Read The World - Morocco - Dune Song

Book: Dune Song
Author: Anissa Bouziane
Pages: 368
Book takes place in the country: YES (at least 50%)
Author is from the country: YES
I have visited: NO

This is my 46th read for the year

Good grief have I been terrible at getting books in.  Moving is not for the faint of heart and does not leave me much free time.  And even in that free time, my head is spinning with details that I have found it hard to concentrate on a book.  It will be nice to be on the other side of this move.

This is my second Morocco book.  I didn't like the first one I read, so decided I needed a different read for my shelf.

This is the story of Jeehan Nathaar.  She leaves New York City for her home country of Morocco after the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings on 9/11.  As a Muslim American, she was asked constantly why "her people hate Americans so much", and decides she needs to escape.  Instead of returning to her parents, she neds up with a family in the desert who try to help her heal and find herself once again.

This book was pretty good.  It started out strong - good writing, strong characters, a story that made me want to turn page after page.  But soon - the story took a dip and I found myself not enjoying it quite as much as I had in the beginning.  Jeehan is an adult but acted frequently like a lost child.  And the story - once she was settled with the family in Morocco - wasn't as interesting as I was hoping it would be.  Pacing seems to be a problem with the author.  

This was better than my first choice of a book for Morocco.  And the writing was pretty good as well.  I just didn't enjoy the story in the second half of the book as much as the first.

Stars: 3 1/2

Extra Book - In The Tall Grass

Book: In The Tall Grass
Author: Stephen King
Pages: 62

This is my 45th book of the year.

I know - I am reading a lot of "extra" books in a row here.  And off challenge.  Problem is with quarantine is that I cannot get books right now.  Amazon pick up is in Germany and we cannot get there until June 15th.  So I have read them all that I have on my shelf.  The rest will have to wait.

This incredibly short book was recently turned into a movie on Netflix, so I decided to check it out.  It only took an hour to read.  It starts off with a sister and brother who hear a boy crying for help.  They cannot see him in the tall grass, but head in to search for him.  Within a few minutes they have lost their way and cannot find the little boy or each other.  They spend the book trying to find their way out of the grass - coming in contact with the supernatural that makes them realize they may never escape.

This book was fine.  So short it was hard to get really invested in it.  The story is a good idea, and I feel like they could have kept going to make it truly terrifying.  I am anxious to watch the show to see how it relates.

Stars: 3 1/2

Extra Book - Big Summer

Book: Big Summer
Author: Jennifer Weiner
Pages: 368

This is my 44th book for the year

This is the story of Daphne Berg.  Daphne - a plus size influencer has come far in her adult life.  She has just landed a clothing modeling job with a hot new designer that she is sue will increase her instragram status.

In walks a woman from her past - Drue Cavanaugh.  Her long lost best friend from high school.  Daphne and Drue had a falling out when Drue said everyone just felt sorry for Daphne because of her weight.  After not speaking for many years, Drue reappears to ask Daphne to be her maid of honor in her wedding.  The hot new designer thinks that Daphne agreeing to do this - even for someone she barely knows any more - will do wonders for both Daphne and the designer.  So Daphne agrees and finds herself not only in the wedding, but the maid of honor.

Drue's influential and extrememly rich family is the center of attention the wedding weekend because Drue is marrying a TV reality star.  Daphne finds herself drawn into the glamour of the weekend and is starting to wonder if Drue has really changed her ways.  Then tragedy strikes and Daphne tries to figure out what this was all about all along.

This was an okay book.  I am a Jennifer Weiner fan, but this wasn't a great one.  It is a GREAT beach read/summer book.  The story is quite shallow, but I have very thin skin for "influencers"  Just seems so silly to me.  If that is something that interests you, then this book would be for you.

Stars: 3

Extra Post - If It Bleeds

Book: If It Bleeds
Author: Stephen King
Pages: 448

this is my 43rd read for the year.  I listened to this book.

This is a group of short(ish) stories wrapped into one book.  The stories are "Mr Harrigan's Phone" "The Life of Chuck", "If It Bleeds" and "Rat".  "If It Bleeds" is the only one where a character from another series (for fans of the Bill Hodges Trilogy and The Outsider) and that was a nice treat.  All the stories were unique in their own right.  I would say that Mr. Harrigan's Phone and If It Bleeds were my favorite two.  I didn't really care for the Life of Chuck - found it a bit all over the place and because I was so invested in the first story about Mr. Harrigan, I had a hard time transitioning so quickly to a new story.

Overwall, it was a good read.  Entertaining in King fashion.  I have found his stuff lately a little tamer than his old stuff, but I am okay with that.  A good story is a good story.

Stars: 4

Read The World - Samoa - Leaves Of The Banyan Tree

Book: Leaves of the Banyan Tree
Author: Albert Wendt
Pages: 424
Book takes place in the country: YES
Author is from the country: YES
I have visited: NO

this is my 42nd book of the year

Here is the blurb from Amazon:

An epic spanning three generations, Leaves of the Banyan Tree tells the story of a family and community in Western Samoa, exploring on a grand scale such universal themes as greed, corruption, colonialism, exploitation, and revenge.

This was an okay book.  It was fairly well written, but it was a little dry.  It had a hard time picking it up and getting it finished.  I blame some of that on "quarantine slag" but some of it was probably this book.  It is a long book, and maybe if the author would have pulled it together a little more and made it shorter, it would have been better.  

Stars: 3

Read The World - Solomon Islands - Headhunting In The Solomon Islands

Book: Headhunting In The Solomon Islands
Author: Caroline Mytinger
Pages: 444
Book takes place in the country: YES
Author is from the country: NO (but she lived there for a few years)
I have visited: NO

This is my 41st read for the year

This is the story of the author and her friend, Margaret Warner, who were both artist.  In the 1930's they spent 2 years on an expedition to paint indigenous people in the Solomon Islands.  This book recounts her and Margaret's travels and the people that they met along the way.  She speaks of the beautiful things they saw, but also the infections, insects, the heat, and the fevers.  Their adventure - basically unheard of by women in their time - led to fear for their family and friends.  No one expected them to come back alive.  They brought back beautiful paintings, but tons of stories that lead to this book.

This book was pretty good!  I was pretty interested in these women traveling to the Solomon Islands in the 1930s and what they thought.  Their stories are enjoyable and it was fun to see these women trying something outside of their comfort zone.  These were early feminist, but one does have to remember that they are writing descriptions of the people they met would not be acceptable today.  However - knowing what year it was, this did not deter from the book at all.

I enjoyed it.  Glad I found this one.

Stars: 4

Extra Book: In Five Years

Book: In Five Years
Author: Rebecca Serle
Pages: 266

This is my 40th read for the year.

I listened to this book as well.  This book was the last one I listened to while I completed that puzzle - it is finally finished!

Here is what Amazon had to say about this book: 

"Where to you see yourself in five years?  Dannie Kohan lives her life by the numbers.  She is nothing like her lifelong best friend - the wild, whimsical, believes-in-fate Bella.  Her meticulous planning seems to have paid off after she nails the most important job interview of her career and accepts her boyfriend's marriage proposal in one fell swoop, falling asleep completely content.

But when she awakens, she's suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a different man.  Dannie spends one hour exactly five years in the future before she wakes again in her own home on the brink of midnight - but it is one hour she cannot shake."

This was an okay book.  Very fluffy - a light read.  It isn't something I would generally pick (or enjoy), but it helped pass some time while working on the puzzle.  I found myself rolling my eyes a few times while I read the book.  Dannie's life is REALLY perfect.  Everything works out for her.  She gets the perfect job, guy, ring.  She is well loved on all levels - no matter what she does.  

There are aspects of the book that will pull at your heart strings, and so if you are looking for a light read, then maybe check this one out.  It isn't great literature, but it might be for you.

Stars: 3