A Book(s) Thread

[AGBF]

I just started "The Wife Between us" - will keep you posted

I looked that up after you mentioned it. It is now on my "to read" list. It just looks up my alley. Thanks, Queenie!

Deb

 

[missy]

I just started "The Wife Between us" - will keep you posted

Thank you Queenie, please do let us know what you think of it after you read it.

I've been enjoying some historical fiction lately. I especially enjoy when there are concurrent stories being told, present day and past and they come together so beautifully.

I loved the Nightingale,by Kristen Harris
Just finished Before We Were Yours, by Lisa Wingate. I loved it!!! So much so, it compelled me to do more research on the topic.
Another fave is Fall of Marigolds, by Susan Meissner.

Thank you all for the recommendations!

Thanks for your recommendations @Sandeek! Adding it to my never-ending (haha) list. I love reading and haven't been doing as much of it as I did when I was younger and really want to get back into getting lost in books. Cannot wait to get lost in books again.

 

[smitcompton]

HI All,

Like Deb, I have used the Library for most of my life-long reading. I love books and recently have taken to buying them, like Deb again. I go to a resale shop that has a book section that carries both hard and soft cover books. I treat myself to the hardcover books.

Today, I decided to pack up the books on my coffee table to take to my local food pantry that also has a small book sections for clients of that food pantry. Then I remembered from past purchases that I boxed away for the following reason. They are all first edition books. So, do I keep first edition books, or are they worthless and I should pass them along. The authors are Dan Brown, Nelson DeMille, Barach Obama, Scott Turow, and Steig Larsson(The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo), and quite a few others. They are brand new books, but have somehow gotten to this resale shop. No doubt they have been sitting in someones warehouse or storage unit. My son thinks I should pass them along to nieces and their children. I have not found my nieces to be interested in any of my collections, including jewelry. To Keep or Not To Keep, that dear booklovers, is the question?

Annette

 

[missy]

HI All,

Like Deb, I have used the Library for most of my life-long reading. I love books and recently have taken to buying them, like Deb again. I go to a resale shop that has a book section that carries both hard and soft cover books. I treat myself to the hardcover books.

Today, I decided to pack up the books on my coffee table to take to my local food pantry that also has a small book sections for clients of that food pantry. Then I remembered from past purchases that I boxed away for the following reason. They are all first edition books. So, do I keep first edition books, or are they worthless and I should pass them along. The authors are Dan Brown, Nelson DeMille, Barach Obama, Scott Turow, and Steig Larsson(The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo), and quite a few others. They are brand new books, but have somehow gotten to this resale shop. No doubt they have been sitting in someones warehouse or storage unit. My son thinks I should pass them along to nieces and their children. I have not found my nieces to be interested in any of my collections, including jewelry. To Keep or Not To Keep, that dear booklovers, is the question?

Annette

Hi Annette I am a big fan of hardcover books and if I have the option I purchase them over soft cover or the online kindle version. There is no substitute to reading a hardcover book IMO. If it were me and I thought there was a chance I would want to reread any of the hardcover books you have or a chance someone you know would appreciate receiving the book(s) I would hold onto them for now.

 

[VRBeauty]

Just finished The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton - a hefty bit of historical fiction/mystery/romance and good rainy day book. The book, set in England, starts with a teenage girl in the 60's seeing her mother murder a stranger. It then travels back to the London air raids in WWII, and forward to the (more or less) present as the events leading up to the murder unfold, and the girl, now an adult, tries to unravel who the man was, why she would have killed him, and what the incident says about her own family. it's also part fantasy, to me, in how some of the clues from the past are revealed to present-day sleuths.

I'm not always a fan of books that use a lot of "flashbacks" to tell a story in the present. Sometimes the device just seems to me like laziness on the author's part, and other times it's just done inartfully. It often makes for a bit of a slog when the author asks me to keep track of several story lines complete casts of characters, each with their own backstories. And as it swelled from two to four story lines, there was a point when The Secret Keeper seemed like a bit of a slog. But fortunately I was hooked by that point and read on... and on the whole, I really enjoyed this story and the way it was woven together.

 

[VRBeauty]

By the way, my copy of The Secret Keeper was a very good quality hardback that I bought at a local thrift shop for $3.00. I'll drop it off at the library with some library returns. They could add it to their collection, but more likely will sell it to some other book lover for $2.00. And so it goes...

 

[AGBF]

I'll be anxious to hear what you think about The Widow, Deb.
Hopefully, you'll find it interesting, enjoyable, or not a waste of money.

I am in the middle of The Widow and I absolutely love it! What a fabulous book! I am so glad you recommended it, december-fire! I don't know what I would do without this thread!

Right before I started this, I read Breaking Point by C.J. Box which is part of a series about a character who protects wildlife (and also fights bad guys) named Joe Pickett. I know I have read a couple of books in the series in the past, but I think I am going to read the series seriously now. I really enjoyed the last book so much. It has a western, outdoorsy theme and is set in Wyoming. (I think of you, redwood, with the horses and all.)

Deb/AGBF

 

[december-fire]

I am in the middle of The Widow and I absolutely love it! What a fabulous book! I am so glad you recommended it, december-fire! I don't know what I would do without this thread!

Deb, I'm so glad to read that! I hesitate to recommend books because not everyone enjoys the same type of thing. I'll be curious to hear your thoughts once you finish the book. Some times I feel as though a book ending is unrealistic or rushed - as if an editor was demanding the book be wrapped up by a certain deadline or not exceed a maximum word count, or the author just wanted to get it over and done with - whatever the actual reason, some books are a disappointment because of a poorly-written ending. This was not the case with The Widow! I don't think you'll be disappointed with the ending.

I'm still on the Library waiting list for The Child, also by Fiona Barton.

I have a couple of recommendations to make:

The Woman Next Door, by Cass Green.
The cover states 'Two women. Two dark secrets. The almost perfect murder.'
This fiction novel kept my interest, wondering what would happen next.
It was interesting to read about the two very different women who are the main characters.

The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto, by Mitch Albom.
(Mitch Albom is the author of the rather well-known books Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven, as well as other books.)
This fiction novel follows the life of a talented guitarist and is narrated by Music - as in the talent or art of Music. It includes 'comments' by famous, real life musicians about the fictitious guitarist, and the author draws similarities between music and life. Its a light read with a lot of quotable writing.

 

[doberman]

I read a lot, but it's the rare book that stays with me. This was one of them:
Afterlife by Marcus Sakey.

 

[AGBF]

Deb, I'm so glad to read that! I hesitate to recommend books because not everyone enjoys the same type of thing. I'll be curious to hear your thoughts once you finish the book. Some times I feel as though a book ending is unrealistic or rushed - as if an editor was demanding the book be wrapped up by a certain deadline or not exceed a maximum word count, or the author just wanted to get it over and done with - whatever the actual reason, some books are a disappointment because of a poorly-written ending. This was not the case with The Widow! I don't think you'll be disappointed with the ending.

Warning---Spoiler Alert---Warning---Spoiler Alert for The Widow---Warning---Spoiler Alert-----Warning--

OK, december-fire. I finished the book and I loved it. From the beginning (or practically) I wondered if she had pushed him under the bus. I had not guessed she knew where the baby's body was, however.

Given how the characters were portrayed (which was not, necessarily, realistic) I thought that ending made complete sense. I mean, I thought that from Jean's point of view, of course she and Bob Sparkes were the people who loved Bella most!

Thank you again for the recommendation. I thought that Fiona Barton did a wonderful job with the character of Jean Taylor. It would be fun to be assigned to write an essay diagnosing her for a professional course. The issues between her and Glen, the folie à deux, were not due to Glen's pathology alone!

Deb

 

[december-fire]

I read a lot, but it's the rare book that stays with me. This was one of them:
Afterlife by Marcus Sakey.

@doberman , after seeing your post, I picked up this book from the Library Friday night and just finished reading it.

This was different! The cover of the book had a comment from Don Winslow stating "Image the love story in the film Ghost dropped into The Matrix. Astonishing.". Its been ages since I saw The Matrix but, yes, this seems to be an apt description. Initially, I found myself pausing as the book's concept unfolded and my brain wrapped around the idea and looked for the plausibility of what was presented. Got over that and read it for what it is - fiction. You said that this book 'stayed with you'; I assume you mean the question of what comes next? Or perhaps what motivates certain actions?

Thanks for the book suggestion. I found it interesting.

Oh, the book cover also states "Soon to be a major motion picture".

 

[doberman]

@doberman , after seeing your post, I picked up this book from the Library Friday night and just finished reading it.

This was different! The cover of the book had a comment from Don Winslow stating "Image the love story in the film Ghost dropped into The Matrix. Astonishing.". Its been ages since I saw The Matrix but, yes, this seems to be an apt description. Initially, I found myself pausing as the book's concept unfolded and my brain wrapped around the idea and looked for the plausibility of what was presented. Got over that and read it for what it is - fiction. You said that this book 'stayed with you'; I assume you mean the question of what comes next? Or perhaps what motivates certain actions?

Thanks for the book suggestion. I found it interesting.

Oh, the book cover also states "Soon to be a major motion picture".

I've heard it's going to be a movie but that just means someone bought the rights. It could languish in development for ages. I'd go to see it though; Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen would be great as the main characters.

 

[VRBeauty]

I'm reading Martha Grimes's latest Richard Jury Mystery, The Knowledge. I generally like this series, although Jury has some friends that can get very tiring very quickly when they put in an appearance en masse. I'm really enjoying this book because said it's a good story, and said friends appear, but not en masse, and...

IT INVOLVES TANZANITE AND EVEN INCLUDES A VISIT TO A TANZANITE MINE!

That is all.

 

[AGBF]

I read Force of Nature by CJ Box after taking a break from the Joe Pickett series with The Widow. It was the book that came sequentially just prior to the last one I had read in the series and I read it because I was curious about a character who had been referenced in that last book (Nate Romanowski). I am taking a couple of days break from binge reading. (I have started, but was able to put down, Russian Roulette*.)


*Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump

 

[Dee*Jay]

It may be too early to recommend this since I'm only a quarter of the way through, but I'm loving Flight Behavior by Barbara Kinsolver.

And I also just read The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn. Really good with a twist at the end I did not see coming!

 

[AGBF]

I love Barbara Kinsolver. Thank you for the tip, Dee*Jay. I am reading yet another book in the Joe Pickett series by CJBox. I decided to go back to the beginning and read them in order (except for the ones I read recently). That does not mean that I do not read other books in between books from this series, however. I read two books by Tim Tigner: Pushing Brilliance and Lies of Spies because they got a lot of stars in Amazon reviews, but he is not an author for me. The characters were not fleshed out and the plot was insufficiently gripping to make up for the lack of characterization. I guess the fact that his name kept coming up as someone I would like based on what I read proved to be incorrect! I don't recall what else I have been reading.

I did watch "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" on Netflix. I mention this here because i read the book first, I don't know how many years ago. I loved the book. I also liked the movie.

Thanks for bringing this thread back up top, Dee*Jay!

Deb

 

[doberman]

An oldie but a goodie, The Journeyer by Gary Jennings.

 

[AGBF]

I just realized I never mentioned that I read The Child by Fiona Barton months ago, shortly after I finished The Widow. (I heard about them here from december-fire.) It was excellent, too, and I am anxiously awaiting the paperback version of Barton's third novel now.

Liane Moriarty also has another novel out. She has become one of my favorite contemporary female authors now that Margaret Maron is no longer writing Deborah Knott mysteries (not that Moriarty writes mysteries).

AGBF

 

[AGBF]

I just saw this article in "The New York Times" and thought it belonged in this thread. (It is about people who have a stack of unread books. I do. When I finish a book, I wander over to my stack to pick another one.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/books/review/personal-libraries.html

I am currently reading Poison by John Lescroart. It is the latest in his series about Dismas Hardy and Abe Glitsky and a host of other characters he has developed who whirl around them in current San Francisco. He is one of my favorite authors of legal thrillers because of his excellent characterization.

AGBF

 

[Queenie60]

I just saw this article in "The New York Times" and thought it belonged in this thread. (It is about people who have a stack of unread books. I do. When I finish a book, I wander over to my stack to pick another one.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/books/review/personal-libraries.html

I am currently reading Poison by John Lescroart. It is the latest in his series about Dismas Hardy and Abe Glitsky and a host of other characters he has developed who whirl around them in current San Francisco. He is one of my favorite authors of legal thrillers because of his excellent characterization.

AGBF

Thank you Deb. I'm going to read this after our book club book is finished. We're currently reading Something in the Water, A novel bu Catherine Steadman. Will let you know what I think of it in a week or so. So tired these days as I'm falling asleep after a few pages. Sometimes I resort to Audible to finish before our next meeting!

 

[vintageloves]

I'm reading The Life We Bury. This weekend, I finished Ladder to the Sky, which I absolutely recommend, and the Peculiar Children book (can never remember the full title), which I didn't like enough to continue with the series.

I need to hit up NetGalley for a new ARC.

 

[AGBF]

I just finished The Cutting Edge by Jeffery Deaver; it is his latest Lincoln Rhyme mystery. Since Mr. Deaver writes so many novels that include knives, I had no idea that the cutting in this book referred to the cutting of (or at least was a double entendre for the cutting of) diamonds! The book does include some diamond "stuff". I did find some parts of the book a bit outdated. In the book, the new, popular cut was the Princess cut.

AGBF

 

[AGBF]

Since I last posted I read four books by C.J. Box that are not about Joe Pickett. They are part of what is called "The Highway Quartet"*. (I wish I had known that they were a quartet so that I could have read them in order before I plunged into the first one.) I enjoyed them a lot. There is a fifth book in this series, Bitteroots, which is due to come out in a few months. I fear that I have read all the Joe Pickett novels that have already been published now and that I have to await every new book as it is written (just as I do with the books of so many authors I read).

I also read, and enjoyed greatly, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. As I was reading it I wondered if it had in any way inspired Fiona Barton when she wrote The Widow and The Child. I believe that the latter two books were written after The Girl on the Train although I read them before I read the former book. They have a common theme and all are written by English authors. At any rate, I have been enjoying books.

*The Highway Quartet:
Back of Beyond
The Highway
Badlands
Paradise Valley


Deb/AGBF

 

[AGBF]

A good friend sent me two books as a gift. Usually I wait and buy my No 1 Ladies Detective Agency books when they come out in paperback, but she sent me a hardback copy. What luxury! So I am reading the current book in the series earlier than I usually would be. It is The Colors Of All The Cattle.

Usually when I have one of Alexander McCall Smith's books I do not rush to it because although reading it gives me pleasure, it isn't a page-turner. So I have had this book for a few weeks. As always it has turned out to be quietly satisfying.

 

[AGBF]

OK.... I was hoping someone else would post to this thread, but if no one does, I guess I will keep it going for a while. I talked with one of my best and oldest friends on the phone today. (She lives in California and we schedule a once monthly phone call.) As always, we discussed the books we are each reading, so books have been on my mind today.

Recently I read The Bomb Maker by Thomas Perry, who is one of my favorite authors. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't my favorite book by him. Then I read The Disappeared, which is the latest in the Joe Pickett series by CJ Box. I enjoyed that one a lot. I am now reading an author who is new to me but who has written a series about a police detective in Ulster, Sean Duffy. Do any of you know the series? The author is Adrian McKinty and he only started publishing in 2004. His first Sean Duffy novel came out in 2013. He just recently came to my attention, perhaps because police stories are not really a genre I usually read, although I have read an occasional Ian Rankin novel and certainly have read a lot of classic private detective novels. I just don't usually read books where the action takes place in a police station. I have to say that this is very well written, however, and caused me to look up "eponymous" for about the thousandth time. I don't think I shall forget what it means it means this time because I wrote a whole treatise on its etymon so that I would understand it.

The name of the book, by the way is, Police At The Station And They Don't Look Friendly. It is quite engrossing.

AGBF

 

[AGBF]

I just finished Our Little Lies by Sue Watson. I bought it because it was billed as a psychological thriller, which I guess it was. Apparently the author, who had been unknown to me, has written numerous books in a lighter vein. She describes them as "humorous books involving love, laughter and cake". This book involves the death of an infant like so many (it seems to me) English novels these days. If a baby isn't being murdered by a pedophile, then a mother is enduring a stillbirth about which no one knows or accidentally smothering her infant whom she had in secret or drowning him a bathtub. In the case of this book the infant's death does not affect the mystery, so I am giving nothing away. It just happens to be part of the plot.

I found the beginning of the book a bit hard to read because it involved descriptions of an emotionally abusive marital relationship. It wasn't the relationship's degree of brutality (not that terrible) that disturbed me but that the female protagonist took so long to do anything about the abuse and the reader had to read episode after episode of what seemed to be the same thing before anything changed.

I guess I have been spoiled by what I consider better written novels like The Widow. Another small thing that bothered me the author's constant use of "like" when she should have been using "as". I read through the book correcting the author's grammar as I went along so that I would not become accustomed to the incorrect usage.

All in all, I think this book was worth reading if you like these British psychological crime novels.

Deb/AGBF

 

[AGBF]

I just read the first book in the series by Adrian McKinty about Detective Sean Duffy, the protagonist of Police At The Station And They Don't Look Friendly about which I wrote above; it was entitled The Cold Cold Ground. I am not sure that I want to read the entire series, but I am taking the books one at a time.
They are not really my genre, but they are well written and the author is erudite. I am also learning about northern Ireland.

After the Adrian McKinty book I read Crampton Hodnet, a book by Barbara Pym that was published posthumously. I went through a Barbara Pym phase years ago, but my memory being what it is (terrible) I could reread all her books and enjoy them anew. In the case of this book, it was actually new to me. I found it charming and quite funny.

Tonight I finished Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell, a suspense novel set in England. I got really absorbed in it while I was reading it and didn't want to put it down!That made for a very quick read!

 

[Indylady]

I looked that up after you mentioned it. It is now on my "to read" list. It just looks up my alley. Thanks, Queenie!

Deb

I read that! Lots of funky twists. If you like thrillers/mystery with female leads, Shari Lapena is pretty good. I liked A Stranger in the House. The Girl on the Train is great too.

 

[AGBF]

I read that! Lots of funky twists. If you like thrillers/mystery with female leads, Shari Lapena is pretty good. I liked A Stranger in the House. The Girl on the Train is great too.

I read The Girl On The Train a few weeks ago. I enjoyed it. I will look up Shari Lapena. As I have said before, I get many of my leads about what to read from this thread. So, thank you, Indylady! I am awaiting another book I ordered from Amazon after ksinger recommended in another thread, The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love.

Deb

 

[missy]

@AGBF @Indylady I enjoyed reading The Girl On The Train.
The movie was just ok though.
Thanks for recommending Shari Lapena and A Stranger in the House. I will check it out.

My mom dropped some books off while I am recuperating. First one I might start reading is
"The Thief of Auschwitz" by Jon Clinch.

Generally, I don't read any more books about WWII but my mom said it's good so maybe I will give it a shot.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16070965-the-thief-of-auschwitz