Post by rootbeerfloat on Mar 31, 2013 20:50:33 GMT -5
The Age of Miracles, Karen Thompson Walker - 3* Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn - 3* Requiem (Delirium #3), Lauren Oliver - 3* Will Grayson, Will Grayson, John Green and David Levithan - 4* Where'd You Go, Bernadette, Maria Semple - 4* The Buddha in the Attic, Julie Otsuka - 3.5*
The Wettest County in the World by Matt Bondurant (Audio), 3* Sea Swept by Nora Roberts (Audio), 3* A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin, 3.5* A Shot of Sultry by Macy Beckett, 4*
A slow month for me. I was in a reading slump, the car issues took a lot of time, and A Feast for Crows took me nearly the whole month to read.
It would have just been three books if we hadn't stayed home all day yesterday after church. I read A Shot of Sultry in one day, which is the first time I've managed a book in a single day in a long time.
Grave Peril by Jim Butcher (4 stars) Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon (1 star) Wither by Lauren DeStefano (2 stars) The Book of Tomorrow by Cecilia Ahern (3 stars) The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker (3 stars)
This was a very disappointing reading month for me. Pretty much everything I read was either average or awful.
Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King (book 5 of the Dark Tower series) - very good Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder - a fun nostalgic read The World According to Monsanto by Marie-Monique Robin - not the best writing ever but interesting Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling - after all the Monsanto hate I really needed something light and decided to start a HP re-read State of Wonder by Ann Patchett - very good
I started Gone with the Wind in March but am not very far along yet. Next I think I'm going to pick up book 6 of Stephen King's Dark Tower series.
I guess in summary it was a so-so book month for me.
This was a cold, gray March for us, so I read a ton of fast, un-challenging books. Only one standout -- The Bartender's Tale, which I thought was excellent.
Love, Life, and Elephants by Daphne Sheldrick 3* The Girl With Glass Feet by Ali Shaw 3* Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell 3* Payment In Blood by Elizabeth George 2* The Patron Saint of Lost Dogs by Nick Trout 3* A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen 3* A Lesson in Secrets by Jacqueline Winspear 3* Requiem by Lauren Oliver 2* Villa Triste by Lucretia Grindle 3* Jamesland by Michelle Huneven 4* Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell 3* The Bartender's Tale by Ivan Doig 5* The Character of Cats by Stephen Budiansky 2* A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George 3* Forever Liesl by Charmain Carr 4*
1. An Elegant Madness: High Society in Regency England by Venetia Murray 2. A Royal Passion: The Turbulent Marriage of King Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France by Katie Whitaker 3. Nell Gwyn: Mistress to a King by Charles Beauclerck 4. This Beautiful Life by Helen Shulman 5. Ungrateful Daughters: The Stuart Princesses Who Stole their Father's Crown by Maureen Waller 6. The Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa, and Sarah Lennox, 1740-1832 by Stella Tillyard 7. The Unruly Queen: The Life of Queen Caroline by Flora Fraser
1. An Elegant Madness: High Society in Regency England by Venetia Murray 2. A Royal Passion: The Turbulent Marriage of King Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France by Katie Whitaker 3. Nell Gwyn: Mistress to a King by Charles Beauclerck 4. This Beautiful Life by Helen Shulman 5. Ungrateful Daughters: The Stuart Princesses Who Stole their Father's Crown by Maureen Waller 6. The Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa, and Sarah Lennox, 1740-1832 by Stella Tillyard 7. The Unruly Queen: The Life of Queen Caroline by Flora Fraser
You weren't kidding about the English history kick! Would you recommend any one of these more than the others?
aurora I thought they were all pretty good (4 or 5 star on Goodreads) with the exception of the Nell Gwyn biography. It was written by one of her direct descendents and you can see his bias shining through when he writes about Charles's other mistresses. Boy does he have an axe to grind with some of them
An Elegant Madness gives a really good introduction and amusing overview of the Regency period ifyou're not overly familiar with it. The avalanche of names in Fraser's The Unruly Queen might get a bit overwhelming if you've never come across them before. She had a pretty fascinating (and rather tragic) life. I knew her relationship with her husband was notoriously acrimonious but I didn't know that the government had actually put her on trial for adultery (an even that is hard for a modern reader to stomach considering that her husband was about 100x worse). I thought Waller's Ungrateful Daughters was also really interesting. She is pretty sympathetic to James II while acknowledging his political mistakes and the rigidity of his personality. Her insights into Princess Anne's role in discrediting the legitimacy of the birth of his son and so justifying William of Orange's invasion were particularly eye opening. I'm reading Judith Flanders' The Victorian Home and it's really interesting to see where so many of our American attitudes towards home and family originated.
Post by 5kcandlesinthewind on Apr 2, 2013 20:05:21 GMT -5
The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling - 4 stars When It Happens to You: A Novel in Stories by Molly Ringwald - 3 stars Requiem by Lauren Oliver - 2 1/2 stars We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson - 3 1/2 stars Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta - 5 stars
Post by writingwithheld on Apr 3, 2013 15:04:44 GMT -5
The Good Soldier, Ford Maddox Ford (3) Call it Sleep, Henry Roth (4) Selected Stories, Eudora Welty (3) The Cherry Orchard, Anton Chekov (3) The Three Musketeers, Alexendre Dumas (4) The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann (3)
My favorite was Call It Sleep, a novel about a young immigrant Jewish boy in New York in about 1911.
Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch 4* Fun and Games by Duane Swierczynski 3* Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 3* The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult 4* Matched by Ally Condie 4*
I haven't been reading much lately as I've been working on some sewing projects.
Post by whitepicketfence on Apr 8, 2013 15:38:59 GMT -5
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill*** The Wonder Years by The Academy of Pediatrics*** The Drawing of the Three (Dark Tower #3) by Stephen King**** Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail by Cheryl Strayed*****
Oh no, I take it this means you didn't like it? I thought her rhythm was hard to get into at first but once I did, I couldn't put it down. Fwiw, Bring Up the Bodies is pretty different. It's a lot shorter for one thing, the plotting is much tighter, and it doesn't go off into tangential wanderings through Cromwell's mind. It reads like a thriller even though you already know how it ends.
I hit a groove in March. This winter kicked my butt and it shows in my yearly book total.
Also Known As- Robin Benway Family Pictures-Jane Green Suri's Burn Book- Allie Hagan Pretty much all of Slammed- Colleen Hoover half of Under the Dome- Stephen King
Oh no, I take it this means you didn't like it? I thought her rhythm was hard to get into at first but once I did, I couldn't put it down. Fwiw, Bring Up the Bodies is pretty different. It's a lot shorter for one thing, the plotting is much tighter, and it doesn't go off into tangential wanderings through Cromwell's mind. It reads like a thriller even though you already know how it ends.
Nope, sorry! I am going to give Bringing Up the Bodies a try though.