Talk Healthy

I'm halfway through This must be the place and I'm loving it. Each chapter is told from a different character's point of view and the writing is lovely. I hope that the second half is as good.

Sílvia wrote:Korie, is that by Liane Moriarty? I love her, but Three Wishes is my least favorite of all her books. It does pick up eventually, though.

Yes, it is. It is moving kinda slow, and I'm failing to see why she keeps throwing in other peoples memories. Why? I'm sure I'll finish it, since her books are a pretty quick read.

I don't remember But I do remember liking it eventually. But maybe it's because I already loved her.

Oh, I hope you enjoy it, Silvia. That book is still sticking with me. Absolutely loved it.

I've been listening to "Pretty Girls," by Karin Slaughter. Man, it is pretty creepy.

And I'm roughly 2/3 through "Don't Think of an Elephant!" by George Lakoff. It's very good, but I'm saving it now for tomorrow during my hair color appointment.

Finished "Pretty Girls" by Karin Slaughter just now. Definitely gripping and creepy as shit. Apparently this audiobook includes a short story prequel ("Blond Hair, Blue Eyes") about the sister who went missing, so I just started that too.

Only a couple chapters left in the political book.

Finished Class by Lucinda Rosenfeld. Predictable and annoying.

I finally finished the audiobook of Eternal Eden. OMG. Worst writing ever. I don't even really know why I kept listening to it, but the plot was sort of intriguing.

The new audiobook I started is "The Ruby in the Smoke" by Philip Pullman (author of the Golden Compass trilogy). So far it's pretty good.

Written-word wise I'm still reading the Jackson Brodie mystery. It has a lot of characters, I'm having a little trouble keeping them all straight. But it's pretty good anyways.

I finished This Must be the Place. Loved it.

Next up, The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro.

Finished The Invention of Wings. Loved it. Well, as long as you can "love" a book about the horrors of slavery. Bugsy, the letter Sarah writes to Hetty towards the end had me almost in tears. Loved the ending, too. So perfect.

I think I'll start The Sum of Our Days by Isabel Allende. It's another of her memoirs, this one about the years following her daughter's death in 1992. The one about/for her daughter, Paula, is one of the saddest books I've ever read. Also one of the best.

Forgot to ask: when was slavery abolished in the northern states? I knew from before reading this book that it was in 1865 in the US as a whole, but was it before that in the northern states, since they were against it? I was trying to find that particular piece of info on wikipedia, but after 20 minutes I still haven't.

A quick search indicates it was in 1820 with the Missouri Compromise. History was always my weakest subject. So glad you loved it. It really inspired me to take some direct action for causes I believe in.

Just finished listening to "Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes." It was fine.

I just finished The Gilded Years by Karin Tanabe. It's a fiction account (about a real person) in the late 1800's who attended Vassar who hid that she was of African American descent and passed herself as white. Other than the last chapter, I found it really interesting. I also don't tend to read "period" pieces.

I finished my audiobook of "The Ruby in the Smoke" and enjoyed it reasonably well. I don't know that I'll look for the sequels, though. I found the main character kind of annoying. She was supposed to be this smart, independent girl (16 years old) but ended up having the male characters do most of the thinking and acting on her behalf. And she spent a lot of time trembling. Bah.

I also finished "Case Histories" by Kate Atkinson last night. It was pretty good, I guess, I wasn't in love with it. I did like how British it felt.

Oh, and I started another audiobook - "Essentialism" by Greg McKeown. I thought it was about keeping only the stuff you need and how to go about that, but it turned out to be a business book about how to only work on important stuff at work. He would occasionally throw in a thing about how this applies to your personal life too, but honestly, I don't have this problem in my personal life at all and I quit my job so I don't have this problem at work either. It REALLY doesn't apply to my new job, LOL. So I will probably abandon it. I listened to about 2 hours or so, just because I started it as I drove off on a 2-hour trip, and I was driving, so I couldn't fuss with my phone to choose a different book.