Well, this will be the last "What I'm reading this week" post of 2017. I'll be on vacation from work until after the new year, and I plan to read, wrap presents, watch Christmas movies, make hot cocoa, and spend time with my family. I'll update you on what I read over break, share my 2018 reading goals, and publish a flurry of Best of 2017 posts when I return to my normal schedule. (I just can't post "best of" lists until I'm done reading for the year. I can never predict what will be great!)
I hope you all have the happiest of Christmases and enjoy the new year.
What I finished last week:
I'm a sucker for a cooking memoir, and I seem to read a lot of books about France, so I snapped up In a French Kitchen when it came out in paperback (the cover alone would have sold me--it might be my favorite cover of the year). But I'm also known to hoard cooking memoirs and not get to them. This one languished on my reading list for ages before I picked it up in my attempt to tame my TBR list before the new year. Maybe you are familiar with Susan Hermann Loomis and her previous work (On Rue Tatin is quite well known, though I haven't read it). Once I realized Loomis wasn't going to tell us what she was doing in France (I am sure she's an American, though she seems to have been in France for many years), why she went there, why she stayed, etc., and just settled in for a tour of French home-cooking--as well as French home kitchens, refrigerators, and pantries, I enjoyed the book. It's not my favorite memoir/cookbook, but it's smart and thoughtful. There were even a couple recipes that appealed to me. Doesn't "steak with melted onions" sound divine? Melted. I beg of you. If you like food and cooking, I think you'll like this one. Be cautioned, though, there isn't much "memoir" here. Perhaps you need to read her earlier books for that. My rating: 3 stars.
I've been in kind of a reading rut lately. I can't tell you how many books I've picked up and put down in the last few weeks. I've been trying to read some of the books that have been waiting awhile, but in all the memoirs, I've kind of forgotten about fiction. Fiction is what's breaking my reading block. I decided to try the first in the Maggie Hope series by Susan Elia MacNeal, Mr. Churchill's Secretary. I knew next to nothing going in other than it's a mystery series. I loved this book! It was a bit of a thriller (though not the Stephen King kind) as well as being a mystery. There was danger, intrigue, romance, and SPIES. Espionage, my friends! Maggie Hope, an American in London at the start of World War II, takes a job as one of Mr. Churchill's secretaries, a job that she thinks is beneath her abilities being educated in higher mathematics. She soon proves her mettle when she uncovers assassination plots involving the IRA. There is a bit of unnecessary swearing here, and I felt that the book could have ended earlier than it did, but still, I can't wait for the next book in the series. And I'm so glad to have found another series. My rating: 4.5 stars.
What I'm reading now:
Years ago I loved a book by Alice McDermott called Charming Billy, winner of the National Book Award in 1998. I'm realizing while reading The Ninth Hour that I might just need to read everything Alice McDermott writes. I'm loving this book, too.
I continue with these this week:
I really don't want Dear Fahrenheit 451 to end. It's wonderful (despite all the swearing).
And I'm enjoying If Bees Are Few. So many wonderful bee poems.
My Kindle-read-turned-audio book:
While I'm enjoying My Antonia, I'm having trouble getting myself to sit down with it. I finally decided to finish it on audio.
What I'll be reading the rest of the year:
I am so excited for every single one of these. They're all new releases that I've been saving up for an end of year reading blowout.
See you in the new year! Happy reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment