Welcome to Thinking Out Loud Thursday where I share something I'm thinking about and invite you to link up and do the same. On the first Thursday of the month I like to share what I've read the previous month, so today I'm sharing what I read in April.
A lot happened over here in April, but reading wasn't one of them. I barely finished two books the entire month!
Our library book club book was The Human Comedy. I ordered this paperback from Amazon and when it arrived I realized I had forgotten how older paperback books were bound. The book itself didn't fall open. It was stiff with small font. It made me appreciate how newer paperbacks will fall open and lay in your hands as you read the pages. But I digress... The Human Comedy is also a movie that came out in 1943. I hadn't read the book or seen the movie. Didn't love it, but didn't hate it either. It's one of those book I would never have read it if wasn't for it being the book club selection. Here's the summary ~
The place is Ithaca, in California's San Joaquin Valley. The time is World War II. The family is the Macauley's—a mother, sister, and three brothers whose struggles and dreams reflect those of America's second-generation immigrants. . . . In particular, fourteen-year-old Homer, determined to become one of the fastest telegraph messengers in the West, finds himself caught between reality and illusion as delivering his messages of wartime death, love, and money brings him face-to-face with human emotion at its most naked and raw.
Gentle, poignant and richly autobiographical, this delightful novel shows us the boy becoming the man in a world that even in the midst of war, appears sweeter, safer and more livable than out own.
The second book I was able to finish in April was The Bookshop at Water's End. This book started a little slow for me, but it soon became one I couldn't put down. The story was intriguing and not totally predictable. The author, Patti Callahan Henry, writes in a manner that makes me feel like I'm right in the middle of the story. I love that! I would definitely recommend this book. Here's the summary ~
The women who spent their childhood summers in a small Southern town discover it harbors secrets as lush as the marshes that surround it....
Bonny Blankenship's most treasured memories are of idyllic summers spent in Watersend, South Carolina, with her best friend, Lainey McKay. Amid the sand dunes and oak trees draped with Spanish moss, they swam and wished for happy ever afters, then escaped to the local bookshop to read and whisper in the glorious cool silence. Until the night that changed everything, the night that Lainey's mother disappeared.
Now in her early 50s, Bonny is desperate to clear her head after a tragic mistake threatens her career as an emergency room doctor, and her marriage crumbles around her. With her troubled teenage daughter, Piper, in tow, she goes back to the beloved river house, where she is soon joined by Lainey and her two young children. During lazy summer days and magical nights, they reunite with bookshop owner Mimi, who is tangled with the past and its mysteries. As the three women cling to a fragile peace, buried secrets and long ago loves return like the tide.
May is already shaping up to be a better reading month than April. Can't wait to share those with you next month!
Now it's your turn. What are you thinking out loud about today? Link up and share!
You're so right that newer paperbacks are much easier to read than older ones with their small fonts and very little white space. We're getting spoiled more and more! :)
ReplyDeleteThe Bookshop at Water's End sounds fabulous!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the linky party and opportunity to share links here.
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