| Author |
Message |
Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Thursday, February 01, 2018 - 8:24 pm 
AAAUUUGGGGHHHHH (said in my best Charlie Brown voice).
I FINALLY got the Eleanor Oliphant book through library loan, but then I didn't get it read before it disappeared from my Kindle. It is the one thing I absolutely hate about the Kindle Fire. Even in airplane mode with the wifi off, loaned books get deleted. On my paperwhite they don't. Why didn't I download it to my PW you ask? Because I have TWO books on it that are overdue, so I can't turn on the wifi! LOL On the PW I'm working my way through Born a Crime and enjoying it. On audio I'm listening to A Breath of Snow and Ashes for at least the dozenth time, and in deadtree form, I'm reading Jocko Willink's Discipline Equals Freedom. Gotta' get all but the audio done by Feb. 18 because musical rehearsals start up again then.
Oh - and finished the Harry Bosch book Two Kinds of Truth and enjoyed it as usual.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Thursday, February 01, 2018 - 9:38 pm
Bummer, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine was one of my favorite books last year.
I have Kindle on my tablet but don't believe anything has disappeared. Of course, I download so many from Book Bub that I leave until I am in the mood that I may not remember them.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Friday, February 02, 2018 - 8:46 pm
This only disappeared because it was a library loan. Our Kindle loans are usually 2-3 weeks. Then, they're "returned" so the next person in line can check it out.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Sunday, February 04, 2018 - 7:46 am
Heads up - Less - a novel recommended here - is on sale on Amazon for $2.99 today!!
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Saturday, February 10, 2018 - 7:27 pm
Teach, so sorry to learn of the kerfuffle with your library loan of EOICF. I hope you get to finish it very soon - it's that good!
Tonight I finished Janelle Brown's third novel, Watch Me Disappear. Though it dragged here and there, it turned to be really good and much better than her first two books (which were good, but not great). This one has a very jarring twist that really helps to pick up the pace of the story. And the ending turned out to be much more satisfying than I thought it would be, i.e., as I worked my way through the final chapter I was dreading that it would have a lousy ending. Happily, it did not! 
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Saturday, February 17, 2018 - 9:43 am
So far this month, I have read the following:
Sourdough by Robin Sloan: Odd but ok
The Wildling Sisters by Eve Chase: Completely predictable, would not recommend it as it was a waste of time
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn: Half the book was good the other, meh. Interesting idea and subject loosely based on the actual Alice Network of female spies in WW1. The book consists of two storylines, WW1 and the 1940's after WW2. The parts of the book set in WW1 were far better than the part devoted to post WW2 1940's. The Charlie character and her storyline were annoying and not particularly interesting.
I also read 6 books in January and so far this year nothing has been exceptional. Perhaps the next book...
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Mak1
Member
08-11-2002
| Sunday, February 18, 2018 - 6:04 am
I'm finally getting around to reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. It's really interesting so far.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Sunday, February 18, 2018 - 4:35 pm
I just finished hardcore Twenty-Four by Janet Evanovich. It was a hoot! The last few books of the series were a bit meh and lacked a lot of humor, however, the laughs were back on track with the latest installment. I don't really care for adding Diesel to the list of men lusting for and being lusted after by Stephanie. Joe v. Ranger was enough. What about poor Lizzie in the Lizzie & Diesel series?
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Sunday, February 18, 2018 - 6:22 pm
One of 2017's celebrated books was Who is Rich?, the first novel by Matthew Klam, who wrote it 17 years after his debut, which was a short story collection (I did not read that). The novel is extremely well written, but it features a fairly unlikable protagonist.
It was a bit of a workout to get through, but I ultimately enjoyed it, primarily because the relationships at the heart of the book turned out to be the complex types that I prefer to read. But be forewarned: it's possible you'll dislike the characters so much that you might be tempted to stop reading. I sampled a few Goodreads reviews and wasn't surprised to see several people opt to not finish it.
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Denecee
Member
09-05-2002
| Monday, February 19, 2018 - 3:21 pm
reading Red Rising series by Pierce Brown
the fourth book in the series just came out, so I have to re-read the first three.
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Wednesday, February 21, 2018 - 7:27 am
I read the first one and I recall it being unexpectedly good. From your comment, it sounds like the rest of the series is equally good, so I'll probably finish the series now.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Wednesday, February 21, 2018 - 9:41 pm
I'm reading a darling book called The Bookstore on the Corner by Jenny Colgan. A librarian gets ousted in a merger and sets up a bookmobile style store in Scotland...the Scotland part may have been the appeal, but it's a sweet story and just the kind I need during the crazy busy couple months I have coming up.
I'm almost finished listening to A Breath of Snow and Ashes, I'm halfway through Born a Crime and I'm waiting for my deadtree book Himself by Jess Kidd.
Anyone know a way to make a living and pay a mortgage by playing piano for community theater groups and reading????
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Thursday, February 22, 2018 - 1:14 am
I agree, Teachmichigan, The Bookstore on the Corner was a sweet book.
Regarding making a living playing piano and reading, one needs to be a trust fund baby, have a sugar daddy or know 6 lucky numbers and have $2.00 to invest in Powerball.
Sadly, it seems one needs those same things to fulfill ones financial obligations whilst one reads, makes jewelry, reads more, bakes and watches TV.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Saturday, February 24, 2018 - 8:10 pm
Today I finished Jo Nesbo's third novel, The Redbreast, which is also the third in the Harry Hole series. In this one Harry is in pursuit of a serial killer in Norway who is also in his 70s. (!). It's much, much better than the first two books. There are at least 10 in the series and I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that they will keep getting better and better.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Sunday, February 25, 2018 - 5:48 pm
Finished The Bookshop on the Corner and read Rupi Kaur's poetry book, Milk and Honey today. I thoroughly enjoyed both.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Sunday, February 25, 2018 - 9:29 pm
Thanks for mentioning The Bookshop on the Corner.
I had bought it on sale in the past, so I have it queued up on my fire..
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Tresbien
Member
08-26-2002
| Friday, March 02, 2018 - 1:59 pm
Just finished Karen Cleveland's Need To Know, a page-turner thriller. I requested it from the library after John Grisham recommended it. There are many twists and turns, and it has kept me good company through this major windstorm (called bomb cyclone I read on accuweather) pounding the east coast. Highly recommend if you want a story that grabs you from the first pages and doesn't let down till the last.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Saturday, March 03, 2018 - 6:36 pm
I knew that Michael Ausiello wrote about daytime and nighttime TV for various magazines, but that was it. I recently learned he wrote a book last year about his 13-year relationship/marriage to photographer Kit Cowan entitled Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies.
It's extremely rare to read about a couple's relationship that is both very funny and also very, very sad/tragic. Ausiello's writing is exceptional and he carefully details Kit's rapid decline from a rare form of cancer that killed him (at age 42) in less than a year from diagnosis to death.
Books like these are tough emotionally and this one is no exception. But Ausiello has such a larger-than-life sense of humor that it makes it much easier to take in than most other similarly-themed non-fiction works. I highly, highly recommend this one. And, yes, it is extremely sad. 
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Monday, March 05, 2018 - 6:41 pm
Finished "Banana Cream Pie Murder" by Joanne Fluke. Apparently she has written many books like this. It is filled with recipes throughout. I thought the ending was strange though. I guess they want you to buy the next one in the series to find out what happens next.
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Tresbien
Member
08-26-2002
| Monday, March 05, 2018 - 9:21 pm
Heckagirl, you've jumped into the Joanne Fluke cozy mystery series at an odd point. All of the other 20 books end with a solution to the crime. The followup novel, Raspberry Danish Murder, was published just a week or so ago.
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Mak1
Member
08-11-2002
| Tuesday, March 06, 2018 - 5:12 am
Last week I read The Rooster Bar by John Grisham. It was okay. Then I read My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout. I like her books, though they aren't for everyone. They are good stories about real life flawed, scarred people but don't have much action.
Next is one from the library stacks, Once Upon a Time on the Banks by Cathie Pelletier. She has a way of writing books that are tragic and hilarious at the same time.
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Tuesday, March 06, 2018 - 3:54 pm
Yeah, I often buy random books at the dollar store for $3, so they aren't in any order. The one I'm reading now is the last in a trilogy. I haven't read any of the other books in the trilogy.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Friday, March 09, 2018 - 6:59 pm
It took much longer than I thought it would, but I finished Tina Brown’s Vanity Fair Diaries, which she kept from 1983 through 1992. She’s had a remarkable career first at Vanity Fair and then at The New Yorker. There are many juicy tidbits as well as in-depth glimpses of how big-time magazine publishing works. The fact that shocked me most was learning that she was only 30 years old when she became VF’s editor-in-chief. Amazing!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Friday, March 09, 2018 - 9:45 pm
I started Beverly Jenkins' Blessings series from the beginning..
Bring in the Blessings
A Second Helping
Something Old, Something New
A Wish and a Prayer
Then a new novella that fits in here.
Crystal Clear
On to
A Heart of Gold
For Your Love
Stepping to A New Day
And then the 2017 new book
Chasing Down a Dream
I have Second Time Sweeter on order, due out in August.
Then I read the three books by Jennifer Worth, which were the basis of the BBC series we see on PBS, Call the Midwife.
Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy and Hard Times
Call the Midwife: Shadows of the Workhouse
Call the Midwife: Farewell to the East End
Really interesting, especially since I love the show.
Just finished The Bookshop on the Corner
I did enjoy it, maybe more for the setting than the plot.
Just started a memoir which includes a real life murder mystery, by the surviving daughter of her murdered mother.
After the Eclipse: A Mother's Murder: A Daughter's Search by Sarah Perry.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Saturday, March 10, 2018 - 7:14 am
Seamonkey, were the Call The Midwife books Jennifer Worth's experiences or the episodes from the series? I glanced at one and it seemed to be the TV episodes. I know the show is based on the book, but thought the books would be a bit different.
I find the show charming, engaging, occasionally grim and hopeful. I find actual midwifery icky and gross.
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