The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men

          Gang aft agley,

An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,

          For promis’d joy! – “To a Mouse” by Robert Burns

Oh, January! I had such high hopes. But, alas, February. I imagined when I retired that I would have all the time in the world to do the things I didn’t get to when I was teaching. You know what? Turns out that you fill up as much time as you have and then some. I planned to post after every book I read. Clearly, that did not happen. So today I am going to do a little catch up post and promise (more like hope) that I do better for the rest of the year.

Plainsong by Kent Haruf

52 Book Club Prompt – written without quotation marks

This was a three star book for me. It was just okay. It reminded me of those local color/realism pieces I taught to eleventh graders. The characters are fairly well-defined, but all we see is a slice of their tragic lives. And, at the end of the book, nothing much has really changed.

The Widow by John Grisham

52 Book Club Prompt- has a dust jacket

Like all Grisham books, there is a legal aspect to the plot. This book was different and less graphic than some of his I’ve read. I enjoyed the weird plot twist near the end. No spoilers here! It got four stars for me.

Unwind by Neal Schusterman

52 Book Club Prompt – featuring a conspiracy

I am giving it 4 stars. I don’t really love dystopian books, but there’s something about Shusterman’s books that draws me in. There is always some aspect of his books that seem a little too realistic in today’s society. In Scythe, the Thunderhead is all too real.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

52 Book Club Prompt – includes a red herring

I could only give this three stars. This one was fine. I never bought into the basic premise of the protagonist’s rescue and care. I did not, however, get the plot twist (red herring) until it was revealed. This is a YA book. Maybe a younger audience has a greater ability to suspend disbelief.

The Last Thing He Said to Me by Laura Dave

52 Book Club Prompt – character with a secret identity

This gets four stars. It’s only about 300 pages, so I read it in a day. I am not normally a romance/thriller type combo girl, but I liked this one. The female lead is strong, smart, and determined. I read that there is an Apple TV series for this book. I wonder how different they are.

The Green Book by Jill Paton Walsh

52 Book Club Prompt – personification

My sweet Emma recommended this book for my challenge. She told me her teacher had read this to the class, so that made it extra special to me. Teacher friends, you’re making a difference that you may never see. Emma wanted to help me with my 52 book challenge, which I had shared with all the grand kids over the holidays. It gets four stars for sentimental reasons. This is science fiction, which is not my go to, but I was committed to this read. It’s fewer than one hundred pages, and I knocked it out in an hour.

The Christmas Tree Farm by Laurie Gilmore

52 Book Club Prompt – a book that costs you nothing

This is 3 stars. I gotta warn anyone reading this that this series is super spicy. It’s not my normal reading, but the series was suggested, so now I am committed to finishing it. This is the third in her Dream Harbor series. I have two more to go. The books are only connected in location and characters. Each could be read independently. These are genrefied as romantasy. It’s probably never going to be my go-to genre.

Old Farmer’s Almanac

52 Book Club Prompt – includes a map

Okay, Okay. I know. It’s a periodical. But my challenge, my rules. For the last 40+ years, Craig has gifted me an almanac in my stocking. I enjoy the articles, but more than that, I use it for gardening.