Weekly Reading Thread: March 27 through April 2

I only read one this week. The End of the Alphabet is the story of a 50 year old man who finds he has only weeks to live. Naturally, his stable and well ordered life is shattered. He and his wife take off to visit an alphabetical list of places he has always wanted to see. It's really not a "bucket list" story. It's more about a man facing his mortality. At 120 pages, the novel is so short that I never really became attached to the two main characters. As a reader, you have sympathy for him, but you really don't have time to feel his terrible plight.

I finished I Never Fancied Him Anyway by Claudia Carroll, about a psychic in Dublin. She writes a column in a magazine, ends up as a regular guest on a morning show, and falls in love with the guy dating her best friend. It's more about the friendships than romance. I felt like she and her other BFF spent a lot of time making excuses for the friend with the boyfriend, and I didn't find her likable at all. It was like the author knew she was an unlikable character, but wanted you to like her anyway, or at least understand why the main character liked her. I didn't. It ended well, and it was an easy read, but yet another I wouldn't really recommend to anyone.

I am currently reading The Magicians by Lev Grossman. I like it so far. It is a much more interesting book. It's about a college for magic students. Not exactly Hogwarts, in that magic is skill and can be taught for the most part. It's still real magic, though. I know when I'm finished I'm going to want to watch the series on SyFy, but I don't have cable anymore so I'll have to wait til it comes to Hulu.

This week I finished:

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout. 4/5 stars. Strout has been on my to read list for awhile and I finally picked up her new release. Enjoyed it and I'll definitely be reading her other books.

Night Road by Kristin Hannah. 4/5 stars. Hannah's books are sneaky. The descriptions read like the book equivalent of Lifetime movies and I roll my eyes at various things, but they totally suck me and I find them compulsively readable.

What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi. 3/5 stars. I was so-so on this. I thought the writing was good and I liked some of the ideas (it's a collection of short stories with similar themes), but in the end it just wasn't my style.

Currently reading Sweet Girl by Travis Mulhauser. Just started it, but think I'm going to really like it.

I haven't posted on this thread in a while so here are some recent reads.

All the Light We Cannot See-- 4/5 stars, and it really kept my attention as opposed to the next 3 books that seemed to go on and on and on and I might have skimmed parts of them.

The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley. It's the 2nd in a series. I might have liked this book had I not currently owned an 11 year old and 11 year old's do not act like the main character in this series. I get that Flavia is special, but it's like an old man wrote pretending he is an 11 year old girl.  Flavia solves a mystery and plays in her chemistry lab.  3/5 stars.

His Good Opinion. I feel bad not wanting to give this book tons of stars (Pride and Prejudice told from Darcy's point of view) because the author is local and I've met her a few times. I loved Pride and Prejudice when I read it last year and watched the movie with Colin Firth but this book just seemed to go on forever.

Last but not least Superheroes Anonymous by Lexie Dunne which I thought I might like but by 20% I was bored with this book. I finished it but again it went on forever.  A girl who is constantly kidnapped by bad guys so much that she is known as Hostage Girl, or just Girl, is kidnapped again and there is a character named Guy (get it Girl and Guy?) and then the book ends in a cliffhanger which is annoying.  

I read the last 3 books on my e-reader so maybe not physically turning the pages made the books seem endless or maybe I'm in the wrong mood for the types of books I'm reading lately. I'm hoping to break my never ending book steak with whatever I pick to read next.

I finished a novel called The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson. about a woman who keeps dreaming she's living another life. It takes place in the early 60s and the author did a good job of setting the scenes. The characters were a little flat, but this was the author's first novel, and I think she has promise.

And I finally finished Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels by Deirdre LeFaye. I'd been dabbling in it for weeks, and it was a great read for anyone who loves Austen.

I've thought the same thing!  I see her recommended all the time, and I know I'd probably like them, but I read a description and think...meh.  Are her books stand alone, or does she write series?

I have been reading Rachel Vincent's Soul Screamers series.  I'm on With All My Soul which is book 7.  I think there's one more after this.  Definitely YA, quick reads, even a little on the cheesy side sometimes, but they're good enough to suck me enough so I want to know what happens next.  I just downloaded The Shadows by JR Ward yesterday, so when I finish these ones I'm reading, I'll go back to the Brotherhood.  I agree with the previous poster, the last few haven't been as good, I think it's b/c they're SO predictable, but I still gotta read 'em.  I am on the wait list for The Beast also.  

I read the series and really enjoyed it (3 books). They are much darker than Harry Potter and written for a more mature audience. Good luck with the SyFy series. I started it but couldn't get thru even three episodes. The show feels like it was made for a pre-teen crowd. I tend to be critical of movies/series made from books that I enjoyed...the book is always better.    I might have liked the TV show better had I not read the books first. I think the show is available now on SyFy's web site.

Just finished reading The Nest. I would give it 4/5 stars. Its a new novel by a new author. I love a good story involving the dynamics of family and their dysfunction and this fit the bill. I could also see this being made into a movie someday.

Now I am on to The Wedding Dress. It's going back and forth between present day and the early 1900's. Right now the story gets maybe 3/5 stars. It is pretty predictable and I feel like I have already read some version of this story before. I am still hopeful for a plot twist,strong second half, or a surprise ending that would raise the rating of the book up a bit. I am only 50% through.

The books are very readable and quick reads. I usually pick them up if I'm looking for something I can get pulled in to a story and just read without thinking much (usually after reading non-fiction of heavier fiction and feel like I need something easy). 


The books I've read are standalone. I went back and looked at Goodreads and I've read eight of her books.  The three books I gave four stars are: The Nightingale (this is her newest release and a very popular book - it's different from her other books in that it is a historical fiction set during WWII), Night Road, and Home Front (this one is very topical as it deals with veteran issues - it was very good).

These were my three star reads:  True Colors, Magic Hour, On Mystic Lake, and Summer Island. 

The only book I didn't like (and I really disliked it) was Winter Garden. I've seen other peas mention it and like it, but I did not like it at all.


I want to read The Nest (on waitlist at library). Glad you liked it - I'm looking forward to reading it.

Last week I read The Glassblower by Petra Durst-Benning. It is a trilogy and I saw it recommended on this thread weeks and weeks ago! I added it to my list and then saw that Kindle Unlimited has it for free. So I got the first one in the series. I really liked it. I know some of the reviews thought it may be more historical but I just enjoyed the story line.

3 sisters in Germany in late 1890's live in a glass blowing town that supplies glass products to the world. Their father dies and they are on their own to try and make a life. Except women didn't blow glass then, only the men. The book told the story of them trying to survive as well as the romances of each of the women. I think I gave it 4/5 stars. I'll get to the next 2 since I have to know how it ends! But I have too many other books on deck.

I pre-ordered The Beast awhile ago ... can't wait   

I have not updated for a couple of week and last week was spring break and a blizzard so I got a lot of reading done!

First off was an audio of Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan. It was a great book that I got into right away. I was a nice mix of technical facts and information and then the story of a young woman who falls ill and no one knows what it is. I continually thought about how lucky she was to have the right doctors at the right time and how her story would have been totally different otherwise. And I wondered how many other people suffer from this or other diseases that don't have that right time and right place. I rated it 4 out of 5 stars.

Then I read What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan for my book club. This is about your worst nightmare - you and your child are walking, the child runs ahead and then suddenly is gone without a trace! While this should have probably been a quick read, I just didn't get into it quite as much as I expected. Overall, I enjoyed it and am glad I read it but it didn't quite keep me on the edge of my seat like I would have expected with the story of a missing child. I gave it a 3 out of 5 stars.

I got an ARC of When We Collided by Emery Lord. I enjoyed this book! I had books by Emery Lord on my to read list because I hear such great things about her as an author! So when I saw this on NetGalley to preview, I jumped. And I am so glad I did. I was immediately taken with the language. So many great passages that I wanted to read over just because I like how they sounded! This is a story of a high school boy who has lost his father and is trying to keep his family together and functioning. Then a new girl comes to town. She is fun and crazy and he is immediately taken with her. As they grow closer he realizes she has problems of her own even as she helps his family heal. I also have to mention, don't skip the author's note at the end. It really give some insight into the book and the characters! I gave this 5 out of 5 stars.

Another audio book I finished was The Night Sisters by Jennifer McMahon. I read an earlier book by Jennifer McMahon and enjoyed the creepy, ghost story so when I saw this available on audio I decided to give it a listen. It is the story of grown sisters who come together after they believe their friend from when they were young murders her family. It is told from this time period but also it is told from when the girls were young and finally from further back to two sisters that lived in the hotel where the murder takes place. Yes, that is kind of confusing and at times it was a bit confusing to track. But overall, I liked the story and liked the creepy tale. I kind of figured out what was happening but it did not spoil the story for me. It was a 3 out of 5 stars for me.

And lastly, What We Saw by Aaron Hartzler. I read in someone's review that this was inspired by the Stubenville High School rape case. I don't know a lot of details about that case but I tell ya, this book just had my head shaking! In this book, there is really no question if something happened to a girl who had too much to drink at a party, it is more a question of who saw it and what are they going to do about it. It looks at the "mob mentality" that can occur in certain instances and the victim blaming that happens in some crimes. It was really so interesting how the characters acted and how the town rallied around the perpetrators. I think this would be such a good book to read with high school kids and talk about. There is a chapter toward the end where they are talking about the situation in a class with their science teacher. I LOVE that chapter and want to hang it in every high school and make kids read it! Great book that I would highly recommend. A five star book for me.

I finished Morning Star by Pierce Brown this week.  It is the final book in the Red Rising trilogy.  I really enjoyed these 3 books.  A page-turning, dystopian trilogy with well fleshed out characters.