Katrisa’s
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(group member since Sep 16, 2018)
Katrisa’s
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from the We Read Stuff group.
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I have been trying to seek out more authors of color in the fantasy and sci-fi genres. I nominate Who Fears Death
Our May genre is Science Fiction. The thread will be open for nominations until April 14.A Few Reminders About Nominations
- Each member may nominate one book AND may also second one book that has already been nominated.
-If you want to only nominate or only second a book without nominating anything that is fine.
- If we get more than 10 nominations then the 10 books with the most seconds will go to the poll.
- There are no minimum page counts for a book to be nominated.
- Books must be first in a series or a stand alone unless the group has already read the book in the series that came before the one being nominated.
- Nominations will close the afternoon of April 14th
I agree Jamie! I kept going back and forth between 3 and 4 stars because on one hand I do love the way she writes and I did like the characters overall but until the end it really didn't feel like a thriller, which is what I was going into it looking for. Maybe I would have liked it more without that expectation, if I had just picked up the book randomly because I like Allende.
This is the discussion for The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson 
In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life.
From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.
With stunning historical detail, Wilkerson tells this story through the lives of three unique individuals: Ida Mae Gladney, who in 1937 left sharecropping and prejudice in Mississippi for Chicago, where she achieved quiet blue-collar success and, in old age, voted for Barack Obama when he ran for an Illinois Senate seat; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, where he endangered his job fighting for civil rights, saw his family fall, and finally found peace in God; and Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue a medical career, the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful medical career, which allowed him to purchase a grand home where he often threw exuberant parties.
Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous and exhausting cross-country trips by car and train and their new lives in colonies that grew into ghettos, as well as how they changed these cities with southern food, faith, and culture and improved them with discipline, drive, and hard work. Both a riveting microcosm and a major assessment, The Warmth of Other Suns is a bold, remarkable, and riveting work, a superb account of an “unrecognized immigration” within our own land. Through the breadth of its narrative, the beauty of the writing, the depth of its research, and the fullness of the people and lives portrayed herein, this book is destined to become a classic.
Here is the discussion for When Time Stopped: A Memoir of My Father's War and What Remains by Ariana Neumann
In 1941, the first Neumann family member was taken by the Nazis, arrested in German-occupied Czechoslovakia for bathing in a stretch of river forbidden to Jews. He was transported to Auschwitz. Eighteen days later his prisoner number was entered into the morgue book.
Of thirty-four Neumann family members, twenty-five were murdered by the Nazis. One of the survivors was Hans Neumann, who, to escape the German death net, traveled to Berlin and hid in plain sight under the Gestapo’s eyes. What Hans experienced was so unspeakable that, when he built an industrial empire in Venezuela, he couldn’t bring himself to talk about it. All his daughter Ariana knew was that something terrible had happened.
When Hans died, he left Ariana a small box filled with letters, diary entries, and other memorabilia. Ten years later Ariana finally summoned the courage to have the letters translated, and she began reading. What she discovered launched her on a worldwide search that would deliver indelible portraits of a family loving, finding meaning, and trying to survive amid the worst that can be imagined.
When Time Stopped is a detective story and an epic family memoir, spanning nearly ninety years and crossing oceans. Neumann brings each relative to vivid life. In uncovering her father’s story after all these years, she discovers nuance and depth to her own history and liberates poignant and thought-provoking truths about the threads of humanity that connect us all.
I finished this today. I enjoyed the story and I love Allende's writing. I still think that until like the last little bit of the book it just didn't really FEEL like a thriller - but like I said - I liked the story and characters enough that it didn't bother me. Maybe if I was a die hard thriller fan I wouldn't have liked it as much? I don't know. I think the characters were the best part of this book. And it did really pick up the pace there at the end!
1. April showers - read a book with an umbrella on the cover2.
3. April is National Poetry Month. Read a book of poetry.
4. June contains the Solstice. Read a book with a prominent sun or moon on the cover.
5. "Mayday!" "Mayday!" Read a book involving a disaster at sea or in the air.
6. Most of June is under the astrological sign of Gemini. Read a book with twins.
8. May is home to celebrations involving fire - Beltane and Walpurgis Night to name a couple. Read a book with flame on the cover.
10. June is named after Juno, Queen of the Gods. Read a book with a queen in it.
3 of 10 Complete
To complete this challenge, read one book for each category Between April 1 and June 31 2020. Set up a comment to track your progress. Copy the task list to your own comment and list the book cover and date read as you complete the task.1. April showers - read a book with an umbrella on the cover
2. Bring May flowers - read a book with flowers on the cover
3. April is National Poetry Month. Read a book of poetry.
4. June contains the Solstice. Read a book with a prominent sun or moon on the cover.
5. "Mayday!" "Mayday!" Read a book involving a disaster at sea or in the air.
6. Most of June is under the astrological sign of Gemini. Read a book with twins.
7. This year April contains both Atheist Day and Easter. Read a book with a theme of either religion or atheism.
8. May is home to celebrations involving fire - Beltane and Walpurgis Night to name a couple. Read a book with flame on the cover.
9. April Fool's Day is April 1. Read a book tagged as humor.
10. June is named after Juno, Queen of the Gods. Read a book with a queen in it.
I started this one today. I'm about a third of the way in. I have to say I feel like it's a bit slow for a thriller, but I am enjoying the story nonetheless.
Our April genre is Non-fiction. The thread will be open for nominations until March 14.A Few Reminders About Nominations
- Each member may nominate one book AND may also second one book that has already been nominated.
-If you want to only nominate or only second a book without nominating anything that is fine.
- If we get more than 10 nominations then the 10 books with the most seconds will go to the poll.
- There are no minimum page counts for a book to be nominated.
- Books must be first in a series or a stand alone unless the group has already read the book in the series that came before the one being nominated.
- Nominations will close the afternoon of March 14th
This is the discussion thread for Ripper
Isabel Allende-the New York Times bestselling author whose books, including Maya's Notebook, Island Beneath the Sea, and Zorro, have sold more than 57 million copies around the world-demonstrates her remarkable literary versatility with this atmospheric, fast-paced mystery involving a brilliant teenage sleuth who must unmask a serial killer in San Francisco.
This is the discussion thread for Behind Closed Doors
Everyone knows a couple like Jack and Grace. He has looks and wealth, she has charm and elegance. You might not want to like them, but you do.
You’d like to get to know Grace better.
But it’s difficult, because you realise Jack and Grace are never apart.
Some might call this true love. Others might ask why Grace never answers the phone. Or how she can never meet for coffee, even though she doesn’t work. How she can cook such elaborate meals but remain so slim. And why there are bars on one of the bedroom windows.
Sometimes, the perfect marriage is the perfect lie.
hey everyone! I am out of town right now and only have my phone, so I can't make a proper poll until I get home and have a computer. I get back home on Wednesday
Jamie wrote: "I've started this one and have mixed feelings. I love the gothic plotline and the amazing setting. The writer is great at description but I find the characters and dialogue to be an odd mix of roma..."I can agree with you there. My favorite things were the setting and gothic atmosphere. I enjoyed the book overall but not as much as Du Maurier gothic books
Our March genre is Thrillers. The thread will be open for nominations until February 14.A Few Reminders About Nominations
- Each member may nominate one book AND may also second one book that has already been nominated.
-If you want to only nominate or only second a book without nominating anything that is fine.
- If we get more than 10 nominations then the 10 books with the most seconds will go to the poll.
- There are no minimum page counts for a book to be nominated.
- Books must be first in a series or a stand alone unless the group has already read the book in the series that came before the one being nominated.
- Nominations will close the afternoon of February 14th
I am excited for this one!
This is the discussion for 
1686, ICELAND. AN ISOLATED, WINDSWEPT LAND HAUNTED BY WITCH TRIALS AND STEEPED IN THE ANCIENT SAGAS.
Betrothed unexpectedly to Jón Eiríksson, Rósa is sent to join her new husband in the remote village of Stykkishólmur. Here, the villagers are wary of outsiders.
But Rósa harbours her own suspicions. Her husband buried his first wife alone in the dead of night. He will not talk of it. Instead he gives her a small glass figurine. She does not know what it signifies.
The villagers mistrust them both. Dark threats are whispered. There is an evil here - Rósa can feel it. Is it her husband, the villagers - or the land itself?
Alone and far from home, Rósa sees the darkness coming. She fears she will be its next victim . . .
There was a second place tie this month, so I just added the two titles to a randomizer and let the computer choose. This is the discussion thread for
'In one moment, every drop of blood in my body was brought to a stop... There, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth, stood the figure of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in white'
The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter becomes embroiled in the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his 'charming' friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons, and poison. Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the paths and corridors of English country houses and the madhouse, The Woman in White is the first and most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror with psychological realism.
Matthew Sweet's introduction explores the phenomenon of Victorian 'sensation' fiction, and discusses Wilkie Collins's biographical and societal influences. Included in this edition are appendices on theatrical adaptations of the novel and its serialisation history.
