Show Us Your Books January 2022

Happy new reading year. This year has started with more chaos for me, but I also have a ton of optimism about this coming year. Don’t ask me why. I just feel like we’ve been through this for two years now, and we’re going to start getting good at it eventually. I hope you all have a happy and healthy New Year filled with great reads.

Four Star Reads

We Never Asked For Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh - This is the second Diffenbaugh book I‘ve read and I really like what she does with her characters. I read this story about a struggling family in Washington state all in one day.

Seek You by Kristen Radtke - An examination of what loneliness looks like in America told through graphic format. A fitting to read for this time of year.

The Windsor Knot by SJ Bennett - The perfect antidote to a week that felt like a month. Queen Elizabeth solves crimes with grace and perfect etiquette.

Dear America by Jose Antonio Vargas - This book is an excellent and personal look at immigration issues in the US. I‘m really glad I read it.

Three Stars

Tomorrow Will Be Better by Betty Smith - My last book of 2021 had a very fitting title. A melancholy book about a young woman trying to make her way in Brooklyn. It‘s very well written but kind of a bummer.

Blood Hollow by William Kent Krueger - This book from the Cork O‘Connor mystery series is a wild ride that starts with a murder on New Year‘s Eve. Another good addition to a series I really like.

Brick Lane by Monica Ali - I enjoyed this book about Bangladeshi immigrants in London. It had some rough spots to be sure, but overall a good internal novel if you like that sort of thing (and I do.)

Road Out Of Winter by Alison Stine - This chilling dystopian novel was perfect for early morning reading while huddled under a blanket. How would you survive if winter never ended?

This post is linked to Show Us Your Books and Quick Lit.

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Show Us Your Books Feb. 2020

My cat passed away last month, and that has seriously damped my ability to enjoy books. Is reading on the couch even reading if you don’t have a cat practicing yoga moves on your knee? I’ll miss him forever, but hopefully I’ll get back to my love of reading soon. Until then know I am probably being unnecessarily grumpy about some of these books.

My Best Read of the Month

The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso - Someone described this as woke Golden Girls, which I thought was pretty funny and also accurate. Two sworn enemies live next door to each other have to put their differences aside when they realize they need each other. For those like me who have been seeking out books with characters over 40 who actually do things more interesting that drinking tea and giving advice give this one a read.

Great For Winter Reading On The Couch

The Gown by Jennifer Robson - A good story matched with good information about England after WWII.
Plainsong by Kent Haruf - I almost put this down because of a lack of quotation marks, but I’m glad I ended up sticking with it. It’s a sweet story about families - the ones you’re born with and the ones you create.
My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman - Another sweet story about families. If you like Backman you’ll like this book. If you don’t skip it.

Operation Re-Read

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell - I really, really loved this book when I first read it, and I still love it today. It was where I first learned about the danger of mitigating language and that I should trust my years of practice.
A Better Man by Louise Penny - I read this really quickly when it first came out, and wanted to read it again but slower. My initial assessment stands- not the best Gamache but still a decent read.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - I am in awe of Fitzgerald’s ability to say so much with just a few words. This is a yearly read for me, but to be honest I might pull it out again in a few months. That’s how much I love this book.

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[REVIEW]: Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

I put off reading Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier for years because for some reason I thought it was a re-telling of Jane Eyre from the 1980's. Rebecca, it turns out, is a gothic novel, but it has nothing to do with Jane Eyre.

It does, however, have that sense of something's just not right like Jane Eyre does. It's that creepy feeling we love to indulge in this time of year. It should be a dream come true- poor girl marries rich man and gets to live like royalty at an English country estate by the sea. But we all know it never turns out all right for the down trodden shy girl.

When the twist comes you kind of suspect it, but it still knocks the breath out of your body. And the ending. Oh, the ending. I don't want to give anything away here, but I dare you to read the ending without immediately going back to the front of the book to read it again. I'll just say it's not the romantic ending that we somehow feel dirty about because he kept his wife in an attic ending that we got in Jane Eyre.

I'm so glad I finally read Rebecca, and I can't rule out reading it again next year around this time.

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I linked this post to Jenn's Bookshelves Murder, Monsters & Mayhem -- a collection of creepy books perfect for this time of year.

October 2016 Quick Lit

Each month I link with Modern Mrs. Darcy's Quick Lit as a way to talk about the books I liked, but didn't review. That adds up to a grand total of two books this month! Despite weather that is perfect for reading under blankets I'm just not getting it done. My nerdy spreadsheets that I use to graph my average books read per month show me that is normal for this time of year. I guess this is my reading off season.

When I first started reading Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave I kind of felt like I have read this same World War II story several times over the past two years. But then I got sucked in and ended up loving it just like all of the other World War II stories. This one takes place mostly in London during the blitz, and does a good job of showing what it did to people as time went on.

I started reading the Little House series again, starting with, of course, Little House in the Big Woods.  This book is more instructional than story driven, but I did enjoy all the descriptions of old time food preparation. It made me want to fill my basement with pumpkins and mason jars.

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