🟣 :::READING THREAD::: Week of October 27

I finished The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. It was one of the poster books and my friend chose this time. Seriously, it was so good. I'm not normally a fiction reader but I wholeheartedly give this book 5 stars. It is about a Baptist preacher who takes his family on a mission into the Belgian Congo in 1959. Well worth the read.

I finally read that this year! 

Of all the things, it is my sister's and my DSD's favorite book! 
Honestly, I feel like I needed reread the entire book when I finished. 

It is so. much. to. process. But I really liked it. I gave it 4 stars because I'm still a bit confused. 

I read two books this week, very different from each other but both extremely difficult reads. 

One of my favorite authors is Leonard Pitts Jr. This week I read 54 Miles, about the march to Selma. The book is somewhat of a follow up to The Last Thing You Surrender, which is probably one of my top-10 favorite books ever.

As to 54 Miles, I'm still speechless. This has one of the most graphic descriptions of a l!nch1ng that I've ever read. I had to stop reading that scene several times. Even writing this now, I tear up. And the ending is just ... well, shocking but not shocking, would probably be a good description. 5/5 stars. 

I also read October in the Earth by Olivia Hawker. Whew. This was another great read, about a woman who leaves her abusive preacher husband during the Depression and rides the railcars. She meets another woman, and they travel together. 5/5 stars. 

I started Intermezzo by Rooney, but I honestly quit after 13 pages. It was a bunch of stream of consciousness, and I was annoyed. I loved one GR review: "Men behave badly. They blame women. Just like real life. Next." (Not the exact wording, but close.) So accurate, amiright? 

Just started A Song to Drown Rivers, and it's very promising so far. 

Lisa 

I was too young when I read it a loooong time ago, and didn't appreciate it.  I should give it another try.

I read The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden.
⭐⭐ This was my first book by her, very much disliked how she wrote her female characters. And the men are just horrible. Hated the ending.
Sydney Shaw, like every single woman in New York, has terrible luck with dating. She's seen it all: men who lie in their dating profile, men who stick her with the dinner bill, and worst of all, men who can't shut up
about their mothers. But finally, she hits the jackpot.
Her new boyfriend is utterly perfect. He's charming, handsome, and works as a doctor at a local hospital. Sydney is swept off her feet.
Then the brutal murder of a young woman- the latest in a string of deaths across the coast-confounds police. The primary suspect? A mystery man who dates his victims before he kills them.
Sydney should feel safe. After all, she is dating the man of her dreams. But she can't shake her own suspicions that the perfect man might not be as perfect as he seems. Because someone is watching her every move, and if she doesn't get to the truth, she'll be the killer's next victim...

I just re-read The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz in anticipation of her new book, The Sequel, which I am reading now.

Here is the synopsis of The Plot. I don't want to post about The Sequel because there would be spoilers.

The Plot: Jacob Finch Bonner was once a promising young novelist with a respectably published first book. Today, he’s teaching in a third-rate MFA program and struggling to maintain what’s left of his self-respect; he hasn’t written—let alone published—anything decent in years. When Evan Parker, his most arrogant student, announces he doesn’t need Jake’s help because the plot of his book in progress is a sure thing, Jake is prepared to dismiss the boast as typical amateur narcissism. But then . . . he hears the plot.

Jake returns to the downward trajectory of his own career and braces himself for the supernova publication of Evan Parker’s first novel: but it never comes. When he discovers that his former student has died, presumably without ever completing his book, Jake does what any self-respecting writer would do with a story like that—a story that absolutely needs to be told.

In a few short years, all of Evan Parker’s predictions have come true, but Jake is the author enjoying the wave. He is wealthy, famous, praised and read all over the world. But at the height of his glorious new life, an e-mail arrives, the first salvo in a terrifying, anonymous campaign: You are a thief, it says.

As Jake struggles to understand his antagonist and hide the truth from his readers and his publishers, he begins to learn more about his late student, and what he discovers both amazes and terrifies him. Who was Evan Parker, and how did he get the idea for his “sure thing” of a novel? What is the real story behind the plot, and who stole it from whom?

This book kept me up at night!