Excited

I was looking at Goodreads’ Best Book 2019 nomination and I was thrilled to find two books in my shelf, one is When All Is Said by Anne Griffin which is nominated in Best Fiction and Best Debut Novel for 2019 and The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides which is nominated as Best Mystery and Thriller and Best Debut Novel. I’ve read both but I love the first one better.

Would you believe, sometimes I base the books I read from the list of nominees awarded every year if I am lucky to find them. Most of the time, I find one or two and I am happy. Isn’t it nice when the books you have read before are favorites of other readers too?

I love Goodreads, they have sizable book reviews of different genre of books and I love reading them too. I make it a point to write a line or two every time I finish one. Lately, I have this on my profile from Goodreads:

#31 best reviewers
#27 top reviewers

It’s nice when they notice what you write about those lovely books and gifted authors in their thousands of books.  It’s nice when you are also recognized in your effort to review some of them. I don’t always review the books I read except when they are really good. Goodreads is owned by Amazon so you can just imagine the number of books they have. “Goodreads is a social cataloging website that allows individuals to freely search its database of books, annotations, and reviews.”

Do you use Goodreads in your book search?

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Down Where My Love Lives …A Short Review

I’m humbled reading another lovely book by Charles Martin. It is actually two books in one, the first is called The Dead Don’t Dance and the second is Maggie. The two books need to be read together.

It is categorized as a love story, a contemporary one that breaks your heart, touch it and give it back again and  it uplifts your soul. The quality of writing, the depth of characters …just perfect. Maggie and Dylan have endured those family upheavals but they are blessed and lucky to have supportive friends around them. I also love Amos’ character as the best friend of Dylan and the ever elusive Bryce who is a multi-millionaire but lives a simple and quiet life and a  friend of the couple. When things look the darkest and hope seems like a far-fetched dream, that’s when the tide turns for the better.  Maggie’s character seems like so weak but Dylan’s has all that ingredients of being strong, true, faithful and hopeful.

You look at life when it is staring at you hard in the face, you look at your relationship with your family and your friends and all the people you meet in between and you wonder, will I ever have a good and meaningful life ahead?

See for yourselves how the story unfolds. You might enjoy reading it too.

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Some Books On My TBR List

There is really something exciting about discovering new books and authors. They become part of your reading life. Damyanti, an author and a friend here at WordPress said she is curious about my “to be read” list  of books. I guess, they’ll get me through next year’s book challenge at Goodreads. I  will only list those which I am excited to read until the end of the year.

1. Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales – excited to start reading this. There is a story behind every tale that he tells.
2. Ken Follet: Night Over Water – I’ve always been a fan of this great  writer. I have a complete set of his Kingsbridge series and I love Pillars of the Earth best. I have his other books as well.
3. The Bone Collector: Who would not be thrilled to find another book by Jeffrey Deaver? Accordingly, it is one of his best.
4. Down Where My Love Lives by Charles Martin. I discovered him two years ago I think and read most of his books. According to Goodreads, “it  is a bittersweet yet triumphant love story—a tale of one man’s spiritual journey through the darkness of despair into the light of hope”.  Most of his books deal on triumphs, faith and they are spiritual too.
5. Anthony Doerr’s About Grace. First encountered him in All The Light We Cannot See,  a Goodreads Choice 2014 Winner.
6. The Throwaway Children by Diney Costeloe. – My first book of Diney Costeloe, the story of two sisters sent first to an English, then an Australian orphanage in the aftermath of World War 2.
7. Matilda by Roald Dahl – Most of you have probably read this already. Matilda is a child who is a book lover.
8. Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan – been curious about this since it was published.
9. Promise Me by Richard Paul Evans. RPE is my favorite author. This is one book that I didn’t have before.
10. I  Am David by Anne Holm – This has been on my wishlist for so long. David’s entire twelve-year life has been spent in a grisly prison camp in Eastern Europe. He knows nothing of the outside world.

I also have two classic books by Ernest Hemingway, For Whom The Bells Tolls and A Farewell To Arms. 

Some  books on this list are e-books.  Have you read any on this list?

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When October Comes To A Close

What happened? Got at least ten spam comments on my folder. Good thing Akismet is always there. Thank you WordPress.

I like it that some bloggers who don’t subscribe to my blog are reading my old posts. I guess most of my older ones are way, way better than those I am posting nowadays.  They have more “meat” because I was sharing my plight as a cancer patient and survivor. When I think of those days and months that I was indisposed, I often wondered  how I survived them – frequent lab tests, hospital visits every three weeks and chemotherapy which saps one’s strength. But God is good. He let me have that faith that I get well in the process.  When you pray fervently for your heart’s desires, your prayers are answered in one way or another.

I had an hour of gardening so early this morning. The weather was just fine with an early promise of a lovely day. Looking for more pots where I could transfer my Impatiens plants. It is so nice to see new shoots of Zinnia once again.

I am reading some books about winter and Christmas but I haven’t done any Christmas decoration yet. Years back, we used to put up decor come November 1. I don’t know why, I don’t feel so much inclined to do it this early. Maybe  I am getting really old,  no longer excited to put up Christmas decorations. I have lots of TBR books that I want to finish before the end of the year.

October is about to close, have a lovely and blessed November.

 

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My Fave Authors

Did I say I finished two books in three days?  And yes, blogging was relegated to the back seat again.

The Brave

Waited for this book for almost a decade since it was published back in 2009. I love Nicholas Evans. Read all of his five books now. I wonder why he is no longer writing. I haven’t seen a new one since The Brave. The last time I heard of the guy was back in 2010 when he and his family members got sick because of eating poisonous mushrooms.   The Brave is his last publication so far. Alternating between the main character Tommy Bedford’s fast and present, but you are never lost in the story. A lonely childhood, as heartwarming as his other books.

Lost December

Richard Paul Evans, you rock!

Just finished reading this in a day. I love the twist and turns of the story. Evan’s stories have that arresting themes that grips you, some warm tales of family life, triumphs, friendship. They are feel-good stories that make you go on reading till you reach the last page.

Lost December is one of those. I like the relationship between father and son, how they survived the brief alienation from each other and how the son learned how important family is in the end.

We make bad choices at times but the lessons they teach us are priceless. I have this lovely quote from the book:

” In life we all take different paths, some more difficult than others, but in the end, all that matters is whether or not they lead us home.”

Except for his Michael Vey series which are more YA books in character, I read almost all of his books. We are friends at Facebook…haha 🙂 His books  I have are hardbounds and all have lovely covers to boot. I love the quotes written in each chapter of every book. Aside from Mary Oliver, he is one of my favorite authors.

Oh my, and I found two more books by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of the Yellow Sun and Americanah. I Am David by Anne Holm has been on my wish list for a number of years now and what do you know, I’ll be reading it soon too.

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Of Love And Shadows by Isabel Allende

I have some of her books sitting on my shelf for the last ten years or so but I never was compelled to read them –  The House of the Spirits was published in 1982, Of Love and Shadows in 1984, Maya’s Notebook in 2011 and A Japanese Lover in 2015. The last two are e-books. I have previously read Maya’s Notebook and In The Midst of Winter but I have clearly forgotten the stories. I went back to Goodreads and I have given them both four-stars before.

Since I am done with my Goodreads’ challenge this year, I am choosing what books to read first without having to think that I have a challenge to meet. Some lazy days of reading, I guess.  Finally, it is about time I have to consider other authors  again like Isabel Allende. She  is a Chilean- American author who was born in Lima, Peru. She has written over 20 books translated from Spanish. The last time I enjoyed stories from that part of the world was when Nissa gifted me with two books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a Colombian novelist, sadly though, before I finished Love In The Time of Cholera, they were both destroyed by flood Ondoy back in 2009. They were never replaced but I like to reread One Hundred Days of Solitude.

Going back to Allende, I am presently reading Of Love and Shadows.  Still in the first few chapters of the book. Would you believe, I found a movie adaptation of the book  with   a voice translation. I’m gonna explore that some other time maybe.

Last night I was distracted playing Wordscapes on my tab. I am on level 121 and I don’t want to lose my earned points just to look for clues. It is hard but challenging.

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Goodreads’ Reading Challenge 2019

Oh I know, it’s probably a “no big deal” for some but it is an achievement for me.

I am finally done with my reading challenge at Goodreads for this year. Here is a message from Goodreads:

Congrats!

You have read 120 books of your goal of 120!

120/120 (100%)

The last book I read is entitled Flowers in the  Snow by Danielle Stewart.

“Sometimes a hug is the only way to squeeze someone’s worry away.”

Racism.

I read a few books before about this subject matter but this one grips you like no other. Come to think of it, I didn’t know this was a series until I read it is book #1. I would love to read the others if I am lucky enough to find them.

When you and your family are divided by your own beliefs and ideologies, you try to find people who would understand. This is a story of three friends, one is black but she found friendship with two others who belong to the other side of the fence. And those two found a lasting friendship with the family of their black friend.
This was told through flashbacks on what happened in the past but it was a lovely read. Easy on the eyes and easier still to get into the story.
Here’s a synopsis of the story from Amazon.com:

In the 1960s, Edenville, North Carolina is full of rules. Sagging under the weight of racism and segregation the small community finds itself at a dangerous tipping point.

Eleven-year-old Betty Grafton believes the world is fair. She knows there are worse places to live than Edenville. Unaware of the wars waging around her, she spends her days patting horses in the field and running errands for her mother. The world she doesn’t see, full of turmoil and unrest, is hiding just below the surface. One day, she has no choice but to see what’s been right in front of her all along.

Alma knows where to walk. She knows who to talk to and which fountain she can drink out of. Her mother, Winnie, spares no opportunity to remind her how dangerous it is to be a little black girl in the South.

When a chance encounter puts Betty face to face with the peril that exists in her own hometown, everything she knows turns upside down. The world isn’t as fair or safe as she’d imagined. Her family is the Klan. Her friends are the enemy. And nothing makes sense anymore.

Although the world demands they stay apart, Alma and Betty forge a secret friendship. One that could cost them their lives.

I gave this five stars in Goodreads, a nice ending of  a book for this year’s challenge.

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