January 2014! What are you reading?

[Rowan]

Haven't started anything new yet. I'm currently addicted to Orange is the New Black!

[mellenhead]

Rowan, I want to watch that! Unfortunately I'm currently in the middle of a binge watching affair with Breaking Bad.

I posted in the Dec thread this morning. I need more sleep.

Anyway, I finished up The Rosie Project. Wasn't good, wouldn't recommend.

Probably starting Want Not tonight. I need to get to the library but I doubt I'll get there before Sunday.

[Spudd]

I just started "I Know This Much is True" by Wally Lamb. So far it's intriguing, but I'm barely into it.

[Blush]

I just finished Is this tomorrow and it was good. Now just magazines until I get home. Or I may turn my PlayBook on and see what is downloaded.

[Sílvia]

Spudd, I thought you'd read that I loved it, but it's far from perfect.

I'm still reading Goodnight, Beautiful by Dorothy Koomson. The writing is kind of bad, but the plot is interesting enough. I love a good family drama.

[Spudd]

It's possible, but so far it's not ringing bells... I couldn't remember if I'd read it or not when I picked it up off the shelf.

[Blush]

I got a few books at the library yesterday and started reading Minister without Portfolio by Michael Winter last night.

Henry Hayward is a drowning man. With a soured long-term romance finally at an end, no family, and no refuge to be had in work, he progressively spends his days in the solace of alcohol and his nights with a series of interchangeable partners. In a quest to simultaneously recover from unrequited love and to find meaning in what is becoming an increasingly emotionally arid life, Henry travels to Afghanistan as an army-affiliated contractor.

When Henry becomes embedded in a regiment, he doesn't have time to think about his fixation on Nora or the fragments of his old life, a life he wasn't really living anyway. But everything changes during a tragic roadside incursion when a routine patrol suddenly turns fatal. And Henry, who survives, knows in his heart that he is responsible.

Upon returning home, now tormented by guilt in addition to ennui, he begins to feel even more rootless and restless until the question of his deceased friend’s summer home arises. Soon Henry is trying to bring meaning back to his life and to make posthumous amends by planning to buy and repair his friend’s dilapidated family house. But he hasn't factored family history into the picture—and his deceased friend’s girlfriend has a revelation of her own that may change everything.

[Rowan]

Started The Fainting Room by Sarah Pemberton Strong. I'm liking it a lot so far.

[Rowan]

Finished The Fainting Room. Me no likey.

[Sílvia]

I finished Goodnight, Beautiful. It was just okay. The writing was bad, but the plot was compelling enough that I was able to ignore it. The main characters' actions were absurd to say the least, but I did wanna know how it would end. It was a fast read, too. In short, a good beach or airport read.

Then I started The Never List. I knew what it was about before I started, of course, but I'm finding it almost unbearably depressing. We'll see.

[mellenhead]

Finished Want Not. Liked it.

I also read The Wicked Girls by.....Alex....Someone...I think. Anyway, it was a decent crime thriller about 2 girls that kill a 4 year old girl when they are 10 and are banned from ever seeing each other again, run into each other again as adults with new names, lives.

I just started The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane at lunch and unless it picks up in the next 20-30 pages I'm abandoning it for The Goldfinch.

[Beverly]

I'm reading The Time in Between by María Dueñas. It's a book that Sílvia recommended a couple of years ago, and I was finally able to get it in English at a good price. I'm about halfway through and really enjoying it.

[Sílvia]

I'm reading The Time in Between by María Dueñas. It's a book that Sílvia recommended a couple of years ago, and I was finally able to get it in English at a good price. I'm about halfway through and really enjoying it.

Yay! Is the translation decent?

[Anna]

Just finished Deadly Little Secrets

Its True Crime about a Baptist Minister that kills,his wife, its,hard to prove because he staged a suicide and in a small Texas town no one questioned a pastor. He had tons of philandering and nasty advances in his past as well. It was pretty good, I love most true crime though.

[Spudd]

I just got "The How of Happiness" from the library, it's a self-help book by a scientist who has spent her career studying happiness.

After that I'll be reading "Time and Again" I think it's called, which I just also got from the library (based on a reco from Beverly on Facebook). I hate when they stack up like that. But I think I should be able to renew Time and Again, so I don't feel too stressed.

[Rowan]

I started Sole Survivor by Dean Koontx on the train home yesterday. It's one of my cheap book fair throw aways.

[Beverly]

Sílvia, the translation seems pretty good. Did you read it in Spanish or Portuguese?

Spudd, I really hope you enjoy Time and Again -- it is seriously one of my favorite books EVER, and I've lost track of how many times I've read it.

[Sílvia]

Beverly, in Portuguese. But the translation from Spanish to Portuguese is smooth, you barely notice you're reading a translation. From Spanish to English, not so much, hence my question. Glad it's good! Which Time and Again is that? There are several books by that name, apparently.

[mellenhead]

I'm in a book rut. I've given up on The Night Guest, The Goldfinch and I think I'm heading there with The Luminaries.

I think I need to go find something fairly mindless to read to sort of reset.

[Rowan]

mellen, I hate that! Good luck with the reset.

I read The Lost Art of Mixing. It was fine but just fine. Need to get to the library today.