The Great Carpezio
Pearl Clutcher
Something profound goes here.
Posts: 2,930
Jun 25, 2014 21:50:33 GMT
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Post by The Great Carpezio on Jul 17, 2016 22:57:23 GMT
Hi Readers,
I am almost done with a book, but I got sucked into binge watching The 100 this week, so I've slacked on finishing a book.
I might finish it later tonight. In the meantime, what did you read this week?
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Post by Woobster on Jul 17, 2016 23:02:22 GMT
I'm reading First Comes Love... The new Emily Giffin book. It's an easy, relaxing read. Just what I need since I'm nearing the end of my summer statistics class.
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Post by msdintz on Jul 17, 2016 23:05:22 GMT
I read Tricky Twenty Two by Janet Evanovich. This series has definitely jumped the shark but I actually enjoyed this one more than the most recent ones. Also read the Curse of Tenth Grave by darynda jones. I love this series although it's getting a bit hard to follow. Currently working on Don't You Cry by Mary Kubica.. Slow so far but pretty good.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
May 19, 2024 2:15:29 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2016 23:16:35 GMT
I finished Summer Island by Kristin Hannah and really liked it. She is definitely one of the queens of the "beach reads" and this one had a compelling story of mother-daughter relationships, abandonment, forgiveness and love.
So now I'm back to horror, I started Joe Hill's The Fireman and so far, it's really, really good...it's also over 700 pages and I'm not a big fan of books that long, I read them occasionally when either the author is a favorite or a friend has recommended it. This one, however makes me just want to keep reading.....so I'm thinking those 700 pages are going to go faster than I think.
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gottapeanow
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,752
Jun 25, 2014 20:56:09 GMT
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Post by gottapeanow on Jul 17, 2016 23:34:13 GMT
I finished Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. It was OK but didn't do a ton for me. I am now reading The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and loving it so far. I have a few books on hold at the library, but several of them aren't due out for a couple of months, so it will be a while til those come in. Until then, I will work on the huge stack of books I bought from the thrift store. Lisa
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tuesdaysgone
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,832
Jun 26, 2014 18:26:03 GMT
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Post by tuesdaysgone on Jul 17, 2016 23:38:37 GMT
Coincidently I read two books this week with similar plots. One was wonderful and other was not. In The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, a daughter goes to Burma in search of her father's past. He has mysteriously left his family in NYC and so she travels back to his native homeland and discovers he led a secret life before he moved to America. The writing and characters are beautiful and touching. I did anticipate the ending, but it was still satisfying. The other book, The Curious Charms of Arthur Peppers, tells about a husband who finds a charm bracelet in his wife's closet after she has passed away. He's never seen the bracelet before and sets out to find where she collected each charm. He discovers she lived an exciting and unusual life before they married. I liked the plot, but the writing and characters were very flat and cliched. I had to force myself to plug away at it till I finished it. Last week Mystie recommended The Age of Miracles and I found it at the library. I'd read 4 chapters before I remembered I'd read this one before! Do you ever do that? I finished it anyway and enjoyed it very much! The story is narrated by a young girl who tells what happens to her family and society after the rotation of the Earth slows and life as she knows it changes. The premise is fascinating and the writing is excellent. I'm glad I re-read it.
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Post by hollymolly on Jul 17, 2016 23:52:20 GMT
I read two books this week. First was Attachments by Rainbow Rowell. It was set at the end of the last century and into 2000, which I found interesting as it was only written a couple of years ago. The main character is hired as IT security at a newspaper, but mostly his job is reading emails that have been flagged for suspicious content. A couple of employees who are best friends exchange personal emails, and he ends up reading them and getting caught up in their lives. He also falls in love with one of them. They don't really meet until almost the end, but there is enough of the book left to be satisfied with the outcome. There were also some chance encounters and interactions throughout the book, so it wasn't completely one-sided. I read a similar book were the main character fell in love with someone through his writing, but they literally met in the last few pages and I felt cheated out of their love story. This book made up for that. I've heard a lot of great things about this author, so I'm anxious to read more from her.
Next was The Lacemakers of Glenmara by Heather Barbieri. I did not like this one as much. It was just a little too cliche and predictable. It's about a small village in Ireland and an American woman who comes to stay there after suffering some losses in her life. It reminded me of Maeve Binchey, but not nearly as good a story. Or Debbie Macomber, but less thought out and more hurried. It smacked of trying to hard.
Last night I started Revival by Stephen King. I've been a little sensitive lately, so I may have to pack a Not Scary book to switch to for bedtime reading this week.
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Post by RobbyKay on Jul 18, 2016 0:17:50 GMT
Hey Readers,
I finally finished Joe Hill's The Fireman. It was long, and I read other books around it, but I'm glad I finished it.
I picked up a copy of Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley. Lily is an aging dachshund, and the octopus is a tumor growing over one of her eyes. It's a love story between a man and his dog, and naturally, it's a tear jerker. In fact, I cried so hard I tossed my cookies. If you read The Art of Racing in the Rain, and you cried hard at the end, read this book if you need another cry like that.
I recently started a new job, and one of the owners is an avid reader! I was chatting with her about books one day, and the next day she handed me three brand new hardbacks to read! The first one I'm tackling is No One Knows by JT Ellison. On the fifth anniversary of her husband's disappearance, clues start to appear about what happened to him. It's a page-turner!
I enjoy Pjaye's posts about the audiobooks she enjoys, and I wanted to try working them into my own life, so I downloaded the overdrive app to my new phone, and I've been listening Fannie Flagg's The All Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion. Sookie Poole has a contentious relationship with her Southern Belle mama, and has never been able to live up to the family legacy Lenore insists she strive towards. Then Sookie discovers that she was adopted, and all of her past begins to unravel. I'm enjoying it so far!
Happy Reading!
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Post by birukitty on Jul 18, 2016 1:23:54 GMT
I read two books this week and both were just okay.
The first was The Sea House by Elisabeth Gifford. This novel takes place in two different times, during 1860 and a century later involving the same house near the sea on a remote Scottish island. In 1860 the story revolves around the new vicar who is also an amateur evolutionary scientist. He hopes to uncover the truth behind the legend of the selkies-mermaids or seal people who have been sighted off the north of Scotland for centuries. 100 years later a couple buy the grand but dilapidated building hoping to turn it into a home. As they begin restoration on the building they discover a shocking secret buried beneath the house. What was a fascinating premise for a book turned out to in my opinion seemed to drag on and on in the writing. I don't mine novels with two time lines at all. I never really felt a connection though with the characters in the current time line though. I really wanted to like this book, especially with the mermaid or seal people tangent, but this book fell short. I gave it 3 stars because the 1860 time line was good.
To Heaven and Back-A Doctor's Extraordinary Account of Her Death, Heaven, Angels, and Life Again-by Mary C. Neal, MD This book was merely okay. I was hoping it was the book written by the doctor who didn't believe in God at all and then had a near death experience and changed his mind completely. Unfortunately it wasn't that book. This book is about a female orthopedic surgeon who was already religious when she drowned during a kayak accident, had a near death experience and was brought back to life. In that vein to me it sounded too overly religious, and not factual enough. Perhaps I'm judging too harshly but that's what it sounded like to me. I gave it 3 stars too.
Last night I picked up a new library book Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini and I'm already about 1/4 into it. I love this book so far! It's amazing the difference when you find a book that's "you" how you can dive into it so easily and before you're past the first paragraph, everything around you grows dark and you can visualize everything you're reading as though you're watching a movie. Does this happen to anyone else? I'm sure it does to we book lovers. I'll write all about this book next week when I've finished it.
Debbie in MD.
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Post by NicL on Jul 18, 2016 1:39:40 GMT
It's amazing the difference when you find a book that's "you" how you can dive into it so easily and before you're past the first paragraph, everything around you grows dark and you can visualize everything you're reading as though you're watching a movie. Does this happen to anyone else? Yes this happens to me and it is a complete joy when it does!
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marianne
Pearl Clutcher
Not my circus, not my monkeys. . . My monkeys fly!
Posts: 4,176
Location: right smack dab in the middle of SC
Site Supporter
Jun 25, 2014 21:08:26 GMT
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Post by marianne on Jul 18, 2016 1:52:59 GMT
I finished Cross My Heart by James Patterson and oh my, have to say this was one of the best of the series! I couldn't put it down but was absolutely blindsided by the abrupt ending! In effect, CMH is a prequel to the next book; if you want to know what happens... and if you're invested in Alex Cross and his family... you'll want to know, but you'll HAVE to buy another book to get there! To my recollection, this is the first time Patterson has used this seemingly grubby tactic with this series and many of his fans are not amused.
At any rate, luckily for me, I was behind in reading the series but already had the next book, Hope To Die, which I'm halfway through now and could continue on with the story. It too, is an excellent, suspenseful, page-turning read, but if I had had to wait another year or so to find out what happened, I would have been seriously PO'd!!
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Post by NicL on Jul 18, 2016 1:53:07 GMT
I'm reading the second book in the Kim Stone series, Evil Games by Angela Marsons. Good series for fans of thrillers, it's great so far. Also wanted to mention a cook book I love. I have wasted a lot of money on cookbooks in the past and also with online resources being so good I don't always need books. For a while now I have been borrowing cookbooks I am interested in from the library. If there are only one or two recipes I am interested in I photocopy them and return the book, happy not ta have wasted my money and lost more space on my book shelf! A book I borrowed recently was so great, (there were at least 25 recipes in it I wanted to make) so I went out and bought it straight away. It is called Monday Morning Cooking Club : the food, the stories, the sisterhood. I have made a few things from it and they have worked out brilliantly. It is an Australian book so the recipes are in grams. It is mostly sweet food and some savoury/dinner (maybe 70/30). They have a website if you are interested and there are some good recipes there also link
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~Lauren~
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,876
Jun 26, 2014 3:33:18 GMT
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Post by ~Lauren~ on Jul 18, 2016 1:53:25 GMT
I've been reading a bunch of books about the Revolutionary War and the major people involved. This week I read:
Washington's Spies by Alexander Rose. It's the story of the Culper ring and other spies that operated for Washington.
Treacherous Beauty the story of Peggy Shippen, Benedict Arnold's wife and co-conspirator
Legends and Lies; the Patriots by Bill O'Reilly.
All three were interesting reads and gave a lot of information that we never learned in school about the prime movers in the Revolution and those who operated behind the scenes. I'd recommend all three.
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Post by misadventurous on Jul 18, 2016 2:24:58 GMT
I was on a long vacation and got to read WAY more than I usually do! I'll list in the order I liked them. The Forgetting Time by Sharon Guskin: A professor of psychology thinks a four-year-old boy is the reincarnation of a murdered child. I was so drawn into this story. The anguish of both the four-year-old's mother and the murdered child's mother were really believably written. This was the author's debut novel and I'll be looking out for more from her. 4.5/5 In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware: A psychological thriller set in a remote house in the English countryside. Very suspenseful - loved this one! It was an Amazon Best Books of August 2015 pick and the sample had been sitting in my Kindle app for ages. So glad I finally got time to read it. This author has a new book coming out on Tuesday: The Woman in Cabin 10, and I've already pre-ordered. So excited!! 4/5 One Year After by William R. Forstchen: This one takes place a year after the end of the first book, One Second After, which was about the aftermath of an EMP attack on the U.S. which destroys all electrical devices. The story picked right up and the characters and plot were well-written. 4/5 The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood: From the Amazon description - "Stan and Charmaine are a married couple trying to stay afloat in the midst of an economic and social collapse. Job loss has forced them to live in their car, leaving them vulnerable to roving gangs. They desperately need to turn their situation around - and fast. The Positron Project in the town of Consilience seems to be the answer to their prayers. No one is unemployed, and everyone gets a comfortable, clean house to live in...for six months out of the year. On alternating months, residents of Consilience must leave their homes and function as inmates in the Positron prison system. Once their month of service in the prison is completed, they can return to their "civilian" homes. At first this doesn't seem like too much of a sacrifice to make in order to have a roof over one's head and food to eat. But when Charmaine becomes romantically involved with the man who lives in their house during the months when she and Stan are in the prison, a series of troubling events unfolds, putting Stan's life in danger. With each passing day, Positron looks less like a prayer answered and more like a chilling prophecy fulfilled." I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There were a couple of places near the end where I felt it lagged a little bit, but overall it was great. 4/5 What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan: Another psychological thriller, this time about a mother whose son disappears while they are out walking in the woods. It started off okay but the pacing wasn't quite there for me and I thought the ending was a little weak. 3/5 And finally, The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens, about a student who has to write the biography of a stranger for a class project and chooses an aging Vietnam vet from a nearby nursing home who also happens to be a convicted murderer. I wanted to like this book, but the characters kept doing things that were so ridiculous that I actually said, "Oh, come ON!!" a couple of times out loud as I was reading. 2/5 It's amazing the difference when you find a book that's "you" how you can dive into it so easily and before you're past the first paragraph, everything around you grows dark and you can visualize everything you're reading as though you're watching a movie. Does this happen to anyone else? I'm sure it does to we book lovers. I'll write all about this book next week when I've finished it. Yes! I love it when this happens!
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Deleted
Posts: 0
May 19, 2024 2:15:29 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2016 2:58:44 GMT
I'm reading Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner. I'm about 40% of the way through an it's really good.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
May 19, 2024 2:15:29 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2016 3:00:45 GMT
And finally, The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens, about a student who has to write the biography of a stranger for a class project and chooses an aging Vietnam vet from a nearby nursing home who also happens to be a convicted murderer. I wanted to like this book, but the characters kept doing things that were so ridiculous that I actually said, "Oh, come ON!!" a couple of times out loud as I was reading. I thought the same thing when I read it. He was so brazen and stupid! Yet...I still enjoyed the book.
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Mystie
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,299
Jun 25, 2014 19:53:37 GMT
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Post by Mystie on Jul 18, 2016 3:15:45 GMT
Alexander Hamilton. My book is Alexander Hamilton. And there's a million pages I haven't done. But just you wait, just you wait...
Yes, still reading the Hamilton biography. :-D
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Deleted
Posts: 0
May 19, 2024 2:15:29 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2016 3:33:40 GMT
I finished Cross My Heart by James Patterson and oh my, have to say this was one of the best of the series! I couldn't put it down but was absolutely blindsided by the abrupt ending! In effect, CMH is a prequel to the next book; if you want to know what happens... and if you're invested in Alex Cross and his family... you'll want to know, but you'll HAVE to buy another book to get there! To my recollection, this is the first time Patterson has used this seemingly grubby tactic with this series and many of his fans are not amused. At any rate, luckily for me, I was behind in reading the series but already had the next book, Hope To Die, which I'm halfway through now and could continue on with the story. It too, is an excellent, suspenseful, page-turning read, but if I had had to wait another year or so to find out what happened, I would have been seriously PO'd!! Mr. Patterson is my favorite author but funny, I only read his Alex Cross series. I started this 1st Woman's Club when the first book came out but after he killed a pivotal character in the 3rd or 4th book (I can't remember), I was so upset and mad that I quit reading them. I've read a few that he writes with other authors that I've really enjoyed too. I had to wait FOREVER to find out what happened at the end of that book, because I always read his stuff when it first comes out. He and Grisham are about the authors that I do that with, so the wait for the next one is around a year....that was a long wait...lol
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Post by worrywart on Jul 18, 2016 3:47:43 GMT
I am reading In a Dark, Dark, Wood. I am about 1/2 done..it is definitely keeping my interest and attention and that is hard to do!
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gina
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,225
Jun 26, 2014 1:59:16 GMT
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Post by gina on Jul 18, 2016 4:20:55 GMT
I am about 1/3 of the way through Harlan Coben's latest Fool Me Once. So far, so good!
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marianne
Pearl Clutcher
Not my circus, not my monkeys. . . My monkeys fly!
Posts: 4,176
Location: right smack dab in the middle of SC
Site Supporter
Jun 25, 2014 21:08:26 GMT
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Post by marianne on Jul 18, 2016 4:51:25 GMT
Mr. Patterson is my favorite author but funny, I only read his Alex Cross series. I started this 1st Woman's Club when the first book came out but after he killed a pivotal character in the 3rd or 4th book (I can't remember), I was so upset and mad that I quit reading them. I've read a few that he writes with other authors that I've really enjoyed too. I had to wait FOREVER to find out what happened at the end of that book, because I always read his stuff when it first comes out. He and Grisham are about the authors that I do that with, so the wait for the next one is around a year....that was a long wait...lol He's one of my favorites too but I also stopped reading the Women's Club series after about the 4th one; I just couldn't get into it as much, even when they made the TV series. I've also read some of his stand alone novels, but the Cross series is my favorite. It just seems like recently he's been putting out partial books and novellas (one of which is a Cross one) and I don't know, it just comes across as baiting and greedy. The man's the most prolific author out there and it's just unnnecessary to use those kind of tactics. I just hope cliffhangers are not a sign of what's to come - I really like my murders all neatly wrapped up and finished in one book! lol
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Post by smokeynspike on Jul 18, 2016 4:51:55 GMT
I finally finished Bay of Sighs by Nora Roberts today. It was book 2 in the Guardians trilogy. I don't normally read her stuff and the writing style drove me crazy. I wondered for a while if I would even finish it, although that pains me to do so I kept at it.
I started Hissy Fit by Mary Kay Andrews today. I love her stuff!
Melissa
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Post by pjaye on Jul 18, 2016 14:26:10 GMT
This past week I listened to The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman. I'd started this previously but put it down again when I couldn't get into it. This time I found it easier to stick with. I've previously read The Museum of Extraordinary Things by the same author and really disliked it...I thought it was just the storyline, but after this recent book, I now know that it's her writing that I don't connect with. This is based on real people Rachel Pomié Petit (Pissarro) and her painter son Camille Pissarro - who became known as "the father of Impressionism". Set in the early 1800s in the Caribbean island of St Thomas it mainly tells Rachael's story and then near the end moves to her son, but there wasn't nearly enough about him and his art in the book. Still I found the overall story interesting and gave it 3 stars, but she has this overly 'flowery' way of writing that I'm not a big fan of.
Currently I'm about 1/2 way through Dancing with Myself by Billy Idol & as usual for me, I'm listening to the audiobook which is also narrated by Idol. Now he sounds like grandfather...well, a grandfather that's smoked a billion cigarettes and swears a lot. I was a bit of a fan back in the day, first of Gen X and then Idol. He's pretty blunt in the book, so far we've reminisced about such treasures as his first LSD trip at the age of 14 and the first time he put his finger in a girl's hoo-ha (except he uses much cruder terms). He really lived the sex, drugs and rock and roll lifestyle, with extra sex and extra drugs thrown in for good measure. The book is making me laugh though, he's typical of the old rocker/addict that's lost a lot of his filter and he just puts it all out there, the sex stories are already crazy so I'm sure there's more to come. However I have just spent several hours on YouTube reliving some of my misspent youth watching videos and looking at pictures, and I'll admit, if I'd had the opportunity I would absolutely have done that
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Post by SockMonkey on Jul 18, 2016 14:34:42 GMT
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janeliz
Drama Llama
I'm the Wiz and nobody beats me.
Posts: 5,633
Jun 26, 2014 14:35:07 GMT
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Post by janeliz on Jul 18, 2016 14:46:26 GMT
I read We Could Be Beautiful by Swan Huntley. This was an interesting one for me. I saw it billed as "psychologically spellbinding", but I didn't find that to be an accurate description. I liked it, though. The characters were intriguing and it held my interest throughout.
I'm now reading You'll Grow Out of It by Jessi Klein. She's a head writer with the Amy Schumer show. I'm loving this book. It's absolutely hysterical, and I'm annoying my family by laughing out loud as I read.
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Post by sweetshabbyroses on Jul 18, 2016 15:48:10 GMT
I just finished The Secret Sense of Wildflower and I loved it. I just discovered the author, Susan Gabriel, and I've ordered the sequel to this book. She is one of those writers that I can just get lost in their work. When I started this book I finished it in one day.....I'm compulsive that way!!
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Post by scrapmaven on Jul 18, 2016 16:00:29 GMT
I'm still in my fluffy entertainment autobiography phase. Last week I read High on Arrival by Mackenzie Phillips and Here's the Story by Maureen Mccormick. This week I'm reading Valerie Bertenelli's two books, Losing it and finding it. I have to say that Mackenzie's book was not fluffy, light reading. She had a really sad and chaotic life.
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finaledition
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,896
Jun 26, 2014 0:30:34 GMT
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Post by finaledition on Jul 18, 2016 17:16:16 GMT
I read two books this week. First was Attachments by Rainbow Rowell. It was set at the end of the last century and into 2000, which I found interesting as it was only written a couple of years ago. The main character is hired as IT security at a newspaper, but mostly his job is reading emails that have been flagged for suspicious content. A couple of employees who are best friends exchange personal emails, and he ends up reading them and getting caught up in their lives. He also falls in love with one of them. They don't really meet until almost the end, but there is enough of the book left to be satisfied with the outcome. There were also some chance encounters and interactions throughout the book, so it wasn't completely one-sided. I read a similar book were the main character fell in love with someone through his writing, but they literally met in the last few pages and I felt cheated out of their love story. This book made up for that. I've heard a lot of great things about this author, so I'm anxious to read more from her.. I loved this book. Do you recall the name of the other book that was similar.
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Post by hollymolly on Jul 18, 2016 18:25:24 GMT
finaledition, it was The Return of Jonah Gray. Can't remember the author. It's really not that similar, just that the main character falls in love with a guy she's auditing, from reading his gardening blog. But the book is much more about her and that's more of a side story, if that. I considered it false advertising.
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Post by tmarschall on Jul 18, 2016 19:59:47 GMT
Coincidently I read two books this week with similar plots. One was wonderful and other was not. In The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, a daughter goes to Burma in search of her father's past. He has mysteriously left his family in NYC and so she travels back to his native homeland and discovers he led a secret life before he moved to America. The writing and characters are beautiful and touching. I did anticipate the ending, but it was still satisfying. The other book, The Curious Charms of Arthur Peppers, tells about a husband who finds a charm bracelet in his wife's closet after she has passed away. He's never seen the bracelet before and sets out to find where she collected each charm. He discovers she lived an exciting and unusual life before they married. I liked the plot, but the writing and characters were very flat and cliched. I had to force myself to plug away at it till I finished it. Last week Mystie recommended The Age of Miracles and I found it at the library. I'd read 4 chapters before I remembered I'd read this one before! Do you ever do that? I finished it anyway and enjoyed it very much! The story is narrated by a young girl who tells what happens to her family and society after the rotation of the Earth slows and life as she knows it changes. The premise is fascinating and the writing is excellent. I'm glad I re-read it. I recently read Arthur Peppers too and I actually really liked it. That one and the 2 from Fredrik Bachman...Britt Marie Was Here and My Grandmother Asked me to Tell You She's Sorry...very different from my usual detailed prose. I was at first bothered by the "flatness" in both, but with Britt-Marie, it suited her, and it seemed to evolve with Arthur as his life grew bigger.
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