Talk Healthy

Sílvia wrote:Is it anything like The Never List? Because that one was a bit much for me.

Similar, though if I'm remembering right, this one takes more breaks from those scenes, and there are fewer of them than in The Never List.

Ok, thanks!

I marked that as something I'd like to read as well, but eek it sounds like something you've just got to be in the mood for. Or at least the right mindset.

Finished "A Jest of God" over the weekend (so good; I am really enjoying rereading this series) and have started "As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto," by Joan Reardon. It's pretty good so far but a bit dry. I thought there'd be more discussion of actual recipes and cooking techniques, but so far much of the correspondence has been about the process of finding a publisher. Hopefully it'll pick up a bit.

Finished You Will Know Me by Megan Abott. It was good! I thought I had the one twist figured out but thought wrong.

Started Pretty Girls today. Thanks for the recommendation Blush!

Finished The Perfect Neighbors by Sarah Pekkanen (sp?). Reviews said she was similar to Liane Moriarty. Yeah, she wishes. Same themes, maybe, but the mystery was not mysterious at all, the intrigue was not juicy. It was readable, though. 2.5 stars.

Then I started Broken Harbour by Tana French. I hope I'll like this. I liked In the Woods and Faithful Place, but thought The Likeness was super boring. Her books are much more psychological dramas about her detectives than about the mysteries they're trying to solve, which can work or not for me.

I'm also reading a Brazilian nonfiction (history) which is a lot more interesting than I expected. It's about how the Portuguese royal court fled Lisbon and came to Brazil in 1808 to escape Napoleon. We learn about that at school, obviously, but the book's much more detailed and more fun.

Finished Pretty Girls today. It was good but intense!

I think a mindless read is due after that one so Sarong Party Girls by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan is probably up next.

I just finished Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand. Wedding on Nantucket +family drama. Pretty good.

Next I have a memoir of sorts by Marian Keyes called Making it up as I go along. It's supposed to be funny.

Gave up on Sarong Party Girls. It's written in slang and I just can't get into it. Next up is Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett.

Ok, I haven't gotten into the Marian Keyes book because "The Opposite of Everyone" by Joshilyn Jackson was due, so I ripped through it first. Ithe was ok, not my fave of hers.

Then Truly Madly Guilty came in for me at the library on Friday, so I am just starting that. It's only a two week loan.

I finished my last book. The Underwriting by Michelle Miller. It was good! Would recommend.

And I've started on The Girl on the Train, finally. I hope I like it! So far it's good, I'm kind of annoyed by it jumping back and forth in time though.

I started My Best Friend's Exorcism last night. Not sure how I feel about it yet. I abandoned an early onset Alzheimers novel this weekend because I've already read several on the same subject and this seemed to be written not as well.

I just finished listening to Adnans Story (the man from the first season of Serial) I'm pretty involved and up to date on the case so I loved it.

I finished Truly Madly Guilty. Loved it.

NOW I'm reading the Marian Keyes book of essays.

I finished My BF Exorcism. I liked it. Freaky but good.

I have the newest Jen Lancaster to start. Her fiction is usually just ok but I love her so I read.....

Finished Broken Harbour by Tana French. It was very good. A bit too long at 535 pages, but overall good. 4 stars. I already bought the next one in the series for a dollar

Still reading the Brazilian non-fiction. Somebody remind me not to read 2 books at the same time again. It takes me forever to finish either one and I get frustrated.

I finished Making it up as I go along, the Marian Keyes book of essays. It was pretty great; I laughed out loud a few times.

Next is Broken Promises by Linwood Barclay.

Marian Keyes is in Brazil! Or at least she was on the weekend. There's this bi-annual book fair taking place now in my city (I'm going there tomorrow, actually!) and she was there signing books over the weekend.

I'm reading Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper. Anyone read it? It's YA fiction about an 11-year-old with cerebral palsy. My book swap friend sent it to me. I'm loving it. I'm about 60% through.

Finished Out of My Mind. LOVED it. Here's Chapter 1, copied from the quotes section on goodreads. Tell me you're not hooked:

Words.

I’m surrounded by thousands of words. Maybe millions.

Cathedral. Mayonnaise. Pomegranate.
Mississippi. Neapolitan. Hippopotamus.
Silky. Terrifying. Iridescent.
Tickle. Sneeze. Wish. Worry.

Words have always swirled around me like snowflakes—each one delicate and different, each one melting untouched in my hands.

Deep within me, words pile up in huge drifts. Mountains of phrases and sentences and connected ideas. Clever expressions. Jokes. Love songs.

From the time I was really little—maybe just a few months old—words were like sweet, liquid gifts, and I drank them like lemonade. I could almost taste them. They made my jumbled thoughts and feelings have substance. My parents have always blanketed me with conversation. They chattered and babbled. They verbalized and vocalized. My father sang to me. My mother whispered her strength into my ear.

Every word my parents spoke to me or about me I absorbed and kept and remembered. All of them.

I have no idea how I untangled the complicated process of words and thought, but it happened quickly and naturally. By the time I was two, all my memories had words, and all my words had meanings.

But only in my head.

I have never spoken one single word. I am almost eleven years old.”
― Sharon M. Draper, Out of My Mind

Not sure what's next. I just wanna reread this.

I finished Girl on the Train night before last. It was really good! I guess it has a good reputation for a reason.

I started something else, but I'm having the hardest time remembering what it was.

Silvia, that book sounds good, I will have to look for it.

Sil, that does sound good.

I gave up on the Linwood Barclay book 50 pages in. The dialogue was clunky and I know I wouldn't be able to stand it. Usually I like Linwood Barclay. Maybe the fact that it was in large print didn't help. Large print seems cheesy to me.

I'm going to try another thriller called The Last Good Girl by Allison Leotta. Apparently it's 5th in a series about a detective but reviews are saying I should be able to jump in. We'll see.