Let’s see… Last week I finished a book for review for our self-published/indie author program: Along the Scarlet River of Destiny by Subhir Roy. I really want to like the books I read for this program; they’re often a person’s only book, something they worked on long and hard to get out there. Given that, it makes me feel bad to post a negative review, but most of them just aren’t that good. This one was a thinly-disguised third-person autobiography and, well, it was pretty amateurish.
I also read Kin by Tayari Jones for a book discussion today. I liked it OK - thought it was a five-star read - but I was surprised it didn’t wow me. After all the superlatives others have used in describing it I expected it to sweep me off my feet. Might be because John of John by Douglas Stuart was just so fantastic that Kin pales in comparison.
I’m currently reading Shelter Island by Jill Wisoff, also for the indie program. Fortunately, this one is showing more promise. It’s the first YA novel I’ve read in a long time, though, and I was surprised by the language. I did a Google search as to whether it’s common for these books to use the F-bomb, and apparently these days, it is.
Next up will be either another indie read - I Live You Forever by Meredeth Rutter Marple - or an alternative history (WWII) book for review, Palaces of the Crow by Roy Nayler.
In audiobook format, I’m still listening to The Forgiving Kind by Donna Everhart.
Next up will be The Little Red Chairs by Edna O’Brien for our 1000 Books Before You Die, which I’ve decided to read in audiobook format, since it looks like that’s the only way I’m going to get this anytime soon. (BTW, anyone is welcome to join the group; next up will be A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines.)