Anonymous wrote:I just (finally!) finished [b]Rebecca[/b]. I don't know why I waited so long. I loved My Cousin Rachel, so of course I should have jumped to read Rebecca decades ago. I loved every second and wanted to ignore my family all weekend. I watched the 2020 movie last night. Wish I could find the 1940 movie streaming.

I started Magic Lessons, the prequel to Practical Magic. I'm hoping to get through all four books this month.

This was the selection for my book club earlier this year and I didn't like it. I watched the 2020 movie and thought it was so boring, although I liked the cast and the scenery. I will say that I listened to the book because one of the women in my book club recommended the narrator but her voice was that of a much older woman and I found it really off putting for a young character. Perhaps if I had read it instead I would have liked it more. Maybe I'll check out My Cousin Rachel at some point.

I just finished The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo.

I listened to it on Audible and I thought the narrator was very good.

It's basically a family/generational saga. It was LOOOOOOONG, much longer than I had thought (I didn't bother to look at the length before buying it). I liked it enough and would give it 3/5 stars, but I wasn't particularly enamored with any of the characters and actually found them all a bit annoying/shallow. I felt like I still didn't know much about any of them despite the book being so long. Kind of like she just scratched the surface but not for lack of time, just for lack of depth.

I never thought about DNFing the book, but I wouldn't listen to/read it again, and I'm hesitating to try Same As it Ever Was in case I feel the same underwhelming feelings.

I generally don't read things that aren't at least 4 stars on Goodreads, but these were 4.3 on Audible/Amazon and I didn't double check. Oh well. Definitely not the worst book I've read this year, just disappointing and something I had high hopes for.

Anonymous wrote:Just started Listen for the Lie. It's a good read! It seems like every chapter says "Lucy" at the top. I thought maybe a few chapters would be voiced by someone else, maybe Savannah. Am I missing something?

A few other narrators will jump in toward the last 1/4 of the book. Savannah being one of them if I remember correctly.

Just got back from a trip and read 2 books: Demon Copperhead (Barbara Kingsolver) and A Fever in the Heartland (non fiction - Timothy Egan). Both were fabulous! I usually read a bit lighter fare, but they were super timely, readable, and meaningful. The parallels between the political milieu of the early 1920s (Egan book) and today were eerie!

Next in my queue is the latest by Liane Moriarty (Here One Moment) - she wrote Big Little Lies.

Anonymous wrote:Reading Dracula by Bram Stoker-- selected it to get myself in the mood for Halloween

I have actually never read it before. It is beautiful writing, so good that I can forget all the movie versions of vampires

Love Dracula. Read this before going to Whitby, which was fun. Have also visited a castle in Transylvania that everyone claims inspired Stoker but actually there’s no link to Dracula (or even to historical background). Still cool to see! Transylvania is stunningly beautiful.

What is everyone reading this month? Murder in an Irish Village

What is it about? This is book one in a series. From Goodreads:
"In the small village of Kilbane, County Cork, Ireland, Naomi’s Bistro has always been a warm and welcoming spot to visit with neighbors, enjoy some brown bread and tea, and get the local gossip. Nowadays twenty-two-year-old Siobhán O’Sullivan runs the family bistro named for her mother, along with her five siblings, after the death of their parents in a car crash almost a year ago. It’s been a rough year for the O’Sullivans, but it’s about to get rougher. One morning, as they’re opening the bistro, they discover a man seated at a table, dressed in a suit as if for his own funeral, a pair of hot pink barber scissors protruding from his chest. With the local garda suspecting the O’Sullivans and their business in danger of being shunned—murder tends to spoil the appetite—it’s up to feisty redheaded Siobhán to solve the crime and save her beloved brood."

What do you think of it? So far this is good (only at 20%). It's classified as a cozy mystery. For those who avoid that genre, this one seems well written and has some depth. BUT, I am listening to the audiobook so it's possible that the great, Irish accented narrator is affecting my opinion.

Why did you pick that particular book to read? I like books with a small village setting, especially in other countries.

How did you acquire the book? Library using Libby

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I Hope This Finds You Well By Natalie Sue (debut novel)

It's about this woman who absolutely hates her job, does something there to get in trouble, and as a result, has to get some sort of blocker put on her computer by HR. At the same time, there are rumors of layoffs and reorgs in the company. Instead of putting in the blocker, they accidentally make it so she has access to every single person's emails, IMs, etc and it becomes a complete game changer for her.

It's fantastic so far.

This has been on my list at the library for a few months. It's almost my turn! Thanks for the good review.

It's in my Amazon shopping cart. They only have hardcover and I can't wait for paperback in spring. But I figure I'll add it to the little library and it will get read all over my neighborhood, so worth it.

Anonymous wrote:I Hope This Finds You Well By Natalie Sue (debut novel)

It's about this woman who absolutely hates her job, does something there to get in trouble, and as a result, has to get some sort of blocker put on her computer by HR. At the same time, there are rumors of layoffs and reorgs in the company. Instead of putting in the blocker, they accidentally make it so she has access to every single person's emails, IMs, etc and it becomes a complete game changer for her.

It's fantastic so far.

This has been on my list at the library for a few months. It's almost my turn! Thanks for the good review.

Just started Listen for the Lie. It's a good read! It seems like every chapter says "Lucy" at the top. I thought maybe a few chapters would be voiced by someone else, maybe Savannah. Am I missing something?

I just finished Things Don't Break on Their Own by Sarah Easter Collins. One of the best thrillers I've read all year, and it is a debut.

I'm reading the wedding people. It is poignant and hilarious so far.

The Bright Sword
by
Lev Grossman
(he wrote the Magicians if you have read that or watched the series they made for syfy and is now streaming)

It's a retelling of the Arthurian Legends. So it has a bit of magic and syfy, good Britain history and is of course heart-palpitatingly well written (he's a good writer; was an editor) and quite funny.

My husband gave it to me because I like Lev as a writer. I promptly finished it and put it on his nightstand to read as it is tremendously good.

I Hope This Finds You Well By Natalie Sue (debut novel)

It's about this woman who absolutely hates her job, does something there to get in trouble, and as a result, has to get some sort of blocker put on her computer by HR. At the same time, there are rumors of layoffs and reorgs in the company. Instead of putting in the blocker, they accidentally make it so she has access to every single person's emails, IMs, etc and it becomes a complete game changer for her.

It's fantastic so far.

Anonymous wrote:Reading Dracula by Bram Stoker-- selected it to get myself in the mood for Halloween

I have actually never read it before. It is beautiful writing, so good that I can forget all the movie versions of vampires

The funniest part of Dracula is at the beginning when Harkness mentions to the townspeople that he is going to Dracula’s castle and they all start babbling worriedly. He accesses his polyglot dictionary and is like “they all kept saying not to get in the coach because he was a demon, evil, a monster, I’d never make it out of his castle alive. So weird. I’ll have to ask Dracula about this when I get there.”

What is everyone reading this month?
I just finished listening to "Keeping Lucy" by Tammy Greenwood.
What is it about?
It is set in Massachusetts in 1971. A woman gives birth to her second child, who has downs syndrome. Her husband and her FIL have the baby put in an institution before the woman is even discharged from the hospital after giving birth. Two years later, a newspaper reporter writes a series of articles about the appalling conditions at the institution where her daughter is. The woman goes to the institution to actually see her daughter for the first time since giving birth to her. She ends up kidnapping her child and going on the run with her.
What did you think of it?
I thought it was really good but overly dramatic.
Why did you pick that particular book to read?
I read the short summary of the book on my library website and thought it sounded good.
How did you acquire the book?
Downloaded from my library website.