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Menampilkan postingan dari Februari, 2020

March Reading from the Stacks and a Few DNF's from February

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I've got a few days left in February, but I'm pretty sure I won't be finishing two of the books I've worked on all month: The Woman in the Veil and   The Parker Inheritance. I've picked them up numerous times but just can't seem to finish either one without getting distracted. I'll probably finish both of them at a later date.  Today is DAY ONE of my self-imposed ban on buying books for 40 days. I'll admit it's going to be hard, because there are a few titles coming out in March that I really, really want. Come Easter Sunday, I'll be a the store, buying some books-- have no doubt about that. Meanwhile, wish me luck. I'm interested to see how I manage this and just what I'll be able to read from my stacks at home. It's a great chance to discover books I've been wanting to read, but forgot about after I stacked a few other books on top of them. It will be a month of discovery.  Tonight, I'm looking through my stacks, deciding

No Book Buying for 40 Days: Testing My Resolve and Will Power

I spent a recent Saturday morning gearing myself up to sort through the stacks of books I have at home. For weeks I've stared at them, added to them, and thought I should probably look through them. But then I would ignore that, or put it off. I'm really good at procrastination when it comes to looking at my TBR piles and deciding what to do with them.  I managed about a full 10 minutes of shifting through them before I became overwhelmed, re-stacked everything, and left my books alone.  Well heck. This isn't going to work, I thought. I can't even casually look through my books without feeling stressed. I realized Lent is coming up, and while I am a very lapsed Catholic, I decided it would be a good chance to test my desire to read through my TBR piles. Once I found out Lent begins fairly soon (February 26), I really felt strongly that this was my chance to break my habit of adding to my TBR pile without also reading from my TBR pile. And once I've read the book, it

Wife After Wife by Olivia Hayfield

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I've always been fascinated by the saga of Henry VIII and his six wives, so it was a no brainer when I saw this novel. It's Henry VIII and his wives set in modern times. How would it all play out in our modern society? Olivia Hayfield delivers an absolute Dynasty-drenched saga which begins in the 1980's and takes us up to 2018. Harry Rose is a young twenty-two year old man married to Katie, and expecting his first child. It's 1985, and he is working to take the reins of the family business Rose Corp, begun by his father. He's stunningly handsome, charismatic, and grieving the loss, in a short span of time, of his brother Arthur, his mother, and his father. More sadness is on the way when their first child is stillborn.  From 1985 the story moves forward, as Harry begins his reign as Rose Corp's CEO, and welcomes his daughter Maria with Katie. Of course Harry, with his intense good looks, is irresistible to the women who cross his path. He loves Katie, but just c

Read Off the TBR Pile: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

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This is a novel I've been wanting to read for quite some time. February is African American History Month, and I felt this was the perfect time to read it. I finished last night, and had to take some time to digest, because it's a book that left me gobsmacked.  First of all, Colson Whitehead is an amazing writer. Amazing. This was a novel that grabbed me and occasionally let me come up for air. I  read it in chunks, because some of it was brutal, and left me feeling a bit sick and horrified.  Cora is a young slave working the cotton fields at the Randall plantation in Georgia. Two brothers own two parts of the plantation, and while she is under the ownership of the less brutal brother, it is still a harsh life. Her mother Martha had run away when Cora was very small, and the famous slave catcher Ridgeway had failed to bring her back to the plantation. Ridgeway just could never let that go, and that plays a big part in Cora's journey throughout the novel. Cora herself is at

The Westering Women by Sandra Dallas

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Sandra Dallas knocked it out of the park again with her latest novel about women pioneers, Westering Women.  I've had the pleasure of meeting Sandra, and I've read pretty much all of her novels over the years. I'm never disappointed.  One of my favorite history subjects is pioneering women. I've always been fascinated by these incredible women, who gave up everything they knew and loved to follow their husbands out West to start new lives. Imagine walking from St. Louis to California. In a dress. No A/C, no iced coffee, no comforting hotel to sleep in at night. Maybe giving birth while out in the middle of nowhere. Losing children and husbands to cholera, accidents, drowning. When I think of these women, I can't help but admire their tenacity, strength of mind, and downright badassery . I wonder if I would have been able to do what they did; if I had the hardcore toughness, and grace, to make it West and start a new life. This is what Sandra's novel had me think

The Little Bookshop on the Seine by Rebecca Raisin

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I'm a sucker for novels about bookshops. Add in Paris and a few love stories, and this was the book to read leading up to Valentine's Day.  The Little Bookshop on the Seine  was a fun read--the perfect kind to take you away from the cold nights and gloomy days of a Midwest winter. Sarah Smith is a young bookshop owner in the charming town of Ashford. She's absolutely in love with books and reading, and spends all of her days and nights wrapped in her bookish life.  And that's the problem. Business has been slow, and she's a bit worried. She's been corresponding with Sophie, a bookshop  owner in Paris. They've got a firm friendship, and one day Sophie calls Sarah with a proposition: they swap shops for six months. Sophie wants to escape a heartbreak, and Sarah needs some adventure.  Lickety-split, Sarah is arriving in Paris, and steps into the bookshop with all sorts of rose-colored ideas of what life will be like managing the bookshop for the next six months

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare

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Thanks to Penguin Random House for a review copy of this book. It's one of those books I probably would have missed completely otherwise, and I'm so glad I got to meet Adunni. She's an unforgettable character.  Adunni is fourteen, and living in a small village in Nigeria. Her mother has died, leaving Adunni with her waste of a father and her two brothers. She had been going to school at the wish of her mother, and she loves it. She knows education is the way out. Unfortunately, her father doesn't feel the same way, and makes her leave school. He sells her to an older man in another village for the money to pay rent and for food. Adunni is crushed. She doesn't have a choice, so she ends up the third wife of this man who only cares about getting her pregnant and having a son.  Adunni faces so many trials, and so many hard choices. She's constantly treated as a commodity and never as the bright young woman she really is. She's never heard. Adunni's dream is