[The List #3] Trying (and Failing) not to Multi-task

08:00 Cilla 2 Comments

The Story: It is 1866, and Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men, who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. A wealthy man has vanished, a whore has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely patterned as the night sky.

Why I'm Reading It: My friend and I had a little book swap, and she lend me this one. It turned out to be a brick of a book! It's much more dense than what I probably like, but I'm intrigued by its use of multiple point of views. It's a slog at times, but I've gotten halfway through the book so I'm not giving up now!

The Story: Sixteen-year-old Amal makes the decision to start wearing the hijab full- time and everyone has a reaction. Her parents, her teachers, her friends, people on the street. But she stands by her decision to embrace her faith and all that it is, even if it does make her a little different from everyone else. Can she handle the taunts of "towel head," the prejudice of her classmates, and still attract the cutest boy in school?

Why I'm Reading It: I've heard about this book for a while, and I couldn't resist when I saw it in the library of the school I'm interning at. So far, it's interesting but also heavy-handed at times. 

The Story: Neave and Lilly Terhune couldn’t be more different. Lilly is a beauty who runs through men like water. Neave, having been told at an early age by their mother that she will not be able to get by on her looks, always has her head in a book. During WWII, when the men are gone, both sisters start working. But when the servicemen return and take back their jobs, Neave and Lilly are left with few options besides marriage. But they have other ideas. But just as their business is truly taking off, Lilly disappears and Neave must figure out what happened. Luckily, she has Lilly’s assistance helping from above, even if she doesn’t know it quite yet.

Why I'm Reading It: I saw it on NetGalley, and the synopsis piqued my interest. I'm not fully loving it at the moment, but I'm hoping it just gets better from here.