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I hope everyone had a lovely Mother’s Day weekend. I spent time with my older son, daughter-in-law and two of my grandkids, which is always a joy. The weather here has been so spectacular that it has summer completely on my brain. I’m trying to not start counting the days already, but it’s hard. Instead, I’m turning my focus to two special book posts I’ll be sharing in the coming weeks. One will be my Beach Bag Books post, with a list of 20 books in four categories (including backlist) that I know will make fabulous vacation (or staycation!) reads. The next, will be my Summer Preview 2019, with all the new release books I’m planning on reading in the summer months. So many reasons to look forward to summer!
Hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Last Week’s Reads
- I listened to Southern Lady Code by Helen Ellis and enjoyed every minute of it. The audiobook is only a little over three hours, so it almost felt like cheating. Ellis’s warm, friendly reading of her own experiences as a southern woman living her life with southern values in the midst of NYC made me want to be one of the women in her circle of friends. Mini-review to come.
- I thoroughly enjoyed Wendy Walker’s first two books, All is Not Forgotten (my review) and Emma in the Night (my review), but the same cannot be said of The Night Before. I’ll be sharing a full review on Thursday, so I’m going to leave it at that for now.
Currently Reading
- At over halfway through, I am really loving Vessel, a debut by Lisa A. Nichols. It’s about a female astronaut who set out on a six year mission to a far away planet, and returned nine years later….alone. All six members of the crew were believed to be dead, so NASA is stunned and thrilled when Catherine returns. Only many things aren’t quite right with Catherine, including a years long gap in her memory that leaves more questions than answers about what happened up there.
- I loved The River by Peter Heller (my review) so much, that right after I finished listening to it, I downloaded his earlier book, The Dog Stars. Last week I finally started listening. Mark Deakins is again doing a fabulous job with his narration, and at the halfway mark, I’m enjoying the story, but not quite as much as The River.
Likely to Read Next
- I have forced myself to wait long enough! My next read is going to be Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane. I’m going into this one fairly blind. I’ve read enough from others to know that the book is being widely praised, but not enough to have much of a sense of the storyline. I’m excited to begin!
- For my next audiobook, I’m going to go with true crime and try Chase the Darkness With Me by Billy Jensen. Both Renee from It’s Book Talk and one of my most consistent Goodreads sources, Jan loved it, so I’m in.
I hope you have a great week in books!
Disclaimer: There are Amazon Associate links contained in this post.
Vessel sounds good. After The Dog Stars, read The Painter (just saying). I still haven’t gotten to Southern Lady Code but I enjoyed a previous collection of hers, so I have high expectations for this one.
I probably will try The Painter sometime because the further I get into The Dog Stars the more I like it. I think I’ve become a Heller fan.
Happy Belated Mother’s Day Susie! I’m seeing lots of people saying The Night Before was either a DNF or they didn’t like it so I’m not feeling too confident about that one. I started Ask Again Yes over the weekend so we’ll have to compare thoughts when you’ve finished. Hope you enjoy Cahse the Darkness with Me & thanks for the shoutout:)
Thank you, Renee. I’ll be interested to hear what you think of The Night Before. I’ve seen quite a few positive comments just today. I may be the odd one.
Just started Ask Again, Yes. I’m not far enough for any sort of opinion, yet. We’ll keep in touch on it.
I’ll be reading Ask Again, Yes next week. Enjoy your summer, It will officially be winter here in two weeks.
Have a great reading week
Ah, the flip side of the world. Keeps everything interesting!
Looking forward to your upcoming lists! I’ve heard such great things about Ask Again, Yes.
Thanks for stopping by, RK.
OMG – I’m so jealous you have Ask Again, Yes coming up!! You’re gonna love it!
Just started it!
Susie, I had a nice Mother’s Day as well, spending it with my kids and grandkids, but I wish we had your weather 😉
I hope you enjoy Chase Darkness With Me. Thanks for the shout out 😊
Wendy Walker books are a mixed bag for me. I loved her first, didn’t care for Emma in the Night, but enjoyed The Night Before 🤷🏻♀️
I have Ask Again Yes waiting for me too and I’m anxious to hear your thoughts. So much love for this book.
Looking forward to your summer book posts!
I seem to be the outlier with The Night Before. I just found Laura to be too pathetic. I liked Emma, but not as much as many others.
Glad you had a nice Mother’s Day. The weather is bound to improve soon, right?
Vessel does sound intriguing. I’ll have to add it to my list. Come see my week here. Happy reading!
I can’t wait for Ask Again, Yes!
Just started it. Will let you know how it goes.
I’m reading Ask Again, Yes right now and loving it so far. It’s different than I expected.
Glad you’re enjoying The Dog Stars!
I’m looking forward to your Beach Bag and summer preview posts–I definitely need summer reads in my life right now.
Thanks, Allison. I’m looking forward to getting those post done. It’s always something!
You actually encourage me to read The Dog Stars, so thanks for that. The further I get into it, the more I like it.
I’m glad you had a lovely Mother’s Day! I love space stories, so I’m definitely going to keep an eye out for your review of Vessel.
Hopefully I’ll have a review out next week. I finished it and though it had a couple minor flaws, I still thoroughly enjoyed it.
Dog Stars sounds interesting. I’m adding it to my wishlist. My weekly update
Aw man! Sorry The Night Before didnt work for you. I liked, but didnt love, it.
I just thought Laura was too pathetic!
I have The River sitting on the table, second in line. I’m really looking forward to it but didn’t think Dog Stars would be up my alley. I’ll wait for your final thought. (Although I did enjoy Celine.)
Ask Again, Yes I have on hold but it may be a while.
Southern Lady Code would be a good audio pick; her previous collection was very entertaining. (I’m currently listening to Cathy Guisewite’s Fifty Things That Aren’t My Fault, that’s a good audio pick too.)
Looking forward to the summer lists!
Thanks for stopping by, Madeline. I might need to go back and read Helen Ellis’s previous collection since I enjoyed Southern Lady Code so much.
I just finished The River on audio and liked it. I also liked The Dog Stars except for a couple dumb scenes. What happened with The Night Before?
I’m reviewing The Night Before tomorrow, but basically for me it had too many flaws and the main character was just plain annoying!