| Author |
Message |
Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Friday, July 30, 2021 - 2:45 pm 
Just finished "The Unforgiven" by Heather Graham. It was quite good.
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Mak1
Member
08-11-2002
| Saturday, July 31, 2021 - 6:08 am
Just started The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz. I hope it lives up to the buzz.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Sunday, August 01, 2021 - 5:33 pm
Novels that rip you to shreds emotionally are so exhilarating to read, but they come along so infrequently that it's such a stunning feeling to experience them, especially when they deliver an unforgettable assault of your senses. The latest book to do this is the one I finished earlier today, The Prettiest Star, by Carter Sickels. Set in the summer and fall of 1986, it chronicles the life of a 24-year-old man who leaves New York City to return to his small-town life in Ohio as he comes to grip with his impending demise from AIDS. I can assure you this is one of the most powerful stories I've ever read about this topic. It rattles you to your core (thanks to the exquisitely painful scenes), but it also impresses massively with the beauty of how the young man accepts his fate despite all the ugliness that surrounds his return to the town he left behind at age 18. This is one of those books that will haunt you for a long, long time. I'm so grateful I lived long enough to read it!
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Friday, August 06, 2021 - 4:13 pm
Oh wow - the last time you recommended a book like this, Ricky, was A Little Life, and that book haunts me to this day. **off to get the Kindle version and stocking up on Kleenex**
I finished listening to Project Hail Mary and it was a fun, funny adventure! Now I'm listening to Armada by Ernest Kline, then I'll hit a more serious audiobook when school starts. Still have not listened to President Obama's book, so that will probably be first.
I read Jane Harper's The Survivors in two days this past week, and it was a solid mystery that I enjoyed.
Between now and Aug. 23, I have 3 "deadtree" books from the library I have to read. First is Archer's Paths of Glory that I started a month ago but got distracted. Then I have 2 Val McDermid books in her Karen Pirie series: A Darker Domain and The Skeleton Road. It's basically 62 pages a day, but I'm looking forward to ending my summer in a reading frenzy. Since school got out on June 11, I've read/listened to 20 books! Now THAT is my ideal summer!
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Saturday, August 07, 2021 - 12:21 pm
The 100 Years of Lennie and Margot by Marianne Cronin was a winsome read.
I also liked Before She Disappeared by Lisa Gardner. It was the first in a new series, the second is due in January 2022. I don't think I have read this author before but will look for some of her other novels.
Just started Dream Girl by Laura Lipman and am intrigued, I hope it turns out to be as good as I think it will be.
I only managed a few pages of The Divines by Ellie Eaton. It just didn't appeal to me and I had other books I could read.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - 3:55 pm
I just finished Dream Girl and it was ok. I think the author has an actual vocabulary that she uses and a nice turn of phrase but I was a bit disappointed with the story overall.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Wednesday, August 18, 2021 - 7:36 pm
Update: I've finished Paths of Glory (excellent read if you enjoy mountaineering stories), A Darker Domain (great read & I was surprised at the end!), and The Hunting Party (also a surprise at the end). I'm now reading The Skeleton Road to finish up my deadtree books this week and am listening to If You Tell, a true story about 3 abused children.
Before school starts w/my HS kiddos (Sept. 7), I've got 3 Kindle books I want to finish. We'll see. There were five Phil Rickman books on sale this week through Kindle, so I've got ALL of Sept. and probably Oct. lined up. (HUGE fan of his Merrily Watkins series!) I just saw my college class that starts Monday jumped from 8 kids to 15, so I am even MORE glad that the only HS classes I have until Thanksgiving are Spanish 1. It will keep my paperwork under control and help me meet my daily goal of reading 20 minutes a day (even during the school year).
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Sunday, August 22, 2021 - 4:17 pm
I just finished The Bounty by Janet Evanovich & Steve Hamilton. It is part of the Fox and O'Hare series. Not my favorite, a bit ho hum. I prefer her writing with Lee Goldberg. The first book of her new series featuring Gabriela Rose, The Recovery Agent is to be available next March.
I would like to see a few more books in two of her other series, Lizzie and Diesel & Knight and Moon.
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Monday, August 23, 2021 - 4:50 am
Finished reading "Lord of the Fading Lands" by C.L. Wilson. Actually this was a reread from years ago. Still good. Once I started reading it, it sounded very familiar. Left me hanging. I will need to read at least the second one. Think my sister has them all. I think I read this series years ago. I am rereading "Daughter of the Forest" by Juliet Marillier. This is a series based on the fairy tale about the girl who had six brothers who were turned into swans. And she helped get them turned back into humans. I barely remember that fairy tale, too. Plan to reread the series.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Monday, August 23, 2021 - 5:52 pm
I loved fairy tales. I remember the Children's Library in my small town had a beautifully illustrated collection of unusual or rarely heard fairy tales. I would love to find a copy of it, I think it was old when I was a kid and no doubt long out of print.
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Jimmer
Board Administrator
08-29-2000
| Tuesday, August 24, 2021 - 12:59 pm
I was scared of fairy tales when I was little. By scared, I mean terrified.
I love them now.
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - 3:19 pm
Yeah, I'm trying to remember if the fairy tale a bout the swan brothers was by Hans Christian Anderson or the Brothers Grimm, whose tales were often well, grim. But so were Anderson's. I had fairy tale collection by the writers as a child. Wish I still had them.
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Friday, August 27, 2021 - 4:18 pm
Finished "Daughter of the Forest" by Juliet Marillier. Even though it was a reread, it probably had been 20+ years since I had read it. The best book I have read in a long time. I'm glad there are two more in the series. Going to read them next!
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Vsmart
Member
02-09-2003
| Sunday, August 29, 2021 - 12:07 pm
I just finished Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. It was okay, but not terrific like The Martian was.
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Kappy
Member
06-28-2002
| Sunday, August 29, 2021 - 1:51 pm
In the past few months I have finished The Guest List, a who-dunnit by Lucy Foley (4/5 stars from me), The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell (3/5), The Black Book by James Patterson (meh) and Stone Rain, the 4th and final Zach Walker book in the series by Linwood Barclay (4/5 stars).
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Mak1
Member
08-11-2002
| Sunday, August 29, 2021 - 5:53 pm
I finished Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I didn't enjoy it much, which was disappointing as I have loved her previous books.
I'm halfway through Hamnet: A Novel of the Plague, a fictional story about the death of Shakespeare's son Hamnet/Hamlet. The first half introduced the characters and some complicated family history, very interesting. I've just reached the part where the plague is beginning to spread. It's chilling reading during a pandemic!
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Saturday, September 04, 2021 - 6:35 pm
I finished the second book by C.L. Wilson, "Lady of Light and Shadows". It was good. Still left me hanging, but I want to move on to the second book by Juliet Marillier, "Son of the Shadows", so far very good.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Saturday, September 04, 2021 - 6:43 pm
Read Out of Bounds by McDermid and will finish Beach Read by Emily Henry tonight. I've also got Words in Deep Blue and Teach Me checked out in Interlibrary loan, so I've got to finish them up in the next couple weeks.
For audiobooks, I completed If You Tell - it was a very difficult listen because of the horrific acts this woman did. Now I'm listening to a Jack Reacher novel The Midnight Line
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Mak1
Member
08-11-2002
| Sunday, September 05, 2021 - 5:05 pm
Hamnet was good.
Next I read The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht which I really enjoyed. It was a bestseller when it was published in 2011. The book has elements of myth and magic but somehow it's written in a way that makes it all believable.
This afternoon I'm reading The Hidden Staircase by Carolyn Keene. I loved Nancy Drew mysteries in my youth and wanted to see how it stood the test of time. It's really showing its age (and mine)!
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Sunday, September 05, 2021 - 11:33 pm
Books recently read: Disloyal by Michael Cohen and Harvesting The Heart by Jodi Picoult. Both were very good with the Cohen expose on Trump being predictably infuriating. The Picoult was a bit too long, but it held my interest to the very end. It’s her 2nd novel (from 1993), so now I’ve read her first two. I’ve got a lonnnnnnng way to go before I catch up to all the ones she’s written since then.
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Friday, September 10, 2021 - 4:51 pm
The second book in the Sevenwaters trilogy, "Son of the Shadows" by Juliet Marillier, was very good. I'm going back to the books by C.L.Wilson now. Starting "King of Sword and Sky." The third book in her series.
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Mak1
Member
08-11-2002
| Friday, September 10, 2021 - 5:45 pm
I'm reading a YA book, The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. It's moving right along, mystery after mystery.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Tuesday, September 14, 2021 - 6:47 am
Finished The Midnight Line - another good Jack Reacher novel, but didn't stand out. Also read Teach Me by Olivia Dade as a fluff read. School starting means the fluffier the better as everything school related is driving me insane. (See Personal Folder for details)
I'm listening to The Scottish Prisoner as a "comfort" listen and am reading The Cold Calling by Phil Rickman on Kindle. This is not part of his Merrily Watkins series, but since it's free on Kindle Unlimited (2 months free!), I'm willing to expand.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Saturday, September 18, 2021 - 10:45 am
I just realized that I never posted my review of The Devil's Advocate, the latest by Steve Cavanagh! What a thrill it was to receive my copy (the UK edition -- the book is not yet available in the USA or Canada) all the way from Belfast, Northern Ireland!
Back in April, his wife, Mrs. C. (as she's known on Twitter), posted an advance-sale promotion, via Twitter, that invited people to buy the book and ALSO get it autographed by Mr. C.
I responded by asking if I could buy it even though I was not in the UK. She then directed me to the No Alibis Bookstore in Belfast, specifically their online store, which was managing the sale. You just had to order the book, provide the inscription you wanted Steve to write, and then they'd ship it out on publication day, which was August 5th.
In case you're wondering how expensive it was, I opted to go with expedited shipping because the least expensive method indicated that it would take as much as 45 days. (!) So I went with the expedited. The book itself was 12.99 GBP (or just under $18.00). But the rest was shipping and that was just over $37.00 - yikes! But - at it's a big but -- I received the book just 11 days later (on August 16).
Steve came through with the autograph, but since I still don't know how to post photos here (I *always* screw it up), I've provided the link below to my post on Twitter if you want to see the inscription/autograph.
The book itself is another winner and it takes place entirely in a small Alabama town where a young man is being horribly framed for a murder he didn't commit. All his other books have been set in New York City, so this was quite a departure, setting-wise. It was captivating from start to finish!
https://twitter.com/munoz_ric/status/1437646549433995268
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Jimmer
Board Administrator
08-29-2000
| Saturday, September 18, 2021 - 12:43 pm
That is so cool, Ric!
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