Welcome to the Kinda, Sorta Weekly Reader - which should really be called the "Every Other Month Reader who Just Can't Remember to Write About All of the Books that She Reads".
Ahem.
On to the book selections. Feel free to comment if you've read any of these and share what you are reading or have enjoyed recently.
Only You/A Home For Christmas/What the Heart Wants - I found these books for free on Kindle and downloaded them when I was broke and couldn't buy the books I wanted. They were a little bit too fluffy for my taste - everyone was good looking, every man was amazing, everything worked out just right. They were quickly read and worked through. I would count these as a beach read - except, you know, I'm not at the beach. <sigh> If you don't want to stress your brain AT ALL, and need something in the neighborhood of marshmallow fluff, you could pick these. I learned nothing from them but escape.
Sacred Hearts - I found this book in the airport when I was traveling to the vaccine plant and quickly became wrapped up in it. The story of nuns in 16th century Italy, this ficitonal account was interesting to me because I've always been fascinated with the history of the church. The reality of younger sisters who were sent to the nunnery against their will because they had no dowry was foreign to me, and this book also delved into the politics of the church. It was well written and I learned a great deal about the Italian Renaissance.
Intervention - This was billed as Christian Fiction and I typically don't care for this genre, as it is too "in my face", but this was good. The story of a woman dealing with her daughter's drug addiction, whose daughter is sent to rehab and her interventionist is found dead with the daughter missing - it wrapped up in a neat and tidy fashion.
Hide In Plain Sight - another freebie. Fluffy and light, no brain power necessary - the story of a womn who hides among the Amish. Read in a day or two, it tried to be more than it was. Not bad, not great - just something I read. It was easy, it was enjoyable, but not a "must read".
The Dirty Life - I read an excerpt from this book on the plane on the way home from the vaccine tour, and it was amazing. The story of a vegetarian reporter for the NY TImes who interviewed a farmer and married him. They began to work on their farm and created a self sustaining farm that they in turn sold shares to people in NYC, in hopes of being the only resource for food for them. It was a riveting, engrossing and VERY educational book that was one of the best I read this year. The second one was
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Henrietta Lacks was a black woman who had cancer in the 1950's. Her cells were scraped and used without her knowledge and used to create vaccines. They were cells that reproduced and lived way past the amount of time doctors thought they would. Known as the HeLa cells, they were the foundation of much of our modern medicine. This was an amazingly wonderful read.
Grace/Forgiven/Wanted/Shatter - A set of books about living in the Amish land. They were easy reads, done in a day or two, and nice stories with no sex or language - little bits of drama that were entertaining.
Stupid books: I'm not linking these, but I read a couple of freebies on Kindle that were just so, so stupid that I could see why they were free. I didn't even finish a couple of them. I'm not naming them, because I'd REALLY hate for an author to google search and see something crabby on here.
Thanks for listing these! I hadn't heard of Sacred Hearts before, so I just bought it for my Kindle. I've seen the Henrietta Lacks book pop up so many times on Amazon, but haven't purcahsed it. Maybe it's time.
Posted by: Melanie | January 05, 2011 at 11:11 PM
I only do free downloads on Kindle and some of them are truly bad, but I did download your favorite, Outlander, and some day I will start and finish it! Right now I am backlogged with library books.
Posted by: Maggie | January 05, 2011 at 11:58 PM
Recently I read four books bt Cathy Lamb: Julia's Chocolates, Henry's Sisters, The Last Time I was Me, & Such a Pretty face. All great reads about women at crisis points in their lives, but not in a formula way, each book is unique. The characters are quirky and likeable and there are some laugh out loud moments here and there. Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden also stands out as a must read, I think of it as a recent history mystery. Read The Dirty Life at your suggestion and loved it. Animal Vegetable Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver is a good one to follow it with. Read Portia de Rossi's book, can not remember name maybe Unbearable Ligthness in two days. Really gave insight into eating disorders and her personal struggle.
Posted by: amie | January 06, 2011 at 12:50 AM
PS I hope you win the Ipad so we can loan ebooks to each other :)
Posted by: amie | January 06, 2011 at 12:51 AM
Over the holidays I only read fluff stuff. I finished Rick Riordan's "The Lost Hero" which picks up after his Last Olympians/Percy Jackson series left off. I also finished The Mystery of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig which I got for Christmas.
I only download free Kindle books onto my iPhone as well. Most of them are the cheesy Harlequin Romance types though. I save them for when I'm really bored and don't have a book with me. I want a Nook for my birthday!
Posted by: Elizabeth | January 06, 2011 at 09:43 AM
Agreed on the free books for Kindle--I pretty much stick to the non-fiction and classical fiction genres.
I read "Great Parents Lousy Lovers" which was free on the Kindle, and it was mostly stuff that's straightforward.
And I know I've read other stuff, but my mind is blank. Probably from exploding at my kids every five minutes for the last three hours (it's been a long morning).
Posted by: Emily C | January 06, 2011 at 10:24 AM
I just read "Atonement" (Ian McEwan)for my book group this month. Maybe I'm the only person left who hadn't read it or seen the film, but it was a great read: I practically did the chores one-handed, with the book in the other because I couln't put it down, and read it in about 36 hours! Beautiful prose, a really interesting set of relationships and a very poignant story.
The quartet of books about living in the Amish land look interesting, I will try them.
Posted by: UKCraftySal | January 06, 2011 at 01:10 PM
Should have mentioned the "Clan of the Cave Bear" books (Jean M Auel), which have been a passion for years. I have been reading them over the last 20 years, and am eagerly awaiting the last one, due out in a few months. They are set in the stone age and are full of detail about how people lived then (based on meticulous research as well as some inevitable speculation where research has gaps). The focus is a couple who meet and form a relationship, and their travels across the prehistoric continent. If you haven't read them, do try. And they are very thick books, which for me is a real bonus!
Posted by: UKCraftySal | January 07, 2011 at 07:53 AM