October Book Review

October was a good month of reading. I started off with Liane Moriarty's Three Wishes and The Last Anniversary. Three Wishes was her first novel and you can definitely tell. I enjoyed it but glad it wasn't the first of hers that I read. Next was The Last Anniversary. I liked all the characters and a bomb drop on the last page was fantastic.

I finished Shooting Victoria by Paul Thomas Murphy in October after reading 20 pages per day for what seemed like months. It was very interesting and I learned a lot about the Queen along with mental illness during that time period.

The Book Club choice was The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan. This was a great story and provided a great deal to discuss and questions to ask. Unfortunately, my perfect attendance streak ended (January 2012-September 2015 RIP). An additional Book Club outing was planned to see Adriana Trigiani speak at the Nashville Public Library. I put the pressure on to read Big Stone Gap and Big Cherry Holler before the event. They were good stories but I hate small country towns. I'm from the crappiest small country town and scarred for life because of it so I'm comfortable in being judgmental. I really enjoyed hearing Adriana speak--very funny and entertaining. She talked about her new book, All The Stars In The Heavens, and it made me want to read it along with biographies of Loretta Young and Clark Gable, too.

I read a "mommy" book called, Hands Free Life. There were some good points to it but I would not recommend it. Every other paragraph contained "tears ran down my face". I looked up reviews on Goodreads to see if I was the only one. One review suggested making a drinking game out of every time she said, "tears ran down my face". Ha! Glad to know it wasn't just me! Nothing like a bad self-help book to remind you that you are doing just fine!

I saved my favorite book for last. The Secret History by Donna Tartt. The Goldfinch stayed with me for many months and it was so good that I neglected my family while on vacation in Phoenix to read it. I loved this dark and disturbing book as well. Donna Tartt has convinced me that she is a genius in too many fields and I also have a concern for her extensive alcohol and drug knowledge. Oh well, it makes for great reading.

Happy Reading!