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ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Book Reviews: August 2017

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August Book Reviews

And with this post of August Book Reviews, I’m saying goodbye to summer reading 2017. (Can you believe today is the last day of August?) I enjoyed six books during operation broken wrist. Really, these books provided sanity and escape. And while they are wildly different, they all involve relationship and/or family. From fantasy to possibly the greatest American play of all time, which will you add to your September stack?

The Widows’ Adventures
by Charles Dickinson

My sister-in-law told me about this book and loaned me her copy. Thank you, Paula! If Thelma & Louise met The Bucket List you’d have this witty tale. Imagine two elderly sisters driving from Chicago to Los Angeles. One is blind. The other has never driven in her life. The blind sister drives while the other navigates. They take the back roads during the wee hours. Yes, it’s absurd and hilarious. Would make an entertaining movie.
This book made me: think about all the fabulous books written years and years ago still waiting to be discovered. (This book was published in 1989.)
Favorite line: “If I’m driving and you’re drunk, does that make me a drunken driver?”Continue Reading

July Reads!!!

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July Reads!!!

Hey everyone! With the turn of the calendar page, I’ve wrapped up my July reading. Say it with me: “So little time, so many books.” Right? I thought I might read waaayyy more in July because broken bones kept me rather house bound, but pain meds kept me rather conked me out. So I managed 7 books which seems to be my max during any given month. (I also made it most of the way through a chunk of a biography, but scanned the last third (dry as a bone!) and won’t include it here as that’s against my book review rules.) But those I finished represent a wide variety. From 1830s England to present day Texas, my July Reads include an intriguing mystery, historical fiction, quick memoir, charming tale, insightful how-to, triumph of a middle school story, and a treasure of a novella. Something for you, I think.Continue Reading

Grace Grits Reads: April 2017

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April Reads

Here we are at the end of April. I think these monthly book recaps I’ve begun doing make my days fly by even more quickly! Grace Grits Reads for April took me across the Pyrenees and deep into the “Wood Wide Web”. I visited with old Avonlea friends and sat bedside with Lucy Barton. ♬♪ Do you know the Pee-can man? the Pee-can man? the Pee-can man? ♬♪ I predict soon you will.

The Nightingale
by Kristin Hannah

This was the first book I read in April, and it was FANTASTIC. I became so engrossed in this tale of two sisters during French occupation of WWII, I had a difficult time accomplishing much of anything other than reading. This was one of those beautifully written stories I didn’t want to end, all the more powerful because the people and events depicted were inspired by truth. When it did end, I had to sit with it for a while before starting another book.

This book made me: reflect, think, worry, weep at the end. I even lost weight because how could I eat when Isabelle was standing in food lines for pitiful rations? Read it if you haven’t already and ponder, what would you do?

My favorite sentence: “What good is safety if she has to grow up in a world where people disappear without a trace because they pray to a different God?”Continue Reading

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