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I have always had an interest in science and weather, so a friend recommended this book to me! This is actually the only book written so far by this author, but I do sincerely hope he writes more in the future.
I Have Something to Tell You by Chasten Buttigieg. For years my favorite books were biographies as I wanted to learn more about people. In recent years, I've been reading more fiction so this was a nice return for me.
Chasten writes about his own personal struggles of growing up as well as being thrust onto the national stage when his husband became a candidate for US President. It was heart warming, insightful and authentic.
By the way, my word to live by for 2022 is "authentic" so I found this book particularly meaningful as he presented himself to the world in such a candid way.
I remember hearing about this on the news and I think a news talk show as well. This sounds like a great book. I need to read more inspiring biographies.
Chasten also features often in the "Mayor Pete" documentary I saw recently on Amazon Prime video. A very worthwhile watch.
Sovereign Erotics-an anthology of poems and short stories written by Indigenous authors, many of whom are Two Spirit, queer, or of similar identity. It was a fascinating book and I think I experienced quite possibly every human emotion while reading it. 10/10, highly recommend!
I am going to have to check that out. I love a book that takes me on a roller coaster ride of emotions.
I'm working through the Sherlock Holmes stories/books. They've been on my reading list for awhile. If anyone has good mystery or thriller recommendations let me know! :)
I am not a big fan of mysteries/thrillers but Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson is so good. I went through those books so quickly.
Thank you Sarah! I've added to my Goodreads list and will check it out :)
I have not read Sherlock Holmes, I should have by now! I love thrillers and murder mysteries. You might want to check out the Patricia Cornwell series --- start at the beginning!
I'm also making my way through the Sherlock Holmes series. It's tough trying to navigate through 19th century UK English but it's still rewarding when I finish each story.
Yes I've had to look up some of the words in the stories to make sure I'm understanding. I just recently finished A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four.
I am reading Serpentine by Johnathan Kellerman. It is a great so far. It has his repetitive character Alex Delaware. If you like series, this is a good series and I recommend starting at the beginning if you can find the books or CD's.
Jeffery Deaver is one of my favorite mystery and crime writers. His books always keeping me interested and I can never guess the ending.
I love Jeffery Deaver. He is one of the best!
The Yellow Waldo is riveting
Have you found everyone yet?
Its just the one guy. He's a reoccurring character who likes to wander. His outfit choice leaves alot to be desired but i guess he cornered the horizontal stripe market. He is reminiscent of the PBS legend Rick Steves in that he travels the world to super crowded places and loses his glasses a lot. by the end of yellow waldo, i not only found him on the page, i found him in my heart. He was there all along.
In Spanish. the Title is: "Donde' Esta Wally" Which gave me far more pleasure to read than the original. The later books leave a lot to be desired. But Yellow Waldo is highly recommended.
I just finished We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Over the last few years I've been working on knocking some things off my "literary bucket list" - classics I have always been interested in but just never started reading. With Shirley Jackson, I started with The Haunting of Hill House last year, and decided to give "Castle" a go. Her work took me some getting used to. It is subtle, leans heavily on tone, atmosphere, and subtext, and to me almost seemed old fashioned at first. Hill House and Castle both struck me like that. But - I stuck with each of them and eventually I realized they had gotten under my skin, overtaken my imagination, and I couldn't WAIT to see how the stories turned out. She is brilliant, and well worth checking out!
I agree with you! It took me a whole summer to read We Have Always Lived in the Castle, because her writing felt dense and... a lot. But I absolutely loved it when I finished it. We have a comic panel of the first paragraph of the novel on the wall in our house, and my wife made an embroidery sample for our kitchen that says, "I'm going to put death in their food and watch them die." For some reason, we rarely have guests anymore.
This is the second book in a series, and I have already read the first one. It's set in a fictional area of Ireland, and as soon as I ran across the word "gobsmacked", I was hooked!
The main character is a librarian in a small library with a precarious future, but things start to look up by the end of the first book. In this second book, she is contemplating a possible romance, and her daughter, mother, and ex-husband also pop up in the plot, along with other quirky characters. I actually sometimes have a hard time keeping them straight, but so many things are happening that I keep having to read another chapter!
There are several books in this series, and of course I now have to read them all! If you like fictional books set in the British Isles, you might like these, too. And hey, when a library is one of the "characters", even better!
This is the second book in a series, and I have already read the first one. It's set in a fictional area of Ireland, and as soon as I ran across the word "gobsmacked", I was hooked!
The main character is a librarian in a small library with a precarious future, but things start to look up by the end of the first book. In this second book, she is contemplating a possible romance, and her daughter, mother, and ex-husband also pop up in the plot, along with other quirky characters. I actually sometimes have a hard time keeping them straight, but so many things are happening that I keep having to read another chapter!
There are several books in this series, and of course I now have to read them all! If you like fictional books set in the British Isles, you might like these, too. And hey, when a library is one of the "characters", even better!
This is another Milo Sturgis series book. It is a murder mystery. If you like John Sandford, James Patterson, Patricia Cornwell you will like Jonathan - a mysterious woman found with a bullet in her head in a torched Cadillac that has overturned on infamously treacherous Mulholland Drive. No physical evidence, no witnesses, no apparent motive. And a slew of detectives have already worked the case and failed. But as Delaware and Sturgis begin digging, the mist begins to lift. Too many coincidences. Facts turn out to be anything but. And as they soon discover, very real threats lurking in the present. Kellerman too.
It was a great book, I couldn't wait to get back to it to see what twist was next.
I saw this title scrolling on the website and was intrigued. I was not disappointed. Set during the Dust Bowl days, it is a road trip story like no other. The book is based on a true story about two giraffes that survived a hurricane coming across the Atlantic from Africa then traveled cross country to California on a truck in a wooden crate. The characters are well written and the troubles along the way keep the story interesting. I read the historical account afterward and enjoyed learning about the famous giraffes of the San Diego Zoo. I highly recommend this book!
If you're like me and love diving in to a good quirky nonfiction book, I highly recommend Girly Drinks: A world history of women and alcohol by Mallory O'Meara. Most nonfiction books about cocktails are full of recipes and fluff, but this is really a great deep dive that goes back to the earliest times to show the major role women have played in the history of alcohol. You learn about women distillers, women who are bartenders and how even though women have been deeply involved in the production and distribution of alcohol, there were often times when enjoying a drink in public became a very gendered experience. If you like a good IPA you'll enjoy the story of the nun who first introduced hops into beer recipes. The rest (they say) is hop-story! ;)
If you're like me and love digging into a good quirky nonfiction book, I highly recommend Girly Drinks: A world history of women and alcohol by Mallory O'Meara. While many nonfiction books about cocktails and drinking are full of recipes and fluff, but this takes a deep dive into the subject and goes back to the earliest of times to show the major role women have played in the history of alcohol. You learn about women distillers, women who are bartenders and how even though women have been deeply involved in the production and distribution of alcohol, there were often times when enjoying a drink in public was a very gendered (male) experience. If you like a good IPA you'll enjoy the story of the nun who first introduced hops into beer recipes. The rest (they say) is hop-story! ;)
Alessandra has one wish: to gain power. She decides the best way to do this is to marry the Shadow King - and then kill him and seize the throne. However, when she arrives at court, she discovers that there's already an assassin on the loose. Who gets to the king first, and will Alessandra's secrets be exposed in the meantime?
YA fantasy/romance, though it reads like adult novel. (Definitely not suitable for younger teens.) Fast-paced and addicting - I couldn't put it down! I love how bold Alessandra is and how she's really an anti-hero. It makes her so much more relatable - as does her bumbling family.
I'm late to the game, but currently listening to The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. I put off watching the show until about a month ago because I worried the imagery would be "unseeable," but now I can't stop watching it. I started listening to the audiobook in the hopes that it would give more details about the characters, rituals, and history of Gilead. While it doesn't quite fulfill that hope, it is interesting to see the differences between the book and the show.
If you like it the sequel is great! I feel like she wrote it with some of the tv show in mind. Given I could only watch one episode with out feeling overwhelmed.
I'm reading Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen.
I picked it up from the library a few days ago but haven't started it yet; I'm interested to hear what you think. I've enjoy her books.
I am reading One of the Girls by Lucy Clarke...a hen week turned murder mystery set in Greece. So far, it's interesting and I haven't figured out who I think is going to die! I am also reading The Blame Game by Sandie Jones and I am not sure if I will DNF it or not. I am giving it about 30 more pages to see if I want to know what happens.
I didn't watch iCarly or Sam and Cat growing up but I heard really good things about this book and its great. It is heartbreaking at times but Jennette is a great storyteller.
I'm currently reading Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. A slight homage to Julia Child, but mixed with science and the women's movement of the 1960s. A chemist becomes a TV Cooking star.
I'm about a week into listening to The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson for a book club. It promises to be a feminist dark fairy tale. I'll try to update.
I really enjoyed that book. I read it when it came out. Hope you are enjoying it!
I am currently in the first book of the Gormenghast series by Mervyn Peake. The series was intended as a single ongoing novel but ended after three due to the failing health of Peake.
I'm reading this because I've seen it turn up on multiple "Greatest Novels of the 20th Century," "Greatest English-language Novels," type lists. The final deciding factor for me was when I saw that the Folio Society just published a limited edition of the trilogy, priced at over $1,100! The price, more than the critical raves, finally decided it for me (he admitted to his shame)!
So far, it reads like a 20th century novel, set in medieval times. The colorful cast of characters is introduced vividly through Peake's distinctive writing, which is lyrical and lovely. The details pull you into each dusty, sensory-rich room of Gormenghast castle, and I found myself immediately getting pulled in to the world Peake has created. The biggest surprise so far is how funny it is! The characters define quirk, and the audiobook narrator is wonderful. It's a long road ahead of me, but I'm excited for the journey!
i have been reading some mysteries by Beth Byers, but now i'm re-reading the Wrinkle in Time books by Madeleine L'Engle. its been a long time and I find i'm getting so much more out of them! makes it kinda exciting and emotional to re-read them!
I just finished reading The Deep by Nick Cutter. The Deep is about an expedition to the bottom of the ocean to search for a cure to a global pandemic, commonly referred to as The 'Gets. Infected people start with forgetting simple things, like where they put their car keys, until the disease progresses to the point that their body's organs forget how to function, and the person dies. Something has gone wrong with the expedition, as all three scientists located in the lab at the bottom of the ocean have cut off communication. A sibling of one of the scientists is called to help in re-establishing communication, and that's where the story begins.
The Deep has been compared to The Shining meets The Abyss, and I think that's a fair comparison, especially if you throw in Event Horizon.
I kept hearing on TikTok, "This book TRAUMATIZED me!" or "This book haunts me to this day." I wanted to see if those reviews held true for me, and I don't know that I would use those words in a book review, but it was a disturbing and upsetting read. But the kind you can't stop reading anyway.
That sounds like a perfect read for the spoopy season! I want to put it on my horror display!
Six months ago Nona woke up in a strangers body and now she might have to give it back. This is the third book in The Locked Tomb series and it focuses on finding out who Nona actually is and the consequences of finding the correct body/character for the spirit she has. It's incredibly confusing and that made it absolutely amazing to read. I loved it because it continued my favorite series and gave me a new character to love as much as the main characters of the last two books, Gideon and Harrow (who are totally in love with each other and won't admit it)!
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