Weekly Reading Thread: Jan 20-26

I read A Keeper by Graham Norton 4.5/5 stars

It was a book I kept picking up every spare chance I had to find out how the story was going to play out. Enjoyed it very much.

From Goodreads:
The mystery of Elizabeth Keane's father is one that has never been solved by the people of Buncarragh - not for lack of speculation.

Her mother Patricia had been assumed a spinster, until she began dating a mysterious man from out of town, and within months had left Buncarragh and had married. Less than two years later, Patricia was back, with a new baby in her arms, but no new husband by her side and unbendingly silent about her recent past. A secret she would take with her to her grave.

Now, as Elizabeth returns to the village after her mother's funeral, bringing with her her own regrets and wounds, she finds a thin pile of ribbon-bound letters at the back of a wardrobe that may at last hold the key to her past:

Dear Lonely Leinster Lady,

I'm not really sure how to begin...

I finished Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman. Oh my ~ this one sucked me in and was quite the page turner. Because of the opening chapter, I had no idea where it was going but I really enjoyed reading it.

Now I'm reading The Last Cruise by Kate Christensen. Can't remember if it was recommended here or where I got the idea to read it. It's a tad slow in the beginning while the characters are being introduced so I hope it picks up after the ship sails.

I've also got The Reckoning by John Grisham waiting for me on hold at the library and I'm looking forward to reading that one.

Circe by Madeline Miller -- took me a while to get into it because I kept falling asleep. (I read myself to sleep.) Mythology has never been my thing so this was all new to me. I enjoyed it, but not as much as some of the other peas did.

The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg -- Gets a 5/5 from me. I woke up with a panic attack, picked this up and read it straight through and felt so much better about life.     


Now, I'm reading The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies by Jason Fagone. Truth be told, I haven't gotten very far as I've spent so much time today buying new books. 

I finished two this week. The first was Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie. While I was very engaged in the story, there were some characters I found much more interesting and sympathetic than others. This is the story of 3 Muslim siblings and how the British laws and and the stigmas and stereotypes of society. I probably lack a lot of diversity in my books I choose. This was a great reminder of my own personal need to challenge some of my own stereotypes.

Then I read The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth. I think I’d rate this by saying it was better than a bad Liane Moriarty book and not as good and a good one-ha. Seriously, if your are a fan of Liane Moriarty, this would be a good one to add to your list.

I really enjoyed The Stolen Marriage. I have read a couple of books recently that have part of the story based on fact - the role Hickory played in the polio epidemic was interesting.

I read Educated which was hard to believe was a true story.

I finished Beartown. While I enjoyed it, it did not affect me the same way it has others here. I didn’t really like any of the characters and felt that the story had too many people playing into the drama that never got fleshed out. Perhaps I read it at the wrong time in my life to appreciate it. 3/5

I’m doing the Good Reads challenge hoping for a book a week and I’m going to try to post on this thread also. Hopefully when I have a choice of book or internet or tv I will choose book more frequently.

Read two good ones this week, both recommended here.
Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and
Virgil Wander by Leif Engler.
I enjoyed them both very much.

I read The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware. I think it's had mixed reviews here, but I liked it. A financially desperate young woman gets a letter stating that her grandmother has died and she is in the will...only thing is, they've mistaken her for someone else. But the lure of a chunk of money draws her into a strange family with mysteries that may coincide with some of her own. Just a nice non-demanding mystery, sometimes that's just what you want. I liked it better than The Woman in Cabin 10, which is the only one of Ware's other books I've read.

And I read The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller. I don't know why I'm always drawn to reading memoirs, especially because I almost always find them disappointing. But this one had been on my Kindle for a couple years, and I wanted to feel like I'd finished something. This is just a light-hearted recounting of the author's attempt to get back into serious reading in his mid-thirties, which actually did interest me, because of my own drastic drop in reading the past few years. The book is funny, and I took away the idea of committing to reading fifty pages a day when the book is especially daunting (Middlemarch was the first one the author applied this to, at the suggestion of his wife.) But he reads and writes about some dreary obscure books and I felt like that derailed the book.

I LOVED this book and recommend it to random people on the street. I literally gasped out loud while reading in bed one night and couldn't sleep after reading that part.

Yes, I am really enjoying that trend in books right now. Who knew we had such interesting history - oh that is right - social studies teachers!! LOL! I used to be one of those.  

I read three last week:

Shingaling a short story by RJ Palacio that I read with my 10 year old. This was not as meaningful as The Julian Chapter but we did enjoy it. This book had a lot to say about friendships and navigating the different group that kids are in and how to treat each other.

The Silent Patient - This was a good suspenseful, quick read. I rarely try to figure out twists in books, I just enjoy them, but as I was reading the “answer” to the twist just popped in my head. I was ever so proud of myself and enjoyed the book even more. 😂

The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald is an ARC due out in February. It was very good! About a mother who tries to figure out what happened to her daughter after she fell off a bridge and is now brain dead and pregnant (not as a result of the fall! ). I enjoyed this one a lot, except the fact that the poor mom looses her daughter whether she finds out what happens or not.

Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain is another good one of you want a fictionalized story of a historic incident. I really liked that book.

Two for me this week but I'd like to start with the one I just finished reading this morning. That book was Dracul by Dacre Stoker and J.D. Baker.  This is a prequel to Dracula and the author Dacre Stoker is Bram Stoker's great grandnephew. Bram Stoker of course being the author of Dracula which was written in the late 1800's. This book Dracul was recently published and I decided to give it a try although I haven't yet read the classic novel Dracula. Obviously through movies I'd heard about the various legends and for me vampires don't sparkle in the sun! So on to this book-I loved this book! It was superb! It was the type of book I had a really hard time putting down and I read through it in a matter of days even though it is over 500 pages. 

The book covers Bram Stoker's life from his childhood with his family and his early adulthood. He is close to his sister Matilda and his brother Thornley, and when a series of mysterious deaths occur all three are brought together again. I recommend this book highly if you like this sort of book. I gave it 5 stars on goodreads, and bought a copy of the classic Dracula for myself to read when I finish some library books that are waiting. This book is the type of book I'll put on a list to buy a copy of for myself to keep in my collection. It was that good. 

The first book I read this week was called Someone Like Me by M. R. Carey.  This is a newly published book by the same author who wrote The Girl with all the Gifts.  I thought he'd never top the latter but with this most recent novel he certainly has. In fact with this book he blew The Girl with the Gifts right out of the water! Compared to the two novels this one is much better-it has so much more scope and depth. I loved this book!  It takes off from the very first sentence and never lets you go. Just like the book above I couldn't put this one down either. It's about two people-one is the teen survivor of an abduction that happened when she was a child, and one is a woman who has divorced her abusive husband. But it is so much more than that. It isn't about that really. It's an incredible fiction story that grabs you by your brain and takes you on a roller coaster ride that doesn't let go until the very last page. I gave this one 5 stars too on goodreads. I hope they don't make a movie out of this one because they''ll never do it justice. Your imagination is all you need when you read this. Highly recommend.