Weekly Reading Roundup
July 1, 2013 30 Comments
*****
The week
Last week I’ve been really busy setting up my website for my editing business, Book Helpline. For now, the site is in Dutch, but I’ll be taking English books to appraise and edit, too.
I had a great lunch in Amsterdam with Care of Care’s Online Book Club, who was in The Netherlands for the week.
Some books we exchanged and a picture of Care and me in the restaurant where we had a delicious risotto and a lemon pie. For those who do not know, Care is a crazy pie lady and she’ll bake and eat any pie anywhere. 🙂
*****
Books I finished in the last week: 3 and a DNF
![Nooit alleen [Never Alone] by Loes den Hollander](https://leeswammes.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/nooit-alleen.jpg)
The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook. Germany after World War II, an English family settle in Hamburg. 4.5 stars
Nooit alleen [Never Alone] by Loes den Hollander. A short thriller about a woman with a mentally unstable neighbor. 4 stars
Delete by Juultje van den Nieuwenhof. YA about a group of teenagers who take action after their once popular teacher turns against them. 3.5 stars
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. Ursula is born in 1911 and dies again. Then is born again and lives a bit longer. Eventually we follow a lot of her life, but it didn’t interest me enough to finish the book. Abandoned around page 280.
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Books I’m reading & planning to read
Reviews
![Het grijze gebied [The Gray Area] by Goran Tribuson](https://leeswammes.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/grijzegebied.jpg?w=103&h=150 "Het grijze gebied [The Gray Area] by Goran Tribuson")
Het grijze gebied [The Grey Area] by Goran Tribuson. A mystery novel taking place in Croatia. 4 stars
The River by Tricia Wastvedt. Historical fiction, beautifully written, but told in fragments. DNF
The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly. Historical fiction about a strong woman who travels from England to America and sets up her own business there. 5 stars
*****
And also…
Check out the new books I received recently.
I also announced the winner of the Literary Giveaway Blog Hop.
That’s it!
What are you reading this week?
About Leeswammes
Leeswammes' Blog 
Best of luck with the business, here’s hoping all goes well
Thanks, Gary!
ow Children of the Fog looks interesting 🙂
Your website looks good 🙂 Hope you will get a lot of customers for it!
Have a great week and I will see you on Friday to discuss The Aftermath
Thank you Ciska.
Good luck with your online business, and love the picture of you and Care.
Diane, it was such fun to meet Care. We hit it off straight away.
I am surprised you abandoned Life After Life!
Congratulations on the launch of your business I am sure you will do great!
Shelleyreae, Life After Life didn’t work for me. I didn’t expect that at all, but yeah.
It was so great to meet you and talk talk talk about books! and I guess I do have a pie obsession. Am thinking about making one RIGHT NOW.
I loved Life After Life but we can’t all like the same books. 🙂
Ha ha, Care. Go ahead and make yourself a nice pie. Did you find that vlaai shop I mentioned? Happy pie-eating!
No, I didn’t find any vlaai. Sad…
How cool that you gals got to hang out! Fun!
It was fun, Jennifer! Always great to meet book bloggers of course, and Care was really nice.
Well done on the site 🙂 You have a better sense of wasted time than I do, I really should’ve abandoned Life After Life.
Well, Charlie, I really tried with this book. I was getting bored at around page 80, went on to almost abandon at page 160, then was cajoled into reading on, but I finally gave up at page 280. A real struggle thid book!
How wonderful that Care and you got to meet up!
Now I don’t feel too bad about not trying to read Life After Life. I did give it a few pages but then had to return it back to the library.
Athira, some people really loved Life After Life, some gave up on it, like me. One of those love it/hate it books.
Awww I’m sorry Life After Life didn’t work out for you.
So excited for you for the book editing business/website!
Thanks, Monika. I was disappointed about Life After Life – it seemed just the kind of book for me.
What a shame Life After Life didn’t work for you. It’s my favourite book so far this year. I suppose not everyone likes the same things though.
Lucy, it’s funny how people differ in their opinion of Life After Life. It’s the favorite of many people. Glad it worked for you.
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I’m not surprised you abandoned Life After Life. I thought it moved very slowly and while I did ultimately like it, I struggled at times to stay interested. A few of those lives I was wishing would end already so we could get on to the next one! And there were maybe a few too many lives.
And… congrats on starting up a business!
Thanks, Leslie. Yes, my problems with this book are roughly as you described. I didn’t have the patience to sit through the whole thing, although I only stopped after 280 or so pages. But there is this saying, Do not throw good money after bad, and I believe it’s true for time too. I had spend enough time on the book and didn’t wish to invest even more. 🙂
You made the right decision. It doesn’t get much different, just easier to read because the format becomes more familiar. Also, I wasn’t real impressed with the ending either although some people liked it.
I enjoyed the concept and admired the author’s attempt at a difficult to express storyline. But in the end I think my expectations were too high. I read too much scifi to be satisfied with no real resolution.
Thanks for explaining, Leslie. It sounds indeed like I was right to give up.
Congrats on your new business! So happy you got to meet Care and Copley!
Thanks, Sam. I love meeting up with book bloggers, and Care was great!
Good luck with your business, Judith. The website looks great!
Thanks, Nadine.