No Manic Monday this week for this gal.
That lovely time of the month, and I'm feeling too lazy to haul my butt to the workout room (I'll go tomorrow, I swear!!!) but not too lazy to dust and vaccum. I'm currently sitting comfortably in front of the tv, watching the latest uploaded seasons of Midsomer Murders on Netflix (I love Tom Barnaby, but his cousin John has quickly grown on me) while doddering around on Goodreads on the laptop and culling my To-Read list.
Read loads since the beginning of this month. I highly reccommend World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. Just don't confuse it with the movie of the same name (Brad Pitt-Making-Pancakes haha). The book is exactly what it says on the cover, and it's a jolly good read. It would make a better miniseries than a movie, me thinks. Anywhoo.
I tried to read a book that had been on my To-Read list since I signed up at Goodreads; The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro. Found myself skipping through a character's POV and I knew it was over for me and this book. This is the second book set in Paris that I couldn't get through, and I'm usually a sucker for this kind of Chick Lit, where women find themselves in Paris trope, though I prefer it in nonfiction works like Paris Letters by Janice Macleod and Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard. I find way too many fanciful fiction books that are set in Paris with the same 'Career woman giving up her cushy job in America to find herself in France' trope. Maybe if the protagonist was a broke college graduate or a broke divorcee starting from scratch with barely anything savings, I'd happily dive into book. I'm going to try and give it another chance sometime in the future, so I'm keeping it on my Kindle. Moved on to Karen Charlton's The Heiress of Linn Hagh: The First Detective Lavender Mystery and it perked me right up again. A good mystery story set during the Regency Period, with a very clever but surprisingly human detective Stephen Lavender of Bow Street and his capable partner, Constable Woods. I love Woods. He's like the muscle and the heart of this dynamic duo, but he's not short on brains. I'm already itching for another Lavender mystery and I hope a new one isn't too far off in the future.
Another book that has long been on my To-Read list that I finally got to read is Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West. "Never take no cutoffs and hurry along as fast as you can." was what I took away from reading this brutal account of the doomed emigrant party. I've never been to Donner Lake nor have I ever been through that particular part of NorCal, but The Hubs says he has. Beautiful place to spend your summers, but winters are still brutal in the Sierra Nevada. I've always wanted to see that area because of the view, but now I have more morbid reasons.
Last but not least, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. I wanted to like this book more than I did. The precocious and terribly clever Flavia de Luce isn't at fault, and neither is her brilliance and her love of poisons. I love her and her dysfunctional relationship with her sisters and even her lukewarm relationship with her father. The story just slowed down at some point and I found myself losing interest, but I managed to finish the story. I know there are more Flavia de Luce books, but I'm gonna hold off on the second one for now.
Holy crap, it's lunchtime already?! I've sat through three episodes of Midsomer Murders! It took me 3 hours to write this?! What's wrong with me?!
Read loads since the beginning of this month. I highly reccommend World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. Just don't confuse it with the movie of the same name (Brad Pitt-Making-Pancakes haha). The book is exactly what it says on the cover, and it's a jolly good read. It would make a better miniseries than a movie, me thinks. Anywhoo.
I tried to read a book that had been on my To-Read list since I signed up at Goodreads; The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro. Found myself skipping through a character's POV and I knew it was over for me and this book. This is the second book set in Paris that I couldn't get through, and I'm usually a sucker for this kind of Chick Lit, where women find themselves in Paris trope, though I prefer it in nonfiction works like Paris Letters by Janice Macleod and Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard. I find way too many fanciful fiction books that are set in Paris with the same 'Career woman giving up her cushy job in America to find herself in France' trope. Maybe if the protagonist was a broke college graduate or a broke divorcee starting from scratch with barely anything savings, I'd happily dive into book. I'm going to try and give it another chance sometime in the future, so I'm keeping it on my Kindle. Moved on to Karen Charlton's The Heiress of Linn Hagh: The First Detective Lavender Mystery and it perked me right up again. A good mystery story set during the Regency Period, with a very clever but surprisingly human detective Stephen Lavender of Bow Street and his capable partner, Constable Woods. I love Woods. He's like the muscle and the heart of this dynamic duo, but he's not short on brains. I'm already itching for another Lavender mystery and I hope a new one isn't too far off in the future.
Another book that has long been on my To-Read list that I finally got to read is Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West. "Never take no cutoffs and hurry along as fast as you can." was what I took away from reading this brutal account of the doomed emigrant party. I've never been to Donner Lake nor have I ever been through that particular part of NorCal, but The Hubs says he has. Beautiful place to spend your summers, but winters are still brutal in the Sierra Nevada. I've always wanted to see that area because of the view, but now I have more morbid reasons.
Last but not least, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. I wanted to like this book more than I did. The precocious and terribly clever Flavia de Luce isn't at fault, and neither is her brilliance and her love of poisons. I love her and her dysfunctional relationship with her sisters and even her lukewarm relationship with her father. The story just slowed down at some point and I found myself losing interest, but I managed to finish the story. I know there are more Flavia de Luce books, but I'm gonna hold off on the second one for now.
Holy crap, it's lunchtime already?! I've sat through three episodes of Midsomer Murders! It took me 3 hours to write this?! What's wrong with me?!