book Archives - Food, Booze, & Baggage

I feel like this month had some pretty good book picks. This linkup has certainly gotten me to read more than I was a year ago so yay!! I’ve always loved reading, but having a good go-to list certainly helps keep me in the habit. Thanks to Jana and Steph for hosting!

The title is linked to Goodreads and the cover is linked to Amazon.

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Loved this book! I’m a fan of Rowell (it’s official)! I liked both the other books I’ve read, Landline & Attachments. This one I liked the most. The ending kind of left you hanging, but I also really liked it. It’s kind of like you could make it sad or happy yourself, very clever. I don’t want to completely ruin it by saying the end, but I would love to hear other’s thoughts on it. The characters were so well developed. Rowell really rocks at developing characters you can’t help but love. She has a real talent, that you don’t see in many authors. I think I’m even going to have to read FanGirl now, even though the descriptor does not appeal to me.

Orange Is The New Black by Piper Kerman

The show and the book are worlds apart. The show (not surprising) is highly dramatized and the characters seem to be bits and pieces of the characters from the book. The names are not even the same. I really wonder if she stayed in touch with any of these women she so fondly writes about or tried to help them. I have a hard time finding Piper highly likeable in the book and the show, I see her a bit entitled (or something along that line). I don’t know exactly what it is that strikes me as wrong with her telling of the story. Overall, a good read, good writing, and it flowed well. I’m a bit disappointed a few of the book characters have not made it on the show (yet?).

The Devil You Know by Trish Doller

Ok, let’s try this again 🙂 This “The Devil You Know” was much better than the one I read last month. The writing was much better. This was one of those “guilty” easy reads, finished in about a day.

Summerlong by Dean Bakopoulos

This book grew on me. I wasn’t hooked right away, but by the end I was like huh not a bad book. I found the characters a bit annoying though.

“It’s regretting yesterday or over-thinking tomorrow, that’s when ugliness comes in, right?”

“Why do we do that to ourselves? Why do we stay away so long from the places that make us whole?”

The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson

It drew me in very quickly, and I finished it in a day. I liked how fast the story moved, but overall just an ok read for me. I didn’t really care for the conclusion.

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick

The premise/plot is not one I would gravitate towards, but it’s a good book. Quick is so good at character development and the way he presents his stories. He gets the human condition, and expresses it beautifully. I felt the same about The Good Luck of Right Now, odd plot but the characters and what they express make the book.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling

I loved this book. I found it laugh out loud funny. More entertaining consistently than I think I felt about Poehler or Fey’s book. I read a lot of reviews where people seemed meh about this book, but I loved it. She is so spot on with so many of the observations. I mean come on, guys taking FOREVER to get their shoes on…it’s true in my house. I felt like I was laughing and mentally say yes, yes, so true, so true, through most of the book. Mindy can stuff it over her cap sleeve comment, I love cap sleeves and they look good on me 🙂 I did have to use the lookup function for some of the name dropping. I always need a reference when people talk about most famous people anyway, so it could just be me. She’s funny, the book is funny. I’m definitely reading the next one. While we are on the topic (sort of), I feel like now that Hulu has taken over The Mindy Project, it is taking a downhill turn. I just don’t find it that funny, it’s jumped the shark and seems more awkward than funny to me. Just needed to put that out there 🙂

“As my mom has said, when one person is unhappy, it usually means two people are unhappy but that one has not come to terms with it yet.”

What was the best book you read last month?

August was a slow reading month. I was working on other things, and found it hard to make time to read. Additionally, the first book on my list took me FOREVER to finish. Though I’m always growing my list from this link-up so my excuse can never be I don’t know what to read. If you need a good book recommendation make sure to check out the other bloggers linking up for:

The title is linked to Goodreads and the cover is linked to Amazon. The Amazon link is an affiliated link*. I’ve pulled the description from Goodreads.

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Doerr’s “stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors” (San Francisco Chronicle) are dazzling. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, he illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, a National Book Award finalist, All the Light We Cannot See is a magnificent, deeply moving novel from a writer “whose sentences never fail to thrill” (Los Angeles Times).–Goodreads

I can see why this book is getting so much buzz, the writing is so descriptive. I’m not a huge of fan of the way it skipped around, but it was a really well crafted story. I love the descriptions used for Marie-Laure experiences and what she “sees”. I liked that it followed the characters through their lives after the war a bit, though I did feel the story was a bit unresolved. There were definitely some parts of the story I would have liked wrapped up.

Where They Found Her by Kimberly McCreight

Told from the perspectives of Molly, Barbara, and Sandy, Kimberly McCreight’s taut and profoundly moving novel unwinds the tangled truth about the baby’s death revealing that these three women have far more in common than they realized. And that their lives are more intertwined with what happened to the baby than they ever could have imagined.–Goodreads

I really did not see the twist coming in this one. A fairly fast-paced read, but felt a bit drawn out. I like these kinds of books to have a little more action. I felt like the story just scratched the surface of the characters. An ok read, but not great.

Breath of Scandal by Sandra Brown

On a rainy Southern night, Jade Sperry endured a young woman’s worst nightmare at the hands of three local hell-raisers. Robbed of her youthful ideals and at the center of scandal and tragedy, Jade ran as far and as fast as she could. But she never forgot the sleepy “company town” where every man, woman, and child was dependent on one wealthy family. And she never forgot their spoiled son, who, with his two friends, changed her life forever. Someday, somehow, she’d return, exact a just revenge — and free herself from fear, and the powerful family that could destroy her.–Goodreads

This one was ok. I really don’t have too much to say on it. It was a quick read that drew you in. Some parts I liked more than others, but not a book I would per se highly recommend. It was a good pass the time book. I think it could have done without some of the more detailed sex scenes, just not my type of read.

The Wicked Will Rise (Dorothy Must Die Book 2)

In this dark, high-octane sequel to the New York Times bestsellingDorothy Must Die, Amy Gumm must do everything in her power to kill Dorothy and free Oz.
To make Oz a free land again, Amy Gumm was given a mission: remove the Tin Woodman’s heart, steal the Scarecrow’s brain, take the Lion’s courage, and then Dorothy must die…
But Dorothy still lives. Now the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked has vanished, and mysterious Princess Ozma might be Amy’s only ally. As Amy learns the truth about her mission, she realizes that she’s only just scratched the surface of Oz’s past—and that Kansas, the home she couldn’t wait to leave behind, may also be in danger. In a place where the line between good and evil shifts with just a strong gust of wind, who can Amy trust—and who is really Wicked?–Goodreads

It’s a fun series. I like the imagination that goes into describing OZ, probably more so than the characters. It’s a good book for a mindless read. I felt like the story did not progress all that much from book one of the series.

What good books have you read lately?

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the book covers and buy the book, I’ll receive a percentage of the sale.

Show Us Your Books: November 2015

Show Us Your Books: August