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Menampilkan postingan dari Juli, 2019

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

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I've joined the thousands of other readers who have jumped on the crawdad wagon (or boat). I've been reading recently that Delia Owens has the distinct honor of having the one fiction book that in the past few years  has sold over 1 million copies  in hardcover. The novel in second place comes in at around 750,000 copies sold in hardcover. That's a heck of a lot of books sent out in the world, and that doesn't even count the ebooks and audio books purchased!  Pretty impressive for a first novel, wouldn't you say? So what is it about Where the Crawdads Sing  that resonates so deeply with so many people? I think it's a few things, at least that was the case for me. Kya, oh Lord, she broke my heart. It took me quite a while to be able to come to terms with the fact that her entire family abandoned a little girl and left her alone to fend for herself. And the townsfolk of Barkley Cove did nothing to help this little girl. How she survived and thrived are the magic o

Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune by Roselle Lim

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I was pretty excited to read one of my favorite genres of books: magical realism, with a dash of foodie thrown into the mix. This delightful novel didn't disappoint and I loved everything about it.  Natalie returns to her mother's apartment in San Francisco's Chinatown after learning her mother has died. Guilt-ridden at leaving home in anger years before, she's grieving over her lost relationship with her agoraphobic mother and isn't sure what her next move will be. A failure at cooking school, her desire is to open a restaurant just like her grandmother, Qiao. Her grandmother's restaurant was a pillar of the community, and when she died, Natalie's mother refused to keep the restaurant going. Over the years, a part of the Chinatown community started to die off, and now a greedy real estate agent wants to buy out the remaining families and turn it into a new hipster community.  Natalie learns that she has inherited the apartment and restaurant below; her task

The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan

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Summer is Jenny Colgan time for me. Well, summer, fall, winter, spring, actually. I'm always ready to read one of her novels. Serious, but not too serious, gorgeous settings, and down to earth women who just want to live life, fall in love, and find what makes them feel complete. This novel features a few characters from The Bookshop on the Corner , but it's not necessary to read that first. If you have read it, you'll enjoy seeing what Lennox and Nina are up to. And what they've been up to brings Zoe, a single mother, to the shores of Loch Ness. Zoe is on her last dime living in London with her four year old son Hari. Hari's got a bit of a speech problem: he is mute-by choice, as Zoe has learned from doctors. For some reason, he chooses not to speak. Hari's father is a wanderer, and not any financial help to Zoe. On the verge of losing her flat, a friend recommends her for not one, but two jobs in Scotland: as part-time help for Nina's book van, and as the

She Lies in Wait by Gytha Lodge

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When I wasn't doing laundry, dishes, and some errand running on Sunday, I spent most of it inside gulping down this mystery. I came across it at the library and thought it would be a good switch from the two contemporary women's novels I'm reading now-kind of like the salty snack in between my sweets.  A quick plot rundown: In 1983, a group of teenagers decide to camp out in the woods overnight. Plenty of booze, food, and drugs are involved. The seven teens range in age from 18 to 14. Aurora, the youngest, is tagging along with her sister Topaz, a beautiful teen who has her eye on Brett. At 18, Brett is the oldest, and a star athlete. Also in the mix: JoJo, Connor (who has a massive crush on Topaz), Coralie, and Daniel. Aurora is definitely out of her element with this group of popular kids, and Topaz is really annoyed her sister is there with the group.  A night of drinking, drugs, dancing, and yes, some sex is a big blur for the teens. And when morning comes, Aurora is mi

Dead Set by Richard Kadrey

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I needed to read a Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel for my book group on Tuesday, and what is usually a super easy pick for me turned out to be not so easy! I tried a couple of different novels before I picked this up at my library on Friday. It turned out to be a pretty darn good read, and my introduction to author Richard Kadrey.  Kadrey writes the Sandman Slim series, which are urban fantasy and very popular. I've looked at that series many times over the past few years, but never actually picked one up. Now I'm more inclined to do so, after reading Dead Set . It is not part of the Sandman Slim series, and is a stand alone fantasy novel--something that's getting harder and harder to find. If you're a reader of Sci-Fi/Fantasy, you know that the majority of writers craft a trilogy or a series instead of single novels, and that can be frustrating. Sometimes you just want to read a story that ends with the last page, and leaves you satisfied with the conclusion. I'm bad about s

The Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell

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I always enjoy a good historical novel in the summertime, and this paperback arrived on my doorstep last month from HarperCollins, as if by magic. Actually the U.S. Post Office, but it felt like magic. If I had come across this at a bookstore, or saw it in a magazine, i would have immediately picked it up or read reviews online--the cover grabbed me pretty quickly. Give me covers with gardens, flowers, food, wine...well, I'm a sucker for them.  The cover drew me in, but the story itself kept me in that "Peacock Summer". Two women-Lillian and Maggie-grandmother and granddaughter tell two stories that are 50 years apart, but ultimately twist together. Lillian is frail and ill, living in the slowly crumbling former glorious estate named Cloudesley, in the English countryside. Maggie, having left Cloudesley the year before after an unhappy relationship, is forced to return to take care of Lillian. When she arrives, she realizes Cloudesley is in danger of falling apart. Overdu

Death and Other Happy Endings by Melanie Cantor

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What would you do if you only had 90 days to live? How would you handle it? Denial? Rage? Give up? Or, as Jennifer Cole does, refuse to take the medicines the doctor prescribes, and decide to mark the days off the calendar?  Well, Jennifer does more than that. She realizes this is her one final chance to let three people who shaped her life know exactly what they did to her. Those people are: her older sister Isabelle, her ex-husband Andy, and her ex-boyfriend, Harry.  Isabelle  --the pretty one (Jennifer is the smart one) who cruelly snatched Jennifer's college boyfriend away from her, and lives a happily married life with two perfect daughters, and never has anything nice to say to Jennifer.  Andy, her ex-husband, who left her for another woman (the horrid Elizabeth) after Jennifer's third miscarriage, is a complete toad. Jennifer thought they had a happy marriage, and his announcement that he had been having an affair and was leaving her were low blows. Even years later, it