Leslie's Updates

Leslie added 'The Wedding People'

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 11:31:32 -0800

Leslie gave 4 stars to The Wedding People (Hardcover) by Alison Espach
The Wedding People was voted best fiction of the year by ŷ��--- so I gave it a go-

And I liked it! it was different than what I expected, and I liked it more than I thought I would.

I generally trust the goodreads choices, but some of the books, I am leery of, as happily, readers don't always like the same things! I thought the Wedding People was going to be a romance, and I generally don't like romances (possibly due to my own bitterness of not having one....) I sometimes like them, but only if they are not the main plot point. That kind of fit this book.

We start with the end of the marriage, and a woman who absolutely was not expecting the life she now has. She thought she had a good marriage. She had been through some hard stuff, IVFs, and miscarries--and was experiencing depression because of it, but she thought she and her husband were solid--but he left her to be with a colleague (they all have PhDs--and teach at a University together, Phoebe as an adjunct) who had recently left her depressed spouse and who had a young child. Now our hero, Pheobe, is alone, depressed, and in a house she can't afford, in a life that she had created because of her marriage- where she still works with her now ex-husband and his new bride).

She can't do it anymore. Emotionally, she is all over the map. So she decides to leave. She decides to kill herself. She takes only the clothes on her back, no luggage (her fanciest dress), and goes to a fancy resort hotel she had always wanted to go to- planning to kill herself the first night. When she arrives, she finds that she is the only non-wedding guest at a weeklong wedding event. She meets the bride, discloses her suicide plan, and goes to her room. The bride is pissed. She is very upset that this woman is in the hotel (she thought she had the whole hotel reserved) and that she is going to cast a pall on the wedding by killing herself. But she has made up her mind. (Spoiler alert, of course we know she doesn't kill herself, because it is the very beginning of the book and- her plan sucks--- and at the risk of being macabe- you don't worry so much unless there is both plan and opportunity). Anyway, she falls asleep, and later awakes, to the sound of the wedding party--- and starts to wonder about the people-- and eventually becomes enmeshed with them all.

The rest of the book is about the week, and the guests, and the bride and groom and best man--- and the reasons for and mistakes made whenever one plans a wedding.

It took me a little bit to get involved in the story--- but once I got there, I read the whole thing. It was quite satisfying. I highly recommend.

Leslie added 'There Are Rivers in the Sky'

Sun, 09 Feb 2025 13:00:36 -0800

Leslie gave 5 stars to There Are Rivers in the Sky (Hardcover) by Elif Shafak
Wow. Just Wow. This is the best book I've read in a long time. I am mad at myself for not reading this author before. In part, she reminds me of Jodi Picoult, in that this is well researched and authentic and a bit surprising in how it comes together, but Elif Shafak is definitely a force of her own.

There are Rives in the Sky is based on the idea that water, which over time cannot be created or destroyed, is a connecting force. A drop of water who fell on an ancient kingdom may have fallen on you--- perhaps more than once------ In the beginning of the book, a drop of water falls on King Ashurbanipal, a powerful Assyrian ruler and collector from the ancient world Nineveh, circa 669 BC to 631 BC. (modern day Iraq). One of Ashurbanipal's greatest accomplishments was his library. He collected knowledge and stories from around the world, including the texts/songs that told the ancient tale of Gilgamesh.

The drop of water that hits the king will land on the tongue of a newborn baby in Victorian England. Born into extreme poverty in a slum near the Thames, the child, who has a prodigious eidetic memory, will have a lifelong love of Mesopotamia, especially the story of Gilgamesh.

The drop of water will hit a young Yazidi girl in the Sinjar mountains---- and a Scholar of Water in modern times--- and the story will be woven together until everything is interconnected.

There are some supremely difficult sections of this book to read-- and times I had to step away for a bit, because I knew it was coming----but it all comes back together---and now I think it will be a long time before this book leaves me. There is great sadness, but it ends with hope, I think! I look forward to exploring more of Elif Shafak's work.

Leslie started reading 'The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore'

Sun, 09 Feb 2025 12:53:40 -0800

Leslie started reading The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss

Leslie started reading 'The Wedding People'

Sun, 09 Feb 2025 12:53:04 -0800

Leslie started reading The Wedding People by Alison Espach

Leslie added 'There Are Rivers in the Sky'

Sun, 09 Feb 2025 12:18:32 -0800

Leslie added 'Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop'

Tue, 04 Feb 2025 14:24:19 -0800

Leslie gave 3 stars to Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop (Hardcover) by Hwang Bo-Reum
3.5 stars. This was a sweet little book, slightly reminiscent of "What you are Looking for is In the Library." by Michiko Aoyama. It would fall under the same classification at least, of "healing fiction." It is the story of a woman who decides she wants to own/run a bookshop. She divorces her husband and starts over. At first she tries to do it herself, and is thinking of this as maybe a two year project, but she keeps expanding her ideas and making progress, and gradually drawing others into her orbit, First a barista, then the person who sells him the beans, then a woman who knits, etc--- The back stories of each character is told as they are integrated into the bookshop, which over time, continues to evolve. A very nice book!

Leslie started reading 'There Are Rivers in the Sky'

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 18:13:20 -0800

Leslie started reading There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

Leslie is 45% done with The Count of Monte Cristo

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 18:12:10 -0800

Leslie Nettleton is 45% done with The Count of Monte Cristo.

Leslie added 'The Count of Monte Cristo'

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 18:11:39 -0800

Leslie gave 4 stars to The Count of Monte Cristo (Kindle Edition) by Alexandre Dumas
bookshelves: currently-reading

Leslie started reading 'Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop'

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 23:16:20 -0800

Leslie started reading Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum