Weekly Reading thread January 31 through February 6th 2016

I am about 3/4 through A Little Life. I think it's the most beautiful and most heartbreaking book I've ever read.

Hey Readers!

I finished the latest Charley Davidson book, Dirt on Ninth Grave. It was better than OK. It was nice to see our favorite characters again, and the story was better than adequate, but the paranormal part of the story just confuses me. I'm ready for this series to come to an end.

Next up was a new YA title, This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp. It's the story of a school shooting, told in real time. It was intense and sad, but a really good read.

Now I'm reading Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Kay Kristoff.  I started this one on my e-reader, but it there were parts that I couldn't read. I gave up after a few pages. I picked up the traditional version at the library, and it's going much better. The graphical elements are important to the mood of the story, and they weren't coming through well digitally.

Happy Reading!

I woke up this morning at 3:30 to finish A Little Life. And now I can't stop thinking about it. It's going to be difficult to go on to the next book.

I am still reading How to Be Single by Liz Tuccillo. I haven't read a bunch this week for some reason.

Melissa

I read Pioneer Girl, the annotated autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder. What a fantastic read for a Little House fan! Loved it.

And I read The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown. Brown wrote The Boys in the Boat, which so many of us have enjoyed, and this is just as good, though a very different story, about the Donner Party. It specifically follows a young bride who was part of the group with her family. What a haunting read, you just can't believe what humans can survive. I highly recommend it.

Still working on Dynasty by Tom Holland, about the Caesars. It's a good read, but dense, it's taking me some time.

Just started The Gilded Hour by Sara Donati.  I think I will really like it.  I'm sure one of you readers recommended it.

Gamgam, I recommended The Guilded Hour after I reviewed it here a few weeks ago. I loved that book, although the ending well, we'll discuss it when you finish it. Hope you like it. 

I missed last week so I have a few books to review. First one is The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory which is book 2 in the Cousins War series by this author. Last time I reviewed The White Queen by the same author which was also the title of the series on Starz if any of you happened to catch it. It's still there On Demand and it was done with BBC and I thought it was wonderful. Anyway, back to The Red Queen. This book is about Margaret Beaufort who, if you happened to catch the series is the mother of Henry of Tudor, the very religious woman who believes she is told by God that he will one day be King. At first I felt very sorry for her. She clearly wants to be a nun, is very drawn to that life, but of course back then girls had absolutely no say in what direction their life took. Instead she is forced into marriage at the age of 12 to a man 3 times her age. 12! He basically rapes her every night (but back then this is considered normal and she has to preform her wifely duties) luckily she becomes pregnant quickly because it's hands off for the whole 9 months of pregnancy. She gives birth to Henry, and well the rest of the novel steps on everyone and becomes the most hated person that at the end I even hated her myself, in her effort to get him to the throne.

This is historical fiction. This book I liked, and I'm learning a lot about British history quickly. I give it 3 stars. 

Next up: The White Princess by Philippa Gregory book 3 in this series. This book follows the story of Elizabeth of York, daughter of the White Queen. If you watched the Starz series she is the daughter of Elizabeth Woodville and King Edward who had many children (she's the eldest daughter). I went into this really wanting to like this book, because I was so curious about what happened after the Starz series ended. But oh my gosh, it got so tedious and boring. Turns out she marries Henry of Turdor who does become King Henry the 7th, and what a terrible King he was. A whiny, coward who was constantly afraid of war and a young man (although they keep calling him the boy) who claims he is the long lost brother to Elizabeth who was thought to have been killed in the tower along with his brother. This whole historical novel goes on and on and on with King Henry's fears-boring! Utterly boring and repetitive. One thing I noticed about Philippa Gregory's writing is that she doesn't use much descriptive words. And I miss that. It's really noticed in this book. 2 stars. 

I need a break after this and picked up a historical novel I found on my library's shelves called The English German Girl by Jack Wallis Simons  This book is about a Jewish family in Berlin, Germany starting in the early 1933 as Hitler is coming to power. As the noose is tightening the father, a surgeon, keeps believing things can't get worse as sadly they do (of course)as each day passes. He finally begins to believe it after he looses his job, and as one by one things get more and more difficult. Rosa and her mother spend months standing in line for visas to different countries with no luck. They have family in England they appeal to for help, but even this family turns them down. 15 year old Rosa is sent on the Kindertransport to Germany, and she is chosen first to go over her younger sister because it is decided she can help the family by searching for work visas once she arrives. I loved this book! It was such a contrast to read really good writing again. I noticed it right away beginning with the first sentence. While I like Phillippa Gregory as a means to learn British History quickly and wish some fun, her writing style isn't as great as some of the other authors I read. I like descriptive sentences. They help me to feel what a place looks like, smells like and so on. Anyway, this is an amazing book for so many reasons. I've read a lot of non fiction and historical fiction on the Holocaust. This novel, oh gosh, I can't even express it correctly. I've got a nasty sinus infection, I'll all clogged up and I think it's effecting my brain.   There are different aspects to this story that hit you days later when you are still thinking about it. Know what I mean? I highly recommend this novel. It is much better than most I've read on this topic. 

Debbie in MD.

I read The facts of life and death by Belinda Bauer. I enjoyed it and love the way she writes, though this one wasn't as good as The Shut Eye or Rubbernecker. She always has great characters and she can make my heart race with the drama/suspense in the story. 3.5/5

Next was the very creepy You by Caroline Kepnes. The author did such a good job with the tone and pace of this story, I wonder how she came to make the feel of it so authentic, how she knew the mind of someone who behaves this way. Scary stuff to research I imagine. There is a follow up to You being released on 23rd Feb. called Hidden Bodies.

Now I am reading Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson (snap again tampascrapper!!) and Better than before : Mastering the habits of our everyday lives by Gretchen Rubin. I know that I am an Obliger 

I read a whole bunch of fluff this week. Nothing outstandingly good, just catching up on several of my favorite authors:

- The Mask by Taylor Stevens - the latest in the Vanessa Michael Munroe series, I didn't think this was as good as the previous ones.
- Inside the O'Briens by Lisa Genova - disappointing after how much I loved Still Alice. Good story, just didn't live up to my expectations.
- X by Sue Grafton - Typical Kinsey Millhone mystery, this was a quick fun read.
- Make Me by Lee Child - I love Jack Reacher and his sense of justice.
- The Murderer's Daughter by Jonathan Kellerman - engaging story but his best ones are the Alex Delaware series
- Tricky Twenty-Two by Janet Evanovich - I'm actually ready for this series to end. Every story is the same plot and the same gags.

Just started Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham. I haven't read anything of his in a while, so I'm hoping this one won't let me down.

Lana

Glad to see I wasn't the only one who felt this way.  Have you read Left Neglected by the same author?  I liked that one too.

I finished Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it, but it ended up being pretty good.

After that I read The Husbands Secret by Liane Moriarty. I didn't like it as much as Big Little Lies, but it was interesting. It was nice that even to the end there was some surprise even though the main secret is obvious from the beginning.

Now I'm reading 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I had no idea how long this was!

Me too.  Not nearly as good as the first one.

I read Coconut Cowboy by Tim Dorsey, because I love his books.  They're insane and over the top, but so much fun.     I have it in an actual paper book instead of digital, so that was a nice change.

On the flip side, I'm also reading Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey.  It's pretty good but very dark humor.  From Amazon: "
James Stark spent 11 years killing monsters in Lucifer's arena for the entertainment of fallen angels, but now he's back in seedy, magic-riddled L.A., trying to avenge his girlfriend's murder and hunt down Mason Faim, the black magician responsible for getting him sent downtown. He meets with some initial success, beheading second-rate magician Kasabian (whose head becomes Stark's smart-mouthed sidekick), but he can't find Faim. Instead he encounters Homeland Security agents, a near-psychotic angel and some odd nonhuman, nonangelic beings called the Kissi."    

And on the lighter side again.. It Ended Badly: 13 of the Worst  Breakups in History by Jennifer Wright.  It was pretty entertaining and I liked it a lot.  

On deck, when I'm done with Sandman Slim, is The Children's Home by Charles Lambert.  

I was able to read two this week.
Somewhere There is Still a Sun I picked this up for my Kindle on a daily deal. It's the memoir of a child who survived the Terezin concentration camp. He was there for about 3 three years and miraculously survived being deported on to another camp. Terezin was almost a "show" camp for the Germans. On occasion they would bring in the Red Cross to show how well the Jews were treated. Of course it was only for show and when the Red Cross wasn't there conditions were very difficult. Most inmates at the camp were deported to camps in Poland.

After seeing numerous great reviews here, I finally got my hands on The Last Policeman and I loved it! The other two books are on hold for me at the library and I'll be continuing the series soon!

I finished Indignation by Phillip Roth this week and I think it was the most depressing book I have ever read. My husband always teases me about liking depressing movies, but this book was just too much for me. A movie based on the book will be coming out soon.  A friend saw the movie at a film festival and liked it, but I have no desire to go see the movie if it is as bleak and hopeless as the book.

I'm currently reading The Kingmaker's Daughter by Phillipa Gregory (the 4th book of the cousin's war series). Gregory has a very vivid imagination and her books are always fun to read She always weaves an interesting tale based on historical facts.