What are you reading now? January 2018

I am reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt (fiction)
and Stitched Up by Tansy Hoskins (non fiction) about the fashion industry.

I loved The Secret History!

I'm reading SAS Rogue Heroes by Ben Macintyre for a book club.

Starting off the year with an audiobook: The Diary of River Song, Series 1. It's made going through cupboards much more enjoyable!

>2 LynnB: Oh boy Lynn, polished off The Secret History and begging for more! It leaves such a haunting feeling.

After The Diary of River Song in >3 rabbitprincess:, I racked up another Doctor Who book: Sting of the Zygons, by Stephen Cole. I'll be switching back to The Beatles with Ian MacDonald's exhaustive (and occasionally exhausting, in a good way) Revolution in the Head.

I'm on a JK Rowling kick. Just finished Harry Potter and the Secret Chamber and have started Silkworm. We're expecting a storm today so have the DVD of Secret Chambers to enjoy later today.

Finished Revolution in the Head and will likely be finishing the stage adaptation of The Colony of Unrequited Dreams (adapted by Robert Chafe) later this evening.

A little disappointed in the 1st book I've read this year: Our Little Secret by Roz Nay

Enjoying a light mystery: Quick Curtain, by Alan Melville.

I'm reading The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy. Her first novel, The God of Small Things is one of my all-time favourite books.

>10 LynnB: Thank you Lynn for the recommendation for TGOFSThings I will get it from the library! Well maybe not. I am #54 of 3 copies. Yikes

Excited to finally be getting to The Last Highlander, by Sarah Fraser. I have a Scottish category in my reading challenge this year and this will fit the bill nicely.

One of my favourite crime fiction authors is Ann Cleeves. Just finished Silent Voices-good read, as usual.

I'm going to read How the Scots Invented Canada by Ken McGoogan.

Ended up abandoning The Last Highlander (mentioned in >12 rabbitprincess:). Instead, I read and thoroughly enjoyed the 5th Fiona Griffiths book: The Dead House, by Harry Bingham.

Next up in at-home reading will be American Gods, by Neil Gaiman.

I finished two books so far this year, Someone by Alice McDermott, which I really enjoyed. I also read a new to me spy / espionage novel called Slow Horses by Mick Herron. He is a UK writer and I just discovered him.

Currently reading Three Souls by Janie Chang, a Taiwanese Canadian author.

I'm reading Crying for the Moon by Mary Walsh, which I got for Christmas.

I'm reading The Inner Life of Animals by Peter Wohlleben. He's the author who wrote The Hidden Life of Trees which I thoroughly enjoyed.

She's an author from Calgary:

Looks Can Kill / Valerie Walker
3.5 stars

Laura is on holiday in Italy and is kidnapped due to her resemblance to a woman who has just died. Her kidnapper has an elaborate plan to get money out of this.

It’s a good story, but a bit simplistic. That is, things happened too easily, I thought – too many coincidences, nice people to help along the way, etc. I didn’t realize, until reading the note about the author at the end, that this was meant to be YA. It does read more like YA, so the simplicity makes more sense knowing that, though the main character being 21-years old, I wouldn’t have actually guessed it was meant to be until reading it at the end. However, I still enjoyed the story, overall. It is told from a few different viewpoints (including the kidnappers) but I was most interested in Laura’s own story.

I've decided to read Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else by our Global Affairs Minister, Chrystia Freeland.

>18 mdoris: I'm afraid I ditched The Inner Life of Animals. I got to about page 100 and just wasn't getting enough out of it. I had loved his tree book so thought his 2nd. book would work. Oh well!

Reading Canada's Odyssey: A Country Based on Incomplete Conquests. Interesting so far.

Making good progress on Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman, which is interesting to read less than a week after finishing American Gods.

I am reading Helen Humphreys new book The Ghost Orchard and I'm enjoying it very much.

I'm reading Hope Has Two Daughters by Monia Mazigh.

I'm about to start Nicotine by Nell Zink.

I finished two wildly disparate books this week:
1) What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty a fun and light read
2) The Thirst by Jo Nesbo, a grim and disturbing Nordic crime fiction novel.
And I really liked both of them!

Child of the Morning / Pauline Gedge
3.25 stars

In ancient Egypt (I looked it up, and Hatshepsut lived around 1500 BC). Hatshupset ruled Egypt as a female Pharaoh (normally only a title/position for men). This is a fictionalized account of her life.

I seem to be in a minority for my opinion on this but… The first half was just not interesting to me. It was ok, but nothing more. It picked up somewhat in the second half, after her father died, with the power struggle between her and her half-brother. So, most of the second half, I would rate good, but there were still parts that lost my interest. It seemed, at times, like what happened was drawn out longer than it needed to be. I would have liked to know how much of the story was true, but there was no author’s note, unfortunately. All that being said, what an incredible woman, especially for the time. Decided on a rating between “ok” and “good”.

I'm reading and enjoying On Island by Pat Carney.

I've nearly finished Waiting for Joe by Sandra Birdsell.