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#ItHadToBeYou Day 8: This #LovePoem or “aubade” found me at the right time because “love is the last remembered thing.” More here and what “aubade” means: https://wp.me/pDlzr-o6O

Eh, I seem to be a hard sell this month. This was okay, I liked the setting in the art world but the character development was all over the place and I had a hard time caring about any of them. Maybe a little shallow for my mood? The mystery was okay, but I didn‘t really care about the resolution. Was mostly glad the story was over. #BookspinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

This book starts as Maggie‘s story. She works at an LA art museum and is still not quite over her ex, who left her for someone else. But then a major figure goes missing and the book blends Maggie‘s story with a mystery. It‘s a bit of a genre mash-up, which I think could be frustrating for some, but I liked this one. #botmbacklist

Meh

On Christmas eve 2018 my boyfriend and I lost everything we owned in an apartment fire, I recently contacted Book of the Month club to see about replacing the books I lost. They sent me the 6 they had in stock for free! I was shocked and so happy.

I'm still missing 9 books, if anyone has a good idea where to find used BOTM books please let me know!

#botm #bookofthemonth #needmorebooks #booksales

I‘m super far behind so will be catching up with one per day until I‘m current!

This was a fun romp with engaging characters and really interesting settings. Not going to change the world or anything but still enjoyable. Twists were pretty unexpected.

Murder in the art world in LA! Yes this was really good! Where is Kim Lorde? Is she dead? Maggie works at Rocque Museum. The star of their latest exhibition disappears on opening night. Maggie decides to investigate as her ex is mixed up in this too! #crimebooks

I am really enjoying my non-fiction reads. I read two this month already and both very good. Next month I will read Motherwell for sure. #nonfiction

Hi everyone! I am looking through my books for April. I will show you them in small groups. It does seem to have a red theme for April. I feel I will get through quite a few books as I have two weeks holiday. As no one can go anywhere it is at home where I will be! #tbr

This was just an okay book for me. There were several typos in the edition I read and I'm not really a fan of the writing style. I'm surprised this is actually on Reese Witherspoon's list to be honest.

We were JUST talking about this tonight in True Crime Book Club.

Read this for my book club and I really enjoyed it. This was one of my picks for the club although I was sad very few people came tonight. Hopefully more will show up next month.
I‘ve been doing really crappy with reading lately but my life is just falling apart left right and sideways. I hope to do better soon, it‘s going to be hard. I like audiobooks but how do you all fit in extra reading time?
#mariahummel #stilllives #bookclub #mystery

Ugh... L.A. art types & art glamorizing dead women & tortured writing like “decadent as a 24 karat cast of a cat testicle”... Nope!

Day 14 - red cover of #fallisbooked, I bought this last month and still need to read it!
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620

#7Books7Covers #CoverCrush Day 7 Round 2

Anyone wish to play? Post 7 book covers that you love over 7 days, with no explanation.

It was pretty good! Set in LA in 2003 - before iPhones & before social media - before selfies! An artist goes missing on the day of her new gallery show called, Still Lives, where the art is all self portraits of her dressed up as famous murdered women like the black dahlia and Nicole Brown Simpson. It has a smart female protagonist and supporting characters. Would make a great book club read too!

For kicks, I keep up with the Reese Witherspoon bookclub, and some early picks remain on my TBR. Although this book has less than stellar reviews, I‘m committed to my goal. ...I didn‘t not like it, but didn‘t care about the MC. Also, it‘s weird the author questions the motives of the Still Lives artist - creating art based on IRL murdered LA dead women. Because wait, isn‘t the author doing the very same thing in the writing of this book!?

Currently reading Still Lives by Maria Hummel for a book BINGO challenge with my book club and I‘m loving this quote.

This was a book club selection and it was just okay for me. The summary sounds so compelling and I read it quickly but the execution fell flat with a truly anticlimactic ending. I felt distanced from all the characters and think it would've worked better for me if it had been told from different POVs, but that's only my two cents.
Three stars just because it kept me turning the pages right up to the disappointing ending.

Week 2 check in and we‘re back from our 9-day vacation. NYC was amazing! We got to see 2 shows: Burn This with Keri Russell and Adam Driver (swoon), and The Book of Mormon which was HILARIOUS!! The good thing about NYC is all the walking and we got no less than 15K steps a day! Reminder: I‘m in a boot! I hope everyone else had a great week as well!! #bfcround2 📷 the Guggenheim in NYC

Finished Brazen yesterday (loooove!), working on Ghostly, The Blinds came highly recommended by a friend, & Still Lives is our next book club selection (uh-oh, low overall rating on Litsy & Goodreads both!)

Started a new one on vacation. Book 2/4 for the challenge. We are in Boston for the next 2 days and we love it! It‘s our first time here ❤️ Today we‘re going to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and hoping to get in over 10K steps like yesterday (even with my boot) #teamnewbie #bfc @wanderinglynn @Econaghan @BookBridget @laura311 @WriterAtHeart @jmtrivera @Honeybeegirl @BookishBelle @crazyspine

I‘m giving this a pick because it was interesting to learn about the inner workings of an art museum. The story was just okay, but overall I enjoyed it.

The artist behind Still Lives, an exhibition about women from famous murder cases, goes missing. Was it her boyfriend? Or perhaps his ex?

I seem to be hitting a run of just okay reads. This one does say something about the consumption of images of murder victims, especially attractive girls & women. Ultimately though, it‘s not a read that will stay with you. 3⭐️

3-11-19: My 20th finished book of 2019! A page turner with surprises! 👍🏼📖#️⃣2️⃣0️⃣ #stilllives #mariahummel

3-9-19: Book delivery from the library!! Starting with Still Lives! #libraryhaul #stilllives #mariahummel

Still Lives by Maria Hummel is a slow burning tale about a woman who, even though she is haunted by her history as a reporter's assistant, just can't help but snoop around and put herself at risk in order to try to solve a murder case. Unfortunately this one fell totally flat for me. I pushed through because it was a book club pick... definitely a thumbs down from me.

https://www.ericarobynreads.com/book-review-still-lives/

#mystery

What was even the point of this book? For being only 275 pages, it was filled w/pointless tangents & boring personal history of the main character that had fuck all to do w/anything. Took way too long to even get to the “thriller” part, & I use quotes b/c it wasn‘t a thriller at all. Reveal was 100% predictable & trite, w/no further twist to give it any depth. Boring, pretentious, & not at all feminist like it seemed to be striving toward. 1/5 ⭐️

Uhhhhh the police are investigating the “disappearance” of a grown adult not even two full days after she was last seen, and the very next morning after she texted with someone? That‘s........not realistic.

(Oh God, the author is doing that thing I hate of referring to a character over and over by their full name. But it‘s only one person she‘s doing it with and I suppose it‘s because she‘s an ~*artiste*~ or something. But uggghhhhhh major pet peeve. I‘ll keep reading but this on its own will probably affect the rating, LOL)

This has pretty low ratings/reviews on Goodreads and Litsy, but I‘m working on clearing out the books that have been on my TBR shelves the longest, and I want to at least give it a try. #nowreading

Spent some time yesterday re-organizing my TBR shelves. These are only the books within the rainbow. I have another shelf that's just black/grey/white spines!!! 😱

Just finished my second book of 2019. This one counts as a long overdue #BOTM. #LLB19 #LittenLoveBingo
This also counts for the #popsugar #readingchallenge for "a book you meant to read in 2018".

I'm surprised this was recommended by BOTM and Reese's bookclub. This book started out okay but eventually, I lost interest. It's really challenging to write a compelling thriller and this one fell flat for me. ⭐⭐/5

Stumbled across this adorable cafe today. I'm so inspired by the charm and architecture in Vichy. Preparing for a trip to the Louvre next week and this art-themed book is setting a perfect mood for my visit!

I ordered this book from BOTM last year ... I started it and then quit after about 30 pages. I'm back at it now and eager to cross this off my TBR list. The reviews for this one were really mixed - which is surprising since both BOTM and Reese's Book club picked it. I'm hoping I'm not disappointed!

Did anyone else read this one yet?

Maria Hummel‘s literary thriller is a love letter to Los Angeles that‘s strong in its observations of the modern art world and its inhabitants but the mystery element quickly tails off under the weight of Maggie‘s backstory and the final quarter falls apart as she makes leaps of deduction based on a knowledge of the other characters that isn‘t previously shared on the page, concluding with an overblown denouement that made me roll my eyes.

I enjoyed this mystery set in an art museum in LA. On the night of her grand opening, the artist goes missing. Told from the point of view of a museum employee, whose personal history sometimes colors her ideas on what happened. There are also some interesting commentary on being a single career oriented woman.

I loved this novel: it's a mystery, but it's also a thoughtful examination of the contemporary Los Angeles art world, the role of women in art (as artist and subject), and how we view violence against women. I would gladly read a book about any one of those things, so to have them all in one book thrilled me. Counting for #HelloSunshine, #Booked2019 (new to me author), #PopSugar2019 (2 books, 1 title) and #LitsyAtoZ [full review on my blog!]

Well, I didn't end up reading as much as I'd hoped, so this will be my first book of 2019 instead of the last of 2018. Cheers to a lazy day celebrating before reality sets back in tomorrow #booksandbooze

Out to lunch with my favorite kid on this holiday, and he said, "Mommy, let's both read our books now." ??

Unnecessary errors really bother me sometimes, especially in a book I just finished saying how much I'm loving. Ugh.🙄

The rest of 2018 is for reading books I've been meaning to get to all year

This might be the last one I complete this year but I'm gonna try to squeeze another one in. #BOTM #2018books

I have been on a Reese‘s Book Club pick tear lately. This one was a bit too far fetched for me so I had a hard time engaging. The cover is next level.

Maria Hummel is highly skilled at suspense writing, and she really knows how to plant one question after another to keep the reader intrigued. But I actually desire more than just a whodunnit, and here there‘s that too—plenty of explorations about our disturbing (and heartbreaking) fascination with violence inflicted on women‘s bodies. It also investigates fame...ambition...and I could keep going. It‘s creepy at times, and Gillian Flynnesque.

Strong noir mystery. Hummel builds a surreal world centered in LA and focused on the art world. Maggie, the protagonist, is a perfect balance of insider and outsider, someone who enters the drama without being a part of it. The author's message about violence against women is perhaps the most interesting part of the novel; the way that menace plagues these women and provides a form of entertainment is an indictment the central plot reinforces.