One star = did not like it at all
Two stars = eh, it was okay
Three stars =
liked it
Four stars = really, really liked it
Five stars = absolutely loved it
2-Star (3)
**The Perfect Nanny (Fiction, Leila Slimani)
I think this book had potential. I think it's trying to be a 'who done it'
psychological thriller, but it fell pretty flat. And there was no really wrap-up at the
ending. I don't like books that are
wrapped up in a nice neat bow at the end, but this one had really NO resolution
at all. Very frustrating. Even a bad resolution would have been better
than NO resolution.
(owned book, will donate to LFL)
**Across Five Aprils (Fiction, Irene Hunt)
This young reader book won the Newbery award and was
published in 1964. It's the story of
Jethro and his family who live in Southern Illinois during the Civil War. The writing was good, it just seemed
incredibly....long.
(free from Hoopla audio, but also owned book, will sell
to Page 1 Books)
**Thrive (Non-Fiction, Arianna Huffington)
Her book on sleep was much better. This one was nothing new.
(free from Hoopla audio, but also owned book, will sell
to Page 1 Books)
3-Star (6)
***How to Walk Away (Fiction, Katherine Center)
This book got a lot of buzz from book reviewers so I
picked it up at the bookshop for cheap.
Then I started reading, and while it was a quick read, I was super
surprised about all of the good reviews.
Not because the book wasn't good, but typically, the reviewers I follow
review fiction more on the 'literary' side.
This book was pure, fluffy, chick lit.
??? I can see how it was
disguised as NOT to be chick lit (plane crash, life altering injuries,
etc.). But it read like a Sophie
Kinsella or Debbie Macomber book.
Cringe-worthy dialogue, extremely predictable, cheesy ending. However, I read it right between two heavy
books, so it was a good choice AND I was entertained.
(owned book, will donate to LFL)
***Under the Harrow (Fiction, Flynn Berry)
I enjoyed this 'who done it' mystery taking place in
Oxford/London. It was well written and
kept my attention (which is hard sometimes with mysteries)
(free on Hoopla audio, but also owned book, will sell to
Page 1 Books)
***When We Were Worthy (Fiction, Marybeth Mayhew Whalen)
A decent read about a car crash, drunk driving, secrets,
stupid teenagers, etc. I'm going to
check out other books by this author because I enjoyed her writing style.
(e-book, owned)
***A Fall of Marigolds (Fiction, Susan Meissner)
This was an enjoyable read about two women, one living in
1911 and one living in 2011 whose stories are intertwined by a mysterious
beautiful scarf.
(real book, but listened to on Hoopla audio, will sell to
Page 1 Books)
***Only Child (Fiction, Rhiannon Navin)
Ugh....this is a rip your heart out novel told entirely
from the perspective of a 6-year-old boy who survives a school shooting....his
brother does not. It focuses on how
grief can just rip a family apart.
(real book, but listened to on Libby audio, will sell to
Page 1 Books)
***You Me Everything (Fiction, Catherine Isaac)
A little fluffy, but it had great potential. A story about a single mother who spends 4
weeks in France with the father of her child, while worrying about her ailing
mother (who has a neuro degenerative disease) back home in the UK.
(free audio book from Libby)
4-Star (3)
****The Girl in the Garden (Fiction, Melanie Wallace)
I really enjoyed this book that almost felt like a
collection of short stories (but in a good way...I typically don't like short
stories). It is about a young woman and
her infant son who were abandoned at a cottage in New England and the
townspeople that came together to care for them.
(real book, keeper)
****Circling the Sun (Fiction, Paula McLain)
I am officially a Paula McLain fan. This woman can WRITE. Typically, I MUST like the main character (or
at least most of the supporting ones) to truly enjoy a book. However, this character, Beryl Markham, was
not very likable (she was a floozy), yet I was impressed and amazed by her a little
bit more as I finished each chapter. By
the way, Beryl Markham was an actual person from Kenya, a horse trainer and the
first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic from East to West. She also was friends with Karen Blixen and
had an affair with the hunter Denys Finch Hatton (Out of Africa), which is a
big part of the book. Again....I think
if this book had been written by anyone but Paula McLain I probably wouldn't
have liked it. But Beryl Markham was
just a remarkable woman for her time and was incredibly brave and Paula
McLain's writing kept me interested.
(real book, keeper)
****If You Leave Me (Fiction, Crystal Hana Kim)
This book actually does not come out until August (yay
for ARCs!). This was one of the most
heartbreaking books I have ever read.
And the characters were not entirely likeable (with the exception of one
or two). But the story was told soooo
well. It focused on one 1 women and 2
men (cousins) in a love triangle of sorts.
At one point, I couldn't figure out if the book was supposed to be a
love story or a war story, but it's both.
It's about how war (the Korean war specifically) can just tear people
apart in devastating ways.
(real book, keeper)
5-Star (3)
*****In Order to Live (Non-Fiction, Yeonmi Park)
This young woman is 24 (she wrote this book when she was
21), and she escaped from North Korea with her mother when she was 13. But of course it didn't go as planned and she
and her mother spent some very unpleasant years in China before finally making
it to South Korea. It was such a great
(but horrifying) read. I had to keep
reminding myself that I wasn't reading a fictional story taking place 60 or 70
years ago. That's how screwed up North
Korea is.
(real book, keeper)
*****Wishtree (Fiction, Katherine Applegate)
This was just a delightful little magical book. I would say it borders between 'children' and
'young reader'. It brings trees and
animals alive in a way that just...works.
And the illustrations are just perfection. Love love loved it.
(real book, keeper)
*****The War That Saved My Life (Fiction, Kimberly
Brubaker-Bradley)
Oh man, I wish that I could have read this book when I
was younger. I feel blessed to have read
it as an adult, but it's one of those books that I think I would have read over
and over and over again as a child. If
you can't get it at your library, it's worth the $9 to buy it new (it's a young
reader book)
(real book, keeper)
Total Books Read:
15 (2 non-fiction, 13 fiction)
Formats
E-Books: 1
Audio: 6
Real Books: 8
DNF (Did Not Finish): 8
Celine
(Fiction, Heller) - couldn't really get into it, although I'm sure some people
LOVED it. The writing was good.
Other
People's Houses (Fiction, Waxman) - content
The
Year of Magical Thinking (Non-Fiction, Joan Didion) - pretentious, pretentious,
pretentious. Ugh.
Abide
With Me (Fiction, Strout) - Elizabeth Strout is completely hit or miss with
me. This was a miss.
Exit
West (Fiction, Hossin) -just....life's too short to read boring books
Dumplin
(Fiction, Murphy) - SOME potential, but not enough for me to keep going
The
Honey Farm (Fiction, Lye) - couldn’t get into it
The
Summer Before the War (Fiction, Simonson) - couldn't get into it
