July already! What are you reading?

[Rowan]

This weekend I read:

Every last lie / Mary Kubica.
The identicals : a novel / Elin Hilderbrand.
The widow of Wall Street : a novel / Randy Susan Meyers

All fall under the fine category. Widow of Wall Street I might have enjoyed the most of the 3.

I'm reading The light we lost / Jill Santopolo right now and really enjoying it. I hope I can finish it tonight.

Back in June, I talked about some YA (Nutmegs) that I picked up. Nothing amazing unfortunately:

We are the ants / Shaun David Hutchinson. (liked this one the best of the 3 but it's different)
The way I used to be / Amber Smith.
Dumplin' / Julie Murphy.

[mellenhead]

Finished:

The Widow of Wall Street - it was decent. Wanted to like it more than I did.

Follow Me Down - pretty good. The ending was a bit convoluted.

Now reading The People We Hate at the Wedding and loving it so far.

[Sílvia]

Finished the one on Brazilian history. Loved it.

Gave up on The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult after 120 pages. Too slow and I hated the main character.

Not sure what's next. I might pick up the next one in Julia Quinn's Bridgertons series.

[Sílvia]

I think I've settled on The Tea Planter's Wife for now.

[mellenhead]

Sil I refuse to even crack open a Jodi Picoult book at this point. They all make me mad I wasted my time.

Finished The People We Hate at the Wedding by Grant Ginder - I really enjoyed it but think it's one of those books you need a certain sense of humor for, it's a bit crude at times and definitely not a light beach read. I thought it was cynical and funny.

The Dinner Party and Other Stories by Joshua Ferris - kind of hated it. I love his other books but this did nothing for me.

Next up is Give a Girl a Knife by Amy Thielen

[Sílvia]

Mellen, I still like some of her books, but this one was supposed to be about the Holocaust and until page 125 she had barely touched the subject. The book was 450 pages long and apparently only 150 or so were about the war. Sorry, life's too short.

[Spudd]

I finished The Japanese Lover and liked, but didn't love it.

Now started on Seveneves by Neil Stephenson. So far it's really good, but most of the reviews in Goodreads say that the first 2/3 is really good and then it goes downhill. So I'm kind of afraid.

[Sílvia]

Sorry you didn't like The Japanese Lover more, Spudd.

Finished The Tea Planter's Wife. Liked it, but it was a bit soap-opera-ish. The setting was great (Ceylon, 1920s.) It could have been so much better.

Also read a kids' book, Awful Auntie by David Walliams. It a decent story, but I don't get the violence/horribleness of adults in kids' books. In this one said aunt murdered the little girl's parents. Leo hasn't wanted to read this yet, but he LOVED this author's Grandpa's Great Escape. Now that I highly recommend (from what I read, I only skimmed it.) This guy is being compared to Roald Dahl.

Then I started A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley (sp?), on which the movie Lion was based. Both are highly recommended, movie and book. It's such an extraordinary (true) story.

[Sílvia]

Finished A Long Way Home. Loved it.

Then I started In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park, this girl who scaped North Korea and an Agatha Christie (The Clocks) for something lighter.

[mellenhead]

I skim read Give a Girl a Knife by Amy Thielen - it was decent.

Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the the Unruly Woman by Anne Helen Petersen - Loved it. Somewhat repetitive at times but over all incredibly interesting and informative.

Into the Water - Paula Hawkins - Meh. For all the hype I wasn't impressed. Too many characters and points of view. The ending annoyed me.

Now reading The Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory. It's good so far.

[Sílvia]

I think Into the Water is only getting the hype because The Girl on the Train was so successful, but I haven't read a single reviewer saying they loved it. I hated The Girl on the Train, so I might like this one

[mellenhead]

I think Into the Water is only getting the hype because The Girl on the Train was so successful, but I haven't read a single reviewer saying they loved it. I hated The Girl on the Train, so I might like this one

I wasn't impressed by The Girl on the Train at all so I'm not sure why I felt compelled to read Into the Water!

[Sílvia]

You gave it 4 stars! (I just checked because ALL my goodreads friends liked it.)

[mellenhead]

Did I?! I don't remember liking it. Damn it, now I have to go read the blurb about it, maybe I'm thinking of another book.

[Sílvia]

Or maybe you're just like me and feel less enthusiastic about a book you thought you'd loved after a few months? I swear I should start rating books a month after I'm done with them.

[mellenhead]

Sil, maybe you are right. I do find myself generally being annoyed with books with all kinds of hype here lately.

I finished The Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory today. I LOVED this book. It was clever and funny. I'm sad I'm done with it.

[Sílvia]

Finished In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park. Excellent. Highly recommended.

Then I started Hunger - a Memoir of (my) Body by Roxane Gay and a biography of a man known as the "Portuguese Schindler" because he saved thousands of Jewish people in WW2 by giving them visas (he was a consul in France.) Here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/peopl ... 05882.html. Sadly, it looks like the book hasn't been translated into English.

I seem to be in a non-fiction kick.

[mellenhead]

Finished two over the weekend:

Final Girls by Riley Sager - it was a murder/thriller type book. It was fairly decent and I didn't figure out the ending ahead of time.

It Happens All the Time by Amy Hatvany - Hated this book. The author tries to take on the issue of consent / rape and does a REALLY poor job.


Currently reading The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Woman. Only about 100 pages in but it's really good (and sad).