1. It gives me joy to have compiled the 2025-26 slate of selections for the book club at my church.
2. I just finished the long version of this list, with covers and synopses. It‘s been a good distraction from…all this.
#mentalhealthmonday
pickNow my favorite of Alka Joshi! Radha, mother of 2, works as a lab assistant at the House of Yves, a fragrance firm. Her career is about to take off, but her husband is fighting it all the way. On top of it, her big secret is about to explode. Filled with lovable characters and life situations we can understand this book will pull you in and wrap its arms about you.
pickEnjoyable middle school read about Marion, a young girl chosen to serve Madame de Montespan, Louis XIV's favorite.
Marion, daughter of a gardener, is a gifted nose. Her talent for perfume is going to place her in the middle of an intrigue to kill the queen...
@dabbe #TLT #ThreeListThursday
I have read 59!
Many on my TBR three I would like to get to this year-
Middlemarch
The Secret Garden
Anne of Green Gables
3 I LOVED-
Bridget Jones
Perfume
Persuasion
pickPerfume is distinctly unsettling in the way that it sets up the story as the hardscrabble life of a gifted kid, worthy of any Dickensian novel, only to have him devolve into a particularly abhorrent villain. As readers, we‘re very familiar with seeing these characters overcome their hard-knock circumstances to “make good” – Jean-Baptiste does not do that. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/perfume-patrick-suskind/
pickI FINALLY finished this book! I started it about this time 2023 on audio, and then life got in the way of me finishing it then. I bought the Kindle version earlier this year when it was on a great sale, and got around to reading it. I loved being back in Joshi's world, this time following Radha's story (don't worry, Malik and Lakshmi are there too)!
so-soThis is a nice vacation read. Grace Monroe seems to lead a good life in 1950s' London aristocracy. She receives an unexpected inheritance from a mysterious lady in Paris, whose identity Grace will be struggling to discover. The storylines of the two ladies unfold beautifully but are too convenient and predictable.
pickThis was a disturbing story. I was fascinated throughout the first part as Grenouille learned all about scents (and horrified by one scene), then a bit lost by the hermit in the hills portion, and again intrigued by the next section. Then things got crazy! I have no words for the ending, but I was completely engaged in listening.
📷: Happy beagle photo to balance out the creepy murders in this story.
#1001books #audiobook #TBRTakedown April 2024
