IT'S MONDAY! WHAT ARE YOU READING?

 

 

I normally also do Mailbox Monday - but since the only book that came this last week has been read and reviewed, I am only doing the above meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

 

This is the book I am reading right now!

 

I won this on Goodreads and was skeptical when I got it. Halfway through and am enjoying it tremendously. Its a time travel (series) and this is time travel on a massive scale. We go way way baaack! T Rex etc.......

Book reading still very very slow due to far too much work but work has to be done anyway!

MOONRISE by CASSANDRA KING

This was a win from Kathy at Bermudaonion. It was so timely because I have no reading material at all. Or rather the books I have, have been so disappointing its not true!

I have read stories where a house has been the main character and it has always been spectacular. This one was equally so. We have Helen - just married to the enigmatic and rather strong willed Emmett and both of them are returning to Moonrise to spend three months there. Moonrise belonged to Emmett's first wife Rosalynn who died tragically in a car crash. The people who live near Moonrise have been Rosalynn's friends and most of them are rather cautious in their welcome of Emmett and his new wife. After all Emmett married Helen less than one year after the death of his first wife and most of them disapproved of this short mourning period.

From the onset one knows that the characters in the story are more than what they seem. There seems to be many hidden agendas amongst them not just the fact that they are distraught over Rosalynn's death. One by one reasons, twisted and otherwise emerge and Helen and Emmett have to find a way to keep their marriage intact and their heads above the water in the face of all this.

I liked this book - it had elements of mystery, love and romance, thwarted love and a sense of the gothic particularly in relation to the house and the gardens. I hadn't heard of moon gardens before this and must investigate this further. I always like a book when it leaves me with something new I've learnt and this book did that as well.

Thanks Kathy and a very happy birthday to you today!

WHITE TEETH by ZADIE SMITH

I liked this book initially when I heard about the modern Britain background. I thought the mix of ethnicities will add such flavour to the book. I was disappointed once again with a book (happened to me last week as well). This is particularly heavy going for me. It is difficult to source books and then you get someone like Zadie Smith disappointing you. 

The stories told by Archie (failed marriage, suicidal) and a Bengali who is British to the core - Samad. Serving together in a war the pair are such unlikely comrades but they are. Archie then marries a Jamaican woman in her twenties Clara and Samad marries Alsana in a proposed marriage. Both produce children a girl in Archie's case and twin boys for Samad. 

There are two distinct worlds here - the one of the Archie Jones and the one of Samad Iqbal. Circuitous, different and at the same time similarities  - the chaos of different generations, race and social factors all rolled into one. I did not like any of the characters but maybe that should be superfluous to a review of the book. I just could not get into this one. They left me dissatisfiied and faintly annoyed.

On a non book note, thank you for the good wishes for the quick recovery of my husband. His is an illness which is taking a toll on him - because from being a very active man he is now confined to the house which does not sit well with him. We box on the best way we can. 

THE HUSBAND'S SECRET by LIANE MORIARTY

After simply ages, I got a book that I had to read in one go. The last week has been a very difficult one. Husband in hospital since last Sunday and discharged last night at 10 p.m. only but I did find that a hospital stay is a good time for reading. In between doctor's visits, medications and general work this book got read in a day and a bit!

Right at the start we know we are in for a rollicking ride. Cecilia discovers a letter dusty and forgotton in the attic "to be opened only on my death" sort of letter. She really is a good soul because she does not rip it open (I think nine out of ten women would have done that!) but it simmers within her and it is only her husband's rather strange behaviour which follows her telling him of the discovery that makes her open this letter. Right upto now Cecilia has been a model wife and mother to their three children, a pillar in the community, in the school and in the church. The letter and its contents disrupt not just Will and Cecilia's lives but everyone else around them.

Apart from the story of Cecilia and Will and their three children, we have two parallel stories of the Crowley family - Rachel who has faced a tragedy in her life 20 odd years ago, her daughter and grandson and then we have the O'Leary triangle of Tess, Will  and the cousin Felicity.

The meeting point for three diverse units is St. Angela's Primary. We also throw in an attractive PE teacher who has links with all and the setting is complete.

A story set mainly in Sydney, Australia beautifully told. Intense to the point of which you have to know what happens next. An author I am certainly going to be looking out for. The epilogue at the end was such a twist. Makes you ponder on your own life and the what ifs!!!

This was a book I had been following quite a bit and the way it came to me was so very unexpected. A friend came out from England with this book as a gift for the hostess. The hostess did not stand a chance - I grabbed it saying I will read and return asap. Which I did. So very very glad I did. 

PREP by CURTIS SITTENFIELD

So much of this book is so familiar. I think every fourteen year old girl has grown up being unsure, wanting to be popular and pretty, wanting to be one of a crowd, ashamed of our parents, nervous how they would behave with our friends, wondering who would let slip something that would later mark us out as being geeks!!! the story is endless.

However, I did not enjoy this book. It became too much of a negative for me.  Lee is from Indiana trying to fit into a boarding school where the more socially clever and richer families send their children to. She is there on scholarship and she feels this as a slight. After sometime, reading about Lee and her endless need for approval and to be part of the group got to me. 

I liked the first book I read by this author - The American Wife and was very disappointed with this one! It left me very dissatisfied.

THE PROMISE OF PROVENCE by PATRICIA SANDS

This was a win from the author herself. We lost the first book in the post and she ordered another and then it came! Very seldom do I lose books in the mail and it would have been really sad to not get to this story.

A sort of a love story but the main story is about Provence. I fell in love with Provence, South of France et al when I read Peter Mayle. I also fell in love with the theory of dropping everything and settling somewhere absolutely gorgeous (like Provence) from Under the Tuscan Sun. Both highly improbable or rather impossible. But one can dream can't one?

Anyway set alternately between Toronto where our heroine comes from and then to Provence where she initially does a house exchange stint we have Katherine recovering from a divorce, a faithless husband and just wanting to find herself. She succeeds very well in this. She emerges brighter, stronger, independent and fearless though it takes a lot of hard work. On the way she meets up with two charismatic men - Nick and Phillipe who both woo her and she does fall in love.

I'd like to recommend this book as a romance but more importantly for those who like detailed travelogues or a memoir of Provence taken from an insider view of someone who lives there and gets to know the place well.

Thank you Patricia for sending the book to me.

Away from Colombo for three days and away from blogging, Internet sigh sigh!!!

MAILBOX MONDAY/IT'S MONDAY! WHAT ARE YOU READING?

After a drought of several weeks without any books I had quite a few books coming in. 

This was a win from the author herself. Am halfway through this one. After Peter Mayle made me fall in love with Provence, any book on this part of the world draws me in. 

Read and reviewed this one already. Greater part of the story set in Sri Lanka which added to my interest.

Have read this author before. Her debut novel. Described as a coming of age story.

Modern Britain. Up my street. Waiting to get into this one.

After the Dog in the Night this one was a definite choice for me. Looking forward to this one.

My second win from Good Reads. The first book never turned up. Lost in the mail I presume.

I never thought I'd get to this one for at least a couple of years and then out of the blue someone coming out from England brought this as a gift for a friend. I've grabbed it as she will take ages to get to it. I'll finish first and then pass it around!

A very satisfying pile of books.

Hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Reading two of the above! The Promise of Provence has just a hundred pages to go to finish and also started on the Prep book.