MyBookBlog

 I just finished a good book. It’s called The Happiest Man on Earth - The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor. Written by Eddie Jaku. (c. 2021) I knew this book would be difficult to read due to its subject matter. The title though? How could he be the happiest man on earth after the atrocities he saw and suffered? It is actually because of that that he’s labeled himself as such. Jaku was born Abraham Jakubowicz in Germany in 1920.  He’s Jewish. Beginning in the late 1930’s and over the next several years, through no fault of his own, he was beaten, starved, frozen and hated to within an inch of his life. His survival depended on his wits, his intelligence, and his sincere hope that he couldn’t give up no matter what. Giving up would mean that his Nazi captors would win, and he would lose the only thing they couldn’t take from him - his spirit. He was determined to get through it all.  Obviously, since he wrote this book (at 100 years old) survive he did. With everyth...

 That’s the question to be answered through The Names by Florence Knapp. This book begins with the official naming of a baby by its mother, Cora. She heads on down to the registrar’s office thinking about it. She has her nine year old daughter, Maia, with her. The baby’s name is supposed to be Gordon, after his father, in the family tradition. But does Cora want to continue that tradition? She’s not sure. What she is sure of is that she doesn’t want her baby boy to grow up to be like his father - a manipulative and abusive man. Maia, the baby’s older sister suggests they name him Bear, strong and solid but also soft and cuddly. Cora likes the name Julian, it means sky father. Since Maia means mother, maybe Cora naming the baby Julian (father?) won’t be so bad. Those are the three ‘names’ which formulate the story of this family and their lives over some thirty years.  Different paths are formulated for the family (Cora, Maia and dad Gordon) with differing outcomes depending on...

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy - the only thing that ruined this book for me was the buzz. I don’t like to follow the crowd but I previously read Migrations and Once There Were Wolves by this author and could barely wait for her new one. To say I liked them is an understatement. They upped my reading game. They were hard to follow. (Thank goodness for Jane Kirkpatrick’s latest.) I feel like I only want to read books as good as these now.  Wow. She did it again. I think this book was even better than the other two, and that’s saying a lot. It mostly takes place on fictional Shearwater Island where the global seed vault is located. For various reasons and at various times everyone except the Salt family leave. We meet dad Dominic and his children Raff, Fen, and Orly. They are left on the island as the sole caretakers of the world’s replenishment of food and plant seeds should everything else perish.  One day Fen sees a lump in the water and retrieves it only to find it i...

 Cold As Hell by Kelley Armstrong is a mystery book. I read these types of books almost exclusively for a period of time before they all seemed to blend together. Usually someone is missing, someone gets killed or is kidnapped. I guess the difference between them is the writing and the originality of the story. With so many out there, it’s important to have one or the other, or better yet both, going for it. I’m talking about the book-a-year types. All great writers but honestly, after ten or fifteen books, how original can they be? I’ve read most of these authors books. It’s taken me until now to come around to this way of thinking. Oh sure, the plot can take place in a different state or country, the crime can be new or old, as can be the killer or victim, intentional or accidental. You have your lone investigators, small town or international police departments, male or female sluths, etc.  This is the first and only book I’ve read by this author and it seems like it might ...

My latest read was Forever, Interrupted by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I finished this book in two days. Two work days. It wasn’t that it was suspenseful, it just flowed and moved along very well. I just kept reading and reading. It was a quick, easy read. It’s a story about two people who meet while picking up pizza. Unplausably they connect immediately. (Okay let’s get past that or the book doesn’t work at all.)  From then on they are almost inseparable. They are both only children with Ben very close to his mom, and Elsie’s parents distant, with whom she has little contact. Then something dramatic happens (yeah, they get married, but that’s not what I’m talking about). The book switches back and forth from before and after the thing happens.  It’s hard to go on without spoiling ……. But, suffice it to say, this book, however cynical or skeptical you might be, gives one the feels. The meet cute and ensuing relationship parts are actually my least favorite parts of the book. The even...

 I just finished a real page turner - Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney. Another new to me author. This book is what I’ve learned is called a domestic thriller? I’m gonna try and explain it without giving away too much.  In the beginning we meet the married couple Grady and Abby. Grady is a book writer and Abby is an investigative journalist. Grady is anxiously awaiting a phone call from his agent to find out if his latest book is on the NYT bestseller list. He’s also waiting for Abby to come home so they can hopefully celebrate the good news together. When she doesn’t arrive after he gets the call, he phones her. She picks up as she driving. She’s on her way home.  While they’re on the phone Abby sees someone lying in the road and stops her car. Grady hears what’s going on, tells her not to get out of the car, but she does. Grady doesn’t hear anything more from Abby.  She’s disappeared. Gone.  Grady struggles to go on without Abby somewhat unsuccessfully. His writ...

 Although Jane Kirkpatrick is definitely on my author spotlight list, after finishing her latest book, ‘Across the Crying Sands’, I just had to write about it now.  My earliest memory of reading one of her books was when my family and I were moving from Northern California to the Pacific Northwest, traveling in an RV. Maybe twenty years ago? I recall feeling a little like the characters in her book who were traveling across the country, the new frontier, looking to make something of their lives in a new place, starting over with ambition and hope in their hearts and minds. This book takes place in the late 1880s and tells the story of a young woman, Mary Gerritse (née Edwards) who meets and marries John Gerritse. He is a kind and loving, somewhat ‘traditional’male of the times. Which is to say he, like most of them, think the place for women is in the home tending to child rearing, cooking, sewing, and taking care of them. I’m tempted to say these were easier, simpler times fo...

While I’m reading my new Jane Kirkpatrick book, Across the Crying Sands, I’ll leave you with this … A Gentleman’s Gentleman by TJ Alexander...       This is a book, if I’m being honest, I kept wanting to put down. I’m definitely not a fan of romance books but I heard good things - and I did not put it down. I must have found the good things about it because I kept reading. I wanted to see how it resolved. Not necessarily resolved, but where it would go might be a better description. I think the main reason I kept reading was the likability of the main character, Lord Christopher Eden. There were very few characters in this book so that was probably very important. He presented as a down to earth, kind and caring sort of Earl. Very private. He doesn’t want nor does he need a houseful of servants. Unfortunately his slow, quiet and easy life in the country is interrupted when he learns that in order to keep his earldom and all that goes with it, he must take a wife. By his 2...

 Hi there. Every once in a while I’m going to feature one author for the entire blog. It’s obviously going to be a favorite author of mine. All of the books I’ve read by this author (so far) will be talked about.  This week I’m talking about a fairly new to me author, Kristin Hannah .  I’ve just come across Hannah’s books within the last six months or so. Boy am I glad that I did. I like the history lessons I get from the stories she tells, I like the way she writes, the flow of the stories, the strong characters, and the fact that there’s no fluff or filler. It’s all story. I would recommend any of these books I’ve read highly. Very highly. The first book I read by Hannah is The Nightingale (pub.2015). I think I’ve mention my attraction to historical fiction and this book is of that genre. It takes place in a French village during the WWII Nazi occupation. It involves two sisters, Vianne and Isabelle, trying to survive the best they can under the circumstances they now ...

 Of course it is. Although reading (definitely more so nowadays) can be social it is also very personal. The kinds of subject matter/genre which appeals to one may not resonate with another. One might like to read about trains because their grandfather was an old timey conductor on the Erie Lackawanna railway. One might shy away from novels with divorce as a running theme for reasons of their own. One might like road trip novels. It can be exciting to go where it’s scary or to places we’ve simply never been, or probably never will be, but it’s also okay to not go there. Whatever floats your boat. Recreational reading is something no one can force upon you. No one can tell you what you like or don’t like. Reading is all you. That’s great, isn’t it? All of that said goes to justify my decision to put down The Wedding People for now. From the comments I’ve read about this book it seems like I’m in a very small minority of readers for which this book did not hit the mark. It just was n...

 Oh no. I think I just started my new blog with an oxy moron. Oh well, one thing I want my blog to be above all else is honest, so I’m not going to fix that. What my main goal is here is to spread the love about books I’ve read, would like to read, have heard about, and things peripherally literary. That last part sounded pretentious. I should have just said other book stuff. I’m gonna keep trying to do this. Hopefully you’ll bear with me and I’ll get better. So, a little about me? I really like to read. Always have and hopefully always will. If you’re reading this I guess you like to read as well. Great, we should get along. Enough about me. How about my very latest book issue? I picked up a book which someone recommended to me from the library yesterday. I used to be a book snob (only reading books I’d chosen myself) but am trying to expand my horizons. The book is called The Wedding People by Alison Espach. A new author for me. I enjoyed the first few pages but found out that th...