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Menampilkan postingan dari November, 2020

What Do You Do When Books Everyone Else Loves are Dragging You Down?! And...Time for December Reads

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  I am super annoyed. I've wanted to read Alix E. Harrow's The Once and Future Witches and Rebecca Roanhorse's Black Sun for MONTHS. I eagerly bought both of them, and started reading... .......and starting and stopping ........and SQUIRREL! ....here it is, weeks later and I haven't even made it half-way through either of them. I'm beyond frustrated at my lack of focus and inability to be grabbed by either of these books. I know deep down I will love both of them, it's the getting there that is proving hard for me. I simply cannot concentrate long enough to settle in for a good, long page-turning read. I'll confess I had hopes with a four day weekend I would really make some progress. Unfortunately, I wasn't home much at all--as in only part of Friday and part of Saturday. Instead of reading, I put up my Christmas decorations and made the mistake of visiting Target, where I think everyone in my city was shopping. I quickly left after realizing no one was

Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce

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  I've read Rachel Joyce's novels before, and I know I am always in for a quirky tale that hits me hard in the heart when I'm least expecting it. Her latest didn't disappoint, and I loved everything about it.  It's 1950, and Margery Benson is in her late 40's, single, and teaching home economics in post World War 2 England. She has no family, and has settled into a pretty sad and lonely life. One particular day, a student draws a picture of Margery, and once Margery sees the drawing, she loses it. She snaps, walking out of the school, quitting her job, and going home. She decides to leave it all behind and pursue her one dream-a dream from childhood that she stuffed deep down and decided would never happen. Her dream? to travel to New Caledonia in pursuit of the legendary golden beetle. Does it exist? Who knows? But Margery is determined to find it. She advertises for a companion to help her in her quest, and lively, quirky Enid Pretty is her last hope to pull o

A Solitude of Wolverines by Alice Henderson

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  I enjoy reading thrillers, but I definitely can't read too many in a row before I get a bit burned out and need to read something completely different. This thriller, however, is so completely different than what I've been reading lately--I was hooked from the cover and it didn't disappoint.  Alex Carter is a biologist who travels around from job to job studying wildlife in their habitat and advocating for the preservation of their land-often coming up against greed, corporate agencies, and  even private landowners who want to make a buck.  Her latest job takes her to Montana, where she is looking for wolverines on a wildlife sanctuary that used to be a working ski lodge. Now, thousands of acres are safe from development, but oh boy the townspeople nearby do not like the sanctuary and they certainly don't like Alex. Staying at the lodge by herself, she spends her days setting hair traps and cameras around the mountains to try and find out if wolverines are actually us

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

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  This is another book I've been anticipating for quite some time, thanks to buzz on Twitter and the book world. It took me a bit to finally pick up the book and plunge into it, though, but I was immediately captivated by Addie's story. Addie LaRue is 23 in the summer of 1714, living in the small French village of Villon. She's pretty much lived her whole life there, not venturing much past the village boundaries. Yet Addie is burning with the desire to see the world; live a life much bigger than what awaits her in Villon. She has arrived at a point in her life where choice has been taken away: she is set to be married at sunset to a local man she does not love. Addie knows her life will become dreary, filled with unending tasks and bearing children until she simply grows old and dies. A life that is not at all what she wants. In a bid to escape the inevitable, she runs to the woods on the way to the chapel, and begs the gods and goddesses for a new life-she will do anythin

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

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  This mystery has been on my book radar for a few weeks. I keep seeing it all over social media, and kept seeing it coming in and out of the library. I had a chance to grab a copy from my library, and settled down this week to read it and was charmed from the first page.  The Thursday Murder Club is a group of retirees living at Coopers Chase, a retirement village in the Kent countryside. It's a fairly well set up place, with plenty to do and all sorts of interesting folks. The drinks flow freely and there's gossip aplenty. Converted from a nunnery, it is a stunning spot to retire to and relax in the countryside. Ron, Joyce, Elizabeth and Ibrahim get together on Thursdays to discuss old murder cases. Elizabeth's good friend Penny, a retired detective, lives at Coopers Chase with her husband John. Only thing is that Penny is in a coma, and she's the one who kept all the files of cases she worked on years before. Elizabeth is one interesting woman with a mysterious past

The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly

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  I needed to escape from my October reading for a bit and found the perfect book to do just that. This novel will be out in January, 2021 so if you're a fan of Julia Kelly you'll have a few months to wait.  I'm one of those people who love all things gardening-especially flower gardens. I am, however, not one to be out in a garden working on it every chance I get. I love the results, but not so much all the work to get there. I used to have a lot of flowers in my yard, but I've scaled back massively the past few years because I don't have the time, and I've realized that whomever follows me in my house may not want a lot of flower beds around. I still have perennials, but I've gone to simple, easy to care for summer flowers and plants in pots. I still have a wish for a forever home with a field of wildflowers somewhere on the property. My partner has agreed on this, so hopefully in the future I'll have that gardening wish come true.  This novel has quit