Show Us Your Books - What I Read in March

My friends...it feels like it's been an age since we've all gathered to discuss books...like, it's been longer than usual. But here we are, on Show Us Your Books day! Something new this month: In parentheses at the end you will see where/how I read the book. I just want to keep track and I'm doing it here.

If you want to actually hear Jana and I talk about books, reading, and other things that may or may not be related out loud, you can catch us once a week on The Armchair Librarians. It's on iTunes or you can click here: http://thearmchairlibrarians.libsyn.com/podcast

And one more thing before we start - Dani from Faster than Forever and Erin from Texerin-in-Sydneyland are challenging themselves and everyone else to read their books...like all the books you own that you haven't gotten around to reading yet. They're doing that in June and linking up on Thursday, July 14, so if you link up here you'd have Show Us Your Books on July 12 and that on July 14 and there you go, you pretty much have two posts that write themselves that week. Plenty of time to go through your books and get a pile going.

Linkup Guidelines:

This link up happens the second Tuesday of every month.

The next one is Tuesday, May 10, 2016. 

1. Please visit and comment with both of your hosts, Jana & me
2. Please display the button (need it? let me know) or link back to us on your blog post
2. Please visit a few other blogs who've linked up and get some book talk going!

Here's what I read since the last linkup. As an example of how I don't really count books...when I sat down to write this post, I was sure that I had only read four books since the last linkup. 

Engrossing Reads

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly - Based on actual occurrences of women in Nazi camps, specifically Ravensbruck. Good Lord, this story. World War II stories are so hard to read, which is exactly why they must be told and re-told and read in all of their incarnations. So we don't forget how terrible humans can be to each other. And so we don't forget how resilient the human spirit can be. It was a very emotional, very good read. I liked the alternating viewpoints. (Free from Netgalley, e-book)

All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda - I spent most of the book in a WTF daze. Everyone is unreliable, especially the narrator, but in a book like this that's part of the fun. I did not like how they tried to sell how the story was told in the forward...let me read it and decide for myself. Overall interesting. (Free from Netgalley, e-book)

Water From My Heart by Charles Martin - Have I mentioned how I hate the star rating system on Goodreads? I hate the star rating system on Goodreads. But this is a flat out five star for me. It gutted me in a wonderful way. I do love a good redemption story. Probably the best book I've read so far this year. (Library, hardback)

Passed the Time Just Fine

If I Knew You Were Going To Be This Beautiful, I Never Would Have Let You Go by Judy Chicurel - Mouthful of a title, huh? Mouthful of a story, too. I wasn't sure if I liked this book as I was reading it. I'm still not really sure. It was almost like each chapter was a short story with characters from others. Some of it was out of order. It was interesting, that's for sure. (Library, hardback)

My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga - So I read this right after Lilac Girls. Nazi torture and teenage suicide...tough week for books. I liked this one, the spin was a little different and the main characters were interesting. I also liked how the author touched on depression. (Library, hardback)

Last Ride to Graceland by Kim Wright - I needed a break after two heavy books and this was perfect. I liked the characters and the story. It was a good, quick read. (Free from Netgalley, e-book)

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley - The writing was beautiful and I like the way the story was told, but I felt like the book was trying to be and do too many things and coming up a little short on all fronts. Fewer threads to tie together and less backstory in some cases probably would have put this book to a 4 or 5. I loved the Scott character.(Free from Netgalley, e-book)

Opening Belle by Maureen Sherry - I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this book. It wrapped up the glass ceiling problem a little too tidily. And in a world where equal pay for equal work and family/work balance are still both huge issues, I wasn't really in the mood. (Library, hardback)

The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain - The main character bugged me. A lot. Like an annoying little gnat. A lot of things about this bugged me now that I think on it. But it was still passable. (Library, hardback)

Hard No

n/a

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