🟣 :::READING THREAD::: Week of November 17

I finished Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout - 4 stars. I really liked this and plan to go back and read the rest of Strout's books in order. (They aren't a series but there is character overlap)

I read A Quiet Life by Ethan Joella.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ I loved this beautiful story. My second book by him and I can tell I will enjoy his books.
Chuck Ayers can't decide if he should make the annual trip to Hilton Head without his wife, Cat. It's been less than a year since Cat died, and though he cannot bear another moment alone in their home, the thought of making the familiar journey without her-not stopping at their favorite lunch spot or listening to her beloved show tunes on the way, and not sitting together on the beach or playing cards on the deck-is unimaginable.
Ella Burke delivers newspapers and works at a bridal shop to fill hours while she waits for news-any piece of information-about her missing daughter. Ella adjusts to life in a new apartment and answers every call on her phone, thinking her daughter will reach out one day.
Kirsten Bonato works at an animal shelter and mourns the death of her father, who was killed in a convenience store robbery. Once on track to become a veterinarian, Kirsten is now lost and unmoored. But her complicated feelings for two of her colleagues are a distraction from her pain.
In A Quiet Life the lives of these three individuals intersect in unforeseen ways, as each character bravely presses forward, trying to recover something they have lost.

I finished the third Map of stories book by Anna James (middle-grade), 10% happier by Dan Harris (non-fiction about mediation), and just finished Smells Like Tween Spirit by Laurie Gelman (4th book in an adult series about a PTA mom). I am caught up on the Laurie Gelman books, she hasn't written a 5th one yet... these are light, and fun books, even the meditation one.

I am still reading A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness, and started Under the Banner of Heaven on audio, by Jon Krakauer, and read a chapter in Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian (on my list to read this author in 2024.) All of those are not light and fun books, I don't know what I was thinking

I finished Everyone is Watching by Heather Gudenkauf.

Five contestants have been chosen to compete for ten million dollars on the game show One Lucky Winner. The catch? None of them knows what (or who) to expect, and it will be live streamed all over the world. Completely secluded in an estate in Northern California, with strict instructions not to leave the property and zero contact with the outside world, the competitors start to feel a little too isolated.

When long-kept secrets begin to rise to the surface, the contestants realize this is no longer just a reality show—someone is out for blood. And the game can’t end until the world knows who the contestants really are…

I would rate this 4 stars. It kept my attention. I have enjoyed some of her other books better.

I have been on an Appalachian theme for the past few months. I'm almost done with The Book Woman's Daughter

I think I may read a happy Christmas book after this. The last 3 books have been heavy and I need something light.

Have you read the Bill Bryson (non-fiction) book about walking the Appalachian trail?  I think it's called A Walk in the Woods.  It was pretty good.