Currently reading 2/18

Happy Monday. How was your weekend? My Saturday was a little busy, but Sunday was all about naps and PJs. Not bad at all. 🙂

Currently reading

Audio:

Grant by Ron Chernow. I swear, I really am going to finish this book. The story has Grant in the last days of his second term as president. They tried to get him to run for a third term, but he said no. I didn’t know that! I’m at 80% and I’m hoping some of the remaining portion is a bibliography which I can skip. It’s been great, but I’m ready to be done. Will definitely do a review when I’m finished.

Ebook:

The Song of the Dodo by David Quammen. I’ve been reading this one even longer, but this time I don’t mind. It’s one I read when I forget my other books and I always enjoy it. So many interesting stories and fact, and the writing is great.

Print:

Emma Brown by Clare Boylan. I’m doing a little mini challenge to read books off your shelf. My goal is 5 this month and I’ve already cleared off 3. This one is number 4. I’ve had it for several years, but never got around to picking it up. It’s historical fiction, based on an unfinished manuscript by Charlotte Bronte. So far it is really hitting the right tone. It’s been telling two stories, back and forth, and I’m curious about when they are going to link up.

Study in Brimstone (Warlock Holmes #1) by G S Denning. Recently bought, but I swear I have a good excuse! I was looking for my book club pick when this series caught my eye, and I HAD to pick them up. Not very far in, but it is hitting all the right notes with me. Take a look at the cover:

Sherlock Holmes is a genius. Warlock Holmes is something else.

So many fun details and the writing is really enjoyable. Not far along with this one either, but it’s off to a great start.

In other news, I’ve decided to add a new shelf to my GoodReads : READ SOON. I have 1800+ books on my TBR list there, and when I get to the library or decide to buy something, I get totally overwhelmed. I started a new shelf which I’m limiting to 10-15 books, no more. That way I can remember which books I really, really want to read soon. Then when something sounds AMAZING, I won’t forget about it.

What are you reading? Finished anything great lately? Tell me all about it in the comments and happy reading!

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Book Quote

“There was a little girl … whose bird died. And when Fred came with his puppets, and she told Fred about the death of the bird—when he got the puppets out of his satchel, she found it urgent to tell each of the puppets about the death of the canary. “The children confided to Fred and to his puppets many important things,” she says, and then describes what gave Fred Rogers such rapport with little children: “Fred can recall—and can afford to recall—his own childhood.”

The Good Neighbor:  The Life and Work of Fred Rogers

5 Things About Me

Hey fellow readers! Today I’m going to tell you a little about myself. I wasn’t tagged by anyone; I just thought it would be fun.

Me and Kitty

Favorite room: My bedroom! I spend a LOT of time in there.

I can’t stop eating: Popcorn! I eat it until it’s gone. I love airpopped corn with real butter and lots of salt, but kettle corn is great too.

Favorite person: This guy! My husband Randy. 28 year anniversary next month!

I’m scared of: Swimming! I can go to the pool and wade around, but I hate deep water! I’ve tried to learn to swim and I just have a panic attack.

Best day ever: Lots that were great: my wedding day, birth of my children, my college graduation, but seeing my son married to a wonderful woman who really completes him was my best day ever.

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That’s my list. I will open up the tag to anyone who want to do it. Link back here or tag me, because I’m curious what your answers are. Happy reading!

 

Review: Ollie, Ollie, in come free

Ollie Ollie in Come Free: A Memoir of Swallowed Time

by Anne Bernard Becker

In the 1950’s and 60’s families are expected to deal with death privately and silently. This is no different for the Bernards, a large Catholic family that tries to rebuild after the loss of their three oldest children. Yet the deaths haunt the author’s emotional development into adulthood with a subtle force she can only uncover in psychoanalysis while mothering her own young children.

Ollie Ollie In Come Free is an immersion in the secrets of a young girl’s inner life and unexpressed grief. Brimming with memories of Midwestern childhood during an era of social upheaval, it offers moving insights into Anne Bernard Becker’s personal healing journey as well as universal themes of loss and growth.

My Review 

I was given this book for free in exchange for an honest review. My opinion remains my own.

This is a very personal, and at times difficult, book to read. Anyone who has experienced loss knows how deep the pain can go, how unexpectedly it will resurface. The author lost three of her siblings in childhood only to lose more of her own children as a mother.
The rather fluid approach to storytelling seemed to work well, showing how her grief kept her anchored in the past even while raising her own children. Thanks for the chance to read it.

Must Read!

I just finished the BEST audio book – It’s called Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz.

Gregg Hurwitz writes these great thriller than always have me on the edge of my seat. They’re one of my secret pleasure from the library, secret because I get one and hide up in my room and read it like crazy until I get to end. Just don’t even talk to me until I’m done, because they’re that good.

Usually his books are stand alone, which I like because I can read them in any order, based on when the library has them, and I don’t have to remember the character names or whatever. I just know the suspense all has to wrap up in one book, which makes it more intense. But then I heard he had a series, and I had to check it out.

Synopsis:

Who is Orphan X?

The Nowhere Man is a legendary figure spoken about only in whispers. It’s said that when he’s reached by the truly desperate and deserving, the Nowhere Man can and will do anything to protect and save them. But he’s not merely a legend.

“Excellent…A smart, stylish, state-of-the-art thriller…might give Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books a run for their money.”—The Washington Post

Evan Smoak is a man with skills, resources, and a personal mission to help those with nowhere else to turn. He’s also a man with a dangerous past. Chosen as a child, he was raised and trained as an Orphan, an off-the-books black box program designed to create the perfect deniable intelligence asset: An assassin. Evan was Orphan X—until he broke with the program and used everything he learned to disappear. But now someone is on his tail. Someone with similar skills and training who will exploit Evan’s secret new identity as the Nowhere Man to eliminate him.

 

My review:

What a great ride! It reminded me a little of Alias, a little of the movie Salt. Evan is the Nowhere Man, and if you’re in real trouble, desperate trouble, he’s the best friend you could have. I love Evan as a character, and I love the way Hurwitz takes the time to develop who he is at the beginning of the book, and then show us how he got there and how he changes. I know you don’t read thriller for character development, but I think that’s what shows a great writer.

I got this one on audio, like I said, and I think that’s totally the way to go. I’m already planning to download the next one. I don’t want to give away too much, but the description of the second book already has me wondering how Evan is going to get out of this mess. If you like edge of your seat books, pick this one soon.

Reread: The Eyre Affair

I have no idea how to describe this book. It’s really weird. It’s definitely not for everyone. There are those who just love it and those who don’t get it at all. I think if you like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, you would probably like this one, but not because they are anything alike. They’re just both really weird.

Synopsis:

Great Britain circa 1985: time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. Baconians are trying to convince the world that Francis Bacon really wrote Shakespeare, there are riots between the Surrealists and Impressionists, and thousands of men are named John Milton, an homage to the real Milton and a very confusing situation for the police. Amidst all this, Acheron Hades, Third Most Wanted Man In the World, steals the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit and kills a minor character, who then disappears from every volume of the novel ever printed! But that’s just a prelude . . .

Things get much stranger after that. Only LiteraTec SpecOp Thursday Next has the training and the knowledge to track down Acheron Hades and save literature. She’s got some strange hidden skills and a unique family pedigree that can help with this. In the meantime, her return to her home town has caused her to cross paths with her former fiance, her some what half daft brother, a group of John Miltons, and a werewolf-hunting operative who calls himself Spike. This is NOTHING like anything you’ve ever read before.

I love these books. I read the whole series, at one point, then put them up. Now I find that the writer has released new books, so I’m going back to start at the beginning and I can’t wait! I think the next book, Lost in a Good Book, is my favorite in the series.

Book Blitz! The Shadow Girl

OK, I know you don’t *really* need to grow your TBR piles – let’s face it, it grows all my itself when you’re not looking – but a friend told me about this book and it sounds like something I would enjoy. It came out in December and I’m hoping to get my hands on it sometime soon.

Book description:

Shy, thirteen-year-old Zylia has always known she was different. Most teenagers feel unnoticed and unseen, but for Zylia, it’s something much worse. She’s disappearing from this world and doesn’t know how to stop it. At times, she’s not sure she wants to. Until she stumbles across a family mystery surrounding the disappearance of her great-aunt Angelica years earlier. During her quest to unravel the mystery, Zylia discovers she’s able to cross the boundary and enter the “in between” world. Now, it’s up to Zylia to save herself before she’s trapped “in between” forever.

Reaction:

It was a while since I was a teenager, but I remember feeling like I was the one in a crowd that everyone forgot about. So I really identify with that feeling of disappearing. I’m intrigued by the idea that it could actually happen.

Quotes:

“I have always known that I am invisible—I had no idea that eventually I would fade away completely.”

“Blackness. Nothingness. It was in the shape of a giant, hazy shadow, enveloping me, swallowing me, and digesting me into the unknown. It was my biggest fear and my ultimate fate.”

“As the freezing rain hit me, I could feel the stares…smoldering on my skin. I longed for invisibility. At times like this, the very curse that plagued me was also my protection.”

“…in school I felt more undetectable than ever. I walked through the crowded hallways like a human pinball, careening off one person and bouncing into another.”

 

High school – yikes! Sure, there were times I wanted to disappear, like when I knew my face was all broken up or the time I vomited in the hall. That was super fun. But this sounds Next Level.

If it sounds like something you would also enjoy, there’s a link here to a giveaway to win one of 2 copies:
Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/0e7c6a8f26/?

If you want to just go ahead and check it out, the book can be found here:

Purchase Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078PQ9FPN
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-shadow-girl-misty-mount/1127748175?ean=9780997939569
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/773764

Hosted by Shenannigans at Reads & Reels.

Tour Organized By:

http://www.rrbooktours.com

How was your weekend?

Hey bookies! Hope your weekend was great. We finally got some snow, so it was perfect weather to snuggle up with a good book and get some reading done. I finished –

The Hidden Oracle (Trials of Apollo #1) by Rick Riordan – loved Apollo, but I felt the book dragged a little to predictably

The Boy on the Bridge by M R Carey. Slow, slow, slow start, but the epilogue was so good.

Quiet Meg by Sherry Lynn Ferguson. Regency romance with an untraditional hero and a stalker villain.

They’re Watching by Greg Hurwitz. Somewhat implausible, but gripping supsense.

Deep Down Dark by Hector Tobin. Really solid story of the Chilean mine disaster.

 

So I guess you can tell I did nothing but read! Actually I played cards with my husband and did a few other things around the house, made it to church. But mostly I read. Great weekend.

Mini Reviews!

I’ve been reading a lot lately but I haven’t been able to keep up the reviews on here. I thought I would do some short reviews and bundle a bunch of them together so you can see what I’ve been up to.

 

Murder among friends

The Accident by Linwood Barclay centers around a man whose wife dies in a drunk driving accident. He can’t believe that she would have gotten behind the wheel in that state, but her death starts him asking questions that trigger a rash of violence all around him. I really like this writer – what a page turner!

Short stories

I found The Man Who Would Be King at the thrift store for a dollar. I love Rudyard Kipling, so this little collection of 5 of his best stories was just what I needed. If you can find such a collection (and I think some of them are free on Kindle) this is a great place to start. I loved Kim and Jungle Stories too.

Nonfiction Audio

After finishing my book for book club, I was looking for another good book to listen to from my library. I decided on Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell. It’s the first book I’ve read by her and I enjoyed it. This one is about the history of Hawaii, a state with such a rich and interesting heritage that I feel she barely scratched the surface. She has a rather annoying voice though, so I think I’d read it instead of listen.

Other News

We did have to say goodbye to Tina and it was just as heartbreaking as we thought it would be. She was feisty right up to the last, but went right off to sleep in the end. It sort of broke my heart today to come home to all the signs she left around the house, to be cooking dinner and not have her under foot demanding her fair share. We still have Rosie, but to go from 3 cats to one in just eight months is such a shock. We had Tina for 15 years and Spooky for 12. It’s not easy to say goodbye.

 

Encore review: After the Prophet

Title: After the Prophet: The epic story of the Shia/Sunni split in Islam

Author: Lesley Hazelton

Puzzled by some of the anger and infighting in the Middle East? Have a hard time keeping groups straight? Wonder why they can’t all just work things out? Turns out the seeds of that anger go way back. all the way back to the 7th century AD.

This remarkably written book traces the conflict between the Sunni and the Shi’a Muslims, how it began, and what the consequences are for today. While her focus is on the history, the implications for today are clear. With every development, she draws the modern parallels and explains how it would shape the future.

I really recommend this one. I admit to being one who just skims through the developments in the Middle East, tired of the fighting and the violence, and resigned to the fact that I don’t understand it at all. Well, this was a good place to start. I’m still confused about a lot of the current figures, but this gives the reader a solid underpinning on the motives behind it all.