Book-Talk Monday: What Are You Reading (November 2012)
It’s the first Monday of the month. And we all know what that means . . .
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- What book(s) did you finish reading (or listening to) since last month’s update?
- What are you currently reading and/or listening to?
- What’s the next book on your To Be Read stack/list?
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I read two books (yes, two WHOLE books) in October and started two more, which I’ve set aside while trying to finish writing An Honest Heart while also trying to figure out how to get all of my grading done for the Freshman Comp courses I’m now adjunct teaching.
The first book I read in October was Untamed by Elizabeth Lowell. My “review” from my Pinterest board:Started 10/2/12. Finished 10/13/12. This was recommended highly, but I found I really took issue with the theme of the heroine having to be “tamed.” The heroine seemed to have no flaws. Her only fault seemed to be going along with the hero’s need to completely control everything she did. The hero had major control issues, and it bugs me to see captivity and control being made the basis of the relationship between them. But Lowell is a good writer. 3 stars.
The second book was Notorious Pleasures by Elizabeth Hoyt. It’s the second book in the Maiden Lane series. I really enjoyed the first one, but I was a bit disappointed by this second one:Audio book read by Ashford McNabb. Started 10/3/12. Finished 10/14/12. I did not like this second book nearly as much as the first book in the series. I have no sympathy with the heroine who allows herself to be seduced by her fiancé’s brother—a man she caught in flagrante in the first scene of the book with another woman. The hero is flawed, but the flaws do not make him relatable or endearing. Didn’t find any chemistry between them. 3 stars.
I also wrote about my reaction to these two books here.
Here are the two that I started in October but have set aside for the time being:
And Only to Deceive (Lady Emily, Book 1) by Tasha Alexander.
- Emily’s desire to learn more about her late husband takes her to the quiet corridors of the British Museum, where, amid priceless ancient statues, she uncovers a dark, dangerous secret involving stolen artifacts from the Greco-Roman galleries. To complicate matters, she’s juggling two very prominent and wealthy suitors, one of whose intentions may go beyond the marrying kind. Her search to solve the crime leads to surprising discoveries about the man she married and causes her to question the role in Victorian society to which she, as a woman, is relegated.
The False Prince (Book 1 of the Ascendance Trilogy) by Jennifer A. Nielsen. [Audiobook]
- In a discontent kingdom, civil war is brewing. To unify the divided people, Conner, a nobleman of the court, devises a cunning plan to find an impersonator of the king’s long-lost son and install him as a puppet prince. Four orphans are recruited to compete for the role, including a defiant boy named Sage. Sage knows that Conner’s motives are more than questionable, yet his life balances on a sword’s point — he must be chosen to play the prince or he will certainly be killed. But Sage’s rivals have their own agendas as well.
As Sage moves from a rundown orphanage to Conner’s sumptuous palace, layer upon layer of treachery and deceit unfold, until finally, a truth is revealed that, in the end, may very well prove more dangerous than all of the lies taken together.
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KayeDacus.com 
I haven’t had time to read anything in ages, but I just turned in my book, so now I have time to finish Like Moonlight at Low Tide by Nicole Quigley! I’m halfway through it, and I LOVE it so far. Beautifully written. Next up is Lynn Austin’s Wonderland Creek. Rachel McMillan has been after me to read Lynn for years.
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I found Wonderland Creek whimsical and unique. I passed it along to my mom.
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of course! because lynn austin is my major author crush in the CBA 🙂
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Yeah, Rachel is going to pester all of us until we’re all Lynn Austin acolytes! 😉
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that’s my job!!! 😀
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I clearly don’t pester people about Lynn Austin enough. 😉 I suppose I do more pestering about Ginger Garrett books. 🙂
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ginger garrett is a more than worthy project, ruth. i certainly benefited from your introducing me to her 🙂
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I just finished reading BE STILL MY SOUL by Joanne Bischof. It is an amazing story that touched my soul. I am currently reading a friend’s manuscript and I’m awaiting the arrival of 2 books that I won in drawings.
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Ooh–I’m adding that one to my (ever growing) Books to Sample list. I love Marriage of Convenience/Forced Marriage stories!
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Just finished YA novel Softly Say Goodbye by KCSprayberry, written by my friend and critique partner. It follows 4 teens fight against underage drinking.
I’m currently re-reading the Firebird trilogy by Kathy Tyers. Actually it’s the Annotated Firebird. It’s probably my 5th time through the series, and I still love it. She finally released 2 more in the series and I wanted the original trilogy fresh in my mind before reading them. They have to squeeze between other books I’m reviewing though. For example I’m also finishing up Breath of Dawn by Kristen Heitzman. She’s a fantastic author too.
Next up is Daystar and Wind and Shadow by Kathy Tyers, Torchered Minds: Case Histories of Notorious Serial Arsonists (research), and Change of Fortune by Jen Turano. And yes I’ll probably be reading them all at the same time. 🙂
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I loved Kathy Tyers’s Star Wars book, The Truce at Bakura—so when I met her at a writers’ conference a few years later, I hate to admit that I went all fangirl on her!
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I adore Kathy Tyers — both her Star Wars book and the Firebird novels! 🙂
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I just finished reading COURTING CATE by Leslie Gould. Leslie did a fantastic job re-telling the Taming of the Shrew in an Amish setting! I liked it much better than Shakespeare’s version. Now I am reading THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak. It is our Book Club read for this month. I’m really enjoying the unique point of view Zusak uses in telling this compelling story!
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I LOOOOVE THE BOOK THIEF! I devoured that one!
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Oh! The Book Thief is another one I need to add to my list!
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At last post (yes, I looked it up lol), I’d just started Second Chances by Tess St John. It didn’t go well. I only got to 20% before too many problems had stacked up for me to enjoy it. Since then I read Rowena Through the Wall (Expanded Edition) by Melodie Campbell, Let’s Make it Legal by Patricia Kay, The Next Logical Step (short story) by Elijana Kindel, and Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink.
Of those, I recommend Let’s Make it Legal and highly recommend Mindless Eating – it was eye-opening, yet fun.
I’m participating in NaNoWriMo so I haven’t started reading anything new this month. Yet.
To Be Read: Set Free to Live Free:Breaking Through the 7 Lies Women Tell Themselves by Saundra Dalton-Smith
Not sure which fiction book I’ll begin. Too many to choose from. =)
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Was the Tess St. John book recently a Kindle Freebie? I went over and read the description of it, and I can swear that I just read that blurb within the past week or two.
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Just finished-Full Disclosure Dee Henderson, wonderful! Reread Chateau of Echos Siri Mitchell, a favorite I usually seem to read every fall. Just started Shadow of the Quilt Stephanie Whitson. TBR Too far to say…Nancy Rue, another Miss Read, a Christmas book that will wait until after Thanksgiving, and a couple of to be re-reads too!
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‘chateau of echoes’ is SUCH a perfect fall book! how delicious!!
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And now I have another that I’ve added to my list!
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Yay! Chateau of Echoes is WONDERFUL!!!
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I read The Wedding Dress by Rachel Hauck and recommended it to my newly-engaged daughter. I also enjoyed Things We Once Held Dear by Ann Tatlock. Both books had portions I found worth quoting, which is rare for me when reading escape fiction. Both are by authors I had nor read before.
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I’ve had Rachel’s book on my watchlist for quite some time!
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I just finished The FitzOsbornes at War by Michelle Cooper and Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming this weekend…currently reading Across the Universe by Beth Revis! 🙂
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You’ll have to let me know how you like the Revis book. I added one from each of the ladies at that book-signing to my “to be sampled” list . . . if I ever get around to them!
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I am loving the Revis book so far — it is intense!! 🙂
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I am REALLY enjoying the Revis book…it is a page-turner!
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I just finished reading Frantz’s Love’s Reckoning and Rekindled by Tamera Alexander.
I am currently reading Be Still My Soul by Joanne Bischof.
I then plan on reading To Whisper Her Name also by Tamera Alexander.
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I’m planning on taking Love’s Reckoning home with me over Christmas break when I’ll have time to really enjoy it.
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i just finished ‘is everyone hanging out without me’ by mindy kaling and it was HILARIOUS! i absolutely loved it! 🙂 when you get to ‘and only to deceive’ you’ll enjoy it 🙂 i am starting ‘an elegy for eddy’ by jaclyn winspear ( for a book tour— yay maisie dobbs), am near finished the AMAZING new lynn austin (‘all things new’ ): because i only get a lynn austin once a year, i stretch them out. i have a tendency to gobble books up super fast and i like to stretch hers out and ration it 🙂
i am halfway through the new anne mateer ‘at every turn’ : her first book was fine, but nothing exceptional and so i didn’t have high hopes; but this is so fresh and unique and spirited 🙂
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^^^This!^^^
I’ve been eyeing the Anne Mateer book ever since Rel posted the cover and blurb on her blog months and months ago. Glad to know it’s a good read!
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I just finished listening to Blue Moon Bay, by Lisa Wingate. It is book 2 in her Moses Lake Series. I enjoyed it. However, sometimes I felt as though there was too much internalization and not enough “Here is how I feel” from the narrator. I, also listened to The Fiddler and The Bridesmaid by Beverly Lewis. Both are very lively and enjoyable.
I recently discovered Shelley Shepherd Gray. She has a historical series set in Texas–A Texan’s Honor, A Texan’s Promise and A Texan’s Choice (just finished). Each is set just after the Civil War (War of Northern Aggression.) Very lively stories with very real issues involved with the characters–trust after rape, abduction and abandonment. Very well handled by the author.
My next book is The Tainted Coin, by Mel Starr. It is the 5th book in a mystery series that is set in the 14th century. The main character is a surgeon and bailiff of a noble’s estate. He spends his time solving the murders that happen on the estate.
I, also, hope to finish Northanger Abbey soon. I have been reading it since early August.
I am currently reading Lisa Wingate’s Month of Summer. It is about a woman who is forced to confront her feelings of abandonment and agner following the divorce of her parents.
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I just finished Brides of Bonneterre.Trilogy by Kaye Dacus. I found all three books very enjoyable and as usual hated to see the story line end. Today I started The Bridge by Karen Kingsbury and next on my list is Angels At The Table by Debbie Macomber.
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I’m currently bouncing back and forth between “In The President’s Secret Service” by Ronald Kessler, “A Reporter’s Life” by Walter Cronkite (his autobio), and “Peace, War and Politics: An Eyewitness Account” by Jack Anderson and Daryl Gibson, all of which caught my eye in the used books for sale (super cheap!) at the public library. Also picked up that day: Jude Deveraux’s “An Angel For Emily” and “The Blessing”, both of which I knew going aren’t the time travel tales I love by her, but will be a welcome respite and fast reads after a steady diet of thick biographies and historical non-fiction.
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