🟣 :::READING THREAD::: Week of June 30

I read How to Read a Book by Monica Wood. 5/5 This was the perfect book for me at this time. A charming, deeply moving novel about second chances, unlikely friendships, and the life-changing power of sharing stories.

I also listened to What Happened To You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey. 5/5 I wish I had read this book while I was still teaching. It would have clarified my understanding of why so many of my students struggled to learn.

I was at the beach this week and read:

Come and Get It by Kiley Reid. I had a hard time explaining the plot of this book to my husband, who is now reading it, but basically, a professor who seems to have a sideline writing mass-appeal articles and books takes a visiting position at the University of Arkansas and starts interviewing students there for her pieces and making up details about their stories. At the same time, you get the perspectives of some of the students involved, including an RA with a big crush on the professor and a student in a triple suite who is in weird conflict with her roommates. I did enjoy this, although there was an uncomfortable professor-overstepping-boundaries plot line I could have done without.

Every Last Fear by ALex Finlay. Pretty straightforward thriller. College student's entire family is killed in Mexico, or maybe dies accidentally, except for his older brother, who may be wrongfully imprisoned for a murder. Is our protagonist going to get to the bottom of what happened before someone kills him too? This was a fun page-turner.

The New Couple in 5B by Lisa Unger. This is my classic new-release mystery read: great setup, fizzly ending. A woman and her husband, in financial straits, unexpectedly inherit a Park Avenue apartment from her husband's uncle. The building is full of people with secrets and weird semi-paranormal happenings, and our narrator isn't sure whether to trust her husband, or herself, or her neighbors, or the doorman, as more and more people turn up dead. I didn't love this.

Knitmare on Beech Street by Peggy Ehrhart. This is an installment in a cozy mystery series (Knit and Nibble) that I follow, set in suburban New Jersey and centered loosely around a knitting club that likes to eat. Like most of the cozy mystery series I read, this one has long left "I should have an actual mystery in here" behind and focuses on the snacks, crafts, and quaint town details. Nominally, the mystery here is that a woman turns up dead in the house she inherits, which is also full of secret rooms and weird relics, and maybe she died of fright or maybe someone killed her. Anyhow, I will stick with this series until it inevitably dies out, but it's for the characters and the descriptions of coffee cake, not for the plot.

Nothing More to Tell by Karen McManus. YA mystery from a popular YA author. Ehhhhhh. Again, reasonably good setup -- high school student wows news org and gets an internship to tell the story of a murder that occurred in the hometown she is moving back to -- but the book was a lot of setup and not much delivery.

This was my perspective too. 

I read two books this week. 

Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera. I have so many thoughts.

This is the author's first novel. I can't believe it! It's incredibly well written. 

Told from three POVs, these women suffered through and overcame so much. Whew! What a story this is. It went in a direction I did not expect. 

I need to admit that I did this book a disservice because I read part of it while I was traveling and then didn't finish it for about three weeks. That disrupted my enjoyment of it, which was all on me. Even so, I loved it.

Some have complained it's stereotypical. Duly noted. Moving along.

Finally, this book takes place in the South with lots of scenes in church. The author uses this expression twice: "the fear and admiration of the Lord." That makes sense. Except this is an actual saying and should be "the fear and admonition of the Lord." (Ask me how I know!) These have two different meanings, so it's kind of funny. 5/5 stars 

Tell Me Who You Are by Lousa Luna.

Unique and trippy. The MC, Dr. Caroline Strange, is self-absorbed and not the most likable person. But the premise of the book works well, and the plot flows nicely. 4/5 stars.

Happy reading, everyone! 
Lisa 

Thank you.  Just got it on Kindle for $2.99  

I finished Kill for Me, Kill for You by Steve Kavanagh which was recommended here. It was a wild/twisty ride but I’m still mulling over the ending and not sure if I like it. 4/5 stars

Now I'm reading Midnight Creed by Alex Kava which is #8 in the Ryder Creed series. I hope she keeps writing them because I'm addicted!

Two weeks in a row posting for me. Hoping to make it a habit. {fingers crossed}

I finished The Lost Letters of Aisling by Cynthia Ellingson. I gave it a 4/5 stars. It's your typical Historical Fiction - one chapter from current times, the next from the past (in this case 1945-1952 Ireland.) I thought it was well written and it held my interest. It may have been an Amazon First Reads "purchase" from March.

I *finally* finished A Court of Mist and Fury. omg. It took me a month to read this one because it just draaaaaaagged along. I will not be reading the next one in the series, that's for sure. After I finished "Fourth Wing" and "Iron Flame" and was suffering from dragon withdrawal someone in a FB group suggest the ACOTAR series, and "From Blood and Ash" to help me get over the dragons. lol. Well nope, and nope. I know people LOVE the ACOTAR books, and I did find the first one, "A Court of Thorns and Roses" to be okay. But "Mist and Fury" was not even okay. So if you are a diehard ACOTAR fan come on at me, I can take it.  

Then I read The Guncle in about two days. It was pretty good, and laugh-out-loud funny in parts. A "guncle" is a "gay uncle". The story is about a single gay man who takes in his niece and nephew for the summer after their mother dies and their father goes to rehab. I enjoyed this one because it was fun. And poignant. And apparently there's a second one, "The Guncle Abroad" which I just put on hold. 

I read Stephen King newest You Like it Darker. This is a book of short stories including a couple longer ones. Overall 4.5 stars. He is a master writer and can definitely draw you into his work.