Monday Malarkey

Recent arrivals (top to bottom): 

• Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
• Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis
• The Women of the Copper Country by Mary Doria Russell

Two of these were stress purchases and the other was for the RIPXIV Challenge. I have one more from the stress purchases on the way, but I think it's coming from England; it's also for the RIPXIV Challenge (which I'll probably post about tomorrow). Hopefully, I'll get a grip, soon, but in the meantime . . . not a bad set of books for a horrible day's stress shopping.

Heart-Shaped Box is a book my physical therapist has been begging me to read for at least a year and he said, "You have to read Heart-Shaped Box!" when I told him about the RIPXIV Challenge. I'd decided I'm done with Hill, after the 2nd or 3rd book with a cat torture scene but Nate assures me there's no cat torture in this one and he is desperate for me to discuss it with him. I am, humorously, the person who introduced Nate to Joe Hill's writing. He's bought everything Joe Hill ever wrote, at this point, and has moved on to Uncle Stevie's work (that should keep him busy for a while). But, Hill remains a favorite and he's even gotten at least one of his other clients started reading Hill. Word of mouth. Never knock it.

Dom Casmurro is a book I'd never heard of but I read about it in a conversational thread at Facebook. I don't recall which book was being discussed but the general consensus was a negative one. There was an unreliable narrator, but it just wasn't as good as everyone hoped. Someone suggested Dom Casmurro as an alternative and said it's a favorite in her home country. I was curious, of course, so I looked it up and read about it. Obviously, I decided it sounded like a good read.

I'm "friends" with Mary Doria Russell on Facebook (but not real friends; we've never met, although she shared one of my Facebook posts and may have responded to me once). So, I've been seeing her posts about The Women of Copper Country since it was released. It wasn't till I read a review of the book that my ears perked up, though. And, then came that stressful day and I just went for it.


Books finished since last Malarkey:

• The Rogue to Ruin by Vivienne Lorret
• In Pain by Travis Rieder
• The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

Yay, finally a decent reading week! And, every one of those books was great for entirely different reasons. The Rogue to Ruin nicely wrapped up the Misadventures in Matchmaking romance series with some surprises. In Pain is an incredibly important book from which I learned a great deal about where we've gone wrong managing pain in America and what can be done to change things. The Beekeeper of Aleppo is the book our head of state needed to read 2 or 3 years ago, when massive numbers of people were trying to find asylum from the bombing in Syria. It is timely and deeply meaningful.


Currently reading:

• Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling
• Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

The heroine of Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus is a girl who is just entering high school and has to deal with the challenges of making friends in a newer, larger school after one of her besties has moved to a different school. The complication: she is armless and doesn't know who to trust when people are friendly to her. Momentous Events is a follow-up book and I haven't read the first, unfortunately. While it mostly stands alone, there have been moments when I've felt lost, particularly when Aven (the heroine) refers to one of the many cast members without any context. I don't know, for example, who or what Spaghetti is, at nearly halfway through the book. A dog, maybe? She has a horse named Chili, but she also has a tarantula, so who knows what other kind of critter Spaghetti could be. Still, it's a fun read and I'm not letting a few little road bumps stop me.

I'm not far into Heart-Shaped Box but I hope to finish it before my next PT appointment. So far, so good. I think I'll stick to reading this one during the daylight hours, since it's about a haunted suit.


Posts since last Malarkey:

• The Rogue to Ruin by Vivienne Lorret (book review)
• The Passengers by John Marrs (book review)
• Fiona Friday - Izzy wants my breakfast (cat photo)

In other news:

Meh. Nothing to say. Hope my American friends have enjoyed the Labor Day holiday!



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