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Post by stingfan on Mar 20, 2018 23:56:58 GMT
I read The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher. I think it was really just a vehicle for her to reveal her affair with Harrison Ford. But I got the audio, so it was fun to hear her read it.
Now I'm re-reading the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. My book group read it several years ago, but we're revisiting it in anticipation of going to see the movie together next month.
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Post by birukitty on Mar 21, 2018 0:20:05 GMT
mnmloveli , I felt the same way about Every Last Lie. I'm a huge Mary Kubica fan but thought this was terrible. birukitty , White Chyrsanthemum is one of my very favorite reads so far this year. It was beautiful. Glad you felt the same. Lisa Then I have you to thank for introducing me to White Chyranthemum Lisa. I must have read your review here and added it to my hold list at my library. I just forgot about that part. Thanks so much for that.
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Post by birukitty on Mar 21, 2018 0:32:25 GMT
I've been into reading WWII historical fiction lately. I finished reading The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck about three German women after WWII. The beginning was quite good but the second half of the book was not as good. I would give it 3/5 stars. I also finished Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys about a Lithuanian girl and her family during WWII. They are taken to Siberia (more like imprisoned) due to the Soviet Union's conquest of Lithuania. Fascinating and sad read at the same time, 4/5 stars. I'm currently reading The Orphan's Tale by Pam Jenoff about 2 women during WWII, one a Jewish woman hiding her identity and another a young girl who took a baby, both working at a German circus. We seem to have similar reading choice craftmepink. I've read all 3 of the books above and agree with you 100% about The Women in the Castle. The beginning was great but I had to almost force myself to finish the rest of the book. I also loved Between Shades of Gray and if you haven't read it yet I think another novel by Ruta Sepety called Salt to the Sea is even better. I did enjoy The Orphan's Tale also. When I say enjoy or loved when it comes to WWII historical fiction I don't mean it like you would typically think of the word "enjoy". I mean it wrenched my guts out, caused me to care deeply about the characters, put me right there in the action and place as all of my world faded away.
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Post by craftmepink on Mar 21, 2018 1:03:02 GMT
I've been into reading WWII historical fiction lately. I finished reading The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck about three German women after WWII. The beginning was quite good but the second half of the book was not as good. I would give it 3/5 stars. I also finished Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys about a Lithuanian girl and her family during WWII. They are taken to Siberia (more like imprisoned) due to the Soviet Union's conquest of Lithuania. Fascinating and sad read at the same time, 4/5 stars. I'm currently reading The Orphan's Tale by Pam Jenoff about 2 women during WWII, one a Jewish woman hiding her identity and another a young girl who took a baby, both working at a German circus. We seem to have similar reading choice craftmepink. I've read all 3 of the books above and agree with you 100% about The Women in the Castle. The beginning was great but I had to almost force myself to finish the rest of the book. I also loved Between Shades of Gray and if you haven't read it yet I think another novel by Ruta Sepety called Salt to the Sea is even better. I did enjoy The Orphan's Tale also. When I say enjoy or loved when it comes to WWII historical fiction I don't mean it like you would typically think of the word "enjoy". I mean it wrenched my guts out, caused me to care deeply about the characters, put me right there in the action and place as all of my world faded away. I heard about Salt to the Sea and I ordered it last week, it sounds fascinating. I can't wait to read it. Yes, in The Women in the Castle, I couldn't connect with Marianne, the main character. Her character seemed so one dimensional and I just didn't really care what happened to her. Though I did like Benita. The last 100 pages were a struggle to get through. I like to read a book where I can connect with the character. It probably didn't help that I read it after finishing The Nightingale, which was magnificent and I really connected with the two sisters, Vianne and Isabelle. Thanks for suggesting White Chrysanthemum, I ordered it and can't wait to read it!
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milocat
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,449
Location: 55 degrees north in Alberta, Canada
Mar 18, 2015 4:10:31 GMT
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Post by milocat on Mar 21, 2018 1:17:55 GMT
I'm reading The Alice Network and I can't wait to finish! (in a good way) birukitty and gottapeanow White Chrysanthemum sounds great, putting it on my to read list. birukitty I think I'll write down both your suggestions for our book club. We have a couple of people that like the driest borinest stuff so we have to come up with suggestions that are educational for them but still tell and story and will keep the rest of us awake. I like learning via a good story even if it's not 100% accurate because I won't retain 100% of it anyway. scrapngranny our book club has picked The Immortalists for the month after this one. We have to get ahead since we have to order our books and they take a week plus to get here.
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Post by birukitty on Mar 21, 2018 1:23:12 GMT
I'm reading The Alice Network and I can't wait to finish! (in a good way) birukitty and gottapeanow White Chrysanthemum sounds great, putting it on my to read list. birukitty I think I'll write down both your suggestions for our book club. We have a couple of people that like the driest borinest stuff so we have to come up with suggestions that are educational for them but still tell and story and will keep the rest of us awake. I like learning via a good story even if it's not 100% accurate because I won't retain 100% of it anyway. scrapngranny our book club has picked The Immortalists for the month after this one. We have to get ahead since we have to order our books and they take a week plus to get here. How flattering I think you'll like both books Milocat and I hope everyone in your book club does too.
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gottapeanow
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,764
Jun 25, 2014 20:56:09 GMT
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Post by gottapeanow on Mar 21, 2018 1:58:21 GMT
I also loved The Orphan's Tale and The Alice Network. Salt to the Sea is near the top of my reading list. So glad, Debbie, that you enjoyed my recommendation. This is my favorite thread every week, and I love hearing what the peas are reading. Lisa
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Post by birukitty on Mar 21, 2018 2:03:53 GMT
I also loved The Orphan's Tale and The Alice Network. Salt to the Sea is near the top of my reading list. So glad, Debbie, that you enjoyed my recommendation. This is my favorite thread every week, and I love hearing what the peas are reading. Lisa Me too. I look forward to this thread every week. Reading what everyone else has been reading and enjoying. One of the best parts is finding great books to read. I go through and every book that sounds interesting I add to my TBR list on Goodreads. Then when I'm low on books to read, I'll skim my list and put the books I'm in the mood to read on hold at my local library. I then will get an email from my library when my books are in. It's turned out to be a great system. I'm very lucky to live in a county that has a wonderful library that gets the newest published books in very quickly.
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milocat
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,449
Location: 55 degrees north in Alberta, Canada
Mar 18, 2015 4:10:31 GMT
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Post by milocat on Mar 21, 2018 2:49:09 GMT
I also loved The Orphan's Tale and The Alice Network. Salt to the Sea is near the top of my reading list. So glad, Debbie, that you enjoyed my recommendation. This is my favorite thread every week, and I love hearing what the peas are reading. Lisa Off to check out Salt to the Sea, I've read/reading the other two. I always say I'm not going to read another WWII book because I've read so many and while I like them I think mayne that's enough. Then I read the description of another like The Nightingale or The Alice Network and I'm sucked back in. I love this thread also.
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Post by auntkelly on Mar 21, 2018 3:28:13 GMT
I read The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne. I liked it, but I thought the drama was over the top at times. Cyril always seemed to either be in the right place at the right time or the wrong place at the wrong time.
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Post by digirlwiz on Mar 21, 2018 5:38:54 GMT
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid It's a fictional book probably inspired by Liz Taylor or another old Hollywood actress. I finished listening to this earlier in the week. It held my interest and there were several twists that I did not see coming. Very much enjoyed it!
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scrappyesq
Pearl Clutcher
You have always been a part of the heist. You're only mad now because you don't like your cut.
Posts: 4,032
Jun 26, 2014 19:29:07 GMT
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Post by scrappyesq on Mar 21, 2018 19:27:03 GMT
The thing that sucks most about my job: If I'm in court on Monday I forget to update here, then I don't remember again until I'm on my home computer which is something I avoid if I'm not at work. But today I'm home early.
Still reading (and loving) Grant. It's just long as heck and I keep getting sidetracked. I'm also finishing up Second Chance Cowboy by AJ Pine. Its a sweet romantic read about high school sweethearts who reconnect later.
This week I finished When a Marquess Loves a Woman by Vivienne Lorret. A author new to me whose book I picked up based on a recommendation by one of my favorite authors on Twitter. 4/5
I also finished Wrong to Need you by Alisha Rai. I liked the last book she wrote, and this was part 2 of the series. I was really looking forward to this one and I HATED it. I woke up the day after I finished mad that I wasted precious reading time. Ugh. Such a disappointment. Part 3 comes out next week and I don't think I'm buying it. 0/5.
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Post by utmr on Mar 21, 2018 20:31:59 GMT
I read several over spring break. Plus I finished our 2015 album, so some SB-ing too. (sort of SB, it was on Shutterfly, so I'm counting it).
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid. The language was lovely, and it was a strong 4-4.5 going into the end. The last 20% kind of petered out. 4 stars overall.
Trap the Devil (Dewey Andreas #7) by Ben Coes. Are there negative ratings? Because this book was awful. I read the first six, and they were fine - basic shoot-em-up, catch-the-terrorist thrillers. This one was a racist sexist nasty piece of crazy nonsense. Either I was on drugs when I read the first six, or the author's Fox News-watching, MAGA hat-wearing, crazy uncle's dog hammered this one out. Not sure which.
Sunstroke by Jesse Kellerman. One of his earlier ones, kind of boring and draggy. His parents are both talented, so hopefully his later work gets better. 2 stars
The First Patient by Michael Palmer. Disliked it, boring and predictable. Really hated it until I got to Trap the Devil. 2 stars
Another Thing to Fall (Tess Monaghan #10) by Laura Lippman. It is the first one of this series I have read. Pretty good, I'll look for more. 3.5 stars.
Still plodding my way through Open Season (Joe Pickett, #1) by CJ Box. I feel like I *ought* to like this, but I'm just plodding along.
Same thing with Gone the Next (Roy Ballard Mysteries, #1) by Ben Rehder. I love his Blanco County series. This is ok but I find myself setting it down and getting distracted.
Back at work this week, so less reading time ahead...
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Post by cadoodlebug on Mar 22, 2018 20:05:19 GMT
I just finished The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn. I know this book has been on the Bestseller List for weeks on end but I thought it was just okay. I found that she used way too many words to describe things that should be simple. The book was too long because so much was repetitive. I truly felt like I was becoming an alcoholic even though I don't drink. The plot was interesting and had a couple of major twists. I'll give it a 3 out of 5 stars.
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