JANUARY READS

[rapa]

Happy 2015!!!! Did you remember to "RABBIT, RABBIT, RABBIT?"

I'm starting the new year with a debut novel by Martha Woodroof, SMALL BLESSINGS. This is a beautifully written book that will elicit laughs and tears. This heart warming story takes place in a small Virginia college town with a cast of charmingly imperfect characters.

Hope you, too, have time now to curl up with a good read.

[Mandy Muffin]

Thanks, Lip Service.  It is kind of a unique cruise as it only has one sailing.  A Princess Cruise, the entire trip will take people all the way around South America, which I have already traveled, ending California.  I understand they all had to go that way once. I have gone west via the Panama Canal in a prior cruise. At this point in life, I am just spending my kids inheritance money, so why not. I expect to be able to use the WiFi on the ship to communicate and read my assortment of nearly 500 books.  I have already been notified the featured movie will be "Gone Girl," which I read a couple of years back. 

[Flowergram]

Wow Lip Service and Mandy - had no idea the Kindle held that many books - I am just working my way up to 100 - but I love the kindle.  So glad you are spending your kids inheritance and great idea to do it while still young and healthy enough to do so.  Know you will have a great trip.  Did sign up for Prime today - great deal $72. for a year - today only.  Hoping to get Bosch videos soon - in addition to my book list. LOL

[Mandy Muffin]

Prime is great.  About all I watch on TV anymore are Prime videos.  I am watching "Justified" right now, as the action all takes place in Kentucky, my summer digs.  But I have been through The Sopranos, The Wire, Good Wife, Downton Abbey, 24 and a host of other series that have been on TV these past several years.  All Free!!!  Unfortunately, the Bosh series only has one pilot show.  I also get my free book each month.  There are unlimited books that you can own on a Kindle Fire.  You can keep them in the cloud or in the device and move them back and forth. 

[Flowergram]

Thanks Mandy - I plan on getting a lot of reading from this and I have almost all the same shows on my list to watch - just have to get it connected to the tv now.  Have a great vacation and I will pretend I am there too. LOL

[Carci]

bummer, been thinking of joining Amazon Prime but didn't see the special price until today... heard they had raised the price to $99 so I guess I'll wait and see if they have another special offer coming up...

[Mandy Muffin]

Just finished "Presumption of Guilt" by Marti Green.  Great story of a young girl falsely accused of killing her parents by a cabal of local officials who covered up the facts. I have my line-up for my trip that starts Saturday:

--The Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd

--The Girl on a Train, Paula Hawkins

--Us, David Nicholls

--When Will There Be Good News, Kate Atkinson

--Jerome and the Seraph, Robina Williams

--The Burning Man, Allen Russell

--The Art Forger, B A Shapiro

--Slammerkin, Emma Donoghue

--And the Mountains Echoed, Khaled Hosseini

--Big Little Lies, Liane Morairty

--Miss Perigrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs

--As a standby I have the classic, "Caribbean" by Mitchner, that has been sitting on my shelf unread for 20 years.  I read most of his books over the years.  I want to get rid of the book, so I'll drop it when read, or skimmed.

[rapa]

Bon voyage! Godspeed!

[Slopok]

Well I read The Heist and The English Assassin by Daniel Silva and enjoyed both novels very much. I downloaded a couple of books from our electronic library and returned them after reading a few pages. I bought a couple of cheap Kindle books that sounded good, but just couldn't get into them. I finally downloaded another Silva novel, The Confessor, from the electronic library  and I'm enjoying it. I'm in sort of a funk, thankfully the weather has been clear and in the 30's and 40's, the hunting season is over and all the foliage is gone from the trees, so it is great for rambling around the hills and hollows.Sure miss my rambling buddy Zookie, my black lab, but nothing is permanent. 

[Flowergram]

So sorry about your dog - it is so much like losing family.  Hope you can rescue another to join you in rambling. 

[Carci]

Slopok,

So sorry about Zookie.  Our little 'Boo' is having health issues (tracheal collapse) and is on several meds to try to control it.  Can't even think of losing her... taking one day at a time.

I just finished The Unlikely Spy by Silva; my first by him...  Liked it immensely but it left one question unresolved at the end.  Have you read this one?

[Slopok]

I haven't read that one, but I'll check it out, he is an excellent writer.

[Ioruach]

Regarding Daniel Silva, there was an interesting article about him in the Washington Post (reprinted in my newspaper) on Monday written by Geoff Edgers. The article tells how Silva, who is meticulous in his depiction of art restoration, regularly uses David Bull, a well known art conservator who, with his wife, run Fine Art Conservation & Restoration in New York City that has done work for the National Gallery of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Sotheby’s and Christie’s. Silva also shows Bull’s name first when thanking individuals in the acknowledgments section of his books. Just an interesting piece of information regarding a favorite novelist and his methods.