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It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? February 25, 2013

I am linking up with Book Journey today to recap what I read last week and what I am reading and listening to this week.

 

www.bookjourney.wordpress.com

Last week I Finished

I participated in the Monster Review-a-thon hosted by Kate and Kristen of The Book Monsters. The goal was to catch up on writing book reviews. As part of that, I wrote the following reviews:

Here I Go Again by Jen Lancaster. Lissy Ryder is the mean girl in high school who has a second chance to go back in time and make things right. This book was witty, laugh-out-loud funny and surprisingly deep. A fun and quick read for those who like chick lit.
 

The Pilot’s Wife by Anita Shreve (audiobook). Kathryn Lyons is a pilot’s wife with a routine and peaceful life until her husband is killed in a plane crash and the authorities think he is o blame. What evolves is a story filled with twists and turns as Kathryn uncovers that maybe her husband is not the man she thought he was. The story was great but the narrator detracted from my enjoyment.

I was disappointed I did not finish The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson in time before the library book was due. This book is about a 16 year-old princess Elisa who marries King Alejandro of a neighboring country. Elisa is the keeper of the Godstone, a symbol that she has been chosen by God for greatness. Only she doesn’t know what her destiny is or how great she can be. I will put it back on my request list because I would like to finish it.

This Week I’m Reading

At night, I’m reading Secret Lives by Diane Chamberlain. Eden Riley is a famous actress whose strange, reclusive mother died when she was a young girl. Eden goes back to her mother’s hometown to learn more about her but what she discovers is shocking and difficult to comprehend. She meets Ben, a man with his own haunting and horrible past. I love Ms. Chamberlain’s books for the depth she gives her characters, the difficult situations they have to deal with and the ways in which they cope and overcome their obstacles. I can’t wait to see how this one ends.

After Secret Lives, I will be reading Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay for my in-person book club. Set in France, this will also be a book to satisfy my Around the World in 80 Books Reading Challenge. I love that my library had a book club kit for this so I could pick up enough copies of the book for all our members and it comes with a list of discussion questions. How easy is that? I look forward to reading this one!

I’m listening to Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson as my adventure classic for the Back to the Classics Reading Challenge Adventure classic and the Monthly Keyword Challenge for March using the keyword “treasure”. Jim Hawkins is a young English boy on a journey with pirates to find a lost treasure. I love that the book started quickly and dove into action right from the start. The narrator is great for the parts narrated by Jim and the doctor. However, his English + pirate accent is difficult to understand and I find myself missing parts of the story and losing focus. I’ll get through it but not sure that I will enjoy it as much as if I had read the paper book.

What are you reading this week? Have you read any of the books in my post? What did you think? Tell me in the comments and let me know. Hope you link up or visit Book Journey too and see what other book bloggers are reading. Happy reading and have a good week!
 

13 Comments

    1. It looks intense. I’m thinking our April in-person book club selection will need to be a little on the low-key, fun side again like Here I Go Again was.

  1. Sarah’s Key is a great book. How cool that your library is so book club friendly! I think it’s a perfect pick for a book club, too. Have a great read!

    1. Thanks Allison. I hope so too. I’m very intrigued. Another book club member told me it was a movie a couple years ago which I didn’t know.

  2. Sarah’s Key…that was a heavy one for me. I liked the way the book was structured. I won’t say any more until you’ve read it!

    I have The Girl of Fire and Thorns, but haven’t started it yet. I think this week is my week.

    I’m currently reading “The Tell” by Hester Kaplan. I absolutely hate it so far. The writing is just flouncy and too formal. It’s like it’s trying to be intelligent and “literature”, but it’s failing. It’s too full of itself all it is turning out to be is dense and unreadable. I’m going to give it a few more percentages, but if I can’t get used to it I may do something I RARELY ever do…just stop reading it. I can’t remember the last time I abandoned a book. Maybe 7 or 8 years ago (if that even). I usually stick it out to the bitter end.

    I called about my Kindle! They had me do a hard re-start and now I’m going to see how it does. They said that fixes a lot of battery issues like I’m having. If it doesn’t, they emailed me a number to call to try to sort it out. If that doesn’t work, they said they’d send a new one. I hope it doesn’t come to that because I have a cute little decal on the front that I’d hate to have to buy again if I got a new one!

    I’ll keep you updated on the Kindle progress!! Can’t wait to hear how you like “Secret Lives” when you finish it! –Lisa

  3. The Monster Review-a-thon sounds like something I should have participated in. I tend to keep on reading new books and not writing reviews of the ones I have read. Have a great reading week.

    Check out my Monday post.

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