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What are you reading for this category? Courtney Love: The Real Story by Poppy Z. Brite
What work had you previously read by this author? I've read Poppy Z. Brite once before, Drawing Blood, and really enjoyed that so I knew this story was in safe hands.
Did you enjoy this one as much as the first one you had read? It's far too different to compare, as one is a horror novel, and this is a biography...but I probably enjoyed them equally.

I'm not a fan of Courtney Love. Not in the shady way of meaning I dislike her, just that I was too young to get into grunge. I've listened to both Hole and Nirvana, and thought they were ok, but just ok. But I am interested in her story, so when my friend was clearing out his books this was one of the ones I picked up. This book is not written to tear Courtney Love down, but equally it isn't trying to make her into some sort of saint. It covers her traumatic childhood, her involvement in different music scenes across America and in the UK, her relationship with Kurt Cobain and their journey into parenthood, and how she dealt with his death by suicide. I found it fascinating to see the other well-known people she knew - the ones she loved, and the ones she hated. I really appreciated that she doesn't hold back on that last one either, something you don't always get in "celebrity" biographies and memoirs, but I'm always down for some hot tea. She speaks her mind, and if she doesn't like someone she's not only going to tell them but she's going to tell the whole fucking world. I've come out of this book thinking that although problematic, this is a woman who has been through hell and is totally fascinating. The book is really well written, it flows really well and doesn't just take Love's word for things!

1. What are you reading for this category?
I've just read The Story of a Seagull and the Cat Who Taught Her to Fly by Luis Sepúlveda a children's story about a cat in Hamburg (where the author had lived after leaving Latin America for political reasons) who comes to the aid of a dying seagull covered in oil.
2. What work had you previously read by this author?
Yesterday I finished Sepúlveda's Un viejo que leía novelas de amor available in translation as The Old Man Who Read Love Stories - my choice for week 24 (a book with an emotion in the title). Despite majoring in Spanish at university I'd never read Sepúlveda before and was captivated by his knowledge of and clear respect for the Shuar people of Ecuador and the theme of reading, the old man of the title has forgotten that he knows how to read and sets off to discover which genre of book he wants to read. I highly recommend it. When I looked at his other work I decided on a children's book that I could read a pass on to my nieces. Very prompt delivery meant that I could read it the day after finishing my first read of his.
3. Did you enjoy this one as much as the first one you had read?
Yes although it's very different. The values it upholds - keeping your promises, looking after the vulnerable and accepting difference - are part of its charm. It has an element of humour and beautiful line drawings by Satoshi Kitamura. The translator Margaret Sayers Peden also deserves high praise for the way she has put it into English.

1. What are you reading for this category?
Someone by Alice McDermott

2. What work had you previously read by this author?
The Ninth Hour

3. Did you enjoy this one as much as the first one you had read?
Almost. These are both very quiet stories focusing on the relationships between the characters.

1. What are you reading for this category?

Regular:
The Turn of the Key Ruth Ware
previously read:The Woman in Cabin 10
I actually liked this book better. The mystery aspect of it was better.

ABC:
How I Live Now Meg Rosoff
Previously read: What I Was
They were both alright. She is not my favorite author but not sorry I read either one.

I read [book:The Haunted Fort|76946, a Hardy Boys book for this. I've read a lot of the Nancy Drew books, but I'd only ever read the first Hardy Boys book. I recognize that both of these series were written by a succession of ghost writers, so it's pretty certain that The Haunted Fort which is #44 was not written by the same author as #1. But I'm still going off what is available digitally from my library and there's a limited selection.

I am reading
Down by the River by Edna O'Brien.
The previous book I read was Country Girl, a memoior.
As the other was autobiographical this does not really compare. It is however very gritty and down to earth, her first novel, Country Girls, was controversial and originally banned by the Irish censorship board.

1. What are you reading for this category?
In the Woods by Tana French

2. What work had you previously read by this author?
The Secret Place

3. Did you enjoy this one as much as the first one you had read?
I enjoyed this one more than the first - 5 stars. Tana French writes great psychological thrillers.

1. What are you reading for this category?
I read The Meat Hunter by Megan Allen

2. What work had you previously read by this author?
The Slave Players

3. Did you enjoy this one as much as the first one you had read?
The two were very different but I rated them both 4 stars.

Kindle Unlimited introduced me to Sally Britton so I read Discovering Grace, which is the second book in a series beginning with Rescuing Lord Inglewood. I definitely liked the second better than the first.

1. What are you reading for this category?
I read Dark Places by Gillian Flynn.
2. What work had you previously read by this author?
I read Gone Girl a few years ago.
3. Did you enjoy this one as much as the first one you had read?
I actually enjoyed this one much more then Gone Girl (probably an unpopular opinion). Her characters are so unlikable but this story drew me in more and I enjoyed it more.

1. What are you reading for this category? After We Collided
2. What work had you previously read by this author? After
3. Did you enjoy this one as much as the first one you had read? No - not so much. I'm kind of sick of all of the drama. I thought the first one was pretty good though.

A classics group I am in on GR is reading The Last Man. Most everyone has read one book by her - Frankenstein. I am using The Last Man for this prompt but - I read this so you don't have to! It is a terrible book!

All the language is impossibly flowery. Even in moments of crisis, every character speaks in long, melodramatic sentences. The characters have no depth and not even logic, changing their minds and emotions for no good reason. The women are nonentities, surprising in a female author who admired her mother, one of the world's first feminists. The only interesting part is a plague/pandemic toward the end, where some of the behavior of people and government is comparable to today. I am going to give the book 2 stars because the author tried so hard, but it really doesn't deserve that much.

1. What are you reading for this category?
I read The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
2. What work had you previously read by this author?
Then She Was Gone
3. Did you enjoy this one as much as the first one you had read
This book was very good, but much creepier than the first one.

1. What are you reading for this category?

I read Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

2. What work had you previously read by this author?

The House We Grew Up In

3. Did you enjoy this one as much as the first one you had read?

I enjoyed them almost the same but I think the first book I read was a little bit better. Maybe it was because I figured out the story faster in the second book I was reading so I was not that surprised eventhough it was still a good book,

What are you reading for this category?
Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes

2. What work had you previously read by this author?
Picture book Waiting

3. Did you enjoy this one as much as the first one you had read?
I enjoyed this one more because it was a mid-grade book rather than a picture book. For their intended audiences, I thought both were good.

What are you reading for this category?
Bruny, by Heather Rose


What work had you previously read by this author?
The Museum of Modern Love

Did you enjoy this one as much as the first one you had read?
Yes, although they are completely different.

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I read Punishment by Linden MacIntyre. Previously, I read his book The Bishop's Man. I think I liked both books about the same.