Saturday, March 13, 2021

Monday Mini-Reviews: Catching Up




It's been a while since I had wrote a Monday mini-review post, and I have read some books worth noting. Here are four winners:


The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins is a take-off on Jane Eyre (which I can't remember at all, despite the fact that I did read it years ago).  and is a easy-to-read domestic thriller.  Jane has started walking dogs in a wealthy neighborhood and eventually begins dating Edward Rochester, a newly widowed owner of a dog she walks.  Jane is keeping secrets, but it turns out that Edward has a lot of is own secrets. As Jane moves in with her new boyfriend, she starts to look into what might have happened to Edward's wife, Bea.  There isn't a likeable character in this novel, but that didn't take away from my enjoyment of it.


A Simple Murder by Linda Castillo -I love this mystery series, but I will admit that short stories aren't often my thing.  These six short mysteries seem to lack the development of Castillo's full length mystery installments, but I did enjoy reading them. (one rather interesting observation is that in at least three stories there is an Amish character named Noah).  


Ready Player One by Ernest Cline - I read this with my eighth grade book club and loved it. The 80s references abound and I loved all of these nostalgic bits and pieces scattered throughout.  Science fiction is not something I normally want to read, but I make exceptions every once in a while and this is definitely one of those times. I found this entire story to be a cautionary tale of where society may be headed as we become too dependent on technology and living our lives virtually, but my eighth grade boys just thought this seemed like an amazing concept - getting to do everything on a screen.  Aside from finding that frightening, I also thought it was interesting that their takeaway was so much different than mine.


Landslide by Susan Conley is a slow, character driven novel that I thoroughly appreciated.  Jill is left to take care of things at home after her husband is hurt in a fishing accident and is rehabilitating in a hospital in Canada, just across the border from their home in Maine.  While he's gone, Jill is dealing with the daily struggles including the issues involved with raising two teenage boys.   There is something about this story that I found compelling and Conley seems to hit on the realities of marriage and parenting with an accuracy that I appreciated.  


I'm off of work this week, enjoying my free time in Destin, Florida.  I've brought a bunch of books with me (despite not having much space in our car for much of anything) and am hoping to find lots of leisure time to read.

1 comment:

Ti said...

I liked The Wife Upstairs but you know right off the bat from the title that she's not dead. LOL.

Ready Player One was better in movie form for me than the book. I have the sequel to read though.

So you went to Florida! Enjoy! I think it might be warmer there, yes? It's cold here and raining! We had some hail not too long ago.