What Are You Reading? 2013 version

[tina rose]

CHRISSYG wrote:

tina rose wrote:
Amazon just delivered three books..."Arm Candy" byChristopher Gaida, "Drinking & Tweeting" by Brandi Glanville, and "Silver Linings Playbook" by Matthew Quick.

Tina, can you let us (me) know what you thought of Silver Linings Playbook when you’re done reading it?

Chrissy,
I liked it. The subject matter hit close to home.

[tina rose]

i am about to start "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. I have had the book for years (inherited from my daughter) but never read it. Now, with all the oscar wins I am intrigued.

[Recipe Reader]

I just finished The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton and liked it. I'll be looking at her other books, this one kept me engrossed.

A review from GoodReads describes the plot:
"In 1961, when Laurel Nicolson was sixteen, she witnessed a shocking event. She and her mother were the only ones who knew the truth, and they never spoke of it. Fast-forward to 2011. Laurel is a famous actress in her sixties, and her mother Dorothy is dying. Before her mother dies, Laurel wants to uncover the roots of that long-ago shocking event. Her investigation takes her back to the London of 1941, when her mother was young and impulsive and full of secret plans. The story alternates between 2011 and 1941, following Laurel's discoveries about the mother she thought she knew."

[duonyte]

I am rereading Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series. Sometime in the Roman Era there as a divergence, where an alternate universe was created. People are able to control elementals - called furies - fire, water, earth, air. They don't believe that the roads and buildings of the Roman Empire were created without the use of these elementals. There is a crisis of leadership at the same time that the realm is under attack.

These books are a good read.

[K9 Owned]

duonyte wrote:
I am rereading Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series. Sometime in the Roman Era there as a divergence, where an alternate universe was created. People are able to control elementals - called furies - fire, water, earth, air. They don't believe that the roads and buildings of the Roman Empire were created without the use of these elementals. There is a crisis of leadership at the same time that the realm is under attack.

These books are a good read.

They sound right up my alley! Thanks

[duonyte]

They are very good - this is the same author as the Harry Dresden series of books (great books, awful TV show). The first book in the Codex Alera series is Furies of Calderon.

[seashell]

I am presently reading Retirement Homes are Murder by Mike Befeler. It is a humorous story set in a retirement home in Hawaii. The main character is a hoot. He suffers from short term memory and is very likeable. He has a buddy, Meyer, who is helping him keep a journal which is helping him with his memory loss. Amazon can do a better summary of the storyline. It is the first book in a series, and I already want to read more . It is just a "cute" story. Anyone should enjoy this book.

[M&Mers]

I really should visit more often...

I've read more than a few books since last posting.

I've caught up with Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Armande Gamache murder mystery series set in Quebec (The Brutal Telling, Bury Your Dead, A Trick of the Light and The Beautiful Mystery). Very good series. Thanks to whoever got me started on it.

A Death In the Small Hours by Charles Finch, the latest installment in his Charles Lenox series set in Victorian era Britain, a mild murder mystery series (not a lot of graphic details).

Dark Places and Sharp Objects both by Gillian Flynn. I enjoy her somewhat dark stories and her style of writing.

I've also caught up in Stefanie Pintoff's Simon Ziele series with A Curtain Falls and Secret of the White Rose...murder mystery set in turn-of-the-century New York. Another good series.

Waiting for the next installment of Tasha Alexander's Emily Ashton series (historical suspense set in Victorian England). The cool thing about this series is that she and her husband travel a lot so, although they're both from England, the settings of the books vary. I also like the fact that EA is ahead of her time and sees no reason why a woman can't do anything a man can do...like smoking cigars and drinking port! A fun series.

With Fatal Tide, I've decided to give up on Iris Johansen's Eve Duncan series. It's too formulaic...same plot, different characters.

A new series (for me) of three books by Jo-Ann Mapson was quite enjoyable. It's the Bad Girl Creek series...Bad Girl Creek, Along Came Mary and Goodbye Earl.

I started Charles Todd's Inspector Ian Rutledge series (set in post-WW1 England)...A Test of Wills. A good series...and long! I've read one of fifteen in the series!

The long awaited next book in the Deborah Crombie Duncan Kincaide/Gemma James series, The Sound of Breaking Glass was started and finished in one day...Sigh...2 years till the next one?

Another favorite author of mine is Lisa Genova. Her latest book, Love Anthony deals with autism. With a degree in biopsychology and a PhD in neuroscience, LG's novels always have a medical slant to them and they are always fascinating reads.

Shadow on the Crown by Patricia Bracewell...a very good first novel, revolves around 15-year-old Emma of Normandy in the year 1002. This historical fiction novel is based on real events. With the way the book ended, I'm thinking it was the first in a series.

I read A Week In Winter by Maeve Binchy with a heavy heart...this was the author's last book...she passed away in 2012 . Set in Britain, MB's books were always heart-warming. Since I read a lot of suspense and murder mystery novels, I always looked forward to hers as a nice change of pace. Thank you Ms Binchy!

I am currently reading Ted Kerasote's Pukka's Promise: The Quest for Longer-Lived Dogs. Most of you don't remember my extolling the virtues of his first novel, Merle's Door: Lessons From a Free-Thinking Dog. I bawled when I read it a couple of years ago but was compelled to finish it...TK's love and respect for his dog shone through with every word. I grew teary-eyed at the beginning of this one as he does a little reminiscing. This book deals not only with raising Pukka (pronounced PUCK-a) but with TK's search for answers with regards to selecting the right dog (through genetics), feeding the right diet (raw vs commercial), vaccinations (what and how often) and training (hoverdad vs giving them breathing room to explore, learn and build confidence in themselves). Being a retired veterinary technician, I find this book very hard to put down. Along with Merle's Door, very highly recommended.

I'm going to stop now

M&Mers

[NurseJaney]

Thanks, M&Mers -- some good leads there !

[Barefoot Beachcomber]

Thank you for all the great leads for new books.

I read 'Shadow on the Crown' and enjoyed it too.
And you are right, more is coming. I was just on 'Goodreads' and
found it will be a trilogy; so! lots more to look forward to.

[Zurie]

M&Mers , Maeve Binchy is dead?? What a shock -- I didn't know. I enjoyed several of her books.

Currently, I have re-read Frances Mayes' "Under the Tuscan Sun". I read it whan it came out, in the 90's, but have forgotten much -- enoyed it all over again. A sort of armchair travel and armchair-enjoying-fixing-up-an-old-house!

Pleasant bedtime reading.

I also got their "The Tuscan Sun Cookbook", but honestly, I read cookbooks like novels, and seldom cook from them! It's a lovely book.

[M&Mers]

Barefoot Beachcomber wrote:
Thank you for all the great leads for new books.

I read 'Shadow on the Crown' and enjoyed it too.
And you are right, more is coming. I was just on 'Goodreads' and
found it will be a trilogy; so! lots more to look forward to.

BB...that's great news! I hope the next one comes out soon but, as with most series I read, I will likely have forgotten everything that transpired in the first book!

M&Mers

[M&Mers]

Zurie wrote:
M&Mers , Maeve Binchy is dead?? What a shock -- I didn't know. I enjoyed several of her books.

Sadly, yes Zurie...as with Arianna Franklin, who wrote the Mistress In the Art of Death series, I have read everything she's ever written. I will miss both of these very fine authors.

M&Mers

[M&Mers]

I have finished reading Pukka's Promise, a more technical book than Merle's Door and, of course, much much less gut-wrenching since Pukka is only 3 1/2 years old by the end of the book. It will be interesting to see if Ted Kerasote does indeed extend Pukka's life by implementing all the knowledge he garnered from the research he did in the five years between the passing of Merle and the adopting of Pukka (guess we will never know since there is no control subject). Regardless, I wish Pukka a long and healthy life.

Someone lent me about 20 books to read as fillers when I'm between library pick ups. One of them was James Patterson's Tick Tock which he co-wrote with someone else. It was a decent read and when I realized it was a series starring Mike Bennett, a NYC detective, and that I had actually read the 3rd or 4th book in the series, my anal compulsion to do everything in order got me starting on the rest of the series. I've read Step On A Crack and I've almost finished Run For Your Life. They're good but not great stories.

M&Mers

[M&Mers]

Studentchef wrote:
I just finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Some ome from the old thread, during the summer, when I mentioned The Kite Runner, recommended his second novel.. Anyway, he should write more, the man is a genius.

Hi Studentchef...I agree that KH is an excellent author...he did write another book. It's called And the Mountains Echoed. I'm third in line at the library for it. In the last thread, I had mentioned that I liked ATSS better than TKR (although they were both excellent novels). Which did you prefer?

M&Mers

Here's the splerby for his newest...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/and-the-mountains-echoed-hosseini-khaled/1114193156?ean=9781594632099