Books have taken on a whole
new level of importance since I became a stay-at-home mom four years ago. I left a good professional position that I
actually really liked because our family life had become a level of hectic that
wasn’t sustainable. While a hard
decision, both because of finances and my sanity, it has become a good
lifestyle change for our family.
However, I soon found that I am not a person that can spend multiple
hours in kid-land and not feel as if my intellectual capacity is diminishing. Already a significant part of my life,
reading and books have become my lifeline.
Once I figured out that while my kids are playing well together…and
there are no pressing household chores (there hardly ever areJ), I can pick up a book and lose myself
in the words and stories. This led to early
review copies and the online world of book reviews. All of which have kept me sane, happy and
have improved my life. Yes, books can do
that.
Currently Reading:
-
My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead
- Third Degree by Julie Cross (received through NetGalley)
- The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
- Blood Will Out: The True Story of A Murder, A Mystery, and A Masquerade
- Beautiful Addictions by Season Vining (received through Goodreads)
-
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
- Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
- The Burning by Jane Casey (received through NetGalley)
- The Frangipani Hotel by Violet Kupersmith (received through NetGalley)
Recent Reviews:
Dancing
Fish and Ammonites: a Memoir
by Penelope Lively (received through Goodreads)
3 stars
I found this to be a rather odd
book. Author Penelope Lively, currently
in her eighties, divides her memoir into five sections. She ruminates about old age, living through
points in history, memory, reading and writing and describes six physical objects
that she finds important. Her ramblings
about old age were somewhat interesting but repetitive and I kind of skimmed
through the part on memory. Her
remembrance of life during World War II and the Cold War were extremely
fascinating as were her descriptions of the six objects (including a pearl
encrusted bible from Jerusalem and a sherd from at least the twelfth
century). I absolutely loved her
section on books and reading and I actually plan on rereading this part
again. Overall, I think that different
people will find different parts of this book appealing and it is worth reading
for that purpose alone. I won this book
through a Goodreads Firstreads Giveaway.
Burning by Jane Casey (received through
NetGalley)
4 stars
There is a certain joy in the realization
that the book you are reading is the first in a series. I had never heard of Jane Casey or her Maeve Kerrigan series but I am so glad
to have stumbled into it. Maeve Kerrigan
is a detective in the London Metropolitan police department. She constantly strives to be taken seriously as
one of the few women in the department.
In this book, a serial killer has already killed four women and a fifth
has been found. While the signs all
point to the serial killer, Maeve is not convinced, and the case has her meeting
with an array of suspects that leaves the reader guessing well throughout the
book. I really liked the way this book
is written and the characters are all interesting and complex. There is a romance but while it is sweet, it is
definitely not central to the story. I
did have a problem with Maeve at times.
She is a very stern and almost cold character with almost no back story
on how she got that way. Overall, I
really enjoyed this book and have already placed a request for the next two in the
series. I received this book from
NetGalley in return for an honest review.
No comments:
Post a Comment