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Re: What are You Reading? May 2019

Thank goodness I finished Professor Chandra Finds His Bliss.  It took me 8 days since I kept picking it up and putting it down and deciding if I wanted to finish it.  I did but sorry I did.

 

Onto Heather Webber's Midnight At The Blackbird Cafe which was surprise book mail.

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Re: What are You Reading? May 2019


@smoky22 wrote:

I just finished Then She Was Gone (Lisa Jewell).  As with the other two books I read by this author, it's very well written, but I found it disturbing.   I read that she had a different ending in mind and her editor convinced her this was the way to go.  It's more shocking this way, but not an improvement in my opinion.


@smoky22- I agree with you, as I found it disturbing as well. Some of the ending made no sense. There were quite a few discussions on Goodreads about the ending, which the author discussed. I read the book a while ago and I'm forgetting some details, but I do remember there was a discrepancy about how the kidnapper was able to get the girl pregnant; was it with sperm she bought on the internet, or was it the boyfriend's? I still don't know!  And then there was the thing with the pets...

 

However, It did hold my interest and I think I gave 3.5 out of five stars.

"That's a great first pancake."
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Re: What are You Reading? May 2019

I haven't been able to post much so I'll give a synopsis of what I read. I finished Ike and Kay by James MacManus, a based-on-fact account of General Eisenhower's affair with Kay Summersby, his driver in Europe. Although I took this as mostly fiction, I have another book written by the driver, which I think I'll believe a lot more.

 

Then I read In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larsen, another book based on fact, all taken from diaries and other written articles. This was about the US Ambassador to Germany, James Dodd, who was there through WWII. Very interesting as well as disturbing to discover how easy it was for hitler and his ilk to rise to power.

 

I then read Split-Level by Sande Boritz Berger. Very enjoyable trip back to the 1970's with young married suburban couples who got involved in "the swinging life." I enjoyed it a lot as I was able to relate to that point in time, being about the same age as the main characters.

 

And now I'm reading Auschwitz Lullaby by Mario Escobar, a fairly typical story of a family of prisoners (A Romani husband, an Aryan wife and their 4 young children) in Auschwitz trying to stay alive.

 

I'm finding it interesting. After finishing this, I'm going to have to move along to books that are not about hitler and the camps!

"That's a great first pancake."
Lady Gaga, to Tony Bennett
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Re: What are You Reading? May 2019

I just finished reading Marlon Brando by Richard Schickel. The best part of the book are the pictures. They needed to edit this book a whole lot better than they did. It was distracting.

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Re: What are You Reading? May 2019

Since I get my books at the library, I am sometimes a bit behind everyone else.  I just finished Where the Crawdads Sing and really enjoyed it...could hardly put it down.  For me, it dragged a bit with the courtroom/trial part of the story line, and I found myself not reading all of the poetry, but I am still thinking about the book days later.  

Last night, I started reading The Library Book.  As hard as I tried, I could just not get into it so PTB.

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Re: What are You Reading? May 2019

The Matriarch (Barbara Bush), by Susan Page;

Two Weeks, by Karen Kingsbury.

"Live frugally, but love extravagantly."
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Re: What are You Reading? May 2019


@Ainhisg wrote:

Since I get my books at the library, I am sometimes a bit behind everyone else.  I just finished Where the Crawdads Sing and really enjoyed it...could hardly put it down.  For me, it dragged a bit with the courtroom/trial part of the story line, and I found myself not reading all of the poetry, but I am still thinking about the book days later.  

Last night, I started reading The Library Book.  As hard as I tried, I could just not get into it so PTB.


@Ainhisg  I enjoyed Crawdads too.  And I had the same reaction to The Library Book.  I wanted to like it but it just didn't hold my interest.  

 

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Re: What are You Reading? May 2019

 And now I'm trying to read The Friend (Ingrid Nunez), which is the winner of the National Book Award for Fiction for 2018.  I have no idea what the judges were thinking.  I've read about 30% and I'm tired of all the rambling.  It's not really about a woman and her dog as the cover might suggest.  I'm pulling the plug.     

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Re: What are You Reading? May 2019


@sunala wrote:

@smoky22 wrote:

I just finished Then She Was Gone (Lisa Jewell).  As with the other two books I read by this author, it's very well written, but I found it disturbing.   I read that she had a different ending in mind and her editor convinced her this was the way to go.  It's more shocking this way, but not an improvement in my opinion.


@smoky22- I agree with you, as I found it disturbing as well. Some of the ending made no sense. There were quite a few discussions on Goodreads about the ending, which the author discussed. I read the book a while ago and I'm forgetting some details, but I do remember there was a discrepancy about how the kidnapper was able to get the girl pregnant; was it with sperm she bought on the internet, or was it the boyfriend's? I still don't know!  And then there was the thing with the pets...

 

However, It did hold my interest and I think I gave 3.5 out of five stars.


Spoiler
I kept thinking the sperm would turn out to be the boyfriends, but apparently it was just some random person's sperm she bought on the internet.  As to how she got her pregnant, I guess it was done with a turkey baster (ugh).  She never really explained that.  The whole thing was just very distasteful.  And yes, the thing with the pets...

I do think Lisa Jewell is a good writer and her characters are usually very  interesting.  I'm sure I'll read more of her books.  

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Re: What are You Reading? May 2019

I just started The Stone Circle (Elly Griffiths), the latest in the Ruth Galloway series.  My library still doesn't have it and I couldn't wait, so I had to buy it (one of my rare book purchases).