Weekly Reading Thread: May 13-19

It's hard for me to imagine being in a reading slump. I so geek out over reading. 

But if I had to guess, the best "cure" for me would be to find an amazing book to read. If you post genre preferences, we can all certainly help with suggestions.  

Lisa 

The sequel to Beartown, Us Against You, comes out 6-5-18. I can’t wait ! I also loved Beartown.

I finished Chemistry by Weiki Wang, which was pretty good, even though sometimes I wanted to smack the narrator. I just started The Leavers by Lisa Ko.

I'm a smidge away from finishing We Are Never Meeting In Real Life by Samantha Irby.

I love the way she writes. She made me LOL several times. Her life has been really interesting and I am not at all sorry I read this book. But- and I hesitate to say this because I will sound like a pearl clutcher- and I swear I am not...
I think it was unnecessarily vulgar. A certain kind, a certain amount can be funny and reflect an author's personality- but there were times I thought it was too much.

Still reading The Tao of Martha by Jen Lancaster and it's dragging. It's a lot of tedious stuff about her getting herself organized, with an occasional sprinkle of humor. I keep waiting for it to pick up.

I grabbed Dietland, knowing the show is starting and it will soon be impossible to get. Will start that tomorrow, probably.

Finished reading The Marriage Lie by Kimberly Belle. This book was beyond terrible. I gave it 1/5 stars. The main character was so whiny and kept vomiting throughout the book (I'm serious). Every page was like, "she vomited..." If I ever hear the phrase "my very favorite person..." again. This book was about a woman who loses her husband in a plane crash and unravels secrets her husband was keeping from her. The whole story was terrible. I kept thinking it would get better, it didn't. I love reading thrillers because some are ridiculously fun but this was just...not worth reading at all! 

Finished The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, gave it 4/5 stars. I absolutely LOVED this book. Thank you, Peas for recommending this. I've read The Nightingale a couple of months ago and loved it too. The only reason I give it 4/5 stars instead of 5 stars because there was one character in particular that I completely loathed. The main character Leni was great. I loved the relationship between Leni and her mother. I never thought that a book based in Alaska would interest me. But I stayed up all night to read the bulk of the book and just finished it this morning. The second half of the story was really good!

Currently reading Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah. About the relationship between two sisters and their Russian Mother who lived through WWII. It's interesting so far, I'm hoping it will pick up. 

I have 3 books sitting on my nightstand. My Husband's Wife, The Great Alone and The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian. I read a little bit of the first two but the 3rd one is the book that sucked me in! I'm only a little less than 1/4 into it but it's a great read so far.

I finished The Flight Attendent. I liked it, but not a fan of spy books. Too much KGB and Russian spies for me.

Just finished The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson. It was spoken about on here, both good and bad; some TwoPeas liked, some did not.

I was right in the middle. Too much “who’s killing who”. But I will say what saved it was the ending. I LOVED the ending !! Actually had me yelling “yes yes yes”. LOL

Without the ending 3/5 Stars; with the ending 4/5; if that makes any sense !

I missed last week so I've got some catching up to do. I've also been reading less mostly because my migraines have been getting worse, and so I've been watching more TV instead. I miss the reading and hope to read more like I usually do soon. 

Last week I read The Girl With No Name by Diney Costeloe. It's a historical fiction book that takes place during WWII. The main character is a teen girl named Lisa (shortened from her German Jewish name) who's family in German gets a chance to send her to England on the Kindertransport. She hates leaving them behind but her parents insist. She is taken in by a childless couple in London who are very kind but soon the London Blitz starts. Night after night the bombing goes on. At one point Lisa loses her memory and wakes up in the hospital with no memory of who she is or where she comes from. The authorities give her a new name and dispatch her to a children's home. Her kind adoptive family search for her and can't find her. I loved this book. On Goodreads the reviews are love/hate. I just checked Amazon and the reviews are much kinder there-4.5 stars and lots of them. I felt the descriptions of the Blitz were very accurate (I've read a lot of WWII books) and the characters were very well drawn. I very much liked the story lines too. There is a sequel to this book which I'm very much looking forward to reading but I have to buy it since my library doesn't have it. The author has also written other WWII historical fiction books that look good that I'm going to check into. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. 

I'm currently reading The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe. I think I heard about this book here. This is the amazing true story of a young teen, 14 year old Dita Kraus and her experience in Auschwitz who risked her life to protect a few books (contraband punishable by death) while she was there. This book is a historical fiction book rather than a non-fiction book which tells the story very well and very emotionally. Dita, her father and her mother are housed in what is known as the family camp in Auschwitz. This not well known area of Birkenau or Auschwitz II (which existed from September of 1943 to July 1944) allowed the children to spend the day in the children's block where a very small school was established and teacher's would give them lessons to fill their day. This is where the books were used. Dita takes care of 8 precious volumes that have been snuggled in past the guards. I've read lots of books about the Holocaust and this one is a very good one. Loving books as I do this book has special significance to me. I do recommend it. I'm not finished with it yet. I've got about 1/4 of the way to go. But I know I'll be rating this one 5 out of 5 stars. It's that good. 

I finished the above book today (Monday). It was wonderful. What I really appreciated was the author included in the back of the book an Epilogue, a Postscript and a What Happened To various characters throughout the book who were real people. I've found this in various non-fiction books and I always appreciate it but I've found it very rarely in historical fiction books. In this book it is a wonderful addition that helps to finalize the reader's mind as to what happened in the following years after the war's end. I think this is one of the books I'll be adding to my collection. 

I neglected some responsibilities and stayed up way too late to finish The Poisonwood Bible.
I couldn’t put it down so I kept reading until I finished it. I haven’t done that for quite some time.

I finished listening to Then You Were Gone by Lisa Jewel and it was so good! It’s about a woman’s daughter who goes missing and then many years later, she meets a man whose daughter looks exactly like her daughter. I loved the narrators voice and accent.


Also, finished reading The Silver Music Box. A story set in the 1930’s in Germany about a jeweler and how life was during this time. It was also a good book.

I loved Matchmaking for Beginners by Maddie Dawson. It was fun and I enjoyed all the quirkiness. I'm currently reading The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera. It is another quirky one. It is funny though, I am enjoying the premise of the book, but I do not care overly much for Miss Prim. It is a translation, so I do keep that in mind as I read.

I'm reading a book called "Jenta i veggen", (the girl in the wall). About a young girl in Norway who survived the deportation of the Jews by hiding in a wall. It is a true story, but one that hasn't been known. Many kids read Anne Frank's diary, I hope they will start reading Betzy Rosenberg's story as well.

I'm about 20% into The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth. It reminds me a little of The Husband's Secret. I'm enjoying it.