Weekly Reading Thread: July 24-30th

I finished Fellside by M.R.Carey, the author of "The Girl With All the Gifts" (the zombie book).* From the Publisher's Weekly review: "Jess Moulson ... doesn't remember the incident that leads to her trial for the murder of 10-year-old Alex Beech, because she was on heroin when she set afire the photos from her ongoing toxic relationship. She doesn't remember escalating to burning down her entire London apartment in an attempt to kill her boyfriend, but Alex, an upstairs neighbor, died in the blaze. Jess is sentenced to Fellside Prison, where she must wrestle with the question of her own culpability, try not to get tangled in the prison's internal drug business intrigues, and, unexpectedly, find that Alex, or what's left of him, may still have a job for her to do."

I thought it was a great read with good characters, plot, and suspense.

Last week I was all excited about the release of The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware, author of In a Dark, Dark Wood, because I liked her debut so much. I'm about a third of the way through and I don't think this one is nearly as good as her first one. It's not bad enough to stop reading (I'm pretty quick to ditch a book midway if I'm not enjoying it) but it's going to have to get better quickly.


* Note to authors: Please stop with the 'The Girl...' titles already. Just... please. It's gotten completely out of hand and impossible to keep them all straight.)

Yesterday I finished reading The Last Mile (Amos Decker #2) by David Baldacci. I really enjoyed it, as I do all of his novels.

"Convicted murderer Melvin Mars is counting down the last hours before his execution — for the violent killing of his parents twenty years earlier — when he’s granted an unexpected reprieve. Another man has confessed to the crime. Amos Decker, newly hired on an FBI special task force, takes an interest in Mars’ case after discovering the striking similarities to his own life: Both men were talented football players with promising careers cut short by tragedy. Both men’s families were brutally murdered. And in both cases, another suspect came forward, years after the killing, to confess to the crime. A suspect who may or may not have been telling the truth. The confession has the potential to make Melvin Mars — guilty or not — a free man. Who wants Mars out of prison? And why now?  But when a member of Decker’s team disappears, it becomes clear that something much larger — and more sinister — than just one convicted criminal’s life hangs in the balance. Decker will need all of his extraordinary brainpower to stop an innocent man from being executed."

The first book I read was one of the Kindle First reads I think. Everything We Keep by Kerry Lonsdale. It is about Aimee who is trying to move on after her fiancé disappeared in a boating accident and was declared dead. It is mostly not as sad as it seems, I liked it and will look for future books by this author.

Thanks to a recommendation from NicL last week I started the Detective Inspector Kim Stone series by Angela Marsons. There are four books so far: Silent Scream, Evil Games, Lost Girls and Play Dead. I liked the first one so much I had to finish the series. I really like books with strong female leads and lots of dead bodies so this worked out well for me Her character reminds me of the lead female character from The Killing TV Show in that she is very standoffish, comes across cold to those that don't know her. But she's a great detective and a pretty complex character. I also love that the series is set in England. I find myself doing a log of googling to look up words and phrases I don't understand, as well as maps and photos of locations.

I don't remember how I came across this book, or when, but the next book I read was A Girl in the Ice by Robert Bryndza. Very similar book, Detectove Chief Inspector Erika Foster. She's about a decade older than Kim Stone (mid 40s), also single, not the warmest personality, this one is set in London. This evening I started reading the second book in the series Night Stalker and am really enjoying it as well.

There was one more book I read this week, book 1 of the Lakewood Series by Sarah Kleck, The Concealed. The main character is a first year student at Oxford who finds herself in the middle of a magical mystery dating back to King Athur's court with Merlin. It's a light, fun YA mystery and I have already pre-ordered the 2nd in the series, The Revealed.

After I am finished with this book I think I am going to tackle the Alex Cross series from the beginning. I only have 3 on my Kindle, I used to own a lot more in hard back.

In the past two weeks I read two from Nora Roberts, The Liar, and Obsession, both were good and it had been awhile since I had read one of Nora's books. I just started reading The Midnight Rose by Lucinda Riley. This is a first with this author so I'll write back next week to let you know how it goes, but so far it's okay.

I finished DON'T YOU CRY by Mary Kubica. She wrote The Good Girl and Pretty Baby. I don't know if this one was as good as her others. It started slow and then finished with a bang. By the end I couldn't put it down but the first half took me a while.

Now I'mreading UNTANGLED: Guiding Teenage Girls Through The Seven Transitions Into Adulthood by Lisa Damour. The author is speaking at my daughter's school in the gal and it was suggested reading to the parents. I'm loving this book. I find it will be so helpful and relevant information for helping me with my girls. I'm almost halfway and am really enjoying it.
P.

I read two non fiction books and both were very good. The Sound of Gravel is a young woman's memoir about growing up in a polygamist sect in Mexico. Her mother drags the children back and forth between Mexico and the states, attempting to keep the family together. Their lives are full of poverty and chaos. The author breaks away from this life and I was impressed both by her story and her attitude. She looks back on her childhood honestly, but without bitterness. I read it in one day because her story was so compelling.

My second book, Death in the City of Light, is about a serial killer in Paris during the German occupation. This killer was a doctor who killed some of his own patients and also lured Jews into his home by convincing them he could help them escape from the city. I learned a lot about what life was like in Paris between 1940-1944. Of course the book is chilling and dark, but the story and history were fascinating.

Last night I finished Kate Atkinson's first book, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, and I think it will be my favorite book of the summer and possibly my favorite of her books. I'm blown away by her writing and character development. The topics in the book...war, death, family dysfunction, adultery...shouldn't be funny, but this book is hilarious. The narrator describes her life from the moment of conception and thru her eyes we see her crazy extended family and some of the major events of the 20th century. If you read/enjoyed Life after Life, you will love this novel too.

I haven't posted in a while, although I do read the thread every week.

I just finished Rage by Zygmunt Miloszewski, my Kindle First choice for July. I have mixed reviews about the book. I really loved the main character. Unfortunately, the plot was all over the place. I think it would have been a much better book without the craziness that the plot developed into. I was enjoying it so much until about half way through. I also thought the translation was a bit choppy -- I found it jarring to read in a few places. Until the end, I didn't realize it was the final novel in a trilogy.

I enjoyed the DI Kim Stone novels by Angela Marsons, along with a lot of others here. They kept popping up as recommended in the kindle store, and I'm glad I read them.

I also recently re-read Bury Your Dead by Louise Penney. I'm trying to get myself back in the groove for her new novel. It was excellent, as all her Inspector Gamache novels are. She's one of my favorite authors.

Lastly, I read Extreme Prey by John Sanford. Another excellent mystery that made a perfect summer escape. I love his stuff.

Just finished The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty. I absolutely loved this book! Great characters and a really different plot with a wonderful twist at the end - nothing like what you would expect from the title.

Just got this from the library and will be starting tonight.

Last week I read Revival by Stephen King. It was not what I expected at all. The official synopsis:
"In a small New England town, over half a century ago, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister. Charles Jacobs, along with his beautiful wife, will transform the local church. The men and boys are all a bit in love with Mrs. Jacobs; the women and girls feel the same about Reverend Jacobs -- including Jamie's mother and beloved sister, Claire. With Jamie, the Reverend shares a deeper bond based on a secret obsession. When tragedy strikes the Jacobs family, this charismatic preacher curses God, mocks all religious belief, and is banished from the shocked town.

Jamie has demons of his own. Wed to his guitar from the age of thirteen, he plays in bands across the country, living the nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll while fleeing from his family's horrific loss. In his mid-thirties -- addicted to heroin, stranded, desperate -- Jamie meets Charles Jacobs again, with profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil's devising, and Jamie discovers that revival has many meanings."

It was not really terribly scary. It was a great story, and such a well-written book, but I almost wouldn't classify it as horror. There are moments, certainly, but not as much as the description led me to believe. That's not a bad thing. I expected Jacobs to be something like the Man in Black from The Gunslinger and The Stand, but he wasn't like that at all. He was just a man with an obsession. Nothing supernatural about him at all.

As I said, none of the above is a bad thing. It was still a solid 4 stars for me. I do love Stephen King, and I love his more recent stuff even more. I thought I detected a hint of influence from his son, Joe Hill, in this one. He's another author who can do no wrong in my opinion. I think I have a crush on him.

I've just started Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. He's another sure thing for me. Love his writing style. I bought this at the used book sale last weekend without even reading the back. I just knew it was Neil Gaiman I hadn't read. The synopsis for this one is:
"Fat Charlie Nancy's normal life ended the moment his father dropped dead on a Florida karaoke stage. Charlie didn't know his dad was a god. And he never knew he had a brother.

Now brother Spider's on his doorstep -- about to make Fat Charlie's life more interesting... and a lot more dangerous."

So far it's just an enjoyable read, mostly due to Gaiman's writing.

From last week I finished the Billy Idol memoir Dancing With Myself, it was pretty over the top with the drugs and sex, but you have to admire his candour. He's lucky he survived!

Next I listened to The Two-Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman. This is about two brothers and their families who live in the same house and the ups and downs of their lives and is set in the USA in the 1940s and 50s. One bother has all daughters and the other all sons and both their wives are pregnant and give birth at hone during a blizzard...it's not hard to imagine what happens next.
I liked this, but it's a debut novel and I don't think the characters were as well developed as they could have been and this had the potential to really grab you emotionally, but it fell a little flat for me.
I still liked the story though and would give it 3 stars (probably 3.5 if Goodreads had half stars).

I'm already half way through Truly, Madly, Guilty by Liane Moriarty (because it was released here last week). I went to an event that she spoke at about this time last year and she told us a bit about this book, so I've been interested to read it and see if it was still the same...and so far it is, so the book must have been well developed already.
Similar to her other books, it's about a group of adults and 'something" happens at a BBQ (I don't know what it is yet, not up to that part) and the story flips around in sequence to before, after and the day of the infamous BBQ.
I'm enjoying the story so far, but I have the audiobook, and I hate the narrator (Caroline Lee) they always use for her books, she's screechy and boarders on hysterical for parts of this...but I want to listen so I have to put up with it.

I loved this book!

No bummer! I thought In a Dark, Dark Wood was fantastic, which was why I was so excited to read her latest. It's just the new one I'm not so enthusiastic about. But who knows - you might love it! It's feeling a lot more mystery-ish and a lot less thriller-ish than In a Dark, Dark Wood, and I personally enjoy reading thrillers way more than mysteries.