I’m squeezing in an extra book review.  I listened to audiobooks as I traveled back and forth to Rochester last week.  With four hours on the road each day, it’s easy to rack up lots of listening hours.  Before the week started I downloaded several books so I had a bit of a selection.

I needed something different.  I’ve been listening to a lot of historical fiction and at times, I just need a change.   I went on Hoopla.  I ended up finding The Wife Upstairs by Freida McFadden.

The book had my attention immediately.  It had a good catch right at the beginning.  It was written in the first person which I love.  I wish more authors would write in the first person.

The book totally kept my attention.  There were twists and turns.  I found myself “talking” to the characters saying, “why aren’t you seeing this??”.

If you like mystery thriller-type books, I’d recommend this one.

Here is the Amazon synopsis: Continue reading →

If you’re a regular blog reader you know I often listen to audiobooks about the Holocaust.  I don’t know what it is about the Holocaust that draws me to it but something does.  Sometimes I think it’s because I am in awe of what a person can live through, leaving me to believe I too can live through bad things as nothing that bad will ever happen to me.  Sometimes I think I am drawn to it because I want to believe I would be the person that would hide someone and risk my life.  Sometimes I think it is the only way I have that I can honor the lives of those who lost theirs in this terrible time in history.

I strongly believe we can learn by looking back.  Today I have the honor of sharing the story of Eddie Jaku author, educator, and the self-proclaimed, Happiest Man on Earth.

The book was really good.  I’m so glad that I found this book.  It came at a good time for me.  It’s easy in the middle of dealing with cancer to be sad.  It’s easy to wonder why me.  It’s easy to give up but that is not me…and it was not Eddie.

After living a long life, he dedicated himself to teaching all of us to still strive for happiness.  He was successful.

Not only did he write the book, he also did a Ted Talk.  If you aren’t familiar with them.  They are great.  I highly recommend you look up Ted Talks and give them a listen.  People, not famous people, just ordinary people, share their secrets to life.  They share ways to find happiness.

HERE is a link to the author’s Ted Talk.

Now about the book…I appreciated it so much.  Here is what Amazon has to say:
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I finally got a book that was on my waitlist for a long time, The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin.  The book was an easy pick for me.  The book is about bookshops…or so I guessed from the title and it looks WWII-ish from the book cover.  Of course I wanted to give it a try.

I guessed right.  The book is about a bookshop and it does take place during WWII.

Grace is the main character and she was an adult orphan looking to make her way in the world when the war hit.  She finds herself in London working at a bookshop.  The story isn’t a “change your way of thinking” book.  In fact, throughout the story, I thought to myself, “Okay, what’s next?”, “What’s the big thing that is going to happen?”.

The news is, nothing really “happens”.  For a while, that bothered me.  Then I settled into the idea that every book doesn’t have to have a terrible tragedy.  I have to say though…I wished more had “happened”.

Here is what Amazon had to say:
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I’ve been listening to lots of books lately.  I don’t have regular childcare so it’s easy to listen a lot…and I have been.

I was so excited to see a new book by author Karin Slaughter.  She’s long been a favorite of mine. I think I’ve even enticed several of you to start reading her books.  Usually, she is busy writing the Will Trent series which is a cop series but this time around, in her new book, False Witness, she took a little detour and wrote about someone new.  This one I believe will be a stand-alone book, but the door is open that another book could be written.  The book was still set in Atlanta but had totally different characters.

As I said, in the past, this author has really been a favorite of mine.  This book was good.  It really was, but I think my tastes have changed a bit.  This book has too much of a focus on drugs…too much on abuse…too much on bad choices.

I’ve said this before and will say it again…I need to love one of the characters in the book in order to love the book.  I like to relate to one of them.  There wasn’t a single character I liked.  There wasn’t a single person that made good choices.

Here is what Amazon has to say:
Continue reading →