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Happy Friday!!

This summer is going so fast but there are still many days of being able to enjoy our books outside!

What are you reading this week?

What is next?

As readers mourn the death of Toni Morrison, what are your favourite books celebrating strong women?

Also - Happy Book Lovers Day!!!! This may be everyday for this group but let’s all celebrate by recommending a new favourite that we have read this summer!

Happy Friday and Book Lovers Day to everyone. On audio I am listening to The Lonely Hearts Hotel and quite liking the story, as sad as it is. It places women in uncomfortable to consider roles and reminds me of how hard women have had to fight for equal rights, freedom and independence. I am half way through The Silent Patient and will recommend this as a summer read that has captured my attention and was recommended by many others to me. Take care everyone.

Happy Friday & Happy Book Lovers Day!! I am in good company with this group celebrating the joy of reading.

This week I finished 3 books, The Other Einstein, French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew and The One. I enjoyed all 3 but just LOVED The One!! I am looking forward to the Netflix series that will be made from this book! Currently have A Life in Parts in audio and Betrayal in Time and You Think It, I'll Say It in paper for my in-person book club on the go.
I have not read any of Toni Morrison's book, but have a couple on my TBR list. Beloved has been highly recommended and it was a Pulitzer winner, so I might tackle this one soon!
There are so many books celebrating strong women, it is too hard to choose. However, the fact that more women are writing about difficult topics should be a reason we celebrate!
Have a great weekend!

Happy Book Lover's Day!
I haven't read as much this summer as usual, thanks to a big gardening project. Of the books I've read, I haven't got new favorite, although I've read some good books.
An old favorite that I would recommend is Set This House in Order.

I finished reading Lady Helena Investigates. I just tore through it. The mystery is pretty much non-existent but I found the development of Lady Helena's self confidence and awareness of self interesting and worthwhile. This series (of which this is the only book so far) seems to be more geared as a family story and I enjoyed that. I was a bit disappointed to find out that there is no Book 2 in this series yet.

Happy Friday!

This week I finished Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation as well as White Houses for my IRL book club. I enjoyed White Houses but at times felt like it presupposed knowledge of FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt. I did have to look some things up, and there was a mix of fictional and real-life characters, so that got a bit confusing at times.

I also read The Wall, from the Booker long list. I found this to be a page-turner but then the ending was a bit of a let-down for me. However, I enjoyed it overall and there was something about reading this dystopian novel in a very depressing news week that was strangely helpful.

Yesterday I started rereading Anne of Avonlea on audio for bingo. I am finding this equally as amusing as rereading Anne of Green Gables was last year. Anne is hilarious to me. Soooo dramatic!

A new favourite from this summer's reading was Disappearing Earth. I loved it!

Greetings fellow book lovers! I was excited to be reading The Burgess Boys this week but finished today and thought it was just okay. I usually love Elizabeth Strout. Next up, I’m starting City of Girls. I’ve been quite relaxed this summer, being off work and just taking things day by day. Unfortunately, I’ve just realized that my lack of planning in the book department means I haven’t read Canadian in quite some time. I’ll fix that soon!

Hi to all and Happy Book Lover's Day!

Kinda dull reading week here. I'm in a bit of a slump and have started four or five books only to run out of interest in them by page 50. So I've pulled an old favourite Two Caravans off the shelf and am also slowly working my way through How to Disappear: Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency, a book of essays on the benefits of remaining unseen, undetected, and unknown in a selfie, networked kind of world. It's quite thought provoking.

@susan, I'd been wavering on White Houses but based on what you've said, will give it a pass.
@allison, i'll be looking forward to hearing what you think of City of Girls. Are you doing audio or text?

@Storyheart, I have the eBook from the library. Will let you know what I think.

Finished Mary Cyr by David Adam's Richard and have to say was disappointed. For me lacked in character development, so much going on so found it hard to feel connected. Liked other books of his.

Just 20 minutes from finishing After You by Jojo Moyes at points just wanted to get through this but overall liked it well enough to want to read last book in series. Maybe it was audio so will go back to physical book for next but not right now.

Started Handmaid's Tale this morning for digital book club, will be third read.

Just realized of the four Toni Morrison books on my shelf there is one I have not read. The prettiest blue eye so that is moving to top of TBR shelf.

And last still reading Ulysses and will be for awhile. @Petra thanks for links really has made this venture more interesting. Enjoy your gardening, this is my second passion after reading.

Hello Book Lovers.

Haven’t posted in Spine Crackers for a while, although I have been following everyone’s posts looking for my next great book.

Feel free to scan as I've packed a lot of info into this post.

This year, I seem to be reading both a lesser quantity and quality of books, although there have been some bright spots. Like many, I have been busy and pre-occupied with other things and am blaming the “book funk�� on my state of mind and not the books themselves. Reading just doesn’t seem to be grabbing me. I think I may have overdosed on too many heavier books in a row in recent years and so I am now intentionally mixing up styles and indulging myself in more lighter reads in between.

I really enjoyed Tilly and the Crazy Eights by Monique Gray Smith. It's a light Indigenous book but informative and great intro for people into native history, culture and ceremonies.

Also really liked Children of the Moon. I understand why Anthony De Sa was nominated some years ago for a Scotiabank Giller Prize. He makes use of his Portuguese heritage and resources and written a informative and engaging historical fiction about Africa (Mozambique & Tanzania in particular, both former Portuguese colonies). He focuses on the people caught up in the wars of independence and living with Albinism - neither of which I knew very much about before.

Did not like My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing. I'm not sure why I don’t learn that I dislike reading about sociopaths. Just wasn’t expecting it to be so grim.

Just finished Heads You Win by Jeffrey Archer - one of my all-time favourite authors when I’m looking for a lighter read. He’s such a great story teller. This book was fast-paced and enjoyable. It was told in a twin story format - not clear I understood why but I really didn’t care as it made for a double great story. Can’t say I felt the same way about the confusing ending.

I am half way through A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Indigenous author Alicia Elliott. I really like her writing style, the content and format. It’s a memoir of sorts but is more like a collection of essays and theses on various events in her life but with more emphasis being put on the the impact on the Aboriginal collective and on people living in poverty. She is one smart lady and a very skilled writer.

Am also half finished The Red Address Book. Am enjoying its poignancy and insight but it’s making me feel a bit melancholic and definitely causing me to reflect on aging and my own memories - all examples of skilled writing. Sofia Lundberg is a Swedish debut author and this book has been translated for publication in numerous countries around the world.

Coming up for me in the translation department is The Housekeeper and the Professor by Japanese author Yōko Ogawa - a book that I marked to read many moons ago.

@ Storyheart - both The Red Address Book and The Housekeeper and the Professor fit into the interesting Female Translation Challenge you mentioned last week. I hadn’t heard about this challenge before (thanks for mentioning it) and by chance I had both of these books out of the library.

Hope everyone enjoys their reading, gardening, vacations and summer weather.