Monday books!

 I finished Deep Down True and it was a real surprise.  I loved it! It was a young female author and I thought maybe I wouldn't connect with her and it would be all about some romantic drivel where a guy shows up and solves all the problems that the last one left her with.  Not so!  It was extremely well written and heartfelt and to be honest...I couldn't put it down!  I will be reading her other 2 books for sure!  I highly recommend this book!

My non-fiction that I'm reading is still Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.  There are really insightful parts but then she goes off on these strange tangents like she's getting inebriated or "smokin' somethin'"..lol!  But there are moments of brilliance throughout the book about nature and I've learned things I never knew.  It is a Pulitzer Prize Winner and truth be told I usually stay away from them and Oprah's picks which are such "downers".  I'll finish it but I doubt I will keep it around or pass it on either. 

I finished this audio book of Agatha Chrsitie short stories called The Harlequin Tea Set and it was excellent par the queen of mystery writers.  I ran into a streak of luck one day at the thrift store and there were all kinds of audio books really cheap and I might have bought them out! LOL!  I think they were actually $1.00 each as I don't think I would have bought so many at $2.99 each....I am pretty cheap but even at $2.99 they would be a bargain as they are so expensive new.  I had never heard of these stories or read any of them so it was a real treat!

My audio book for this week is The Secret Garden and it is absolutely fantastic!  I knew the gist of the story or so I thought as my children read it and watched the movie many times but I was always running around not actually watching it.  This recording is on 2 cds and although there is no mention of the voices and who they are I recognize them as very well known British actresses.  It is more theater with sound affects and top notch performing.  I would love to get this for my grandchildren as it keeps you fascinated throughout.  Very well done.  I've just started the second cd.

 

I went to the library to take back my books and of course I always find others to read........I found this interesting book, Cold Comfort Farm, which was written in 1932 and has been re-issued.  Supposedly it was a spoof on the dramatic and overwrought English rural novels of the time.  It's a bit different but it has kept my interest because it is so odd and the characters are just that...REAL characters.  I'm only about 1/3 into it so I will let you know when I finish what I really think. It's about a single woman who doesn't want to get a job and in those days relatives were obligated to take in their female relatives who couldn't really be expected to "fend for themselves".  Flora, the single woman looks through her family and decides she'd like to go live with the Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm and they are truly a strange lot.  Flora thinks she can change them and has taken them and their farm under her wings to "tidy things up a bit".  She's a force to be reckoned with but then so are the Starkadders! LOL!

 The other interesting titles I picked up at the library were....this next audio......

The Hurricane Sisters is about 3 generations of women buried in secrets living in the South Carolina Lowcountry.  It is "a tumultuous journey filled with longings, disappointments, and, finally, a road toward happiness".  Sounds like life to me and an interesting book!

 If you want to read a lighthearted book sure to make you laugh out loud then you need to read Karen Gillespie's Bottom Dollar Girl's books.  I read her first one and didn't realize there were more so I was thrilled to pick this one up at the library!

 The other one I read was Bet Your Bottom Dollar .  The Bottom Dollar is an "emporium" in a small town and the women ("bottom dollar girls") that work there.  "Funny, fast-paced, and full of quirky but lovable characters,  Karen Gillespie's A Dollar Short leaves you wishing you had your own Bottom Dollar Emporium to visit every day."

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier came highly recommended to me several years ago so when I saw it I picked it up.  "Cold Mountain is an extraordinary novel about a soldier's perilous journey back to his beloved at the end of the Civil War.  It is a magnificent love story and a harrowing account of one man's long walk home."

These ought to keep me off the streets and out of trouble!   And tonight is DWTS's and Castle....good Monday night fare!  Happy Trails!