It took me 8 days to get to my first book of June, Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez. Goodreads blurb: Inspired by true events that rocked the nation, a profoundly moving novel about a Black nurse in post-segregation Alabama who blows the whistle on a terrible wrong done to her patients, from the New York Times bestselling author of Wench.
It was an important story to be told, but I did feel like it was lacking...something. Some of the plot points seemed unnecessary and some stuff didn't come together that well for me. I rated it 4/5 just because the story was important.
Next I have The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian (I just realized he also wrote The Flight Attendant that was made into a limited series we watched) about a 1960s movie star and her new husband and friends on safari in Africa and they get kidnapped or something? I think it's billed as a historical thriller? We'll see.
I just finished The Lioness, I’ll be curious to see what you think (I’m a lurker and don’t know how to tag - ugh). We seem to read a lot of the same books. I have read a lot of Bohjian’s books and wanted to love this one, but it fell flat for me.
It took me 8 days to get to my first book of June, Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez. Goodreads blurb: Inspired by true events that rocked the nation, a profoundly moving novel about a Black nurse in post-segregation Alabama who blows the whistle on a terrible wrong done to her patients, from the New York Times bestselling author of Wench.
It was an important story to be told, but I did feel like it was lacking...something. Some of the plot points seemed unnecessary and some stuff didn't come together that well for me. I rated it 4/5 just because the story was important.
Next I have The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian (I just realized he also wrote The Flight Attendant that was made into a limited series we watched) about a 1960s movie star and her new husband and friends on safari in Africa and they get kidnapped or something? I think it's billed as a historical thriller? We'll see.
I just finished The Lioness, I’ll be curious to see what you think (I’m a lurker and don’t know how to tag - ugh). We seem to read a lot of the same books. I have read a lot of Bohjian’s books and wanted to love this one, but it fell flat for me.
Interesting. The reviews are mostly good on Goodreads, but I take those with a HUGE grain of salt lol. I tend to like multiple narrators so we'll see. I will be pushing to get through this one because I'm really excited about the NEXT one in my TBR list (Emma Straub's This Time Tomorrow) but this one is due a week earlier lol
It took me 8 days to get to my first book of June, Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez. Goodreads blurb: Inspired by true events that rocked the nation, a profoundly moving novel about a Black nurse in post-segregation Alabama who blows the whistle on a terrible wrong done to her patients, from the New York Times bestselling author of Wench.
It was an important story to be told, but I did feel like it was lacking...something. Some of the plot points seemed unnecessary and some stuff didn't come together that well for me. I rated it 4/5 just because the story was important.
I don't know anything about this particular book, but adding it to my list of examples to show that novelizing real events is rarely a good idea. I would love to read the non-fiction version of this kind of story!
Just read More Than You'll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez and really liked it! A woman who mostly blogs about true crime gets interested in a woman who lead a double life back in the 1980s. Really good solid details about the time and place setting which is always a sticking point for me.
Just finished The Old Woman With The Knife by Gu Byeong-mo. It's such a great thriller. One of the best I've ever read - short, interesting characters, exciting. I'm shocked it hasn't already been optioned as a movie - either in S. Korea or Hollywood yet.
“With sorrow—for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection—we dissent,”
I finished Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa. It was fine, but not her best.
Also read Jodi Picoult’s Wish You Were Here. It was a quick, easy read, but lacking. I’ve enjoyed her other books more. She’s sort of a guilty pleasure read for me.
I started When We Were Birds and almost immediately put it down. The narration (not just the character dialogue) has all this broken English and wrong parts of speech. I couldn’t deal, so I stopped. I’m fine with that in dialogue, but not in the actual narration. Maybe I’ll go back to it, but I’m not sure.
Currently reading The Dictionary of Lost Words. It’s decent so far. I’m intrigued enough to keep going. I don’t love it though.
I really need to pick up something that is going to hook me next because this current run hasn’t been great.
Does anyone have historical fiction recommendations? I am trying to be a good example to the kids and build reading time into our daily schedule (and bonus- lucy, who has learning difficulties and was VERY RESISTANT to reading until recently, has turned a corner and wants to read now).
I have read some of the Outlander and all of the Game of Thrones series, so a sci-fi/time travel angle is good. Kind of looking for more single-volume stories (meaning not a series) unless the series has a point to it (ahem GoT).
Any time period is good. Art theme is a bonus haha.
Still Life by Sarah Winman (definate art references) Salt to sea City of thieves (some art references) The mountains sing
It took me 8 days to get to my first book of June, Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez. Goodreads blurb: Inspired by true events that rocked the nation, a profoundly moving novel about a Black nurse in post-segregation Alabama who blows the whistle on a terrible wrong done to her patients, from the New York Times bestselling author of Wench.
It was an important story to be told, but I did feel like it was lacking...something. Some of the plot points seemed unnecessary and some stuff didn't come together that well for me. I rated it 4/5 just because the story was important.
Next I have The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian (I just realized he also wrote The Flight Attendant that was made into a limited series we watched) about a 1960s movie star and her new husband and friends on safari in Africa and they get kidnapped or something? I think it's billed as a historical thriller? We'll see.
I just finished The Lioness, I’ll be curious to see what you think (I’m a lurker and don’t know how to tag - ugh). We seem to read a lot of the same books. I have read a lot of Bohjian’s books and wanted to love this one, but it fell flat for me.
I finished this on Saturday. I liked it ok, I didn't love it. I think the backstories/flashbacks could've been a little more compelling and I also wish I'd come away with a better understanding of the whole Russia in Africa thing. He touched on it a bit, but it was kind of disconnected so I don't feel like I got the whole picture and it's something I had no idea about and it would've been nice to learn more like I have from other historical fiction novels.
Post by rupertpenny on Jun 13, 2022 9:24:56 GMT -5
I finished The Latinist by Mark Prins. I really liked it (I love drama in academia) but the ending went off the rails a bit. Towards the end of the story, it became obvious it became that the book was written by a man.
I finished The Latinist by Mark Prins. I really liked it (I love drama in academia) but the ending went off the rails a bit. Towards the end of the story, it became obvious it became that the book was written by a man.
Yes! I definitely thought the book would have been different (and better) had it been written by a woman.
I finished The Latinist by Mark Prins. I really liked it (I love drama in academia) but the ending went off the rails a bit. Towards the end of the story, it became obvious it became that the book was written by a man.
Yes! I definitely thought the book would have been different (and better) had it been written by a woman.
Yeah, if a woman wrote this Tessa would never. That particular plot point was 100% the product of a male brain.
I really enjoyed the new Emma Straub book This Time Tomorrow, but I am a totally sucker for alternate timelines. It's about a woman who passes out on her 40th birthday and wakes up to relive her 16th birthday. It doesn't try to explain time travel in any way, so you just go with it. But at its heart, it's a lovely book about a daughter and her father.
I also read Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill - it is a cleverly done mystery that is a story within a story. Actually, it might be a story within a story within a story. I really liked it!
I am currently listening to All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days by Rebecca Donner, which is a biography that has won numerous awards. It is written by a family member of an American woman who led a resistance movement in Germany during the rise of Hitler and during the Third Reich. It is not difficult to read/listen to and is so compelling, although it is disturbing to read about how a fascist leader came to power during a time of high inflation.
toepick - I just started This Time Tomorrow yesterday I am also a sucker for time travel, alternate timelines, etc. so I'm really looking forward to it.
toepick - I just started This Time Tomorrow yesterday I am also a sucker for time travel, alternate timelines, etc. so I'm really looking forward to it.
Have you read In Five Years by Rebecca Serle?
It’s not a time travel book per se, but it’s about a woman who goes to sleep and has a vision of her life five years in the future. Four and a half years later, she meets the man from her vision.
toepick - I just started This Time Tomorrow yesterday I am also a sucker for time travel, alternate timelines, etc. so I'm really looking forward to it.
Have you read In Five Years by Rebecca Serle?
It’s not a time travel book per se, but it’s about a woman who goes to sleep and has a vision of her life five years in the future. Four and a half years later, she meets the man from her vision.
It was one of my favorite reads last year.
Yes and I adored it! It's going to be one of my July re-reads (I'm pausing all of my library holds and only doing re-reads for July)
Last I posted, I was reading The Dictionary of Lost Words. Historical fiction is not my jam. I quit. I might go back to it, but only if I run out of other books.
I started and finished Remarkably Bright Creatures really quickly. Loved that. It was so sweet and made my heart happy in the end.
I’m starting The Sweetness of Water next. A friend at work recommended it. I usually take her reviews with a grain of salt because we tend to have very different taste in books, but it sounds interesting and has good reviews, so fingers crossed.
ProfessorArtNerd I randomly picked up The Lost Girls Of Paris and I think it would count as historical fiction? It's about WW2 and the women they used as spies. I enjoyed it it was a pretty fast easy read.
I tried getting The Hearts Invisible Furies based on recs here, but the only book the library had by that author was A Ladder To the Sky so I grabbed that. It's ok. I feel like it doesn't have a lot of plot it's kinda of meandering a long and I'm half way through.
David was assigned To Kill A Mockingbird by his school as one of his summer reading books so we're reading that together. We're about half way through. Also still reading The Club, it's good! It has a Lucy Foley vibe to it (The Hunting Party, The Guest List).
al dente, Hearts Invisible Furies is one of my top 5 favorite books of all time, but I don't like any of his other stuff.
I finished The Lost Summers of Newport which was horribly predictable, but a good listen for the Newport Cliff walk. I've also started and stopped so many books this month, nothing is catching my attention.
“With sorrow—for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection—we dissent,”
I sped through The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle. It was simple, lots of telling instead of showing, and so so so predictable. But I still found it quite charming.
I probably realistically have time to read 1 maaaaaybe 2 more new books before my self-imposed month of re-reads. Which I am SO excited for, btw, I think I have more books in mind than I'll have time to actually get to. But maybe this will spur me to be more balanced in future months with re-reads vs. new books.
So my choices are: The Next Ship Home by Heather Webb (fiction, Ellis Island story, great reviews but I just finished a historical fiction novel)
What Happened to the Bennetts by Lisa Scottoline (this is the one with the terrible false Delaware "fact" and honestly it turned me off of it SO much lol. But what if this FBI guy turns out to be fake and the fact that he was wrong about that was a CLUE? I think that's far fetched, but would redeem the issue. But reviews are pretty mixed so I don't think this is the one)
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez (non-fiction, probably obvious subject matter, sounds interesting, but I think it might piss me off too much lol)
I just finished Wish You Were Here. It was…fine. It was a decent audiobook. My takeaway, however, was that they said Picoult “pee-co” (like pico de gallo) and not pi-cult.
I’m now listening to Malibu Rising. It’s just fine, too. I keep trying different fiction books, especially since it gives me more to talk to others about, but they’re just not my favorite genre.
I’m also reading Now What? by the Pantsuit Politics women. I’m enjoying it.
isabel I couldn’t get into dictionary of lost words either. It remains unfinished.
Currently about 30% into The Cartographers and I am enjoying it.
I am a big fan of Taylor Jenkins Reid and she has a new book coming out in August so I’m looking forward to that.
I read the new TJR and it’s good but there is so much tennis in it. Many, many pages of descriptions of tennis games and practices. I would have liked more people interaction outside of games. Glad I read it but I was not prepared for the level of play by play tennis matches.
What Happened to the Bennetts by Lisa Scottoline (this is the one with the terrible false Delaware "fact" and honestly it turned me off of it SO much lol. But what if this FBI guy turns out to be fake and the fact that he was wrong about that was a CLUE? I think that's far fetched, but would redeem the issue. But reviews are pretty mixed so I don't think this is the one)
I wondered if that was the book! I started that and it was so awful I gave up. Nothing made a lick of sense. I hadn’t read that author before but thought I’d give it a shot because she has such a huge back catalogue but I can’t do that to myself again.
What Happened to the Bennetts by Lisa Scottoline (this is the one with the terrible false Delaware "fact" and honestly it turned me off of it SO much lol. But what if this FBI guy turns out to be fake and the fact that he was wrong about that was a CLUE? I think that's far fetched, but would redeem the issue. But reviews are pretty mixed so I don't think this is the one)
I wondered if that was the book! I started that and it was so awful I gave up. Nothing made a lick of sense. I hadn’t read that author before but thought I’d give it a shot because she has such a huge back catalogue but I can’t do that to myself again.
haha good to know, I'll keep it in the return pile where it's currently sitting.