Recent Reads
So...I plowed through The Woman in Cabin 10 super quick. It wasn't high Literature, but for what it was, a fun summer mystery in the vein of And Then There Were None, it was great.
Lo is a reporter who is planning to write a story on this fancy new luxury cruiser that only has 10 cabins and is super posh. She struggles to make it to the ship, and when she does, a chance encounter messes with her head and seems to make her the target of someone looking to shut her up. It was fast paced and fun. The mystery kept me going up until the last pages.
I had two issues with this book, though: 1. The Title...it was easily confused with The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl. and, 2. The unreliable narrator is getting old for me. I just don't know if I can deal with another drunk girl second guessing her every thought and move. Maybe it's relatable, maybe it's popular with our current culture, but I miss the Miss Marples, the Sherlock Holmeses, and any other classic sleuth who is not stumbling drunk at any given hour of the day. I recently read No One Knows and this was a device that annoyed the hell out of me with that one too. Ugh.
Looking for a fast paced thriller to keep you guessing late at night? Give The Woman in Cabin 10 a chance, and most likely you will forgive the title and the drunk narrator by the end.
Next, I listened to Circling the Sun on audible.
I read McLain's The Paris Wife years ago and enjoyed it reasonably enough to be curious about her new work. She is thorough but not stuffy in her research. The character she studied, Beryl Markham, sounded really intriguing.
Half way through I abandoned this audio book. I was just getting tired of hearing her sexual exploits. While that may have been true enough, I was really curious about her record breaking flight across the Atlantic Ocean which only surfaced at the very end as almost an afterthought.
I wanted to like it more. It just never clicked for me. I finished listening to it--maybe the worst form of self torture is folding laundry for hours while listening to a book you can't stand, but I stuck with it. And, listening to it was tricky because it vacillated between dull and sexy and the kids would always come find me during a sexy scene. Lovely.
Most recently, I listened to Born Standing Up on audible. I am a HUGE Steve Martin fan. HUGE. I heard found out about this book and immediately looked it up. When I saw it was actually read by Steve Martin himself on audible I knew I had to listen to it. I've enjoyed his fiction but this was his best work by far.
It wasn't hysterical but I did laugh out loud a few times. He goes through some of his stand-up material and it really enhances the book listening to him deliver the lines. Martin covers his early days, as a child through the end of his stand-up career. You could tell some of the memories were painful, the writing was moving. He looks back with both realism and candor and the reader is allowed an inside view of Martin's life, what forces propel him and what held him back.
I loved learning about my favorite actor and would definitely recommend this to any fans. It was also a close look at a creative life and that makes it a good read for anyone pursuing a big dream.
*Stops fan-girling*
I'm currently reading A Prayer for Owen Meany which is completely blowing me away. The prose is beautiful and I'm already in love with the characters. Audible's got me with Rules of Civility. So good, so far. I'm listening to another one I'm trudging slowly through: The Queen of the Night (similar to Circling the Sun I keep starting and stopping and then forcing myself to listen while I fold laundry).
I got my book of the month box the other day with Behold the Dreamers, The Couple Next Door, and Siracusa. Read any of them?
I need another tween read, too, but can't decide...just finished The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place for mother-daughter book club.
When I don't have my kids around, my reading (and blogging) really does increase! Look at that silver lining!
What are you reading?
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| spooky cover |
Lo is a reporter who is planning to write a story on this fancy new luxury cruiser that only has 10 cabins and is super posh. She struggles to make it to the ship, and when she does, a chance encounter messes with her head and seems to make her the target of someone looking to shut her up. It was fast paced and fun. The mystery kept me going up until the last pages.
I had two issues with this book, though: 1. The Title...it was easily confused with The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl. and, 2. The unreliable narrator is getting old for me. I just don't know if I can deal with another drunk girl second guessing her every thought and move. Maybe it's relatable, maybe it's popular with our current culture, but I miss the Miss Marples, the Sherlock Holmeses, and any other classic sleuth who is not stumbling drunk at any given hour of the day. I recently read No One Knows and this was a device that annoyed the hell out of me with that one too. Ugh.
Looking for a fast paced thriller to keep you guessing late at night? Give The Woman in Cabin 10 a chance, and most likely you will forgive the title and the drunk narrator by the end.
Next, I listened to Circling the Sun on audible.
I read McLain's The Paris Wife years ago and enjoyed it reasonably enough to be curious about her new work. She is thorough but not stuffy in her research. The character she studied, Beryl Markham, sounded really intriguing.
Half way through I abandoned this audio book. I was just getting tired of hearing her sexual exploits. While that may have been true enough, I was really curious about her record breaking flight across the Atlantic Ocean which only surfaced at the very end as almost an afterthought.
I wanted to like it more. It just never clicked for me. I finished listening to it--maybe the worst form of self torture is folding laundry for hours while listening to a book you can't stand, but I stuck with it. And, listening to it was tricky because it vacillated between dull and sexy and the kids would always come find me during a sexy scene. Lovely.
Most recently, I listened to Born Standing Up on audible. I am a HUGE Steve Martin fan. HUGE. I heard found out about this book and immediately looked it up. When I saw it was actually read by Steve Martin himself on audible I knew I had to listen to it. I've enjoyed his fiction but this was his best work by far.
It wasn't hysterical but I did laugh out loud a few times. He goes through some of his stand-up material and it really enhances the book listening to him deliver the lines. Martin covers his early days, as a child through the end of his stand-up career. You could tell some of the memories were painful, the writing was moving. He looks back with both realism and candor and the reader is allowed an inside view of Martin's life, what forces propel him and what held him back.
I loved learning about my favorite actor and would definitely recommend this to any fans. It was also a close look at a creative life and that makes it a good read for anyone pursuing a big dream.
*Stops fan-girling*
I'm currently reading A Prayer for Owen Meany which is completely blowing me away. The prose is beautiful and I'm already in love with the characters. Audible's got me with Rules of Civility. So good, so far. I'm listening to another one I'm trudging slowly through: The Queen of the Night (similar to Circling the Sun I keep starting and stopping and then forcing myself to listen while I fold laundry).
I got my book of the month box the other day with Behold the Dreamers, The Couple Next Door, and Siracusa. Read any of them?
I need another tween read, too, but can't decide...just finished The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place for mother-daughter book club.
When I don't have my kids around, my reading (and blogging) really does increase! Look at that silver lining!
What are you reading?
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