Wednesday, August 5, 2015

What I Read Wednesday

It's still Wednesday! Just barely, but I really wanted to finish a book first.

Speak: A Novel
This book was interesting. Narrated by a Puritan girl, almost a child, traveling to the New World with her husband, a mathematician in the early 1900s, a computer science professor in the 60s, a young girl in the almost present and a computer software programmer in the current time, this book tells the story of technology gone awry and the voices the bridge the gap between. Stephen, the computer software guru, creates bots that act as humans, that have ruined a generation of children. As he sits in prison, contemplating life and what he did, the voices that make up the bots fill in the past. This was a complex story that hinted at a dystopian future without being overly dramatic about it. Some of the skips made it hard follow, but the story was real and good.

Kitchens of the Great Midwest: A Novel
I don't really know how I feel about this book, except that I feel a lot about this book. This book begins with Lars and his wife Cynthia and follows a path that begins with Cynthia abandoning her newborn daughter, Eva, and running off with a sommelier. From there, it follows that each chapter discusses a different character and a different dish. The people are all related, of course, but in different ways. I will admit that I loved the stories within this book. Loved the characters. But each time, I was left wanting more when the author would move on to a different story. That said, I think that's a good sign. I was incredibly engaged in it and why did this book have to end?

When I Found You
Nathan is up early one morning duck hunting when his dog, Sadie, discovers something beneath a tree--a newborn baby who Nathan mistakes for dead, until the baby moves his mouth. Nathan decides on a whim that he wants to adopt the child, until he finds out that the boy has a living grandmother. She decides to name him after Nathan, though the boy goes by Nat, and every year on his birthday, Nathan leaves a gift. Nat's grandmother doesn't tell him how he came to be in this world, instead leading him to believe that every baby is found in the woods by a man and Nathan just happens to be his man. Until Nat's grandmother has it with Nat's anger and defiance and brings him to Nathan's doorstep, where the two meet face-to-face. What follows is a story of unconditional, somewhat unexplainable love that Nathan gives to Nat. Although there were parts of the book where I found Nathan's character to not be entirely believable, because he was just so good, I still liked the story.

What are you reading?

5 comments:

Theresa Mahoney said...

I'm pretty sure I have When I Found You on my Kindle. I've got hoards of free downloads on there just waiting for me to get to them.

This week I read If I Stay and Where She Went. I didn't like how abruptly If I Stay ended, but was pleased to learn Where She Went continued the story with a much better ending. Quick, easy reads that I really enjoyed.

Barb Ruess said...

I have that Kitchens of the Midwest on my to-read list. Maybe I'll find it on my next library visit :)

This week I read:
Into the Savage Country: This read a bit like a Western. Really good story of a trapper in his last season out in the mountains. Some excitement, a love story, a bad guy who surprisingly redeems himself... solid read.

Family Trees: this is a summer read. Boy meets girl with a broken heart and manages to win her over. Good secondary characters. A few things make you sad, a few things make you smile and it's set on the shores of the Great Lakes - and I'm a sucker for stories set on the shores of my Great Lakes. Nice light read.

Unknown said...

I think I picked up When I Found You when it was free for Kindle once. I haven't read it either like Theresa. I recently finished Amy Poehler's book, which I enjoyed ....but I liked Tina Fey's book better. Then I read Brown Girl Dreaming, which was excellent. Now I'm reading Every Fifteen Minutes by Lisa Scottoline. The plot is driving me nuts but hopefully the conflict will resolve and make me feel better!

Lyndsay W said...

Nothing. I've read nothing. But that's mostly because I was busy shoving roasted marshmallows in my mouth all week. So I'm okay with that.

Last night I started Girl Underwater. A friend from work passed it along to me - she described it as an easy summer read.

I've got Orhan's Inheritance and Kent Haruf's last book waiting for pick-up at the library.

So things are looking up. (Except no more marshmallows.)

One crazed mommy said...

I've read a lot (for me) in the past two weeks. Finished The Memory Box - it was good, but at times it was just difficult to read because it was so warped...but I kept on turning the page because I just had to know what happened! Crazy book!! I also finished books 1 and 2 of Never Never -bizarre story, and book 3 isn't out yet. It's got me hooked now because I want to know what happens...have no idea when book 3 will come out. Still finishing up Wonder with my son - he's not a fast reader, and with vacation last week not much reading got done for school -we now have less than a week to finish it, and he complete a project on it!!!!! Where did summer go??? I just started All The Light We Cannot See last night, so that will probably take a while now that vacation is over.