It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet and share what you have been and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit, comment, and add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at The Book Date.
Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kid-lit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle-grade novels, young adult novels, or anything in those genres – join them.
Personal:
- Miss B got into two more colleges. One emailed her last Friday and gave her the good news. The other one, the acceptance email, had been in my inbox for a month (oops). I was getting over being sick and somehow missed it. She was thrilled.
- Cat updates (one good and one not so good): Yuki’s eye is fine. The vet did some testing on it, and it was reacting normally. But she wants to keep an eye on it. She has one more kitten appointment and will be ready to get spayed. Now, to the not-so-good news. We took Snickers to the vet on Friday. The vet wasn’t happy with what she saw. She has lost 2 lbs (even with eating good), and the lump on her side concerns her. So, we bring her back next month. They are going to do a complete blood panel and biopsy on the lump (along with the sedation/arthritis shot). The vet says there is a high chance that it is cancer and it has spread. But we’ll see what the biopsy shows.
- I had a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday. Everything was looking great!! My thyroid levels were awesome (the best they have been in a while), and I was told to stop taking my vitamin B12 pills. I also lost weight. The doctor wants me to journal when I get Hashi flare-ups (which is new to me).
Reading/Blog
- I am still behind on two books. The Art of Destiny was a long book that took me forever to read (forever, in my eyes, is anything over two days). I am hoping to catch up by this weekend.
- I am being on my reviews too. But it wasn’t as bad as last week. I was able to write quite a few reviews last week, which brought my backlog down. I am behind three reviews and hope to catch up with them this week.
What I am Reading Now:
In Phillip Margolin’s Betrayal , attorney Robin Lockwood finds herself defending her old nemesis in a multiple murder case with too many suspects, where success might cost her own life.
Robin Lockwood is now a prominent defense attorney in Portland, Oregon but a decade ago, she was a ranked and rising MMA fighter. Her career came to a quick end when she was knocked out and concussed in the first round by Mandy Kerrigan, a much more talented fighter.
Now the situation couldn’t be more different, with Kerrigan on her last legs, her career nearly over, arrested for the quadruple murder of the entire Finch family…and Kerrigan’s only possible friend is the attorney she beat so many years ago.
For Robin, it’s no simple Margaret Finch was a lawyer working for vicious Russian mobsters, and was in the cross-hairs of both the mobsters and the widower of a woman a client killed; her husband Nathan Finch was deeply in debt to a bookie who threatened his life; her son Ryan was the one who sold Kerrigan illegal performance enhancing drugs and was beaten severely by her when Kerrigan failed her drug test. To complicate matters further, the DA that Robin is facing is the man she’s just started dating, the first person she’s begun seeing seriously after her husband was killed.
In a case where the stakes are high and the truth is elusive, where each new fact twists the case in a new direction, there is seemingly no way to win or direction to turn that will leave Robin Lockwood unscathed.
Books I plan on reading later this week (It is the same as last week):
A woman’s obsession with her new boyfriend’s dead ex-girlfriend fuels this sharp and honest debut novel, a send-up of modern dating and love
My fingers itched to put his name into the search bar. Once I’d found him, I’d have the cheat sheet.
After fleeing to Melbourne in the wake of a breakup, all Ana has to show for herself is an unfulfilling job at an overly enthusiastic tech start-up and one particularly questionable dating app experience. Then she meets Evan. Charming, kind, and financially responsible, Evan is a complete aberration from her usual type; Ana feels like she has finally awoken from a long dating nightmare.
As much as she tries to let their burgeoning relationship unfold IRL, Ana just can’t resist the urge to find Evan online. When she discovers that his previous girlfriend, Emily, died unexpectedly in a hit-and-run less than a year ago, Ana begins to worry she’s living in the shadow of his lost love. Soon she’s obsessively comparing herself to Emily, trawling through her dormant social media accounts in the hope of understanding her better. Online, Evan and Emily’s life together looked perfect–but just how perfect was it? And why won’t he talk about it?
Perceptive and original, full of both pathos and humor, Search History explores the contradictions and uncertainties of twenty-first century romance. Ana’s journey down the Internet rabbit hole of modern dating asks the question: Which is our “true” self–the one we show to the world online, or the one we keep to ourselves?
An epic story of love, betrayal, and art that spans decades, through the horrors of World War II to 21st century America, inspired by an actual porcelain factory in Dachau.
Two lovers caught at the crossroads of history.
A daughter’s search for the truth.
Germany, 1929. At a festive gathering of young bohemians in Weimar, two young artists, Max, a skilled Jewish architect, and Bettina, a celebrated avant-garde painter, are drawn to each other and begin a whirlwind romance. Their respective talents transport them to the dazzling lights of Berlin, but this bright beginning is quickly dimmed by the rising threat of Nazism. Max is arrested and sent to the concentration camp at Dachau where only his talent at making exquisite porcelain figures stands between him and seemingly certain death. Desperate to save her lover, Bettina risks everything to rescue him and escape Germany.
America, 1993. Clara, Bettina’s daughter, embarks on a journey to trace her roots and determine the identity of her father, a secret her mother has kept from her for reasons she’s never understood. Clara’s quest to piece together the puzzle of her origins transports us back in time to the darkness of Nazi Germany, where life is lived on a razor’s edge and deception and death lurk around every corner. Survival depends on strength, loyalty, and knowing true friend from hidden foe. And as Clara digs further, she begins to question why her mother was so determined to leave the truth of her harrowing past behind…
The Porcelain Maker is a powerful novel of enduring love and courage in the face of appalling brutality as a daughter seeks to unlock the mystery of her past.
Congratulations to Miss B. Now she has to make a decision….. I’m sorry you were sick Jolie, but glad you are doing better now. I really like the Robin Lockwood series and have the audiobook to listen to. I also want to read The Porcelain Maker. I hope we both enjoy them. Have a good week.
Thank you!! We’re waiting on Western Carolina and Appalachain State to make their decisions and, based on what they say, she will make a decision. I finished Betrayal last night and it was Ok for me. Have a great week yourself!!