Talk Healthy

Ack! I hope the bad weather never gets in your way to books. Is this Cathy Kelly someone you compared to Maeve Binchy a while ago?

Finished Still Alice. Loved it. It was wonderful, if totally heartbreaking.

Then I started Grace by T. Greenwood. I like it so far, but there's a sense of impending doom that's making me nervous. The book opens with a scene where a father is taking his 13-year-old son to the woods to *shoot* him and calling him a monster (no spoiler here, this is in the first 2 pages.) Then it goes back in time to show how they got there. Of course I wanted to keep reading, but I'm afraid of what I'll find.

Man, I really need something lighter after this. I was supposed to read Landline, but the premise seems so silly.

I finished Crossed by Ally Condie (sp?) last night. I didn't really care for it. It did get a bit better after a while, but it felt kinda pointless.

I haven't decided what to start next yet. Maybe I'll follow Silvia and read Grace, I have it so that might be a fun thing to do.

Ok, I might give it a try, thanks. And I might check out Cathy Kelly, too.

Spudd, Grace is starting to bore me. I'm on page 131 and starting to think it's dragging. It's depressing, and not the good kind of depressing. One character's a shoplifter who loves one of her kids more than the other, another is a hoarder... blech.

Hmm, maybe I'll read something else then!

I finished The Bean Trees. It was ok, nothing overly special.

This morning I just barely started "The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism" by Naoki Higashida. Way too early to judge it so far.

Finished Grace. Meh. Started out well, but it dragged too much in the middle and it was too depressing. The bullying scenes were almost unbearable. It did have me turning the last 100 pages fast, though. I probably won't give her up yet, but I wish she would let go of her misery lit thing.

Then I read Landline. I hated it. HATED. (Sorry, Blush.) I just have no idea what everyone saw in it. I found it silly, boring, and predictable. I only finished it because I paid for it. Next time I think I won't like a book, I'll stay the hell away from it. I'm right 99% of the times.

Not sure what's next. Hopefully something I'll like. Ugh.

I decided to start Alif the Unseen instead of Grace, based on Silvia's review. So far I'm enjoying it, only about 10% in so far though.

I started The Girl on the Train and I'm liking it.

I'm just about done with listening to the audiobook of The Power of Habit. I liked it but I felt that it strung along some random ideas/stories to make it longer. I don't know if I would have felt similar if I'd read the book.

Finished Sweetland by Michael Crummey - it was excellent. Loved the writing and the characters

Mort(e) by Robert Repino - This was a apocalyptic, sci/fi, fantasy and action/adventure all rolled into one about how ants plot to take over the world and the rest of the animals become thinking, speaking beings and they work together to try to eliminate the human race. Cool premise, the book was just so-so.

Descent by Tim Johnston - really good. I actually didn't figure out the ending halfway through.

Sister Queens: The Noble Tragic Lives of Katherine of Aragon and Juana, Queen of Castile - I think I'm alone in my Tudor obsession here but this was excellent.

Now I'm reading A Deep Look at a Shallow Year by Andy Cohen. It's mindless.

Blush, for me it was the opposite with those 2 books! Have you seen that she's written a sequel to Me Before You? I think that's a terrible idea, but of course I wanna read it.

I'm reading This House is Haunted by John Boyne. I love it.

Finished This House is Haunted. The story is predictable, since it's about ghosts. But I loved the writing, the setting (England, 1867), the pace was good. Loved it.

Then I started The Duke and I by Julia Quinn. Apparently she's a trashy historical romance specialist? It looks like fun. Plus it cost US$1.88. That's already fun.

Sílvia wrote:Blush, for me it was the opposite with those 2 books! Have you seen that she's written a sequel to Me Before You? I think that's a terrible idea, but of course I wanna read it.

Ditto! Interesting about the sequel...yeah that seems like a bad idea.

I was not loving the book by the boy with autism, so I instead started "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy instead. It's my book club choice.

Finished The Duke and I. It was great fun! I expected it to be cheesy and predictable. It is certainly predictable, but I did not expect it to be so funny. Several laugh-out-loud moments for me. I might check out her other books.

Next I have the sample of Last Letter from Your Lover by JoJo Moyes. I highly doubt she won't pass the sample test.

I finished and liked Girl on the Train. Read Transhuman by Ben Bova and it was fine although the scientist in me was getting frustrated with the lack of accuracy/dumbing down of things. Not sure what's next on the pile.

I'm working my way through the audio of Stiff and it's fine.

Enjoyed A Deep Look at a Shallow Year by Andy Cohen way more than I should have. It's a fun read and he talks nonstop about his dog, it's cute.

Just started Fairest, which is kind of a companion book to the Lunar Chronicle books (Cinder, Scarlet, Cress). It's only about 200 pages so it's a quick read.

Ooh that sounds good, Blush.

Finished The Last Letter from Your Lover. Loved it. I love how, even though she only writes love stories, her plots are completely different from each other. She did have 2 story lines, one set in 2003 and the other in the 1960s, like in The Girl You Left Behind, but the stories were completely different. I didn't like the part set in 2003. It was predictable and the main character was pathetic. But that was a very small part of the book, and I loved the part set in the 60s. 4.5 stars.

Then I started The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman. It's got rave reviews. I'm only on page 35. It hasn't grabbed me yet.

I just finished Alif the Unseen last night. I enjoyed it. It was a weird book, had both modern technology and magical demons as plot elements. But I'd give it a thumbs up.

Read Sweetness #9. I liked it until about halfway through and then it just went wonky. I finished it but wouldn't recommend it.

Started It Was Me Along - Andie Mitchell and its a quick read. One of these days I'll read a weight loss memoir and it will resonate.

Finished the audio of Stiff. I think M enjoyed it more than me. It was ok....some chapters were better than others. I started audio of The Astronauts Wives Club this AM. We'll see...it seems very 1950s housewifey.

Rowan I thought The Astronauts Wives Club was interesting but dragged a fair amount in places.

I finished Fairest - it was pretty good.

I'm almost done with The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith. This book is so bizarre in a good way. It blends together various stories about a teenage refugee survivor now living in WV, the diaries of a failed Arctic expedition from the nineteenth century, the "melting man" who is taking instructions from Joseph Stalin who speaks to him in his mind and a depressed bionic crow.