Community Chat

[smoky22]

I read The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Rose by Susan Wittig Albert. This 4th in the Darling Dahlia series is just as charming as the previous entries. The time is 1930 and the place is Darling, Alabama. The Dahlias are the local garden club, and, as usual there is a gentle mystery to be solved. I love the old fashioned characters and the setting.

I'm now reading The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill. I'm about 1/3 of the way through it and, thankfully, it's getting interesting again. I think I could have skipped about 100 boring pages right after the prologue. It's hard to tell about the pages because it's on my kindle as an ePub book. (It's nice to know how many pages are in each chapter but I don't like not knowing the total pages in the book.) I'm glad the book is getting good again because so many people have recommended it.

[SWEET]

Loved Wally Lamb's We Are Water. It was one of my favorites of his so far. Big family drama. A little slow in the beginning but picked up. Great plot, characters.

Reading Kelly Harms The Good Luck Girls Of Shipwreck Lane next. A debut novel.

[Linders Back]

Just finished Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline. A novel that highlights a little known (at least to me) part of American History: the shipping of over 200,000 children (mostly immigrant Irish, Italian) to homes in the Midwest for adoption (or more often indentured servitude) from 1850 through the 1930's.

It interweaves the lives of two young women: Vivian orphaned on the streets of NYC in the 1920's and sent aboard an "Orphan Train" to a new life in Minnesota; and a 17 year old Penobscot Indian teenager, Molly, bouncing around in foster care in Maine in 2011. When Molly gets the option of doing community service cleaning out 91 year old Vivian's attic in lieu of going to "juvie", the two find they have more in common than expected.

Disclaimer: This book should be sold with a box of tissues.

http://www.amazon.com/Orphan-Train-Christina-Baker-Kline/dp/0061950726

[coldlake]

Read The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison. Maybe I should say I skimmed, not read it, because after the opening section, it fell flat for me and I probably wouldn't have finished it except for the Chicago setting and the endorsements by some good writers, like Kate Atkinson. All in all, an ok read but nothing special. It's another male/female relationship gone wrong but instead of just breaking up, they take things to the next level. Pages and pages of dialogue with therapists, he said, she said, etc.

[Sagal]

It's been so long since I've posted! I guess it was the holidays and the after holidays! Anyway I've read several books since my last post. They are WISHIN' AND HOPIN', GRACE, ORPHAN TRAIN, A NANTUCKET CHRISTMAS, THE ASHFORD AFFAIR and THE SUPREME MACARONI COMPANY. WISHIN AND HOPIN AND A NANTUCKET CHRISTMAS were both charming Christmas stories, GRACE was a great read about a family's trials and tribulations but it did have episodes of such cruelty that I almost put it down. I enjoyed THE ORPHAN TRAIN but it won't be on my best list this year. I know many of you have already read it. I really enjoyed THE ASHFORD AFFAIR - really kept my interest. I just finished THE SUPREME MACARONI COMPANY - I'd read the two previous Valentina books and this one did not disappoint . I'm just starting THE LOST LAKE - I pre- ordered it which is something I never do but it looked like a book I would enjoy - I hope so!

[smoky22]

On 1/25/2014 coldlake said:

Read The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison. Maybe I should say I skimmed, not read it, because after the opening section, it fell flat for me and I probably wouldn't have finished it except for the Chicago setting and the endorsements by some good writers, like Kate Atkinson. All in all, an ok read but nothing special. It's another male/female relationship gone wrong but instead of just breaking up, they take things to the next level. Pages and pages of dialogue with therapists, he said, she said, etc.

coldlake, I felt the same way about this book. Much ado about nothing.

[smoky22]

Update on The Woodcutter. I'm now 2/3 of the way through and I can't put it down. Very engrossing!

[Lilysmom]

SMOKYMTNGAL, so glad you are enjoying THE WOODCUTTER (Reginald Hill). I will look for more of his books. Just finished THE CHAPERONE. I enjoyed the second half more than the first and would recommend this. I also read A PLAGUE OF SECRETS by John Lescroat with defense lawyer Dismas Hardy. I thought this was not bad but not one of his best.

. LM

[SydneyH]

Just started The House Girl by Tara Conklin. So far it's a very moving story that weaves between the life of a slave in the 1800's and her artwork a century later.......I can't put it down.

[fbm2lsm]

I just finished The Dinner by the same author of Gone Girl. I had trouble getting into but the ending was dynamic. I did not see some of the characters developing as they did. It is very thought provoking as well as an example of just tragic parenting. I read this for my book club and am anxious to hear what the others thought.