Weekly Reading Thread: April 10-16

Last week I had just started The Good Girl by Mary Kubica. This is about Mia, the daughter of a high profile judge who is abducted by Colin. Colin has been hired by someone else to abduct Mia as a part of an extortion plot. However at the last minute Colin decides not to deliver Mia to his employers and instead takes her to an isolated cabin in the woods. While they are in the cabin we learn both of their backstories. It also jumps forward in time and Mia is now back home with her family but is suffering from amnesia and can’t recall exactly what happen while she was held captive.
I really enjoyed this and thought it was well developed and well told. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

Next was Benediction by Kent Haruf. “Dad” Lewis is dying of cancer and has only a few weeks to live, this is a snapshot of those weeks and the people around him and how they deal with it, as well as looking back over some of the significant decisions of his life.

I had mixed feelings about this, I thought the writing was good, but the look into the characters felt very superficial at times and it was also a bit too ‘religious’ for me as there are long passages when the local preacher is preaching.
I only gave this 2 out if 5 stars.

Then I listened to Why We Came to the City by Kristopher Jansma. Set in 2008 New York this is about a group of 4 friends who have been close since finishing college 5 years ago. At a party one night, they meet up with a former classmate who has always had a crush on one of the girls Irene…however over the next few weeks they discover Irene has cancer.

At first I wasn’t sure about this book as it tells their various stories from a third person perspective and it felt a bit disconnected at times, but I got drawn in anyway and ended up liking these 'warts and all' characters quite a lot. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

I am currently listening to another newish release The Song of Hartgrove Hall by Natasha Solomons. This is told in two parts, on an English country estate post war, 3 brothers and their father struggle to keep their home and their land, the youngest son, Harry is 18 and loves music and also has a crush on his brother’s girlfriend Edie. Then 50 years later Harry is struggling after his wife Edie just passed away and he starts to connect with his musically gifted grandson. I’m less than half way through but really enjoying this, it’s like Downton Abbey with music! and I can't wait to find out how harry and Edie got together.

This week I read While You Were Mine which is a Kindle Unlimited book, but worth buying, also. "The end of World War II should have brought joy to Gwen Mullen. But on V-J Day, her worst fear is realized. As celebrating crowds gather in Times Square, a soldier appears on her doorstep to claim Mary, the baby abandoned to Gwen one year earlier. Suddenly Gwen is on the verge of losing the child she has nurtured and loves dearly." It was an easy read, and I would recommend it.

And then I read Code Name Verity, which is part of a 2 book series, but the stories apparently stand on their own, so you can read just one and be okay. I enjoyed it, but I'm not sure I'll read the 2nd book or not. "Oct. 11th, 1943—A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it's barely begun. When "Verity" is arrested by the Gestapo, she's sure she doesn't stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she's living a spy's worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution. As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage, failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy? A Michael L. Printz Award Honor book that was called "a fiendishly-plotted mind game of a novel" in The New York Times, Code Name Verity is a visceral read of danger, resolve, and survival that shows just how far true friends will go to save each other."