May 22, 2014

My reviews this week are a little strange.  I have been working on the Mark Twain book for ages and though I am over halfway done, I am throwing in the towel on that one.  The other was good…so good in fact that I am terrified of giving something away so I kept that one brief. 

Currently Reading:

• Goldfinch by Donna Tartt      
• Natchez Burning by Greg Iles (received through the publisher)
• The Third Horseman by William Rosen (received through NetGalley)
• Give War and Peace a Chance: Tolsotyan Wisdom for Troubled Times by Andrew D. Kaufman (received through NetGalley)

On Deck:

• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
• Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
• The Angry Years: The Rise and Fall of the Angry Young Men by Colin Wilson (received through NetGalley)

Recent Reviews:

The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers who Reinvented American Literature by Ben Tarnoff

I was excited about this book, the same way I am excited anytime a book is about people who write books.  I just can’t get into this one though.  It covers the writers living in California during the Civil War, including Mark Twain.  The group, known as the Bohemians, are attempting succeed in showing the east coast that the frontier has the class and talent to produce high caliber artists.  I think that I may have just been too distracted to read this fully but it just was slow, slow, and slow.  Well written about interesting characters but not something that I am currently in the mood for. 

 

Then and Always by Dani Atkins (received through NetGalley)

5 stars

This book really had it all.  It was emotional, romantic, and suspenseful in surprising ways.  The characters were well developed and interesting.  I am almost afraid to write too much in case that I in some way ruin the story and the reading experience.  I finished this book in one day and was absorbed the entire time.  I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.