Yep ~ I've been off-line for a fortnight while we were away seeing family. Missed you guys and thanks to those who emailed me while I was gone ~ how lovely are you!?! Looking forward to getting into my google reader and popping over to all your blogs. If you're new here HELLO! and leave me a comment so I can follow your link back, yeah? :)
It's raining here (I know, I always talk about the rain, you would too if you lived here :) but not flooding...
And schools on holidays, which means I am too (wahoo!) with my kids. We've got plans for board games and the beach and reading and lazing around in general and hanging out with mates.
Here's 6 books I read in the last fortnight.
Some reviews coming up but here's a little teaser...
Song of the Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell
Started slow for me, but then suddenly I couldn't put it down.Loved it, a re-read for sure.
Lyrical and atmospheric.
Even felt a little teary towards the end...
A re-telling of the Lady of Shallott in verse.
Featuring Camelot, Lancelot, Arthur and Tristan (from Tristan and Isolde)
Between Shades of Grey by Rupa Sepetys
This is a stand out
Once you've read this, I don't think you'll ever forget the story or events
Which are based on a true story
Left it with my mother-in-law to read
Made me feel awkward about eating yummy food over Christmas when half the characters were dying of starvation... still, I overcame the awkwardness by savouring the yummy stuff even harder :)
The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams
A fave read of the year alreadyThis one got 5 stars from me on goodreads b/c:
- once I started I couldn't put it down
- I cried. Actually cried. Rare for me in a book. Okay, maybe I got on the verge of going all-out and bawling...
- The ending was perfect: real and sad and haunting and hopeful.
Need to read more of her work, hey.
Set in Katoomba ~ and I read it while in Katoomba :)
It's funny
and brilliant
and everything you'd expect from Steven Herrick.
See the watermelon on the cover? It's grinning. I couldn't stop smiling when I read this one.
It was also, sneakily, powerful and life-affirming.
And these last two? They were okay.
Losing Faith frustrated me.
I liked Life As We Knew It A LOT more than The Dead and The Gone.
Any thoughts on the books I read?
What's the last book you read that made you cry?
Welcome back to the blogosphere!
ReplyDeleteHaven't read most of the ones you posted about, but I did definitely enjoy The Chosen One.
She has another book called Glimpse that I absolutely loved, way more than The Chosen One. You should read it! :)
Thanks Becky! I'll have to get Glimpse! The paperback comes out in July 2011 :)
ReplyDeletex
Great! Finally you're back. :)
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard much of Song of the Sparrow, but it definitely looks intriguing. Can't wait to get reading Between Shades of Grey. And I liked The Chosen One, but it just frustrated me so much, and it was painful to read. I think in the review I said that I wasn't in the mood for such a book, but I really do admire its literary merit in that it explores such issues.
Slice is Aussie lit, is it not? I like the original and totally Aussie cover it harnesses. :) I bought a copy of Losing Faith. Haven't heard anything AMAZING about it yet, but I'll get onto this soon.
So glad you're back!! :D
OOH! And with Carol Lynch Williams: Miles From Ordinary looks and sounds great as well as Glimpse! I think Glimpse is a verse novel, so I'm definitely adding that to my Birthday wishlist.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back, Nomes! I missed your posts.I have both Song of the Sparrow and Between Shades of Grey on my wishlist . From your mini-revies of the books, they sounds really great!
ReplyDeleteOMG! I hope you liked Song of the Sparrow, is one of my fave books ever.
ReplyDelete:D
hope to see your review soon :D
Also for the other one, Between shades of Gray, I'm curious about it.
Welcome back Nomes! I haven't read any of these but look forward to seeing your reviews :)
ReplyDeleteHey Nomes! We missed you, so welcome back!
ReplyDeleteSo glad Slice was a lot fun. I have already ordered a copy. The Chosen One is on my wishlist. Looks like you read some pretty amazing books on your holiday :)
i got saving francesca, thank you so much.
ReplyDeleteyour holidays sound a lot like ours. we bought my dad the penguin board game for christmas and it's great. i think him being an english lit proffesor gives him a bit of an advantage.
Yeah! back with what you have read. Definitely wanting to check out Shades of Gray. Looking forward to your review!
ReplyDeleteSong of the Sparrow and Between Shades of Grey are both on my wishlist aka books-im-dying-to-read list! Glad to know that you loved them. :')
ReplyDeleteWelcome back Nomes!
ReplyDeleteWelcome back! I missed you. Glad you had a great holiday.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read any of those books but I have Between Shades of Grey and Losing Faith on my TBR pile.
I cry all the time, adverts can make me cry but I can't remember the last book that made me cry, I must be on a happy reading streak :)
So glad to see you back!
ReplyDeleteHeard about the flooding there and I was hoping you weren't caught in it.
These books look cool! Almost all are new to me. Hmmm, the last book that made me cry: I can't remember! Isn't that awful?
Welcome back!
ReplyDeleteCool stack :)
Welcome back, Nomes! It's been quite around the blogosphere without you.
ReplyDeleteDone a lot of reading I see ;)
I have Dead and Gone on ebook right now. Don't know when I'll get around to read it.
I'm currently reading Ten Miles Past Normal by Frances O'Roark Dowell.
Last book that made me cry? You Are Not Here by Samantha Schutz, which is a very beautiful verse novel. Read it around November last year.
Yay! Glad to see that you are back. :) We missed your posts and friendly face around here! I hope you are enjoying holiday with your family.
ReplyDeleteI think the last book I cried in was If I Stay and before that, The Book Thief, in which I cried throughout probably the second half of the book.
Love your book recommendations! Adding them to the list. :)
Nice books there :) I awarded you with Stylish Blogger! I hope you can check out my post here :) http://steph-shortnsweet.blogspot.com/2011/01/stylish-blogger-award.html
ReplyDeleteWelcome back! Hope your holiday was great. So happy to see you picking up SONG OF THE SPARROW. I just loved that one to bits.
ReplyDeleteSong of the Sparrow is beautiful. Lisa Sandell has a fluid way with words that weaves it away around my heart. Glad to see someone else has read it :)
ReplyDeleteWelcome back - I hope you had an awesome time! :)
ReplyDeleteOoh, 'Song of the Sparrow' looks amazing - I chose to study The Lady of Shallott in school and really enjoyed it, so it's exciting to find out that there's a novel adaptation!
Slice looks really cute too.
I've been wanting to read the 'Life As We Knew It' series (the covers looks so cool) but people keep saying that after the first book they went downhill. Should I bother?
Welcome back to the blogosphere. Hope you had a wonderful time over the break. Rain, rain, rain, yeah I hear you! It's been sunny here for 3 days, surely a record!
ReplyDeleteLoved your comment - here are the 6 books I read in the last few days. Some people wouldn't read that many in a year. I've read 5for my 100+ book challenge and am on my 6th.
Thx for your response to my 'disaster' post. I was pleased to see Grafton survived with its levees. Some good news, eh?
I ended up unscathed. I'm isolated in the CBD and yes, it is a ghost town. Everything shut down but luckily my part of the CBD kept power, yay!
BTW I have started a Publication Party for aspiring writers. Perhaps you could drop by and share a few thoughts with us in the comments. Would love to have you!
Denise
Welcome back!!! Sounds like you had some fun and got a lot of reading done. I'm completely the opposite when it comes to crying in books, I'm a bawl baby. I shall look into these, especially the tear jerker! Looking forward to getting more fab recommendations from you this year!!
ReplyDelete- I'm too exclamation point happy these days. :)