Friday March 25th Reading

[Vespasia]

There was no post last week so feel free to add your books from then as well!



QOTW: What is your favorite vacation memory?

[charlatti]

Two meh books since last week (Our American Friend by Anna Pitoniak and The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd, both fine but disappointing) and one really good one — Groundskeeping by Lee Cole. Now reading Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel. It’s a weird book but I like her writing.

QOTW: I went to Germany with my parents when I was 18ish and one of my favorite visual memories is seeing mist rise over a Bavarian mountain lake with a castle in the distance.

[travella]

I finished What Could Be Saved by Liese O'Halloran Schwarz, 4*. It was a difficult book to rate. She is a great writer, but I found 3/4 of the book terribly slow and then the last 1/4 was like an emotional sledge hammer that came out of no where. If you have any triggers this book is probably not for you.

I'm currently reading Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heist, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts by Julian Rubenstein. It is another recommendation from Modern Mrs Darcy. I only just started, but I'm finding it interesting because it talks about the conditions in Romania during Ceaușescu's reign which I also read about recently in I Must Betray You.

Qotw: After my college graduation and my brother's high school graduation we traveled together around the Eastern Block. We got to spend some quality time together before we both started out on our own. I especially loved Prague.

[estrellita]

I recently finished The House in the Cerulean Sea. I loved it. It definitely gave me HP vibes in a way. I thought it was cute and had a great message.

I'm about halfway through The Golden Couple. It's decent so far.

QOTW: Our Disney cruise. We had so much fun. We were going to book another within 2 years (my parents put down a deposit that's good for 2 rooms) but this was in Jan 2020.. lol. I would 100% go again, at some point.

[Vespasia]

Combining both weeks:

I read two Kindle shorts from the Trespass collection. 

The Tiger Came to the Mountains by Silvia Moreno-Garcia was beautiful and I loved reading the afterwards about how it was based on her own great-grandmother. 
Wildlife by Jeff VanderMeer seemed promising but was a total letdown. Something that was teased throughout was a lame twist and the ending made no sense. 

Then I read The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi. This book was incredibly fun and I really loved it. Highly recommend to anyone who thinks it sounds interesting. 

Now I am reading The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo. It came highly recommended but I struggled at first to get into it. However, once I hit the second part I was hooked and I cant wait to get some reading time in this weekend. 


QOTW: We went to South Africa for my 40th a few years ago and our first game drive was truly magical. Seeing these animals up close in their natural environment was incredible. It also just happened to fall on my actual birthday. 

[meowmaps]

Last week I read The Love Story of Missy Carmichael. I found it to be emotionally manipulative.

This week I finished What Happened to You? Really good.

QOTW: Vespasia’s response reminds me that my favorite memories generally pertain to native wildlife. A couple years into our marriage we went to Australia and we were tickled to see wild kangaroos and koalas on our three day drive along the Great Ocean Road. I also loved the isolation of some of the areas and towns we drove through. Sometimes we actually felt like the only people around. The only time it felt scary was when it was dark out and we wondered what would happen if we got a flat tire or something.

[tacokick]

The Appeal by Janice Hallett

Chorus by Rebecca Kauffman

The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf

Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama by Bob Odenkirk

I Was Better Last Night by Harvey Fierstein

The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St James

Bon Appétempt: A Coming of Age Story (with recipes!) by Amelia Morris (this was strange)

A Novel Obsession by Caitlin Barasch

The First Husband by Laura Dave

The Weekend Away by Sarah Alderson

QOTW:

We had so much fun on our trip to Lisbon, not a bad moment.

[dearprudence]

Finished The Sentence and The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels.

The Sentence was good, but we're still too close to 2020 for me to be able to relly enjoy novels involving Covid and George Floyd/The BLM protests. I think I'd like to reread in a couple years.

Wisteria Society brought me back to the time in my life I discovered Hitchhiker's Galaxy. Same ridiculousness, same quick wit. I really enjoyed the absurdity.

Currently reading Girls of Snow and Glass and listening to The Charmed Wife.


QOTW: What is your favorite vacation memory? Puerto Vallarta - we took a little boat over to Yelapa and spent the day hiking to a waterfall and hanging out on the beach. It was such a wonderful mix of activity and relaxation.

[minzy]

My daughters and I are slowly reading Anne of Green Gables. We did a shorter version last year but now are reading the real thing.

I’m also reading The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore. It’s been out awhile and is about the differences between two black men from Baltimore. The one who wrote the book is running for governor of Maryland (in a crowded Democratic field of at least 10 other candidates) and I heard him speak recently so wanted to read more.

Probably the best trip I ever took in my life was in college to an island in the Great Barrier Reef to study biodiversity.

[dontlook]

I finished Charlotte Walsh Likes To Win and I’m still not over the end. I’ll give it 3 stars but it want to be petty and give it a 1. I enjoyed it while reading it (until the end) but upon reflection I feel like a whole lot of nothing happened in the book.

I’m currently resting The Echo Wife and I just got One Italian Summer but haven’t started.

QOTW:
My favorite vacation memory is from my college trip to South Africa. The safari was amazing and I still can’t believe I got to experience something so awesome. But my favorite was going to Cape Town and staring out at the ocean. Just beautiful and almost indescribable.

[krystee]

I finished A Mother’s Reckoning by Sue Kliebold, whose son was one of the Columbine shooters, and I am reading Quick Silver by Dean Koontz. A Mother’s Reckoning was so heart-breaking. I feel like Dean Koontz has written very similar stories for his last several, but they’re good for a fast-paced read.

QOTW: My favorite place ever was Switzerland, but it was for work, so it wasn’t my favorite trip. I would love to go back! My favorite trip was probably to Ireland with my mom and a cruise with my H. Also our California coast drive. And a solo trip to London. I can’t choose, I love all travel!

[litskispeciality]

I made good progress on "The Plot" this weekend. Have to finish this week.

krystee, I liked that book, but agree, so hard to read. "Columbine" by Dave Cullen is also really well written obviously very hard to read, but interesting if you were in HS at that time (I was).

QOTW: Either growing up we'd stay at a cabin near the beach, and play board games at night as they didn't have TV. Or when we went to Prince Edward Island and met "Anne of Green Gables". It was a bucket list vacation, and just overall so relaxing. I'd love to go back. - minzy, worth a trip when Canada is more open.