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
1-Star (2)
*Picnic
at Hanging Rock (Fiction, J. Lindsay)
This
is a ‘classic’ book about a group of girls in boarding school in Australia who
go for a picnic at ‘Hanging Rock’. 4 of
the girls wander off. 1 comes back, in a
petrified state, unable to recall anything that happened. The other 3 girls never come back, as well as
their ‘headmistress’ (who has also disappeared). This book had so much promise and a very
‘creepy’ feel to it (which I like).
However, the good people in the book were pretty and thin. And the bad people were ugly and fat. ? I
realize this book was written many moons ago, but still. It just left a bad taste in my mouth. AND…there’s no resolution. Which I knew.
And I’m okay with. But I at least
have to have someone to root for. And I
hated almost every character in this book, and I had no one to root for. I’m glad I got this one for free through the
library.
*Girl,
Wash Your Face (Non-Fiction, R. Hollis)
Written
for privileged white women BY a privileged white woman.
2-Star (1)
**Unsheltered
(Fiction, B. Kingsolver)
Soooooo
disappointed in this one. If you read
the book jacket, it looks promising. But
it was nothing but lectures about the environment, climate change, social
issues and politics. At times it felt
like I was reading transcripts of a debate.
3-Star (2)
***There
There (Fiction, T. Orange)
I
have so many feelings about this book. I
ultimately gave it 3 stars because of content.
This was a book I put on hold at the library months ago and it finally
came through on my Kindle. It almost feels like a short story collection at the
beginning, because each chapter introduces a new character (unrelated to the
last one), their history, and their current situation. There are two things that each character has
in common with one another: they are all
Native American, and they are all heading to a big powwow in Oakland,
California.
The
book tackles how difficult modern Native Americans still have it today living
here and why. It tackles alcoholism,
drug use, obesity, sexual assault, poverty, and more. Each chapter is told from a different
perspective.
It’s
one of those books that I think everyone SHOULD read (especially if you live in
an area with a heavy population of Native Americans like I do, but really,
everyone should read it).
But
it’s an incredibly difficult read. Especially
the prologue, because the prologue is kind of a history lesson and it’s 100%
true. And it’s incredibly violent and
horrifying because these things actually happened.
So…lots
of mixed feelings. But I’m really glad I
read it. And it will stick with me for
quite a while.
***The
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Fiction, A. Barrows)
I
enjoyed this book. I will admit, the
only reason I read it was because I want to watch the Netflix series and wanted
to read the book first. I listened to it
on audio, but I think I would have enjoyed it a bit more if I had read it. I have the ‘real’ book at home though, so
I’ll keep it (in case I love the Netflix series). Anyways, in a nutshell, it’s about a secret
book club in England post World War II.
There are various members of this club, one of whom is an author herself
and wants to write a book about the book club and its members.
4-Star (3)
****Eat
What You Love, Love What You Eat (Non-Fiction, M. May)
I
read this as part of an 8-week workshop offered for free at work. It’s basically intuitive/mindful eating. The book was really good though and an easy
read. I learned a lot!
****The
Trouble With Goats and Sheep (Fiction, J. Cannon)
My
second Cannon book (her first ha ha).
I’m a fan. This was a somewhat
dark mystery about 2 girls on a mission to find out what’s happened to a
disappearing woman in their neighborhood.
****Scarlet
(Fiction, M. Meyer)
This
is the 2nd book in the Lunar Chronicles series (Cinder was the
first). This book picks up exactly where Cinder left off (on a cliffhanger of
course). We are introduced to Scarlet, a
young lady who lives on a farm in France and tries to keep it going when her
grandmother mysteriously disappears.
Cinder is also in the story quite a bit and their stories intertwine as
we find out their connection and find out why Scarlet’s grandmother
disappeared. We’re also introduced to
Thorne, Cinder’s…friend (?) as well as Wolf, who is a very surprising character
(and no, he’s not an ACTUAL wolf, he’s a human, that’s just his name). Anyways, it was really good and I enjoyed it
better than the first book. And during
the last few chapters I could NOT put down.
It’s just a fun series! Cress (Rapunzel)
is up next.
5-Star (1)
*****Virgil
Wander (Fiction, L. Enger)
Lief
Enger is an author that only writes a book every 10 years or so. I LOVED his last book, Peace Like a River, so
when Virgil Wander hit the shelves I got it right away.
Virgil
is recovering from a traumatic brain injury due to his car flying (literally)
into the Lake Superior. He runs (and
lives above) the only movie theater in town, The Empress. The movie theater is failing, and the small
town is failing in many ways. But the
eccentric townspeople rally around Virgil and help him along with his
recovery. This is a slow read, but I
believe it’s intentionally slow. Because
Virgil speaks slowly. He thinks
slowly. And he’s telling the story.
Total
Books Read: 9 (2 non-fiction, 7 fiction)
Formats
Kindle: 2
Audio:
3
Real
Books: 4
Books
I read for FREE via the library e-book/audio book system: 6
Books
I paid for (actual books/Kindle books): 3
DNF
(Did Not Finish) 5:
Howard’s End
(couldn’t get into it)
Being
Mortal (life’s too short to read more books about death)
The
Lifeboat (made it about halfway through and got bored)
In Pieces (the Sally Field memoir). It wasn’t because I didn’t like it….I made it
about 75 pages and then other books were calling my name. So I set this one aside. And it was a library book. So I had to return it. I’m not sure if I’ll attempt checking it out
again. I got enough ‘into’ it that I saw
glimpses of Sally Field’s troubled childhood.
And it was difficult to read.
The Good Neighbor (the Fred Rogers
memoir). So this was a free
audio book. I think if I would have read
this BEFORE I watched recent documentary ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?’ I would
have enjoyed it more. But the book kind
of felt like a recap of the documentary and the documentary was SO GOOD. So it just felt repetitive to me. I made it about halfway through.
