Talk Healthy

So....still haven't cracked my book open yet this week. Working/adulting is really getting in the way.

If I could share how dirty my house is....ugh. Winter hockey is almost over and I should have a break for a bit until spring hockey and lax picks up.

Hope you find some time to read soon, Ro!

I finished the Harlan Coben. It was utter crap.

Then I decided The Last Hours (I think) by Minette Walters (I think). It's about the black plague!

The weird semi-apocalyptic novel I'm reading is called "The Heart Goes Last" by Margaret Atwood. That's why it's weird, hehe. I am pretty into it now that it's gotten rolling.

I'm about halfway through 99 Percent Mine. I'm really not liking it but I feel that I've passed the point of no return. Gah.

No Exit is next.

I just returned The Last Hours after getting to 41%. Great beginning, but got boring after that. Flat characters, not much happens. AND I found out it's the first of 2 books and has no ending. I'm not gonna read the next 300 boring pages only to NOT get to an ending of some sort!

Not sure what's next.

I started Nine Perfect Strangers. At first I was saving it because I love her and it'll be at least a couple of years until there's a new one, then Niko had the stroke and I wanted to wait until the crisis was mostly over to fully enjoy it, then I started reading some terrible reviews. Well, so far I love it, as usual. Only on page 50 or so, though.

Sil -- I think we definitely like opposite books. Haha. I'll have to remember that. Just in March alone - I love all Harlan's stand alones and hated hated Nine Perfect Strangers.

I also just finished 99 Percent Mine which I also hated. Sil? LOL It was sold as chick lit although I would say its more steamy romance. Every chapter they were talking about his muscles and flat flat stomach. I get it - i like muscles too but you're not telling me anything more about this character I don't know. At one point the main character tells the male counterpart to "get inside me" and this was fairly randomly while sitting in the living room.

Ro, that book sounds bad But it's good to know we have opposite tastes. The same thing used to happen with Mellen, and I totally took the books she hated as recommendations

I just finished "When Death Becomes Life: Notes from a Transplant Surgeon," by Joshua D. Mezrich, MD. It was so good, and even though I'm very much biased (the author is a surgeon at my hospital! I don't know him all that well, but he's a great surgeon and really down-to-earth & funny; his personality really shows in this book), I still think it's something that almost anyone would enjoy.

And now I'm back to "The Lies of Locke Lamora," by Scott Lynch. It's a sort-of fantasy novel about a notorious thief and his antics. I got about 25% into it when a couple other more high-demand books came in from my holds list, so I had to pause this one. So far it's decent but hasn't grabbed me quite as much as other similar novels have.

I read No Exit by Taylor Adams and it was great! Best book I read this year by far! If you like thrillers, check it out!

The Wild Lands by Paul Greci is next. From the publisher:

Natural disasters and a breakdown of civilization have cut off Alaska from the world and destroyed its landscape. Now, as food runs out and the few who remain turn on each other, Travis and his younger sister, Jess, must cross hundreds of miles in search of civilization.

The wild lands around them are filled with ravenous animals, desperate survivors pushed to the edge, and people who’ve learned to shoot first and ask questions never.

Travis and Jess will make a few friends and a lot of enemies on their terrifying journey across the ruins of today’s world—and they’ll have to fight for what they believe in as they see how far people will go to survive.

The Wild Lands is a pulse-pounding YA thriller full of shocking plot twists. It’s the ultimate survival tale of humanity’s fight against society’s collapse.

Finished Nine Perfect Strangers. I liked it, but I agree with the masses that it's not her best. I just love her characters, always.

Then I started Faking Friends by Jane Fallon.

I finished "The Heart Goes Last". I'd recommend it. It's kinda weird, but I liked it.

Now I'm reading "How Hard Could it Be?" by Alison Pearson. It's about a mom going through perimenopause. It's British. So far I'm enjoying it.

Finished Faking Friends. It was delicious! Apparently the author has this formula and keeps writing about deception and revenge. I don't know, but since it was my first one, I loved it.

Now I have the sample of Eligible.

Blush, that sounds like And then there were none!

Finished "Lies of Locke Lamora." It picked up steam and ended up being a decent fantasy novel with an interesting and well-developed world.

Going to continue working through a focused skim of another Peru guidebook and soon also start "The Hate U Give," by Angie Thomas. I'm hosting the next book club and chose that for us to read. I'm really looking forward to it.

Couldn't get into Eligible. I have a hard time reading things whose endings I already know. That's why I rarely reread anything. Then I started Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah. Everyone and their mother seems to have loved it, but she's hit and miss for me. I really liked The Nightingale. I liked Night Road a little less (and cannot tell you what it was about), but found it too melodramatic. Hated Home Front. Thought it was terribly melodramatic. I enjoy a good soap opera, but if I'm in the mood for that, I find Diane Chamberlain much more engaging. Anyway, where was I? I got Winter Garden at one of those kindle weeks for like 2 dollars and it's been sitting waiting to be read for a few months.

Couldn't get into Winter Garden AT ALL. I got to 20%, but it was so boring! I don't care if the part about the siege of Leningrad was supposed to be great, I can read a history book about that if I'm interested.

Then I read another book that sucked royally (yay, go me!), A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena. It was a mix of all the bad suspense movies you've seen in the last 30 years (NOTHING was original), with flat characters and uninspired writing. Worst book I've read this year so far. I only finished it because I'd already returned 2 books in a row to Amazon, and I never know if there's a limit to that

Then I started Becoming by Michelle Obama because I've been making such awful choices in fiction, I might be luckier with biographies.

I finished "The Hate U Give," by Angie Thomas. It was excellent--so very well-written and genuine. Sadly, it often felt like non-fiction, but I think that really shows just how important this novel is. I really love that it's YA also, just so that it possibly has greater chance to really make a difference in society.