Reading and Not Blogging
What I’m Reading has become more of a monthly update than a weekly one. 🙁
Trying to get healthy and fit in my mid- to late-50s (more exercise, extra meal prep, better sleep habits, etc.) — and, let’s admit it, too many hours on social media and playing WordCrack — has dug into my weekly blogging and commenting time over the past few years. I need to recommit to blogging this year or give it up.
Recently Listened To
The Sins of the Father by Jeffrey Archer, narrated by Alex Jennings and Emilia Fox (Macmillan Audio, 2012) — Second in the Clifton Chronicles
Thumbs Up for fans of story over character development: The soap opera of Harry Clifton and Emma Barrington’s starcrossed love continues, following upon the cliffhanger ending of Only Time Will Tell. The Sins of the Father takes readers through WWII, from both sides of the Atlantic — England and the U.S. (And, yes, there is another cliffhanger at the end of this one. After all, there are at least five more to come!) I’m a sucker for a multi-volume story family saga, so I’ll be listening to the next one after a short break in between to listen to other stuff.
Big Sky by Kate Atkinson, narrated by Jason Isaacs (Little Brown Audio, 2019) — #5 in series
Jackson Brodie is back! I had to wait a long time for this audio download to be available through the library, so obviously a lot of people have been excited (like me) about finding out what crime this unlucky-in-love, but all-around decent guy, Jackson Brodie, would end up investigating as he goes about his business as a private detective whose instincts about crime solving, though maybe not about his interactions with women, are usually spot on.
Currently Listening To
Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist by M.C. Beaton, narrated by Penelope Keith — #6 in Agatha Raisin series
I’m only on #6 out of 30, but from what I can tell, readers either love Agatha Raisin or hate her. She’s a prickly, vain, sharp-tongued London retiree transplanted to the small village of Carsdale whose residents are divided into those like the ill-tempered vicar who can’t stand Agatha and the kindly vicar’s wife who befriends her. Narrator Penelope Keith is fantastic. If you’d like a flawed but strong female main character who speaks her mind, has a sex drive, and fancies herself a help to the police in solving the murders she somewhat regularly gets involved with, you should try these cozies. There’s a bit of an edge on them, and Agatha grows on you with each book.
Read in Print
For Book Club
For book club this month, I read A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza. Loved it! Highly recommended.
A Place for Us is about the dynamics in a family with an undemonstrative father, a tentative mother, and three siblings — two sisters and a younger brother. The family happens to be Indian-American and Muslim, but the novel is written from within the perspective of members of the family and the community they live in, so as readers we are engaging with them as unique individuals, not reading about them as a means of understanding another culture. A complex portrayal of different experiences within the same family.
On the Nightstand
The Other’s Gold by Elizabeth Ames, like A Place for Us, is a first novel by a young author that’s getting a lot of buzz. It’s about a group of four female college roommates and their lives after college. It’s an exploration of a intimate bond formed in the crucible of freshman year and all the intensity of feeling that surrounds the experience.
The title comes from the Girl Scout song about friendship. (“Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other’s gold.”)
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (#IMWAYR) is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It’s a place to meet up and share what you have been, are, and about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment, and er… add to that ever-growing TBR pile! This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at Book Date.