You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

Report your toppler reads here. Please include your WoF name, which book(s) you read, who chose your book, and a quick sentence or two about what you thought of it.

WoF Almeta

17 Aug Finished MILK Run by Nathan Lowell, chosen by Lynn 345 pages

I am very fond of Nathan Lowell's Golden Age of the Solar Clipper series. Don't know how I missed the first in A Smuggler's Tale series. So happy I read this one, even though it was out of sequence. Not a big SciFi fan, but these Space Opera tales are excellent.

ETA: 18 Aug
Outlawed I enjoyed the premise of the female gang. I DID however have a difficult time (based on her origin) with the main character killing without remorse.

Overdue or Die An easy cozy mystery. No real surprises

WoF Janice

Pragya selected Fortune Favors the Dead for me.

Overall, it was a light, easy mystery and not a bad way to spend a Saturday. Will Parker was my favourite character. She easily cast off the circus and adapted to being a detective like a fish to water.

The biggest drawback for me was that there was no feel for the time setting. The book blurb said that it was set in 1942 New York City but there was little to create that atmosphere. In fact, the colloquialisms were from a more modern time frame. For example, "he's so vanilla" wasn't coined until the 1970's.

WoF Katrisa
Amanda chose for me to read Bitter House (audio - PB 246 pages) first. This book turned out to be a bit more on the fun side than I expected. I mean, still dark, but with a fun twist.

The second book Amanda chose for me was The Traitors (audio - PB 384 pages). This was a random book I bought on chirp at some point and I really ended up liking it a lot! It was a fun book about 6 people invited by a mysterious person to spend the night in an abandoned murder house for cash. I t would make a fun movie to watch.

WoFSharonBiskit

Heather chose the book Swan Song for me to read. She made the comment that everyone has to read an Elin Hilderbrand book during the summer. And she is so right! I have read quite a few of Hilderbrand’s books that take place on Nantucket. Some have been better than others, but I have enjoyed them all. Swan Song is in fact, a play on words as this book is supposed to be Hildebrands last book set on Nantucket. The cast of characters were very interesting. I like all the characters’ story lines. While I very much disliked Leslee, the antagonist, I loved reading about her parties, outfits, and outrageous behaviors. All the storylines were tied up nicely except one and it was appropriate. I do recommend this book for anyone wanting a good summer read. This was a great “end of summer” book.

WoF Marnie

Almeta selected The Sequel and I thoroughly enjoyed this quick read. There were lots of inside the publishing world jokes and the mystery was fun too. Each chapter is titled after a famous sequel which I thought was a clever touch.

WoF name - Amanda(Lily)

I read Listen for the Lie, which was chosen for me by Sharon.

I really enjoyed the book. It was twisty and I didn't see the end coming, but it made sense. It was also pretty funny in places and contained a little social commentary that I found true.

WoF - Lynn

Read Chain-Gang All-Stars chosen by Rusalka

A much anticipated book that sadly was a disappointment for me.
Despite the interesting concept and confrontational subject matter, I just wasn't interested due to way too many POVs (and even more characters) with not enough plot to sustain them, told in a disjointed and detached way.

WoF - Lilisa

I read Flight of the Wild Swan by Melissa Pritchard - historical fiction, selected by Kristie. The book is about Florence Nightingale nicknamed the “Lady with the Lamp” who sailed to Turkey in the fall of 1854 to took care of wounded soldiers of the Crimean War. She is known as the founder of modern nursing. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Florence Nightingale was an amazing individual - strong and determined. I also liked the structure of the book. It was a four-star read.

WoF Vicki

I read The Melting Queen (189 pages) as selected by Kristie

It was a very strange book set in Edmonton, Alberta in Canada where they celebrate the end of Winter with a great festival and name a woman to be the Melting Queen for the next year. There's quite a lot of magic and tradition involved but the organizers become very upset when a genderfluid biological male is named the next queen.

There was such a cast of characters, a drag queen keeps showing up, one guy who literally hibernates all winter, a former melting queen obsessed with the Trevi Fountain in Rome.

It took me a bit to get into, some things had me rolling my eyes, but it read very fast and was a fun read. It was really more of a fantasy novel set in Edmonton which was so bizarre.

WoF Katrisa
I ended up being able to finish Sipsworth (Audio - HC pages 240) selected by Amanda. This was a heart-warming book about a woman in her 80s who befriends a mouse. It was a delightful quick read.

WoF: Kristie

Marnie chose First Lie Wins for me. (340p)

I enjoyed this story. I found it interesting at first, but wasn't sure what all the hype was about. As the book progressed it got better and better and was quite tangled. Very happy with my choice. Thank you, Marnie!

WoF Pragya

Grainne chose The Summer Book for me.

It was quite unlike anything I had read before. It took me a while to get into it. If not for the toppler, it would have been a slow read. But I told myself to enjoy each chapter as a story and that really helped. It was definitely an interesting read in a nostalgic kind of way.

WoF: Grainne

Kristie choose: The Kingdom of Back and Love from Heaven

I read the physical copy of The Kingdom of Back. I enjoyed it and the fairytale world of Back. It helped by having the paperback because it has a map of the cities where the Mozarts toured, and it also has a map of the Kingdom of Back. The historical details of the time were well-written, too.

Love from Heaven is a non-denominational book. It has a chapter for each of the types of love. It includes chapters on Earth/outdoor love, friendship as love, love for pets and animals, self-love and rosemantic love, of course. I liked it a lot, and I will dip into it from time to time.