No.391: My Latest Reads // April 2020

#25. MORALITY FOR BEAUTIFUL GIRLS by Alexander McCall Smith || ★★★☆☆

“If people knew this,” she said, “if they knew that we were all from the same family, would they be kinder to one another, do you think?” Mma Makutsi put down the magazine. “I’m sure they would,” she said. “If they knew that, then they would find it very difficult to do unkind things to others. They might even want to help them a bit more.” (5%)

You simply could not help everybody; but you could at least help those who came into your life. That principle allowed you to deal with the suffering you saw. That was your suffering. Other people would have to deal with the suffering that they, in their turn, came across. (50%)

This is the third book in the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series.  With everything going on in the world, I needed a lighter read and who better than Mme. Precious Ramotswe?  

#26. CHARACTERS OF THE PASSION: LESSONS ON FAITH AND TRUST by Fulton J. Sheen || ★★★★☆
My plan was to read this little book slowly throughout Holy Week, but I tore through it in two days!  I just love Fulton Sheen’s writing and this one was so, so good.  The chapter on Peter was beautiful and almost made me cry.

#27. INTO THE WATER by Paula Hawkins || ★★☆☆☆
After struggling through and eventually putting down a detailed non-fiction book about WWII, I decided I need a change of pace.  I grabbed this thriller from the library since I had liked Hawkin’s The Girl on the Train.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have nearly the same reading experience.  There were a lot of characters and since I was reading on my Kindle, it was almost impossible to keep flipping back and forth.  Just okay for me.

#28. THE ROSIE PROJECT by Graeme Simsion || ★★★★☆
Another light read.  I loved Don, the quirky main character who most likely had undiagnosed Asperger’s.

#29. THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET by Sandra Cisneros || ★★★☆☆
“Told in a series of vignettes – sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous – it is the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become.”
(This was my 1984 pick for my 20th Century Reading Challenge too.)

#30. THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows || ★★★★☆

That’s what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you onto another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It’s geometrically progressive—all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment. (5%)

In every nook, I find little things that tell me about her. She was a noticer, Sidney, like me, for all the shelves are lined with shells, bird feathers, dried sea grasses, pebbles, eggshells, and the skeleton of something that might be a bat. They’re just bits that were lying on the ground, that anyone else would step over or on, but she saw they were beautiful and brought them home. (57%)

I’m probably the last person on the planet who hasn’t read this one!  Such a charming story and the fact that it was totally told in letters was a fun change of pace.  3.5 stars, rounded up.

#31. THE ROSIE EFFECT by Graeme Simsion || ★★☆☆☆
This is the sequel to The Rosie Project and I had high hopes that it would be just as enjoyable.  But it just…wasn’t.  Disappointing.

#32. THE APARTMENT by K. L. Slater || ★★★☆☆
This thriller is about a struggling single mother who gets an opportunity to live in “a shockingly affordable flat in a fashionable area of London.”  And as the lesson goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.  I liked that the story was a fast-paced page turner, but I found the whole thing to be a little unbelievable.  I figured out whodunit pretty early on as well.
(Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.  The Apartment was just released on April 28, 2020.)

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