🟣 :::READING THREAD::: Week of August 11th

I have been on vacation with my,husband, daughter and 3 grandsons and I barely had a moment to myself.
I reread Mr. and Mrs. BO JO JONES by Ann Head.
This is one of my favorite books I read as a young girl in 7th grade ordered from my English teacher Scholastic order forms.

I'm finishing up The Canary Girls. It's been good so far!

I finished Echo of Old Books Saturday night. It was a sweet book. This morning I started Alan Cumming's book, Not My Father. It is an audiobook read by Alan. I really like him as an actor. This is a telling of his life as a child and how some secret came out when he was getting ready to do an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? I think it might be a tough read/listen based on the first couple of chapters in.

Once I got to the office, I got a notice that my library hold was available Time's Convert by Deborah Harkness. The Discovery of Witches trilogy now has a 4th book. I read all the others and watched the series on AMC. So I'll give this a listen. It will most likely take precedent over Alan's book as I only have 14 days on this. And the other book is in my Everand sub.

Time's Convert

Deborah Harkness
3.93 stars

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches comes a novel about what it takes to become a vampire.

On the battlefields of the American Revolution, Matthew de Clermont meets Marcus MacNeil, a young surgeon from Massachusetts, during a moment of political awakening when it seems that the world is on the brink of a brighter future. When Matthew offers him a chance at immortality and a new life free from the restraints of his puritanical upbringing, Marcus seizes the opportunity to become a vampire. But his transformation is not an easy one and the ancient traditions and responsibilities of the de Clermont family clash with Marcus's deeply held beliefs in liberty, equality, and brotherhood.

Fast-forward to contemporary Paris, where Phoebe Taylor--the young employee at Sotheby's whom Marcus has fallen for--is about to embark on her own journey to immortality. Though the modernized version of the process at first seems uncomplicated, the couple discovers that the challenges facing a human who wishes to be a vampire are no less formidable than they were in the eighteenth century. The shadows that Marcus believed he'd escaped centuries ago may return to haunt them both--forever.

A passionate love story and a fascinating exploration of the power of tradition and the possibilities not just for change but for revolution, Time's Convert channels the supernatural world-building and slow-burning romance that made the All Souls Trilogy instant bestsellers to illuminate a new and vital moment in history, and a love affair that will bridge centuries.

I'm sorry some of you are struggling to find that reading groove. I've had weeks like that when nothing catches my interest. 

However, this past week was not one of those. All my out-of-town visitors left, and it poured rain (finally! omg, we needed the rain) for two days, AND my husband went out of town for a night. What more could a gal ask for? lol I actually read FOUR books.

Nine Lives by Peter Swanson. Not sure where I saw this...maybe in this thread? Nine people get a letter in the mail with just a list of names, their own included. And one of them is an FBI agent which gives it a nice twist. Then one by one they're killed. Kind of a typical plot, but this one pulled me in right away. And then when I googled the author I discovered that he's written many other thriller/suspense type books. I resisted taking another one out because I had two long books waiting on my Kindle, but I will read more of his.

The Dark Angel by Elly Griffiths. This is #something in the Ruth Galloway series. She's an anthropologist who helps the police solve crimes when it involves bones. I read the first three in the series but they didn't pull me in enough to continue with the series. However, one of the prompts in my book group this month is "takes place in Italy" and this book does. It was okay. A quick read at least. But I doubt I'll read any more of this series unless one meets a very specific prompt for my book group.

The Briar Club by Kate Quinn. I do love Kate Quinn's books! This is her newest one, and it pulled me in right away. You start off on the very first page with two dead bodies in the house where all the main characters live, but the reader doesn't know who they are. Then the rest of the book, until the very end when you learn who they are, is spent learning about each of the residents of the boarding house while thinking "does she die in the end?" One chapter per resident. It takes place in Washington, DC during the McCarthy era, which was interesting. One of my family's stories from our history is that my father, who was teaching at the University of Oklahoma at the time, was fired because he refused to sign McCarthy's loyalty oath. He was a veteran of WWII and said he had already proven his loyalty. The university didn't agree and fired him. Fortunately Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie-Mellon) in Pittsburgh, being more enlightened than Oklahoma, hired him right away. -- Anyway, great book. Highly recommended. My only complaint is that the chapters are long, lol. I have this thing about stopping in the middle of a chapter so I'm always trying to force myself to finish a full chapter in a book like this.

The Women by Kristin Hannah. I only heard about this book after it had taken off on the book charts so by the time I got my name on the waiting list I was #800-something. omg, I have never been that far down on a waiting list for a book. But there are certainly enough other books to read so I just waited them out. Read it in two days. lol. Mostly I don't care for Kristin Hannah, and there were things about this book that reaffirmed why I don't like her writing. But... it was still a good book. It takes place during the Vietnam War, and of course was heart-wrenching. -- Coincidentally I was just at the Vietnam Memorial and the Nurses' Memorial with our out-of-town guests. I know a good amount about the Vietnam War, and I knew 8 nurses died, and I knew that thousands of American women were involved in the conflict somehow. But what I didn't know that I learned from this book was that women vets were actually told by the VA and other groups who they went to for help that "these services are for veterans. There were no women in the Vietnam war." Right to their faces they were told that women hadn't gone over there. Of course because our government lied to the American people. -- Anyway, it was heart-breaking. And heart-warming about how the women came together to support each other. 

And that was my week. And after "The Briar Club" and "The Women" I'm looking at the books on my Kindle and thinking "nope" and "why would I want to read that?" and "guess I'll just return that one unread".   Maybe I'll just re-read "Iron Flame". haha

I read A Talent for Murder. Here's my GR review.
Swanson does it again!

This is divided in parts, which is very helpful. The plot is great, and there are some unexpected twists. My very favorite was the ending. 5/5 stars

*****

Tomorrow, I pick up 7 holds from the library (!!!!!). I need to finish all of them in 3 weeks. I don't think that will happen, so I will be picking and choosing and returning some of them.

#FirstWorldProblems

Lisa

I finished reading Toxic Prey by John Sanford ~ A Lucas and Letty Davenport thriller. Oh my! Quite the heart pounder about a deadly virus. Yikes! 4/5

I’ve just started If Something Happens to Me by Alex Finlay.

No, you don't need to read these in order. But he does briefly mention a few plot points from TKWS in ATFM. 

Hope you enjoy it! 

Lisa 

Did you enjoy it all these years later?

Yes I love this book and I own several copies.