Showing posts with label Suspense. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Suspense. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

WWW Wednesdays 7/29/2020


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The Three W's are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

I'm currently reading and listening to



Not sure if Pines willwork for me, s it is not my usual genre.  But I'll give it a shot.
I recently finished 



Next up. I think I'll read

and I think, I'll listen to either
or



Friday, June 26, 2020

Book Beginnings/The Friday 56 6/26/2020



Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice and Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader. The idea is to share a sentence or so from the first page and the 56th page of the book you are currently reading!  Also, I will now also include a brief synopsis.



On a hot July morning on Sweden’s idyllic vacation island of Sandhamn, a man takes his dog for a walk and makes a gruesome discovery: a body, tangled in fishing net, has washed ashore.
Police detective Thomas Andreasson is the first to arrive on the scene. Before long, he has identified the deceased as Krister Berggren, a bachelor from the mainland who has been missing for months. All signs point to an accident—until another brutalized corpse is found at the local bed-and-breakfast. But this time it is Berggren’s cousin, whom Thomas interviewed in Stockholm just days before.
As the island’s residents reel from the news, Thomas turns to his childhood friend, local lawyer Nora Linde. Together, they attempt to unravel the riddles left behind by these two mysterious outsiders—while trying to make sense of the difficult twists their own lives have taken since the shared summer days of their youth.



Book Beginnings

share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

Prologue

Everything was completely still and peaceful as only winter can be, when the archipelago belongs to those who live there, and the raucous summer visitors have not yet taken over the islands.

Chapter 1

Here, Pixie!  Come here!
The man gazed irritably at the dachshund as she ran down the beach; he had been cooped up on the boat for several days.

My thoughts: Since this book is a mystery thriller, I hope nothing happens to the dog.


THE FRIDAY 56

RULES:

*Grab a book, any book.

*Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader.
If you have to improvise, that is okay.

*Find a snippet, short and sweet.


Page 56

However, her father-in-law was marginally better than wife, who was a rail-thin woman in her seventies whose greatest pleasure was to be seen at social events.

My thoughts: I am very near the beginning of this book an have not yet got to this point.  I'm still worried about the dog!  So far none of the other sentences grab me,/so hopefully it will soon

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

WWW Wednesday 6/3/2020


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The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

My state has finally entered Phase 3 and more things have been opening up! I finally got a haircut on Frriday.  Now, I'm just waiting for my hair salon to do more than haircuts; I need to get it colored so badly!

I'm currently reading Breakfast at the Honey Creek Café by Jodi Thomas and I listening to The Inn at Hidden Run by Olivia Newport

Breakfast at the Honey Creek CaféThe Inn at Hidden Run (Tree of Life #1)

I just finished listening to The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf




Next up for listening will be The Girl from the Train by Irma Joubert and My next read will most likely be Ghost of Sangju by Soojung Jo. The latter will probably not be until early next week.



.
Have you read any of these or want to?

Wednesday, May 27, 2020

WWW Wednesdays 5/27/20



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The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Although time in quarantining is going slowly, at the same time, it is also going quickly at times. We are getting ready to enter into Phase 3 in Illinois on Friday.  I'll be looking forward tp getting a haircut hopefully soon and a color soon after since where I go they are just doing haircuts the first week or so.

I'm currently reading The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf.  I should finish this tomorrow, possibly today if I finish this blogpost soon

The Weight of Silence

Next, I will be reading. Breakfast at the Honey Creek Cafe by Jodi Thomas and I will be listening to The Inn at Hidden Creek by Olivia Newport

Breakfast at the Honey Creek CaféThe Inn at Hidden Run (Tree of Life #1)

I just finished listening to My Name Is Tani ...  and I Believe in Miracles by Tanitoluwa Adewomi

My Name Is Tani . . . and I Believe in Miracles: The Amazing True Story of One Boy’s Journey from Refugee to Chess Champion

Have you read any of these books or want to?

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

June Wrap-Up

Wow, I thought May was a good reading month with 12 books that I finished, but in June, I read even more 15 books finished.  Unfortunately, they were a mixed bag with book ratings ranging from 5 stars down to 1 star and at least one that I DNF'ed.  Quantity, definitely does not equal quality, But here is what I read and my review for them.

Uprooted: The Japanese American Experience During World War II

I listened to this as an audiobook. Although parts of this book were interesting, it was not quite what I was expecting or what I hoped for. A good part of the book (about a third to half) discussed the history of Japan and also, China to a lesser degree. I was hoping for a lot more people's personal experiences before, during, and after the Japanese internment. For this reason, I can't give this more than 2 stars, maybe 2.5, but Goodreads doesn't allow half stars to be reflected in each person's rating. Overall, I was disappointed in this book.

2 stars

Second Chance Summer (Cedar Ridge, #1)

I listened to this book on audio. This was my first book by Jill Shalvis. For the first half of the book, this book was merely OK, but I enjoyed the second half and will continue reading this series.

I will be listening to the 2nd book in this series in July.  

3 stars

How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child

My first 5 star book of the month

Excellent book! I listened to this as an audio book. At first, I didn't care for the narrator, but either she improved as the book went on or I just got use to her. It was a very interesting story of growing up in amidst war.in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Her life was good and normal for the first nine years of her life, but then her family had to flee from the war-torn country.  She had to deal with several family deaths, moving to several African countries, and finally resettlement in the U.S. (Rochester, NY) through the refugee program. She thought life in America would be perfect and learned there were many unexpected challenges. 4.75 stars.

#sandras_story

Pretending to Dance

I received an ARC of this book quite awhile ago, but never got to read it. In the meantime, I have been able to get an audio version of it on Overdrive. It was really good and kept my attention and wondering what it was that made her flee her North Carolina home and sever all ties with her family after her father's death from Multiple Sclerosis. The only thing that I really didn't like in the book happened in the very beginning of the book. when she and her husband were interviewed by a social worker, because they were wanting to adopt a child. The social worker asked her and her husband why they can't have "children of their OWN'. Being an adoptive parent, any "good" and professional social worker with any knowledge of adoption should know that this is not an appropriately phrased question to ask. A more appropriate question would have been to ask why they could not have biological children. When you adopt, the adoptive child(ren) become your OWN children, just not biologically. Other than this, the adoption storyline was very enjoyable and appropriate. I recommend this book and will look into other books by Diane Chamberlain.

4 stars
.


The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women

Wow! What an excellent book! I don't think I ever heard of these "radium girls" and there was even a company here in Illinois that employed these dial painters, who used paint containing radium. Ths book was extremely well-researched and although this is nonfiction, most of this reads as fiction, but it is true. It was a page-turner and often kept me up somewhat later than I usually do. Definitely 5 stars.


Sisterland

This book was just barely ok. There were times when it was interesting, but those times were too few; overall, I really would have been fine not even reading this. I can't say much without giving something away, but I feel it was totally unnecessary to include in the story in the first place. If you've read the book, you should know what I'm alluding to. Also, I feel authors sometimes include certain storylines because it is the in thing at the time.

1.5 stars


If I Run (If I Run, #1)

This is a really good book that I listened to on audioI never read anything by this author before and with this author marked as writing Christian fiction, I wasn't sure what to expect. This was also one of the free selections in this summer's Sync audiobook teen program. But I was pleasantly surprised that this was a very good suspense and I would never have known it was a Christian author who wrote this if I had not read that she was. Kaycee finds her friend murdered and ends up the main suspect, so she flees the state in hopes of figuring out how to bring the killers to justice. This is actually the first book in a series and ends in a cliffhanger. 4.5 stars

My Happy Days in Hollywood: A Memoir

A solid 3 stars. This book was interesting, but nothing particularly memorable about it. It was written, as well as narrated by the author, Garry Marshall, who has a thick New York accident, which at times made it hard to understand for this Midwesterner. He was the creator of Happy Days, in addition to directing some other tv series and many movies, the most famous of which was Pretty Woman. I also just found out he had passed away last year (2016) at the age of 82.


The Red Umbrella

I first heard of this book on Raul's BookTube channel, The Latin Lector. He raved about this book and I really enjoyed it. It is set in the early 60s in Cuba and the U.S after Castro was in power. I never really learned about that period in history in school so it was very interesting and informative. I just loved the ending. Since this book was released last year, maybe the author will write a sequel.

4.5 stars



The Cherry Cola Book Club


This was a totally mediocre book. The premise was good, a librarian's attempt to save a small town library, but the delivery fell flat for me. Very disappointed.

2 stars, but that may be generous.

A Stardance Summer (Eternity Springs)

Another winner by Emily March in her Eternity Springs series.  I was a latecomer to the series, starting with the 7th book and trying to catch up on those first 6 ones that I missed.  Because there are 4 books that I have not yet read, I was confused at first with all the names and where they fit into the series, but for the most part I figured it out before long and enjoyed the series.  The synopsis on Goodreads is a bit misleading, since it says Brick's ex-girlfriend shows up unexpectedly, which never happens.  There are several storylines in this book and all of them are enjoyable.  I look forward to the next book in the series.

4 stars


All the Summer Girls

This was barely even an okay book; I listened to this on audio in one day, otherwise I'd have DNF'ed it long before I finished.  Even a day and half after finishing when I was writing my review, my memories of what this book is about are waning and as I type this up several weeks later, I can't really remember much at all.  It wasn't until the last third of the book that it became somewhat interesting.

2 stars on Goodreads, but that's generous!


Tearing Down the Gates: Confronting the Class Divide in American Education

I thought this book might be interesting.  It discusses how education, especially college education, keeps lower-class children from reaching their potential.  But this book is very academic and is full of statistics that one does not remember after reading/hearing it.  (I listened to the audio version.)
There were a couple of examples/studies of actual people that were interesting.  Ashley's story was told in the first chapter of the book and I figured there would be a wrap-up at the end of the book; that was the only reason I continued to listen to the entire book.  By the time I finished the book, there had not been any wrap-up to Ashley's story and I felt cheated. 
The book was way too long and seemed to repeat itself, but just used different words to do so.  Also, the audiobook was read by the author and I found him an extremely boring and dry narrator. 

1 star.


Spring/Summer 2017 St. Martin's First Sampler

I have enjoyed the Book Samplers which were provided by Buzz Books showcasing a variety of their books for the next two seasons, so I was extremely excited when I saw that St. Martin's Press was doing this also. But to be honest, I really did not love any of these samples. The last one in the book, Stars Over Clear Lake looks like one of the more promising, as well as The Last Place You Look, but I am not that excited for any of them. I actually was somewhat disappointed in these selections and St. Martin's Press is one of my favorite publishers. I received this book as an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.

2 stars



By Starlight

I haven't read a Dorothy Garlock book in over 15 years, but I found I still enjoy her. I listened to this one on audio. This is not my favorite historical era, Prohibition, but I did find it pretty good.

3 stars.


I read/listened to a several excellent to very good books, a few stinkers, and some that were good  and others were only okay.  My favorite book that I read in June was The Radium Girls, which I definitely recommend!  How Dare The Sun Rise was my favorite book that I listened to in June, followed closely by If I Run.  I also recommend these, either as audios or actually read.

Sorry  this June Wrap-Up is so late this month.  I think, I will be stepping back a bit with my overall blogging.  I want to of course keep up my wrap-up, but I may not be posting every Wednesday and Friday, as I have been doing.  I'm feeling a bit burnt out and will from time to time post on these days, but I want to post because I want to not because I feel I have to!  Blogging is suppose to be fun and lately, I haven't been enjoying it as much and since I don't get paid to do it, I really need to make sure I'm enjoying myself

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

WWW Wednesday July 12, 2017

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It's time for the weekly meme, WWW Wednesday hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words.
All you need to do is answer the following questions:
  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?
So let's get onto it!

What are you currently reading?  I'm still reading Daring to Drive by Manal Al-Sharif, but I'll finish this on Thursday, possibly even Wednesday, since I have only 30% left to finish.

What did you recently finish?  I just finished My Kind of Wonderful by Jill Shavis on audiobook  earlier today.  I tried listening to Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay, but I think I'll read this one instead; it seems they alternate viewpoints between WWII France and modern day and it was a bit confusing, but I think reading it will be much better and I've heard so many good things about it.

What do you think you'll read next?  I think I'll pick up the ARC, The Life She Was Given by Ellen Marie Wiseman and my next audiobook will be The Passenger by Lisa Lutz.

What have you been reading?

Monday, May 8, 2017

April Wrap-Up

April was a very productive reading  month with 11 books read, 6 of which were audiobooks.  I was all over the place  this month, a few books, I very much enjoyed. but there were a few that got lower ratings and others that were just good or slightly above o.k..

My Beloved World


I am really debating on whether to give this 2 stars (OK) or 3 stars (good). I wish we could give it half stars and just rate it 2.5 stars. I was expecting to like this better than I did. Sonia Sotomayor was the 1st Hispanic U.S. Supreme Court Justice. It was interesting at times, but other times, my mind wandered too much as I listened to this and I had to reply parts of it. Some parts were discussed for longer than necessary, but the ending seemed rushed.

A Dog Named Boo: How One Dog and One Woman Rescued Each Other--and the Lives They Transformed Along the Way


This was a nice story, but it was not my favorite memoir about a dog or more specifically dogs from the author's life, but it wasn't the worst either. I am glad I read it or actually listened to it on audio. It was enjoyable, but not out of this world or anything. It's great what dogs can help people accomplish. I do think the book was a little on the long side and could have been edited better.

2 stars

The Girl from the Garden

I listened to 5 hours out of the 7 hours of this book; then I had to stop for the day. I dead not care for it at all and I just could not get myself to listen to the remaining 2 hours. There was nothing short of divine intervention that would have me give this book more than 1 star. It was definitely not for me and those were 5 hours that I will never get back. To make matters worse later the next day after listening to another book, my earbuds decided to go kaplooey, so now I have to get a new pair this weekend.

1 star

The Secret Sister (Fairham Island, #1)


During the first half of listening to this, the book was good to ok, but after a few plot twists it changed to being so much better. Originally, I had doubts about whether I'd continue with this series, but before the book ended, I knew I wanted to read or listen to the following book in the series.

3.5 stars.

The Enchantress Returns (The Land of Stories, #2)

This is the 2nd book in The Land of Stories series and it is just as good as the first. It was good to catch up with the twins, their (Fairy Godmother) grandmother, and all the fairy tale characters. The 6th and final book in this series is suppose to be out later this summer, so since I've only finished book 2, there ill be lots more adventures to share with them. This is such a fun series; it is written for middle grades, but was the Harry Potter series and many of the series by Rick Riordan, This one can also be enjoyed by all ages, especially since almost all of us grew up hearing fairy tales as children, hearing Mother Goose nursery rhymes, and watching Disney movies. I definitely recommend this book and series.

5 stars

Forbidden Kisses (Blushing Bay, #1)

I really liked this author's first series, Hero's Welcome and have been looking forward to her new series, Blushing Bay.  Fans of Annie Rains will not be disappointed.  Although this may not have been my favorite of her books, it is a good story and I look eagerly to hearing the stories of the other Sawyer siblings in the future. Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book.

I participated in the blog tour for this book; you can check out my post!

3 stars

Deconstructing Dirty Dancing

I received this ARC from NetGalley as a Read Now selection. I'm not quite sure what I was exactly expecting. It is a short book of less than 100 pages. It was a decent book and relatively fast read. It is a commentary of the entire Dirty Dancing movie. Parts of it were interesting and other parts not so much. I don't think I've seen the movie in at least 20-25 years. I loved the music and really liked Patrick Swayze as most girls in the 80s did. I would like to eventually see the movie again and see if I notice this time around much of the social commentary that could have been taken from the movie.

3 stars


I received this 3 chapter sneak peak from NetGalley and the publisher. When I first requested this , I did not realize it was only a few chapters and I was thinking of not even reading this, but I am glad that I did and find this very much grabs my attention and I look forward to reading more. There was a school shooting at the senior prom and this book begins twelve years later when several of the survivors are back in their hometown to do a documentary. This has started out very promising. When I look up the author's previous work, some of it shows up categorized as erotica, I hope this book does not turn out to be erotica, because I will then not be continuing on with it at a later date.


4 stars


Hummingbird Lake (Eternity Springs, #2)


I listened to this book over a 2 week period. I don't know if it was that it took too long for me to get back to finishing it or if these books just don't lend themselves well to audio but I wasn't crazy about it. I had started the series at #7, Miracle Road and really enjoyed each of the books I read. I really need to only read and not listen to these books; I really think this may be the problem. They aren't good for listening; actually when I think of it, I'm not a fan of the narrator. A new book comes out in this series in June and I look forward to reading it. 

2 stars

Running for My Life: One Lost Boy's Journey from the Killing Fields of Sudan to the Olympic Games

Very inspiring. I felt a vast array of emotions through out the book as I'm sure the author wanted to elicit. The writing itself may not be deep, but he didn't learn English until he was 16 and he's only in his mid-to-late 20s now, I think. This is the true story of one of Sudan's Lost Boys, who was kidnapped by rebel soldiers and would himself become a child soldier had he not been only six. Along with some older boys, he was able to escape the prison camp and for 3 days, more or less ran to freedom, which ended up being a refugee camp in Kenya, where he stayed for 10 years, until he got the opportunity to go to America and later on to represent the USA in the Olympics. I listened to this book on audio, so some of the complaints that readers of this book had I did not pick up on. In my eyes, this book although a true story and sad in parts, is also very inspiring in that he found ways to keep hope alive and always kept his faith in God.

4.5 stars

The Forever Summer

I got this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. It sounded like a great summer/beach read and basically, it is! Although, the plot is engaging along with some surprises thrown in, I did not really connect with the characters and therefore could not get into the story 100%. Although, I enjoyed parts of the story, I just can't help feeling disappointed. I'm torn between giving it 2 or 3 stars and really wish I could give it

2.5 stars

My favorite book this month was Book 2 of The Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns followed closely by Running For My Life.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Top Ten 2016 Releases I Meant To Read But Didn't Get To (But TOTALLY plan to)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme/original feature created at The Broke and The Bookish this weeks list are Ten New-To-Me Authors you read for the 1st Time in 2016.  For more information check it out here. 

Faithful
I've heard lots of good things about this book.  I've seen this at my library even though it's a new release no one seems to have checked it out.

Born to Run.
This is over 500 pages, so I wanted to wait until I could get it as an audiobook on Overdrive.  I'm currently on the waiting list, so hopefully not too much longer.

When Breath Becomes Air
Heard this is good, but since it's about a doctor who was diagnosed with cancer and then died before he finished the book, I know it will be a sad one.

The Passenger

This sounds really interesting.  Not sure why I didn't read it. I had it on hold on Overdrive, but I ended up removing it for some reason.  Probably another book, I wanted to read more.  I need to remember to put it on hold or borrow it this year.

A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the aftermath of the Columbine tragedy

I listened to Columbine just before this book came out and wasn't in the mood for another book on the same topic, although from the point of view of the mother of one of the killers.  Maybe I'll get around to this later in the year or even in 2018.

The Whistler

I've read and listened to a few of his books in 2016 and sometimes his books all seem somewhat similar if you read too many too close together,

Fool Me Once

I discovered Harlan Coben last year and he has so many books that I want to read. This one has a longer reserve list, so I'll probably read some with no reserves or at least fewer.

In the Country We Love: My Family Divided

Another interesting and timely book.  This actress, who I never heard of before, was 14 and born in the U.S. to parents who illegally immigrated to this country and were arrested and later deported, while  she was at school.