Lisa > Recent Status Updates

Book 7: Starting to lose me, specifically Phoebe Selena Goodman Deering. Not sure I won’t add to DNF before I finish the 87 pgs in this section.

Oh my gosh! Need a road map. This book is so good!!

Stretch your legs only as far as your bed ( don’t get ahead of yourself).

Stopped enjoying this book at Chapter 6. Not sure I’ll finish.

In hindsight, I wish I'd stopped after they shoved Bunny off the cliff.

Loved it. I’ve read others by Alice Hoffman & this one didn’t disappoint. The story combines intense love & hope w/the desperation & despair of the Holocaust, of which, for these characters, surviving requires faith and folklore. Not sure I should rate it a 5, but it was a moving story & that alone - when I have an emotional response to a book, gives it 5 stars. A silly rating criteria, but it works for me.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Hendrik is just the sweetest, most affable curmudgeon. The members of the Old But Not Dead Club have a touching relationship - through life and death. The power of true friendship!

Such a great book. Cather is impeccable in her development of a strong, female heroine who is brave, insightful, strong-willed, and independent, yet tender-hearted and naive in ways modern lit would never portray female protagonists. This would be a great book for our Jr. High unit on female authors of the 20th Century. Cather is one of the best.

Weird. An ok book, but weird. More mythical fantasy than I expected and I almost stopped reading. Enjoyed the author's style a great deal, but if his other books are as strange, I will probably pass.

Very touching story of the Khmer Rouge takeover as seen through the eyes of a child, and based on the author's real life experience. The book is satisfactory in its portrayal of the physical brutality, but the real story is captured in the characters' psychological upheaval. The emotional journey is a heavy one, but the author is incredibly gifted in her use of language and out of the grief there is hope.

This is a captivating story of Every Man! Wang Lung's search for peace in his life and the inherent need to return to the earth. Recommend!

Doig's last book before his death in 2015. Cast of characters is classic Doig; a lot of quirks! Herman the German, The Kate, and every fellow passenger on the dog bus. Light-hearted, which is just what I needed to blot out the sharp stupidity of the real world.

Decision I currently need to make: Do I continue torturing myself and finish this book?

This was a great book. An enormous story. Completely fascinating piece of historical fiction. I feel like I've been reading it forever, but it's not a book I could rush through. The history and story of John Brown, as told by his son, Owen, is just too big for that. I'll definitely seek out more works by Russell Banks. His storytelling is mesmerizing. There is real pleasure in his writing.

Loved it!!!

Excellent book. I hope there is more to come from Leslie Parry. My only lingering question (and maybe I missed it among the many marvelous twists and turns of this story), is who put the baby in the privy? I'm assuming it was Signora or Anthony, but I don't think it was ever revealed. Either way, I could start this book all over again right now. It was just that good!

I could barely put this book down. The sheer volume of injustices experienced by Earl Washington during the two decades he spent in prison for a crime he didn't commit, the majority on death row, is shocking. His story highlights the failings of our criminal justice and judicial system when people would rather save face than do what's right

I couldn't suffer any longer. The characters had that covered. What a depressing couple of delusional women. I closed the cover at page 34 and moved on to something else.

Interesting story about slavery and the black slave owners who, although small in number, are very much overlooked in history. There are a lot of characters in the book, and their stories are told in and out of time. Some people find that disjointed, but I thought it created more human characters - from one season in their lives to the next.

I wouldn't usually read WW2 mystery/spy novels, but I really like Ken Follett and I picked it up on a whim. British occupation, Germans about to storm Cairo, spies, a military officer always 2 steps behind the bad guy. Sometimes a little predictable, but a really good story.

Didn't care for this one. It just rambled in a way only Pulitzer Prize winning writing can ramble. Maybe I need to read it again