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Hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
June! You’ve got to love June as it ushers in summer for us. While my heart and mind are already on summer vacation, my body still keeps driving to work, where I then have to make that awkward transition back to reality. Twelve more days. It was fun this last week seeing so many pictures and posts from BEA. What a fun experience. I hope to make it there one of these years. Meanwhile, here at home, I’m itching to find my next great read.
Last Week’s Reads
I’ll be reviewing The Alice Network by Kate Quinn on Thursday. This historical fiction was told in two time periods: one during World War I and the other a couple of years after World War II. It will probably be no surprise that I liked one of the storylines a lot more than the other. I had really high hopes for Perennials, Mandy Berman’s debut novel, but I was underwhelmed by it. I’ll be reviewing Perennials sometime soon.
Currently Reading
After several audio rejects, I’ve finally found one I love, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. Eleanor is an amazing character that I really think most anyone would be enamored with. She reminds me a bit of Ove in A Man Called Ove, in that she is so very socially awkward, but there is much more to Eleanor’s story than that. The narration by Cathleen McCarron is perfection. I’m reading Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate, but may soon be adding it to my “did not finish” list. This is another historical fiction told in two different time periods, and I’m not really enjoying either of them. Both feel pretty one-dimensional to me. I’m going to give it another chapter or two and then make the call.
Likely To Read Next
I’m planning on picking up Small Hours by Jennifer Kitses next. This debut novel, the story of a troubled marriage told hour-by-hour over the course of a single day, has me intrigued. I’m looking forward to seeing how Kitses plays that out. After finishing Eleanor (which is fairly long), I’m going to try Daring to Drive by Manal Al-Sharif as my next audio. The publisher’s first sentence is enough to have me on board, “A ferociously intimate memoir by a devout woman from a modest family in Saudi Arabia who became the unexpected leader of a courageous movement to support women’s right to drive.”
I hope you had a great week of reading!
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Yay – I can cross Perennials off my list…thanks for vetting!
I’m reading Small Hours now…it’s ok so far. But just ok.
And – I’m thinking of trying Eleanor Oliphant…keep hearing so much buzz. I’m now very curious.
I really am loving Eleanor! After a slow start, I’m also liking Small Hours (at about 75%).
Daring to Drive seems like a book I’d love.
I got Eleanor in from my library. Now I need to start reading it before my boxes of books arrive from BookExpo!
https://readerbuzz.blogspot.com/2017/06/bookexpo-have-i-died-and-gone-to-book.html
I’ve got Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine on my wish list, but hadn’t considered going the audio route. Glad to know you’re enjoying it so far.
Thanks for stopping by, JoAnn. Hope your weather has improved.
Perennials and Daring to Drive both look good. Armchair Book Expo, getting ready to move, drama club, and a volunteers’ tea. Come see what I’m reading this week.
You certainly are busy. Moves are HUGE!
I hope Daring to Drive will be good on audio. Right now I’m reading Saints for All Occasions by J.Courtney Sullivan which I hope will be good as well. Enjoy your week. Sounds like you are close to freedom!
I 3-starred Perennials. It wasn’t bad, but I had such a problem with it being billed as a YA book. The adult POVs were SO adult. I found it to be an interesting character story, but felt like it lost the focus of the story by sneaking in all those different POVs.
Sam @ WLABB
That’s interesting because I haven’t seen anything calling Perennials YA. I agree that a couple of the chapters were very adult, but the rest of it did feel YA to me.
I have The Alice Network on my tbr list, but I’m so cautious about dual storyline historical fiction at this point.
I hope all of your books for this week are great reads!
I did end up quitting on Before We Were Yours. I just couldn’t do back to back dual storylines!
So sad that you didn’t enjoy Perennials but then again I knew when I was reading it that it was a weird one haha And I was excited for When we were yours 🙁