Talk Healthy

Just been going through Amsterdam guidebooks, which I can't really count as "read books." So probably won't reach my goal, but we'll see. Last night "Shift" by Hugh Howey came in for me, which should make for great travel reading. Hoping at least one more hold will come in before I leave on Friday evening.

Bugsy, I really liked Shift, it should be a great travel book!

Ugh, really? I ended up buying it.

I was able to return The Burning Air, yay! I wasn't really feeling it, and with Blush's comment... I don't know, it might be good, but it had lost steam after the first few pages and... yeah. Not so sure. I learned the other day that you can return books on kindle. Maybe not after you've read them to the end, or maybe not after too long, but my friend says she buys 15 books on kindle every month on average and returns about 3, after reading a little more than the sample and realizing it was just not for her. Why didn't I know about this before??

Then I started I Found You by Lisa Jewell, which so far I like.

I Found You was a bit of a slow starter and I wasn't crazy about the writing, but the pace did pick up and I ended up liking it, if not loving it. Anything else by her you guys recommend?

Not sure what's next. Maybe some Mary Kubica, because her name keeps popping up.

Sil, i liked Pretty Baby by her, although I found the ending a bit unsatisfying. But the journey to get there was good.

I finished The Elite and started The One by Kiera Cass. This better be the last one. I'm into it, but yet not into it at the same time. Like I want to see what happens but I find the writing style not entirely to my taste. She keeps saying "I ducked my head" when the chick feels embarrassed. It bugs me, I don't know why.

I just read a great book by Joyce Maynard: Under the Influence -- my first by her but I'm going to go check out others tonight.

Thanks, Spudd. I read a few pages of The Good Girl, but it didn't grab me. Might try that instead.

... and I ended up starting Pretty Baby. I liked the beginning much better than The Good Girl, so we'll see. Kindle is ruining me as a reader, I can't commit to anything! I must have tried 10 samples before I settled on this.

I just read "Bless Me, Última" by Rudolfo Anaya. I really enjoyed it, and it has some heartbreakingly gorgeous text in it. I mostly bought nonfiction stuff. I will go through tomorrow and either take a pic or let you know what I got. A few books written by friends, too!

Bah, not on kindle. I hope your friends are better writers than mine!

Sil, these are books published by big publishing houses, so I have high hopes.

Now I'm reading Djibouti by Elmore Leonard, a mystery (more fiction) that was on the NYT bestseller list. I'm 40 pages in and I'm pretty hooked, but it's a bit "poppy" for me to want to read another. I know I still owe you a list of books I bought. Or you could just wait and "watch" me read them all. I'm going to try to read two books a month (at least) for the coming months. Goodness knows I waste more time than that doing less productive things!

What do you mean, poppy?

And don't worry about the list. I can watch you read them, if you come back here to play with us!

Still on Pretty Baby.

Finished Pretty Baby. It was pretty good, well-written and gripping, but I couldn't bring myself to give it more than 3 stars because it was so utterly depressing. Tragic, really. I think I'm done for a while with books where horrible things keep happening to women and/or children. Spudd, I'm curious to know why you thought the ending was unsatisfying. I was happy with it. If you wanna pm me or start a thread, I'll be happy to hear it.

Then I started the sample of The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend because I desperately need something lighter. You know what's cool? The samples in Portuguese are 4 times as long as the samples in English! So I can read a lot more before deciding on a book.