Weekly Reading Thread June 3- June 9

I read:

We Are Never Meeting In Real Life by Samantha Irby. 5 stars. Loved this collection of essays - she makes humor look easy. Recommended as long as you are okay with salty language and some explicit material.

Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday. 3 stars. This one came with a lot of advance buzz and critics reviews and I was just "meh" on it. I thought the writing was good, but I guess I'm much more of a literal reader and don't want to have to work so hard making connections and figuring out a book.

Currently reading The Favorite Sister.

I read “Small Great Things” by Jodi Picoult. I loved this book. It is one that I will read again.

Next on my list is “The Woman in the Window” by A.J. Finn

I read The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy. I really enjoyed it and it was hard to put down. 4 stars for me.

Two books for me again this week. I feel like I'm really slowing down on reading lately.

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard. I gave this 3 stars. Honestly, I'm not sure how it even ended up on my To Read list as it's very different than the books I normally read (and I have very eclectic taste). It was sort of a history book about James Garfield's attempted assassination and eventual death (I never knew that he really didn't die from the guy that shot him, but instead died from an infection most likely caused by the unsanitary conditions the doctors that tried to treat him put him in). If you're interested in history, this book might be interesting to you as it wasn't a particularly hard book ie. wasn't dry like a textbook, but I gave it 3 stars because it almost seemed more like a collection of essays instead of a true book. It covers President Garfield's life as well as Alexander Graham Bell and gives a little info on the guy who invented antiseptic and the doctors who worked on Garfield.

The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine. I gave this 4 stars. This was more of a children's book that I realized (probably older elementary, middle school reading level). It's a fictional account of a white girl living in Little Rock right after the Little Rock 9 but before true de-segregation when the city of Little Rock basically shut their public schools down instead of letting them integrate. It was actually interesting to read about the topic as it's not widely talked about. My grandfather was actually from Little Rock and lived there until the late 1940s, when he moved to California for college, and the racism was so bad that he said that he would never visit or live there again.

As for my next book I started Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. I'm pretty early in the book, but it's been slow going. Hopefully it gets better.

I finished The Boys of Summer by Richard Cox. Kind of oddish, Stephen King wannabee (but obvious about it). I wasn't crazy about it, but I did give it a three because I did stay interested in it enough to finish it. I think I just felt like I was left wanting something, but not sure what when I was finished with it. Actually, even while reading it. It's sort of a sci-fi fantasy about the summer of a catastrophic tornado, a boy's coma, a group of boys that follow him, how it affects them in their adulthood and the writing of a book. See what I mean?!

I also read, in a 24-hour period, which is as close as I get to "in one sitting," Lying in Wait by Liz Nugent. It is my understanding that it is a UK book that will be released in the US on June 12 or 13. My DD received it for review, but I read it first while she finishes up another book. Now, I can't wait for her to read it so I have someone to discuss it with! LOL If you like psychological thriller type books, get this one when it comes out. (I never say that! I don't want to hear about it if someone hates it! LOL) I loved the writing. I loved the story. The last chapter is simply haunting.

I LOVED that book! I can't wait for the next in the series!

I put Lying In Wait on my TBR List.  It comes out 6-12 in the US. "The last chapter is simply haunting" got me !

Yay! So glad you liked it! I found the details a little confusing at first too - I didn't realize there was a glossary until the end. And I think it would've been nice if there was a brief historical summary at the beginning. After I finished reading I sat down and wrote notes in a Google doc so I can refresh my memory for the next book (but really, I will probably just re-read it because I liked it so much). It felt like historical fantasy - I really liked the setting and the richness of it all.

Finished reading As Bright as Heaven By Susan Meissner. 5/5 stars. Oh my goodness, I LOVED this book. It's now one of my top favorite books. I never knew I could love a book about the Spanish flu and about a family who worked as undertakers during WWI. I loved this book so much, I went and bought two other books written by this author, Secrets of a Charmed Life and A Bridge Across the Ocean. I can't wait to read them! 

Finished We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter. 3/5 stars. This book was about a Jewish family during WWII. It was based on a true story. I think the book would have been stronger if it focused on 1-3 characters. But there were SO many characters, it got so confusing about who was who. And I didn't feel an emotional connection to any of the characters.

Finished The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine. 2.5/5 stars. I read this book in a day and it did keep me intrigued. I read it based on some of the peas recommendations. I also know a lot of people were meh on the book. It reminded me of Behind Closed Doors and I liked that book a bit better. 

Me and my cowboys. Just when I think I'm ready for a serious read I get roped back in (ETA: heehee i just noticed the unintentional pun). Plus honestly I I don't think I have room in my brain for anything too deep. I'm reading Hold Me Cowboy and Bad News Cowboy by Maisey Yates.

Maybe next week.

Not a great week for me reading wise. I have two DNF books (did not finish) and one that was very good.

The first book I read which I did not finish was called Speak No Evil by Uzodinma. I talked a bit about this book last week, that I was starting to read it. The book is about an 18 year old high school boy named Niru who leads a charmed life in Washington, DC being raised by two attentive parents. He's a top student, a track star and he's headed for Harvard. He also has a secret-he's gay. His traditional Nigerian parents see this as an unforgivable sin. When his father finds out by accident one day he takes Niru back to Nigeria for some intensive biblical anti-gay therapy. In Nigeria being gay is illegal and carries a prison sentence. The first half of the book was really good and then it got more and more boring. Also it is one of those books that doesn't use quotation marks and that really bothers me. I finally got to the point at 100 pages where I just wasn't looking forward to reading at all and that's when I know it's time to put a book aside and go on to the next one. I gave it 3 stars for the great 1st half of the book. 

The second book I read was The Girl in the Red Coat by Roma Ligocka. This was a wonderful, heart wrenching memoir of a little Jewish girl when the Nazis came marching into Poland in 1939. She lived in Krakow, Poland with her well off family and describes what happened to her, her mother, and the rest of her family as the noose tightens among the Jewish population. It is a very well written memoir and one I would recommend for those interested in this subject, because it tells the story from a young girls point of view. Something we usually don't see. I was interested in reading this because this type of book interests me and because I visited Krakow last year. I gave it 4 stars. 

The last book I read was also a DNF for me. I was so looking forward to reading this one and I saw it first on these threads. It was called The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya. I was very interested in reading this book but what bothered me was the time sequence of the book. The first part was wonderful and very much caught my attention but very soon afterward the timing sequence starts jumping back and forth, and in between and here and there with no explanation what so ever. I read lots of books with 2 or more time sequences going on-but usually there is either a date or something in the writing to let you know where you are in the time frame. Not here. I couldn't take it anymore about put it down after reading about 100 pages. However, don't let that discourage you from reading this book! There are a lot of 5 star reviews for this book on Goodreads so it could have just been me. I gave it a 3 star review. 

I'm very interested in the Rwandan genocide and have always wanted to read more about it. Because of this I've put two books on hold at my local library. The first one is a book mentioned in The Girl Who Smiled Beads. I've heard of both of these titles before and have meant to read them for a long time. Now seems the right time. The titles are: Shake Hands with the Devil  and  We wish to inform you that Tomorrow we will be Killed with our Families. 
 

I read The Power of Habit:Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg. Nothing in this book really surprised me about the nature of habits. It was interesting, though, to read that modern science supports what mothers have been telling their kids for ages: you can replace bad habits w/ good habits.

I finally finished reading Katharine Graham's autobiography A Personal History. I really really loved this book. Graham was born w/ a silver spoon in her mouth. She never planned on having a career until her husband committed suicide and she was thrust in the position of running her family's newspaper, The Washington Post. It was inspiring to see her progress from being an extremely wealthy housewife w/ absolutely no self confidence to becoming one of the most powerful and influential woman of her time. I loved how honest she was about the mistakes she made in her personal and professional life. I really felt like I knew her well by the end of the book. I wish I could have set down and had a glass of wine with her before she died.

I am back to reading the Selection series by Kiera Cass. I read The One and the novellas The Queen & The Prince. I was starting The Guard today, and while looking at the list of books in the series found Happily Every After, which has all the short stories in one book, so I'll read the couple other that come after this one while I wait for my download of The Heir to become available from the library. I'm also listening to The Goblet of Fire when I'm in the car.