Weekly Reading Thread: May 20-26

Still in the middle of a couple books, but just marking my spot so I can find it easier. I definitely enjoy reading this thread each week.

Four more books for me.

First up was Follow the Stars Home by Luanne Rice. I've been trying to go through my Goodreads list going backwards from oldest added to newest and ordering them from the library. This has led to some books that I wonder how they got on the list to begin with, including this one. I gave it 3 stars as it wasn't anything special and felt pretty dated. The premise was a woman finds out she's giving birth to a child with a birth defect which leads her husband to leave her. After the baby is born, her brother-in-law a doctor helps the woman raise the girl and you can guess where it goes.

The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth. I gave this 4 stars, but again it wasn't anything special. It took a lot of disbelief on the readers part to really believe that every single neighbor had a huge secret they were hiding and a part of me knew what the big secret was about halfway through the book!

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover. Annoyingly we now own two copies of this book. For my oldest's birthday both my mom and I bought it for her because it was on the top of her To Read List on Goodreads. It wasn't even very good. I gave it 3 stars. The book jacket makes it sound like a much more interesting story than it was. Tara was raised in a home that didn't believe in traditional schooling or traditional medicine. She someone managed to teach herself enough to get into BYU and learned more about the world. The ironic thing about this book (which really spends way more time on what her life was like before she left for school and seems to breeze through how she managed to teach herself everything) is her father was so convinced that the government was trying to brainwash everyone when in reality he was brainwashing his family to the point that even years later Tara still seemed to question her own versions of things (it took her basically until grad school before she even believed that washing your hands after going to the bathroom was something you should do! because her father thought it was stupid). At the end of the book you could still feel like she still wasn't sure that her father was truly wrong about everything.

The book I finished today! Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan. Since it's coming out as a movie soon, oldest requested it at the library. She was still fairly far down the waiting list so when we went to the Amazon bookstore on Friday I decided to just pick up a copy. I started it last night, not planning to finish it so quickly (it's pretty long), but was bored so ended up finishing it. I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads and I can't wait to see the movie.

This week, I finished two books. The first was The Nest by Cynthia Sweeney. I really liked it.

The second one was The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. That one I loved. I read it in one day. I could not put it down. It definitely was good reading week!!

I just finished this one too. I really like Curtis Sittenfeld, and I used to love short stories, so I found this an absolutely perfect combination. Each story was so good, that it almost felt like I’d read a whole novel each time. Fabulous character development, and wonderful stories. 5/5 from me.

I finished I Found You by Lisa Jewell and thought it was pretty good. Kept my interest and I listened to it on audio and then read the rest. I really like her books.

Now I’m reading The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman. The story of an unwed teenage mother in the 1950’s in Canada who had to give her baby to an orphanage. As the child grows, the orphanage is declared a place for mentally ill children so they can get more money from the government. I’m not very far into it, but a good read so far!

This week I'm reading two books at the same time (one historical fiction and one non-fiction) which I do sometimes going back and forth depending on which one I'm in the mood for that day, so I'm in the middle of both. I read every single day and have since I learned how to read. So instead of not listing anything this week I'm going to list both and then finish up my reviews next week. 

The historical fiction books is called My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira. I found it when I went to Goodwill in perfect condition in hardback for $1.50 and just looking on Goodreads now I had it marked as in my to read section. How about that?  It's funny when I looked at the title are read the description something clicked in my brain and I thought I remembered it, but my memory is so bad I wasn't sure. That day I bought 10 books. Yeah, I have a bit of a problem, but it's a good one.    Anyway, this book is about a woman who lives with her mother, beautiful fraternal twin sister, and brother in Albany, New York right before the Civil War. Plain, but highly intelligent she has followed in her mother's footsteps becoming a very well respected midwife but she dreams secretly, desperately of becoming a doctor. Her heart recently broken by a recent heartbreak Mary runs away to Washington DC just as the Civil War breaks out to help tend the Civil War wounded and hopes to learn what doctoring skills she can. I'm half way through like I mentioned and so far I'm really enjoying this book very much. I love reading about courageous woman like this and the writing is very good. 

The second book I'm reading is The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery by Vitold Pilecki  "In 1940 the Polish Underground wanted to know what was happening inside the recently opened Auschwitz concentration camp. Polish Army Officer Vitold Pilecki volunteered to be arrested by the Germans and reported from inside the camp. His intelligence reports, smuggled out in 1941 were among the first eyewitness accounts of Auschwitz atrocities: the extermination of Soviet POWs, it's function as a camp for Polish Political prisoners, and the "final solution" for Jews. Pilecki received brutal treatment until he escaped in April 1943; soon after he wrote a brief report. This book is the first English translation of a 1945 expanded version. Pilecki's story was suppressed for half a century after his 1948 arrest by by the Polish Communist Regime as a "Western spy". He was executed and expunged from Polish history." I've copied part of the description of this book on my library's website. Reading it I am amazed by this man's bravery and of course so saddened that his life ended the way it did after he gave so much for his fellow man. I'm half way through this book and will give my review next week. 

just one this week. I had an advanced reader copy of a book that is coming out this week called The High Season by Judy Blundell. its a good fluffy summer read. put it in your beach bag.

Happy Monday!!

At work during lunch and breaks, I’m reading Ruth Ware’s The Lying Game.
At home I’m finally getting around to reading Dan Brown’s Origin.

I read this last month and gave it 5 stars. Loved it. Was even better with audio in some parts to hear the accents.SaveSave

I'm reading The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg. The science about habits is really interesting. I'm hoping that this book will help me break some of my many bad ones and maybe form a few new good ones.

I'm also reading The Girl with Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee for book club. I'm not very far into it, but so far it's very good. I've read several other books by persons who have defected from North Korea. Their stories would be hard to believe if they all weren't so consistent. It really is heartbreaking to read about life in North Korea.

Finished reading Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah. I gave it 3/5 stars. It was pretty good but the main characters were a bit tiresome. The book is a bit slow at the beginning but really picked up in the middle. About a mother and her two daughters. The daughters learn about their mother's experience during WWII in Russia. I really would have enjoyed the book more if they focused more on their mother in Russia. 

Finished The Leavers by Lisa Ko. I gave it 2/5 stars. I really wanted to like this book after reading all the reviews. A young boy is adopted after his Chinese mother disappears. The question throughout the book is what happened to his mother and the affects of being adopted. The book is extremely well written. But it just felt flat and I didn't like the main character, Deming or his mother.

Finished Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell. I gave this 3.5/5 stars. I really enjoyed it and this is a perfect read if you're into thrillers. A daughter disappears, a mother is still coping with her daughter's disappearance several years later, and then she meets a man with a child who reminds her of her lost daughter. This was a real page turner and quick read. 

Me too! So glad it wasn't just me. I can't say I disliked it, but I didn't enjoy it like I expected. I wanted to shake Deming more than once. He was just a jerk in the end.

I finished The Wife Between Us. 4/5 I had trouble keeping the women straight, who was who. Now I am reading The Last Mrs. Parrish, which so far, I think is better. Lots of twists, or at least a big one.