Hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert-  I can not believe I read this book. I violently hated Eat, Pray, Love.  I think the problem is that I’m living a parallel life to her. I picked up Eat, Pray, Love when I was getting divorced. I was flat broke. She was taking a year off to travel the world to recover from the divorce she initiated and whining about it. It didn’t sit well with me.

This book is about her ambivalence about getting married. She is in a long term committed relationship and doesn’t feel the need to get married. Sounds familiar. Her partner is Brazilian and gets stopped from repeatedly entering the country on his visa. The only way he can come back is if he gets married and there needs to be a full investigation of both of them before the U.S. will accept it as legitimate. In the year it takes they travel and she interviews people in different cultures to find out what they think of marrriage.

I agree with most things in the book. Marriage is a constantly evolving thing, despite what the religious right thinks. I still don’t feel the need but I didn’t violently hate this book so that’s an improvement.

The Radleys by Matt Haig- The Radleys are a typical middle class British couple in a small village. No one would ever guess that they are abstainers-  nonpracticing vampires. Their two teenage children don’t even know what they are or that there is a reason why they are sick all the time. So it comes as quite a shock when daughter Claire tries to fight off an attacker, bites him, gets some blood in her mouth, and then savagely murders him. Now the truth is coming out and the whole family has to decide how they want to live -continue to abstain and pass for human or live as vampires.   

This is a surprisingly original vampire story. 

Turn Coat by Jim Butcher -audio- Since he was 16 years old Harry Dresden has been harrassed by a wizard law enforcement officer named Morgan. Harry is on probation for a teenage crime and Morgan is hoping he breaks probation so he can execute him. So Harry is shocked when an injured Morgan comes to him for help when he is accused of murder.

This is the last Dresden Files book that has been published so far so I got it on audio to make it last longer.  I loved this book. It advanced the stories of many of the main characters in ways that feel authentic but are also upsetting. That’s the sign of a good series that you care what happens.

Tales of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong – Now I’m out of Otherworld series books until the new one is published too. This is a short story collection that talks about things that happened before the series starts. How did the main characters get to the point they are in the first book. It is briefly explained but these stories flesh it out.

America Pacifica by Anna North – I didn’t really get this book. After the U.S. mainland is destroyed by a new ice age, a group of people escape to a volcanic island in the Pacific to make a new civilization. Darcy was born there. When her mother disappears, she finds out that her mother was part of a group on the mainland who are now being targeted for execution by the island’s rulers. Darcy tries to find out the truth of the political situation of her homeland. Then she flees to the mainland to see if there are people still living there. And then the book ends. Very unsatisfying unless there is going to be a sequel.

Where am I reading update – Indonesia, England, Illinois, New York, Somewhere in the Pacific