Weekly Reading Thread: January 17 -23

I really liked The Snow Child.

This week I finished two - Named of the Dragon by Susanna Kearsley on audio. I liked the story but I had a hard time believing the narrator was a 28 YO. She sounded too old for the part and it through me off.

The second was Still Life by Louise Penny. It was recommended by a friend and frankly I'm not sure why.

I started Wildflower by Drew Barrymore last night. Recommended by another friend. My audio book for this weeks commute will be The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah.

I read the Snow Child a couple years back and enjoyed it. You do have to surrender yourself to the story and not over think it.

My dad shared a book with me over Christmas and I just got started on it this afternoon. Flyboys by the author who wrote Flags of our Fathers. It tells the story of 8 pilots who were on a mission to Chichi Jima which is an island next to Iwo Jima. What happened on this mission was classified for years and those who knew about it were sworn not to divulge information. In 1997 the information became declassified. A very interesting read so far. When ever I read WWII non fiction, I'm always overcome with the sacrifices so many made in that war.

I just finished The Everyday Supermodel by Molly Sims fantastic book, got lots of tips on beauty.

You Deserve a Drink: Boozy Misadventures and Tales of Debauchery by Mamrie Hart Hilarious short stories by a youtuber

The Happy Vegan by Russell Simmons I'm learning a lot about how meat production affects the environment and how the animals are killed. It's making me lean more vegan.

Just finished Circling the Sun by Paula McClain which was highly reccommended by a couple of you last week.  Thanks so much for posting about it.  I loved it.  Just my kind of novel: a historical person given enough fictionalized events to bring them to life.  The writing is exquisite.  I would often stop and re-read a sentence just to enjoy the words and idea protrayed.  If you have read something similar, please let us know about it.  I watched Out of Africa last night to see if Bery is portrayed in the movie, and she was not.

I'm another one who loved The Snow Child.


They all have a token animals now. '21' has lots of little dogs and '22' has a flock of geese. I did think the giraffe was the worst of them though. 21 got a little better and I didn't mind it, but 22 was back to the same tired old formula. I keep vowing never to read them again...but every year I do. Although I get them from the library now, so at least I don't pay for them.




There's the original book written by Beryl herself (or some claim it may have been written by her lover who was also an author) West with the Night. I bought the audiobook but I haven't read it yet - it has really good reviews though.
A book that I think is similar that I also loved was Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan. It's the same sort of thing, real people, but a fictionalised account of their day to day lives interspersed with facts. This is the story of author Robert Louis Stevenson and his long term love Fanny van de Grift. Both had fascinating lives on their own and together. I really enjoyed it.

Any suggestion for beach holiday reads I have read and loved all Elin Hildbrand books Thanks for the suggestions

I missed the last couple of weeks and so have 3 books to share. The first one is Balm by Dolen Perkins-Valdez It's a historical fiction novel (my favorite genre) set right after the end of the Civil War and revolves around 3 main characters-a young woman who quickly becomes a young widow and finds she can hear the spirit of a dead solider speaking to her , a now freed slave named Hemp because that is what the plantation grew where he is from (he is traveling looking for his wife) and a black woman who was always free named Madge who is a healer. Sounds interesting, right? I thought so. 

Sadly the book was written so poorly I almost fell asleep reading it many times. I kept drudging on because with such a great premise it simply had to get better I thought-boy was I wrong. Such a shame. I would have loved to see this book in the hands of a wonderful writer like Geraldine Brooks-I adored her novel March. This book, well I got within a few chapters of the end and finally just had to give up. I couldn't take it anymore. I give it one star. That's for the wonderful premise. It all went downhill from there. 

Next I read a novella Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant It's a science fiction book and I read science fiction rarely, but sometimes I like it if it's good and about something that interests me like time travel which I really like or in this case about mermaids. Being deeply attached to the sea mermaids have been a great interest of mine for a long time, and I don't mean the Disney kind. This book looked like it would be very interesting and it was! I couldn't put it down. It's about a research vessel that is funded by a channel like a reality channel on TV that don't really expect to find anything, but they send the ship to the deepest waters of the sea-the Marina Trench. On board is a film crew, but also on board are true scientists who do hope to find something, anything to either prove or disprove the theory of mermaids. I highly recommend this book and give it 4.5 stars. It's a short, sweet ride! 

The last book I read was The White Queen by Philippa Gregory This is the first book I've ever read by this author and I chose this one because I'd already watched and loved the series on Starz that was made from this book. I did like the book very much and it filled in a few holes that weren't shown in the series. I never had a chance to study British history and certainly this isn't really making a true study of it, but I very much like reading historical fiction-it makes learning history fun. I'm dipping my toe into it and if I find it interesting enough then I can always read the multitude of non-fiction books on the subject. I liked this book very much, but I'm not rating it. That's too hard to do since I mix up the book and the series on TV. 

Debbie in MD.

Sorry - double post, and I couldn't figure out how to delete. 

I read "To Be Both" by Ali Smith and while I wanted to like it, and it got wonderful reviews, I really didn't enjoy it very much.

Now I'm working on "Tallgrass" by Sandra Dallas for my book club.  So far, I'm not enjoying it either.  I'm dying to read a GOOD book.

ITA. This is one of the ones that I am reading. It's falling flat for me as well, especially after The Invention of Wings, which I can sum up in one word. Swoon.


 



I read Tallgrass last year as well and was pretty disappointed. I adored Prayers for Sale by Dallas. 

Lisa 

It's too bad, her books were always good for a quick fluff reading, even though repetitive. If they've all gone the way of the giraffe, I think I'll take a break for awhile. I got this last one from the library too, so at least I don't feel monetarily cheated! lol

Check out books by Karen White, Mary Kay Andrews, Mary Alice Monroe, Sarah Jio, and Sarah Pekkanen.  

Welcome, we are glad you posted