| Author |
Message |
Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Thursday, June 17, 2021 - 7:15 am 
Since I last posted, I've read:
The Happy Ever Playlist (sequel to The Friend Zone) (Jiminez)
Verity (Hoover)
Still Us: A Love Story in Parallel Worlds (Hecking)
FINALLY finished Shuggie Baine - it was wonderful! If it had not been such a stressful school year, I would have read this one in a week.
And listened again to
One Plus One (Moyes)}
Currently listening to When We Believed in Mermaids (O'Neal) and reading The Searcher (French) and What the Wind Knows (Harmon) on Kindle.
I LOVE SUMMER! (Though I'm STILL dealing with that damned SAT test - spend an hour on it yesterday! If the NINETEEEN tracking numbers I e-mailed and the 40-minute phone call don't solve the problem, I'm just turning it over to my principal. I am no longer being paid for that position, so I will not waste another second of my summer on it!)
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Kappy
Member
06-28-2002
| Thursday, June 17, 2021 - 9:49 am
Happy summer Teach! Rest, recoup, regenerate!
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Sunday, June 20, 2021 - 6:32 pm
It’s so nice to be back reading at a much steadier pace than I was earlier this year (but still not fast enough — I hate that I read so slowly). 😠
I finished James Lee Burke’s second novel (from 1970), To The Bright and Shining Sun and enjoyed it much more than his debut, which he wrote 5 years earlier. The lead character was very unlikable but also quite fascinating. I understand Burke’s later books are much better and I could tell his writing style had improved dramatically between his first and second books.
Today I finished Lisa Jewell’s The Family Upstairs — I liked it but I didn’t love it. I’d rate it a solid B+ on the old A to F scale. Once I read her two most recent books, I’ll finally be all caught up with her entire output!
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Tntitanfan
Member
08-02-2001
| Monday, June 21, 2021 - 2:50 am
I am finishing up the third of Martha Hall Kelly's quaisi-historical books. We start with a NYC socialite's contact with women who survived a Nazi concentration camp - Lilac Girls. The next book is that girl's mother in WWI days - Lost Roses. My current read is an ancestor's interactions in Civil War days - Sunflower Sisters.
I am also reading Janet Evanovitch's Explosive Eighteen and Elizabeth Gilbert's City of Girls and listening to a P>G> Wodehouse in the car!
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Monday, June 21, 2021 - 2:01 pm
I've considered reading Lilac Girls but have yet to do so, I didn't realize that it was a series.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Wednesday, June 23, 2021 - 11:42 am
I finished Ocean Prey by John Sandford and it was good. This book had both Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers in it.
I thought the Author's Note at the end of the book was mildly amusing and a bit rude. He was complaining about people complaining about errors in his books. Come on John, you are responsible and you have editors, fix the mistakes and suck it up buttercup.
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Rieann
Member
08-26-2006
| Wednesday, June 23, 2021 - 12:57 pm
Teach, I just started Verity by Colleen Hoover that you mentioned above. I’ve seen it mentioned as a favorite on several reader lists. I’m about to start chapter eight and I am enjoying it so far. I don’t think I have read her other books.
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Kappy
Member
06-28-2002
| Wednesday, June 23, 2021 - 4:32 pm
Sugar - Is Ocean Prey good as a stand-alone if one hasn't read any of the other books in the series?
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Wednesday, June 23, 2021 - 6:15 pm
Kappy,Ocean Prey is the 31st book in the series and I would suggest starting with the 1st book, Rules of Prey. The characters evolve and de-evolve through the series, there are a lot of changes and the characters actually age. I think the back stories enhance the book. Almost every book in the Prey series is very good, maybe just a few clunkers.
If a 31 book series sounds daunting, see if you can find the Kidd series, there are only 4 of those although I wouldn't mind him writing a few more.
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Kappy
Member
06-28-2002
| Thursday, June 24, 2021 - 12:52 pm
That's exactly what I wanted to know Sugar so thank you for the reply. I'm still tempted to start in the middle as it wouldn't be the first time that I read a book far into a series and then liked it enough to go back and start at the beginning. If nothing else, it's added to my list.
Finished The Four Winds and it was excellent. So many of the same problems and issues are happening again today from dust storms to the number of homeless in the country. Hopefully we start learning from our past.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Saturday, June 26, 2021 - 9:33 pm
I have started The Final Twist by Jeffery Deaver and I rather hope this series isn't only 3 books. Guess I will just have to wait and see. I am a big fan of Jeffery Deaver.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Friday, July 02, 2021 - 5:59 pm
Rienn - glad you're enjoying Verity. I've read her YA novel Hopeless, which was also quite good.
Finished all three I listed above and loved them all. Now listening to The Lighthouse Keeper by Alan K. Baker (read by Steven Cree) and reading Paths of Glory about George Mallory and Shadow Man by Margaret Kirk.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Saturday, July 03, 2021 - 10:28 pm
Tonight I finished Red Snow by Will Dean. I simply *cannot* understand how it got published. The worst book I’ve read this far in 2021. An awful, awful, awful mess of genre, plot and characters. 🤮
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Jimmer
Board Administrator
08-29-2000
| Sunday, July 04, 2021 - 10:01 am
I was curious and looked it up. 3.88 on Goodreads. I just don’t know what to make of Goodreads at times.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Sunday, July 04, 2021 - 5:56 pm
I've swapped from Goodreads to Story Graph, a similar app but built by Nadia Odunayo, an African American woman. It has a ton of features and will even import all your Goodreads books as well.
Just started Shadow Man and I am LOVING it! Thrilled to find out today it is the first in a trilogy of books.
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Kappy
Member
06-28-2002
| Monday, July 05, 2021 - 11:02 am
I don't think it's just Goodreads. Amazon gave Red Snow winner of Best Independent Voice at Amazons Publishing Readers' Awards in 2019.
I always look at the number of people who actually review a book. When it's below 400, I'm skeptical if I don't already know the author.
I decided to go pure fluff for the 4th of July with Lethal Bayou Beauty, the 2nd book in the series by Jana Deleon. We had been enduring the loud booms and noise of illegal fireworks for the last 6 weeks so I knew last night would be insane. It never ceased and didn't end until well after 1 am. We didn't even bother to try to watch a movie because we couldn't concentrate. It was the perfect time for a no-brainer fluff of a book! Think Golden Girls meet Stephanie Plum if Plum had made it into the CIA.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Monday, July 05, 2021 - 7:46 pm
Very interesting Kappy - I have to believe somebody paid off someone at Amazon to get that award! I blame Steve Cavanagh for steering me towards Will Dean. SC raved about Dean’s latest book (which hadn’t been published yet), so I thought I’d get Dean’s first two books, Dark Pines and Red Snow, as they had the same protagonist. Dark Pines was Dean’s debut and was just okay. I reasonably assumed that the quality of the followup would improve. Wrong! Goodreads ratings for both were under 4.00 (and likewise on Story Graph — thanks for the tip, Teach!). So, new rule! Do not start any book that’s less than a 4.00 on either site!
Today I finished Jeeves and the Ties That Bind by P.G. Wodehouse— I had to read something guaranteed to be great (and it was). Goodreads rating: 4.22. The book I’m reading next, Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz, is currently rated 4.06 on Goodreads and on Story Graph it’s 4.00. 😛
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Tuesday, July 06, 2021 - 2:44 pm
Finished "Sanctuary Cove," by Rochelle Alers. I would say it was a sweet love story.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Sunday, July 11, 2021 - 12:56 pm
I read Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica and liked it. I was surprised by the ending which does not happen often. I'm not sure I should have been surprised... I will look for another of her books.
Just to torture myself on a hot July day, I am reading Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder by Joanne Fluke. This is quite possibly the worst series by one of the least talented writers in existence. The lengths I go to to avoid cleaning some days. 
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Monday, July 12, 2021 - 6:34 pm
LOVED Shadow Man and am now reading Margaret Kirk's second book in the trilogy titled What Lies Buried.
As a huge piece of fluff, I read Olivia Dade's Spoiler Alert in one night - if you're part of a fandom and read fan-fic, it is absolutely delightful!
I'm listening to The Book of Longings as well.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Sunday, July 18, 2021 - 7:08 pm
The latest by Anthony Horowitz is just delightful and is actually two books in one. The main title is Moonflower Murders, which focuses on the mystery of a young woman's disappearance that is somehow connected to what occurred in a work of fiction (Atticus Pund Takes The Case) that was edited by the main character, Susan Ryeland. I know it sounds complicated, but it's not at all complicated. Just quite long (581 pages) but Horowitz is such a great writer that everything moves along quite briskly. It's a very clevely plotted story - only a few active mystery writers write as well as this writer does.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Monday, July 19, 2021 - 11:11 am
Finished all the ones listed above and am now doing a "fluff" Kindle read with The Hating Game and listening to Where the Crawdads Sing (yeah - way late to the game on that one!)
I've not only already downloaded Kirk's third novel in the Lukas Mahler trilogy but also got a new Kindle book titled Unravelling by Helen Forbes that Kirk reviewed. It was under $5, so even if it's not as good as it sounds, it's less than a latte at Starbucks! LOL
Making VERY slow progress on Paths of Glory - turns out in the summer, I'm just too lazy to carry a real book so I'm reduced to reading during meals when I can have it propped next to my plate! 🤷♀️😬
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Saturday, July 24, 2021 - 1:41 pm
Finished The Hating Game and it was fun as far as fluff goes.
LOVED In the Blood, the third Lukas Mahler book of Margaret Kirk's. I cannot recomment this series highly enough, and Kirk is super nice on Twitter! (She's replied to my fangirl account 3 times and my "IRL" account twice!) Now I wait for the next one as the third one just came out in April of this year. Good news - all of them are under $5 each on Kindle.
Reading another fluff book titled Acting Up and still have about 8 hours of Crawdads to listen to. I've only had one day of travel, so I'm going to have to find a time to listen OTHER than being in the car! (This is never a problem during the school year, but my goal this summer was to stay home as much as possible to try to find out if I had any sanity left! 😜) Oh yes, and about 75% of Paths of Glory to go based on eyeballing where my bookmark is!
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Sunday, July 25, 2021 - 8:45 pm
I finished Colin Jost’s fabulous memoir today and loved it cover to cover. A Very Punchable Face is its richly unique title and is endlessly charming. But there is a very sad chapter, so be prepared to experience one of the grimmest moments in US history via the memories of Colin’s mom. The comic bits are wild and hilarious, so you’ll do plenty of guffawing, I assure you!
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Thursday, July 29, 2021 - 9:04 pm
Finished up Where the Crawdads Sing and will finish Unravelling by Helen Forbes tonight or tomorrow. She's another Scottish author, and this book is intriguing. It's a murder mystery but a good 1/3 of the book is "flashback" that includes the history of a main character with schizophrenia.
Traveling tomorrow, so I've got Hail Mary by Andy Weir downloaded to listen.
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