State", lol. I googled her and indeed she is. The book was a fun look at day-to-day life among the "dependent spouses", a term which is now "trailing spouse". lol. Mostly women in this book, but there were a couple of trailing husbands. And as I read more of the book I thought that it was a bit tongue-in-cheek, and then got to the end and laughed out loud. A fun book. 

And then after reading "Songbirds and Snakes" I was back in a dystopian frame of mind, so I read Divergent by Veronica Roth. I've read it ages ago but enjoyed it again. It's a world where everyone has been divided up into four "factions" based on personality type. The main character has been raised in the quiet self-effacing faction, but on Choosing Day she ends up going to the faction that's totally opposite of hers. I enjoyed it, again. And of course now I'm waiting for the second of the series, "Insurgent". Dystopia is one of my favorite genres along with good British murder mysteries. 

And to round out the month I skipped through Decluttering at the Speed of Life by Dana K. White. It didn't grab me which is why I "skipped" through it. I did like her main premise though, which is that everything is a "container".... not just bins and boxes, but also closets, drawers, even our house. And when the container is full the answer is not to buy more containers but to declutter what's in there. As always after reading this type of book I get inspired to get rid of stuff. I do love my Buy Nothing group since there is always someone who wants anything that's offered. lol. 

That's it for me for January. So many of my books were quick reads, plus I was sick for a week, so I was able to get in a lot of reading. 

I read Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll.

It is loosely based on the story of an infamous serial murderer in the 1970s. (I’ll follow the author’s lead and not give a name to the murderer so as not to humanize him). In this novel, Pamela, who is the president of her sorority at FSU and the narrator of the book, gets a clear look at a man leaving her sorority house in the middle of the night. Pamela then goes upstairs to find that two of her sorority sisters have been brutally murdered by the stranger she saw exiting the house.

Pamela then meets Tina whose girlfriend was murdered by the same man in Washington. They work together to bring the man to justice.

Pamela is sickened by the fact the man becomes a cult legend and is admired for his supposed good looks and intelligence. The defendant, as she refers to the killer in the book, is neither smart nor particularly good looking.

It’s a good story, though a little implausible at times. It really does make you think about how serial killers become celebrities and then cult legends while their victims are forgotten.

I really enjoyed that book! It took me a little time to get into it too—it a good way, it was almost old-fashioned in assuming you’d give it time to develop.

I thought that book was just OK (better than Mockingjay, though!), but I did see the movie a few weeks ago and thought it was surprisingly decent.

monklady123, you were wondering about Alexander McCall Smith? (Or Sandy, as his friends call him. 😝) I met him a few years back when he did a talk with Ian Rankin, who is also one of my favourite authors. Although born in Zimbabwe or Rhodesia as it was at the time, he is generally regarded as Scottish. He did a degree in law and also a PhD at the University of Edinburgh (my alma mater 😊). He spends a lot of time in Africa, especially Botswana where he established their university's law school. 

He was a lovely man, and I very much enjoyed speaking to him. The main thing I wanted to ask him was what the initials in Mr JLB Matakoni's name stood for, and I loved his answer! 

It’s J L B, which is for John Limpopo Basil, but he’s embarrassed by the Basil. 😄

Just added your two books to my hold list at the library!