Talk Healthy

I finished One of Us is Lying. Sigh. I'm getting really fed up with current fiction's far-fetched-ness. It was all going well until close to the end, when the mystery was revealed. It was so ridiculous, so unbelievable. But never mind me, the book's got a 4+ average rating on goodreads.

Then, since I needed a change of scenery, I read Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan, a short novel written in 1954 when the author was only 17 or 18. It was a reread, actually, but I didn't remember ANYTHING from the first time I read it (in 1986!) Only that I'd liked it. The writing was good, the scenery was different from my usual choices (French Riviera), the characters were rich and spoiled and not particularly fascinating, but the good points made up for it. Plus the book's more like a novella, at only 108 pages. Then I read a Brazilian play based on the life of a famous Brazilian painter from the 1920s, Tarsila do Amaral. The play's name's Tarsila. She painted this: https://www.google.com.br/search?q=abap ... 80&bih=579 She was married to a famous writer and friends with other famous painters and writers. I enjoyed it much more than I expected and finished it in a couple of hours (again, very short).

Not sure what's next.

I finished Before We Were Yours by Lisa(?) Wingate. I liked it. It was a little hard to get into in the beginning but it does get easier. I really would have liked to see her flush out the characters a bit more so the ending was a little meh.

I also read The Stars are Fire by Anita Shreve this weekend. Again I really liked the story but was the ending just fizzled out for me.

I have The Ship of Brides by JoJo Moyes on my desk right now.

Finished Fire and Fury - Inside the Trump White House. It was about what you would expect - basically the White House is a hot mess.

I'm almost done with The Last Mrs Parrish by Liv Constantine. It's OK. The writing is annoying me a little bit.

I finished "The Burgess Boys" by Elizabeth Strout (sp?). It was just OK.

Now I'm reading "Pretty Girls" by Karin Slaughter, so far I'm not that into it, but I'm only like 2 chapters in so far.

I'm reading Still Me, the third in the Me Before You trilogy by Jojo Moyes. I'm only on page 100, but I like it. I'm not sure where it's headed yet, so far Louisa has been in New York for a month and is being her usual self.

Finished The Last Mrs Parrish by Liv Constantine. The writing was just cringe inducing at times. Wouldn't really recommend, can't figure out how it's on so many must read lists.

I think I'm starting One of us is Lying at lunch. I'll let you know my thoughts, Sil.

Mellen, I liked most of One of us is Lying. I even gave it 3 stars! I just thought the resolution was stupid. Which is the way I feel about most mysteries/thrillers these days.

I started The Ship of Brides by JoJo Moyes today.

Finished One of Us is Lying. I liked it ok. I kind of figured out what was going like halfway through though.

Next up is Need to Know which is a spy thriller.

I'm reading Mrs by Caitlin Macy. It's just ok. I'm far enough in that I'm committed but I'm not sure what the buzz is about. It's frankly hard to follow.

I finally finished Still Me by Jojo Moyes. I found it readable, but totally unnecessary. Characters and situations that were not well developed, too much boring drama between Lou and her boyfriend... ugh. I wish she'd stopped after After You.

I'm reading a Brazilian book of... chronicles, I think. Not sure of the term in English. I also have The Orphan's Tale from the library, but I'm not sure I'm in the mood for nazi horror.

Glad I'm not alone! I see all the 4 and 5-star ratings and think "wtf? have we read different books?". People are totally projecting their love for Me Before You and Jojo on this latest work.

See I loved Me Before You but didn't really like After You. I'm not even planning on reading this new one.

I finished Mrs. which was a bit of a slog. Definitely disappointed as it's getting a lot of buzz.

Next up is An American Marriage by Tayari Jones. I only have 2 days before it's due back at the library so I have to speed through it. It's so popular it will be months before I get it again.

I'm really liking An American Marriage -- it's been awhile since I brought a book to work because I wanted to read during my lunch.

ETA: I always *want* to read during my lunch it's just whether I can carve out the time or not.

Finished American Marriage last week. I liked it!

I'm almost done The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian - it's good but I generally like everything he does.

I finished "Pretty Girls" by Karin Slaughter, it ended up being quite good. A real page-turner.

Now I'm reading "Right Behind You" by Lisa Gardner. It turns out to be #7 in the series (which I discovered after reading the first 3 chapters), and I haven't read the first 6 books. But it's a pretty basic beach read thriller so I don't think it matters. So far it's entertaining.