June 2018: What are we reading?

I am reading Happiness by Aminatta Forna

Today I finished Henry V, by William Shakespeare. It made a surprisingly fast bus book! Next up in bus books is Doctor Who and the Giant Robot, by Terrance Dicks.

Jane of Lantern Hill / L.M. Montgomery
3.5 stars

Jane has been living in Toronto with her rich grandmother and her mother as long as she can remember. She doesn’t even realize her father is still alive and living on Prince Edward Island, until a letter comes asking if she can stay with him for a summer. Her (hateful!) grandmother hates Jane’s father, and all Jane knows is to hate him, and she doesn’t want to go. But, when she meets her dad, she is pleasantly surprised.

I enjoyed this! LM Montgomery’s books are pretty simple, and the end was tied up with a nice bow, but I still enjoyed it, overall.

I'm reading Readopolis by Bertrand Laverdure.

Just finished Jane Dawson's excellent biography of John Knox. It was interesting to read alongside Antonia Fraser's Mary Queen of Scots (which I'm still working on), and now I'm about to start Nancy Goldstone's Daughters of the Winter Queen, about Mary, Queen of Scots' (Scots's?) great-granddaughters.

Yarrow / Charles de Lint
3.5 stars

Cat is an author and gets her inspiration through dreams. Unfortunately, she has not been dreaming for a few months and is now blocked. What she doesn’t know is that there is… something out there feeding on her dreams! And he’s feeding on others, as well, but Cat’s dreams are the ones he really wants.

This was good. I liked the real world sections of the book more than the dream sections, but that’s not a surprise to me. Cat didn’t really have friends in the real world, so I enjoyed the sections where she was making friends (though that was more secondary to the story). There were a lot of characters introduced at the very start of the book, so I was afraid I would get them confused, but surprisingly, it was rare to not figure out who we were following in the story fairly quickly – de Lint must have given enough clues to be able to follow easily.

I stayed up way too late reading last night, so will be very sleepy at work today. However, it was worth it. I hadn't read anything by Wayne Johnston in quite a while, but really enjoyed this one: First Snow, Last Light.

I'm reading Little Sister by Barbara Gowdy

I'm reading Who Killed Lynne Harper by Bill Trent with Steven Truscott

I had high hopes for At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen as it's set in one of my favourite places (the Scottish Highlands) and in the WWII era, but...very disappointed. By the end, I felt like it was a glorified Harlequin romance.

Speaking of Scotland.....just finished Peter May the third in the Lewis trilogy (outer Hebrides) and I loved them all! I liked his mystery on the Magdalen Islands Entry Island too.

>11 mdoris:. I've been obsessed with everything Scottish, since my visit there a couple of years ago, so had high hopes for Sara Gruen's novel, but, alas, the setting didn't redeem this book for me. I too, loved the Lewis Trilogy, though!

>12 ted74ca: Have you read His Bloody Project? I thought that it gave such a good description of the early times many of our ancestors would have had to deal with (Scotland). Fun.... I just clicked on the tag "Scotland" and there are so many books to be read!

Preparing to start Original Highways: Travelling the Great Rivers of Canada, by Roy MacGregor.

I've decided to re-read The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, one of my most favourite books.

Started The Diary of a Bookseller, by Shaun Bythell, on the bus this morning. I'm already halfway through!

>13 mdoris:. Yes! I did read His Bloody Project last year. Showed that, in some cases at least, the loss of the clan system (and protection) didn't help some of the average folk at all, I thought.

Odd Child Out by Gilly MacMillan. I'd enjoyed the last 2 books I'd read from this author, but this one...kind of ho-hum....

Started A Bridge Too Far, by Cornelius Ryan. Possibly not the handiest bus book, but we'll see.

I'm about to begin my latest LTER book, Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined by Danielle Younge-Ullman.

I'm reading A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout. It's been on the shelf for a while, and today, one of her kidnappers was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

>21 LynnB: Was that "Adam"? I assume so. I should look it up. I know his trial was in the fall (just after I finished reading it).

ETA: Yup, that was "Adam".

I've just finished House in the Sky and have ordered the book written by Amanda's fellow-hostage, Nigel Brennan.

I'm now reading After James by Michael Helm.

>23 LynnB: I'd like to read Nigel's book, as well. Also, Amanda's mother has written a book about what she went through while Amanda was kidnapped.

well, maybe I'll have to read that one, too. Will start with Nigel's.....

LibraryCin, do you have the title?

Late night reading in this week's hot spell: a rather unthrilling thriller-The Girl I Used to Be by Mary Torjussen

>25 LynnB: I can't recall the title, but I'll see if I can find out...

ETA: Looks like it's called One Day Closer.

Juggling several books, as always. The book I most recently started was Bloody Scotland, a short story collection featuring 12 Scottish writers and sites of historical interest.

Reading Calypso by David Sedaris and loving it!

Just finished another thriller and this one WAS good. Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman

thanx, LibraryCin.....I've added it to the wish list. Will read Nigel's book first and then decide.

>31 LynnB: No problem!

I'm reading Conclave by Robert Harris

Today I started The Human Factor, by Graham Greene. Not sure what prompted me to put it on the to-read pile now, but it's good so far.

>34 rabbitprincess:, I just finished The Power and the Glory. Greene is always worthwhile.

>35 Cecrow: So far my favourite has been A Gun for Sale -- I seem to like his spy ones best.

Started a new work-break book: Meltdown: Why our systems fail and what we can do about it, by Chris Clearfield and András Tilcsik.

I'm reading American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of Robert J. Oppenheimer by Kai Bird.

The Firebird / Susanna Kearsley
3.75 stars

Nicola is able to “see” things when she touches them. When her work takes her to Russia to buy some art, she has a second mission in mind. A woman had recently come in wanting to sell a piece of art that she insisted came through her family’s generations, originally gifted from Peter the Great’s wife, Catherine. But there is no proof. Nicola is hoping to find some proof while she’s in St. Petersburg, along with her friend, Rob, who has the same “gift” of sight, but is better at it than Nicola is.

I preferred the modern day storyline to the historical one in this one. I’ve been to St. Petersburg and loved “visiting” some of the places again: Church of the Saviour on the Spilt Blood and, in particular, the Hermitage… but also, one of a chain of restaurants our tour group visited, Stolle, was mentioned in the book: “a small chain with several locations strung all through the city, and served what one might call traditional Russian ‘fast food’: homemade pie.” Yum! Good memories!

Anyway, I was surprised to find that many of the historical characters in this one were real – thanks to an author’s note at the end, which I always like to see in my historical fiction! In fact, it was quite a detailed note. I guess this is the second book in a “series” (loosely-based, I think), where one of the (historical) characters in the first book reappears in this one (I haven’t read that one). I recognized one of the contemporary characters from another book by this author that I’ve read, though, so that’s always fun.

Started Who's There: The Biography of William Hartnell (aka the first Doctor Who). This biography was written by his granddaughter Jessica.

Finished a rather humdrum family drama type novel: The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth

I'm reading The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope by Austen Ivereigh. I'm not Catholic, but I really admire this pope.