Monday, August 29, 2011

It's Monday,What Are You Reading?

It's Monday, What Are You Reading?--is hosted by Shelia from Book Journey.



She says:
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between! D This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!




Wow!  I haven't particpate in 'Its Monday' since  June.  The Summer has flown by!!
I felt the need to do a little book talk around here....but I'm not very good at this...on paper.  Set me in the middle of a book club with other book lovers and a glass of wine or a cup of coffee and I can 'book talk' up a storm.
Last week, I had two book clubs back to back.  I enjoyed each of the evenings so much!  And the books too.

I listened on Audio to  "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand.  I have come to love audio, but only listen to about one book a month.   "Unbroken" was narrated by Edward Herman.  He did an excellent job.  The book was about 14 hours long and I got so engrossed in it, that I kind of quit doing anything but listen.  I brought my Mp3 player to work one day and pretty much just sat there and did nothing but address envelopes.

My daughter in law said:
Wow. This book is incredible. It's heartbreaking and the atrocities of war (on both sides) is presented. Louis is an incredible man, who while flawed (and he's honest about his flaws), figured out how to survive in some of the most horrific conditions.She is right.  I appreciated so much the amount of  research Hillenbrand did for the book, as did everyone in my book club.




We met for dinner and sat around the table as we had dessert and couldn't get enough of the conversation about the book.  While we didn't LOVE  Louis Zamperini's story  (we didn't love that he had been a prisoner of war), we did love the book, and Zamperini's strength of character...and we loved him.  We rooted for him and discussed the atrocities of war  and how war changes people.  How different it is now than it was then, and what makes those differences
We are of the age, where most of us had stories of family members being in WWII, and we discussed them.
We discussed the way Hollywood portrayed WWII, and the way, it portrayed Vietnam.
We wondered if Zamperini's story would make a good movie.  It made for an excellent read.   An amazing man, an amazing life.

As I said, it's hard for me to put into words what we thought of the book....  it got a 13 thumbs up from my group!!
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Hideaway by Dean Koontz was book club #2's book of choice this month.
It was....well, to be honest, I have about  15% left to read  (that's what my Kindle says).  I'm enjoying it, and the people in my book club seemed to enjoy it too.
I have really loved some of Koontz's books in my time,   Watchers,  Strangers,  Odd Thomas.... those are some of my favorite books.
You can rest assured that  good always triumphs over evil in his books.  Sometimes it just scares the crap out of you getting to that point.

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What's up next for my reading week?
Looking for Alaska by John Greene
Death in Blue Folders by Margaret Maron
One Day by David Nicholls

We'll see how I do.

3 comments:

sadie607 said...

If you read nothing else this week read looking for Alaska. It's brilliant and hilarious and awesome.

bermudaonion said...

Unbroken sounds so good! I love that you have a daughter in law who's a reader.

Unknown said...

Wow your blog makes me hungry LOL hope you have a wonderful week ;)

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