topic Re: What Are You Reading --- April 2015 in Community Chat

What Are You Reading --- April 2015

lainey1 — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 20:38:17 GMT

This book thread is started on the first of each month.

Some suggestions for posting here:

~ underline, bold or CAPITALIZE the name of the book you're reading - it makes it easier for us readers to see what it is

~ include the author of the book - there are so many books with the same title (if you are recommending a book we want to make sure we read the right one!)

~ post a few words about the book - would you recommend it or not

~ tell us the book genre - is it mystery, romance, historical, biography, etc.

***There is no obligation to do any of the above.

As always, all posters are welcome here!

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I'm getting a late start posting this month - can't believe it's April already!

Right now I'm reading Gone For Good by Harlan Coben.

Happy reading all! lainey

Re: What Are You Reading --- April 2015

abbalulu — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 20:58:52 GMT

I just finished Don't Try This At Home-Culinary Catastrophes From The World's Greatest Chefs by Andrew Friedman and Kimberly Witherspoon. Each chapter was written by a specific chef about an accident or something funny that happened in the kitchen or restaurant at some point in their career. Some of the incidents were interesting or funny and some not so much. It was a pretty easy read though and if one chapter wasn't very interesting the next might be; so it went quickly.

Re: What Are You Reading --- April 2015

skyblue — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 21:32:53 GMT

I finished The Rosie Project which I loved, and The Rosie Effect which was fine, but not as good as the first.

I am now reading Paper Towns by John Green.

Re: What Are You Reading --- April 2015

sandy53 — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 22:36:40 GMT

I have found a new mystery series! And I am a sucker for a good series. This was recommended on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. The author is Julia Spencer-Fleming and I just finished the first one published back in 2002 called In the Bleak Midwinter. The main characters are the chief of police and an Episcopal priest (female) in an upstate New York small town. This book starts with a newborn baby found on the steps of the church, involves two murders, and chemistry developing between the chief and the reverend. Very Good! There are eight books in the series and I think I will binge read them all.

Re: What Are You Reading --- April 2015

Colinka — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 00:32:18 GMT

I am reading "A Pleasure and a Calling" by Phil Hogan. Quite an unusual book in that you actually find yourself rooting for the narrator, who is kind of a creepy voyeur. If you've ever read "The Talented Mr. Ripley" you know what it is like to have the main character be sneaky and malicious, but also sympathetic, in a strange way.

Here's part of a review of it from "Goodreads": Rarely do you read a book which is totally original, creepy, delightfully and darkly funny and enjoyable from cover to cover. I am pleased to say that this is such a book. Estate agent William Heming lives in a leafy and prosperous community. He is successful, self employed and adept at reading people. However, Heming has a secret – he has the keys of every house he has sold and he is more familiar with his clients lives, and their properties, than you might expect..

You can't put it down!

Re: What Are You Reading --- April 2015

Judaline — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 12:52:47 GMT

If you loved The Paris Architect like I did, Charles Belfoure has a second novel premiering in December. It's called House of Thieves.

sandy, your series sounds good. Will get the first one.

Re: What Are You Reading --- April 2015

LoriLori — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 13:07:36 GMT

Finished "I Am Half-Sick of Shadows", the latest in Alan Bradley's Flavia series. Loved it!!! Flavia fans know how much there is to love. Anyone who has not tried this cozy series (should be read in order) is missing out on a delightful, amusing mystery series.

And now for something completely different: I'm reading "FROM LANDFILL TO HALLOWED GROUND: THE LARGEST CRIME SCENE IN AMERICA" by Ret. NYPD Det. Frank Marra. He worked the Staten Island Landfill, where the debris from the collapsed World Trade Center and surrounding areas was brought. LE from every borough sifted through it, uncovering everything from intact cars and fire trucks to a finger with a ring, for example, which if identified would be returned to the family. It is a short, deeply sad and fascinating book, expensive (self-published), but worth it, to me. No part of the person I lost on 9/11 has been recovered, but not for lack of trying. The firemen and officers who lost their lives on 9/11 have been heralded, as they should be; those who did this job, in the landfill, did it quietly, earnestly, twelve hours a shift, and I for one had no idea the scope until this book.

Re: What Are You Reading --- April 2015

Judaline — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 13:52:00 GMT

lori, did it mention the dogs that died trying to find people? I have heard stories and I just wondered if they're true. I'm sorry you lost someone. I have a friend who went to the site after the fact and it said she felt so at peace standing there, on the outside looking in. I don't understand that. I think I would be very sad and not want to be there. She said she wanted to be-I guess so because she made the trip.

Re: What Are You Reading --- April 2015

LoriLori — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 14:03:56 GMT

Jud, the dogs were at the actual site looking for survivors, and finding a few. I don't remember hearing any of the dogs died but I know initially NYC did not provide the dogs with protective gear for their feet. There was a huge and rightful outcry and that changed, private money was raised and I seem to remember Canada sending things for the dogs.

But there were no survivors possible at the landfill in Staten Island where everything was barged over, sifted through, marked as evidence, described, photographed, DNA testing of body parts, there were even pieces of bodies where they could not tell what part of the body it was. One widow took the ferry with her kids so they could sit in her husband's car. LE also went through the contents of every trunk and glove compartment of every car, truck and fire engine.

An amazing book and I'm only on page 30.

As for peace, most of his family feels peaceful and centered at the memorial, but not all of them.

Sorry this post is so long!

Re: What Are You Reading --- April 2015

Judaline — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 14:58:37 GMT

God have mercy.

Re: What Are You Reading --- April 2015

lolakimono — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 15:58:03 GMT

I'm reading this now-

When someone you love vanishes without a trace, how far would you go to get them back?
For ex-FBI profiler Pierce Quincy, it’s the beginning of his worst nightmare: a car abandoned on a desolate stretch of Oregon highway, engine running, purse on the driver’s seat. And his estranged wife, Rainie Conner, gone, leaving no clue to her fate.

Did one of the ghosts from Rainie’s troubled past finally catch up with her? Or could her disappearance be the result of one of the cases they’d been working– a particularly vicious double homicide or the possible abuse of a deeply disturbed child Rainie took too close to heart? Together with his daughter, FBI agent Kimberly Quincy, Pierce is battling the local authorities, racing against time, and frantically searching for answers to all the questions he’s been afraid to ask.

One man knows what happened that night. Adopting the alias of a killer caught eighty years before, he has already contacted the press. His terms are clear: he wants money, he wants power, he wants celebrity. And if he doesn’t get what he wants, Rainie will be gone for good.

Sometimes, no matter how much you love someone, it’s still not enough.
As the clock winds down on a terrifying deadline, Pierce plunges headlong into the most desperate hunt of his life, into the shattering search for a killer, a lethal truth, and for the love of his life, who may forever be…gone.

Re: What Are You Reading --- April 2015

smoky22 — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 16:50:53 GMT

I read Cold, Cold Heart by Tami Hoag. I should say I read about 100 pages and skimmed the rest. These books are so predictable. I'm really not sure why I read it. I guess these thrillers are just not my genre.

I'm almost finished with Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. The book is about the fact that most doctors don't know how to have a serious discussion with people about the end of life. They just want to do whatever it takes to prolong someone's life, no matter that it's for a very short time, or that it makes that person utterly miserable at the end. This is a very dry book, though, and not that interesting. Most of it seemed like common sense to me.

colinka, A Pleasure and a Calling sounds interesting. I like when a book is a little out of the ordinary.

Re: What Are You Reading --- April 2015

number one queen — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 02:52:22 GMT

I just recived from amazon PeterRobinson, newest book, not even over here yet! It was such a thrill to open a package from England and smell the pages of the book, Blue albitoir, is the newest.

Re: What Are You Reading --- April 2015

pateacher — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 04:19:50 GMT

Currently, I am reading Gray Mountain- John Grisham, predictable and not much meat here.

Last week I reread The Dovekeepers-Alice Hoffman in preparation for the tv movie. The movie did not do the novel justice, imho.

Next on my list is At the Water's Edge-Sara Gruen, who also wrote Water for Elephants.

Re: What Are You Reading --- April 2015

lolakimono — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 15:12:28 GMT

I just started this-

When Olivia, wild-haired and headstrong, makes a terrible mistake, she must turn to the person least likely to help—her mother, Elaine.

Motherhood was a role that Elaine never embraced and her best never amounted to much. But now Olivia faces prosecution for a naïve connection to a drug deal and she needs Elaine more than ever. As the days count down and Olivia's future hangs in the balance, Elaine must decide just how much she is willing to give for a second chance with her daughter.

Re: What Are You Reading --- April 2015

joannecha — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 16:05:08 GMT

Just started Harlan Coben's newest, "The Stranger" last night. I'm about halfway through & I think I will have to have a marathon reading session until it's finished. Just discovered author Laura Lippman and have, "And When She Was Good" on deck. 4 books on hold from the library may be in today, so that would make for one very happy reading addict. I usually get ideas for new authors from either Book Page or Goodreads, but lately I've been combing through this forum for new ideas. We all get stuck in a rut with our favorite authors/genres, so it's nice to break out of that shell once in a while. Thanks for all the great ideas.

Re: What Are You Reading --- April 2015

Honeybit — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 21:52:59 GMT

lolakimono -- Great job of describing Lisa Gardner's GONE. Thanks for your review!

Re: What Are You Reading --- April 2015

BornToShop — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 21:54:10 GMT

I continue to highly recommend this new mystery suspense writer; PETER SWANSON. His first is THE GIRL WITH A CLOCK FOR A HEART & his newest is THE KIND WORTH KILLING. He is a refreshing addition to the otherwise circle of renowned authors who put out a new release every other week &, who are not even writing their own books anymore.

Re: What Are You Reading --- April 2015

DiAnne — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 23:09:07 GMT

I just finished After I am Gone by Laura Lippman. First book of hers I have read but definitely not the last!

"When Felix Brewer meets Bernadette "Bambi" Gottschalk at a Valentine's Dance in 1959, he charms her with wild promises, some of which he actually keeps. Thanks to his lucrative--if not all legal--businesses, she and their three little girls live in luxury. But on the Fourth of July, 1976, Bambi's comfortable world implodes when Felix, newly convicted and facing prison, mysteriously vanishes. Though Bambi has no idea where her husband--or his money--might be, she suspects one woman does: his mistress, Julie. When Julie disappears ten years to the day that Felix went on the lam, everyone assumes she's left to join her old lover--until her remains are eventually found. Now, twenty-six years after Julie went missing, Roberto "Sandy" Sanchez, a retired Baltimore detective working cold cases for some extra cash, is investigating her murder. What he discovers is a tangled web stretching over three decades that connects five intriguing women. And at the center is the missing man Felix Brewer. Somewhere between the secrets and lies connecting past and present, Sandy will find the truth. And when he does, no one will ever be the same" -- from publisher's web site.

Re: What Are You Reading --- April 2015

Judaline — Sat, 04 Apr 2015 12:15:58 GMT

I'm reading Serena. I like it but it is very slow going. I wonder if I should just wait for the movie? I don't like her at all. She gives me the creeps. There is something lying deep down I just know it and I guess that's what keeps me going.