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What I’m Reading Wednesday: The Nightstand Edition
It’s been cold, and I’ve just wanted to curl up with a book and a cup of tea. Because of this, and some overenthusiastic trips to both the library and the bookstore, I now have a stack of books on my nightstand (and on my coffee table, and on my end table). We won’t talk about what I’ve downloaded to my Kindle recently, or the NetGalley advanced reader copies I have waiting to be read… The weather has been miserable, which makes me race through my to-do list so that I can curl up with a cup of tea and a chocolate digestive biscuit for an hour or so in…
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Put on Your Big Kid Pants
When I was about ten years old, I participated in a music competition. Wait, let me back this up a bit. My parents left one night to buy a piano; I was overjoyed. They returned with an electric organ. I was mortified. Still, my sister and I obediently took lessons. I practiced daily, because I was the first-born rule follower. My sister, disliking it as much as I did but not needing to do the die-hard rule following thing because she had ME, instead put on her headphones, kicked up the rhythms and pounded away at the keys for her practice time, until the day music teacher gently suggested to my…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday – Wartime Stories
Reading is a great form of escapism for me, and sometimes, when the world seems too complicated, I reach for historical fiction – particularly fiction set around the first and second World Wars, because life at that time seemed simpler. Love wasn’t over thought and life was about family and faith. Well, sure, that is a generalization, and every generation had its share of problems and conflict, but life in general was simpler, and romance was sweet. So for What I’m Reading Wednesday, I’m sharing two books set in and post-wartime. Hope Rising, the second book from the “Of Love and War” series by Stacy Henrie. While part of a…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: Books for A Cold Day
Brrrr! Fall is slipping away quickly here in Chicagoland and winter is tiptoeing in! I don’t know about you, but when the weather starts to turn, all I REALLY want to do is curl up in my favorite chair under a cozy blanket with a hot cup of tea and a good book! Lucky for you, I’ve got three really great mysteries that are recent releases – no waiting! So let’s get started: it’s time for What I’m Reading Wednesday and the “Books for a Cold Day” edition. There is something about Tana French’s style of writing that is instantly identifiable. Her books have a very distinctive feel –…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: “A” is for the Alchemist
Happy Wednesday to you! If you have children, you are likely deep in the throes of back-to-school chaos. Mine kids are madly trying to finish up the math workbooks assigned for summer work and looking over their reading logs to make sure they have accounted for every day of reading – the latter being much easier to keep up with as my kids love to read. Both of my kids are big fans of serial books and I am excited to introduce them to a new series created by James Larson – The Winnie and Winslow Adventure Series. The first book in this series, recently released, is “A” is…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: Never Google Heartbreak
It’s time for What I’m Reading Wednesday! Yay! Are you looking for a light beach read? If you are a fan of British authors Sophie Kinsella and Helen Fielding, check out Never Google Heartbreak by Emma Garcia. I think we’ve all been there (or had a friend that has been there) – dumped and going through all the stages of loss: grief, denial, (including bad fashion choices and the inevitable badly timed haircut). This is the story of Vivienne Summers who leaves her boyfriend (fully expecting him to chase after her, of course) after he has postponed their wedding – for the third time. When he doesn’t, she loses herself in grief and…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: The Summer Middle-Schooler Edition
Both of my kids are avid readers, and while for my eight-year-old any book involving princesses, fairies, or animals having an adventure, she’s in. My ten-year-old is a tougher nut to crack. Historically he hasn’t been a fan of science fiction/fantasy, so no amount of reasoning could get him to try the Harry Potter series or any of the other YA fiction in that genre that I love, although I have seen some Rick Riordan find their way to his shelves. He’s a big fan of sports fiction, with books by both Tim Green and Mike Lupica filling his shelves, and he does like fiction that’s either compelling (like Michael Morpugo’s War…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: Vanished
Are you a mystery fan??? Well, this week’s pick is an excellent, stay up late ’til ya’ finish romantic thriller: Vanished by Kendra Elliot. Fans of Carla Neggers, Lisa Jackson, Nora Roberts and/or Karen Robards will love this book as Elliot successfully meshes an intense mystery/thriller with a blooming romance. Initially, the story is about an eleven year old girl abducted on her way to school, but it proves to be much more complicated than that. The cast of characters is a complexly intertwined bunch. The missing girl turns out to be the stepdaughter of Mason Callahan’s ex-wife. (Got that?) On the surface, he, his ex-wife, her new husband and HIS ex-wife seem to…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: The House We Grew Up In
This week’s pick is a family drama by British author Lisa Jewell, titled The House We Grew Up In. A compelling, complex family drama that was so very different from the book description (you might wonder if I’m just rubbish at reading the description, but no), I was quickly drawn into both the story and the family members. The happy scene depicted in the opening pages proved to be a stark contrast to the later lives of the inhabitants of the Bird House. When tragedy strikes on an Easter Sunday, the family falls apart, but while the blame for this is put on the tragedy, it turns out to…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: Alias Hook
Wahoo! It is Wednesday, and I have a fun book for you today! This week I want to tell you all about Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen. If you are a fan of Wicked by Gregory McGuire and other reinvented fairy tales, and are a fan of historical fiction, I think you will really enjoy Alias Hook. As you might have guessed, Hook, born James Benjamin Hookbridge, is himself the Captain Hook of Peter Pan lore. But have you ever wondered how, in Peter’s world where one never grows up, just how did Captain Hook end up in Neverland. In Barre’s original tale, Hook’s story ends as he is eaten by his…
