Category: Reading Challenge

It took me almost two months to finish this book, because I wanted to really take the time and focus on the thoughts of Barack Obama, former president of the US. What a truly fascinating memoir, written by such an intelligent and empathic person. I don’t think I can really review A Promised Land, since overall I don’t know enough about the US politics to review a book about that, but I can highly recommend this book. Read this if you want to learn more about Barack Obama, the somewhat complicated basics of the US politics, and the details of the job of being the president. Oh and since February is Black History Month, finishing this book now was good timing.

I realized that for all the power inherent in the seat I now occupied, there would always be a chasm between what I knew should be done to achieve a better world and what in a day, week or year I found myself actually able to accomplish.

Honestly, I think I might also listen to this book one day, just to hear it narrated by Barack Obama himself.

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I so wanted to enjoy this The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner. I mean, ever since I saw it and ordered it, I believed this book was a perfect match for me. It wasn’t bad, not at all, but something was missing despite the lovely theme and setting.

He could disappear inside that world whenever he needed to—whenever he felt the outside world, and other people, pressing in on him…

This was author Natalie Jenner’s first published novel and from that perspective this was a great debut. Anyone who is a fan of Jane Austen, and brings it up in new creative works has my respect. 🙂 . I’ve been a Jane Austen fan as long as I can remember, and Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite books ever (the best tv adaptation of that is the 1995 version with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle ❤ ).

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When I saw this book for the first time, on a Goodreads article I think, I knew this would be something I simply had to read. ❤ The real life disappearance of the famous author, Dame Agatha Christie, has been a delicious mystery ever since it happened. Marie Benedict gives us her version of the happenings in her novel where fiction mixes with history and creates an excellent mystery novel.

… it occurred to me that we are all unreliable narrators of our own lives, crafting stories about ourselves that omit unsavory truths and highlight our invented identities.

Sometimes I’m wrong when I see a book that just seems like it’s so meant for me, but this time I was so right: I really enjoyed reading The Mystery of Mrs. Christie!

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Our book club decided to read A Thousand Ships by Nathalie Haynes over the holidays, and I was super happy we picked this book that I hadn’t heard of.

The story of the Trojan War is often described through the men who have an obvious and active part in the story. Of the women Helen is of course mentioned but she isn’t given much of a role other than being the cause of a 10 year war. Author Nathalie Haynes gives the stage to the different women of the story and tells the well known tale from a different perspective.

“But this is a women’s war, just as much as it is the men’s, and the poet will look upon their pain – the pain of the women who have always been relegated to the edges of the story, victims of men, survivors of men, slaves of men – and he will tell it, or he will tell nothing at all. They have waited long enough for their turn.”

I was very much drawn into the ancient world and the Greek mythologies which I used to love reading about when I was a child. ❤ This was a very enjoyable read!

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I meant to read this book last year, but no matter, it was very much worth the wait. Everyone seems to have read and loved Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and I’m happy to join the group of recommenders.

I wadn’t aware that words could hold so much. I didn’t know a sentence could be so full.

When Kya learns to read, this is what she says. And no that’s not a typo, it’s the way she speaks in the book.

This was such a beautiful book to read for the beginning of this new year.

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First book read for this year was the Duke and I by Julia Quinn. I was in the mood to start this year with a light romance and I did not expect The Duke and I to be such a controversial book. When I noticed the new series Bridgerton, I knew I’d be hooked on the show. Historical romance drama/comedy? Count me in! And of course when I heard that the show is based on a book series, I had to read the book before watching the series on Netflix. I kinda wish I hadn’t, even though 80% of the book was enjoyable.

I was so ready to just enjoy a fluffy, historical romance (sort of if Jane Austen would have written for a more steamy Harlequin series), so imagine the surprise and disappointment when the book offered a very weird, disturbing twist towards the end. I can only hope that the Netflix series handles the scene differently when eventually I will watch all the episodes.

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