Weekly Reading Thread: January 24-30

I have been reading American Pastoral by Philip Roth and I needed a bit of a break from it (I am about 3/4 of the way through it) so I read The Other Wife by Kathleen Irene Paterka. Could have used some better editing, I would give it three out of five.

I read Yes, Please by Amy Poehler. I rated it 3/5 stars on GoodReads. She is a funny lady!

I am just starting How to Be Single by Liz Tuccillo today. The movie comes out February 12th.

Melissa

I read Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon. It is another entry into the YA sick lit genre. But I really enjoyed it! In this book, a young girl is basically allergic to everything and lives isolated in her home with her mother and nurse as her only companions. Then a family moves in next door and she is interested in the son. It is a very quick read and I really enjoyed it.

Hey Readers!

I read Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden this week. I have wanted to read this author for quite awhile, but the opportunity finally presented itself when my book club selected it this month. It's a mystery told through time from the perspective of three different female characters. It was a good story, and and a definite page turner towards the end. If you enjoy historical mysteries that are strongly driven by female characters, this is a good one for you.

Like the Great Carpezio, I'm reading Darynda Jones The Dirt on Ninth Grave, and I'm glad to see that someone liked it. I'm also keeping current with this series, but I agree that it has jumped the shark, and I hope that a worthy conclusion is in the works.

Speaking of book series that have jumped the shark, I'm excited to see that Msdintz enjoyed Feverborn by Karen Marie Moning. I've enjoyed the series, but that last title (Iced) didn't do the series justice. I'll give this one a try just as soon as my turn comes up at the library.

Happy Reading!

Have you seen the controversy surrounding this author & the narrator of her audiobooks?
link
In her audiobooks the author uses a narrator Phil Gigante, apparently did not use him in the last one, there was an outcry by the fans until it came out he was charged with

and he pleaded guilty to two of the charges and sentenced to jail time. Therefore you couldn't do the narration as he was in jail at the time.
The author then came out with a blog post stating she knew he didn't do it and people who said he did were "haters" she would continue to use him as her book narrator in the future.

Then there was an even bigger outcry about her attitude and finally she removed her post and issued a statement that she wouldn't be using him again.
Gigante and another man were involved and the victim was a 14yo school girl that they were texting inappropriately and had nude images of her. They met her while volunteering at her school.

Admittedly I don't read her books, but her defending a 49yo man having sexual conversations with, and a nude photos of a 14yo girl would be the end of her books for me.

I bought a gorgeous illustrated annotated version of Pride and Prejudice that came just in time for the great snow-in this weekend. I'm enjoying it. And I'm also reading a nonfiction book called Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar by Tom Holland. It's a history of all the Caesars after Julius Caesar. I was afraid it would be too dry but it's holding my interest really well.

Just started Between the World And Me --- soooooo good!!

I finished Once We Were Brothers by Ronald Balson. It was an easy to read holocaust story about two boys who grow up as brothers and end up on opposite sides during the war. I enjoyed it and would recommend.

I then wanted to read The Golden Son by Shilpi Somaya Gowda - I read her first book The Secret Daughter and really loved it. But this one isn't available on kindle until tomorrow so I preordered it and decided to turn to something on my kindle that I hadn't been able to get in to. So, I revisited - even though I'm late to the party - All The Light We Cannot See and I'll see if I can get through it this time. I've always said I wasn't in the right frame of mind when I started it the first two times. I've gotten further than both other times. Don't know why this one isn't working for me but I seem to be liking it this time.

P.

I think one thing to keep in mind with this book is to just take each section as it comes, consider each chapter as a vignette. The time frames switches back and forth and if you try to work out where on the timeline each part of the story is, you'll get confused. Then by the time you get to the end, all the parts will slot into place and make sense. I found just letting go of the timeframe and enjoying the writing and each section of the story individually was the best way to go with this book. I was one of the ones who ended up loving it.

Just one book for me this week! And I listened to it. What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe and narrated by Will Wheaton. What a fun book! The author is a former Nasa scientist who started his own webpage on science. And Will Wheaton was fabulous at narrating!

The author indicated that his website receives random questions all the time and he decided to tackle them using science to see what would be possible. There was a lot of math and figures but I was listening so it was ok. I don't know if I could have read all those numbers! He answers the questions, but then delves in to other related questions in a funny way. Like the question, what if everyone on earth was in one place and they all jumped at the same time... would that be enough to knock earth off it's orbit? No! But then he starts with, how did you get everyone on earth to the same place at the same time? Say they all gathered in Rhode Island, how many people can get out of Rhode Island per hour? What is the capacity for all of Rhode Island's airports? How much food is in Rhode Island? He determines that within a matter of a few weeks, Rhode Island would be the graveyard of most of the human race in this scenario as people couldn't get back home fast enough and there wouldn't be enough food!

The questions were things like:
Could you build a bridge from Europe to America out of legos that could support a car?
How fast would a human have to run in order to be cut in half at the belly button by a cheese cutting wire?
What if we hooked turbines to people exercising in a gym.. How much power could they produce?
How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live?
What if you suddenly began rising steadily at one foot per second.. How exactly would you die?
What if you built a jet pack using machine guns for power... could you fly?
What would happen if a baseball was pitched at 90% of the speed of light?

I just finished  The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo-and like all of his Harry Hole novels-I LOVED it. If anyone loves mysteries, I highly recommend this author.

I am now reading The Secrets of Jin-Shei I am enjoying it so far, but it's early days. I have Her Fearful Symmetry but am a little frightened since I LOATHED The Time Traveler's Wife

I read mainly memoirs. Recently finished Petty: The Biography, about Tom Petty. It's written by Warren Zanes, who is now a college professor, but was once a member of The Del Fuegos. So it's well-written, and has the added benefit of the perspective of someone who actually was in the music business. I have to say that after reading it, I feel like I know much more about certain of Tom Petty's bandmates (I'm talking 'bout you, Stan Lynch) than Tom himself. He seems a little bit of a cipher.

Also recently finished When Breath Becomes Air by
Paul Kalanithi. It's the autobiographical story of a 36-year-old promising neurosurgeon who is diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer just as he is finishing his training. I was attracted to it because one of the reviews I read said it was sort of a meditation on finding meaning in life. It was very interesting to read about how a physician becomes a patient. He didn't live to complete the book; it was finished by his wife, who is also a physician. He left behind a less than year old baby girl.   I thought it was worthwhile and uplifting.

I loved this book! It's one of my favorites. They've made it into a play and I really wanted to see it when I was in London last year, but couldn't fit it into my schedule.

pjaye, I have the Neapolitan Novels on my Kindle, but haven't read any yet. I look forward to hearing your thoughts once you've finished the series.

Only one for me over the last week. It was The Other Child by Lucy Atkins. I've started and abandoned half a dozen books in the last couple of weeks, nothing has grabbed me. I finished this one in a couple of days, so it must have something going for it! It was about an English woman who gets pregnant, marries the father - an eminent American surgeon who is adamant he doesn't want children - and moves with her 9-year-old son to a suburb of Boston. Once she's there, she realises her husband is not who she thinks he is.
It was good, but the author didn't write particularly convincingly about their relationship, and the ending was a little weak. However, the ending was not the obvious one, and it was more realistic as a result.

I'm now halfway through One Step Too Far by Tina Seskis, and really enjoying it.