Book Report – February & March 2016

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The procrastination period is over.  Here is my book report for the last two months!

Books Bought February & March 2016

TitleAuthor
Maggie Meister's Classical Elegance: 20 Beaded Jewelry DesignsMaggie Meister
What Knot?Geoffrey Budworth, Richard Hopkins
One Big Beautiful BeadSarah McConnell
Jill Wiseman's Beautiful Beaded Ropes: 300 Quick & Easy DesignsJill Wiseman
Nothing to Tell: Extraordinary Stories of Montana Ranch WomenDonna Gray
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and BusinessCharles Duhigg
Home to ItalyPeter Pezzelli
The Girl in the GlassJeffrey Ford
Every Day is a HolidayGeorge Mahood
The Sound of LanguageAmulya Malladi

The book worth noting here is the Nothing to Tell: Extraordinary Stories of Montana Ranch Women.  These are collected oral histories of women who moved to Montana in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.  It’s better than any historical novel.

I’m also enjoying the beading books, but will report more specifically on those in another post.

Books Read February & March 2016

TitleAuthorRating
Maggie Meister's Classical Elegance: 20 Beaded Jewelry DesignsMaggie MeisterHaven't read yet
What Knot?Geoffrey Budworth, Richard HopkinsInteresting
One Big Beautiful BeadSarah McConnellInteresting
Jill Wiseman's Beautiful Beaded RopesJill WisemanThumbs up
Nothing to Tell: Extraordinary Stories of Montana Ranch WomenDonna GrayEnjoying
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and BusinessCharles DuhiggGood
Home to ItalyPeter PezzelliThumbs down
The Girl in the GlassJeffrey FordInteresting
Every Day is a HolidayGeorge MahoodThumbs down
The Sound of LanguageAmulya MalladiInteresting
Shopaholic to the RescueSophie KinsellaAwful
The Flood GirlsRichard FifieldThumbs down
The Good LiarNicholas SearleInteresting
The Empty HouseRosamunde PilcherGood
The GilderKathryn KayEnjoyed what I read
ManhuntingJennifer CruisieThumbs down

This looks like a long list, but everything book rated with a Thumbs Down or Awful lasted one chapter or less.  I find it very difficult to plow through a book if it doesn’t grab my interest right away.

The caveat to my selections this month is that I was lucky enough to go on sunny vacations in February and March. I was looking for lighthearted, not too deep books.  The Girl in the Glass, The Good Liar and The Sound of Language all fell into that category.  Nothing too absorbing, but managed to keep my attention throughout – and to the end – of the story.  I was enjoying The Gilder, but didn’t finish before my library checkout expired.

The Girl in the Glass is about a con man and his crew who put on fake seances for wealthy clients in Long Island during the Depression.  It reminded me a little bit of a Donald Westlake story – the characters were real characters, but believable at the same time.

The Good Liar, surprising to me as I write this, is also about a con man who uses dating sites to sponge off of women.  The backstory included in the blurb mentions that the woman in the story may also be up to something other than dating. It’s this piece of information that kept me reading to the end…and I actually was not disappointed.  (Yes, that might be construed as words of praise.)

book

The Sound of Language is about an Afghan refugee who settles in Denmark, and how she and her family adjust to their new home.  This particular woman gets an internship with a beekeeper who is adjusting to being a widower.  I have been very interested in today’s refugee situation, and this was an interesting perspective that can be applied to Europe.  It may be written as a  Young Adult book. I found the writing to be simplistic, but the overall concept was compelling to keep me interested through to the end.

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